Lily’s mom is a duck!

In the following days, both Lily and Ledea were teaching Amy how to walk.

Amy quickly got the hang of it.

Although she still couldn’t run, she was walking almost like the wind, so Ledea felt relieved and no longer reached out to support her.

Aside from that, Lily was teaching Amy to recognize the objects around her.

Things like the bed, wardrobe, table, and stool — as long as they were real, tangible objects, Amy could remember them very clearly.

But if they were drawn on paper, Amy simply couldn’t understand.

Amy would tilt her little head, looking puzzled in an adorably innocent way.

But Lily had no way to teach Amy more things, and she suddenly felt at a loss.

Lily asked Ledea if she could take the child to a big city.

Ledea’s answer was always: “Wait a little longer.”

Lily really didn’t know what she was waiting for.

If they delayed much more, her daughter’s education would end up in serious trouble.

Until three days later, at dawn, when the crisp chirping of birds came from outside the cave, Ledea suddenly rushed out.

Moments later, she returned holding a letter.

Ledea glanced at the contents of the letter, and a satisfied smile appeared on her face.

“It seems Ruby’s investigation has produced results.”

“Ruby?” Lily looked at Ledea in complete confusion.

“You don’t need to know,” Ledea said indifferently.

“I need to go to the imperial capital. You must stay home and properly educate the child — not a single bit of carelessness is allowed.”

“You don’t have to say it! Just hurry and go, I’ll finally have some peace and quiet!”

“You… forget it, I won’t stoop to your level!”

Ledea took an overcoat out of her dimensional storage, draped it over herself, and left without looking back.

Before leaving, she thoughtfully set up a barrier around Lily and her daughter.

With her previous experience in mind, this time Ledea put all her strength into building the barrier.

She simply refused to believe anyone could easily break through it again!

Using magic to hatch a dragon egg had been a heavy drain on her strength, but that didn’t mean she would stay down forever.

As time passed, some of her magic had already recovered.

She was confident that even if an S-rank adventurer came, they would not be able to break the barrier.

That way, Lily wouldn’t be able to point at her nose and demand: “Have you gotten weaker?”

This way, she could still preserve the pride of the dragon race…

Wait, why do I even care what Lily thinks?

She can say whatever she wants.

If she makes a fuss, I’ll just knock her down, strip her clothes, and make her feel shame — wouldn’t that shut her up?

Ledea frowned and shook off those distracting thoughts.

She decided to focus her attention on the investigation in the Empire.

She also wanted to bring her daughter to live in the city, but she couldn’t take the risk.

She feared the Empire would throw all its power into capturing her daughter and harming her.

That was why Ledea had asked Ruby to investigate — to resolve the matter at its source.

Of course, the fact that Ledea had weakened was undeniable.

Though dragon pride was important, Ledea wasn’t arrogant.

After hatching a dragon egg, there was always about a year of weakness — during this period, she couldn’t act recklessly.

In truth, taking Lily back to the Dragon God’s homeland would be the best choice.

The Dragon God’s homeland was the territory of the Dragon God clan.

Even if one weakened after hatching a dragon egg, Amy’s grandmother would protect her — that was the tradition of the Dragon God clan.

Once Ledea’s magic recovered, she herself would take over protecting her daughter.

After the daughter grew up, Ledea would succeed Karina in guarding the dragon clan’s seal.

Karina would retire, spending the rest of her life free from worldly matters.

This tradition had remained unchanged for thousands of years.

It was only that Ledea didn’t want to bring Lily to meet Karina.

After all, their meeting had been an accident — even a tragedy.

If Lily wanted to “gain status through her child,” she would have to meet Karina.

But as long as Ledea didn’t bring her back to the Dragon God’s homeland, when Lily’s mortal lifespan ended a hundred years later, her little scheme would never succeed.

—

After Ledea left the cave, Lily kept Amy company while she played.

Amy had already grown to resemble a two-year-old human child.

She no longer needed to stay wrapped in swaddling cloth, but could wear toddler’s clothes and sit on the carpet playing with a little yellow duck.

The little duck was a toy Karina had given Amy — the kind that could float on water.

Lily filled a basin with water and set it before Amy.

Amy threw the little duck into the basin.

The duck bobbed and swayed on the water’s surface, and Amy played happily.

By chance, Lily noticed Amy’s sitting posture.

It was what people call the “W-sit” or “duck-sit,” with her legs bent outward in an M-shape.

This posture highlighted a little girl’s cuteness, and Lily was slightly enchanted.

But enchantment aside, Lily didn’t want her daughter’s bone development to be affected.

“Amy, you can’t sit like that! — At least, not for now!”

Perhaps Amy had learned it by imitating Lily’s own unconscious habit of sitting that way.

Lily felt deeply guilty.

She spread her legs in a V-shape.

“Here, sit like Mama does!”

“Mm!” Amy nodded happily, switching to the V-sit.

Simply put, it was sitting with the legs stretched out wide, which looked a bit improper.

But when a child sat like that, it only made her seem cuter.

Amy pushed the floating little duck with her finger.

The duck drifted to the edge of the basin, and Amy pushed it back again, looking overjoyed.

Watching her daughter, Lily thought of her painful failure in teaching a few days earlier.

With Ledea gone from the cave, no one would laugh at her.

So she wanted to seize this chance to show her own teaching talent — to prove to Ledea that she was no pushover.

“Amy,” Lily said with a cheerful smile, pointing at the duck in the water with her fingertip.

“This is called a duck.”

“Duck!”

“Yes, duck!”

Seeing the result of her teaching, Lily felt very proud.

She flapped her arms like wings, mimicking a duck taking off into the sky — though ducks don’t actually fly that way.

Amy stared for a while without understanding.

Finally, she pointed her chubby little finger at Lily.

“Lily Mama is a duck!”

“I am NOT a duck!”

Ahhh, had her teaching failed again?

She had thought it was going so well — where had it gone wrong?

Just then, cheerful laughter came from the cave entrance.

Lily’s whole body shuddered.

She instinctively shielded Amy.

But Amy wasn’t worried at all.

She staggered to her feet and happily walked toward the entrance.

“No, don’t go over there!”

Panicked, Lily scooped Amy into her arms.

“Ah, I made you afraid. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Lily froze.

She recognized the voice.

As soon as Lily realized who the visitor was, the figure stepped smilingly into view from around the corner.

She still wore her gorgeous black gown.

Though she looked no older than twenty, she carried herself with maturity and dignity, every movement showing the bearing of an empress.

She was the adventurer who had given Amy the toy days earlier — Karina.

“Aunt Karina?” Lily’s expression relaxed considerably.

“What brings you here?”

“I came to see this little one.

It seems she recognizes me.”

Amy kept reaching her arms toward Karina, as though wanting to leap into her embrace to be spoiled.

Karina gazed at her with a beaming smile.

But soon, her smile stiffened.

“How strange… wasn’t she about a year and a half last time?”

“Huh?” Lily stiffened in shock, cold sweat breaking out.

“How did she so quickly grow to look like a two-year-old?

Could it be she’s not human?”

“Uh, th-that…”

This was bad.

If Karina found out Amy was the daughter of an evil dragon, she would definitely turn hostile for the sake of the dragon’s heart!

So Amy’s true identity must be hidden — Karina must not be allowed to see through it!