VBNWDW - Chapter 52
Chapter 52
The people on the ground grew smaller and smaller. The city walls, which had seemed so imposing, were now just a tiny feature on the landscape.
Metis tightened her grip on her sword’s hilt. In truth, that was all she could do. She stood on the dragon’s back as the wind howled in her ears, whipping up her golden hair and making the emerald leaves on her crown tremble.
Perhaps due to the dragon’s deliberate control, the scales weren’t uncomfortable under her feet. They even shielded her, allowing her to stand steadily. The wind that blew past was also specially regulated by the dragon, kept within a comfortable range rather than messing up her clothes and hair.
This dragon was terrifyingly considerate.
That was Metis’s first thought. Not even the dragon who had fallen in love with the first queen had been so meticulous.
The dragon didn’t fly too high. To let Metis see her city-state clearly, it glided at a low altitude, only beating its wings every so often.
It saw that the humans, no longer suppressed by its draconic might, had all stood up. They shouted the name of the Roy Kingdom with fervent piety, as if they were about to witness the nation’s rise.
The projection crystal clearly displayed the dragon’s form. Its streamlined body, brimming with explosive power, would occasionally tilt, then dive down, pausing for a moment before soaring upward again. Even such casual movements could tear fissures in the space around it. Eerie, cold ghost flames floated constantly by its side, never leaving.
The people let out gasps of amazement with its every move. Flying was something only a Great Mage could achieve, yet dragons possessed this ability innately.
Gilded pupils swept over the crystal, and the projection’s focus shifted to Metis on its back. She stood steadily on the dragon’s spine, her regal and composed features calm and collected. Her pale, grayish-blue eyes looked down, surveying the city-state that was, in name, hers alone.
That was their newly ascended Queen. In her very first meeting with the dragon, she had earned its acknowledgment.
Someone suddenly shouted, “Queen Metis!” and a great mass of people immediately followed suit.
The fiery shouts exploded around Metis’s ears like fireworks. After so many years as a puppet princess, this was the first time she had so clearly felt the love and respect of her subjects.
She was a little flustered, her heart couldn’t help but race. She had been imprisoned by the Council and the Temple for too long under the pretext of her youth and for her own safety. Every moment, she had been preoccupied with being cautious. Just now, she had even been pondering why the dragon was treating her with such favor—that was the reason for her composure.
As if sensing her emotions, the dragon suddenly let out a long cry. With a powerful flap of its bony wings, it soared straight up.
The clouds that had been shattered moments before now swirled around her. The city-state below shrank to a small patch, and the long river, once seen as the source of life, became a ribbon winding its way across the plain.
Before she could react, the dragon shot forward a hundred meters. Metis lost her footing and fell onto its back. It didn’t hurt; the dragon had done it on purpose, controlling its scales to catch her gently.
“Isn’t it tiring to stand, Little Queen?”
A casual voice emerged in Metis’s mind. This was another effect of the contract, allowing them to communicate directly without speaking, ignoring space and distance.
But that wasn’t what stunned Metis. It was the voice—it carried the unique laziness of the Dragon Clan, unconsciously drawing out its words. An image of a stunningly beautiful, alluring woman couldn’t help but surface in her mind, lounging on a throne, tilting her head to bite into a sweet, peeled grape offered by a servant.
It’s a female dragon.
Metis belatedly realized. Thinking back on the earlier scene, compared to the dragons in the picture books, her contract partner’s body was distinctly more streamlined and elegant, and it lacked the heavy scent of blood and flesh described by her predecessors.
She fastened her longsword to her waist and reached out to hug the dragon’s neck. The scales, shaped like half-shields, transformed into a warm, leathery texture, blocking most of the rushing wind for her.
The flight continued. They dove into the clouds and passed through mountain ranges that looked as if they’d been split by a blade. Only when they saw a city-state would the dragon slow down and lower its altitude.
The common folk were panicked at first, until they saw Metis, with the crown and sword that represented royal authority. Then they, too, understood and let out the same cheers as the people in Anthelia. Although some of them didn’t yet know Metis’s name, they still shouted “Your Majesty the Queen” at the top of their lungs.
Those were her subjects, her lands and city-states, the nation the Roy royal family had ruled for a thousand years. For the first time, Metis felt all of this with such clarity.
The dragon suddenly fell silent, as if not wanting to disturb her. In reality, it was chatting idly with the System.
A cold, mechanical voice warned, “I do not believe your current actions are correct. You are fueling her ambition.”
The dragon, having already read through this world’s data, replied lazily, “No one is content with being ordinary, especially not in her position.”
In the original world, the Queen had gradually lost herself in the struggle for power, eventually turning dark, becoming the villain, and destroying the world.
“A little girl who lost her parents at a young age, locked in the palace by the detestable Council and Temple. For a time, because the Council and Temple feared public opinion, they arranged for the best teachers to instruct her. Then, for another period, because they feared they were rearing a tiger that would turn on them, they replaced her teachers and arranged for ambiguous lessons.”
It tutted, then added, “It’s a wonder she wasn’t driven mad by these old fools.”
System: “Then what do you plan to do?”
It answered quickly, “I don’t think I’ve ever raised a queen before, have I?”
The System keenly sensed its probing and immediately went silent.
The dragon chuckled nonchalantly. “Why be so guarded? You already let it slip right when I arrived in this world.”
The System simply pretended to have disappeared.
The dragon didn’t mind. It tried to recall, but there was only a blank void. It shook its head and continued the flight around the kingdom.
Even though the dragon flew at an extreme speed, they still took a long time. By the time they completed their circuit and returned to Anthelia, it was already dusk.
A soft orange glow spilled down on them, washing away the fatigue of their hasty journey.
Metis could clearly feel a change in the people around her. Compared to their previous perfunctory disdain, it seemed she, the Queen, was finally no longer a mascot to be trifled with.
But she didn’t have time to dwell on it. She turned to the dragon and said in a low voice, “The gold coins and gems on the altar are all gifts for you.”
Compared to the cheers that had erupted behind her again, the dragon was clearly more interested in these. Its eyes lit up, and with a wave of its claw, the small mountain of treasure was swept into its space.
Metis felt a surge of elation from the other end of the contract chain. She was somewhat surprised that it hadn’t closed off this function, allowing her to sense its emotions. At the same time, it confirmed that dragons really did love shiny things.
“Your Majesty, you must be tired from your journey. Please, you and Lord Dragon should return to the palace to rest,” a Council elder stepped forward and said. Though he was speaking to Metis, his gaze was fixed on the dragon.
From the moment they had reached the first city, someone had been sending back reports, so the elders knew exactly where the dragon and the woman had gone.
“Very well. Thank you for your concern, Elder,” Metis replied. She wasn’t flustered by what had happened earlier, instead responding as she normally would.
The dragon merely lifted its eyelids, reverting to the proud indifference that everyone recognized.
As the red sun was swallowed by the horizon, the orange light gradually faded. The crowds that had gathered in the city were dispersed. The occasional squabble was quelled by knights in armor, and the clamor finally died down.
Metis then encountered the first problem after contracting with the dragon.
The dragon was not satisfied with the lair they had prepared for it.
“Are you saying you want to live with me?” Metis asked hesitantly, a look of astonishment on her face.
They had built the lair according to a dragon’s habits—damp, dark, and piled high with gold coins. A contract partner of a previous king had even slept in one for a full hundred years.
The ink-black dragon nodded. Against the deepening night, its gilded pupils were all the more striking.
“But you’re too big…” Metis was in a difficult position. Although the palace was much larger than an ordinary house, it couldn’t accommodate a dragon.
The black dragon tilted its head as if in thought. A series of cracking sounds followed, and the hundred-meter-long beast began to shrink, becoming about five meters in size. Although Metis still had to crane her neck to look at it, it was much better than before. At least it could now enter most parts of the palace.
The servants nearby were astonished and shocked, letting out small gasps.
Metis, however, was calm. As a member of the Roy royal family, which had signed contracts with dragons for generations, she was perhaps the person on this continent who understood dragons best. She knew they could change their size at will and could even transform into any race, though they seemed rather unwilling to do so.
“Is this alright, Little Queen?” the dragon asked amicably, seemingly unaware of how strange the prefix “Little” was in human society.
Metis looked up at the dragon, whose expression was unreadable, and finally chose to accept it. After all, from a dragon’s perspective, the human race was indeed incredibly small. Even a newborn dragon whelp would be much larger than her.
“It is. You can pick any room you like inside. If you have any problems, you can find…” She paused, changing the word “maid” to “me.”
The dragon expressed its satisfaction with a nod. Its claws stepped onto the grass without bending a single tender blade, even though its sharp talons were more formidable than longswords.
Metis withdrew her gaze and added, “I’m going to change my clothes first. I’ll come find you later, is that alright?”
She was clearly the master of this palace, yet she had to ask the dragon for permission.
Gilded eyes swept over the ornate and cumbersome clothes she had worn all day, revealing a look of sympathy. “You can come find me anytime.”
This sentence brought Metis a sense of relief. It meant that this dragon wouldn’t be like the previous ones, who would curl up in their lairs and fall completely silent.
Images of the territory she had seen during the day flashed through her mind, and many nascent, immature ideas surfaced once more. She thought she could communicate more with this dragon, to at least find out why it was being so special to her.
This was extremely important.
And so, she hurried back to her room, had her maids help her out of the complicated clothes, and prepared to take a bath and freshen up before seeking out the dragon.
As it turned out, the satisfactory lair the dragon had chosen was her bathhouse—a natural hot spring shielded by layers of white gauze, where no one was allowed within ten meters.
Just as she had removed her clothes and was soaking in the steaming hot spring water, the dragon, which was lying among the white veils, extended its jade-black tail and poked her smooth back.
The touch nearly made Metis leap out of the water. It took her a moment to realize it was her contract partner.
And the dragon that had startled her not only didn’t apologize but spoke in a lazy drawl, “Metis, can you let my tail into the hot spring water?”
Wicked and arrogant.
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