“Mrs. Clorcy, please be careful.”
Enya had just stepped out of the carriage when she heard a crisp female voice.
She lifted her gaze slightly and saw three maids who had been waiting for some time—the exhaustion on their faces was obvious.
“Thank you.”
She was helped down from the carriage and didn’t hesitate to express her gratitude.
Her eyes turned toward the small courtyard she had chosen.
It was surrounded by a one-meter-high stone fence.
The two-story house looked like it had some years on it.
Peering past the fence, she could see several small plots of land that had only recently been cleared, but nothing had been planted yet.
Presumably, someone had come to tidy things up after she chose this place.
This little courtyard bordered a forest area, yet wasn’t too far from the bustling streets.
It sat at the end of a road, making it relatively convenient for travel.
Though not a luxurious estate by any means—
Henna had been generous, giving Enya a few options.
After careful consideration, she chose this place.
As for the reason… mostly because it was quiet.
There were no other residents nearby, and she didn’t like places that were too big.
After all, she had spent her childhood imprisoned in a vast, empty castle in the mountains.
Enya had developed an aversion to overly large, hollow houses.
This one, however, felt just right!
Redpine City was an old city with quite a bit of history.
Its inner district covered a large area, and unlike the crowded, packed outer districts, the inner areas had more space and fewer people.
As the local lord, Henna even owned a private forest nearby.
The residents here also took it upon themselves to maintain appearances, keeping the surroundings clean and tidy.
There was no foul stench, no noisy clamor.
Henna probably hadn’t given specific orders, but her steward had clearly arranged everything with great care.
The maids wanted to stay behind and look after Enya, but she refused them.
After all, she was hiding a dragon egg under her clothes!
Having people around would only complicate things.
Besides, she didn’t actually need help walking.
Once everyone had left, Enya opened the bedroom door and walked in.
She casually tossed a black crystal cube onto the floor, and a faint grayish layer of light spread across the entire room.
It was a barrier that blocked outside detection.
Only then did she begin to really take in her surroundings.
The entire room had been cleaned spotlessly.
The bed linens were already laid out, sparing her the trouble.
As she passed by the vanity mirror, she couldn’t help but pause.
In the mirror stood a silver-haired woman with black horns and golden-red vertical pupils.
A black tail swayed behind her.
Her long dress was pushed up by the dragon egg beneath it.
Enya narrowed her eyes slightly and saw the “lie” wrapped around her body.
That was her disguise: Phil Clorcy—a lovely, gentle-faced widow.
And Mrs. Clorcy’s belly…
A blush rose to Enya’s cheeks.
She turned her head away, no longer looking.
After sighing softly, she took off the dress she had mooched from Henna’s house and gently lifted the dragon egg into her arms.
Her long tail flicked the white dress aside onto a nearby chair.
Though she had the delicate white skin and alluring curves of a human woman, the black-scaled tail clearly marked her as something else entirely.
She hardly looked human. More like…
“A beastkin?”
In this world, beastkin came in many varieties.
Among them was a draconic subgroup, also classified as beastkin.
They had traits similar to Enya’s: vertical pupils, horns, tails—and sometimes wings.
With enough cultivation, members of that group could eventually transform into wyverns.
Wyverns had wings fused with their forelimbs and were inferior in both size and strength compared to the mythic beings known as true dragons.
According to legend, the ancestors of this race were once a branch of lizardfolk.
Later, a true dragon, in human form, mated with one of them and produced offspring.
Through generations of descendants, a group of self-proclaimed “Dragonkin” was born…
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
“Don’t tell me… that woman did this too?”
Enya frowned deeply.
She was once again thinking about that damned blonde woman.
The moment she thought of her, Enya’s tail even twitched.
But considering her current situation, all she could do was sigh.
Shoving that annoying person out of her mind, Enya first placed the egg baby gently on the soft bedding.
She reached out and stroked the smooth shell, and the egg responded with a wave of joy.
“Little Rosily, you’re such a good child.”
She hoped the child would take after her—and definitely not resemble that wretched woman.
That woman didn’t even dare show her face—she must be hideous!
When it came to looks, Enya had a bit of pride.
She had often been treated kindly in the past because of her beauty.
Of course, that had also brought plenty of trouble her way.
While caressing the egg, Enya’s expression was gentle, but once she withdrew her hand, her gaze hardened with resolve.
She murmured softly to herself:
“I need to get ready.”
Birds build nests before laying eggs—and Enya had only just reached that step now.
She sat on the bed holding the egg tightly, pressing her body against it as much as possible.
Once she closed her eyes, a halo made of shifting black stars formed above her head.
Her consciousness began to descend—not fading, but sharpening.
The world around her grew dark and dim.
Then the sensation of falling vanished.
She had already arrived in another world.
And all it took was a single thought.
As Enya opened her eyes, towering bookshelves—ten meters high and crammed full—rose on either side of her.
Behind her stretched a void of empty darkness.
She looked down at her body—still the same dragon princess form.
With a graceful leap, she floated into the air, soaring lightly through the maze-like library shelves stacked in layers upon layers.
She arrived at a central open space, where a floating orb-like sculpture hung in midair.
It was carved with a map of the world—or rather, the world as Enya knew it—manifested into a physical form.
Every place she had visited was etched in detail.
Enya slowly landed and waved her hand.
Books flew out from the shelves, and with another wave, they opened neatly in front of her.
The pages within transformed into gleaming, jet-black cubes of stone, piling up before her.
As book after book vanished, the mountain of stone grew taller and taller.
Enya winced in pain—it hurt to part with all this.
These black stones were money, after all.
She had been hoarding resources like a hamster for so long, slowly building this personal library of materials.
She once thought she wouldn’t need them anymore—but apparently, the day of bleeding her stash had finally come.
The material was black-gold obsidian, an excellent magical conduit.
As the name suggests, it was this world’s equivalent of magical black gold.
The illusion spell alone wasn’t enough—Enya planned to lay a full-scale barrier over all of Redpine City.
Only then could she ensure she wouldn’t be discovered or disturbed during her weakened state.
Enya pulled out a special carving blade from the archive, along with leftover alchemical potions she had prepared in the past.
Before her now floated a large, thick book—unlike the ones that contained physical materials, this one stored Enya’s knowledge.
Tftc!