Chapter 39: Dragons

"...What do you want here?" A completely black dragon with some dark platinum patterns asks Nio, who stands before him. After everything she discovered with Melissa, Nio spent an entire month making various plans in her palace, while Nio’s Copy took care of everything in the theocracy, getting closer to Stelaria.

Now that Nio has finished planning and giving orders to Azalea, who spread the orders to the servants, she decided to go see the dragon nests personally. To her surprise, the dragons, which were supposed to be irrational beasts, have consciousness even though they are "low level" dragons instead of powerful bosses.

"I came here just to check on something. You are the dragons closest to my lands, so obviously it was necessary to check on my inconvenient ’neighbors.’" When Nio says this arrogantly to the dragon that asked why she is here, the dragon stands up, looking at her.

"Hahaha, how arrogant coming from someone so small. Your lands? It seems you have no idea of the danger." The dragon’s tone matters little to Nio. Her palace was "exposed" during this one month she wasted time planning.

Some adventurers ended up passing by her palace. Although they died in Azalea’s traps, it means more will soon appear to investigate, so she is in a hurry trying to resolve this with the Theocracy’s help to privatize the surrounding land and turn it into a private space, which isn’t working because Stelaria won’t allow it, since she doesn’t understand the request and Nio cannot reveal what she wants to hide.

That’s why Nio is frustrated and came to this nest already frustrated with everything that happened, without even caring much about the fact that the dragon speaks.

"Look, you’re far less interesting than I expected. Even though the fact that you’re intelligent caught me by surprise, I still suggest you leave my lands, you and the other dragons deeper inside this cave." She speaks, somewhat disappointed with their strength.

"You think you can come here and order us to leave our lands?" The dragon approaches, stomping heavily in front of Nio as flames escape along with his breath, until the dragon smells her scent.

’This girl’s scent...’ The dragon loses all his aggressiveness for a moment. Even though he could see Nio’s wings, horns, and tail, to him she was nothing, since he cannot even sense Nio’s magic, and unlike Ryu, most people cannot detect anything coming from Nio.

"...You are not an inferior being as I initially thought." He becomes calmer. Unlike the bad reputation of dragons, they are quite rational creatures in this world. This even caught Nio by surprise, since in the game they were just stupid beasts when they didn’t have humanoid forms.

"And why would I be inferior?"

"Your appearance is the same as inferior dragons." The dragon’s statement is not complicated for Nio to understand. She doesn’t have a dragon’s body, she isn’t gigantic, and she looks almost human, so she projects an image of inferiority before "true dragons" like the one in front of her.

"Oh, it’s quite bold to imagine I would be inferior, but then what changed your—"

"You are quite mature for your age. You have the scent of something dangerous on you. I see someone has already made you an adult."

"...?" Nio gets confused.

"Your magic smells of death as well. Something dangerous seems to like you."

"Hey, hey, hey, what kind of absurd talk is this? Are you making improper insinuations about me and my body?"

"...Deduce whatever you want, but deduce it somewhere else. We will not leave our lands, even considering whatever you may be."

Nio gets irritated but takes a deep breath. Both are dragons. It was obvious that despite the size difference, she already imagined there would be certain problems.

’In the Lore, dragons were similar to animals, and in the Lore, dragon humanoids and dragons were compatible in terms of race and magic, so the insinuations, though strange, make sense.’

’And probably... he is referring to Typhon... did she do something to my body’s scent?’ Nio takes a step back.

"Listen here, big guy, I am a married woman, so be more respectful. My maturity is not relevant to this subject. Considering your attitude just now, it’s obvious you don’t want to fight my wife, which is why you spoke more calmly, but we still have a problem here. These lands are now mine."

"..."

"And what do you think gives you that right, little one?" The dragon uses a more neutral tone, not out of fear of Nio — he doesn’t even know her strength — but because the scent of the thing that marked her is something he doesn’t want trouble with.

"Obviously nothing gives me that right... so I will take it by force, and it’s up to you to decide if a conflict is worth it."

"For my home? Any conflict is worth it." The dragon shifts his tone back to one of challenge, already irritated with the little invader who trespassed into the place.

"Haaa..." Nio approaches with a sigh.

"Look, I really don’t have time, and I don’t even see merit in decimating someone of my own race, so let’s have a small competition of strength. If you win, I’ll do whatever you want. If I win, you will simply give up this place."

"It doesn’t seem like a fair gain. My home for something as small as you? It’s not a fair deal."

"Having me would be having all my wealth, and I can assure you, I have plenty." When Nio says this, the dragon gets excited.

"I think we have something interesting happening here. So let’s go with a simple competition. I punch you, you punch me, and the one who passes out first loses." The dragon proposes a "game" where he would naturally have the advantage due to his 7-meter size.

"...Perfect. You first." Nio proposes confidently. The dragon gives an irritated smile at Nio, who gives him the go-ahead as if he needed it. He sits back on his powerful legs, spreading his wings, and then throws a punch with all his strength at Nio.

The impact reverberates throughout the underground, but Nio didn’t even budge from her spot despite the force of the blow, while the dragon feels some of the bones in his fingers crack.

He immediately realizes this shouldn’t be happening and tries to say something about this situation.

"Wai—" Before the dragon can speak, Nio leaps and punches him in the face, throwing him against the wall. The only reason Nio accepted this is because she instinctively feels connected to dragons.

’This is... interesting... I tried to shatter his jaw, but I held back at the last moment...’ Her tail moves softly across the ground in a drag, emitting a gentle sound.

"Getting rid of you sounds idiotic... I think I can get something more interesting." Nio came prepared to kill them all, but the intelligence of a "bestial" dragon excited her about the possibilities of what exists in this world.

Typhon involuntarily taught her that rules are no longer so limiting, so she decides to seize this opportunity now.