Chapter 4: The Solution (2)

From that day forward, Louis’s attitude completely changed.

Yum! Now behaving more intelligently, Louis started using utensils instead of his hands to eat.

“More please!”

“Yes, yes!” Genelocer happily refilled Louis’s bowl.

I’m Korean, and we’re known for our resilience! I’ll survive this with sheer willpower!

Of course, he was no longer human but a dragon, but that wasn’t important.

I WILL SURVIVE! NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES!

With this shift in mindset, Louis felt reinvigorated about life, which also boosted his appetite. He enthusiastically scooped up large spoonfuls of purple slime, each portion as big as a rice ladle. Today, it tasted particularly delicious.

Oh! It has a grape flavor today.

Louis slurped up the grape-flavored slime with gusto. Thanks to his father cutting it into bite-size pieces, Louis had no trouble eating them all.

“Heh-heh.” Genelocer’s smile widened as he watched his son finally regain some energy after several gloomy days.

Unaware of his father’s gaze, Louis focused solely on shoveling more food into his mouth.

I need to eat! The key to survival is staying strong by consuming lots of nourishment!

His one-month-old body was incredibly fragile. In order to survive the calamity approaching in 499 years, Louis needed to toughen up. With this newfound motivation, Louis enthusiastically devoured his meal.

The swift movement of his hands and messy eating conveyed Louis’s determination.

Suddenly, without any warning, the first sign of trials appeared.

Whiiing.

As Louis was about to bring a spoonful of grape-flavored slime to his mouth, he heard a faint sound from somewhere nearby.

Whiiiing.

Splat!

A small, round, multicolored object flew into Louis’s purple slime.

Whiing-whiing… Thud.

The thing struggled briefly within the slime before going still, but Louis remained oblivious to it all. However, Genelocer noticed immediately.

“Louis!” While happily watching his son eat, Genelocer swiftly knocked the spoon out of Louis’s hand.

Clack.

“Argh! Wh-what was that?!” Louis had been startled when his spoon suddenly flew out of his hand while he was eating. Bewildered, he stared at Genelocer, who appeared relieved.

“Phew…” With a big sigh, Genelocer walked toward where the spoon had landed. Ignoring the spilled baby food slime on the floor, he picked up both the spoon and something round and colorful next to it.

Vmm, vmm.

The small creature wriggled in Genelocer’s grip.

Louis blinked in confusion. “…A bug?”

“It resembles one, yes. It’s an artificial creature created for research purposes.”

“…Huh?”

“It contains highly toxic venom harmful to living creatures.”

“…?!” Louis’s eyes widened in shock as he stared dumbly at the struggling bug.

Since it knocked my spoon away earlier… Did that mean it was inside the food I was eating?

Seeing Louis’s startled expression, Genelocer gently stroked his head.

Eep, eep!

Louis squirmed under the soothing touch while listening intently to Genelocer’s calm voice.

“It is indeed dangerous, but not for our species. Well… It could have been risky if you had eaten it at your age… But since you didn’t consume any, everything turned out fine, right?”

“…”

Seeing Genelocer’s nonchalant relief that Louis hadn’t eaten it and survived left Louis at a loss for words. He decided to let it go as well.

Well… Considering this is a dragon’s lair, I guess encountering poisonous insects isn’t unheard of.

Louis shrugged it off, especially since he’d overheard Genelocer mumbling something about the bug possibly escaping from his lab. However, dismissing this issue so easily would prove problematic later on.

Another five days passed when Louis found himself lost within the familiar labyrinth of tunnels.

This place is too big!

A momentary distraction was enough to lose one’s way due to the vastness of Genelocer’s lair. It happened just as Louis arrived at a peculiar room.

Whoosh.

A giant ax whizzed past Louis’s face.

“Ackkk!” As he trembled at narrowly escaping decapitation, Genelocer appeared and shattered the head of the statue swinging the ax.

Krrrk!

“Oh no… Why did this happen? I’m sure I programmed it not to harm you.” Amidst the cloud of dust, Genelocer looked perplexed as he consoled his shell-shocked son.

Five days later…

Bam!

Crash!

Louis was engrossed in reading a book in his room when a chandelier suddenly fell inches from his nose, startling him so much that he tumbled off his chair.

“What happened, my boy?!” Genelocer rushed over and picked up his stunned child standing before the fallen chandelier.

“Oh dear… Are you okay?” Genelocer consoled his startled son with pity as he glared angrily at the fallen chandelier.

It was clearly sturdy and shouldn’t have plummeted like that. His wrath was directed toward those responsible for its construction.

“How dare those incompetent bastards mess this up!” The dwarves who had been assigned to work on the lair’s architecture bore the brunt of Genelocer’s fury.

As a result, not only Louis’s room but all the lighting fixtures throughout the lair were replaced with ones guaranteed never to fall.

The day after the unexpected chandelier incident, Louis found himself deep in thought.

Ten days…

Only ten days had passed, yet he’d already narrowly escaped death three times.

Would he accidentally ingest poison from the venomous bugs? Would Genelocer’s guardians attack him on command? Would the sturdy silver chain snap and let the chandelier fall on his head?

Death could come for Louis at any moment, anywhere.

“Well… Nah, it can’t be.” Despite his unease, Louis remained skeptical. However, mere days later, that skepticism turned to certainty.

“Ahhhhh…” Louis breathed deeply, taking in the fresh air.

As someone who had spent most of his life confined to his home, this was his first time venturing outside, albeit with Genelocer accompanying him as his guardian.

“The air is so crisp!” Was this what it felt like being surrounded by nature’s beauty in the Swiss Alps? Louis smiled at the lush greenery under the clear blue sky and the majestic mountains beyond them.

“It’s colossal…”

The grandeur of the snow-covered peaks was too vast to take in all at once. As he gazed up at the mountain range, Genelocer interrupted his thoughts.

“They call that one the Left Fang of Earth.”

“That’s it?”

The Left and Right Fangs of Earth were nicknames for two massive mountains located on opposite ends of the continent. Among these, the Left Fang was renowned for being inhabited by numerous mysterious races.

It’s definitely different seeing it with my own eyes.

Louis had acquired all his knowledge from books up until now, so he was awestruck by the sight of these majestic mountains for the first time in his life.

Are they bigger than Mount Everest?

He’d never seen Mount Everest himself but suspected that these might be even taller.

As Louis became lost in thought…

Flutter, flutter…

Something yellow flitted past him, catching his attention.

A butterfly?

The butterfly brushing against his nose instantly drew Louis’s gaze and compelled him to instinctively chase after it despite his better judgment.

Stop right there!

While Louis was preoccupied chasing the fluttering yellow butterfly—

Zzzzt!

The air around them began vibrating unnaturally, but Louis failed to notice due to his obsession with the insect.

This was a huge misfortune for Louis.

Boom!

With a deafening crack, lightning struck out of clear blue skies and headed straight toward him at breakneck speed.

“Louis!” Genelocer cried out, startled.

But Louis couldn’t hear his voice as he had already been engulfed by the bolt.

What the hell…?!

It truly was a bolt from the blue. The sudden strike paralyzed Louis’s limbs, but it wasn’t over yet.

Krrrrk-boom!

Lightning struck again, hitting Louis squarely.

Ahhh…

What were the odds of getting hit twice during a sunny day? And on top of that, encountering multiple life-threatening situations within just a few days?

Crap!

At that moment, Louis finally realized what was happening.

…Is this telling me to die?!

The original plot was forcing him toward his demise.

Bam!

Another bolt of lightning struck. With three direct hits, Louis’s vision began fading.

“Loouuuis!” Genelocer wailed as he held on tightly to Louis.

This was Louis’s last memory before everything went black.

Tak-tak-tak!

Louis gnawed on his tail and trembled uncontrollably, a habit he’d developed when feeling extremely anxious.

“I-I almost died…”

Not too long ago, lightning had struck him three times in quick succession at this very spot. Despite being young, Louis was still a dragon, but if not for that or Genelocer’s swift first aid, he would’ve been killed instead of merely knocked out.

That incident had occurred just days earlier, yet here he was again, narrowly escaping death from a falling brick.

“Dammit!”

Though he survived both incidents, his fear of dying hadn’t abated. The shadow of death loomed over Louis indiscriminately every few days, signaling that his demise could be imminent.

Even today, Louis could have met his demise for any number of reasons. It felt like the world was forcing him to die prematurely.

Why is death coming after me so soon? Can’t it wait until all the flags are properly set?!

Louis had expected at least another 498 years before his time came. How could he anticipate facing such ominous signs already?

He wondered if he might be misremembering something from the original story and tried recalling its details.

“I’m sure it said humans would kill him, but…?”

The circumstances surrounding Louis’s death were not explicitly mentioned in the novel. One could only infer that he died by human hands based on Genelocer’s dialogue. Nowhere did it suggest such an anticlimactic end.

“What could possibly be the reason behind this?”

Despite the mounting signs pointing to his imminent demise, Louis reached only one plausible conclusion after much deliberation.

“Could it be…because I refuse to die?” His face hardened.

His death was supposed to trigger the beginning of the original story, but now he vehemently resisted that fate. In other words, if he didn’t die, the plot would never get underway.

“Dammit!” Louis cursed under his breath as his theory solidified.

Suddenly, though, something struck him.

“No…wait a minute.” Something wasn’t adding up.

If my death truly marks the start of the original narrative, shouldn’t everything proceed normally only after humans kill me and create the Dragon King?

Everything was questionable now.

If I start asking questions at this point, won’t the birth of the Dragon King be prevented?

Yet they were trying to kill him?

“But…why?” Louis’s thoughts were jumbled.

Why would this massive flow try to kill him? What could possibly be the reason? His mind raced with endless questions, but he couldn’t find any answers. The only certainty was that his life was hanging by a thread.

What should I do…?

Tak-tak-tak!

With its tail between its legs, Louis ran even faster.

I need a solution.

The improbable death flags kept appearing recently, and it seemed like they might continue until his demise.

If that was the case, he needed to find a way to protect himself.

Is there any solution…? A solution?

A light sparked in Louis’s eyes.

“There is!”

The answer surprisingly lay close at hand.