Chapter 74

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

Bai Lianhua, practically thrown by the system into the next world, after his body is physically projected and materialised successfully, is quietly looking at his tail with a complicated expression.

It’s a beautiful tail, with a brilliant shape. The purely silver-blue scales reflect dazzling sunlight, looking smooth and slippery to the touch… It would have been attractive if it weren’t attached to himself.

Emm… Speaking of, he’s thought the exact same thing the first time he transmigrated into this world too.

Also, Bai Lianhua can feel that the small piece of fabric he barely has on his shoulders would shake along with the breeze——It has to be said that this little piece of fabric whose decorative function would be way greater than its practical application is something he actually managed to convince the system to give him the first time he came to this world because he was unable to adapt to being completely naked. At least the system does still have a moral conscience to give it to him again when materialising the body this time around.

The system sure is toxic recently giving him all these non-human worlds for him to do the return to mission in. There was the vampire, the last world was a ghost, and now, great, he’s gone back to being a merman…

He wants to be a human though. Is it that hard to give him a normal human identity?

Sigh. At least the good thing is that he didn’t need the system to remind him which world he’s in given the tail.

As he’s still down in the dumps, he swings the tip of his tail unenergetically. Looking around, he finds himself currently sitting on the rock by the shore… Since merfolk can’t leave the water for too long, so he clumsily hops around a bit before managing to knock himself back into the water with a thump while creating an impressive splash of water.

He has entered the water in the wrong posture and angle, and it is only after he ‘drowned’ for a few seconds before he rediscovers the instincts that his body had to remaster his master-level swimming skills and float back onto the surface of the water.

System “…”

Where’s the merfolk that is said to swim with this pleasing, mesmerising form like a fairy of the waters?

What is with this straightforward pose of a drying salted fish? Host, you’re supposed to be a merman with unparalleled looks, not a salted fish waiting to die.

They’re all sea creatures, but the difference is dramatic.

The system decides to try cheering its host up whatever it takes, “host, you should be happier… Look at your reflection on the water, look at how beautiful you are in this world, you’re a supermodel!”

Bai Lianhua “…” Excuse me, what’s the logic here again?

“What’s good about me good-looking? Does it help me complete my mission?”

The system says confidently, “of course.”

Bai Lianhua feels like countering before he recalls the antagonist du jour and doesn’t say anything.

Uh… Good looking, or rather, the scales being shiny and reflective really might help his mission.

Since the antagonist in this world is also going along with the fantasy route——He’s an evil dragon that hates humans.

Right, none of them is human this time.

Dragons have difficult lives though. Since his birth some humans would want him dead, getting their hands on his blood, claws, eyes or anything that’s valuable; some humans would want to take him in live and tame him to become Dragon Riders that would be immortalised in the bards’ tales.

The antagonist, of course, would disagree with the opinion that he is born to play someone else’s supporting role… Even if he were just an unappealing black dragon that the rest of the dragons view poorly and wouldn’t allow to reside where the other dragons lived. He was forever alone, drifting from place to place in the human’s world.

Still, no matter what, he wants to live freely.

After a bit of a standoff, the dragon has made a deal with the humans to live on an island out at sea far from the humans, while the King would deliver him his favourite jewellery and shiny metals every few years. Then he would enjoy the rest of his dragon life in peace.

He can feel the successive Kings being dissatisfied with this arrangement, sure.

But… #Then what, I like how you hate me but can’t get rid of me. I’m happy when you’re unhappy#

The dragon felt he was cunning enough, but he clearly overestimated his own capability and thought the deal would be enough to have him enjoy life forever.

The dragon didn’t expect that, when the throne passed onto this King, a conflict finally erupted… This time around, the King was seriously in pain over the treasure he’d have to send and was greedy for the treasure that the dragon must have hoarded over the years, so the King broke the deal and invited a wizard to cast an evil spell on the treasures to be sent this time around.

Yet, the dragon, due to his magical resistance, didn’t immediately die as expected. Instead, his mind was consumed by the pain and his grudge drove him to become the nightmare of the land.

Thankfully, this was only the original world’s timeline.

In this world, Bai Lianhua was a merman that lived in the waters nearby the island the dragon had occupied.

In one ‘coincidence,’ he carefully approached the dragon that was practically a gigantic being to him, and then started to become closer with him. While he’s weak enough he’d be obliterated with a gentle touch by the dragon, he still became friends with him.

——And to be honest, personally, Bai Lianhua suspects this is related to his beautiful merman tail glittering and glimmering under the sun which would surely have caught the dragon’s attention.

Perhaps thanks to this his approaching the antagonist was unexpectedly smooth and he didn’t get blown to bits by it easily.

… Speaking of, he really felt that the system was malicious letting him be a merman this time. When he stands alongside the antagonist who is a dragon, that body size difference… God knows where he found the courage to do his mission the first time around as the white lotus until the dragon became a harmless good dragon.

He can accept that the antagonist of all the other worlds has become tainted, sure, but now even that dumb dragon that only looks scary has gone bad? Bai Lianhua feels dejected.

The system disses him, “the antagonist is a black dragon anyway, so he’s naturally black.”

Bai Lianhua counters, “… hey hey hey, that joke’s not funny.”

He looks at the system suspiciously, “don’t you think you’ve become stranger since coming to this world?” Talkative, sure, but also with the ridiculous leaps of logic. What is wrong with you?

Perhaps due to having been set up by the system one too many times, he can’t help but feel nervous.

System “…” Because I want to cheer you up, host. You sure are dense. You know you’ll stay single forever like that… Uh, oh well, with the antagonist here that wouldn’t happen.

No matter what though, at least host is more energetic now. Then it’s alright.

…

After a brief rest, Bai Lianhua decides to head for the antagonist.

Since the antagonist is a dragon, unlike the other antagonists, he would clearly be unable to sense his return and pinpoint his current location.

Bai Lianhua doesn’t know where he is right now, and can only rely on the fact that the system usually projects him not too far from the antagonist. So after trying to work out his directions a bit, he swims approximately towards where he used to live in the oceans.

Along the way, he sees fishermen out at sea. In the waters he could kind of hear them talking about ‘evil dragon,’ ‘evil acts’ and other words like that… He assumes this ‘evil dragon’ refers to the antagonist.

So after a short pause, he continues swimming forward.

It takes him a whole day to see the island he used to live near before. Bai Lianhua is uncertain as he swims towards the place where he used to meet with the antagonist, but then he can see the familiar dragon already from a distance away.

It can’t be helped that the antagonist is so big in size that it’s hard to miss… Though the antagonist who used to be an all-black but energetic dragon is now curled up into a pile, his scales looking dim and lacking maintenance.

Bai Lianhua swims closer and sees that the dragon is looking fixedly at a scale he once shed. It’s a tiny piece, but it’s well-maintained, seriously contrasting with the colour of the dragon’s own scales.

He hesitates before quietly saying, “Sachston… Why not look at me rather than my scale?”

As he felt slightly guilty, the voice was almost inaudible among the sound of wind. Yet, the dragon’s ears twitch and seemingly having caught on to this voice he had sorely missed day and night. He snaps his head around and sees Bai Lianhua who’s holding onto a rock tilting his head looking at him. The dragon’s eyes suddenly seem enlivened again.

His merman, his treasure…

Sachston hurries over but then stops midway. He’s worried his clumsiness would accidentally hurt Bai Lianhua and also his expression might look too scary to his little merman.

But the merman doesn’t seem scared and is still leaning on the shore looking at him with a trusting expression.

——It’s really like when they first met.

Sachston carefully extends his paws and wraps them gently near the merman in the water. The dragon who has never once felt the urge to cry since birth can’t help but well up now, his tears dropping onto the ground with a splash.

He’s great in size, and so are his tears. The dragon is also worried it would hit the merman, but he doesn’t want to let go, so he can only turn his head around in an awkward way and make sure his tears fall far away from his merman and wouldn’t splash him.

Back then, in the same place, the same position, the little merman was also like that, swimming about the shore near this big black thing. The eyes whose colours are the same with his tail was full of curiosity, without fear, disgust or disdain.

So he who even thought of himself as ‘evil’ couldn’t help himself making even his breathing gently so he wouldn’t hurt the fragile little guy.

… It’s weird. It’s not the first time he’s seen merfolk, but he never once had such emotions as treasuring and protecting before.

Though he quickly felt this was too much of a shame so he tried to scare the little creature, “don’t come near me. If I shake my tail it can stun you even from a distance away. If I casually lift my paw up even just the wind can blow you away…”

While the little merman seems to be trembling hearing that, but he doesn’t turn and run. While he’s flowing up and down along with the waves latching on to the rocks, he still tried to look at him.

Then he suddenly finds himself unable to say “you’re so small you wouldn’t even serve as a small snack fo me” that he wanted to.

Especially when the little thing asks him with this almost inaudible voice while tilting his head, “everyone out at sea says you’re an evil dragon, but I never saw you actually doing anything bad… you wouldn’t hurt me, would you?”

——That’s cheating. With those beautiful eyes, how ever could he deny that?

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