Chapter 121: The Festival of Blessings (I)
"Berry."
"Yes?"
"Stay in your dragon form."
"Hah?! Why the heck would I want to do that?!" I stared at him, flabbergasted.
"Because you will look cool and intimidating. Plus, everyone is wondering who the white dragon that saved the city really is. This is a great time to show the people who you are."
"No."
That's how it all started. The stupid Demon Lord wannabe somehow persuade me with his evil eyes, threatening to chuck out all my gold coins to the public for so-called public service. I'm not greedy. It's food. Food that would save everyone's lives.
It has been over three weeks since the Human War, and the city was bustling with life. Many people saw me changed in the heat of the battle, but it was still enough for the word to go around that I was the white dragon. Now the citizens were waiting for an answer that I have been avoiding for a while now, but I couldn't push it back much further.
I sat in my dragon form, sitting on top of Duke Jeremy's own roof. The roof creaked and groaned under my weight, telling me that I was too heavy. Duke Jeremy was frightened at first, when he heard and saw me sit on his roof, he went a bit crazy. Then twenty minutes in, it all changed.
"Please, Great Magician Berry!" Duke Jeremey was begging on his knees. Fear of his house possibly crumbling down terrified him. "Please, my house! You're too heavy! Your weight is going to cave in!"
I huffed. "I certainly am not." I felt slightly offended. His words were like a stab to my heart. He was outright telling me I was a bit overweight.
I ignored his bleated plea because it was the Duke that set everything in motion asking Phil to get it done. Phil made sure he got it done. I'm not the type to hold a grudge, I assure you, but for someone who wanted to stay hidden to suddenly be brought out to light was a bit of a sudden change.
"I am doing exactly what you wanted, showing my presence." My large claw slipped off the window sill, breaking off a piece of the roof tile.
"Opps." I gave him a lopsided dragon smile. Even though I haven't done it on purpose, I felt a bit good about that small mishap. Revenge! Cough. I mean, my bad.
Duke Jeremy paled even further when he saw the tiles falling off his roof. "Please…." His voice was almost a whisper, telling me that he could only take only so much more before he faints.
"I don't want to." I turned my head away, being stubborn right now was petty, but I really didn't want to move. It was just that comfortable.
A fair amount of people had swarmed around Duke Jeremy's house, staring up at me with curiosity. Others stood back in fear, wondering if I would breathe out fire and kill them on sight.
Though, they were more people standing there gawking at me with excitement. I thought by now that I would get some kind of panic and screams from most people, but so far, none of that happened. Maybe I didn't make quite an impact in battle to scare them off, yet.
Unaffected by the current atmosphere, Phil continued to walk forward. He stopped below the house and stood there with his hand on his hips. "Berry!" He called out towards me.
I frowned. The cause of all things that made this what it is today: the Demon Lord. How I wanted to punch him.
"Yes?" I gave him a toothy smile that showed off my lovely set of my fangs. The people who were watching gulped and took a step back in fear. I'm not that scary, am I? I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Come on down, we need to tour the city."
"I think I'll pass. I like this perch. Thank you very much. It has the best spot to sunbathe." I lazily stated.
"Stop being such a pain in the ass and come down. You can perch on any house later."
"Nope. This one is the best."
Duke Jeremy gave a pleading eye to Phil, telling him to get me down from his roof. I wasn't in my full-size form, but it was enough to cover the majority of his roof. It's quite lovely up here with the black tiles that made it toasty.
"Really? Then fine, I'm not giving you your desert that I brought you." Phil fished out a couple of gold coins in his pocket.
I smelled the sweet apple scent that came off the gold coin, and my nose sharply dove towards the gold in his hands. My feet scampered off the tiled roof, and I got down with a thump. Everyone except Phil split ways for me to come over; my mind was focused on one thing.
Desert! Ugh, I felt pathetic to be so easily swayed by this damnable curse.
"You're not going to throw that away, are you?" I nervously asked. Why am I such a pansy when it comes to gold? For crying out loud, this could be my downfall if I'm not careful.
"I was thinking about donating for the public good." Phil rubbed his chin, looking at the gold in his hand, wondering what he should do with it.
"I need donations." I flatly spoke out. The massive sweet smell of the gold tickled my nose. Oh, man, my mouth was already drooling. I don't know how long I can keep this up without me taking a bite out of his hands, in which case I wouldn't mind making him handless. He tricks me so often that he sometimes needs a lesson that I'm not someone to mess with!
"Are you sure? You don't want to perch on Uncle's Jeremy's roof?"
This was quite a dilemma. I could perch on Duke Jeremy to complete my revenge or have a delicious dessert that I have been abstaining myself quite frequently to get better at not eating the gold. Though these past two days, I haven't even gotten a chance to have such a delicious snack. My dragon's senses were overpowering my mind, telling me to hurry up and eat the offer.
"I-"
"You know what. I think I'll just donate it."
"To me?" I gave him a sloppy smile that was happy that he was giving it to me.
"No. Are you out of your mind? Why would I give it to you?"
I puffed out black smoke in Phil's face. This wretched elf, why does he do this to me? I spat out another puff, hoping that he would choke on the smoke and die.
Phil waved his hands in front of his face, coughing, trying to clear the smoke.
"I-I want to donate!" A small human girl called out towards us. I whipped my head around, startling the little girl backward. She fell onto her butt, which made me feel a bit sad that I scared her senseless.
She was a cute little thing. Her curly brown hair and her heart-shaped face made her so lovely. Even the cute way she was holding the gold coin in both of her hands, trying not to lose it was freaking adorable. Her dirtied face and ragged clothes made me wonder if she was an orphan. I did not see many orphans or the slums anywhere because they were none, to begin with. Also, I love cute things. I wasn't going to eat her, but it seems everyone around her took a couple steps back, singling her out.
"Donate?" I cocked my head to the right. Walking forward, I stopped my giant head six times bigger than her whole body stared down at her.
"Y-Yes." She stuttered. "I heard that dragons bring good luck. I wish for my mommy to become well."
I glanced down at her; she was so tiny that she could fit in my whole mouth. Opening my mouth, my pearly white teeth dangerously gleamed next to her head.
She fearlessly got up and stuck her hands in my mouth, dropping the coins into my tongue. I could feel the gold melting on my tongue the moment it landed. For the first time, the cold metal of gold tasted incredibly delicious. The gold coin wasn't the purest type, more close to fifty percent. No better words could describe the sweetness that came from the gold that I ever tasted.
People gasped out in fear and shock when they saw the little girl fearlessly stick her hand in my mouth. Nobody could move to snatch her away. I gave her credit for being so fearless in that small body that I couldn't help contain my smile. Everyone who was looking cried out in horror when I smiled. For they all thought, I would eat her there and then. Eventually, she brought back her hand out of my mouth and placed it on her side, sheepishly staring up at me.
I could feel an unusual stir of energy, wallowing up deep inside my guts. Closing my mouth, I bumped the tip of my nose onto her forehead. My eyes glowed gold, and strange words poured out of my lips. It sounded completely like gibberish to the people who were watching, but I knew what I had said for me. Words just spilled out of my mouth like water.
"May you be blessed with good health for the Goddess of Light is watching over you." The swirl of power flickered and around the little girl's forehead. A small pale leaf-like pattern appeared, making everyone shout out in shock.
I felt quite drained when the energy suddenly left me; luckily, I could still move without much trouble. Huffing out a satisfied grunt, I pulled back and glanced down at the little girl. She was tearing up as large droplets of water fell down her face, making me really uncomfortable.
"T-thank you!" She hiccuped and smeared snot on the back of her hand from wiping it away.
The little blessing didn't have anything to do with her mother, and I felt really guilty. The whole point that she gave me a donation was to bring some kind of luck to her mother. I'm no god, and sometimes magic just doesn't always go the way I wanted it. Magic is fickle; I notice this more when I am a dragon, especially when it comes to blessing people. What was even more startling was that the words Goddess of Light just slipped out of my mouth as if it was natural.
"The dragon said the Goddess of Light." Someone whispered out loud for the others to hear.
How is it the only thing that they could understand was the Goddess of Light? Maybe it's because her name is universal? I don't know, it's a complete mystery to me.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
BlackSnowAngel
BlackSnowAngel The aftermath of the war. <3 Berry got lots to deal with when it comes to her own people.
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