The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 224

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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 224

‘Still, just in case.’

Rita took her hand off the Black Dragon and approached Rupert, who was being held by Dorin. The priest flinched in surprise but obediently showed her the boy. Rupert was pale as a sheet, sniffling and crying.

She silently examined the thorn wounds and the boy’s condition, confirming there were no signs of corruption. After letting out a short sigh of relief, she asked.

“You climbed on top of the Black Dragon?”

“Hic, uuuh… I, I didn’t just climb on, hic, I gave him food, I gave him food before riding…”

“Hmm.”

Rita took a moment to choose her words.

Most of the cave residents and kingdom refugees had gathered around to watch her. The words she spoke now would define the Black Dragon’s identity.

In the breathless concentration, the Dragon Knight calmly opened her mouth.

“Rupert, the Black Dragon doesn’t eat food.”

“…What?”

“He is my friend, but he’s not my possession or a mount like a horse. He’s not an ordinary animal or monster either. The Black Dragon is…”

Taking a breath, she turns lies into myth.

“The Black Dragon is a sacred being who lives solely on natural energy and only allows those he acknowledges to approach him.”

The boy’s eyes widened. She could feel people holding their breath and listening intently. Rita spoke in a solemn tone.

“You must not anger such a great being. If you treat him carelessly, you might be punished, so you must be careful with your conduct in his presence.”

“Pu, punishment…?”

“Jurlene.”

She turned toward Jurlene, who was standing with Sion’s support, and continued.

“What you just experienced was the Black Dragon’s ‘punishment.’ You cast magic in response to him, didn’t you?”

Jurlene nodded in bewilderment. Rita smiled bitterly.

“You mustn’t carelessly go against the Black Dragon’s will. You’ll be punished like that. Besides, human power doesn’t work on the Black Dragon in the first place. Magic or aura… they have no meaning against the Black Dragon.”

“They, they don’t work at all? Magic… really?”

“That’s right. You saw it yourself, didn’t you? With such things, not only attack but even defense is impossible. You’ll only anger the Black Dragon and receive punishment.”

At her words, people recalled the black flames that had melted the golden armor of the Inquisitor and Imperial knights and ignored the witch’s barrier.

It was truly an incomprehensible power. A force that people of this era could never understand.

Something that felt beyond human reach.

Rita continued speaking.

“Only those who have received special recognition can endure the Black Dragon’s punishment. If you can’t endure it, you lose human form and become a monster. So be careful not to receive punishment, and if the Black Dragon ever becomes angry, never respond. The more you oppose him, the greater punishment you’ll receive.”

She packages corruption in a plausible way. Making it feel as divine as possible.

She had often watched Gid handle situations like this, and since it was ultimately truth expressed differently, it fortunately wasn’t difficult.

“…That said, you don’t need to fear the Black Dragon too much. Since he doesn’t need to eat, he won’t attack anything carelessly. He’s a wise and intelligent being, so human language works with him. So if you treat him with courtesy, it’ll be fine. Even if you make a mistake, if I’m here, I can block the Black Dragon’s punishment to some extent, like just now.”

She emphasizes positive aspects and safety measures so the Black Dragon doesn’t seem only terrifying. Just like Gid Pascal used to manage the reputation of Pascal’s Children or Beacon in the Ash Ruin Era.

“Sometimes the Black Dragon gives humans the blessing of recognition instead of punishment, and when he acknowledges someone… he protects humans with his divine power. Just as he protects me.”

She stroked the head of the boy who had stopped crying and was staring up at her blankly.

“So if you treat the Black Dragon with reverence and courtesy from now on, it means he might protect you too.”

“Really…? But, but I already made the Black Dragon angry…”

“You can receive forgiveness. It’s okay, he’ll forgive you. He is merciful.”

Rita smiled faintly, took her hand off the boy, and looked back at the Black Dragon.

“Right?”

The Black Dragon, who had been watching her from right behind with his head lowered, tilted his large head slightly.

Just the dragon’s small movement made the boy cower in fear, and people gasped from here and there.

Still, no one attacked or ran away. Though afraid, they looked up at him.

Rita approached the Black Dragon and whispered.

“Gid, I understand you were surprised and angry, but you hurt a child. That wasn’t right.”

While explaining carefully in a small voice, she swallowed dry saliva. It tasted bitter.

‘To think I’d be having this conversation with you. You were always the one who convinced us and handled situations.’

The Gid she knew would naturally handle such situations, and wouldn’t have caused problems in the first place.

Even if he suddenly fell into the past 949 years ago and had to recreate founding myths, while Rita leisurely rested cleaning her gun, he would have come back alone with a relaxed face saying he’d finished talking with the ancestors so let’s prepare for battle.

‘So it’s okay, Gid. You can cause all the trouble you want. I’ll handle it somehow. Just like you did…’

Besides, I’m partly responsible for what happened to you.

Rita hugged the dragon’s head and leaned against it. Staying close like that, she continued speaking quietly enough for only him to hear.

“You were definitely wrong to raise your spines at the child. But you did well not attacking people. The threatening breath was a signal not to approach you, right? You held back well. It must not have been easy… you tried hard.”

The dragon’s empty eye sockets narrowed and disappeared, then slowly appeared again. Like slowly closing and opening eyes. Then he made a very low, small crying sound.

-Groooh.

Though she couldn’t know exactly what it meant, it felt good.

People saw the golden woman smile softly with her cheek against the black dragon. It was such an affectionate smile that some young people unconsciously blushed.

Soon she looked back at the boy with her hand still on the dragon’s jaw.

“Will you forgive that child?”

This time it was a voice everyone could hear.

At the frail human’s question, the majestic dragon narrowed his eye sockets as if pondering, then moved slowly. He stretched his neck longer and lowered his head closer to the boy.

“Hyaak!”

“It’s okay, try apologizing. He’ll accept it.”

Rita spoke calmly to Rupert, who screamed in surprise. The boy looked up at her with wet eyes, then looked at the dragon’s head that had come down right in front of his nose.

The empty eye sockets looked eerie, but because they were deep like wells, they also looked like just black eyes.

Rupert apologized in a trembling voice.

“I, I’m sorry for climbing on carelessly, Lord Black Dragon… I, I won’t be rude again!”

Rita felt like the Black Dragon glanced at her. When she nodded slightly, he let out a small sigh-like cry, then gently touched the boy’s head with his nose, spines flattened, before pulling away.

“Uh, uh…”

Rupert touched the top of his head where the dragon had touched and pulled away, with a confused expression. Rita smiled and said.

“You’re forgiven.”

“…Wow.”

The boy’s face flushed red with excitement. Among the stunned people, one child shouted in an excited tone.

“Thank you, Lord Black Dragon!”

“Thank you!”

“Thank you for forgiving him!”

“Lord Black Dragon is so cool!”

The excited children raised their voices in competition. At the young voices bursting out noisily, the Black Dragon, who had raised his head high, flinched and was enveloped in black smoke.

The now-small black dragon fluttered across the torch-lit open field and clung to Lillieta’s back. It was a hiding-like movement.

Then the children chattered excitedly.

“Lord Black Dragon seems embarrassed!”

“He’s hiding behind the Dragon Knight!”

“So cute!”

In reality, rather than being embarrassed, he had fled to Rita because the children seemed likely to approach noisily again, giving off vivid meat smells and stimulating his appetite, but the result was that he had indeed hidden.

At the children’s laughter, the adults’ expressions gradually relaxed too.

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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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