How to Survive as a terminally-ill Dragon

Chapter 4. The Solution (1)

From that day onwards, Lois’s attitude changed completely.

“Yum!”

Now acting more like a sentient being, Lois began to use utensils instead of his hands to eat.

“More, please!”

“Yes, yes!”

Genelocer filled the empty bowl with a pleased expression on his face.

‘As a Korean, it’s all about the strength from rice! I’ll survive with rice power!’

Of course, he wasn’t Korean anymore, he was a dragon – but that wasn’t the point.

‘I will live! At all costs!’

Shifting his mindset imbued him with a zest for life.

Consequently, his appetite returned.

Lois eagerly scooped up the purple slime with a spoon as big as a rice paddle.

Today, the weaning slime tasted exceptionally delicious.

‘Oh! Is today’s flavor grape?’

Munching happily, Lois savored the grape-tasting slime.

Thanks to Genelocer who had cut the slime into manageable pieces, Lois had no trouble gobbling up his meal.

“Heh heh.”

Genelocer’s grin deepened as he watched his son, who had been sullen for days, now spiritedly enjoying his food.

Lois, seemingly oblivious to his father’s gaze, kept busy with his spoon.

‘I need to eat! I have to eat a lot and become strong to survive!’

His one-month-old body was still too frail.

To withstand the calamities that would come 499 years later, he needed to grow stronger.

And so, Lois attacked his meals with a combative zeal, his rapid hand movements and munching mouth acting as surrogates for his fierce determination.

It was at that moment when the first signs of trial appeared, without any warning.

Whirring—

As Lois was about to take a mouthful of grape-flavored slime, a tiny sound rang out.

Whirring—

Plop—

A round object, bright and multicolored, plunged into the midst of Lois’s purple slime.

Buzzing, thud—

‘That thing’ flapped briefly in the slime before growing still, and Lois hadn’t noticed.

But Genelocer did.

“Son!”

Watching his son eat, Genelocer had been filled with contentment until he swatted Lois’s spoon away.

Thud—

“Ah! What, what’s going on?!”

Startled by his spoon being abruptly knocked aside, Lois looked dumbfoundedly at Genelocer.

Genelocer appeared within Lois’s vision, a look of relief on his face.

“Phew…”

Genelocer sighed deeply and walked toward the direction of the fallen spoon.

Ignoring the spilled weaning slime, he picked up an odd, multicolored round object along with the spoon.

Buzzing—

The thing twitched slightly in Genelocer’s hand.

Lois tilted his head inquisitively.

“…A bug?”

“Somewhat like that. It’s an artificial creature created through research.”

“…What?”

“It contains a deadly poison that’s dangerous to living creatures.”

“…?!”

Aghast, Lois’s eyes rounded in shock.

He stared blankly at the toxic bug, still wriggling its legs.

‘From him knocking away my spoon… it seems like that thing was in it?’

As Lois stared with wide eyes, Genelocer stroked his head.

‘Ah, that’s nice!’

Lois squirmed comfortably a few times at the patting.

Genelocer’s calm voice flowed into Lois’s ear.

“It is certainly dangerous. But it should not pose a threat to our kind. Well… it could have been dangerous if you had eaten it at your age… But since you didn’t, it’s all fine, isn’t it?”

Silent, Lois had nothing to say, his gaze fixed on Genelocer who nonchalantly remarked that it was fortunate he hadn’t eaten it.

Lois decided not to dwell on this issue either.

‘Well… in a dragon’s lair, there might occasionally be a poisonous bug or two.’

That was what he thought to himself.

Especially after overhearing Genelocer mutter something about the creature ‘escaping from the lab,’ Lois simply let it go without much concern.

Yet, it was something Lois would come to regret not taking more seriously.

As five days passed by,

Lois, who occasionally lost his way even on paths he usually traversed fluently, thought, ‘The house is too big!’

Genelocer’s lair was large enough that a moment of distraction could lead to getting lost.

Just as he arrived in front of a strange room,

Clang—

A giant axe flew past Lois’s vision.

“Peep!”

While Lois was trembling in shock at the axe sunk between his legs, Genelocer appeared and shattered the head of the statue that had wielded the axe.

Bang!

“What the… Why? I’m sure I set it to be harmless to Lois?”

Genelocer looked puzzled among the drifting stone dust.

He comforted the stunned Lois.

Then, another five days later.

Bang!

“Peek!”

As Lois was diligently reading in his room, a chandelier fell right in front of his nose, causing him to plop down onto his behind from fright.

“What happened, my son!”

Genelocer rushed over upon hearing the noise and picked up the befuddled Lois.

“Oh dear… Did that scare you?”

Genelocer comforted Lois, his eyes filled with pity as he glared at the fallen chandelier.

Surely the chandelier, made of solid mithril, wasn’t supposed to fall.

Genelocer’s anger was now firmly directed elsewhere.

“These fools! What sort of shoddy construction work is this!”

Naturally, the dwarfs in charge of the lair’s structure faced Genelocer’s wrath.

As a result, not only Lois’s room but all the lights throughout the lair were replaced with new fixtures guaranteed not to fall.

The very next day, after the unexpected assault by the chandelier, Lois found himself deep in thought.

‘Ten days…’

In barely ten days, he had faced death three times.

First, a poisonous bug fell into his food.

Then, a supposedly loyal guardian statue attacked him.

And, if not for the sturdy mithril chains breaking unexpectedly, he would have been crushed by a chandelier.

Death seemed to loom over him at every unforeseen turn.

“Eh… could it be?”

Lois was filled with unease.

But even then, he merely harbored suspicions.

Those suspicions turned to certainty just a few days later.

* * *

“Hoo-haaah—”

Lois inhaled the refreshing air deeply.

He had been confined to the lair until now, but for the first time, he was able to venture outside.

Of course, it was under the accompaniment of his guardian, Genelocer.

“The air is great!”

Could this be similar to the pristine nature of Switzerland’s Alps?

Lois smiled as he looked at the verdant shade and the mountains beyond under the clear blue sky.

“It’s so vast…”

The majesty of the snow-capped mountain was too much to take in at a single glance.

Lost in the spectacle of the mountain, Lois heard Genelocer’s voice.

“It’s called the Left Fang of the Earth.”

“That one?”

The Left and Right Fangs of the Earth.

They were names for the towering mountains that spiked up at the edge of the continent.

And among them, the Left Fang was famous for being the gathering place of numerous Aein races and other mystical beings.

‘It’s definitely different from just reading about it in books.’

Lois, who had learned everything from books, was awestruck by the great mountain he was seeing for the first time.

‘Is this bigger than Mount Everest?’

He’d never seen it in person, but the thought occurred to him that it might be.

While lost in his thoughts,

Flutter, flutter—

A yellow something fluttered before Lois’s eyes.

‘Is that a butterfly?’

The butterfly that breezed by stole Lois’s attention.

Simultaneously, Lois’s body had already started trotting after the yellow butterfly.

The body had betrayed its master’s will, instinctively chasing the butterfly.

‘Stop right there!’

As he flapped his wings chasing the yellow butterfly above Lois’s head,

Rumble, rumble—

The atmosphere churned ominously.

But entranced by the butterfly, Lois was oblivious.

And that would be his downfall.

Boom!

A thunderous noise pierced the quiet sky as a thick bolt of lightning struck down.

The bolt, aimed at the surface, was headed directly for Lois.

“Lois!”

Genelocer shouted his son’s name in horror.

But Lois had no leisure to hear it; the lightning had already engulfed him.

‘What is… this?!’

Literally, a bolt from the blue.

With flailing limbs, Lois was struck squarely by the sudden thunderbolt.

But one bolt wasn’t the end.

Rumble, rumble— Boom!

Another bolt of lightning struck him spot on.

‘Ah…’

What were the chances of being struck twice by lightning under a clear sky?

And what about facing death several times in the span of a few days?

‘Damn!’

It was then that Lois realized with absolute certainty.

‘They want me dead, don’t they?’

The flow of the original story was pushing death upon him.

Boom!

Another bolt struck.

The third lightning strike blurred Lois’s vision.

“Loisssss!”

Genelocer’s face, crying in agony while clutching at him, was the last thing Lois remembered that day.

* * *

Pitter-patter—

Lois bit his tail and trembled his legs.

It was a habit that surfaced when he was extremely anxious.

“I was almost… dead…”

He had been struck by lightning three times in one place, one right after another.

Though he was young and being a dragon offered some exceptions, had it not been for Genelocer’s prompt first aid, he would’ve died on the spot instead of just passing out.

That was what happened just a few days ago.

And within those days, Lois had narrowly dodged another brush with death due to a brick falling from the ceiling.

“Damn!”

He might not have died, but that didn’t erase the terror of death.

The shadow of death cast upon him intermittently over the span of a few days.

Death for Lois seemed not a far-off issue.

He could meet his end today for any reason.

The situation felt like the world was compelling him towards death.

‘Why are they trying to kill me now? Hold back on sticking in these death flags!’

Lois had estimated at least 498 years before his predicted time of death.

How could he have anticipated that the death flags would start coming so quickly?

Lois revisited the original content, wondering if he remembered it wrong.

“I was sure the original said I died at the hands of humans…”

His death wasn’t properly addressed in the original work.

It could only be inferred from Genelocer’s dialogue that Lois died due to humans.

Nowhere was it mentioned that he would die in such a vain way.

“What could be the reason?”

Death flags kept appearing despite lacking plausibility.

After much contemplation, Lois reached a conclusion.

“Could it be… because I decided I won’t die?”

His face hardened.

His death was the trigger for the original story’s beginning.

But the real Lois was pushing back strongly against it, refusing to die.

Meaning, if he didn’t die, the original story wouldn’t even start.

“Damn it!”

Convinced by the hypothesis he had formed, Lois cursed loudly.

Then, he paused for a moment.

“No… Hang on.”

Something still seemed off.

‘If the original starts with my death, and only when I die at the hands of humans does Genelocer become the Mad Dragon and the story progresses properly, right?’

Everything was a mystery.

‘If I die from these accidents now, the Mad Dragon would never come to be?’

And yet, they were trying to kill him?

“Why on earth…?”

Lois’s mind was a whirlwind of confusion.

Why was this great current trying to kill him?

For what possible reason?

He was plagued with endless questions but no concrete answers were forthcoming.

One thing was certain, though – his life was hanging by a thread.

‘What should I do…?’

Pitter-patter—

Chewing on his tail, Lois’s legs shook even more rapidly.

‘I need a plan.’

The implausible death flags that had emerged lately might continue to appear until he actually died.

If that were the case, he would need a way to defend himself.

‘Is there no way out? A way?’

A spark of inspiration flickered in Lois’s eyes.

“There is a way!”

The solution, as it turned out, was closer than he had thought.