Chapter 1179: 166. Dance

An ancient village.

Flickering bonfires.

Lively residents.

Fragrant roasted meat.

And... a certain blond villain covered in injuries, his face full of melancholy.

“Hiss... I can’t live like this anymore. These days are impossible to endure.”

Muen bared his teeth from the pain. While using black flames to repair his injuries, he complained to the little girl beside him, who was helping divide the roasted meat.

“That dragon only knows how to use violence! Were my words really that excessive? I only mocked her a little... Some Moon, some Mother, some Tree, some Love—I mocked them so many times and nothing happened. She’s the only one who likes using her fists. Don’t you think she’s going too far? Logically speaking, shouldn’t stronger people be broader-minded? Why are every single one of the ones I meet so narrow-minded?”

“Jili-guala...”

The little girl could not understand him and merely responded along with him.

“Sigh...”

Seeing this, Muen could only let out a helpless sigh. He took the roasted meat and bit into it hard as though venting his anger.

“Mmm! Delicious.”

His eyes lit up.

This piece of roasted meat came from the giant bear from earlier. Logically speaking, the flesh of a demonic beast of that level should already have become extremely tough. It would be perfectly normal for an ordinary person to break several teeth trying to bite into it.

But the Notata people’s cooking skills far exceeded his imagination. He did not know what method they had used, but they had made the meat both tender and fragrant, with a rich lingering flavor.

“It really is delicious.”

Muen raised his thumb.

“Jili-guala!”

The little girl seemed to understand this sentence and clapped happily.

“Thank you for the hospitality.”

Muen thanked her and, while he was at it, stroked the little girl’s head.

The little girl revealed a comfortable expression, like a kitten being petted along the direction of its fur. Unfortunately, before long, she heard her father calling and temporarily walked away with her lips pouted.

Muen raised his head... and met the wary gaze of an old father terrified that someone might carry off his family’s precious cabbage.

“I’m not a pervert, and I wouldn’t lay a hand on a child this young.”

Muen’s cheek twitched. The prejudice against blonds in this world was truly far too great. Even a good man among good men like him was always being misunderstood.

.

“...”

The leader said nothing and merely continued staring.

“...”

I’ll just assume you can’t understand and won’t argue with you.

Directly ignoring the old father’s gaze, Muen shifted his line of sight slightly. Across the leaping flames, he glanced toward Hamreign on the other side of the bonfire.

After Miss Dragon, whom he had forcibly dragged here, had lost her temper at him, fortunately, she had not spread her anger any further.

She sat there obediently, silently taking small bites of meat.

It had to be said that although she was a dragon, Miss Dragon’s movements while eating meat were extremely elegant.

Her red lips parted slightly, her pearly teeth bit gently, and every movement revealed restraint and dignity no less refined than that of a noble. The Notata people liked eating meat in large mouthfuls, so even the piece in Hamreign’s hand was nearly as large as her entire head.

Yet she ate it so beautifully and captivatingly that it left people amazed.

“Looks like Miss Dragon isn’t completely crude after all.”

Other than when she was beating people, this Calamity Dragon was always extremely pleasing to the eye.

Muen smiled, lowered his head, and also took a bite of the meat in his hand.

Then he raised his head.

Clink.

A very small bone was spat from Hamreign’s red lips and landed on the pottery plate in front of her.

As for her hands... they were completely empty.

“Huh?”

Muen froze.

W-Wait?

Had he missed something?

Before he lowered his head just now, she had only taken one small bite, right?

The piece of meat in her hand really had only been bitten once, right?

He remembered correctly. He definitely remembered correctly. Welcome to Tianyu Literature, where countless novels await your exploration!

Then why, in only the time it took him to lower and raise his head, had such a huge piece of meat been reduced to such a tiny bone?

Muen did not understand.

So when Miss Dragon picked up another piece of meat this time, he stared fixedly at her...

It was still an elegant little bite. The oil made her red lips shine, making them look even smoother and more tender. The dignity of that movement was in no way inferior to Celicia or An in public. Every gesture was utterly perfect, making people want to record it and preserve it forever as a model of flawless etiquette.

Muen even became somewhat entranced while watching.

But suddenly, a certain Notata person walked past and blocked Muen’s line of sight for an instant...

Clink.

A tiny bone, probably only the size of a joint from a chicken claw, was once again spat out from those red lips and landed on the pottery plate.

“???”

Muen was completely dumbfounded.

Wait?

How exactly was she doing this? What was the principle behind it? Why did the meat disappear in only an instant? And wasn’t the size of that bone completely unreasonable?

She was also eating meat from that bear, and the part she had just eaten was obviously a bear leg. Were a bear’s leg bones really that thin?

Or was there actually some kind of alternate-dimensional space between those delicate red lips, where no matter how large the food was when it entered... only a bone this small remained in the end?

Muen could not understand. Muen expressed extreme shock.

The thought of taking Miss Dragon’s mouth apart and studying it appeared in his mind once again. What kind of structure could accomplish something so miraculous?

Of course, it was purely for research. There were absolutely no other thoughts involved.

“Hmm?”

The cold golden eyes lifted, carrying an icy chill.

Muen hurriedly looked away, not daring to reveal his thoughts.

Otherwise, the one whose mouth would be taken apart and studied next would most likely be him...

“Jili-guala, jili-guala...”

After carefully savoring the delicacies here for a while longer, Muen was just about to pick a few sweet fruits to cut through the greasiness of the roasted meat when two young women suddenly came before him. Their cheeks were slightly red as they boldly and passionately said something.

Muen still could not understand their words, but he understood their meaning from their gestures.

“You... want to invite me to dance?”

“Jili-guala!”

The two young women continued gesturing.

Behind them, the Notata people were dancing all kinds of dances to the music and rhythm. Muen had watched them for quite a while and had roughly figured out the style of their dancing... which was that it had no style.

Or rather, it was a fusion of many different styles.

There were wild dances and soft, graceful dances. There were dances as elegant as lotuses and dances as seductive as roses.

Their music was rough and primitive, so as long as one stayed on the beat, no kind of dance looked out of place. In fact, most of the Notata people could not even really be considered to be dancing. They were merely twisting their bodies at random, yet they still enjoyed themselves and had completely immersed themselves in the revelry.

“Dancing...”

Muen thought for a moment.

Simply dancing was naturally nothing difficult for him. As the son of a duke, all kinds of social dances had been compulsory lessons since childhood.

However, as a devoted and good man, he did not actually want to dance with young women who had absolutely nothing to do with him. But he also felt a little embarrassed to dampen the enthusiasm of these passionate Notata people. After all, they had treated him so warmly.

It would be much easier if it were someone he knew... Hmm?

Whether his brain had short-circuited or his soul had gone mad, in any case, Muen inexplicably turned his head once again and looked toward the other side of the bonfire, which was not far away.

The banquet was very lively.

In the open space at the very center of the village, several hundred Notata people had gathered, men and women, old and young alike.

They wore brightly colored, exaggerated clothing and played rough but pleasant-sounding primitive instruments. They sang and danced around several enormous bonfires. Roasted meat and wine were served without pause, while large quantities of fruit filled every long table. According to Miss Dragon’s earlier translation, this was the Notata people’s festival celebrating the harvest, which was why it was especially grand.

After just experiencing the deathly silence and despair of Annabawei, this kind of liveliness could easily leave someone shocked and entranced.

Yet within such a noisy atmosphere, that crimson figure sat there like an ethereal projection, entirely unaffected by anything in the outside world.

She seemed to be here, yet also seemed not to be here. She was incompatible with the entire world, and even more incompatible with everything around her.

The mortal world was noisy and bustling, yet she seemed not to exist in this time and space at all. Her entire person was as quiet as an oil painting.

So cold and aloof. So... lonely?

At the thought of that word, even Muen laughed. What the hell was wrong with him? He actually thought the strongest Calamity Dragon in the world... looked lonely?

For someone who already liked solitude, could her solitude still be considered loneliness?

After all, whether in stories or in all kinds of legends, dragons themselves were creatures that liked traveling alone. They would create territories that belonged to them, guard vast treasures, and sleep there for hundreds of years at a time.

Any fool who disturbed them during that period would receive the harshest punishment.

—According to that line of reasoning, dragging Miss Dragon here, pulling her from that secluded darkness into this noisy light, had been the excessively willful thing to do.

Reason told him that doing something willful once or twice was enough. Doing it too many times was very dangerous.

Not every act of courting death would have a good outcome, especially when facing an existence he absolutely could not resist.

But he was always not quite that rational.

“Really... asking for trouble.”

Muen sighed and stood. To the two cute young women before him, he said,

“Sorry, I can’t dance with you for now.”

“Jili-guala?”

The two clearly did not understand and looked confused.

Muen had no choice but to point toward Miss Dragon on the other side.

The two immediately understood. They did not show much disappointment. Instead, one of them even raised and lowered her eyebrows at Muen as though cheering him on.

...It felt like those two had misunderstood something.

Muen did not explain. Or rather, with the language barrier, there ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) was no way to explain at all. He hastily ate some more meat and downed several large cups of wine, ensuring that he had plenty of stamina and courage raised to the next level. Only then did he sway over to Hamreign’s side.

“Your injuries healed?”

Hamreign raised her eyes.

There were many ordinary people here, so she had restrained all of her draconic pressure. Therefore, her golden eyes were not as blazing at this moment, nor as impossible to look directly into.

“More or less.”

Muen moved his body.

“I don’t have many strengths. I’m just thick-skinned, tough-fleshed, and indestructible, so small injuries like those heal in no time.”

“Indeed.”

Hamreign nodded.

“When it comes to the thickness of your skin, no human I have ever seen can surpass you.”

“...”

It seemed he would have to let Miss Dragon meet Pink Bear when he had the chance, so she could learn what the true limit of human shamelessness was—the kind that could be torn directly from the face, placed in the sky, and used to block an Evil God.

“So, what are you trying to do this time?”

Hamreign asked indifferently.

“What am I trying to do? Can’t I come over and chat with you?” Muen smiled.

“Heh.”

Hamreign sneered disdainfully.

After spending this period of time together, she could be considered to have gained some understanding of this human. Arrogant, naive, shameless, and endlessly unreasonable. Therefore, now that he had come over, it definitely was not as simple as merely chatting with her.

Besides, there was nothing for them to talk about.

A thousand-year-old dragon and a little brat whose hair had not even fully grown in yet—what could they possibly talk about?

“Say what you want directly. If you keep circling around it, I’ll beat you.”

“...”

After being together for so long, in Muen’s eyes, Miss Dragon was no longer as cold and aloof as before either.

At least now, she would directly say that she was going to beat him.

In the past, she would not even say anything. She would simply beat him!

“All right, then I’ll be direct... Actually, it’s nothing much.”

Under Hamreign’s unsurprised gaze, Muen bent at the waist and extended his hand.

“I came to invite Miss Dragon... to dance.”

“...?”

The “unsurprised” look completely became “unexpected.” Hamreign looked somewhat confused. She even tilted her head and thought for a long while before understanding Muen’s words.

He was inviting her... to dance?

This human... was inviting a dragon to dance?

Was there really nothing wrong with his head?