In the forest.
Another morning brimming with vitality.
Morning mist cloaked the woods, rendering everything hazy and indistinct.
... It was the perfect morning to sleep in.
But for some reason, the baby dragon hiding in the cave tossed and turned, unable to fall back asleep.
He scratched another mark on the rock wall with his claw... now, there were four marks in total.
This meant it had been four days since he last saw the female Red Dragon.
That was probably normal, though… Dragons were famously long-lived, especially pure-blooded ones like them, whose lifespans stretched into millennia.
A few days were nothing to a dragon, barely the blink of an eye, a brief nap.
Besides, Alaric vaguely recalled that the girl named Artoria was terribly busy. She had to train to become a king, manage household chores, do farm work, patrol the village… even her dreams were filled with lessons from that magus. She had no time to call her own.
"Grr... "
"Compared to her, I'm the one who seems idle."
Alaric glanced at the [Diligent Training] BUFF on his status screen, feeling he ought to do something... but what could he do?
"Let's be real, I'm just a baby dragon. What can I do?"
His spirit deflating, Alaric rolled over in the cave, turning away from the irritating white mist outside.
In such dreary weather, even the urge to hunt was gone.
[Ding, detected host's low spirits.]
[Special Task Issued: The Baby Dragon's Playtime.]
[Task Description: True growth isn't just relentless training; balance is the real key.]
[Task Objective: Complete one mini-game.]
[Task Reward: Growth Points +5]
[Mini-game selection in progress…]
[Ding, you have drawn the mini-game 'Stacking Game.']
A stacking game.
A puzzle game suited for children aged 0–2.
Based on shapes and colors, children stack blocks to form rough structures... a game that fosters imagination, creativity, and spatial awareness.
For a baby dragon, though… Alaric strongly suspected this game was meant to train his strength.
"Such… such massive stones."
They were blocks of white marble, carved into various shapes. Cubes, rectangular prisms, cylinders, triangular prisms… each over two meters tall.
Piled together, they formed a veritable marble mountain in the verdant forest.
In Alaric's mind, a blueprint appeared... he had to use these marble blocks within a set time to construct the building depicted:
A house.
Or perhaps not quite a house… it resembled a castle, or maybe a temple.
In any case, it was a grand, imposing structure.
…
Artoria had been very busy lately.
At first, it was a pretense of busyness… she knew her last escapade had raised suspicions at home, so she resolved to play the "obedient and sensible" Artoria for a while, being the perfect good girl.
But then, the busyness became real.
Clear days grew scarce, and overcast days multiplied... a bad omen for anyone familiar with the British Isles.
The rainy season was coming.
Though the island typically had a temperate maritime climate with even rainfall year-round… that was a thing of the past.
In recent years, extreme weather had plagued the island. Floods in the rainy season, droughts in the dry season, blizzards in winter, and the occasional earthquake… The magus had told her these were signs of the Age of Gods' end.
In short, the island was like an elderly person in decline. Its vitality was fading, with ailments cropping up constantly.
And the King… no, the Twin Dragons of Britain were meant to safeguard the island, acting as physicians to heal its maladies.
"The Red Dragon King and the White Dragon King, though opposed, are embodiments of the island's will… Ideally, their coexistence could delay the island's destruction."
"But that is no longer possible."
"The White Dragon King broke that balance first… Facing the Red Dragon King, your father Uther, he chose to invite foreign tribes to this island…"
"Now, the time left for this island is running out."
"And your father, to counter the White Dragon King... who is no longer human... entrusted me to create you, the King of Britain, bearing the full Mystery of the Red Dragon."
At night, during what should have been time for sleep, the magus continued to tutor the girl on the knowledge a King of Britain must possess.
Artoria nodded, half-understanding.
She wasn't a magus and couldn't grasp the delicate "balance" He spoke of. But she was curious... speaking of white dragons, wasn't that little dragon a white dragon too? Could it be connected to the White Dragon King?
"Well, actually, there's no connection at all."
"Ria, you've misunderstood the concept of [Dragon]... that little one is a true dragon, while you and Vortigern's 'dragon' are another way of describing [Inhuman]."
"Though, in essence, there's not much difference... both are beings at the pinnacle of this world."
"But saying 'look at that dragon' is different from 'you're like a dragon,' isn't it?"
The magus smiled as he explained, secretly casting his Clairvoyance to peek into the depths of the forest, where he saw the baby dragon scratching its head over a pile of massive stones.
Artoria breathed a sigh of relief.
For a moment, she had genuinely worried.
If that little one was the prophesied White Dragon King… what would she, the Red Dragon King, do?
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If they block this again, you can read it on SH (S-c-r-i-b-b-l-e- H-u-b) under the same title.