Chapter 165: What do you think you should call me?

“What?!” Sevyara immediately released Peretti’s leg and fell backward onto the ground, her tiny face alternating between red and pale white.

So… all her ridiculous luck and pathetic disguises had been seen through from the very beginning. She had been played with in the palm of the other girl’s hand the entire time!

Peretti crouched down to meet her at eye level, wearing a “kind” smile.

“Alright, little one. First question: what’s your name?”

Sevyara sniffled and tried her best to puff out her nearly nonexistent chest, attempting to recover a shred of her former dignity. She spoke in the most solemn tone she could manage, though paired with her current tiny body and miserable appearance, it only looked comical.

“Surely the honored Winged God-sama has heard of my great name! I am the First Elder of the Radiant Winged Dragon clan, revered as the ‘White Night of Dragonfall’—Sevyara Hamlet!”

When speaking her full name, a trace of pride and nostalgia for her former glory flashed through her eyes as she unconsciously placed her hands on her hips.

Unfortunately, with her current appearance—soaked, filthy, and barely over 1.2 meters tall in her baby dragon form—the supposed “dignity” lost most of its impact.

“Winged God-sama?” Peretti raised a brow.

“I don’t even have wings. Which eye of yours decided I’m part of the Winged God race?”

“Eh?”

Sevyara froze, confusion filling her violet eyes.

“Isn’t that the case? The concentration and purity of the light element around you is obviously from the Winged God bloodline. Other than them, I genuinely can’t think of any race capable of possessing such—”

“A witch.”

Peretti interrupted her with two simple words.

“…A witch?”

Sevyara repeated the word blankly.

Her expression slowly shifted from confusion… to bewilderment… and finally froze into boundless terror.

Her tiny body began trembling uncontrollably, and tears rapidly filled her large violet eyes as though she had just heard the most horrifying word in existence.

“Wuh… wuuuahhh!! I’m doomed! I only just escaped that hellhole… and now I’ve fallen straight into the hands of an evil witch! My life… my life is over!!!”

In her mind, she could already see her miserable future of being dissected for research or turned into magical materials.

“Over your head, idiot!”

Peretti irritably flicked her forehead—not hard, but enough to sting.

“Do I seriously look like one of those evil witches who casually experiment on demon races?”

Sevyara clutched her forehead and stared at Peretti with watery eyes.

Her instincts wanted to nod immediately. After all, the reputation of witches—especially the deeds of the Blood Witch—was a nightmare carved directly into dragonkind’s collective soul.

But when she caught sight of Peretti’s “kind” smile, along with the lantern 【Lumen】 that had somehow appeared in her hand and was radiating a dragon-frightening glow, she forcibly transformed the nod into frantic head-shaking instead.

“That’s better.”

Peretti nodded in satisfaction and put away 【Lumen】, her smile becoming a bit more genuine.

By now, Olivia had finished cleansing and purifying the surrounding environment. The contaminated soil had been replaced, and the giant crater had been filled in, leaving behind only faint traces of battle.

She walked over and asked seriously:

“Sevyara, how exactly did you escape from the seal of the Fallen Dragon Valley?”

Sevyara became noticeably more obedient and lowered her head as she answered:

“I dug a tunnel. Hundreds of years ago, I accidentally discovered that the binding barrier set up by the Doctor mainly targeted spatial movement and energy leakage, but its defenses against pure physical excavation were comparatively weak—especially deep underground within the rock layers.”

“So I held onto a tiny sliver of hope and started digging…”

“I just kept digging. Dug for hundreds of years until I finally tunneled beyond the edge of the barrier’s influence and sensed relatively normal earth again. Then I kept digging for a very long time… until today, when I finally reached this place.”

“You dug for hundreds of years…”

Olivia looked at the tiny dragon girl with a complicated expression, rare respect appearing in her voice.

“You truly possess astonishing perseverance.”

“For freedom, this amount of hardship is nothing!”

Sevyara clenched her tiny fists, light briefly returning to her eyes before dimming once more.

“Are there any other dragons following your example? Or anyone else who knows about this escape route?” Olivia pressed. That was the truly critical issue.

“No.”

Sevyara’s voice sank lower, filled with deep sorrow.

“Other than me, there may still be a few scattered kin in the valley retaining fragments of sanity… but simply maintaining that tiny bit of reason without being consumed by madness, while resisting the eternal agony brought by the curse, already exhausts all their strength.”

“Someone like me, who still had enough energy left to persist for hundreds of years… they couldn’t do it.”

“That’s good.”

Hearing that, Olivia finally relaxed slightly and let out a quiet breath.

A single fallen dragon escaping was troublesome, but still manageable.

What she truly feared was a large-scale breach in the seal, or organized escape attempts.

The fallen dragons themselves might only possess a fraction of their former combat strength, but the true problem was the Curse of Greed they carried.

That was the malicious seed planted by Marsha at the cost of divinity itself. Even the slightest leakage could cause long-lasting, stubborn corruption to land and living beings alike.

She glanced at the now completely inactive heart remains on the ground and the faint traces of curse aura still lingering around Sevyara, silently remaining vigilant.

The subsequent purification alone would still require significant effort.

“You’re really afraid of witches, huh?”

While waiting for Olivia to finish processing the lingering curse, Peretti took a cloth from inside her cloak and wrapped it around Sevyara like clothing.

“Not afraid, not afraid at all.”

Sevyara hurriedly denied it, terrified of upsetting Peretti.

“Do you know what kind of behavior makes me unhappy?”

Peretti crouched down again and met Sevyara’s eyes directly.

“W-What?”

“When I treat someone honestly, yet they refuse to trust me. That’s what I hate the most.”

“Like right now. I freed you from the curse and offered you protection, yet you still think I can’t be trusted.”

Peretti’s gaze turned icy cold, devoid of even the slightest warmth.

To Sevyara, it felt no different from a threat.

Given her own weakness, she had no choice but to obey.

“Afraid? Of course I’m afraid…”

“My sisters… my family… they were all killed by the Blood Witch. They became twisted monsters, neither dragon nor beast anymore, losing their sanity and tearing each other apart.”

“How could I not be afraid?”

“That’s more like it.”

A smile bloomed across Peretti’s face.

Yet in Sevyara’s eyes, it looked no different from the smile of a devil.

“T-Then… Lady Witch… what exactly did you save me for? What do you want from me?”

“Hm?”

Peretti raised a teasing brow at Sevyara’s form of address.

“Uh… d-does milady dislike that title? No problem! What should I call you instead?”

“Sevyara, if you were merely a dying fallen dragon, then calling me ‘Lady Witch’ would be fine.”

“But now, I’ve granted you new life. The first person you saw after emerging from that flesh cocoon was me.”

“So tell me… what should you call me?”

“Guh… t-that… anything but that…”

Sevyara fidgeted awkwardly with her fingers.

She understood perfectly what Peretti meant.

Back in Sevyara’s era, there had once been a rumor that the first living being a dragon saw after hatching would be recognized as its mother.

Although it was only a rumor—and dragon society actually worked nothing like that—she could clearly tell that what Peretti wanted her to say right now… was exactly that.

“Hm? I’m asking you. What should you call me?”

Peretti pressed further.

After all, Peretti had rescued her from the curse and restored her body. In a sense, it truly wasn’t much different from being reborn through a parent.

“Guh…”

“…Mother.”

“Ehh~ now that’s more like it.”