Evil Dragon Chapter 8: Lin Nuo Wanted to Slack Off

Chapter 8: Lin Nuo Wanted to Slack Off

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: CaiCai, Kris

After returning to his dorm, he didn’t even bother to shower or change clothes. Instead, he immediately took out the coin and compared it carefully with the one he risked his life to retrieve yesterday. The same patterns, the tiny dragon claw relief—it was unmistakable. This was the coin the System wanted him to find! And Rennes mentioned that their family had many of these coins? Lin Nuo scratched his head, finding it puzzling.

[Ding-dong! Important plot reminder!] The System, silent the whole day, finally came back online, [Detected successful contact established between the host and the paladin, bringing back a special coin! The host’s interaction with the paladin has been good, successfully opening a new path!]

While the System was active, Lin Nuo hurriedly asked, “What connection does this coin have with the Clement family? Why would Rennes have this coin and claim his family has many?”

Silence prevailed.

Just when Lin Nuo thought the System had gone offline, the notification sound chimed in again: [Please note, in the new path, if the paladin exposes your disguise to anyone— including yourself, you won’t be able to maintain your human form anymore and will directly enter the bad ending (BE)!]

After that, no matter how Lin Nuo called out, the System remained silent.

Supporting his head, Lin Nuo sighed heavily in his mind, considering the System’s unreliability. Wasn’t it obvious that if he failed, it would lead to a BE? After all, in the original story, didn’t the evil dragon perish this way? Why would the System emphasize it again separately? Moreover, what good interaction? He was practically limping. Although he was healed in the end, it was still painful during the process!

Thinking about continuing this ‘interaction’ the next day made Lin Nuo a bit disheartened. He sluggishly freshened up, lounged on the small sofa, nibbled on some cookies prepared by the attendants, and eventually clutched the two coins before dozing off.

In the middle of the night, hunger abruptly woke Lin Nuo, his stomach cramping. He glanced at the small table, noticing several silver pots with warm fresh milk, steaming hot chocolate, cold sweet fruit juice, and refreshing sparkling water. On a small plate were butter cookies shaped like lilies, cream-filled sponge cakes, and tangy sweet frozen strawberries. Although he had access to food, Lin Nuo didn’t feel like eating any of it. The only things he wanted to eat were peacefully lying beside his down pillow, emitting a tempting golden glow in the dim night light.

Lin Nuo swore he had merely entertained the thought of ‘coins look delicious’ in his mind when, with a snap, he turned back into that little pink dragon with a flat face. Once a dragon, all sense of shame and impending danger disappeared into another dimension. He struggled out of his robe, looked at the gleaming new coin, and joyfully pounced on it. He rubbed his flat face against it, rolled around with the coin, and finally curled up around it.

Ah, it was too wonderful! Too warm!

And so, Lin Nuo, in the form of a young dragon, enjoyed a sound sleep, undisturbed even by the sudden thunderous rain outside.

The next morning, Lin Nuo woke up feeling content, gradually regaining his human form. Remembering his actions from the previous night, Lin Nuo was mortified, wishing to go back and punish himself severely. Simultaneously, he vowed internally, Tonight, I must resist! I refuse to turn into that dumb, silly dragon again!

However…

That kind of promise was probably meant to be broken, right?

By the third and fourth day, human form Lin Nuo gave up resisting and completely relaxed.

Ah, forget it. Sleeping like this is more peaceful anyway. Nobody will barge into my room at night, and there’s no personal attendant in the adjacent room to cover me with a blanket. If I turn into a dragon, I turn into a dragon. Nobody will know, Lin Nuo consoled himself.

Once mentally at ease, Lin Nuo built a nest for his dragon self with pillows, soft blankets, and solemnly placed the coins inside. This way, every night, he could snugly hold onto the coins while sleeping in his nest.

The daytime lessons continued as usual. Every morning, Lin Nuo had various classes—horse riding, literature, etiquette, dancing… but conspicuously missing was painting. Every afternoon, there was Count Kaunitz’s political lecture, followed by Sir Rennes’s training.

After a fortnight passed, Lin Nuo felt as though he had gone back to his high school days.

—

After a literature class one day, Lin Nuo felt mentally exhausted. He decided to relax a bit in the palace garden before lunch. Carrying his custom sketchbook and charcoal pencils, he headed to the most secluded corner of the royal garden— a familiar route for him.

The royal palace of Saros sat just outside the capital city, built hundreds of years ago by directly encircling a large expanse of mountain forests. Surrounding this palace, thousands of small nobles and commoners gathered to provide various services to the royal family, thereby forming an almost self-sufficient city.

The buildings in the miniature city were all grand and magnificent, with the palace itself being exceptionally splendid. Whether indoors or outdoors, the ground was entirely paved with marble, exceptionally smooth. Even most areas of the backyard, after being leveled, were covered with large pieces of granite, forming geometric patterned squares, presenting a neat and uniform appearance. Carefully planted horticultural varieties adorn the lawns around the squares, with meticulously pruned trees, each bush round and lovely, complementing the irises and roses blooming below.

Sheltered by the foliage was a labyrinth of artificial ponds and fountains of various sizes. When all the fountains spray water together, rainbows appear in the backyard, creating a spectacular sight.

Lin Nuo’s favorite spot remained a secluded corner in the backyard, an untouched wild forest. Whether due to the laziness of craftsmen or special arrangements by the royal family, several acres of woodland in the southeast corner of the backyard still retained the appearance of centuries ago—towering trees, babbling brooks. The air in this wooded area was several degrees cooler than outside, and the ground was covered with thick, semi-rotten fallen leaves, making no sound when stepped on.

Perhaps due to its somewhat chilly atmosphere, there are rarely any nobles who visit this place on regular days. After all, they wouldn’t want the overgrown branches to snag their ornate coats.

Consequently, this woodland area remained quiet and desolate, devoid of the powdery scent of cosmetics, fitting perfectly with Lin Nuo’s preferences. He adeptly found a sturdy ancient tree, sat down cross-legged, and began sketching freely in his sketchbook.

Initially intending to draw some plants, Lin Nuo inexplicably found himself sketching the shape of a magic circle. Upon completing the drawing and observing the intricate pattern on the paper, Lin Nuo couldn’t help but laugh at himself, “I was just idle; why did I draw this?”

Could it be because he’s been studying magic circles too much lately?

Actually, in his past life, Lin Nuo had a well-hidden talent: the ability to quickly memorize any shape he glanced at, then nearly flawlessly replicate it in his mind. When he first arrived, Lin Nuo was worried this talent might be nullified by the System. After several attempts, he found it intact, at least in his human form, retaining this almost uncanny memory. As for the dragon form… well, forget it. His ability was to transform into a dragon that had become utterly foolish; Lin Nuo harbored no hope for it anymore.

It was solely due to this talent that he was initially able to remember the positions of all the magic arrays. In this life, Lin Nuo, who only sought to live a low-key existence, intended to continue concealing this talent, not wanting anyone to know about it. After some contemplation, he erased all the magic circles with a specially made eraser, leaving behind an inexplicable blotch.

Opening to a new blank page, Lin Nuo still didn’t start drawing flowers or plants. Swiftly, his pen sketched a deeply contoured portrait of a young man. His eyes were piercing, his lips slightly downturned, and his features incredibly handsome yet exuding an extremely cold and indifferent aura.

Lin Nuo snorted and casually added two demonic horns to the man’s head, making them slightly curved. After finishing the horns, he held up his masterpiece and felt a sense of relief.

Just as he contemplated whether to draw a small comic strip depicting ‘How a cold knight gets teased’, a high-speed rotating object slammed into his sketchbook with a loud smack.

Startled, Lin Nuo almost exclaimed, “I was just thinking; I hadn’t started drawing yet!” But he heard giggles from behind him.

Turning around, he saw a little girl in a puffy skirt. The object that had flown towards him was a small leather ball.

The girl had a round apple-shaped face, tousled brown hair loosely tied with a deep red ribbon. She wore a cherry-red puffy skirt, slightly torn at the edges by branches, but the craftsmanship was exquisite, obviously of considerable value. She seemed to be around five or six years old, looking at Lin Nuo with a beaming smile. “Mister, what are you drawing?”

Lin Nuo promptly closed his sketchbook and put on a serious expression. “Little girl, you shouldn’t throw balls like that. It’s dangerous!”

Unfortunately, whether in this life or the last, Lin Nuo had a baby face with round eyes. No matter how serious he tried to appear, he lacked any intimidation. Hence, the little girl wasn’t scared at all, continuing to giggle. She even tried to peek at Lin Nuo’s sketchbook.

Lin Nuo quickly raised the sketchbook higher. “I can’t give this to you! Where’s the person who’s supposed to look after you?”

With such fine clothes, the girl must be the daughter of some noble family, accompanied by at least two maids. Seeing she couldn’t snatch the sketchbook, the girl pouted and said, “Madam Irene didn’t want to play ball with me, so I chased it and ended up here.”

After securing the sketchbook and charcoal pencil, Lin Nuo asked the girl, “How about I take you to find Madam Irene? It’s too dangerous here!”

Truth be told, this forest might have snakes or lizards, making it indeed perilous for such a young girl.

But the girl skipped away, picking up her ball. “Mister, will you play with Nana first?” Seeing Lin Nuo didn’t immediately agree, she added, “Just for a while! Later, Nana will go with you to find Madam Irene!”

Lin Nuo couldn’t leave such a young child alone in the woods. Besides, the girl’s request made it difficult for him to refuse. So, he ended up playing a game of Catch with her. After tossing the ball back and forth dozens of times, Nana kept bouncing and hopping around, causing her already tattered skirt to tear even more.

When Lin Nuo caught the ball for the last time, he put on a serious face and said, “Alright, it’s time to find Madam Irene.”

He had anticipated the girl might negotiate or even throw a tantrum, but to his surprise, she obediently came over, taking Lin Nuo’s hand and said, “Okay, Nana will take you to find Madam now.”

Oh, this little girl was quite obedient. After holding Lin Nuo’s hand, Nana started giggling incessantly.

Unable to contain his curiosity, Lin Nuo asked, “What’s making you so happy?”

Nana replied, “Because someone played with Nana today. Usually, nobody pays attention to Nana.”

Lin Nuo hesitated but decided to ask, “Where are your parents?”

Nana casually replied, “Daddy didn’t marry Mommy, so Mommy can’t come here. Daddy doesn’t visit me either, so nobody pays attention to Nana.”

Suddenly, Lin Nuo understood. This child was probably the illegitimate daughter of some high-ranking noble, brought into the court by her father and then left to be raised by the servants—a mere decoration within the family. When she came of age, she might marry a minor noble or become a mistress of some high-ranking noble.

Lin Nuo felt a pang of discomfort and absentmindedly patted the girl’s tousled hair with his free hand.

After walking for a while, just as they were about to exit the woods, Nana stopped smiling. Instead, she tightly held Lin Nuo’s hand. Upon reaching the clearing outside the woods, the girl stopped abruptly, refusing to go any further.

Lin Nuo patiently squatted down, looking at Nana and asked, “What’s wrong? Are you tired of walking?”

The rosy cheeks on the girl’s round face had lost their color, her deep brown eyes now welling up with tears. She murmured softly, “When I go back, nobody will pay attention to me again…”

Suddenly, a somewhat grating voice called out, “Miss Nana! Where are you?”

Upon hearing the voice, Nana trembled and hastily wiped away her tears, dashing out of the woods, shouting loudly, “Madam Irene! I’m here!”

Soon, a middle-aged woman wearing a floral dress and a lace bonnet hurried over, grabbed Nana’s arm, and pinched her fiercely, scolding her, “Where did you run off to again? Don’t you know not to wander around!”

A bruise instantly appeared on Nana’s delicate arm, alarming Lin Nuo.

The woman didn’t recognize Lin Nuo and casually gave a brief curtsy before dragging Nana towards the main road, complaining, “Can’t you make things easier for me? Can’t you just play in the garden?”

As Nana struggled to peek back at Lin Nuo, she said, “Mister! Thank you for playing with me! Can you play with Nana again tomorrow?”

Biting his lip, Lin Nuo nodded and said, “Alright, at this time tomorrow, right here, we’ll play ball again.”

 

 

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