I will never give in to Miss Death

"Um……"

As I looked on expectantly, Yin Xiamo untied the ribbon on the box, untied the knot, and then removed the lid.

“Wow…what is this?”

Seeing the exquisite manor in the box still retaining the warmth of the sun, Yin Xiamo was even more surprised: "Did you make this?"

"Yes, I bought the materials and made it myself."

I put my hands behind my back and asked, "Do you like it?"

"Can this door be opened?"

Carefully taking the manor out of the box, the girl fiddled with the doors and windows of the manor's interior, took a look at the furniture inside, and tried to rotate the blades of the windmill next to the manor. She sighed, "It takes a lot of time to do this, right?"

"No, I just do it casually."

I put on a "quickly praise me" expression: "As long as Xiaomo likes it."

"I like it...Thank you, Noel."

Yin Xiamo nodded, put the manor back into the box, and took the bow on the box: "Nuo'er, can you perform that again?"

"Eh?"

I wondered, “Which one?”

"It's... the one who suddenly pops out and says 'wow' when he's squatting in the cardboard box."

As she spoke, the girl in front of me took off the bow on the gift box and put it on my head: "I want to see it again."

"okay."

Although I didn't know what Yin Xiamo was up to, I thought that since it was her birthday today, I could still satisfy this small request. So I turned around and got back into the cardboard box, closed the lid, squatted for a few seconds, and then lifted the paper cover above my head with a "pop" sound and jumped in front of Yin Xiamo: "Happy birthday, Xiaomo!"

"Thank you."

The girl hugged me in her arms.

"This is the cutest birthday present I've received in thousands of years."

"..."

……

"Eh?"

"..."

……

Volume 5: Dreams

No. 201 Xiaomo's Dragon Maid

Throughout history, how many people have praised the sun?

I don't know, but I guess even for people living in another world, the sunshine must symbolize hope and future for them.

Because before a world develops, the only source of energy is sunlight and heat.

Although it may be a bit amateurish for me to use the development and evolution laws of creatures on Earth to explain the other world full of magic.

Yin Xiamo said that the world over there can be seen as an extension of the Earth world, that is, various mods such as magic have been added to the original subjects of physics, biology, etc. The existence of magic and "expansion packs" has led to the birth of more "intelligent creatures" in the world over there than on Earth.

This includes dragons.

The dragons in the other world are all laid from eggs. Ordinary dragon eggs are only slightly larger than adult men, and are about two to three meters in length on average. After the dragonlets hatch, if there is a shortage of food around them and they lack the care of their mother dragon, or if they were abandoned a long time ago and picked up by humans or other creatures and hatched using special methods, the dragonlets will enter a special "individual growth" mode. They will rely on reliable creatures around them to develop as best as possible while ensuring their own safety. If a human hatches a dragonlet and raises it, then the dragonlet will feel fond of that person, and after it grows up, the first magic it learns without a teacher is often shapeshifting.

However, because most dragons are at the top of the food chain, they rarely lose their eggs. After hatching, normal dragon eggs will thrive under the careful care of the mother dragon. Within a hundred years, they can grow into a behemoth of more than 30 meters and then have independent abilities.

As for when the young dragons growing up in a dragon community learn to transform, it depends on their affection and curiosity towards humans.

Some dragons may hate humans from a young age and are unwilling to learn how to transform until they die.

[In addition to some large prey, the food of giant dragons in the other world also includes magical elements in the air. However, there are no magical elements on Earth, and there are no prey that big enough to fill the dragon's stomach. So even if that stupid dragon came over, it would probably consciously transform into a human form, otherwise it would probably starve in a few hours.]

This is what Yin Xiamo said to me last night in my crib before going to bed.

[As for Filo, because he failed to prevent the tragedy when he was a child, his mother was killed by humans and some demons who were allied with humans. Therefore, he has always been entangled in his own gender and has a great prejudice against humans.]

[But that's all in the past. At least in the past few thousand years, she has been getting along well with humans, so there's no need to worry about her causing trouble after she comes here.]

[My only headache is... she won't be able to adapt to life here after coming here]

……

"This is the first time I receive a gift from Noel. I must keep it well!"

After giving me a big hug at the entrance of the living room on the first floor of Elodi's rental house, Yin Xiamo happily held the gift box containing the manor in both hands, looked around, and walked towards our room.

Although I felt a little embarrassed, I still followed him: "Xiao Mo..."

Isn't Yin Xiamo over 6,000 years old? Has no one given her a gift in all these years?

Or maybe there is no such concept as "birthday" in the other world?

No, at least when I discussed the matter of "birthday" with Yin Xiamo before, she didn't show an obviously confused expression, proving that people in the other world still celebrate birthdays.

Or... the hero never paid much attention to her birthday before? That's why Yin Xiamo was so happy when she received this handmade gift from me...

Although Yin Xiamo and I have not been dating for a long time, only this month at most, I don't know much about Xiaomo's background, but I am more or less clear about her personality.

Simply put, the feeling Xiaomo gives me can be described by the two words "straightforward" and "sincere".

She likes to play pranks and often takes advantage of me in small matters, but they are basically insignificant little things. Xiaomo will not lie to me on major issues, and she is very serious when dealing with serious matters.

Moreover, her greatest characteristic is that her emotions are written directly on her face. I can basically tell at a glance what she likes, what she dislikes, whether she is happy or angry.

It was obvious that Xiaomo liked my handmade gift very much.

"This room will be fine here."

In the room, Yin Xiamo came to the bed with the handmade manor in her arms, put it on the top of the bedside table, and took a small step back: "This way, I can see Nuoer's confession of love when I come back every day!"

"Wait a minute."

I was embarrassed: "This is not a confession of love, this is a birthday gift. It's a traditional custom here on Earth. When celebrating birthdays, we usually invite friends and family out for a meal and chat, or give birthday gifts or something. For friends with whom we have an average relationship, we just have a normal meal, but for those with whom we have a very good relationship, we will give birthday gifts."

"What about the relationship that is extremely, extremely good?"

Yin Xiamo turned around and emphasized the words "very, very, very" and said, "If you're good enough to kiss in bed, what kind of birthday present would you give me?"

"This involves my blind spot of knowledge."

I avoided the girl's gaze in front of me. "Maybe I'll put a little more thought into the birthday present?"

"It took a long time to make this, didn't it, Noah?"

Fortunately, Yin Xiamo did not ask about the "level" of the birthday gift. Instead, she walked towards me, grabbed my hand, and carefully examined the finger joints and wrist of this boneless, delicate hand: "I will feel bad if you are too tired."

"Don't you know the strength of your own body?"

I slapped someone away: "If you get hurt every day after spending half an hour doing handicrafts, your body is too fragile, isn't it?"

"I'm just expressing my concern for Nuoer!"

Yin Xiamo came closer again, took the bow from my hand, and tied it to the bell around my neck as I looked at her in confusion: "Actually, this is the gift I want."

"Are you thinking about something bad again?"

I lowered my head slightly to take a look at the bow on my neck. I felt as if I had become some kind of special "gift" and the hair on my head stood up instantly: "This is not right, this is not good!"

After a few days of "adaptation", I have basically gotten used to the feeling of wearing a bell around my neck.

Just like Yin Xiamo said, this bell is almost weightless, so I don’t feel it too much when I wear it. It is also waterproof, and I don’t need to take it off specifically when I take a shower, so I just hang it around my neck.

By the way...the slight weight on my neck and the occasional friction between the neck bell rope and my skin make me feel like I've gone back in time.

When I was a child, there was a rule in the orphanage that children under the age of 12 must wear a key tag. It was a very simple necklace with a wooden tag on it with the name of its owner and the phone numbers of several leaders of the orphanage, as well as a magnetic card for the gate of the orphanage.

The children in the welfare home were all rather stupid, including me at that time. Sometimes the director announced that we could go outside to play freely, and we would run very far away. We would either not be able to find the way back, or we would roll around on the grass and have so much fun that the magnetic card and identity card around our necks would fall out and be lost. Finally, the director had no choice but to make the necklace very short and very difficult to untie, so that even if a stupid kid rolled around on the grass, it would not be lost.

But to be honest, I could accept the ordinary bells before, but isn’t this bell with a bow a little bit... inappropriate?

Isn’t this similar to the bell on the neck of a domestic kitten?

And I just bought this bow at the stationery store downstairs. Does this count as me buying a gift box and wrapping myself up as a birthday present for Xiaomo?

"No no, I'm definitely not thinking about anything bad!"

Under my gaze, Yin Xiamo showed her signature dark expression again, and then seemed to remember something: "By the way, Nuoer, have you had breakfast?"

"I've already eaten. What time is it now?"

I asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

"Hurry up and put on that set of clothes. The one I bought for you earlier was specially for you to wear together when going out. It's a couple's outfit."

Yin Xiamo walked to the closet in the room, not caring at all that there was a person as old as me standing next to her. She took off her coat and took out the black "Nutcracker" themed dress that she had worn once when she went to the park. "I felt it this morning. That stupid dragon is coming."

"Eh?"

I was surprised: "So fast?"

"I told you yesterday when we were on the island. Others have been trying to get here these days, but they haven't taken any action because they can't determine the coordinates. We have set the coordinates on the island, so she will definitely come."

Yin Xiamo changed into a black dress and took out the cute pink summer-style skirt from inside and handed it to me: "She should be here in about half an hour. Change your clothes and we'll go pick her up."

Is it really coming?

The Black Dragon Princess from another world?

"Don't worry, thousands of years have passed, and that guy's personality has matured. He is not as naughty as he was when he was a child."

Perhaps seeing my hesitation, Yin Xiamo took out my pair of round-toed thick-heeled shoes from the shoe box under the closet and said, "What I showed you yesterday was the first time the hero met Princess Filo. She was less than a thousand years old at that time. Later, the hero fought side by side with Filo for decades. After being assassinated by her companions, Princess Filo followed me. Without her help, my allies would not be able to fight against the Demon King's army."

"To be honest, Filo and I have a much better relationship than the hero. As an ordinary human, the hero cannot compare with the long-lived species even if he can prolong his life with the help of magic. Those hundreds of years are just a blink of an eye in the eyes of the dragons. I guess she doesn't have such a deep memory of the hero."

Hearing this, my hands, which were trying to put the dress on, froze.

Yes...Is that so?

I seem to have fallen into a "cognitive misunderstanding".

Before I met Yin Xiamo, I was just an ordinary person and had always lived according to the ordinary people's way of thinking and habits. After I met Yin Xiamo, although I knew that she had lived for thousands of years, because I really didn't know how much impact thousands of years would have on a person, I naturally regarded all the "long-lived species" as being similar to Yin Xiamo.

Just like when Xiaomo played those scenes for me through illusion yesterday, I habitually thought... since the hero and the Black Dragon Princess fought so fiercely at the beginning, the two of them spent such a long time together, and they were quite reluctant to part when they parted, the Black Dragon Princess Filo should be very concerned about the hero's affairs.

I know that Yin Xiamo and the hero didn't spend much time together, and I know that thousands of years later, Xiaomo still has feelings for him, so I took it for granted that the Black Dragon Princess still maintained the same feelings for the hero after thousands of years, without seriously thinking about the time span involved.

Assuming that the brave man and Princess Filo spent a few years together at that time, and then fought side by side for decades, that would be fifty years in total. How much weight would these fifty years occupy in the life of a giant dragon that has lived for thousands of years?

Fifty years compared to thousands of years, according to this ratio, is almost equivalent to an ordinary person having a transfer student suddenly join his class when he is in elementary school. This transfer student becomes your friend for a semester, about four or five months, and then transfers away again in the next semester. It is not until more than twenty or thirty years later that you meet her by chance on the street.

Even if you often had fun playing games together in elementary school, how much of those childhood things can you still remember after so many years?

What's more, according to Yin Xiamo, the hero actually sacrificed a long time, and Xiaomo was fighting against the Demon King's army alone for the next hundreds or thousands of years.

Xiaomo may have always remembered the hero so clearly because he was the first person to rescue her from the darkness and reach out to her, and she was even willing to travel across the world to find "me", but this does not mean that others can also remember the hero for such a long time.

From this perspective, Xiaomo is quite stubborn in a sense.

"That would be nice."

I put my clothes on and started to adjust my sleeves and skirt. "I thought she was going to laugh at me."

"Ahem, this... I guess I can't escape this ridicule."

Seeing me put on my clothes, Yin Xiamo in front of me showed a little fox-like expression ready to play a prank: "You remember that you know the Yue'erlan Mountains, and you should also know... After the hero died, I took his body to the Forest of Elves. The elves told me that the dead cannot be resurrected, and suggested that I bury the hero's body in the Yue'erlan Mountains, which is the place closest to heaven."

"After that, I went to the Yue'erlan Mountains to visit the graves every ten to twenty years on average, and I always brought the dragon with me. She must remember this."

No way……

As I stared in horror, Yin Xiamo came over and opened her arms: "Do you want me to be carried or hugged?"

I hesitated and said, "I want a hug."

"No problem, my princess."

Holding me in her arms like a princess, Yin Xiamo quickly ran out of the living room, opened the balcony door, and jumped—