Millennium Witch.

Chapter 75 - Regret
As night fell, a chilly wind blew, and thunder rumbled in the sky, as if a summer downpour in the north was brewing.

As Yvette stepped into the RV inside the abandoned warehouse, preparing to sit down and read a book, she suddenly heard a rapid knocking on the window. Turning her head, she saw Bingyu's face pressed against the window, looking somewhat anxious.

She went over and opened the window, asking, "What's wrong?"

"No...it's gone!"

"What's missing?"

“Mr. Dugrabi, and... Jasmine and the others!”

Half a minute later, following the hurried steps of the icy rain, Yvette entered the main hall of the air-raid shelter. The atmosphere in the hall was very serious. Upon seeing Yvette, Copper Skin walked over and said, "Miss Yvette, have you seen Jasmine, Soap, Roller, and your camel, Mr. 'Dugrabi'?"

"They've disappeared?" Yvette had already heard about what had happened from Ice Rain.

“They left this morning and haven’t come back yet,” Copper said with a worried tone. “I’m worried something might have happened to them.”

"They must be in danger!" an old mechanical puppet shouted. "We must go find them!"

“Yes, those children are precious family members of the kingdom, and we must find them! Of course, Mr. Camel Beast is one too; he has lived here for many years, and we even raised sheep for him—he's family too.” Copper Skin said solemnly, then turned to Yvette, “...So, Miss Yvette, do you know where they went?”

In the past, the kingdom's children's expedition team only roamed within a two- or three-kilometer radius of the kingdom each day, making it relatively easy to search for them if anything happened. However, since the arrival of the black dragon, their exploration range has suddenly become untraceable. As Yvette is one of the few people who can communicate with the black dragon, the kingdom's residents are hoping that Yvette might provide some possible clues.

“I don’t know.” Yvette was silent for a moment, then shook her head and said, “But I know a few areas they’ve been frequenting lately. Maybe we can organize some people to go to those places.”

"Thank goodness, at least we have a clue," Copper Skin said quickly. "Then everyone, get ready to go!"

After Yvette reported over a dozen possible locations, the search and rescue team was reduced to two-person groups, who set off with flashlights to investigate. Since the mutated creatures around Cooks were already scarce, the danger at night wasn't actually that high, and besides, the mechanical golems were covered in metal, making them less likely to be attacked.

“Let’s team up, kind lady!” Bingyu said. “I have a motorcycle! It can carry just one person!”

Evie nodded and walked outside with her, not forgetting to grab an umbrella. Then she said, "Our destination is the ruined military base; I'll give you directions."

“Okay!” Bingyu nodded repeatedly, her face unusually serious.

……

As expected, it started raining just over ten minutes after we set off. Blinding lightning streaked across the night sky, illuminating the earth and distant mountain ridges in a ghastly white light.

Holding Bingyu's waist, listening to the sound of large raindrops hitting the umbrella, Yvette slightly adjusted the illumination spell, using it as a high beam.

Then, aided by the lights, the motorcycle sped across the wet meadow, splashing mud, and gradually brought the dilapidated ruins of the military base in the distance into view.

"How did this place become like this?!" Bingyu exclaimed in shock upon seeing the ruins of the military base, which looked as if it had been bombed.

She had accompanied Jasmine and the others on an exploration of the base, and although it was only once, she remembered what it looked like, with its many towering architectural skeletons.

But now, in the ruins of the base, everything has been reduced to shattered fragments. If it weren't for the large crater in the ground, she would have even doubted that she had come to the wrong place.

“There must have been a battle here. There are biological remnants on the ground with obvious deformed features. If I’m not mistaken, they should be from a mountain whale.” Yvette got off the motorcycle with an umbrella, looked at the purplish-red chunks of flesh on the ground, and calmly analyzed, “There also seem to be Douglas’s teeth marks on them.”

"They were attacked by a mountain whale here?" Bingyu was shocked. "Where are they now?"

“Maybe she escaped, or maybe…” Yvette didn’t finish her sentence, but Bingyu could understand the subtext in her words.

—If they didn't escape, then they were eaten by the mountain whale. Mechanical puppets aren't on the menu, and they might vomit if eaten, but dragon meat—no mutant should refuse it.

"How could this be..." Bingyu said blankly.

“Let’s search the surrounding area first.” Yvette shook her head and began using illumination to light up the nearby collapsed walls and ruins.

Ten minutes later, two survivors were discovered beneath a massive concrete slab. They were Soap and Roller.

When attacked by the mountain whale, they escaped by following the elders' advice and hiding under an old metal table. However, they were so frightened that they fell into a coma. After being called to by Bingyu for a while, they quickly woke up.

"Where are Jasmine and Dugrabi?" Bingyu asked them.

"I...I don't know...Mr. Dragon, Mr. Dragon seemed to be trying to lead us away, but I don't know what happened to him, he suddenly started fighting with the mountain whale...We could only hide..." Soap said, still shaken.

"Isn't Jasmine with you?"

“No… She was somewhere else before. When the mountain whale came, I hid and didn’t see her… Mr. Long might have seen her…” As Gun spoke, his tone became more fearful. “Do you think it’s possible that Mr. Long suddenly lost his temper and turned around to fight the mountain whale, and it’s related to Jasmine… to Jasmine?”

Jasmine and the Black Dragon have a good relationship, which is a well-known fact in the kingdom. Therefore, apart from the "Beast Tamer" Yvette, the kingdom's residents often choose to communicate with Jasmine if they need the Black Dragon's help with anything.

The possibility that could cause the black dragon, which had initially wanted to escape, to suddenly erupt and fight the terrifying mountain whale was something no one wanted to delve into. The night rain was cold and fine, interspersed with deafening thunder. With heavy hearts, the group continued sifting through the nearby ruins, hoping to find the figures of Jasmine and Dugrabi buried beneath.

After uncovering a large fragment, Yvette silently covered it back up. She looked around, waited a moment, and then suddenly said to Ice Rain, "You guys continue the search here... I'll go take a look around."

"Ah...oh." Bingyu nodded.

After Yvette flew away, she ran through the rain without an umbrella to the spot where Yvette had just been and carefully pried open the piece of wreckage.

In the dark, damp mud, she saw a broken piece of a mechanical hand, only half of which remained, and a dirty, hand-woven little wreath.

……

Standing under an umbrella in the pouring rain, Yvette claimed to be checking out the surrounding area, but her destination was actually quite clear.

She flew in a straight line and came to the edge of a lake. By the light of her illumination spell, she saw a huge, dark shadow curled up on the rippling lake surface, its head submerged in the water, like a terrifying lake monster.

Sensing the approaching figure, the black dragon slightly raised its head, glanced at Yvette, and then submerged itself back into the water, seemingly trying to drown itself.

"Everyone in the kingdom is very worried about you." Yvette landed by the lake, her already slender figure appearing even smaller and more delicate against the backdrop of the huge black shadow.

The black dragon remained silent, as still as a statue.

Yvette added, "It's not your fault. The mountain whale caused all of this. Nobody will blame you."

Black Dragon spoke, his voice low and heavy, accompanied by bubbling sounds: "I...I didn't protect her well."

Yvette shook her head: "Do you think you're strong enough to protect her from the mountain whale?"

The black dragon fell silent again. The cold rain pounded on its wounds. Although the wounds were the result of a spell attack and were not infected, they still caused the black dragon a stinging pain.

As the noble son of the Dragon King, it held a high position in the Dragon Kingdom. Even the governor had to bow down to it. Although it had lived for nearly a hundred years, its biggest mistake was burning its father's treasured ancient books, for which it was imprisoned.

It had no friends in the Dragon Kingdom. Jasmine was the only intelligent being that could be considered its friend. It was the fact that it watched its friend die that made it so withdrawn, to the point that it didn't come back at night and hid here alone, secretly having an EMO.

After waiting a while and seeing that the black dragon did not reply, Yvette suddenly smiled and said, "You don't need to be so sad. It was just an alchemical creation."

The tone of her words was calm, but Dugrabi detected a hint of contempt in them. It suddenly felt a surge of anger and wanted to say something, but then it heard the silver-haired girl continue, "Alchemical creations are all lowly, even inferior to humans. You said that yourself."

Dugrabi was speechless. He opened his mouth, but after a long time, he finally retorted, "...That's not right."

"Ok?"

“I take back what I said… Dragons are noble, but other intelligent beings, at least those created by alchemy… are not lowly.”

Yvette nodded slightly. It was almost impossible to expect an arrogant and aloof dragon prince to utter such words as "equality of all beings," but to have it remove alchemical creations from the list of lowly creatures was a great step forward.

"What do you think caused what happened today?" Yvette suddenly asked, as if she were an examiner.

“I wasn’t careful enough… I was too careless and let the mountain whale get close to here…”

"anything else?"

“I…I’m sorry…If I had studied the techniques you taught me properly, I could have killed those mountain whales directly and prevented this from happening…” Dugrabi answered hesitantly, like a student who had made a mistake.

It was filled with regret. Although it didn't know how powerful the spell the witch had taught it was, just by looking at the terrifying number of runes, it could tell that it must be a terrifying forbidden spell, carrying the witch's high hopes for it.

However, despite having such a precious technique before it, it failed to make any progress in learning it for a whole year due to its laziness. As a result, when faced with four passing mountain whales, it could only fight and retreat in a sorry state, and even in the end, it failed to kill any of them.

It thought that it was not only letting down its friends, but also its dragon bloodline, its father's expectations, the witch's upbringing, and most importantly... itself.

After the question was answered, the air fell silent again, with only the sounds of rain and thunder echoing in the vast, empty space.

After a long while, Dugrabi seemed to have thought of something and spoke again, earnestly saying, "Please...please teach me magic...this time I will definitely learn seriously...please."

Holding an umbrella and standing in the pouring rain, listening to the Black Dragon's humble tone, Yvette didn't speak immediately, but the corners of her mouth turned up slightly.

She thought that the test she had orchestrated was quite successful. It not only revealed Dugrabi's true character in the face of death, but also taught the unruly little fellow a lesson. Although the lesson was somewhat unpleasant, it was invaluable for a proud and lazy dragon prince accustomed to a life of luxury since childhood. It was enough to make the little guy calm down, study diligently for a while, and learn a cautious approach to life—something she, as a naturally prudent witch, considered extremely important.

As for Little Jasmine... well, who said that just because you leave a wreath next to an abandoned puppet of unknown origin, it necessarily means it's a corpse?

(End of this chapter)