Chapter 14:

“What do you mean they escaped?!” The first thing I heard in the morning was Princess what’s her face screaming her lungs out while hugging me way too tightly against her chest.

“I’m sorry Your Highness, but once you left-” The heavily armored knight tried to explain, but was cut off again.

“You’re blaming ME for this fuck up?!” As she said that, I looked over and saw Sunny yawning so loudly that it caused my whole body to vibrate. We weren’t even riding him anymore though. The woman holding me was sitting at a fancy little white table with some tea and random treats set up. There were also some maids and bodyguards scattered around the area. 

“Of course not, Your Majesty! I’m sorry!” The knight was already kneeling and it looked like he would have started kowtowing if he wasn’t so heavily armored.

“What happened exactly?” She seemed to calm down a bit and allowed the motherfucker to speak.

“We purged most of the Heretics, but without…” He was about to say something but changed the wording, “With our numbers reduced and so many wounded to care for, we were unable to completely seal off every possible exit. Once the survivors scattered into the woods at night, there wasn’t much we could do… We captured and interrogated some, but no matter what methods we used, they would never reveal any information. Most took their own wretched lives rather than spill their secrets. The others died before revealing anything substantial.”

“Very well.” The Princess sighed dramatically and then started petting me like I was a dog or cat, “Eh-hem. Let’s see… Who was the interrogator?”

“Franklin… And Joseph.” The man responded nervously, “I also… Participated. Your Majesty. I’m sorry for failing you.”

“It’s fine. I forgive you.” She said that and the man breathed a sigh of relief for a moment, before she continued, “Each of you will sacrifice a virgin from your families by the full moon in seven days. Also… You will castrate yourselves as penance for your sins and failures.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty, for being lenient!” The man actually sounded relieved! Holy fuck!

“I might not be as cruel or unforgiving as my brothers, but there’s a reason I’m the Crown Princess. I’m charismatic as fuck.” She said something totally unhinged and narcissistic as the armored dude was dragged away by some other soldiers. By the way, I still didn’t know her name. Just that she was a Princess, probably.

I didn’t speak. At least not in human words. It was really fucking hard, but I haven’t figured out whether dragons are supposed to be able to talk yet. At the very least, Sunny wasn’t very talkative. But that could totally be a personality trait, rather than the way all Wyverns acted.

“Rao~!” I called out cutely to my ‘master’ or ‘Mom’ and she giggled happily.

“Who cares about those peasants and bandits anyway?” She grinned and squished my cheeks with her delicate fingers. Forcing me to look up her ‘relatively’ giant nose. At least her nostrils were huge compared to mine. “The Holy Mother truly loves me. No, both of us. Otherwise what are the odds that the two of us would’ve met? If my asshole brother didn’t push patrol duties to me this week… If I didn’t happen to be in that specific area when those peasants were attacked. If their annoying screams and stinky blood didn’t attract you there, then how could we have been so fortunate to meet? Truly, my pious devotion has paid off!”

She was actually pretty cute. I mean, she was definitely a psychopathic narcissistic monster, but she was nice to me so far at least. That’s all that really matters, right?

We can’t trust her… Too dangerous. Can’t speak. Can’t move. We should kill her and escape.

There’s really no reason to kill her though. That would just make things more annoying. And like I said to myself. She’s been pretty nice to me thus far.

*Gurgle~!* My stomach growled and the woman fawned over me again.

“Aww, poor baby, you’re starving aren’t you?” She hugged me against her tits for a moment, then turned me around and placed me on the table like I was a cute kitten. My eyes went to some orange salmon sashimi with some big orange caviar on top! There were also some deviled eggs, chocolate chip cookies, blueberry muffins, pink cupcakes and some other miscellaneous colorful cookies that honestly didn’t look very good. I was mainly interested in the first few things. The sashimi, because I fucking love sashimi and holy shit, it had wasabi on the side! Well, technically horseradish, but everyone who eats sushi knows that wasabi isn’t ‘real’ wasabi, yet we still enjoy it. 

“Mmnnnf~!” I couldn’t help moaning and purring as I devoured the sashimi first!

“That’s right, eat as much as you want… Blacky?” Even she knew that name sounded dumb as fuck. Thankfully she didn’t take long before she tried out a few other names, “Ebony, Obsidian, no, too common. Not to mention dragons in the past, even in the current era there’s already an Ebony and Obsidian. Perhaps I should wait until you’re older? No, that won’t do! I’m Lucia Crystania Arana of Miami, Crown Princess of the Royal Floridian Family!”

*Snort~!* I almost choked! No, I did choke a little bit! It was so hard not to fucking laugh! Goddamn it! She better not name me Swamp Puppy or some shit!

“Bloodwing.” She muttered, then started petting my back gently as I finished eating the sashimi and moved onto the chocolate chip cookies while they were still hot! God, they’re so fucking good! Holy shit! I mean, I’ve always loved chocolate, and chocolate chip cookies specifically, but these draconic senses are so much stronger… And this body isn’t affected by chocolate as negatively? At least I hope not. No, it might also be that the ingredients and the quality of the craftsmanship was just way higher than any cookies I’ve ever tasted as a human.

“Ruby? Crimson… Your eyes are so pretty.” She stopped me from eating and held my face up with her hands again, staring at me with those big brown eyes that seemed surprisingly innocent. Then she turned to the nearest maid and asked, “Shiana, give me one of your eyes.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” The young woman didn’t even hesitate for a moment! She fucking plucked out her own left eye while grunting in pain, handing it over to the crazy bitch!

“Hmmm, yes. This will do well as an offering.” She held the eyeball up to me and smirked, “Consume this virgin eye and reveal to me your true name.”

Hahahahaha~!

I think I made a mistake. I don’t think I can do this shit. I think I need to go…

We cannot leave now. We need to play along. Eat the eye. Say our name.

This is some fucking witchcraft bullshit! I do not wanna eat that nasty eye-

EAT THE EYE!

“Uck~!” I gagged as the crazy cunt shoved the damn eyeball into my mouth! It was only a normal sized human eye, but I was only a foot long lizard, okay?! Sure, my mouth and throat could stretch a lot, but I just ate a bunch of sashimi and cookies, I didn’t wanna eat a fucking human eyeball! 

“There there, take your time.” Lucia pushed the eyeball down my throat with her thumb and patted my back as I struggled to swallow it! I think it popped inside my throat…

“Urp~!” I almost puked, almost, but thankfully I managed to maintain my no-puking streak even into my second life. Last time was like what? Fifteen years ago? Maybe sixteen years actually.

“Alright now, spit it out. No, not literally.” She was afraid I’d vomit, “Just tell me your name.”

“Ack-Eron… Acheron.” I said it in a cute, high-pitched voice and she looked stunned. Even the beautiful black-haired maid, with one brown eye left, seemed flabbergasted! I cleared my throat and said, “Rao?”

“Holy shit! He actually talked! It actually worked! Hahaha~!” Thankfully Lucia wasn’t upset about it.

“My eye was used to allow Your Majesty to name such a Divinely touched Dragon. Thank you for this honor, Your Majesty!” The maid kowtowed to the Princess as her eyehole was still bleeding out onto the fucking stone floor. Speaking of which, were we on some kinda balcony of a huge mansion? On the side of a mountain… We must be pretty far south too, because it’s actually really warm here.

“Acheron Ebonscale! No, Acheron Bloodwing? Acheron Rubyeye… Hmmm, maybe we should sacrifice your other eye-”

Please no!

“Lucia!” A loud voice prevented the dumb maid from getting up and ripping her other eyeball out!

“Henry!” The Princess stood up, wiping her bloody fingers off on the napkin on the table. She was wearing a pretty white dress, with her long brown hair held back by a golden tiara. She also had some shiny red and orange gemstones on her golden necklace. No rings on her fingers though.

“My favorite big sister~!” The man was tall and handsome as hell. Dressed in a fancy gold-trimmed white long-shirt and pants, he had a golden crown on his head of brown brown hair. Hell, his hair was longer than his sister’s. His eyes were bright blue and his skin was darker, more tan compared to his sister’s fair flesh. 

“My second-favorite little brother.” Lucia giggled and hugged her brother very demurely, before retreating back and curtsying, while he bowed elegantly. The two of them seemed very polite on the surface at least, “Have you been enjoying your vacation?”

“Alas, as usual, my vacation was cut short by an urgent call for reinforcements from San Carlos. By the time I arrived, it was already too late. The damned Tuscon Clan already razed the city to the ground!” He grimaced and for a moment, I thought he actually gave a fuck about the men, women and children who either died or were enslaved, “We can’t allow those savages to get away with this! Think of how useless it makes us look! This is the third successful raid in the past month! We need to muster our troops and start counterattacking before the peasants begin rioting at our inaction!”

Wait, Tucson? Umm, is that Arizona? Are we near Arizona now? Or is it Nevada? No wait, is Arizona on the east or the west of Nevada?

“The Tuscon Clan? Hmmm…” The beautiful woman frowned and rubbed her chin with her right hand, leaning back and sitting on her maid’s back very casually. Yes, the maid was still on her hands and knees next to the table…

“Tuscon Clan, you know, those damn desert rats!” Henry pouted and put his left hand on his hip, waving the other flamboyantly. “We should have exterminated those disgusting mongrels a long time ago.”

“Sunny doesn’t like the desert.” Lucia sighed and shook her head, “Neither does Luna for that matter.”

“Luna is still pruning her feathers as we speak.” He chuckled and looked over towards me, widening his blue eyes in shock, “Is that?!”

“Hahahaha~!” The Princess cackled and leaned back, grabbing me off the table and hugging my ‘tiny’ body between her squishy breasts. Then she bragged, “Isn’t he just magnificent?! I found him the other day! He almost escaped, but thankfully with the Virgin Mother’s blessing, I managed to catch him in the end!”

“What breed is he?” Henry crouched down in front of me and started caressing my face just as roughly as his crazy sister. His hands were soft, though that wasn’t too surprising for a Prince, I guess? Then again, they were both riding dragons into battle pretty frequently so it’s kinda impressive that they managed to maintain their skin so well. Could also be overpowered genetics though. Purebloods don’t get sick. At all. They don’t suffer from normal illnesses or issues that regular humans would.

“I’m unsure. I haven’t consulted with the Dragon Scholars yet.” Lucia sighed dramatically as she pulled me away from her brother’s grubby paws, “Acheron, his name was only just revealed to me by a Divine Oracle. I wish you could’ve been there, but unfortunately you came a moment too late.”

“That seems to be the story of my life, Elder Sister.” The man smiled wryly as he stood back up and took a step back, “The war can wait. A new Dragon is far more important. You need to take him back to the capital immediately. I’ll go with you as an escort.”

“That won’t be necessary.” She shook her head and hugged me tighter against her slightly sweaty tits, “You need to stay here and deal with those damn savages. Don’t worry, Sunny is very fast and powerful enough to protect us.”

“I’m not just worried about your protection, Lucia.” He rolled his blue eyes, “This is a wild Dragon that you just chanced upon. It hasn’t been tamed. As soon as you let your guard down, it will most certainly escape. The two of us must be present to make sure that there’s always something watching it at all times.”

“Him, not ‘it’. Acheron won’t try to escape from me.” I think she was more worried about her brother stealing me from her instead of me escaping, “I’m not a fool. I won’t transport him freely like this. I have cages.”

“Hmph, you’d put a dragon in a cage? That’s a recipe for rebellion.” He chuckled and shook his head, “Do you trust me so little, Sister? This dragon, Acheron, is clearly your fated companion. I would not risk tempting that fate.”

Lucia lifted me up by my armpits and stared into my eyes, “Awww~! He’s so cute~!” Well, I thought she was going to say something important but she just kissed my snout, then my forehead and hugged my body against her face…

“Sister, honestly…” Henry sighed dramatically, “He is still a wild beast you only just found. Don’t let your guard down THAT much. On the other hand, if he tears your face off, I’ll be willing to raise him in your stead-”

“See! You covet my baby! But he’s mine!” The crazy bitch screamed at her brother, hugging me to her chest again and practically blasting my eardrums out! “Acheron is a good boy! He won’t hurt his Mommy, right Acheron?”

“Now he’s your son?” I was able to see the dude roll his eyes again before he started laughing to himself, “Very well, Sister. I won’t interfere. But you must not lose this dragon. He’s more important to the Empire than either of us and you know damned well that we’ll both be punished severely if anything happens to him.”

I opened my mouth and wanted to say something, but just shut it again. Probably best if these fuckers think I can’t talk. At least for now. It’d make more sense if I learned how to talk over time, right? Unless they believe that my speech is a gift from the Goddess of Lust and Chastity or some such bullshit. Then who the fuck knows?

Speaking of which, there are definitely other Deities out there. I just don’t know how many of them are real and how many are actually just other Gods and Devils pretending to be them? It’s a pretty common practice for Demons, Angels and Monsters to trick Mortals into thinking that they’re Gods or Devils. Real Gods and Devils… Well, they’re scary motherfuckers for sure. But some of them are also super nice, boring or chaotic. The worst are the ones that are really Orderly, at least from my perspective. The epitome of Order is slavery after all… But then again, Slavery is common everywhere regardless of whether Gods and Devils are involved.

Even some random bugs will enslave each other, not to mention humans.

“Nothing will happen to Acheron. I swear to our Lady in the Abyss that so long as I draw breath, he shall be safe and sound.” Lucia giggled, “Even on the battlefield, Sunny and I will make sure those savages never touch his scales again.”

“Again?” Henry frowned.

“Hmmm, yes, again.” She loosened her hug a big and grumbled, “When Acheron was trying to reach me, a pathetic traitor captured him and fled. Thankfully we were able to save my baby from whatever horrors that mongrel planned for him.”

“A traitor? How… Despicable.” He sneered and shook his head, waving his hand as he turned around, “Very well, Sister. Without you patrolling the southwestern border with me, I’ll need to exhaust poor Luna.”

“Aroouuu~!” I heard what sounded like a wolf howling and looked up towards the sky. Sunny was also looking up at that… Dragon? Well, it was definitely draconic in a lot of ways. The wind from her wings blasted the three of us… Uh, also the half-dozen servants, and the big-ass Wyvern had his feathers ruffled.

“Damn it Luna! You’re messing up my hair on purpose!” Henry complained loudly and I could hear the dragon-wolf thing giggling in response. She landed gently on her hind legs, wagging her massive fluffy bluish-white tail around like a real puppy. There were two enormous, feathery white wings for ‘arms’, while her hind legs were more like that of a dog. Just like her body was more doggish in general, even covered by white and gray fur. There was a long, flowing blue mane on her head, surrounded by lots of jagged horns. She also had two cute wolf-like ears on the sides of her similarly wolf-like head. Seriously, there’s no better way to describe the creature than a Wolf-Wyvern hybrid. Those big blue eyes looked straight at me, the slit pupils narrowed dangerously as she licked her snout and growled.

“Grrr~!” I growled back and raised my left hand, flipping her off while the humans weren’t paying attention to me.

“Woooof~!” She roared at me and looked like she would pounce! But I wasn’t really afraid. It did feel… Chilly though. Colder for sure.

“Be good, Luna. Don’t scare the baby.” Henry sighed dramatically as he climbed up the ladder that two male servants brought over. It was basically like climbing up onto a rooftop to mount the beast after all. There was a really fancy saddle on her back, but it was so tiny compared to her enormous body. It could still fit multiple people on it easily though. Just like Sunny’s fancy gold-encrusted leather saddle.

“Good luck, Brother, may the Lady protect you!” Lucia said that as she stood up off the poor maid’s back. The one-eyed girl actually collapsed shortly afterwards and was dragged away by some of the other maids. 

“And may the Holy Mother protect you as well, my favorite sister~! Farewell~!” As he shouted that, the servants pulled the ladder away quickly before the dragon walked over to the edge of the cliff and dropped down! Soon enough though, I could see them soaring back up into the sky above us! Okay, it wasn’t really that exciting or amazing. For fuck’s sake, I’m a dragon too!

Sure, I might not be the size of a damn building yet, but I’ll get there! I refuse to be ‘short’ in this life too!

Shortness is irrelevant. Being small is a massive advantage.

Bullshit. I wanna be a giant-ass dragon, even if it’s inconvenient!

“Aww, were you scared by the big, mean wolfy?” Lucia held me up by my armpits again and kissed my snout, then rubbed her face against mine while giggling happily. She smiled at me and said, “You’re so cute and adorable~! And you’re so smooth!”

Anyway, being a Royal Pet doesn’t really seem that bad/ At least in the near future. I’m sure I’ll get treated like a precious baby for the first… However many years it takes for me to grow up. Then they’ll have me working my ass off for the Crown for however many centuries or millennia it takes for me to get too old and have to retire.

It doesn’t really seem like that bad of a life to be honest. Maybe I’ll be able to influence them for the better? Slowly change their barbaric ways or at least watch the humans learn to correct their mistakes on their own, while occasionally eating the evil bastards and bitches I encounter along the way.

Either that, or I’ll just become more and more degenerate until I don’t even give a damn anymore. I’ll be able to watch people getting raped and torured without blinking an eye. It’s just some lower life-forms breeding and fighting with each other. Why does it matter to me?

Unlikely..

I know. But it’d be a lot less work if I didn’t give a fuck about anyone or anything, right?

Work is inevitable. Whether we enjoy it or not is key.

“Acheron~! What’s wrong, Sweetie? Are you hungry? Tired? Do you need to potty?”

I ignored her pretty face and looked around at the beautiful mansion built into the side of the cliff and smiled wryly. I wonder if I can really avoid being corrupted after living in the lap of luxury for a few years?