Chapter 73: Chapter 073 Pandora’s Daily Life
“Tap, tap, tap,” Richard walked back to the hill and found Pandora sitting on the ground as soon as he climbed up. She was propping her chin with her hands, her eyes unfocused as she stared at a bundle of air—lost in thought.
“What’s wrong?” Richard asked aloud.
Upon hearing his voice, Pandora turned her head to look, and after a long moment she frowned with a startled “Hah—” in a melodious voice, the meaning behind it unclear.
Richard’s eyes flashed as he realized something and turned his head towards the direction of the Dragon Cave, asking with a frown, “Has Gregory gone out again?”
This time Pandora didn’t speak, but nodded her head in response.
“Lately, Gregory seems a bit odd,” Richard said, reflecting on Gregory’s recent behavior.
Although Gregory had often left the cave before, his absences were never as frequent as now. Typically, he would leave every few days, spending about the same amount of time inside the Dragon Cave as outside.
But now, Gregory’s behavior could be summed up in four words—leaving early and returning late. Each time, he would leave at dawn, or even before sunrise, not to return until many days later in the middle of the night. He would barely spend half a day in the Dragon Cave before leaving again, sometimes not showing up for a whole week.
Gregory’s actions suggested he was busy with something. His barely concealed anxiety further implied that the matter was crucial to him. If mishandled, it might even be dangerous. But… realistically, what could threaten a mature giant dragon?
With Gregory’s strength, even an army of thousands of elite troops might as well not exist. Could it be…the wizards of this world?
Richard frowned slightly in thought.
According to what he knew and the information obtained from Gro, it had been confirmed that the place called “Smans Island,” where he currently was, was just a large island in the present world. Due to its lack of resources and the magic materials wizards required, very few wizards were present. Even if there were any, they were either passing through or, like himself, wizard apprentices who had just started out. The latter would usually try to board a “large ship” to seek opportunities on the mainland across the sea.
In such circumstances, the probability of “rare” entities like Gregory and similarly “rare” wizards intersecting was extremely low, offering hardly any chance for encounters. What on earth was Gregory so busy with?
Unable to figure it out after a long thought, Richard eventually looked at Pandora and said, “I’ll have a chat with him when I get the chance.”
“Hah,” Pandora nodded, making an agreeing sound, then turned her head back to the empty space beside her, returning to her previous unfocused gaze. She resumed her daydreaming, quietly waiting for time to pass, for the sunrise and the sunset, without expectation, without joy, not wanting to do anything, nor knowing what to do.
It had always been before; it was the same now and would continue to be so in the future.
She was a very bored dragon girl because she didn’t know what else this world had to offer besides boredom. Ah, and sparkling things!
Pandora remembered that shiny, glowing things were always pretty to look at and to bite. Although they didn’t seem to be of much interest, they were still slightly better than being bored.
With that thought, Pandora took out a bent silver spoon, full of tooth marks, from her bosom and placed it in the early morning sunlight, which immediately brought out a dazzling luster.
Pandora’s eyes brightened slightly, and then she continued to space out.
Richard watched her for a moment, his eyes flashing as he shook his head involuntarily. The next moment, struck by an idea, he walked into a room inside the castle, set down the Crystal Skull, and took out an item.
Then he walked out of the castle and approached Pandora.
Pandora looked up with a sense of awareness and asked, “Hah?”
“I’ve got something to show you,” said Richard.
“Hah?” Pandora inquired, wondering what it was.
Richard loosened his grip, pinching the object between his thumb and index finger, and presented it mid-air for Pandora to see.
Pandora looked over, and it appeared to be a small segment of a crystal column, except that both ends were triangular and shone a bit in the sunlight, though not as bright as the spoon in her hand.
What’s the use of that?
Pandora thought with a hint of disdain.
The next moment, Richard’s hand slowly moved, adjusting the angle, and Pandora instinctively squinted her eyes, raising her hand to block, as she felt a rainbow light shine down.
Pandora tilted her head to look at the hand she had raised and saw a rainbow-like light striking the palm of her hand, resplendent with all seven colors.
Unable to resist, she tried to grab the “rainbow,” but it fell onto the back of her hand instead.
“Huh?” Pandora couldn’t help but exclaim, wanting to understand how this was possible.
Richard bent down and placed the object in Pandora’s hand, speaking softly, “This is called a triangular prism. It can split the sun’s white light into the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet colors that you can see now. Well, of course, you can also consider it a rainbow.”
Pandora was somewhat stunned, but the next moment, she grabbed the triangular prism, looked at Richard, and after some thought, managed to say two words, “For me?”
“For you,” Richard said.
Pandora’s eyes sparkled with a bit of doubt as she silently asked with her eyes, why?
“Consider it a gift,” replied Richard, gently ruffling Pandora’s hair.
“Huh—” Pandora made an ambiguous noise, her eyes rolling upward to watch Richard’s hand resting on top of her head.
Her hair was so off-limits that not even Gregory dared to touch it, yet Richard dared to touch and, moreover, to ruffle it! Should she punch him? But… Richard had just given her something. That wouldn’t be nice, would it? And it was the first time someone had given her a gift. Mhm, it was also the first time someone had ruffled her hair. But why was there a strange feeling, as if her whole body was relaxing? Was it comfort? No, absolutely not, how could it be comfort? It must be some spell Richard used!
“Even though you are a dragon, you are still a little girl after all. Don’t always have such a stiff face; be happy!” Richard said and then patted Pandora’s head before turning to walk into the castle without saying anything more.
Watching Richard enter the castle, Pandora touched her hair somewhat frowningly, and after a while, she realized that it didn’t feel the same as before.
Of course, was it a spell! So, should she go after him and punch him?
Never mind, on account of the gift he gave her, she’d let it pass this time. But of course, the gift had to be useful, it better not be a deception.
Thinking this, Pandora took out the triangular prism and, imitating Richard’s earlier actions, held it high, moving it in the sunlight.
In a moment, a beam of rainbow light shone down, hitting her eyes.
This time Pandora didn’t use her hands to block it; instead, she watched the rainbow light, feeling as if the whole world had become colorful. She tossed aside the discomfort from Richard touching her hair and thought of many non-boring activities she could do.
Like going to the pond to watch buffalo drink, going to the pond to watch squirrels drink, or going to the pond to watch cheetahs drink, and also…
Well, Pandora’s so-called recollection of many non-boring activities was, in truth, just one, and that was watching animals drink.