“I'm sorry, Xiao Xi. Mom suddenly realized that compared to you and your dad, I love that man more, so... I'm sorry!”

That was the last thing Cang Xiaoxi's mother ever said to him in his memory.

School had let out early that day, and Cang Xiaoxi happened to catch his mother packing her bags, ready to run away with her lover.

Faced with that apology that held no sincerity at all, Cang Xiaoxi said nothing.

Because he had actually known for a long time. His mother had someone on the side behind his father's back. And that person was even the one his father considered his best friend. That fact...

As he watched his mother leave with her lover, her face full of happiness, the first seed of his distrust toward women began to take root in the boy's heart from that very moment.

As for what happened after that, everyone already knew.

The company went bankrupt. People looked down on them. His father took his own life. And most importantly, his childhood sweetheart betrayed him too...

Other than the wealth he had accumulated within himself, the thing called knowledge, Cang Xiaoxi had nothing left to lose.

Right. Nothing at all...

That was how it should've been...

“So cold... where is this...?”

The boy seemed to have had a very, very long dream.

It was vivid, and painful at the same time.

Only that woman's face was something he never wanted to remember again.

But why...

“Why would I dream about her? What a mood-killer.”

The cool touch against his forehead gradually cleared the haze from the boy's mind.

He shook his head and tried not to think about those things. While enjoying that coolness that made him feel comfortable and safe, Cang Xiaoxi began to observe his surroundings and confirm his current condition.

One thing was certain. Cang Xiaoxi was not on the surface right now.

His memory was a little blurry, but he clearly remembered falling into the pit together with Fenrir. Besides, what entered his sight now was a pitch-black stone ceiling with no light at all.

Cang Xiaoxi could tell for sure that he was underground.

As for how deep, he'd need to check further.

“Hope the fall wasn't too deep. Maybe I can still get back to the surface.”

The more he thought about spending his very first day in another world trapped underground, the more he felt his luck was seriously awful.

Before coming here, he'd already had enough of those pointless provocations from being the eternal runner-up. After arriving, he almost immediately ran into that airheaded Dragon Sovereign.

She looked like a child in both personality and appearance, yet in truth she was an adult whose years far surpassed his own.

Every time he realized that...

Along with a faint sense of nostalgia, Cang Xiaoxi finally remembered the Dragon Sovereign he had overlooked.

“Come to think of it, I saw that girl trying to save me. Where did she...”

Thinking that Jikuhir might've fallen down too, Cang Xiaoxi reached out and felt around, planning to get up and check where she was.

But...

“Hm?! What's this?”

His right hand refused to move against his will. More than that, his whole body seemed to be tightly held down by some force. Rather than saying his consciousness had been taken away, it felt more like something was pressing him down hard.

Cang Xiaoxi froze for a moment, then realized something.

That cool, comfortable feeling was familiar. It seemed he'd come into contact with it shortly before losing consciousness.

Putting all those signs together, a bad thought flashed through his mind.

So, using strength that didn't feel childlike in the slightest, he rolled his whole body to the side. Sure enough, a girl as beautiful as a porcelain doll was clinging tightly to him.

That girl was none other than Jikuhir, who had fought alongside him.

Why was she hugging him? Why was she asleep right now? What exactly was going on here?

Questions popped into Cang Xiaoxi's head one after another.

His mind in chaos, Cang Xiaoxi wanted to get out of this situation as soon as possible. After all, being this close to a girl was something he'd only ever experienced with that childhood sweetheart of his. No one else.

From the current situation, he and Jikuhir were only lying together. And this obviously wasn't that so-called morning after people talked about.

Thinking that, Cang Xiaoxi relaxed a little...

“That's not it at all! More importantly, with a body like mine, how could I even do that kind of thing?! Wake up already, you airheaded emotionless Dragon Sovereign!”

With a trembling expression, Cang Xiaoxi loudly shouted while making incomprehensible retorts at his own thoughts, trying to use brute force to free himself from this brainless Dragon Sovereign who had decided to hug people whenever she pleased.

But no matter how much Cang Xiaoxi struggled, Jikuhir only rubbed her face against him comfortably and swayed her cute little tail, showing no sign of waking up at all.

If anything, the more he struggled, the tighter she hugged him.

“No more... I can't eat anymore... I really can't... but... if you're insisting this much, Xi'er, then I'll just take one last bite...”

Who knew what kind of sweet dream the girl was having? Drool had already pooled from the corner of her mouth.

Meanwhile, Cang Xiaoxi's anger kept rising.

At last, just as he decided not to hold back anymore and was about to use his full strength to break free from Jikuhir's arms, the girl opened her small mouth, revealing a pair of long sharp fangs.

“Hey, hey, hey... don't tell me she's about to...”

Cold sweat broke out all over Cang Xiaoxi as he shivered.

He stared at that mouth opening wider and wider, stretching all the way to the girl's limit.

And then, the outcome he least wanted to imagine still happened.

“OW!!! You idiot, let go! My head is not your food!!!”

She hugged his face and head and bit down upward. Feeling those sharp fangs sink into his flesh, Cang Xiaoxi realized this half-asleep Dragon Sovereign was serious. She was really treating him like food.

To think that after being transported to another world, his final fate might be ending up in the stomach of the strongest Dragon Sovereign... probably. That joke wasn't funny at all.

At the end of his patience, veins bulged on Cang Xiaoxi's forehead.

“Wake up already, you glutton! Emotionless Dragon Sovereign!”

He gathered all his magic into his right hand and smacked the girl on the head.

“Ow!”

Rubbing the spot where she'd been hit, Jikuhir struggled to open her eyes because of Cang Xiaoxi's movement. The moment she saw he was safe and showed a delighted expression, wanting to pounce over and hug him again, the boy's overwhelmingly powerful right fist dropped onto her head once more.

Clonk!

“Uwaaah!!! What was that for all of a sudden?!”

Tears in her eyes, clutching her head, Jikuhir sat up in a duck-sit posture and finally woke up completely.

Still, it looked like she hadn't realized at all that she'd just been trying to eat Cang Xiaoxi.

Looking at the girl like this, Cang Xiaoxi found that even if he had anger, he couldn't vent it.

Helpless, he could only sit up first and check where they were.

But just then, as Jikuhir lowered her hands from her head and shifted into staring blankly at Cang Xiaoxi, her cherry-like lips slowly parted.

“...Xiao Xi?”

“Yeah, it's me. What is it?”

Jikuhir suddenly calling his name startled Cang Xiaoxi, but since nothing seemed wrong, he didn't think too much of it.

Without paying her any more mind, he patted the dust off his clothes and looked around, beginning to inspect their location.

However.

In the very next instant, the girl suddenly threw herself at him and wrapped him up in a tight hug.

“Thank goodness! Thank goodness! You're okay?! That's really great!”

“...”

The suddenness of it left Cang Xiaoxi with no idea what to say.

Quietly held by the sobbing girl, he found that he didn't even want to kick her away this time.

This feeling... was a first for him.

Why? Why was he staying still, letting Jikuhir hold him and cry?

Ah, right. It was because Jikuhir was crying, so he couldn't move.

Those were tears born from her genuine worry, and from her happiness that he was safe.

Because he understood that, Cang Xiaoxi couldn't harden his heart again.

“Sorry...”

At this stage, that was all Cang Xiaoxi could say.

They had only known each other for a single day, but forcing away a girl who was worried about him... he still couldn't do something that stupid.

So Cang Xiaoxi let Jikuhir keep hugging him for a while, until she herself realized how awkward her behavior was.

“Ah, ah, sorry. It's not like I was trying to do anything, it's just, just... because that... your injury, it was because of me...”

She stammered and couldn't continue. Her little face had already turned bright red.

It seemed that even a Dragon Sovereign with life experience far beyond ordinary people wasn't very good at this sort of thing.

“It's fine. I get it.”

Cang Xiaoxi tried his best to put on a gentle expression.

He really did understand. He had saved her life, so out of guilt, she worried about him in return. He understood all of that.

But speaking of injuries, what about his own wounds now?

“They're already healed... I remember this medicine was...”

Other than a faint trace of bloodiness, the wound had mostly closed up.

Judging from the familiar-colored medicinal liquid still left near the wound, it was Jikuhir who had treated him.

After learning that the girl had saved him, Cang Xiaoxi felt conflicted.

After all, he had planned to use Jikuhir as an information extractor, then stop bothering with her once he was done.

But now she was worrying about him and helping him like this. It made his chest ache.

“Looks like I'll have to stay with her a while longer until I've paid back this debt,” Cang Xiaoxi muttered softly. Then he looked at Jikuhir, who didn't quite dare meet his eyes, and said, “No matter what, thank you. And sorry for making you worry.”

“Ah, n-no, it's nothing. You're making too much of it.”

Jikuhir waved her hands shyly. That fresh reaction of hers caught Cang Xiaoxi a little off guard.

But when he thought about how he didn't really know her that well in the first place, he instinctively let it pass.

He looked around at the cave, lit by unknown glowing stones, and at the single path leading off to somewhere unknown.

After both of them had calmed down, Cang Xiaoxi asked Jikuhir,

“So, what happened after that?”