Love

People always desire what they cannot have.

Dragons are no exception.

Aurelia understood this all too well, having endured the torment of loving someone she could not possess.

Some might not understand; as Her Highness the Saintess of noble status, what was there in Aurelia’s life that she could not obtain?

Indeed, the Glazed Dragon bloodline flowing through her veins was revered by all dragonkind, granting her the most prestigious lineage.

As the Saintess, the gems and gold that dragons loved would flood toward her like tides with just a wave of her hand.

Dragons were fond of sleep, but as the Saintess, as long as she did not neglect her duties and principles, countless dragons would guard her slumber.

The three things dragons desired were all within her easy reach.

In the eyes of dragonkind, her life was nearly perfect, yet emotions remained elusive—seemingly easy to grasp, yet actually out of reach.

When she was young, her mother had passed away due to weakness and severe hemorrhaging after giving birth to her.

When Aurelia first opened her eyes to see the world, her blurry vision captured only that woman, whose face was filled with weakness and tenderness, slowly closing her eyes for the last time.

The newborn’s opening eyes and the mother’s closing eyes seemed to form a suffocating cycle.

The infant’s cries did not bring laughter or joy to the family for the arrival of a new member, because her birth represented impurity.

Although she grew up in the imperial palace, anyone there dared to bully her at will.

Despite carrying the blood of the Glazed Royal Dragon clan, no one had been willing to give her a name from the moment she was born until now.

She had learned from snippets of conversation among others that her mother was the younger sister of the current Dragon King of the Great Dragon Divine Dynasty.

The Dragon King was stern and prone to rage, but he cared deeply for his two younger sisters who shared the same mother.

Her birth mother had an older sister, the First Princess named Isabella.

Unfortunately, this First Princess had died on the battlefield decades ago while resisting the invasion of the Demon Tribe.

In response, the Dragon King, who fiercely protected his sisters, turned his grief into fury and wiped out the Demon forces within dozens of regions surrounding the Great Dragon Divine Dynasty.

The loss of his relatives caused the Dragon King to pour all his remaining tenderness onto his only surviving sister, Aurelia’s mother.

Her mother was arguably the most pampered and cherished existence in the entire Great Dragon Divine Dynasty.

Her life should have been glorious and beautiful.

Under the Dragon King’s arrangement, she would have had a considerate and gentle husband.

Her husband would have spread his dragon wings to shield her from danger and shelter her from wind and rain.

She would have given birth to her own dragon offspring, contributing to the continuation of the Glazed Dragon family bloodline.

But all of this shattered the moment she was born…

The most noble First Princess of the Great Dragon Divine Dynasty had become pregnant without cause, and Youdaimengna could not tell her brother who the father of the child was.

Rumors spread instantly, causing the dignity of the Dragon Royal Family to plummet repeatedly.

But to the Dragon King, these things meant nothing.

What was chastity?

What was dignity?

In his eyes, none of it mattered as much as his younger sister.

He had only this one sister left.

As long as she was alive and he remained on the throne, he would not allow any idle gossip to harm her.

Under the Dragon King’s forceful suppression, the rumors gradually fell silent.

After all, for the most noble First Princess to be pregnant without cause, as long as the child in her womb carried the Glazed Dragon bloodline, it was merely a temporary storm of public opinion.

Unfortunately, accidents happened nonetheless…

To give birth to this child, to bring forth this “impure” dragon seed, Princess Youdaimengna died.

According to the maids, during the days when the First Princess passed away, the Dragon King’s eyes were cold and devoid of any warmth.

She believed this to be true, because every day she had to face those eyes.

It was her uncle who had hidden her in a small dark room, forbidding her from coming out, yet would glance at her daily with those icy, piercing stares.

Amidst the spitting and scorn of the crowd, slowly, perhaps even she began to believe that her birth was a mistake, that she was born to endure this suffering.

One day, an assassin broke into her small dark room, wielding a Dragon-Slaying Blade capable of penetrating dragon scales, intending to silently assassinate her there.

Facing the assassin, she closed her eyes in despair and numbness, ready to quietly accept her death.

However, death did not arrive as expected.

A Dragon Priest dressed in clerical robes saved her.

The priest brought her to the church and presented her before the current Saintess.

That Saintess told her that she had once received kindness from Aurelia’s mother, and thus, saving her was an act of repaying that debt.

Someone wanted to kill her, and they had not even bothered to hide their identity.

The person who wanted her dead was her cousin, the daughter of her mother’s older sister, named Elizabeth.

The matriarch of the Royal Duke’s mansion had ordered her death, and the one who carried out the act was General Hadian of the current Great Dragon Divine Dynasty.

Any word spoken by the Saintess would chill a young girl’s heart, but at that time, she was unusually calm.

Perhaps a life shrouded in endless darkness, devoid of light, had long since made her lose hope in the world.

Then, she met the person who would influence her entire life.

The Saintess led the young her to that man and instructed him to ensure she was taken to a safe place.

She still remembered what the man looked like back then.

Unshaven and unkempt, he wore a severely damaged denim outfit.

On his feet were a pair of worn-out leather boots with holes.

His empty left sleeve was particularly striking.

He looked like a scavenger emerging from the desert, covered in dust and wind.

Yet, only his eyes—those pitch-black eyes deep as a dark pool—remained profound and clear, even amidst a sandstorm.

During their escape, he had blocked fatal attacks for her countless times with the curved blade in his hand.

Even when blood splattered and wounds dug deep enough to expose white bone, he never complained or groaned.

Throughout the journey, he simply held her hand silently, like an older brother leading his younger sister, walking through the Gobi desert where the horizon was invisible.

At night, he would share half of the prey he caught with her.

When sleeping, he would actively drape the only blanket he had over her.

Sometimes, when she cried at night, she could vaguely feel someone wiping her tears with rough hands.

His hands were so strong, his blade so swift, and his personality so reserved.

Strangely, he would always watch her silently while she slept at night.

Like the Dragon King, but while the Dragon King’s gaze gave her coldness, his gaze…

The young girl unconsciously turned her head to look at the campfire crackling beside her.

She felt that the man was like this bonfire—silent, yet warm enough to make one involuntarily want to curl up in his arms and sleep peacefully.

The man accompanied her for twenty-one days.

For twenty-one days, they crossed the desert.

For twenty-one days, they encountered the final pursuers at the border of the desert.

That pursuer was Old General Hadian, who had established distinguished military merits for the Great Dragon Divine Dynasty.

That night, the man revealed a side of himself he had never shown to the world.

Only after the old general was defeated did the man, dragging his injured body, use his remaining arm to embrace her cold figure and leave that forbidden zone of life.

When had she fallen in love with him?

Aurelia herself did not know.

Perhaps it was when roasting by the fire, feeling his gaze as warm as flames.

Perhaps it was when he held her while fleeing, listening to the powerful, pounding heartbeat in his chest.

Or perhaps it was at that dusk, when the man put her on a small boat, tied a red hair tie for her, and gave her the name that would accompany her for the rest of her life.

At that moment, clutching the hair tie the man had fastened to her long hair, the young girl’s cold heart melted for the first time because of someone…