Chapter 4

【4】

Slair was clever and had a unique talent for languages. Alex wanted to test how talented Slair was, so he ordered a set of Level Six Human Language – The Real Test Problem Set for him to work on. As a result, the child managed to get a score as high as the Dragon Emperor.

However, Slair was not happy.

Boys always admired power. Since the path of being a mage could not be followed, martial arts was the only path in front of him. However, the pet humans were not as strong as the wild humans to begin with. Slair was a Dragonmaw, which means he lacked exercise during early development. He was shorter and weaker than his peers, and his athletic talent was the complete opposite of his linguistic talent.

The little sword made by Alex was exquisite and light with no open front. Slair tried to practice his swordsmanship by swinging the blade just like Grieve did in the documentary, but soon he was exhausted. The blue dragon waited on the side, handing over a bottle of fresh milk and tempting Slair to put down his sword. Then, Alex held the child’s sweaty hand and let him lean on the center of the dragon claw, where the softer flesh was located. He took off Slair’s clothes with his nimble claws, then placed the child in the bathwater, which was adjusted by Rhett.

Slair’s bathtub was carved from a single piece of wood. Alex took the bathtub out, placed it in a lake outside the cave, and then took a bath with Slair. A blue rope connected from one end of the bathtub to Alex’s front claw. Slair thought this was funny, and he giggled from inside the bathtub. He stretched out his arms towards Alex, and when the blue dragon lowered his head, Slair kissed his cold scale.

Rhett, who was passing by, saw the scene and was suddenly filled with rage.『Alex! You cheated!』

『Didn’t you agree that you would adjust the temperature of the bathwater, then I will help him take a bath?』

『But you did not say you would take a bath TOGETHER! I have never taken a bath with Slair before!』

『Rhett, you are a fire dragon,』Alex said calmly 『If you throw Slair into lava, then there will be nothing left.』

Rhett kept silent for a while. Smoke came out of his nostrils. Finally, he closed his eyes, and with a loud splashing sound, Rhett jumped into the lake and said with a deeper tone:『Well, I want to take a bath today too.』

『Please do not get angry, do not start a fight, Daddy,』Slair opened his arm toward Rhett 『In the future, we can all take a bath together! Come, here is a kiss for you too!』

The red dragon was no longer angry. He lowered his head, and he got a soft kiss. Like his mood has changed, he also turned the lake into a hot spring. Although Alex prefers cooler water, Slair had a great time. The warm lake water is very comfortable. Slair crawled out of the bathtub, stepped onto Alex’s front claw with his tender little feet, then jumped from his claw to Rhett’s.

Since then, taking a bath in the lake has become a family tradition.

Grieve Klein was about to turn ten years old.

The kingdom did not stipulate the age for adulthood. Still, for aristocratic men, the sign of maturity was to tame their own mounts. On this day, Grieve’s swordsmanship teacher, the great warrior Karl, captured a minor scaled horse alive — this was a horse-shaped beast covered with hard scales. It was known for its loyalty, intelligence, and extraordinary strength. After King Dia discussed with Karl, both felt that it would be a perfect mount for Grieve, so he announced that he would hold a puberty rite for Grieve.

There had never been a Prince that held the rite at such a young age. However, the Klein Kingdom was too small. Except the Kingdom of Abby, a neighboring kingdom not much bigger than Klein brought many gifts, and other countries symbolically sent messengers to congratulate them.

However, the messenger from Abby was odd. Asides from anything, his looks were different from everyone else. The vast majority of people in the area have blond or red hair, with occasional brown hair. Most of them had either blue or gray eyes– But Abby’s messenger, the respected Mr. Robert, had pure black hair with cold green eyes. Although he was very lean, no one doubted that he was a great warrior. He had an extremely hideous scar on his body. Starting from the top of his right eye, down past the neck at the artery, then passing through his chest and abdomen, ending at the base of his thigh. Anyone who could survive an injury like this was obviously amazing.

He stared at the little prince with his only eye, making Grieve uneasy. Grieve was aware of the hostile gaze but interpreted it as contempt. But due to his excitement and eagerness, the young prince threw away his weapon, approached the horse deftly, disturbed the little beast’s rhythm with beautiful footwork, then leaped upon its back and caught its mane.

Robert let out a sneer.

「Lord Robert,」 the righteous warrior Karl was angry at Robert’s contempt for his apprentice. He protested,「Grieve is about to become a true warrior. Please follow the Book of Dragon s and stop insulting him like this!」

「Oh? Did I say anything?」 Robert glanced at Karl 「 The kid is not yet a warrior. He threw his weapon on the ground and climbed on the horse without wasting its strength. He is going to lose this battle.」

Karl scowled at Robert, but he knew Robert was right. Karl turned his head toward Grieve. Although the kid held firm on horseback, the beast had much more stamina than humans. Sooner or later, Grieve would get thrown off from the horse’s back.

The little prince smiled and put his hand into the horse’s mouth. After a while, the anxious horse became quiet– It was just a pony that enjoyed sweet tastes. Grieve had covered himself with sweet grass juice. When the scaled horse smelled the sweet aroma from Grieve and tasted the sweetness in its mouth, the weakened horse gave up and started to lick Grieve’s hand.

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Grieve held his head up high and brought it to his father. There was a burst of applause from the audience, and men were cheering loudly,scene became a little chaotic.

Karl looked back at Robert triumphantly and saw that Robert had pulled out a strange golden object. The object was beautiful, and he had never seen such marvelous craftsmanship. However, the mysterious object made him feel extremely dangerous.

「Pong——Pong——」

The wreath fell from his father’s hand onto his head; Grieve stares at the blood blooming from his parents’ chests as their bodies fell to the ground.

「Your Highness, WATCH OUT——」Karl rushed up and tackled stunned Grieve to the ground to avoid Robert’s attack. He whistled fiercely, and a majestic pegasus sprang out from behind Robert. It came out at an awkward angle, kicked off the golden object in Robert’s hand with one of its hoofs, then slammed on it; the dangerous weapon instantly deformed.

Robert took the opportunity to turn around and run toward the gift he had brought – a flock of white sheep. Suddenly, many Abbies appeared from nowhere with weapons in their hands.

It was apparent what was going on. Grieve tried to hold back his sorrow and shouted to the chaotic crowd:「My father has passed away, and I am your new King! No one, NO ONE, has ever despised the Book of Dragons and violated the truth. The people of Klein should not be ruled by people bound to be sent to Hell. Warriors, it is time to make them bleed! General Henry, where is General Henry? Gather your soldiers and drive these Abbies away!」

General Henry held his weapon, rode a steed, and brought a large group of soldiers over. But, his sword was pointing at Karl and Grieve.

「I am sorry, your highness,」 he lowered his head in shame 「I could not turn down Robert’s gold.」

Karl let out a desperate cry. He summoned his pegasus and stepped on its back with Grieve in his arms.

「Teacher, I want to stay here and fight! 」 Grieve shouted,「They killed my father and my mother!」

「Not now,」Karl said,「One day, you will cut off his head with your own hands.」

Slair was very happy today because today was the release day for the Wild Human Documentary-The Kingdom of Klein II . After getting the image crystal from Alex, he couldn’t wait to start watching the film.

However, there was no Grieve.

He could not even recognize anyone in the film, even the filming location was different.

『Dad, Daddy, did you buy the wrong film?』 Slair turned off the crystal furiously 『I want to watch GRIEVE!』

『Oh, my sweet baby Slair,』Alex replied,『I have to tell you some unfortunate news… The film crew said there was a conflict in the Klein area, which is very common in the wild human preservation. Little Prince Grieve’s parents died during this conflict. Since the film crew was on vacation during the conflict, no dragon knows where Prince Grieve is. Maybe he died too…so the film had to change the protagonist. Since there were traces of a toy pinball gun found during this conflict, Dragons already sent someone to investigate and see whether a dragon was involved… So, in short, the Klein area could no longer be filmed, and we could do nothing about it.』

(Toy pinball gun was a product made for the young dragons, providing humans with it was generally prohibited.)

Slair cried again:『NO! NO! I don’t want this! How could you change the protagonist and still call it a film sequel! I want to file a complaint! 』