Chapter 1162: 149. Salvation

“Hiss... What a damn tycoon.”

It took Muen quite a while to recover from those mountains of gold and silver. All he could say was, as expected of a dragon. Whether in stories or in reality, they loved treasure this much...

The most stereotype-fitting episode yet.

“Um... Can you give me a few of those little things that restore mental strength?” Muen asked shamelessly. “I can exchange them for treasures you like. Of course, I don’t have that much treasure right now, so I can temporarily use things like manor deeds as collateral...”

“No.”

Hamreign coldly closed the spatial rift.

“The entire Forest of Death and Doom is my territory. Do you think I’m short on your little bit of land?”

“...”

As expected of a dragon. So rich... and so stingy.

“Not even as a reward? I clearly won.”

Muen did not want to give up, because this kind of thing was genuinely very useful to him. If he held one in his mouth while fighting, enduring the side effects of mental strength exhaustion, he felt that his combat power when risking his life could increase by at least thirty percent.

It was practically no different from Ariel’s cheat of temporarily raising her realm and suppressing pain, and it did not even have any side effects.

“You won again?”

Hamreign’s voice turned even colder.

“Do not forget, the original Pollution still has not been resolved. Right now, you are still merely under a suspended death sentence. And even with the kind of Pollution Priscilla brought just now... you were only lucky. If that Pollution had not come from the Withering King, but from something else, you would already be dead.”

“This... is true.”

Muen had no way to refute it. The matter of “Grandma Meg” had only been an accident. The original problem still had not been resolved.

As long as they had not found a way to solve the Pollution in the people of Annabawei, this matter could not be considered truly over.

However, now that things had reached this point, Muen was rather open-minded about it. He shrugged and said, “Can’t we think about it another way? Maybe it was precisely because she was using the Withering King’s power that I appeared here. My appearance... might have been some kind of inevitability.”

Muen was not talking nonsense. There were not that many coincidences in the world, and his luck had always been bad.

So this little story that had suddenly been inserted... vaguely still gave him the feeling that it had been arranged.

As for who had arranged it...

“Was it that guy? Or...”

Hamreign’s eyes narrowed. She suddenly leaned closer, like a kitten that had noticed food, and kept sniffing lightly around Muen.

Muen’s heart tightened, and he could not help holding his breath...

Her long red hair brushed against his neck like that. Following the length of her hair downward, it was smooth as silk. At such close range, this invincible natural disaster seemed not quite as terrifying. A faint strange fragrance lingered at the tip of his nose, long and continuous. Muen could even discover a few more crystalline scales at the collar of her black dress, adorning skin as fair as mutton-fat jade.

Other than when he was being violently beaten, this was probably the closest he had ever been to Miss Dragon.

Muen keenly sensed that Miss Dragon seemed to be searching for some extraordinary existence, and that extraordinary existence was probably... Muen hurriedly forced himself to control his thoughts and heartbeat, afraid she would detect something in this regard.

Like the old little girl, Miss Dragon could probably read some shallow surface consciousness, because in front of them, as long as one’s mind was unstable, it was very easy to expose a flaw.

“Or was it my misconception?”

After a while, Hamreign, having found nothing, murmured softly and straightened up.

“What are you looking for? Is there something on me worth stirring your interest?”

Muen blinked and asked with “curiosity.”

“Nothing. An old acquaintance, that is all...”

Hamreign’s voice chilled.

“You are trying to probe me?”

“No, no, no... I was just asking casually. Casually!”

Muen quickly waved his hands.

“If you don’t want to answer, then forget it. I absolutely did not mean to probe you.”

“You are getting bolder and bolder,” Hamreign said. “Relying on the fact that I will not casually kill you right now?”

“A misconception! It must be Miss Dragon’s misconception!”

Muen kept a straight face and said solemnly, “Being honest and law-abiding is my label. Being sincere and sensible is my virtue. This is common knowledge throughout all of Belrand. If you don’t believe me, you can go ask around.”

“Hmph.”

Hamreign gave a cold snort and stopped paying attention to this human whose mouth did not contain a single true sentence.

She glanced around. The corner of her eye swept over Andri beside them, and she looked as if she still wanted to say something. Yet for some reason, she suddenly gave up. Then her figure flashed. Without giving anyone the chance to react, she had already disappeared from where she stood.

Muen subconsciously searched for her, only vaguely glimpsing a massive illusory shadow beyond the sky.

“I am going outside for a look. This place... wrap it up as soon as possible.”

Her cold voice entered his ears directly.

“Our journey has not ended yet. You are still far from obtaining the qualifications for freedom.”

“...”

After standing there dazed for a while, Muen could not help sighing.

Miss Dragon was still so willful... and right now, unfortunately, he was still being held in the hands of this willful, cold, and ruthless master.

Painful...

“Even if you tell me to hurry, this place will still need at least several days to finish up.”

Muen scratched his head. After thinking about it, he was helpless. He could only silently hope in his heart that the bad-tempered Miss Dragon would be a little more patient at this time.

At least... let him finish everything he ought to do.

...

...

“How is it?”

Muen came to Andri’s side.

This former Goddess of Night of Annabawei had already become completely unrecognizable. Her hair, which had already been pale, had mostly fallen out. Her flesh and blood had dried up. Her skin was wrinkled. Her body had also shrunk by a full circle, making Muen think of the dried alien corpses from some works in his previous life.

“You are asking despite knowing the answer... Muen... sir.”

Andri slowly opened her eyes. There was no longer the slightest trace of the anger and madness she once had in them, only calmness and satisfaction.

“Do I... look very well right now?”

“You look pretty happy,” Muen said.

“Of course... Annabawei... survived... Of course I am happy...”

The corners of Andri’s eyes turned faintly sour. Unfortunately, over these four hundred years, she had shed too much blood, and just now she had also shed too many tears. At this moment, she could no longer shed any.

“And you? Muen... sir... How are you now? Clearly, as an outsider... you could have chosen not to involve yourself at all... Now, what are your thoughts?”

“Me?”

Muen froze.

He looked out over the wilderness. The world was still sunk in the immense night, and there was still some time before daybreak.

After Miss Dragon left, this place where a “god” had once dwelled became exceptionally quiet. The other Pioneers were busy everywhere. Alan was in a daze. Landa was taking care of the unconscious Marcie. What remained was only him, continuing to converse with the false goddess who was about to die.

“I don’t know either...”

Muen’s tone was complicated.

Thinking back to the moment when Grandma Meg... or rather, the survivor of Tars named Priscilla, had been crushed to death by Miss Dragon, it was very difficult for him to describe what he had felt then.

This story, this story that belonged only to Annabawei—what kind of ending did it count as?

Annabawei had, for the time being, been preserved. It had even finally welcomed a light of its own. From now on, the people here probably would no longer need to be protected desperately in cold, suffocating night by a mother who had reached the end of the road.

But... they had also paid a tremendous price.

Many people had died from this point onward, no longer able to enjoy the warmth of sunlight. President Theodore, Bear King Theresa. And even those still alive would have to spend a long time to come licking their own wounds.

The corner of Muen’s eye swept over Landa and Marcie beside him, and he could not help letting out a soft sigh.

Even his own life had temporarily been handed over, becoming a form of insurance held in Miss Dragon’s hand.

No, from Miss Dragon’s “overbearing CEO” statement just now, before finding a way to resolve the Pollution, not only his life, but basically everything he had was now the other party’s possession.

This story... to him, had neither the exhilaration of once burning a million souls to ash in the Lost Land in one breath, nor the grand surprise of reversing time in Saint Blancfazesiya and saving everything.

Up to this point, it was not perfect at all. It was filled with helplessness.

“Yes... helplessness... So many things... are truly helpless.”

Andri struggled to turn her head and looked toward the high sky. In the deep night, a certain figure flashed by...

“But this is the true keynote... of this world on the verge of breaking... Annabawei... is merely... an insignificant corner of it... Since a thousand years ago... throughout this long span of time... how many people... have raged in helplessness... and yet could only be helpless in their rage? It is all the same... Beauty... is nothing more than an illusion maintained by fools like you and me...”

“Sounds like this is one rotten gutter of a world.”

“Yes... rotten to the core...”

Andri smiled.

“But even in... such an unlikable world... there will still be people carrying that fury... trying to change something... will there not?”

“...”

Muen’s brow twitched slightly. He kept feeling that this former Goddess of Night was hinting at something.

Was she talking about him, or...

“Actually... Hamreign... Big Sister Dragon... was not like this before.”

Those cloudy, dim eyes suddenly became deep, as if an extremely distant past had surfaced once more before this dying old woman’s eyes.

“Hm?”

“So... I have a guess...”

Andri’s gaze slanted slightly and fell on Muen.

Danger!

A bad premonition instantly exploded in the depths of Muen’s mind. He instinctively felt that some troublesome thing was about to come out of Andri’s mouth, so he lifted his leg and tried to run...

He failed to run.

The corner of Muen’s mouth twitched as he lowered his head and discovered a withered hand tightly gripping his ankle... hard as an iron clamp.

No, wait... You’re already like this. Where are you getting the strength?

“Muen... sir... There is something... I want you to hear to the end...”

“I’m not listening, I’m not listening!”

“It is only... an insignificant... request.”

“If it’s insignificant, then it’s better not to say it. You’ll be happy, I’ll be happy, everyone will be happy...”

“Muen... sir... you are a person far, far beyond my imagination... The current ending of Annabawei... was something even that once-glorious Tars could not achieve...”

Andri pleaded with incomparable sincerity.

“So, if possible... I want to ask you... to save Big Sister Dragon too.”

“Not listening, not listening, still not—huh?”

No matter how he covered his ears, Andri’s voice still entered Muen’s ears.

And in that instant, he truly thought he had misheard.

Or rather, this “Goddess of Night,” who had been mad for hundreds of years, had finally completely wrecked her brain at the final moment before death?

Otherwise, how could she possibly say something this absurd?

Save Miss Dragon?

Why didn’t she ask him to save this gutter of a world while he was at it?

Listen, how bizarre, how interesting, how much it sounded like key information that started a route in a romance game... Just hearing it made a person’s heart stir, made him wish he could immediately get his blood surging and complete the grand plan of salvation...

But the other party was not some beautiful girl character he could conquer.

That was a dragon!

The Dragon of Death and Doom!

The strongest natural disaster!

Even if Muen’s courage in lust was great enough that he dared to imagine the Withering King as an irritable beautiful girl, he did not dare treat a dignified calamity dragon as some character to conquer...

Because Withering Bro temporarily could not meet him face-to-face, but Miss Dragon really could slap him into the ground so hard he could not be pried out.

Not to mention something like... “saving” her.

Muen even had to look warily toward the sky right now, afraid Miss Dragon had heard these words and would immediately descend to violently beat him again.

Had him being beaten so miserably before still not made this fellow realize the boundless gap in strength between him and her?

If there was any saving to be done... it should be Miss Dragon stepping on seven-colored auspicious clouds and coming at the critical moment to save him, the pitiful little yellow-haired one.

As for whether he should pledge himself to her afterward, that was a separate matter.

“Big Sis, can we not make this kind of joke? My little heart has already suffered enough shocks today.”

Muen smiled bitterly as he tried to pry Andri’s fingers off.

“I can save ordinary people a little, sure. Saving Miss Dragon is beyond the syllabus. Besides, she looks healthy and energetic right now. She could punch ten of me to death with one fist. She does not look like she needs me to save her at all.”

“Save... Big Sister Dragon... Help her...”

But Andri did not listen. Her already-cloudy eyes gradually dimmed. At this moment, she could no longer pay attention to Muen’s reaction. She merely continued murmuring.

“Big Sister Dragon changed... changed until even I almost no longer recognize her... If my guess is correct... that true Big Sister Dragon... even now... is still trapped in the Tars of the past...”

“Trapped in that dead city... from eight hundred years ago.”