Chapter Sixteen: What Adults Ought to Do

"Ruby! I've heard everything—last night you secretly brought that brat something to eat. What are you trying to do?"

Early the next morning, Ruby was still asleep on the sofa when Mayuna roughly yanked him upright. The sorceress's face was close enough to touch, and the twig perched on her shoulder made it clear who had tattled.

"Nothing in particular."

Since he’d been woken up, Ruby didn’t bother trying to sleep again. He headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face, answering Mayuna as he went.

"Why can't you just listen to me? Those things about the dragons..."

Mayuna was so furious she stamped her feet. She did not want Ruby interacting with those troublesome creatures at all. Ruby was a fragile human, not even a mage. A single sneeze from a dragon could leave him half paralyzed.

"Mayuna, we’re adults."

Ruby, still listening to her nagging, suddenly placed a hand on her shoulder and spoke with grave seriousness.

"Yes, we are. What about it?"

Mayuna faltered at Ruby’s sudden earnestness. She didn’t know what he meant—was he telling her not to meddle anymore, or was there some deeper significance?

"Because our growth cycles are different. To humans, a dragon’s lifespan of tens of thousands of years seems unattainable; even the youngest dragons could be our ancestors. But you just said it yourself—Mels is only a child in your eyes."

"A child is simply someone who doesn’t understand the world yet. If we reject him just because he’s ignorant, if we despise him, how are we any different from children ourselves? Ignoring him will only make him worse in the future. You wouldn’t want to hear, decades from now, that a dragon slaughtered humans because of heartbreak, would you?"

"You make some sense, but we aren’t his parents. Why should I care?"

Mayuna conceded Ruby’s eloquence but raised doubts. Adults don’t discipline other people’s children; that’s just asking for trouble. If she felt uncomfortable, so would the brat’s parents.

"Dragons’ long lifespans mean they can’t nurture their offspring like humans do. Most are left to their own devices. Parents might sleep for decades at a time, so their children’s ignorance is inevitable."

"What drives you to meddle so much?"

"Maybe it’s instinct. Yesterday, when you turned him away so harshly, he cried. He’s just an innocent kid."

"Enough, I don’t care anymore. Do what you want."

Mayuna retreated to her room to sulk. That guy was so annoying, but if he weren’t so meddlesome, she wouldn’t have been saved by him, would she? Thinking this made her feel a little better.

Seeing Mayuna upset, Ruby prepared to get to work. Stepping out of the cabin, he felt the embrace of sunlight. The rain had stopped after pouring all night, and crystal droplets fell from the leaves, making soft sounds as they hit the ground.

The lunchbox he’d given the black dragon yesterday was now empty. Not transferring hostility toward humans to the food was a classic child’s attitude—far better than adults who flip tables or go on hunger strikes.

"There you are."

Ruby soon found the missing black dragon, who, in the form of a young boy, was sitting atop the cabin, deep in thought. Ruby went inside, returned with some clothes, and skillfully climbed onto the roof to hand them to Mels.

"What are these for?"

"Put them on. Even though we’re in the mountains, Mayuna is still a girl. If you keep running around naked in front of her, you’re bound to get beaten."

"Have you considered that if I change back to my true form, the clothes will be gone?"

"I have, but I don’t have any better ideas. With my current materials, I can't make clothes that stretch a hundredfold."

"You’re an odd one. Were you sincere about what you said down below?"

Mels, who should have been Ruby’s mortal enemy, obediently put on the clothes. As he struggled to poke his head through the collar, the black dragon muttered his question.

"Yes. It’s a small effort for me, but it could change your life."

Dragons have excellent hearing—Ruby had always known that. His conversation with Mayuna, separated by just a wall, had been heard word for word by the black dragon. An adult dragon might wonder if Ruby was deliberately lowering his guard, but the young dragon was genuinely moved.

"But I’m a dragon, dangerous, valuable. Humans either scream and run or want to hunt me..."

Though still young, Mels understood himself well. Every time he revealed his true form in the human world, he faced injustice. Yet even so, he longed for the bustling human world; being hunted was better than living alone in an empty dragon’s nest.

"So how did you fall for Mayuna?"

"She’s different. She’s human but easily defeated me. She could have killed me for my treasures but didn’t. She’s the first human who truly saw me!"

"So, it’s because she sees you differently from everyone else?"

"Yes, but she really dislikes me... Why is that? The first person who beat me, and the first person I truly like—these two joys overlapping should have... Ow! What are you doing?"

The black dragon boy hung his head in disappointment, murmuring his sorrow. Before he finished, a gigantic hammer struck his forehead. For once, the brat who hadn’t uttered a sound when Mayuna beat him was now clutching his head and crying out.

"Brat, say one more word and Lord Draggon won’t hold back. See this hammer bigger than a sandbag? Killing a white knight is as easy as squashing a fly."

Draggon, for reasons unknown, was exceptionally angry. He’d transformed into a massive hammer and muttered strange phrases like "East Three Sprite."

"What’s his deal?"

"Who knows. Maybe too much manga scrambled his brains."

"Back to the point: If you don’t truly like her, if you only see her as someone who recognizes you, there’s no need to chase her for marriage. Mayuna isn’t suited to be a wife. She needs care but is surprisingly independent, so taking care of her is troublesome."

"You say that, but you look after her every day."

"I have no choice. I owe her a lot. But..."

"Oh? So I’m troublesome, am I?"

Mayuna’s voice drifted over like a ghostly wind. She’d only come to check if Ruby had survived Mels, but unexpectedly overheard such an evaluation. Furious, she laughed, the tenderness on her face almost overflowing.

"Hiss..."

The black dragon’s body stiffened instantly. He’d never felt death so close. His heart thudded wildly. If this was only her anger, he couldn’t imagine how miserably Ruby would die for saying such things. The scientist, powerless and calm, awaited his fate.

"How much did you hear?"

"From ‘Mayuna isn’t suited to be a wife’ onward."

---Maiden casting spell---

"Why am I hanging up here too? What did I do?"

A quarter hour later, Ruby and Mels were securely bound and hanging from a tree branch by plant magic. Mels wriggled in the air like a caterpillar, but the reinforced vines showed no sign of loosening.

"Sorry, I got you caught up in this."

Ruby’s situation was worse than Mels’s; at least Mels was hanging upright, while Ruby was upside down. If he died of a blood rush, he’d be one of the most ridiculous transmigrators ever.

"Forget it—my wife always disciplines me anyway. Just make that delicious thing for me as an apology."

"Alright."

"You didn’t finish earlier. What were you going to say?"

"Once you get used to trouble, it doesn’t feel that troublesome anymore. It gradually becomes a habit."

"Despicable human! Even if you say that, my wife will never be yours!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

PS: Please bookmark and recommend

PS: Draggon has become a hopeless couch potato, so ridiculous things might happen like:

One day, the Bureau of Time and Space Management comes to investigate illegal transmigrators.

Mayuna: Reading, reading.
Ruby: Baking, baking.
Draggon: Where’s the July anime of 2XXX? Where’s season three of Idiot World? Where did you stash it? If true love has a color, it must be blue. Where’s my Rem figure? What are you staring at? Never seen a handsome guy before? Why are you arresting me? The transmigrator’s over there, hey!