7 Little Noia, Grow Up Fast!
Noia has been feeling a little grumpy lately.
Why? Well, the old ancestor in her head has been nagging her about how her five-year-old young dragon body is overloaded with Primal Power.
And he boldly proclaimed,
“If you keep this up, by the time I gather enough Primal Power to restore my strength, the Ultimate Fear will be dancing crazily on the ashes of the world!”
So, to avoid witnessing the Ultimate Fear’s cringe-worthy dance in front of everyone, the ancestor has been pestering Noia day and night to grow up faster.
“I think it’s necessary to give you a crash course on modern biology fundamentals.”
In the dark golden waterway, Noia earnestly began her lesson,
“Young dragons are divided into two types: egg-born and live-born.”
“Egg-born young dragons inherit a part of their mother’s strength from the get-go, resulting in rapid growth and body development.”
“While live-born young dragons are naturally delivered by their mothers, they lack dragon horns before reaching adulthood and are somewhat weaker compared to egg-born dragons, which also includes a slower development speed.”
“Unfortunately, your host, which is me, happens to be a live-born dragon.”
The white dragon lay quietly on the water’s surface, her enormous dragon eyes reflecting Noia’s tiny figure. After hearing her biology lesson, the ancestor leisurely replied,
“I don’t see any ‘relative weakness compared to egg-borns’ shadow in you, little live-born dragon. At your level, you could easily take on three egg-borns.”
After spending so long in Noia’s consciousness space, the ancestor had a thorough understanding of her host.
A little girl who combines talent with hard work, she’s solidly the best among her peers— and even stands out among young dragons.
“Level doesn’t reflect physical development.”
Noia shrugged, “I can’t suddenly have a body like Dad or Mom’s overnight, like you said.”
The ancestor understood that perfectly. She sighed softly and began,
“Since you’ve given me a biology lesson, how about I give you a history lesson?”
Noia frowned, nodded, and then sat cross-legged on the water’s surface, ready to listen intently.
“Actually, in the beginning, the Dragon Race didn’t have the term ‘egg-born’; all young dragons were naturally delivered by their mothers.”
“But later, with the outbreak of inter-dragon wars, conflicts escalated, and the military power of the tribes wasn’t enough, so they had to send some young dragons into battle.”
“Gradually, they found that it still wasn’t enough. Most young dragons on the battlefield became cannon fodder and had no impact on the situation.”
“Then… a method was developed for direct inheritance of maternal strength, allowing young dragons bred this way to grow rapidly and learn efficiently.”
“And it doesn’t require conventional reproduction; it can happen with just one dragon.”
“This method of breeding is what the modern dragon race calls… ‘egg-born.’”
Noia listened quietly.
Although her little face remained expressionless, her heart stirred slightly.
So it turns out that a long time ago, dragons were all nurtured together by both parents.
But to gain an advantage in civil war, they developed ‘egg-born’…
In fact, the conflict between live-born and egg-born had already occurred in Noia’s life.
When she first enrolled in Saint His Academy, she almost faced bullying because of her live-born status.
Fortunately, Melkway’s mother dragon was great at taking on three at once, and Noia taught those three a lesson, becoming the anti-bullying ambassador for the Young Dragon Department.
But just because Noia could protect herself from bullying didn’t mean that other live-born young dragons could too.
When the conflict began is no longer important; what matters is that it has indeed affected many generations of the Dragon Race.
The identity crisis established in childhood can accompany a dragon for a lifetime, and even a hundred years later, they still can’t let it go.
“Later, I put an end to the Dragon Race’s civil war, but the method of ‘egg-born’ has persisted.”
The ancestor continued,
“Because dragons enjoy a method that allows them to gain powerful abilities without a lot of complicated growth processes.”
“Noia.”
The little troublemaker looked up at the giant dragon, “What?”
“If you could choose your birth method, would you pick egg-born or live-born?”
Noia blinked, thought for a moment, and replied,
“Live-born.”
Hearing that, the ancestor’s eyes lit up, seemingly a bit excited. “Why? Egg-born young dragons have more advantages from the moment they’re born. Aren’t you working hard to pursue strength?”
Noia looked down at her right hand and softly replied,
“I like the process of accumulating strength little by little because it lets me tangibly feel I’m getting stronger.”
“Rather than directly inheriting power from my mom. If it were like that, I’d feel like something really important is missing from my life.”
After hearing the little one’s answer, the ancestor felt that “roll-up” wasn’t quite the right way to describe her.
For her, striving to grow stronger was not just about pursuing greater power or gaining her parents’ approval; it was also about making her life more fulfilling and exciting.
It’s rare to see a five-year-old express such insight… the ancestor mused to herself.
“What about you?” Noia suddenly asked.
“What?”
“If you could choose, would you pick live-born or egg-born?”
This time, the ancestor didn’t answer immediately. She just silently stared at Noia for a moment, her gaze gradually lowering to the calm water’s surface.
It seemed she was reminiscing about the past, so Noia didn’t urge her.
After a long while, the ancestor finally spoke,
“Neither egg-born nor live-born… I wouldn’t choose either.”
Noia raised an eyebrow, “Why not?”
“Because… my birth was a mistake.”
……
In the Holy Temple’s hall, Roswiser was handling her daily tasks.
Suddenly, her peripheral vision caught a small figure sneaking around behind one of the pillars, trying to spy on her.
The queen glanced over and then smiled faintly, pretending she didn’t see, and continued her work.
Behind the pillar, Noia quickly pulled her head back.
“What do you want me to find Mom for anyway?”
“I’ve said it! Your body is gathering Primal Power too slowly right now, and your mother just might help us fix that.”
“What do you mean? Are you going to confront my mom? My dad and mom will stop at nothing to drag you out of my head!”
“No, no, no! I’m saying that pendant she wears can help us.”
At this, Noia cautiously peered out again to look at her mom on the throne.
With her leaning pose, the creamy-white pendant dangled in the air.
Noia remembered that her mom said the pendant was a wedding gift from Veronica’s great-grandmother.
Though the material is rare, as far as Noia knew, it shouldn’t be related to Primal Power, right?
“No! That’s a wedding gift from great-grandma to mom; don’t you even think about it!”
Noia promptly rejected the idea, and then paused to ask,
“And how can you be so sure that pendant can help you gather Primal Power faster?”
“I can sense it,” the ancestor said, “That pendant is made from Original Crystal. I don’t know where your mother got it, but the priority now is to retrieve it to help us boost Primal Power accumulation speed.”
“No way! I already said that it’s my mom’s wedding gift and she values it greatly.”
Noia wouldn’t budge on this point.
Mom places a lot of importance on her marriage with Dad, which naturally extends to the wedding gift.
To speed up the old ancestor, she wouldn’t agree to take her mom’s pendant.
“Ah, you stubborn little mule! What am I supposed to do with you?!”
“Pfft.”
Noia softly huffed and peeked out again, wanting to see if mom was distracted and then make her escape.
However, when she glanced at the throne, mom was no longer there.
Noia blinked, “It’s not even lunchtime; where did mom go—”
“Noia.”
“Ah!—”
A gentle, chill voice suddenly came from behind, nearly startling the ancestor out of Noia’s head.
Noia jumped, her little tail shooting up in fright, and stammered,
“Mom… when did you come over…?”
“I heard some noise over here and thought I’d check it out,” Roswiser smiled, slightly leaning forward, gazing affectionately at her dear daughter, “What are you doing here?”
Noia leaned back slightly, her eyes fixed on that pendant hanging on her mom’s chest.
It sparkled under the sunlight, crystal clear.
“I was… um… I was—”
“Waiting for us!”
Before she could finish, a tuft of pink hair burst into the view of mother and daughter.
Then, Moon linked Noia’s left arm, while Little Light took her right arm and turned to Roswiser,
“Mom, big sis was waiting for us, right big sis?”
Noia blinked in confusion, but Little Light was frantically signaling her, and Noia immediately caught on,
“Oh yeah! I was waiting for Little Light; we made plans to go play in the backyard together.”
Moon scratched her head, “Huh? Did we have that agreement—”
“Yes! Of course!”
Little Light hurriedly interrupted the silly second sister, pulling the two of them toward the back door,
“Mom, you keep busy; we’re off to play~”
Roswiser hesitated but ultimately waved her hand, reminding them,
“Be careful.”
“Got it, Mom!”
The daughters scurried off to the backyard, their voices fading into the distance.
Roswiser rubbed her forehead,
“Why do I have this feeling… that Noia is acting a bit strange?”
