Kept in the dark about the situation, Kuchierkan naturally failed to notice the subtle interplay between the two. After exhausting a significant number of brain cells to organize her thoughts, she asked, “Then, how should I address you?”
“My true name is Andrea, of the Red Dragon lineage.”
“Hiss… That name sounds familiar. Where have I heard it before?”
Hearing Kuchierkan’s muttering, Andrea instantly grew tense. She discreetly shifted her steps closer to Ailaira, her eyes pleading for help: ‘What should I do? Does she know me? I told you we should’ve used a fake name, but you wouldn’t listen!’
Ailaira returned a calm look: ‘Don’t panic. Let’s see how she reacts.’
After thinking back carefully, Kuchierkan finally unearthed a fragment of memory from a dusty corner of her mind.
“I think I heard the Elders mention it once. A Red Dragon who turned traitor and fled Dragon Valley. The Elders ordered a search of the surrounding area for a bit, but then they just stopped looking. After all, she was just a useless failure with a polluted bloodline, not much different from a Dragon Beast.”
“She wasn’t worth the trouble of a large-scale manhunt.”
Hearing those words, Ailaira glanced at Andrea. Standing slightly ahead, Andrea’s head was lowered, her expression unreadable.
Ailaira sighed inwardly, already preparing for the plan to fail. In her experience, it was impossible for anyone to remain indifferent after hearing such a blunt insult.
However, to her surprise, Andrea didn’t explode. Instead, she took a deep breath, lifted her head, and pointed at Kuchierkan while laughing loudly.
“As they say, to deceive your enemies, you must first deceive your own people! That is the brilliance of my plan. By leaving in such a manner, even those within Dragon Valley couldn’t figure out my true background, let alone humanity.”
“Is that so? Then you are truly great, senior.”
Kuchierkan nodded in agreement. She actually believed it. To her, someone who sacrificed their own reputation to contribute to the clan was exactly the kind of person she admired. Because of this, she felt a sudden surge of trust toward Andrea.
Seeing that she had finally fooled the simple-minded Princess, Andrea breathed a subtle sigh of relief. But as she pulled back her exaggerated smile, a nearly imperceptible sorrow flickered in the depths of her eyes, and a strange bitterness began to well up behind them.
‘No, Andrea, you have to hold it back! Ailaira is even willing to play the role of your servant, and you haven’t enjoyed it enough yet. Are you going to ruin this rare opportunity just because of some pointless sadness?’
‘Hold it in!’
“Master, dinner is ready. Please head to the dining room first. I will untie Her Highness Kuchierkan.”
Ailaira spoke up at the right moment, interrupting Andrea’s building emotions.
Andrea looked back at Ailaira, suppressing the tremor in her voice as she commanded with forced composure, “Keep a close eye on her! Don’t let her cause any trouble here! My identity cannot be exposed yet!”
Hearing that she was finally going to be freed, Kuchierkan nodded like a chicken pecking at grain, promising to behave herself.
Andrea let out a cold snort and turned to leave the Underground Chamber. Once she was out of Kuchierkan’s sight, her pace quickened.
She eventually broke into a light jog down the hallway, rushing back to her room.
Inside the pitch-black room, surrounded by silence, Andrea’s suppressed emotions finally broke free. She curled up in a corner, burying her head between her knees.
At this moment, she no longer called herself a noble Red Dragon; she looked like nothing more than a poor girl who couldn’t find her way home.
Andrea remembered the moment she escaped from Dragon Valley.
She had been joyful. It wasn’t just because she had regained her freedom, but because she had broken out of the cage that had imprisoned her for over thirty years by her own strength alone.
She had wanted to roar triumphantly at the Dragon Elders who looked down on her: ‘Look! You couldn’t keep me trapped at all!’
Later, Andrea spent two years traveling, accompanying adventurers of other races, sleeping in the wilderness, and dealing with all sorts of dangerous environments.
Whenever she felt exhausted, what kept her going was her stubborn refusal to be captured and dragged back to Dragon Valley.
She wanted to prove that even a bloodline despised by the Dragonkind could carve out a place in the outside world and find a home of her own.
But now, a former clansman had told her to her face that no one cared whether she lived or died, nor where she went. They hadn’t even considered her a fugitive worth paying attention to.
The place of her birth, her homeland, had given her nothing but a blank void since the day she was born.
Andrea was wrapped in darkness, letting her soul drift in the emptiness like floating duckweed without roots. She wiped the tear stains from her cheeks with her sleeve and murmured with a bitter smile, ‘What was I even expecting… I should be happy that I don’t have to live in fear of being dragged back.’
‘Then why… why does my heart hurt so much?’
Suddenly, a piercing beam of light bloomed before her eyes. The sudden brightness made Andrea instinctively close her eyes, and a nonchalant voice echoed in her ears.
“If you’re looking for a place to cry, could you please not do it in my room?”
Andrea looked around in a daze and realized the decor wasn’t her style at all. The air was also filled with Ailaira’s scent.
Strange. She clearly intended to go to her own room, so why did she end up in Ailaira’s?
Ailaira leaned against the doorframe, glancing sideways at Andrea’s red-rimmed eyes. She said helplessly, “The play isn’t even over yet, and the actor is already falling apart.”
Indignant, Andrea stood up and pushed Ailaira toward the door, her voice still trembling with the remnants of a sob. “Get out! I’m the boss right now! I’m requisitioning your room!”
“I’ll come find you in a bit. Just let me stay here for a while.”
Ailaira pressed her palm against the doorframe, about to say something, but the sound of a sob from behind stopped her.
Andrea grabbed the fabric of Ailaira’s back, the dampness spreading as she let out a muffled whimper.
“Wooo… Why did you have to come find me? You’re the person I wanted to see me like this the least…”
Ailaira hadn’t actually thought much of it. She had noticed Andrea’s state earlier, so she had found an excuse to send her away first.
After settling Kuchierkan, she had come to check if Andrea could continue the act, only to find her in such a fragile state the moment she arrived.
Fine. Caring for an employee’s mental health was also part of her job. So, she simply asked, “Do you want to tell me? About your story.”
Andrea suddenly stopped sobbing. After a long silence, she responded quietly, “Yeah.”
Ailaira faced the wall while Andrea stood behind her, leaning against her back. The two remained in that position as Andrea recounted her past.
Don’t ask why they didn’t sit down; Andrea didn’t want Ailaira to see her crying face.
“…And so, I wandered for a long time. By the time I realized it, I had reached human territory. To avoid being discovered, I had to dig a cave in the Valley to live in.”
“And then you set your sights on my ranch and almost ate us into bankruptcy.”
Andrea’s face turned bright red. She hammered her small fists against Ailaira’s shoulder and said in shamed annoyance, “Well, haven’t I given myself to you as compensation?…”