Chapter 5: Chapter 4: Pride

Damn it! These Drow have sticky fingers!

Had his tail not tucked away fast enough just then, this shameless creature would have slipped into his cloaca.

David realized he had still underestimated the depths of these Drows’ depravity.

They even dared to lay their hands on him, a newborn Red Hatchling?!

[Wrath]

With his movements hindered, the Drow’s voice became even more delighted, “HEH HEH HEH, a little hatchling’s reaction truly is different.”

His tone then became a bit more serious. “Don’t resist so vehemently. After all, you are a True Dragon with dragon heritage. Think about it—you’ve just hatched. Even if you evade the threat from your mother this time, how long can you struggle to survive alone on this desolate and dangerous Old Continent?”

Just as David was about to retort that he could survive by eating dirt if he had to, he heard the Drow continue, “Additionally, you probably harbor some small misunderstandings about us. Yes, we will transport you to the New Continent for sale. However, the ultimate and only destiny for you hatchlings is to serve our Drow Elf Drogsin Matriarch Council and become an infinitely glorious Drow Dragon Knight. Isn’t this far better than wasting away alone on this barren Old Continent with nothing?”

“Dragon Knight, my ass! That’s clearly just being a slave, ridden by you Drow,” David retorted with a sneer.

He hadn’t forgotten the indelible shame of a deceased ancestor and an endless rage that would never be extinguished.

However, the Drow didn’t argue. Instead, he drew circles with his finger at the base of the Hatchling’s tail, coaxingly smiling as he said, “That is yet another prejudice held by you arrogant dragons.”

“Don’t forget, you are dragons who stand atop the world.”

“Most importantly, even with a contract in place, the entity to which you swear loyalty will always and only be the Matriarch Council, never the individual Dragon Knights themselves.”

As he spoke, the Drow’s fingertip paused. “Do you know… what that means?”

“What?” David’s heart skipped a beat, but he feigned ignorance.

“Heh, still don’t understand? Every dragon is a treasure belonging exclusively to the Matriarch Council.

“As for the Dragon Knights, well, there are countless candidates, and one never knows when they might die—on the battlefield, in bed, at the execution grounds, or on an altar as a sacrifice to the great Spider Queen.

“Under these circumstances, do you think… there’s any fundamental difference between a Dragon Knight and a slave?

“If you wish, you can become a Dragon Knight yourself at any time. Should you desire to replace a Knight, plenty of Drow will grovel and curry favor with you like lowly slaves.”

“Do you understand now, my little Red Dragon darling?”

The Drow, growing excited, slapped the Red Hatchling’s hindquarters forcefully, nearly making David kick out reflexively.

If not for his ancestor—who had suffered under Drow oppression, endured the humiliation, and ultimately risen above it—he might have genuinely been tempted, he told himself.

But soon, the memories from his dragon heritage ’reminded’ him.

What the Drow said was true.

…What the hell?

Skeptical, David quickly accessed the ancestral heritage left to him.

One glance and he nearly exploded.

Damn it! Was this really something a newly hatched little dragon like him was supposed to see?

It was a veritable saga of a Red Dragon Knight and the many daughters of three hundred Spider Nest Cities, a tale of complex relationships and questionable morals!

He also finally comprehended one thing.

For dragons, enjoyment was one thing, but shame was another entirely.

They always remembered the beatings, never the feasts.

What they consumed was their rightful due, but to be ridden by another? That was an unforgivable, everlasting shame!

And shame… needed to be cleansed with blood and fire.

This contradictory logic shocked David. Yet, he quickly calmed down, his conviction hardening:

Dragons shall never be slaves!

This wasn’t merely about room and board.

In his opinion, a slave was a slave, and always would be!

Was being directly subordinate to that so-called Drogsin Matriarch Council somehow more noble?

Wouldn’t his life and death still be entirely in the hands of others?

As someone from Blue Star, he knew his own limitations. He hadn’t even fully navigated the corporate world; a single drama like *Empresses in the Palace* was enough to give him a splitting headache. If he were thrust into the infighting of those political masterminds, believing he could manipulate the system to play Drow Dragon Knights and Matriarchs against each other, he’d likely die without ever knowing how!

Given his current situation, however, he had no choice but to feign compliance and play along with this Drow.

“Understood… I’ll go with you,” David said, pretending to be thoroughly swayed as he swallowed, the words mumbled indistinctly through clenched teeth.

Receiving an affirmative response, the Drow seemed to relax, at least his body language towards David softened slightly.

Just as the Drow and the Red Dragon pressed close together in the small pile of dragon dung, silently waiting for the Dragon Mother to pass before making their move, another Drow barged in.

She was not large, but her arrival still shattered the fragile equilibrium.

With a sudden RUSTLE, the Red Dragon dung pile collapsed by nearly half, like a sandcastle on the shore struck by a wave.

David’s vision suddenly cleared. He was aghast to realize his dragon head was exposed.

“I’ll fight you all!”

[Wrath]

The enraged Red Dragon arched its body and, with all its might, thrust its rear end back into the dung pile.

“AH!”

David squeezed back in. As he did, two unfortunate Drow were forced out from the waist down, their legs flailing as they desperately tried to kick their way back inside.

“Salin, are you trying to get us killed?!” Hiatt snarled, the drawn scimitar in her hand already lashing out lethally.

The Drow Mage, Salin, intimately familiar with Hiatt’s methods, managed to dodge the lethal strike thanks to a Ray of Enfeeblement she’d prepared. She pleaded, “Boss! Don’t leave me behind; I’m very skinny and won’t take up much space!”

“Get out!” Hiatt, suddenly weakened by the ray, faltered. One of her slashes still managed to scrape across David’s large rump, cutting through layers of dragon dung. If not for his tough, leather-like Red Dragon scales, he might have had his rear end sliced open—an eye-opening experience indeed.

“No! I’m a Spellcaster! I can’t outrun them; I’ll definitely die out there!”

The dragon dung pile dwindled as the two Drow scuffled, collapsing further. David, curled up as tightly as possible, was about to shout at the fools to stop when a tremendous, muffled THUD resounded. Simultaneously, an aura that made all their hearts constrict washed over them, and all three froze.

Could it be…?

David’s heartbeat stuttered for a moment. He glanced out of the peephole he had poked with his claw, and his breath caught.

His suspicions were correct. His Dragon Mother, whom he had never met…

had arrived!

She was a true behemoth.

This Red Dragon, seemingly on a post-meal constitutional, was now flaunting her magnificent physique without restraint. Her sheer size was like a small mountain gliding across the sky. Even before she fully descended into the valley, her spread wings seemed to eclipse the sun.

And this suffocating sense of oppression was almost palpable for non-draconic creatures.

It was one of the innate abilities of a True Dragon:

[Ferocious Aura]

And it had another, more common and descriptive name:

Dragon Might!

Under the Dragon Might, the two Drow were rendered nearly immobile in that instant; even squeezing back into the dung pile seemed an impossible luxury.

As the Red Dragon drew nearer, David caught a glimpse of this Dragon Mother’s true appearance and finally understood the source of the earlier thunderous noise.

Her entire body shimmered with a dark red luster, her tightly packed scales as hard as forged iron, radiating intense heat. Two sharp horns, pointing straight to the heavens, crowned her head, giving her an incredibly savage look. Wisps of white, steaming vapor curled intermittently from her nostrils, hinting at the young Dragon Mother’s excitement from her hunt and sport.

She bent down, snatched up a struggling Drow in her claws, and tossed him into the air. As he flailed and fell back towards her, she whipped her body and lashed out with her tail.

That exceptionally agile and incredibly swift tail moved like the nine-section whip of an old man in a park from his previous life. As the tip neared the Drow, it cracked the air with a sonic boom like muffled summer thunder.

The unfortunate Drow Wanderer was obliterated on impact. A viscous rain of blood, mixed with gore and fragments, splattered across the barren hills, staining them a fresh, rust-red.

This extremely cruel and bloody scene left David utterly numb.

These Drow, who were deadly threats to the young David, were like mice before a cat in the presence of this Dragon Mother.

This couldn’t be called a battle; it was an outright, one-sided slaughter. The Dragon Mother hadn’t even deigned to look directly at the Drow from start to finish.

It was as if he, back when he was human, had casually stepped on a cockroach that had scuttled into his room.

Perhaps… this is true Pride?

A sudden realization struck David, his head throbbing.

He wasn’t sure if it was due to his transmigration into a Red Dragon, but while R-rated scenes in his past life might have made him queasy, he now felt a faint thrill. He even had an impulse to rush out and join the Dragon Mother in her gleeful desecration of the corpses.

But the remnants of his rationality told him that if he actually did so, he would most likely become just another piece of volcanic fertilizer.

He could only curl up as tightly as possible and hold his breath.

As David remained on high alert, he saw the Dragon Mother fold her wings and land with a thunderous impact. A powerful gale instantly swept through the valley.

The gale swept past, exposing three other Dragon Eggs hastily buried by the Drow—David’s unhatched siblings. Unsurprisingly, the Dragon Mother swallowed them one by one.

Having learned about Red Dragon customs from his dragon heritage, David wasn’t surprised by this scene; he felt no emotional disturbance whatsoever.

After all, among Chromatic Dragons, genuine familial affection was rarer than true love from a Drow.

Besides, he was a transmigrator from Blue Star. If he hadn’t faced one life-or-death crisis after another immediately upon arrival, he probably still wouldn’t have adjusted to his transformation from human to dragon.

In fact, seeing this, David actually felt a small wave of relief.

Since she clearly didn’t care about the lives of her offspring, the absence of ’one Dragon Egg’ like him probably wouldn’t be a concern… would it?

Just as David saw the Dragon Mother finish devouring his siblings and thought the satiated beast would return to her nest, the Dragon Mother, her cheeks slightly puffed, suddenly turned her head and looked towards David’s hiding spot.

Then, as if she’d spotted something peculiar, she narrowed her eyes. Strolling forward, she began to scrutinize her own ’droppings.’

…Could I have been discovered? That shouldn’t be possible! In this life-or-death moment, David couldn’t help but tense up.

But when he sensed a soft body trembling behind him and the spreading stench of urine, David instantly knew what had given them away. He wanted to whirl around and shred the Drow with a single swipe:

Damn Drow bitch!

You’ll be the death of me!!!

[Wrath]

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