The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 222

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 222

 

The remaining children stopped in the passage and looked at each other’s faces.

 

“Can’t we go out?”

 

“No. We’ll get in huge trouble.”

 

“But I want to see the dragon more…”

 

“Me too…”

 

“It’s not fair that only Rupert gets to see the black dragon!”

 

“If we go outside, the dragon might return to its original form. We might be able to see a really huge dragon!”

 

“I, we just can’t go out, right? Let’s watch from the entrance!”

 

At one child’s suggestion, the other children brightened up. They soon rushed over in a group and clustered tightly at the narrow cave entrance.

 

The open field in front of the cave that the children were looking out at.

 

The sun was already setting slowly. Under the sky dyed with reddish twilight, the black dragon flapped its wings as it searched for clean snow piles.

 

Since there had just been a battle in front of the cave, the snowy field was completely trampled. After looking around here and there, the black dragon concluded that the snow piled on the trees would be better.

 

But its current body was too small to shake the trees and make the snow fall. Yet if it returned to its original form, the trees would become too small.

 

Just a little bigger.

 

The black dragon that had stopped under a large coniferous tree at the edge of the clearing was enveloped in black energy.

 

“Wh-what?”

 

Rupert, who had been breathlessly chasing the flying black dragon around, was startled and opened his eyes wide. Soon, a black dragon that had grown to about the size of a horse or cow appeared before the boy’s eyes.

 

“It got bigger!”

 

“The dragon really got bigger!”

 

“Wow…”

 

Amid the children’s hushed exclamations, the boy also opened his mouth in admiration.

 

To the fourteen-year-old’s eyes, the black dragon covered in jet-black spines looked much more magnificent than the dark horses the kingdom knights had brought.

 

The black dragon could feel all the gazes of the boy admiring from behind and the children crowded at the cave entrance, but he didn’t care. His head was filled only with thoughts of Lillieta’s hot forehead and the clean snow that would cool that heat.

 

He struck the tree with his tail. Then, as he was checking the condition of the snow that fell with a patter, something was suddenly thrust in front of his eyes.

 

“W-want to eat?”

 

It was jerky that Rupert had taken out of his pocket. While the black dragon hesitated, contemplating whether to bite the boy’s hand instead of the jerky, Rupert thought the dragon was showing interest in the jerky.

 

“You’re looking for food, right? Even if you hit the tree, there’s no fruit or anything since it’s winter. Eat this!”

 

The boy excitedly pushed the jerky into the dragon’s mouth. The black dragon was flustered and remained still for a moment with the jerky in his mouth.

 

The smell of meat. The smell of living meat that was fresher than the dried meat scraps in his mouth. Coming from the young human in front of him.

 

The instinct of a starving monster whispered. Let’s catch and eat that. You’re hungry, aren’t you? You haven’t eaten anything so far. You’re hungry. You’re hungry. You want to chew fresh flesh and blood. Suck up all the power dwelling in that lump of flesh until you’re full.

 

However, the black dragon endured without biting the boy.

 

If I attack a person, Rita will be angry.

 

She would be disappointed in him. She would be disappointed and furious, and to him…

 

The black dragon suddenly recalled the silver muzzle that had been aimed at him. Then his whole body froze. He couldn’t move at all.

 

Rupert thought the dragon that was staying still had accepted his food.

 

“Hey, black dragon, wh-while you’re eating that, can I ride you for just a moment? I gave you food, so, huh? Just once… just briefly…”

 

The person on the second floor of the village hall came riding a dragon and saved the village, so they came to be called a dragon knight. Dragon knights in storybooks and legends are warriors who fight while riding dragons. So this dragon is originally a being that carries people.

 

That’s how it was in Rupert’s mind. Dragons were incredibly mystical and special mounts.

 

‘Since I gave it food, won’t it let me ride while it’s eating?’

 

He wanted to ride this magnificent black dragon just once. Just imagining how much his friends crowded at the cave entrance would admire and envy him riding the black dragon made the corners of his mouth turn up.

 

Rupert stealthily headed toward the dragon’s back. The black dragon spat the jerky out onto the snowy field, making him flinch, but since it buried its head back into the spat-out jerky, he thought it was putting it down to eat.

 

In reality, the black dragon had thrown away the jerky and lowered its head to check the condition of the piled snow, but Rupert, who had already gone around to the back, had no way of knowing.

 

Once the boy was out of sight, the monster’s instinct became somewhat calmer. The memory of the flickering silver muzzle also sank deep.

 

The black dragon thought of Rita, who had been running a fever, with his now-simplified mind.

 

I need to go back quickly. I need to cool her fever.

 

He carefully examined the pile of snow that had fallen from the tree.

 

This should be clean enough. I’ll take this to Rita and—

 

Suddenly something climbed onto his back. A creature that wasn’t her had touched him.

 

—…!

 

The black dragon instantly bristled all the spines on his body.

 

“Aaaaah!”

 

“Rupert!”

 

The children screamed from the cave entrance. Rupert fell from the dragon’s back and rolled around. A color redder than the sunset spread over the snow dyed by twilight.

 

Human blood. Human. Human. One who carelessly came and touched him. Not Lillieta, not Rita, human. Human. Food. The smell of fresh blood.

 

The head of the monster that had been starving for a long time snapped around.

 

* * *

 

The brown-haired girl, Marie, hesitated for a while in front of the second-floor bedroom. Because there was no response no matter how much she knocked.

 

“What should I do… is it okay to just open it?”

 

The girl who had been stamping her feet glanced down the stairs.

 

What if the dragon went out because of an errand for the dragon knight? What if the dragon knight already knows? Then I would just be bothering someone who’s resting. The priest said the dragon knight was injured.

 

The girl tried knocking a few more times, then gave up and went down to the first floor. She looked outside the hall, but couldn’t see the dragon or children anywhere.

 

“Where did everyone go?”

 

She waited for a while, but there was no sign of anyone returning. Marie nervously wrung her skirt, then went back up the stairs and knocked on the second-floor bedroom door.

 

“Dragon knight, dragon knight…”

 

Still no response at all. The girl who had been groaning and worrying finally clenched her mouth shut.

 

“I-I’m coming in!”

 

The bedroom door wasn’t locked. Marie carefully opened the door and peered inside.

 

The lamp from the corridor seeped through the door crack and dimly illuminated the inside of the bedroom. Disheveled blonde hair on the fur-covered bed sparkled in the light.

 

Pretty. I’ve never seen such pretty blonde hair before.

 

Marie swallowed her saliva as she thought, then stepped into the bedroom.

 

“Dragon knight, are you sleeping…?”

 

The moment she called out in a hushed voice and crept closer to the bed.

 

The person buried among the furs suddenly sat up and with lightning-fast movement grabbed her, pressed her down on the bed, and seized her throat.

 

“Hiiik!”

 

When her body was suddenly grabbed, her vision went dark, and she couldn’t breathe, the girl screamed in terror. Then a very hoarse voice leaked out from behind her.

 

“…Who.”

 

“Ma-Ma-Marien Riklev! Marien Riklev! Please spare me! I’m sorry! Huuuung!”

 

Lillieta finally came to her senses upon hearing the girl burst into loud tears.

 

Looking down with her fevered, dazed mind, she saw a small girl with brown hair crying loudly while being subdued by her. A child who was at most about twelve years old.

 

“Oh no.”

 

She quickly released her hands, helped the girl up, and earnestly apologized while comforting her.

 

“I’m sorry, I made a mistake while half-asleep. Were you very scared?”

 

“Huung, uuung, uuuung…”

 

“Your name is, well… you said Marien Riklev, right? I’m really sorry, Marien. Did it hurt a lot?”

 

While comforting her like that, she suddenly thought the surname Riklev sounded familiar.

 

It’s not a common surname. Where have I heard it before?

 

The gold bracelet on her wrist caught her eye as she frantically comforted the child. And the silver revolver that would be contained within it.

 

‘Ah. Silver Grace… Riklev Workshop.’

 

The name of the firearms workshop that Duke Raskail liked enough to speak passionately about was definitely Riklev. The Silver Grace that Rita received from her father was a collector’s model from that workshop.

 

‘This child must be an ancestor of that workshop family.’

 

She felt amazed and somehow more intimate. Though there would be no particular relationship right now, thinking that she was an ancestor of the craftsman who would make the gun she would cherish in the future made her feel a strange fondness.

 

Rita knelt down and hugged the girl more affectionately, patting her. After continuing to pat her, the girl who had finally stopped crying sniffled and looked up at her.

 

“Dr-*sniff*, dragon knight…”

 

“Yes. Are you feeling a bit better now?”

 

“*sniff*, yes.”

 

“Marien, you shouldn’t carelessly approach when a soldier, no, a knight is sleeping. Something like what just happened could occur.”

 

“B-but, *sniff*, no matter how much I called, the Dragon Knight wouldn’t, *sob*, wouldn’t wake up…”

 

“I must have been sleeping too deeply. I’m sorry.”

 

She asked while stroking the child’s brown hair.

 

“But what brings you here?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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