The Red Dragon Just Wants To Do As It Pleases

Inside the room, as Tania filled the dragon-less bathtub with bucket after bucket of water, she didn't bother to light the coal stove below and simply lay down in the water, which to an ordinary person would have felt bone-chillingly cold.

After all, she was a Silver Dragon who enjoyed the cold, unlike her brother who always complained about the water being too cool during his hot baths. Once, she had stepped in right after him and nearly gotten cooked on the spot.

While she created the commotion of bathing a Silver Dragon, she also made sounds in different pitches, imitating the voice of her father, Attilicia, as if he were chatting with her.

At the same time, her pointed ears perked up. When she heard that the 'unwelcome' visitor, a High Elf, still hadn't left, she immediately became somewhat angry and submerged herself entirely in the water, thinking sullenly:

Hmph, yet another female who overestimates herself, trying to steal Dad from Mom.

Tania must protect Dad for Mom.

But where have Dad and Brother gone?

Hmph! They must be secretly up to no good again without including me.

From the moment school let out today, not seeing her father and brother David at the school gate, combined with the commotion from outside the city during class, Tania knew they must have gotten into trouble.

According to their usual habits, at least one of them would generally be waiting for her at the entrance of the Magic Academy, and most of the time, they would both be there.

So, Tania simply didn't wait for them. Instead, before the school staff noticed, she hailed a carriage and slipped home early.

Otherwise, once those annoying younger Elf students—the ones who found Dragons tiresome—were picked up, the school staff would surely have contacted her dad.

Meanwhile, she also had to make the High Elf outside believe that Dad was definitely at home. Otherwise, if the elf went to the Magic Academy...

Then, if David and her father were doing something mischievous behind Tania's back, wouldn't it be exposed!

Although Tania was very angry about this, she still knew what was more important.

Moreover, she understood another truth: her brother David and her dad were doing this to protect her.

Because of her mother's situation, they were both very short on money...

More than ten minutes later, the patience of the person outside was about to run out. She was preparing to sneak around to the back door to confirm if Mrs. Antonella was indeed the Attilicia she suspected. Just then, two 'quails' plummeted rapidly from the high clouds. They got entangled, wrestling with each other as if in a fight, and just before crashing to their deaths, shot straight into a narrow gap in the side window of the treehouse, leaving a handful of falling feathers.

PLOP.

Simultaneously, David and his father, Attilicia—who had been disguised as 'Mrs. Antonella'—reverted to their true forms and tumbled into the living room, overturning quite a bit of furniture.

Just as they were about to rush out to head to the Dewensen Magic Academy, they saw their daughter Tania poking her head out from the bathroom. She gestured for them to keep quiet and then pointed outside, tilting her long ears to signal that a High Elf had come calling.

The latter immediately understood. Attilicia, using the spell "Create Water," sprayed his son and then, feigning fury, shouted:

"David Uthos! Stop right there! Dry yourself off first! It's not like a fall will kill you!"

"I don't want to! I don't want to dry off!" David immediately rushed to the door like an excited Husky and, rearing up, kicked it open with his forelimbs.

BANG!

Amidst the commotion their neighbors had grown accustomed to, Shalaina, who was just about to knock on the door again, had an intimate encounter with the suddenly unhinged oak door. It slammed her directly into the lawn by the entrance, as if a carriage had run her over.

"Ah..." At that moment, Shalaina felt as if the fifty-person meal she had just ingested was about to come right back up.

Just as she was about to push away the cracked and warped oak door panel on top of her, she saw, as expected, Attilicia in her female Elf disguise from that night. Her face was filled with anger but also a hint of doting affection as she held a Silver Dragon that resembled a young colt, rubbing its wet scales.

At that moment, Shalaina was utterly dumbfounded.

Weren't we told they adopted two High Elf children?

What's with this young Silver Dragon?

She soon couldn't help but connect this scene to the 'Dragon Waterloo' Attilicia had faced on the North Ice Sea coast ten years ago.

No! This can't be true!!! Shalaina was struck with mental anguish once again.

THUMP. Tania stepped over the door panel again, leaped onto David's back, grabbed her brother's two upward-curving dragon horns, and giggled, "Brother! Tania wants to play horsey!"

"Get off, get off. I'm a noble Silver Dragon; I won't be your beast of burden! Go ask Mom if you want to play horsey," David said, not indulging her in the slightest.

"How about we take turns riding each other, okay?" Tania immediately proposed as her next best option.

"...That works," David's expression changed instantly.

Watching Attilicia's family enjoying themselves, Shalaina finally, dazedly, pushed the door panel off herself. Dispirited, she prepared to walk past David and the others, to leave this haven of joy that clearly wasn't meant for her.

It was then that Attilicia, as if only just realizing, looked towards the newcomer. Even though she had halfway expected a surprise visit, the sight of Shalaina in her current state still startled her:

"Sha...Shalaina? What happened to you?"

Shalaina laughed nervously and replied, "I encountered a Red Dragon on the road. Sorry for disturbing you. I'll be leaving now."

She felt she shouldn't be there; she was so out of place, she might as well have been hiding under a carriage.

Seeing his father looking equally stunned, David hurriedly nudged him under Tania's somewhat displeased gaze, indicating he should get on with it.

It would be best to inquire about her recent itinerary.

Reacting, Attilicia pulled Shalaina into the now doorless room. "Wait, wait, wait! You need to get that wound treated quickly, or it'll scar."

Then he instructed David, who was carrying his sister on his back, "David, go get my alchemy pack."

"Alright."

During the brief moment David and his sister were away, Shalaina finally mustered the Courage to ask the question that was bound to disappoint her:

"They...are they really your children?"

"Yes, they're mine and...Pafila's children."

"...I see. Thank you for telling me," Shalaina suddenly burst into a bright smile.

She knew that the yearning and impulse she'd harbored since her youth had, at this moment, finally been laid to rest.

"Huh?" Attilicia didn't understand why she was thanking him.

"Attilicia, are we...still friends?"

"...Of course," said Attilicia, who had just emptied Shalaina's Mage Tower moments before, rather sheepishly.

"...That's really good." Her mood shifting, and seeing Attilicia's inexplicable concern for her appearance, Shalaina suddenly felt that being 'sisters' with such a person wouldn't be too bad.

Perhaps this was a more suitable way for them to relate to each other.

But just as Shalaina's mood was improving, she heard a CRUNCHING, MUNCHING sound.

Turning around, she saw the young Dragon who had just brought the alchemy pack, gnawing on a shield as if it were a crispbread.

"..." That looked like the evidence she had brought back...

And the only clue in pursuing that Red Dragon.

"David Uthos! I see your scales are itching again! Put down our guest's belongings this instant!" Attilicia, relieved that the spatial coordinates on the shield were finally physically eliminated, pretended to be furious as he scolded David.

"BURP... It's just a biscuit! So stingy." Playing the part of a True Dragon child, David stuck his tongue out at his Silver Dragon father, then, with a serious-faced Tania on his back, dashed out the door, truly gallivanting around the yard like a young Dragon of his age.

Only their two pairs of ears, David's and Tania's, remained pricked high.

"I'm terribly sorry," Attilicia said. "I only brought these children back from the Old Continent last year. You know, with a Red Dragon, it's nearly impossible for them to get a good education. What were the specifications of your shield? I'll make you another one."

Shalaina, however, just smiled and shook her head. "It was just something I picked up on the road."

"It doesn't matter anymore."