The next day, just before dawn.
White-feathered doves flapped their wings, sweeping across the clear sky, as the first rays of morning sunlight pierced the clouds and fell upon the land.
The dragon egg shifted slightly, beginning to absorb that first strand of violet qi from the morning.
“You unlucky, stupid egg—you got beaten by Mom...” Jasmine stood two ters away from the egg, bitterness bubbling up inside her.
She really wanted to pick up a lump of mud and throw it at it, but the lingering pain in her backside told her she’d better not. Otherwise, she’d be getting hit again today.
“Annoying egg. Mom actually hit because of a stupid egg... boo. My first beating ever was because of an egg. If Maixi and the others find out when I [N O V E L I G H T] get back, they’re definitely going to laugh at .”
While drawing in the qi of heaven and earth to accelerate her growth, Flaviel listened with great interest to her daughter, who had run over early in the morning and was chattering nonstop about who knew what.
She wasn’t blind to it—Jasmine’s possessiveness toward the sli was clearly far stronger than that of an ordinary mother–daughter bond.
As soon as any other living being appeared and diverted even a bit of the sli’s affection away from Jasmine, she would imdiately go on alert, grinding her teeth and hissing at that being.
‘Mm-hmm, interesting... I really like rebellious daughters like you who don’t listen.’
Unfortunately, her daughter couldn’t hear her. Otherwise, Flaviel felt this child of hers would be extrely fun.
Maybe if she hugged the sli and gave her a couple of squeezes, she could make this little brat stomp her feet in frustration.
“Hmph. I just feel like this demon egg has bad intentions toward our family.”
Jasmine frowned tightly, carefully inspecting the pure-white dragon egg, trying to find so flaw so she could tattle to Mom and have it thrown out.
Unfortunately, after a thorough search, Jasmine found nothing at all. Instead, the dragon egg shimring under the morning light nearly dazzled her eyes.
“Jasmine! Breakfast! Where did you run off to again, you child—”
At that mont, her mom’s voice ca from inside the house.
Jasmine’s cowlick shot straight up. Forgetting about picking on the dragon egg, she quickly turned and ran back toward the house.
“Mom, I’m outside! I’ll be right back!”
“This child, what’s she running outside for? Don’t tell she went to ss with Vivi again? Or maybe I didn’t hit her hard enough last night...”
Vieya muttered. But considering how sturdy the dragon egg was, even if her rookie daughter used all her strength, she wouldn’t break its defense. At most, she’d just sar sothing on it.
Putting her mind at ease, Vieya went back to the table and ladled out the porridge—one bowl for herself, one for her daughter, and whatever was left would go to the maid.
“Mom!”
The wooden door hadn’t been closed. Jasmine ran straight in, and the light fragrance of vegetable porridge filled the small house, instantly whetting her appetite.
“Mom, you cooked the porridge today! I haven’t had it in so long!”
“Mm. Sit down and eat. I’ve already served you. Be careful, it’s hot.”
After a simple breakfast, Vieya’s first order of business was to take Jasmine over to Elliti’s place, letting Aislin and a few other elves help look after her.
Along the way, Jasmine looked utterly dejected, cheeks puffed out, her eyes full of resentnt. Fortunately, her personality was relatively restrained, and she didn’t cry or make a scene in the streets.
But ever since that egg arrived, her position had been challenged.
That was an undeniable fact.
‘Looks like I need to find a chance to ask the elf sisters about where that egg ca from. It’s got Mom completely bewitched... definitely not a good egg,’ Jasmine thought gloomily.
She always felt there was sothing off about that egg. The way Mom treated it was just like how she’d treated that beautiful blonde woman before, making Jasmine’s heart fill with an inexplicable sense of dread.
Why was that?
Could it be that the egg was an illegitimate child secretly born by Mom and that blonde woman? No, that didn’t make sense. Mom was a sli, and slis weren’t oviparous. She couldn’t possibly lay an egg...
Sowhere deep down, Jasmine felt as if she had grasped an important clue.
Unless...
The egg was laid by that beautiful blonde woman?
Yes! That was it!
In an instant, the fog in her mind was swept away. The hidden truth revealed itself clearly in Jasmine’s thoughts. Everything before her eyes beca bright and lucid, all doubts resolved, all threads neatly arranged.
That’s right!
So ti ago, Mom had been going out every day, not coming ho at night—she must have been secretly eting that beautiful blonde woman!
The blazing sun scorched the ground, but Jasmine’s hands and feet were icy cold, her whole body chilled as if she’d fallen into an ice cellar.
Mom had finally... betrayed their sweet family.
...
On the other side.
Vieya returned to her small house.
“Oh? So you sent your daughter off to your elf lover’s place?”
The mont she stepped through the courtyard gate, the dragon egg’s mocking voice drifted over.
Vieya glanced at the dragon egg and said flatly, “I’m worried that next ti my daughter sars your eggshell, she won’t use mud—she’ll switch to sothing stinky like 【?】.”
“......”
Flaviel was instantly disgusted into silence, her sense of crisis skyrocketing.
The next second, she began absorbing the sun’s qi even more fervently, striving to hatch as soon as possible.
Half an hour later.
Vieya brought out a bamboo lounge chair and placed it in the courtyard, lying back on it to enjoy a mont of peace.
“Sli, is Jasmine learning those elven magics now?” Flaviel suddenly asked.
“Yes. My daughter’s just like you—she has extrely high aptitude for all kinds of magic. She learns things instantly. But she can’t store magic power inside her body like ordinary people. She can only draw on the free magic drifting in the air to cast spells.”
Vieya sighed. Back then, she’d put in a lot of effort just to help her daughter get started with magic.
Flaviel paused, her tone turning strange. “Isn’t that a crooked path? Without internal magic as a catalyst, using unclaid magic from the air makes backlash very likely. Wouldn’t it be better to take Helcat’s summoner route? Even if she can’t use magic power to form summoning contracts, using paper contract docunts is still safer than this.”
“Do you have any idea how expensive paper contracts are? And back then I was dirt-poor—I had to take Adventurers’ Guild commissions just to earn enough gold to afford drinking.”
Vieya shook her head in rebuttal. “Besides, Anna personally teaches her magic. The risks are controllable at worst she just gets injured a bit. Jasmine also likes magic more. I think this is fine.”
“Vieya, can you say that with your hand on your conscience?”
“Flaviel, can you say that after using your brain?”
The air fell silent for a mont.
The next second, the two of them started arguing. One accused the other of never caring about the child after giving birth, asking what right she had to talk. The other shot back that she knew perfectly well how all of this had co about, and that it was absolutely shaless to act like an adult here.
They argued and argued, and then both fell silent again.
Flaviel was the sharper of the two, repeatedly landing blows straight on the sli mom’s weak spots.
The facts also proved that unless the sli mom resorted to throwing tantrums and acting shaless, arguing was simply not her strong suit against Flaviel.
Vieya picked up the lounge chair and moved far away from the dragon egg, sitting down on the other side of the courtyard, eyes red and lips pouting, looking as if she’d been scolded to tears.
...
anwhile.
Jasmine was asking Elliti about the dragon egg.
“Elliti, do you know where the egg my mom brought back ca from?”
“What egg?” Elliti froze.
“The one even bigger than you and put together. White, with a really hard shell.” Jasmine spread her arms wide to demonstrate.
Elliti thought hard, then shook her head. “I don’t know about that. But I heard Cousin Aislin say that your mom seems to be looking for so information about hatching pig-dragon eggs... I’m not too sure about the details. You could ask Cousin Aislin.”
‘Sister Aislin knows?’
Jasmine mulled it over briefly and made her decision. Whoever knew the truth was exactly who she should ask.
Elliti added another reminder. “It’s just that Cousin Aislin is managing the entire elven race right now and is usually very busy. If we don’t want to disturb her work, we’ll have to wait until evening to see her.”
“It’s fine,” Jasmine said indifferently. “There’s nothing to do right now anyway. Mom kicked out, too. Waiting is waiting—no rush.”
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