Synopsis: The case of this trashy lord teaches us to broaden our perspectives, study more literature, and that living an isolated life in the Finanse Continent is no good
..·:*¨¨*.·:*¨¨*:·. 46 .·:*¨¨*:·.*¨¨*:·…
Even though I became blind, my territory's status and favorable circumstances weren't shaken easily.
We grew stronger and stronger, and gradually we became the most influential power in the north. Everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before we faced Lord Ansai and the Southern Alliance.
Close to three years had passed since I first met Fruys.
Two years ago, he regained his ability to maintain his human form for as long as he wanted after a full recovery, but he didn't leave and stayed by my side this entire time
I was a little afraid, but I couldn't bring myself to take the initiative and bring up this topic.
I was very happy with my current life. My mom and Ana were healthy and well, my little brother had a bright future ahead of him, and my civil and military ministers were very capable.
During daytime, Fruys would frequently take me flying everywhere, and at night, he would let me cuddle with him until we fell asleep — it was a truly perfect life 1 .
There was just one thing that I was unsure about: starting from one year ago, Fruys started to frequently do mean things to me.
He was a young, powerful, and fully-grown male dragon with magic abilities, while I was just a puny, weak, and blind human. Even in his human form, he was still a billion times stronger than me. Adding to the fact that I was a cowardly and sensitive person who could not bear to lose face, the strategy I chose to adopt after carefully and rationally analyzing my situation was —
To go along with my instinctive reaction and simply lie there.
During the times he ardently requested some certain things from me, I would passively accept, and when he got especially excited, I would try to remain calm and urgently plead for him not to turn back into his dragon form — as someone who came from humble beginnings and built himself up from nothing, my sense of frugality had long been carved into my bones.
If Fruys transformed into a dragon, the bed would surely be destroyed.
Taming a dragon was indeed very difficult, and I could only wonder how hard Ansai must have it for keeping his black dragon for so long.
Anna was bringing up my breakfast when she heard me complaining. After hesitating a while, she said, "Adam, not everyone tames a dragon in the way you do…"
I leaned in closer, completely intrigued. "How do other lords and kings do it, then?"
But before she could reply, the sound of someone's footsteps came and interrupted us. It was Fruys — during these past few years, I learned how distinguish the difference between people's footsteps and could now easily identify those that belonged to people I knew.
Like clockwork, he said: "Anna, you can rest for now. I'll take care of Adam."
I listened to Anna quietly leave as Fruys pulled up a chair and sat at my side. While feeding me a few spoonfuls of soup with a ladle, he spoke calmly: "Don't listen to Anna. All lords sleep together with their dragons."
I swallowed the soup and thought about what Fruys said. Regardless if he was speaking the truth or not, it was hard for me to confirm it — after all, in the the entirety of the Finanse Continent, only Ansai and I had dragons, and our present relations were hostile.
I hoped that one day, I could perhaps ask Ansai about how he was able to keep up the nice relationship between him and his dragon for the past twenty years.
..·:*¨¨*.·:*¨¨*:·. 47 .·:*¨¨*:·.*¨¨*:·…
However, Fruys never gave me this opportunity.
Our war with Ansai had finally arrived.
Someone who was blind would only become a burden in battle, so I had to stay at home and depend on the accounts from countless people to get a clear view about what happened in the military campaign.
Apparently, the showdown between two dragons that they were looking forward to never happened.
They said that Ansai's black dragon was originally circling in the sky and roaring when Fruys came flying from afar in the wake of our troops.
The black dragon felt the aura of Fruys's oppressive might, froze for a moment, then immediately descended and groveled on the ground — a sign of submission, similar to how a peasant kowtowed to their monarch.
Strength is all that matters. After losing the crucial support of their Black Dragon, Ansai's troops were routed, and the soldiers under the command of my subordinates chopped them up to pieces.
Even though I didn't have the opportunity to exchange tips on how to tame dragons with Ansai face to face, I could only guess that his experience was probably very different from mine — for example, I heard that his dragon couldn't use magic, couldn't turn into a human, and couldn't even change his size whenever he wanted like Fruys.
If his dragon could neither transform into a human nor make himself smaller…
Considering how I couldn't bear it that one time Fruys tried to do it that way, just how terribly rough Ansai must have had it for the past twenty years…?
Coming to this profound realization, I couldn't help but feel more sympathy for my comrade Lord Ansai, who diligently and conscientiously raised a dragon for so many years yet still met a violent death in the end.
Author's notes:
Anna knows a lot, which seems to clash with her identity as "an old maid of a small lord in the Finanse Continent." However, rest assured that this isn't a BUG.