How To Break Qaq If The Dragon Catches The Wrong Person? Chapter 8

Chapter 8 The Idiot

The little girl froze slightly the moment she heard that sentence.

The next instant, she became flustered, staring wide-eyed at Mian, and stammered, “You… you know me?”

“Miya is your brother, right?” Seeing that she acknowledged the name, Mian knew his guess was correct.

He was quite happy to have helped find the person so smoothly, so he smiled kindly at her: “Don’t be nervous. He said he hasn’t been able to contact you recently and wanted me to help ask how you are doing in the Royal Palace.”

Annie’s eyes immediately brightened when he mentioned her brother, but then quickly dimmed as she thought of something, and her voice held a hint of sadness.

“I’m doing very well,” she said. “I used to work in the Palace Kitchen. One day, the Little Princess came to the Palace Kitchen wanting to bake cookies. She saw that I was about the same age as her, so she asked me to be her playmate. Now I am her personal maid.”

“It’s just that being near the Prince means I don’t have many opportunities to contact people outside the palace… so I haven’t had the chance to tell my brother about this yet.”

She missed her brother very much after not being in touch for so long.

This feeling became especially profound whenever she saw Prince Kairis visiting the Little Princess.

Although they were similar in age, Annie seemed much more mature than Loria.

While other children were happily living under their parents’ wings, studying, and playing, this brother and sister had to go out and make a living early to make their lives a little better.

Recalling what he had just heard, Mian felt a pang of sympathy.

“If… if you have a chance to see my brother again, could you please tell him that I am doing well and that he shouldn’t worry about me?” Annie nervously clutched the hem of her clothes, requesting cautiously.

“I certainly will,” Mian promised earnestly. After thinking for a moment, he added, “You can tell me anything else you want to say to him, and I will pass it on.”

The little girl was excited by this and quickly told Mian a detailed list of things she wanted to tell her brother, which Mian noted down one by one.

“Thank you so much,” Annie said gratefully.

When everything was finished, Mian turned back and saw that Ovi’s face had been smeared with a creamy substance at some point. He was looking at Mian with a look of utter despair.

Seeing Mian look over, he pointed to the Little Princess not far away, who was enthusiastically mixing new colors of cream, then pointed to his own colorful face, and complained mournfully, “Do you know, Little Dragon, I didn’t have to suffer this.”

Mian put on a look that invited him to elaborate.

But Ovi stopped talking.

He just looked inexplicably aggrieved, angry, and deeply depressed.

Mian: “?”

Loria was in high spirits today and insisted they both stay for dinner. Even after dinner, she showed no sign of stopping, dragging them to play until the moon hung high and she finally fell asleep exhausted on the carpet.

Time unknowingly slipped into the deep night. Ovi looked at the little troublemaker sleeping soundly on the floor, rubbed his aching shoulder, and sighed, then got up to stretch.

A moment later, he called in the female official responsible for Loria’s daily life, signaled her to take the little tyrant on the floor back to her room, and then bid Mian farewell.

“I’m heading back first.” Ovi stretched his neck, looking helpless. “You should go back too…”

Thinking of something, Ovi’s expression suddenly became slightly complicated for a moment. He looked at Mian and confirmed, “Can you find your way?”

Mian nodded confidently.

He soon paid the price for his lack of self-awareness.

Standing in the heavy darkness of the Castle, Mian was lost, once again.

The Royal Palace was huge, he knew that.

But what he didn’t know was that he truly had no sense of direction.

After saying goodbye to Ovi, Mian left Loria’s residence and intended to return to his room based on his daytime memory.

However, he was already unfamiliar with the internal structure of the Castle. At night, his daytime memories seemed to fail him instantly, and everything around him became strange.

But a strange persistence and blind trust in himself led him to continue walking by instinct, thinking he would eventually find the place.

As he walked, Mian suddenly felt that this feeling was somewhat similar to when he was looking for the Castle before.

And so, predictably, he got lost.

Mian had always attributed the time he got lost when arriving at the Royal City to a harmless little accident.

He never thought he was truly a road-blind person with no sense of direction.

But the current reality made it impossible for him to maintain his belief.

Mian’s expression was solemn.

It was the middle of the night, and the area he was currently in was an unknown long corridor, pitch black all around—probably because not many people passed through this area at night. Even the torches were sparse, lit only at long intervals, making it even dimmer.

The burning wood always made a slight crackling sound.

This sound occasionally broke the vast silence without regularity, making Mian’s heart clench every time he heard it.

He quietly pulled his collar tighter and subtly quickened his pace.

The moon hung in the sky, unobstructed by clouds, appearing stark white.

In the dim light, the shadows of everything were stretched long, extending out as if they were about to claw their way into the corridor.

The chill of the early spring night was still heavy. The corridor was empty, and the wind occasionally brushed past his face and body, bringing a chilling coldness that made him tremble.

The shadows of the trees outside the corridor were equally unsettling. Branches and leaves swayed gently in the dark night. The mix of dark green and deep black made one feel as if something might crawl out of them at any second.

Mian cautiously rounded another corner, only to find that the scene before him was exactly the same as the previous stretch of corridor. He didn’t know what to do.

Just then, a few indistinct meows suddenly sounded in the distance, pushing the current uneasy atmosphere to its peak.

Mian, walking in the human shoes he was still not quite used to, grew more and more terrified.

…He felt like a distorted, hollow-eyed Dragon was about to appear at the next corner.

Thinking this, Mian grew increasingly scared, and helplessness gradually crept into his heart.

He should have asked for directions before leaving.

He thought.

But he didn’t have the ability to foresee the future, nor the magic to reverse time. He was just one Dragon now.

Mian looked outside the corridor—he knew his better option should be to go outside.

…But it was too dark outside; he didn’t dare.

Although it wasn’t much better here.

The wind suddenly picked up, making the tree shadows outside sway more violently. The rustling sound of leaves rubbing against each other was incessant and unnerving.

Mian somewhat hated his vivid imagination. He was getting closer and closer to the next corner, and the closer he got, the more he felt his fantasies were about to come true.

Helplessness and fear intertwined. He pursed his lips, and his eyes involuntarily became slightly red.

As if intending to throw caution to the wind, he sped up again.

Just as he was about to turn the corner, a long shadow suddenly stretched out from around the bend.

Mian’s heart jumped. His footing instantly became unsteady, and he fell heavily forward.

He braced himself with both hands on the ground, his mind blank. When he recovered, the sound of his own heart pounding filled his ears.

He knew he should get up now, but he didn’t dare to look up.

He didn’t dare to see… what kind of thing had arrived.

Mian stared at the ground beneath him, saw the shadow pause, and quickly closed his eyes, nervously pressing his lips together.

Countless scenarios of what he might face next flashed through his mind.

A few breaths later, he heard a subtle movement—it sounded like the rustling of fabric.

The thing was getting closer.

He desperately wanted to get up and run… but his legs were too weak to move.

Amidst his frantic thoughts, a slightly cool sensation touched the top of his head, followed by a familiar voice.

“What are you doing lying here?” Kairis’s slightly cold voice suddenly sounded above his head.

It was still devoid of warmth, but it instantly dispelled much of the fear in Mian’s heart.

He paused, then looked up, seeing Kairis half-crouching in front of him, looking down.

His knuckles had just retracted from Mian’s head, and his dark purple pupils were completely calm.

Seeing his expression, Kairis raised an eyebrow very slightly.

The young man in front of him was looking up, his eyes still carrying the lingering redness of fear.

Kairis didn’t know what happened, but he looked pitiful.

This scene reminded Kairis of the first time he saw Mian at the Castle gate.

At that time, the Little Dragon seemed to have the same expression.

Crybaby.

He judged internally, his face unchanged.

“I… I can’t find my way back.” Mian didn’t have mind-reading abilities, so he couldn’t perceive the Prince’s internal mockery of him.

He was just overwhelmingly relieved right now.

Hearing this, Kairis let out a very soft laugh.

Mian: “?”

The hint of laughter was fleeting, but Mian still caught it.

He felt like it was meant as ridicule.

“Lost again,” Kairis stated, his tone purely declarative.

“…” Mian silently flushed red, angry.

He opened his mouth, instinctively wanting to refute, but realized he couldn’t, and closed it sheepishly.

The fact that he had been delayed for over a day on the road when coming to the Royal City because he was lost was indeed undeniable.

“Get up, I’ll take you back.” Kairis knew when to stop and did not delve further into the topic.

Mian was somewhat grateful.

But then came the more embarrassing part.

Kairis waited for a moment, and seeing Mian made no move to get up, he frowned slightly: “Do you still want to lie there?”

“…” Mian lowered his eyes and said expressionlessly, “No.”

His legs were a bit weak, and he couldn’t get up yet.

He was scared stiff.

Kairis sighed helplessly, reached out a hand, and helped him up.

Then, upon seeing the scrapes on his knees, his frown deepened.

“You’re bleeding.” He gestured toward Mian’s knees. “Did you fall?”

Mian followed his gaze to his knees and realized that both legs had scrapes that looked alarming but were not actually serious.

Only after Kairis pointed it out did he belatedly feel a faint sting of pain.

Mian mumbled an acknowledgment.

“Can you still walk?”

Mian was silent.

Seeing that he didn’t speak, Kairis lowered his eyes and pondered for a moment, his face expressionless.

The next instant, he turned the Little Dragon around, and the hand that had been resting on Mian’s arm exerted a slight force—

Before Mian could figure out how to resolve the current predicament, the world suddenly spun.

Kairis had lifted him up horizontally.

Mian: ?

He was startled by the sudden change, instinctively reaching out to wrap his arms around Kairis’s neck. The moment he realized what was happening, his heart was pounding faster than when he thought he was about to encounter a Monster.

“No… you don’t have to do this, I can walk myself,” Mian said, feeling helpless.

This small injury would heal in a couple more steps.

“Don’t move around.” Kairis glanced at his bleeding knees.

The red blood on the pale skin was quite jarring.

He frowned and slightly quickened his pace.