“Unfamiliar… no, wait, it’s the familiar ceiling.”
Anke, lying on the bed, slowly opened his eyes and spoke while looking at the ceiling directly above.
“Your Highness, you’re finally awake? Do you feel any discomfort?”
Vera, sitting by the bed, immediately stood up and asked Anke upon hearing his voice.
Although Vera, while in her White Dragon Mimicry, had cast Dragon’s Blessing Magic on Anke the moment she rescued him, protecting him from drowning in the river.
Later, while Anke was unconscious, Vera had also secretly Mimicked an Elf, staying by his side and continuously casting the Elves’ Nature Magic to heal the injuries Anke had sustained.
But Anke had, after all, walked under Death’s Sickle once. Vera was worried he might have some aftereffects she hadn’t detected.
“No, I slept very well. Very comfortable. I haven’t felt that relaxed in a long time.”
Anke sat up in bed, moved his arms a few times, and said.
“However, I remember being caught by that Blue Water Dragon, dragged into the water… then you came to rescue me, Vera, and fought with that dragon…
Finally, my Amulet failed, and then, I remember you, Vera…”
Anke rested his left fist lightly against his lower lip, his right palm on his left elbow, looking at Vera as he recalled and spoke to himself.
‘He actually saw my Mimicry into the White Dragon? At that time, shouldn’t he have been unconscious from drowning?!’
Vera, being stared at by Anke, felt a sudden jolt in her heart upon hearing his words!
“Oh right! I remember now! I saw… Vera, you turned into a dragon! A Blue-Eyed White Dragon!”
Anke said, looking at Vera.
And Vera’s hanging heart sank. So she was discovered after all. It seems she can’t stay here anymore.
Moreover, Anke, who now knows her identity, can’t be allowed to remain in this world either. I’m sorry, Anke. It’s just… who told you to be human…
A flicker of conflict passed through Vera’s eyes, but she still quietly moved her hand toward the Side-sword at her waist.
She couldn’t leave behind any hidden danger that might expose her identity.
“Vera, you’re not actually human, are you?”
Anke asked Vera.
“Y-yes, I am.”
‘I’m sorry, Anke. You’re a good person, but you know too much.’ Vera replied while thinking helplessly.
“You’re actually a White Dragon, right? A White Dragon with blue eyes!”
Anke stated to Vera with certainty.
“Huh?”
Vera’s subtly moving body froze.
“No wonder you’re so strong, Vera! I always thought it was just great talent and Knightly Way cultivated to the extreme. I never imagined you were actually a White Dragon! Born with divine strength, that’s why you’re so powerful!”
Anke leaned closer to Vera, speaking excitedly.
“Um? Mhm.”
Anke’s excitement left Vera momentarily at a loss for how to respond, only able to nod with an “mhm” in place.
“But, Vera, if you’re a Blue-Eyed White Dragon, why aren’t your hair and eye colors the same as your true form’s? That’s strange, isn’t it?”
A hint of suspicion appeared in Anke’s eyes.
“This…”
This made Vera tense up again. After all, discovering and being discovered are two different situations.
If discovered, at worst, Vera could painfully cut ties with Anke and then search for another candidate worthy of being a puppet emperor.
If not discovered, Vera needed to find a way to avoid being discovered, to continue hiding. After all, potential stocks like Anke, who could accept her despite her lack of status, weren’t common.
“I get it! It’s Transformation Magic, right! Pure-blooded giant dragons must all know this! You’re afraid people will associate it with your true form, so you used Transformation Magic to change your hair and eye color, right?”
“Y-yes, Your Highness discovered it.”
Vera answered while silently turning her head away, trying not to meet Anke’s gaze. After all, such forced associative thinking from Anke felt incredibly awkward even for a Mimic Beast like her.
“Of course! I’m very smart! Decades of experience.”
Anke said proudly.
‘But Anke, you’re only seventeen…’ Vera thought silently to herself.
“Vera. Vera.”
Anke called Vera softly.
“I’m here.”
Hearing Anke call her, Vera turned her head back and responded.
“Onegai! Can… can you show me your true Dragon Girl form? If there’s a living Dragon Girl right beside me, but I can’t personally witness her form, I really won’t be able to rest in peace even when I die!”
Anke knelt on the bed, fingers interlocked and hands clasped together, pleading with Vera.
“One… gai? Dragon Girl… form? What do these mean? Also, Your Highness, begging me like this… it’s very unbecoming of your image. If others saw, it wouldn’t be good for you either.”
Vera was stunned by Anke’s shocking kneeling posture, her words becoming unclear. She hadn’t been this nervous even when facing a Holy Knight siege.
“It means ‘please,’ Vera. Let me see your form in a human shape but with dragon horns, wings, and tail. Please, fulfill my wish, White Dragon Lady Vera.”
Anke crawled one step closer to Vera from the bed.
“N-no, don’t beg me like this, Your Highness.”
Vera, frightened again, took a step back.
“I agree! I agree to it!”
“Nice! Plan successful!”
Hearing Vera agree to his request, Anke revealed an expression like a wicked sorcerer whose scheme had succeeded.
“However, I have one condition. I can show Your Highness that… Dragon Girl form. But when I dispel the Transformation Spell, Your Highness must close your eyes. You can only open them when I say so.”
Vera reluctantly agreed to Anke. After all, compared to her Mimic Beast identity being exposed, being mistaken for a giant dragon was already the best possible scenario.
“OK, no problem!”
Anke made a gesture Vera didn’t understand toward her, then closed his eyes, wearing an expression full of anticipation.
‘Sigh, let me think… White Dragon horns, wings, and tail… just like that, right?’
While thinking, Vera dissolved her body, shrinking and transforming into the form Anke had described.
“It’s done, Your Highness.”
After completing the Mimicry, Vera reminded Anke.
“Vera, your voice sounds younger—ohohoho aow aow aow—!”
But when Anke opened his eyes and saw the Mimicked Vera, he let out a strange cry and fell backward.
“Is there a problem?”
Vera turned to look at the Mirror in the room. She had strictly Mimicked based on the bloodline memory of a famous female White Dragon’s human form.
In the Mirror, she had vertical slit pupils of blue eyes, silver-white hair reaching her waist, a cute and obedient yet emotionless face, a petite and alluring body just beginning to develop, skin white with a hint of pink, smooth like a freshly peeled egg, and a pair of bare little feet stepping on the soft carpet, toes like pearls—tiny and perfectly round.
And as Anke requested, tiny dragon horns growing from her hair, a pair of dragon wings on her back, and a large white dragon tail behind her waist—the arrangement was also very reasonable.
At least according to human aesthetics, it shouldn’t have scared Anke into making strange noises.
“No problem, it’s my problem. Loli Dragon Girl is great. But big sister Knight is also very great.”
Anke, who had climbed back up, was already holding a handkerchief he’d gotten from somewhere to his nose.
“Your Highness, your nose is bleeding.”
“This isn’t nosebleed. This is loyalty. Loyalty to the Loli Dragon Girl.”
“Loyalty? Don’t humans see giant dragons as dangerous enemies?”
“Wrong. Dragons are the Imperial Proof.”
“Huh?”
Vera tilted her head in confusion.
“Too cute—”
Thud—!
“Your Highness!”
The invincible Anke had fallen.