Days passed by like flowing water. Chloe was still the Sapphire Princess who was bound by all rules in the Kingdom of Esther. The only difference was that she knew the name of the red dragon.
The girl's name was "Edith".
Edith didn't come to the palace often. To her, the Kingdom of Ester was just a tiny place in the vast world. But every time she came, she brought the night breeze. She always did her own thing and seemed to just like the princess's pudding and balcony.
Chloe found that she was not as scared of her as she used to be.
The affairs of the kingdom were very complicated. Edith went to a new city-state to snatch gems, and he was gone for half a year.
This time when she came back, she did not see the princess in the room, but beside the opera house in the city. She was biting a new candy called "lollipop" with sugar balls on a stick, and when she turned around, she found the princess in the crowd - under Chloe's teaching, she finally understood that she needed to wear clothes to enter the crowd.
Chloe stood beside a young man in his thirties surrounded by a group of people. Her smile was a bit forced and bored. Edith licked the candy and listened to the discussions of the people around her.
They said that this man was Duke Taylor of the North, who was very powerful. The queen had a rebellious heart and had offended her many times because of different political views. In addition, Duke Taylor had a wife. It was said that the wife died of illness, but someone saw traces of long-term beatings on her body... Edith couldn't understand this troublesome thing. In her opinion, humans are always upset about boring and uninteresting things. She still can't understand the terms that humans like to use.
She only understood one sentence, which seemed to indicate that Chloe was going to marry this man.
The red dragon tilted her head and looked at them. She noticed the forced smile on Chloe's face.
She thought the light of the sapphire had dimmed a lot.
At night, Chloe took off her jewelry and curled up on the sofa. She curled up until Queen Asta entered the room and she rubbed her eyes.
"Sister, you today..."
Asta sat beside her, the same posture as many years ago - as if they were still close sisters. But this time Chloe hesitated, and there was no happiness in her heart as before.
"What's wrong? My sister."
Asta was unusually gentle, stroking his sister's hair. At that moment, Chloe vaguely recalled the memories of their childhood. When she was five years old, she always liked to follow her sister closely, and would cry loudly on the ground when she accidentally fell. At that time, Asta would come back to comfort her and stroke her hair.
She used to love crying, but now she just smiles.
"Sister, why did you marry me to Duke Taylor?" she finally asked suddenly.
When she heard the news for the first time, she was shocked, but she tried hard to smile and remained silent.
The hand that was stroking her hair stopped, and then she heard her sister say, "You know, he has been trying to usurp our power, and now is the critical moment. If we don't check him at this time, the royal family will be controlled by him for the rest of their lives..."
Our power? This absurd thought popped into Chloe's mind at that moment.
Is it really our power
Instead of… “my power”
She was horrified by her rebellious thoughts. At this moment, Asta said, "... Chloe."
Her voice was hoarse, she was always so tired after ascending the throne of queen. It was never easy to manage the entire kingdom by herself.
"I'm here, sister..."
Chloe replied subconsciously, and then she was hugged by her sister.
She could feel the strength of her sister's hug. Asta hugged her tightly, and at that moment Chloe suddenly felt her sister's fragility and her strong need at this moment - they were blood relatives who depended on each other and were connected by blood.
How could she forget? Chloe thought. After their parents died, they had only each other. Her elder sister was the queen, and she was the only younger sister.
Chloe suddenly felt a strong sense of guilt. She began to feel that she was selfish and was overwhelmed by this feeling. She thought that her sister was the queen and she was already so tired. If that was the case, why couldn't she force herself to marry the man in his thirties
Asta is the monarch of the kingdom, her sister...
"I'm sorry." She sniffed hard and said, "I understand, sister."
Asta rubbed her hair, just like in the past. It had been a long time since they had such a gentle and peaceful time between the sisters. Until the housekeeper outside the door brought new news, Asta shook her hand and left.
'Have I become my sister's pride?'
Before Asta left, Chloe suddenly thought this.
After a long time, she heard the sound of wind chimes coming from the balcony. Chloe turned around and saw Edith already sitting on the balcony.
She is still the same.
Do dragons have troubles? Chloe suddenly wondered.
She got up to get some candy to treat her, but Edith just sat on the balcony, looking at her with his fiery golden eyes.
"You're getting married, why aren't you happy?" she asked. "The dragons I know are happy when they get to live with other dragons."
"I… "
Chloe looked away. She tried to cover it up with hospitality and casual small talk. But Edith spoke up anyway: "You don't like him?"
"Why did you marry him if you didn't like him?"
"... In fact, the essence of the marriage is not to marry Duke Taylor, but to obtain the power he represents." Chloe was silent for a long time, and still explained, "Taylor is the Duke of the North. The essence of aristocratic marriage is just to marry his status to represent the power."
The words for power and strength are the same word in the human language. Chloe read a bunch of red dragons but still didn't understand. She licked the candy, frowned and said, "So human marriage is just for power."
"… "
"Since you just need to marry for strength, can you marry me?" The Red Dragon said purely for academic discussion, "I am also very strong. I have much more power than Taylor. He needs his army to destroy the royal city, but I only need to spit out fire myself."
Chloe: !!
"How is that possible? A marriage alliance is a woman marrying another man. No... no, you are a dragon." Her face flushed red and she shook her hands in panic.
She thought, dragons are really outspoken and dare to say anything... They are all girls, and Edith is a dragon!
"But didn't you choose to marry just for power?"
The princess was silent.
The night was very quiet, and only the breathing of the two people could be heard. After a long while, the red dragon sneered and said, "You humans are really weird."
"… "
She threw a strange leaf into the princess's hand and said, "But if you can't make it, blow on this leaf and you will find me."
"..." After a long breath, the princess said softly, "Why are you so nice to me?"
The red dragon glanced at her and leapt down the stairs.
"Maybe it's because you are the kingdom's sapphire." She suddenly smiled brightly, "I like gemstones very much."
She raised her chin, her fiery red hair shining proudly.
After she left, the princess stood alone in the room, her eyes closed, her fingers tightly clasped around the leaf.
It’s this leaf!
Lucian straightened up and looked at the leaf held in the princess's hand.
This was not an ordinary leaf. It was a fallen leaf from the Elven Mother Tree, which could survive for thousands of years without decaying. If he remembered correctly, in the original novel, Riverd ordered his followers to blow the leaf to calm the vortex created by the pollution of the Grey River. Not only that, in the new territory of the Elven people, this leaf also played a significant role in obtaining the blood drops of the Elven people.
This leaf was picked up by Wade accidentally during his expedition. Lucian must find a way to get this good thing that belongs to the protagonist.
He told himself that it might harm Wade someday.
He was following the development of the next plot, but at this moment, a hand was placed on the base of his tail.
A gloomy voice came to his ears.
"You look suddenly excited."
The next sentence, however, made Lucian feel terrified.
"—you want that leaf, don't you? Why?"
—Did you see what it was at first sight
Lucian: !!
Why didn't Wade stare at the red dragon and the princess, but instead stared at his reaction
Lucian pretended not to hear, trying to get away with it. He turned around and meowed at Wade in confusion.
If "meowing" doesn't work, then "meow" again, or lick his fingers or rub against them. Lucian is fully confident that he can get away with it.
But somehow, Wade didn't fall for it this time. The scarlet eyes stared at him, and the memory below went back to a few days before the marriage, when the princess was trying on her wedding dress, staring at the leaves of the world tree on the table, and put them into the clothes that were close to her body. Lucian was anxious to catch up with the plot. He reached out and patted Wade's chin in dissatisfaction, signaling this unqualified mount to catch up quickly.
But at this moment, Vader pointed his finger at his forehead.
Lucian:
"...Lucian." He heard Vader say.
At that instant, he felt the familiar feeling of becoming a human, and at the same time, a long and wide cloak was thrown on Lucian's body.
Lucian: …
Vader suddenly turned him back into a human... what a psychopath!
Lucian exclaimed. Now they were at the foot of the princess's bedroom, and he had to try his best to suppress his voice. His shoulders and legs were bent in Wade's hands, and his abdomen fell down - now this posture was very much like a princess hug.
"you… "
Wade looked down at him, his eyes cold. Lucian looked back into his eyes and suddenly smiled.
"Master Wade, why are you so stingy?" he said.
He reached out to touch Wade's face, but Wade turned his head away and continued to stare at him. Finally, Lucian smiled again, and said with bright eyes: "When are you going to put me down? Or... "
"Do you want me to lick your fingers right now?"
... Then he was thrown aside roughly by Wade.
Vader gave up asking, but seemed even angrier. Lucian had no guilt at all and quickly covered his body with his cloak. Then he asked, "Aren't you going to give me some clothes? Or are you going to leave me in just this robe?"
Wade said nothing. Lucian then walked to a deserted corner and put on his robe behind his back. Finally he heard Wade's hoarse voice: "Put it on."
Some clothes were thrown at his feet.
Lucian changed his clothes happily. Wade, who was not far away, looked at his back. He saw Lucian's bare white calves, and the waistline and hips that were vaguely visible under the cloak...
'Lucian has escaped punishment once again.'
He heard his own voice, thinking to himself in his mind.
The dark spell climbed up his body again.
Lucian finally regained his human form and found that Vader did not seem to intend to pursue his mistake.
"The way Wade looks at you is really scary." The system reminded him in his mind, "When you were changing clothes just now, he was staring at you."
“When did the way he looks at me stop being scary?” Lucian said nonchalantly.
"This time it's a little different, he..."
"It's always the same." Lucian said confidently, "He always wants to kill me."
The system was about to speak but stopped, and wanted to remind Lucian, but was slapped into silent mode by Lucian.
The system was beating its chest and stamping its feet in silent mode. You know, when it saw Wade just now, it wasn't looking at Lucian's neck...
He was looking at Lucian's waist and buttocks!
Now he finally didn't have to be carried around by Wade. He poked his head out from the corner, and the conversation in the princess' bedroom seemed to have reached a climax. He heard the princess' trembling voice: "Sister, what is this...?"
"Poisoned dagger." The queen lowered her eyes, her long eyelashes trembling, "Chloe, I..."
Chloe was still shaking. She listened to the queen's calm explanation. The queen knew that Taylor had let down her guard. No one would suspect a newlywed princess. She had made preparations around the Northland City. She only needed to stab the dagger into Taylor's chest...
"You are my only sister. If I hadn't had to..." She finally said, "Believe me, Chloe. I promise you, I will do my best to bring you back safely. After dealing with Taylor..."
Chloe finally nodded.
"Sister, I don't want to make things difficult for you." She said softly.
Although she knew that to come back safely after assassinating Taylor... how lucky she would need to be!
The Queen held her sister's hand tightly. Finally, Chloe said, "Sister, can you please go? I want to be alone."
The queen finally left. Before she left, she stood at the door and looked at her sister for a long time, biting her lip.
On the day before her wedding, Chloe came to the fountain in the square, stared at it with her eyes downcast, and threw the leaf into the pool.
After she left, Lucian came to the pool and picked up the leaf.
Wade stood beside him, watching his movements coldly, looking at his fingers picking up leaves, the drooping waist when he bent over, the straight and thin hips, and the straight and thin thighs.
Lucian turned around at this moment.
"Do you want it?" He smiled.
He held the leaf between his fingers. He was questioning the leaf.
But he found that Wade was not looking at his fingers.
Lucian frowned slightly. Before he could think of any new bad ideas, Wade turned around and said, "Let's go."
"Oh." Lucian shrugged and stopped thinking about it.
He didn't know that his expression meant something else to Wade.
'Does he want him?'
"Since we can connect with the characters in our memories, what if we blow the leaves?" Lucian smiled at the girl who greeted him enthusiastically behind Wade, "Do you want to try it?"
"I?"
"You are Master Wade." Lucian said with a smile, "You should have a spirit of adventure."
"Not interested." Wade said.
Lucian did want to persuade Vader to try blowing the leaves, but Vader simply ignored him. Lucian could not help but realize with disappointment that since he was turned from a cat back into a human, Vader had become increasingly difficult to tease.
They walked to the outskirts of the city. The procession to the marriage was long. Lucian looked up and saw the flaming red dragon wings crossing the sky. He said boredly, "The marriage robbery is about to begin."