Evil Dragon, Without a Princess, I Had to Transform Myself!-Chapter 43 : It All Connects

What the hell, buddy?
Patunasankus looked at the wyvern before her with a massive headache and shuddered hard.
Although strictly speaking, wyverns were merely descendants of ancient dragons, when you rounded it up they were still half-kin. How could Patunasankus not know her fellow dragons' nature?
This blind wyvern absolutely mistook her for Latifa.
Who knows, at this very moment it was probably scheming to kidnap her back to its lair as a trophy, to brag and show off to other dragons afterward.
This was typical evil dragon psychology—Patunasankus knew it all too well.
Because she had once been an evil dragon obsessed with it, her mind full of kidnapping princesses.
In the past, Patunasankus had encountered plenty of ignorant fools who dared challenge Black Death's reputation. Ambitious kin had tried time and again to snatch her precious princess from Black Death's hands.
But so far, among the kin who dared covet Latifa before Patunasankus, not one remained alive.
Patunasankus didn't care about her kin's life or death.
Whoever wanted to steal Latifa from her hands would be added to Black Death's death list.
You should know that nearly half of Black Death Patunasankus's past reputation was built upon countless fellow dragons' corpses. She would mercilessly kill any challenger with her red thunder blade.
But this was actually all Latifa's fault!
It was the princess who had gotten entangled with the evil dragon.
Now, the evil dragon simply didn't know how to fall asleep without her nose tip pressed against her neck and shoulders.
That was all.
Patunasankus's killing intent was rising. Her blue eyes gradually took on a flame-like luster, her fingers curved like claws, scales faintly covering them.
As a Dragon Lord ruling a territory, dealing with such small-fry wyverns wouldn't take even a second.
Patunasankus quite wanted to transform back into her true form right now and finish off this small-fry wyvern.
However, there were still two unfortunate souls around her.
Patunasankus glanced at Elaphia and Loranhir standing before her. Even against a small-fry wyvern among dragonkind, these two definitely couldn't handle it.
...How about just knocking them both unconscious with a tail swipe first?
Then transform into her true form and skewer this blind thing with a red thunder finger blade, afterward just blame everything on the Hero as usual and say she did it all?
Patunasankus seriously considered this, then immediately rejected the plan without hesitation.
Not quite workable.
Fundamentally, Elaphia was much smarter than Loranhir and would be hard to fool afterward.
This gave Patunasankus quite a headache.
How about...
The evil dragon pondered carefully.
Just roast Elaphia and be done with it?
That didn't seem impossible either.
Just as Patunasankus was considering when best to act, a pink figure stepped forward several paces.
It was Loranhir. She didn't run but walked directly toward the wyvern, her deep Heart of the Red Queen beating powerfully, making one feel there was almost nowhere to escape.
"...?"
Patunasankus froze, her brewing actions stopping.
Wait, what was this person suddenly trying to do?
○
Thump!
Thump thump!
Thump thump thump!
The strong and powerful Heart of the Red Queen rumbled like war drums as Loranhir finally stood before Yanubi.
The pink-haired girl who suddenly stepped forward left wyvern Yanubi briefly confused.
Hearing the increasingly rapid and oppressive heartbeat, it felt even more wrong. It always felt the human before it looked very familiar, as if it had heard of her somewhere.
"..."
Loranhir looked up, gazing at the wyvern with a cold expression, seemingly completely unconcerned about its size that could crush her underfoot.
The wyvern's gaze was very sharp. This feeling of being watched by a creature at the top of the food chain was like a blade, making Loranhir involuntarily break out in goosebumps. She instinctively wanted to avoid its gaze and escape.
...No, she couldn't look away!
If she looked away, it would definitely see through her bluff.
Loranhir clenched her fists, forcing herself to stay calm as she stared fixedly at the wyvern.
Geez, this thing was even bigger than she'd imagined.
Ugh~ Why did it have bad breath too?
Shrimp-head dragon, at least brush your teeth before going out!
When Loranhir got nervous, she couldn't help but start thinking crude thoughts.
Fortunately, she kept all these thoughts bottled up inside, or she really would have been stomped into Loranhir sauce by the wyvern.
Even though she'd prepared herself mentally beforehand, she was still panicking to death as usual.
Loranhir didn't know what she was thinking, but she especially didn't want the wyvern before her to carry off the princess.
Inner panic and fear pressed against her fragile nerves.
Loranhir knew she'd always been shamefully useless. At Lake Berlin, she had already watched such a thing happen once with her own eyes.
At that time, she hadn't done anything, couldn't do anything—could only watch helplessly.
Now, no matter what, Loranhir wouldn't allow such a thing to happen again.
Echoing her inner fear, her heartbeat grew louder and louder.
The deep, powerful heartbeat also made Yanubi aware of the Heart of the Red Queen's existence.
"This kind of sound... something's wrong. What's going on here?"
Yanubi's movements were very hesitant, somewhat nervous. It clearly sensed the enormous pressure the Hero brought and couldn't figure her out at all.
In Yanubi's eyes, the Hero's tiny figure seemed to grow infinitely tall, like a great mountain.
This pressure was like ten thousand tons, as if all pressure was concentrated at one point, born in an instant, dying in an instant!
The wyvern was actually afraid.
For the first time, Yanubi experienced the emotion of fear.
Elaphia on the side was also shocked to see Loranhir directly facing the wyvern.
At this moment, the world seemed utterly silent except for the sudden dense heartbeat like a storm.
"The Hero is truly incomparably powerful," she muttered quietly, feeling fearful afterward. "Fortunately, the Hero is on my side."
Too frightening, too frightening. Did I get seen through?
Loranhir's heart was equally nervous.
But having acted this far, she could only steel herself and continue the pretense.
Loranhir placed her hand on her fire poker's hilt, maintaining her expression while deliberately assuming a stance as if about to draw her sword.
'My old friend, I can only trouble you once more.'
"This person is..."
Yanubi's dragon eyes narrowed slightly. It finally recognized her, showing great alarm.
"So it's you, so it's you—the Strongest Hero Loranhir?!"
The name of the Strongest Hero was well-known even among dragonkind, since no one wanted to accidentally provoke such an invincible existence someday.
Now the final puzzle piece of why the princess would appear here was found.
Black Death Patunasankus must have perished under this Strongest Hero's holy sword.
It all connected, everything connected.