Anime: Blue-Eyes Baby Dragon, picked up by the Knight King

Most of the actions he takes now are almost based on instinct.

——But this is enough.

When the young dragon is born from the light, it begins to call for the existence of light.

Then the light of this world will definitely respond to his call, come to his side as quickly as possible, and help him accomplish what he wants to accomplish.

"sun……"

Surrounded by layers of dark clouds, Shirataki raised his head and looked towards the glowing and hot sphere high in the sky.

The sun also saw him and responded to him.

A beam of sunlight fell from the sky, directly penetrating the layers of dark clouds and landing on him - and then, an even more violent reaction broke out.

Just like water meeting sodium, it first started to burn, and then there was a violent explosion.

With the dragon's body as its center, waves of light rapidly spread outward. The thick dark clouds were pushed several kilometers away, and the clear sky reappeared before the dragon's eyes—and, of course, the warm, comforting sunlight.

The sunlight shone on the young dragon's body, making the white scales that had just been moistened by water sparkle.

"This is right!"

Feeling his body gradually warming up, the satisfied young dragon returned to the cliff and yawned loudly.

He has been working hard for a long time.

Why not... just take a short break and get through this somewhat boring rainy season!

……

One month later.

Village, inside the stable.

While taking care of the newly born foals, Altria looked at the heavy rain outside with a worried look.

Even though we've prepared for the worst... the situation is actually even worse.

This year's rain came earlier than expected and was more severe.

It has been raining heavily for half a month.

Altria had once braved the rain to observe that the flow of the river surrounding the village had long exceeded the "warning line," threatening to overflow at any moment. Her brother-in-law led the villagers in building a simple dam out of wood, stone, and mud, ultimately rescuing the village from danger.

But other villages may not be so lucky.

You know, not every village has a humanoid red dragon and a Celtic warrior who can defeat a troll with just his mouth - an ordinary village composed of an overwhelming number of ordinary people is the basic survival mode of humans on this island.

"I'm still... too weak."

When she thought of the ordinary people who were affected by the disaster, a sense of guilt arose in Altria's heart.

As the "perfect king" who was highly expected by Uther and Merlin, she had also put herself into the role of "king" early on. She always held herself to the high standards of a "king", and at the same time included ordinary people who had no power at all in the scope of "protected people".

The strong should protect the weak, and the king should protect her subjects - right?

Chapter 8: First Contact with Humans

About another week passed.

The rainstorm that seemed to wash the world clean finally weakened a little and turned into continuous rain, even with occasional sunny days.

"The river level is slowly coming down."

"We're safe!"

Kai, who was in charge of patrolling the river, announced the good news to everyone as soon as possible.

The villagers who came out of their homes cheered - this meant that the flood crisis was finally over, and they no longer had to worry every day and repair the embankment in the heavy rain.

But Altria couldn't be happy.

Because she knew that after the disaster called "flood", there was a real disaster waiting for them, waiting for all the creatures living on this island:

【plague】.

"After a great disaster, there will be a great epidemic. After a great epidemic, there will be a great famine. After a great famine, there will be great chaos."

This was a saying from that ancient Eastern country. Of course, Artoria had never heard of it - but the principle was the same, and the thousands of years of practice of human civilization had proven this countless times.

"The cause of the plague is actually very simple."

"After heavy rain and flooding, the wet water mixes in a lot of dirt... rotting meat, animal droppings, things like that."

"Think about it, if a normal life were to come into contact with these things, how could it not get sick?"

The flower magician, who seemed to know everything, tried his best to explain the origin of the plague in a way that the blonde girl could understand - but then, the expression on his face changed instantly, from gentle to serious.

"Of course, you can also understand this problem in another way."

"Those disasters were the manifestation of the island's own will... This island and this era have reached their end, and the signs of the end are beginning to appear."

"And Leah, as the Red Dragon that represents the will of this island, and the king who shoulders the heavy responsibility of protecting your subjects, what role will you play on this road destined for destruction?"

The magician asked a question that had no correct answer.

——In such a time when things couldn't get any worse, no matter what she did, it would be wrong.

……

In the mountains and forests, on the cliffs.

Compared to the humid world outside, it is sunny and warm here.

Shirataki crouched in the cave, hiding most of his body in the coolness. But his head stuck out, enjoying the sunlight. He really enjoyed the warm feeling, and felt a force stirring within him, stirring with the sunlight.

He had a good sleep.

After losing the female red dragon's interruption, his daily routine seemed to be gradually approaching that of a standard dragon. A month might sound like a long time, but to him, it seemed like just a nap.

He could have slept longer.

But for some reason, from just now on, bursts of whispering and whispering suddenly sounded in his mind... These unclear voices disturbed his sweet dream and woke him up from the fantasy of "strong, invincible, the strongest!", "crushed, shattered, cheering!"

"What is that sound?"

With a hint of curiosity, the young dragon flapped its wings and flew to the bottom of the cliff, above the "Hall of Light" that was shining with white light.

He was surprised to find that on this gentle hillside that should have been quite quiet, there were now a few scattered human figures.

"Humanity?!"

The young dragon blinked, not knowing whether he should take the initiative to contact these humans.

Come to think of it, he hasn't seen a human being since he came to this world - Artoria doesn't count, she is a red dragon in human skin, a kind of young dragon.

Moreover, Artoria deliberately hid him in this remote location on top of a cliff in order to keep him away from the crowd and to avoid contact with humans as much as possible.

"Humans and dragons—direct contact between the two is bound to bring bad things."

In European mythology, examples of dragons harming humans are common; and the deeds of brave men slaying dragons are legends that every country and region talks about with relish... Artoria doesn't want those stories to happen on this island.

But now, it seems that she has no choice.

Hovering in the sky, Shirataki looked at the humans lying or sitting on the hillside with a very vigilant look. A blue-white light with a hint of destruction had begun to brew in its mouth - this was its territory, and it must expel any "offender" who entered this territory without its consent.

But after a moment, Shirataki changed his mind.

Because he suddenly discovered that the condition of these humans... seemed a little abnormal?

……

They were a group of pale humans.

There were about ten people, including men, women, young and old.

They have one thing in common - they look haggard and thin.

They were either lying or sitting, trying not to move, as if they didn't have much time left.

At the same time, the sharp-eyed young dragon also found leftover fish bones and things like tree bark and grass roots around them - damn, these despicable humans would not eat up all the spare food that he had worked so hard to catch, right?

"Is there anyone who can move? Come with me to find something to eat."

The young dragon hiding in the big tree waited for a long time and finally heard a voice coming from the crowd.

It was a young girl, who seemed to be about sixteen or seventeen years old. She looked very miserable and staggered when she walked. But compared to other seriously ill people, she was still healthy.

At least she still had the strength to walk.

And the other patients lying on the ground... didn't even have the strength to respond to her.

"At least, at least hide inside the house. If you don't go in, you'll freeze to death at night!"

The girl shouted anxiously while reaching out her hands to try to drag the bodies of the patients into the white fortress ahead.

however--

"Forget it, Vina."

Finally someone spoke.

It was a raspy sound, like the sound of sandpaper scraping against wood, rough and low. It was as if each word was grainy and was being squeezed out with difficulty from the depths of his throat.

"We won't survive."

"You know... none of the people driven into the mountains survived."

Chapter 9 The Thirteenth Use of Dragon's Blood

The young dragon hiding in the treetops tilted its head and listened to the conversation of these humans.

Gradually, he got a general understanding of what these people were like.

"Abandoned Clan."

It's not the nation abandoned by God as in the Bible. This is simply the literal meaning - a tribe abandoned by God.

“The most terrifying thing about the plague is not the death of individuals, but its terrifying infectiousness.”

The death of one person is nothing to be afraid of. But if one person spreads the disease to a whole group, and a whole group spreads the disease to a whole kingdom... eventually, even the whole kingdom might be infected by the disease.

In ancient times, when the means of preventing and controlling epidemics were not so advanced, humans had only one way to deal with such large-scale infectious diseases:

"Abandon them and let them fend for themselves."

This may sound cruel, but it is indeed a helpless act... Life cannot be measured by numbers, but between the lives of ten people and the survival of the entire tribe, anyone can tell which is more important.

"Besides, Vina, we are actually lucky enough."

“Before I die, I can come to a place like this…where there is bright sunshine, magnificent temples, and delicious salmon.”

"I think the gods have been tolerant enough towards us."

The person who said this was an elderly man. Although he had spent most of his life in the village like most ordinary people, the accumulation of time had given him some unusual views on "life" and "fate".

After hearing these words, the girl named Vina fell silent.

She recalled every little detail of the past...For some reason, the memory of her life in the village suddenly became blurry, and she could not remember anything clearly.

Now, she only remembers how miserable she was when she left the village, dragging her sick body and struggling to survive on the muddy mountain roads with her tribesmen... and how she discovered this sun-drenched land and the big fish that stayed in the pond and swam freely during an unexpected adventure.

The fish soup tastes so delicious!

“If possible, I really want to eat it again.”

With this vision in mind, the girl, whose strength was gradually exhausted, lay down on the hillside and no longer struggled.

Just as the old man said.

If I have to choose a way to die... then this way of "dying slowly in the sun" is undoubtedly the most comfortable and happiest.