Ham was a genius, after all. Yes, even if she looked like she was not very bright on the surface, her learning ability was beyond doubt. Over decades, even though most of that time was spent eating and having fun, and only a little was used to reluctantly do homework, she still managed to barely communicate using Dragon Tongue.
She even mastered the extremely difficult Humanoid Transformation, to the point of becoming a truly helpless human girl. This was no simple spell, since it required compressing a Great Dragon dozens of meters long into a human body just over a meter tall, with completely different mass and structure. And it had to be a real transformation, not a disguise, with a reliable way to turn back.
Long ago, Ham realized she had an ability unlike other Great Dragon in Dragon Valley. She could freely enter and leave this Extra-Dimensional Space, while others could only make the trip once in their entire lives. Because of this, after learning Humanoid Transformation, she ran off to the human world to play, only to be grabbed by Sylvia halfway and locked up again with practiced ease.
After being confined for so long, Ham had secretly studied the Spatial Magic of the Sealed Chamber. Not only did she manage to break it, she also learned Teleportation through a roundabout method. Humming proudly, she climbed onto the shore, then halfway through turned into a girl in a black dress who looked a bit slow in the head.
"Good, step one of the plan is done. The spells I set up earlier should fake my presence and fool that old lady for now." "Next… heh, next I'll prove that I'm the real great evil dragon!"
What best proves an evil dragon's status? Breathing fire, sharp fangs and claws, burning an entire human city to the ground? No, it was treasure piled like mountains inside a lair. Sadly, as a newly born Ham, she had no treasure at all.
The only things she owned were a few novels hidden in her treehouse, some strange little items, and gifts and cakes from Sylvia. Strangely enough, this little Black Dragon had no habit of hoarding wealth, and spent money freely. Since nothing else fit, the only classic proof left was the traditional option, a male the Lord.
Yes, that was it. Capture a male the Lord and lock him in the lair, and no matter who chased off whom later, she would surely become a famous great evil dragon. If she succeeded, everyone would look at her differently, and if that treasure map and legend were real, there might even be a dragon soul holy land.
Walking along a forest animal trail and casually swatting away attacking monsters with her tail, Ham took out an old parchment she kept close. It showed a rough map of the continent, with a marked and enlarged location near Rohn Empire. The legend said this dragon soul holy land was a trial site left behind by ancient Dragonkin, and passing it would grant a mysterious inheritance.
It sounded like something made to fool kids, and Ham was indeed a kid. But she had personally seen a glowing, white-winged human fighting a massive green dragon, shaking the land itself. While she was watching, a parchment scroll rolled down right onto her head, and after the human lost, the green dragon flew off without noticing her hidden among the Shard stones.
"If I become a great evil dragon, the ancestors should recognize me, and my dragon soul inheritance might finally be complete." For this plan, she had used up what little brainpower she had. She needed a deed worthy of recognition, and becoming an evil dragon was the first step.
Recently, she had learned from the newspapers that a certain southern country's male the Lord and other royals were planning a trip. She worked hard on decoys, illusions, Spatial Teleportation, escape routes, and infiltration plans, preparing everything in advance. All that was left was waiting for a male the Lord.
"Before that old lady catches me again, I have to finish the inheritance." She did not ask Sylvia for help, because childlike stubbornness was like that, especially when even going outside was usually forbidden.
Her stomach growled, and Ham realized she was hungry. Normally, this was when Sylvia would bring her snacks. "Forget it, I'll eat first," she muttered, walking toward a nearby river and following it upstream to a round lake.
Turning back into a Black Dragon, she dove straight into the water. Monsters at the shore panicked, and the older, experienced ones immediately recognized the black shape and drove the others back. After swimming for a while, Ham surfaced with a fish, swallowed it whole, and licked her lips.
"This lake is pretty big. Why are there so few fish?"
"So, little sister, you can trust that I'm not a bad person now, right?" Chloe took out some snacks and handed them to a gray-haired little girl, smiling as the child ate them eagerly. The girl licked her lips, holding a new light novel she rarely got, and nodded.
"You're a good person. Do you have more?" "Not for now." "Okay then…"
Under her cloak, Chloe quietly scanned the girl's body and saw a deeply hidden curse in her bloodline, along with dragon scales and small horns beneath her skin. This was too deeply rooted to remove with a Clone, and even her true body might struggle, as something higher-level was involved. Her gaze shifted to the ice-blue pendant on the girl's chest, where a small black scale lay inside.
"So the source of that aura is this…" After days of travel following the Black Dragon aura, Chloe only found this girl. Her dragon blood was unusually active, close to showing non-human traits, yet it would quiet down whenever the scale reacted and absorbed surrounding Ice Element.
"Forcing it down isn't good. I'll help a bit." Chloe understood that the scale was dormant in the cold, and once it gathered enough power, the outcome for an ordinary human would be bad. She asked to touch the necklace, and after some hesitation, the girl agreed.
Chloe quietly broke off one arm inside her cloak, turning it into dark power, and lightly tapped the scale. The scale grew slightly deeper in color, and she nodded in satisfaction. With some of her true power, it would not go on a rampage when it awakened.
"Is this the child from the prophecy, and the descendant of that annoying lizard Edward?" she thought, offering a cold blessing for the future. The Abyssal Gods had already noticed this, and now that she could interfere, she would push things as far as possible.
"Alright, your necklace is very pretty. I enjoyed chatting with you, little sister. I'll be going now." The girl excitedly talked about becoming an adventurer, a dragon slayer, and a Chosen Hero. Chloe smiled, waved, and said they might meet again on the path to that dream.
The black-haired woman vanished in an instant, and the girl shivered when her father's voice called out. Lyles Edward checked that his daughter was fine and that the necklace was intact, then relaxed. Feeling something subtly different yet unchanged, he dismissed the thought and led her inside to meet the guests.
"I remember the allowance I give you is enough to buy snacks for an entire street. Why didn't you touch anything outside, but once you came to someone else's house you started stuffing your face?"
"Nom… because it's free…"
Icelis answered without shame, grabbing almost an entire platter of pastries and shoving them into her mouth, one in each hand. She ate so fast it barely looked like chewing. According to her, as one of the Elves, the step of tasting flavor was far quicker than it was for humans.
Nefit stared wide-eyed and refused to lose, also cramming pastries into her mouth. Although inheriting that Cursed Bloodline had greatly increased her appetite, processing and swallowing food was still far slower than someone who was not exactly human. In the end, she simply could not keep up.
The two of them became absorbed in this meaningless contest. Maffet had not eaten her fill earlier, so she went all out the moment she arrived, and when Icelis saw that someone else was eating with such enthusiasm, she stopped holding back. If all the snacks were eaten by the Lord's people, then coming as a guest would be pointless.
Seeing someone compete with her for pastries, the little girl widened her eyes and tried to eat faster, only to end up matching the other girl bite for bite. The two children were locked in silent rivalry, leaving only Fei'er Li and Lyles Edward sitting there as the awkward adults. Even so, it turned out to be a good chance to talk about serious matters.
"Mr. Edward… just like I said last time, the Mejedor Family has already been dealt with by Augustus." "And the positions and assets they controlled were taken over by the Royal Family almost the instant they fell. This is already the third major noble house to collapse in recent years, and I don't think I need to explain what happened to the lesser nobles." "As for the Edward Family… the Royal Family will not let them go either. Based on some inside information I have, that seems certain. So, have you considered relocation?"