The Hero Who Became a Monster Girl Will Never Fall to Evil

That’s right.

This body of mine was sculpted by Flaviel, and Flaviel really did mention that she herself was born of the World Tree...

So there must be something hidden in this.

Vieya thought with certainty.

Flaviel absolutely wasn’t doing all this just to take revenge on her. Then what exactly was she thinking?

And dragon thinking—what was that even like?

Vieya had never been a dragon, and she couldn’t just assume she could view things from a dragon’s perspective. For example: when Flaviel first met Jasmine, she didn’t display the deep mother–daughter affection Vieya had shown when she first met Jasmine. Instead, they nearly got into an argument, with Flaviel scolding her daughter.

Unthinkable.

They walked for quite a while longer, passing through a path that was at first extremely narrow, barely passable by one person, when the scene before them suddenly opened up.

Ahead lay a strange village. Fairies of all sizes lived within it—farming, playing, laughing, and chasing each other around.

“This is the gap between the real world and the Astral Realm, and also the place where we fairies have lived for generations.”

Yeyuan puffed out his general’s belly and squeezed crookedly out of the narrow path.

“There are records about the Astral Realm on the human side too. They call it the projection of the sentience of all living beings in the real world. But they’re wrong...”

“So what is it really?” Vieya’s thirst for knowledge was piqued.

“I don’t know,” Yeyuan said. “I’m not a scholar. How would I know that kind of thing?”

“Tsk.”

“Rude junior, you were cursing me in your heart just now, weren’t you?!”

“......”

Vieya didn’t feel like dealing with a fat plush-monster she couldn’t get any useful information out of. She walked over to Aislin’s side.

“Have you been here before?”

“When I was little, I came here many times... but after growing up, I hardly came anymore. Still, I remember the roads. After all, nothing here has changed in all these years.” Aislin took in the surrounding scenery and spoke softly. “A hundred years pass like a single day—even this fat fairy elder is still just as fat.”

Before long.

Vieya arrived at the fairy village said to be built atop the World Tree’s root system. Following the village’s main road all the way to the back, vast stretches of medicinal fields came into view.

“Here, this is the Dragonbud Grass. Princess, look—this is already two inches tall.” Yeyuan bent over and squatted with difficulty at the edge of the field.

Sun and moon shone together in the sky, the fields lay in neat rows, # Nоvеlight # and countless flowers and herbs Vieya had never seen before were planted throughout these plots.

As for the so-called Dragonbud Grass, it was simply a green plant that looked quite similar to chives.

“Years ago, before the World Tree was attacked by an evil dragon, the Dragonbud Grass here also suddenly grew like this... so I’m worried...”

Yeyuan didn’t continue, but everyone present understood the implication.

“...How long did it take to grow like this?” Aislin asked.

“Counting today, just three days,” Yeyuan replied.

“......”

Aislin fell silent for a moment. She walked to the side of the grass field and sighed softly.

“This time, its growth isn’t as good as last time, so there are two possibilities. One is that what’s affecting it isn’t a pure-blood Dragon King species. The other is that the unknown Dragon King is currently only wandering along the edge of the Western Continent, very far from the Elven Forest... It’s fine.”

“Whew, that’s good.”

Yeyuan let out a sigh of relief, then suddenly asked,

“Then, Princess, a few days ago one of my juniors accidentally poured some excessive-growth potion—purchased in the Elven Royal Court—onto this patch of Dragonbud Grass. That shouldn’t be the cause of its excessive growth, right?”

“......”

A long while passed.

Aislin rubbed her forehead and sighed helplessly.

“In the future, just say things like this directly. There’s no need to hide it. Also, elven plant-growth potions have no effect on this kind of specific plant. Other than the descent of a pure-blood true dragon, there’s no other way to make it sprout and grow.”

“I was just worried, that’s all. But don’t worry, Princess—I’ll definitely give that careless junior a severe scolding and beating later!” Yeyuan said awkwardly.

Aislin’s eyes went dead-fish blank: “......”

“Haha, just kidding. Anyway, if it’s confirmed there’s no problem here, then I’ll go ahead and sign off on the commission handover. I know the throne succession contest is going on recently—coming out to take a task at this time must have been a real hassle for you, Princess!”

While Aislin was signing and handing things over to the side, Vieya quietly squatted down in front of the Dragonbud Grass to observe it.

From the conversation earlier, she’d basically figured it out—this grass was used to sense the distance of evil dragons.

It seemed even more precise and impressive than divination.

But could this sudden growth have something to do with my daughter?

Jasmine was a hybrid, but she didn’t have obvious dragon features like horns, a tail, or scales.

Still, no matter what, she did crawl out of a dragon egg... she should have at least some of Flaviel’s traits, right?

Vieya reached out and fiddled with the green Dragonbud Grass a couple of times. The long leaves swayed accordingly. There was no imagined burst of divine radiance, no dragon roars or tiger howls, no shaking of the cosmos... It really wasn’t much different from ordinary chives.

Should I take a bunch of grass back to feed my daughter? Dragons like eating this stuff—maybe my daughter would like it too?

As that thought crossed her mind and the slime girl was about to stand up to ask Aislin, a sudden conjecture flashed through her heart.

The next second, Vieya—who had just risen—squatted back down again, staring at the Dragonbud Grass in front of her.

She linked her mind to the Golden City within her body, guided the aura atop the dragon horn outward along her internal magic flow, and gently pressed it onto the ground.

In an instant—the ground beneath her feet began to tremble. Vieya hurriedly cut off the aura output, but the patch of Dragonbud Grass she had touched began to grow wildly!

Half a meter, one meter, two meters... In the blink of an eye, the grass shot up taller than the slime girl herself, and it was still trying to grow upward.

The entire land heaved like an earth dragon turning over. Violent tremors came wave after wave, and all the fairies in the village involuntarily lifted their heads, looking toward the medicinal fields behind the settlement.

Towering Dragonbud Grass blotted out the sky. Its leaves shone like flowing emerald jade, faint golden light coursing through the veins, exuding a light, elegant fragrance. An indescribable pressure spread outward, centered on the very first stalk Vieya had touched, crushing everything around it!

The next second, hundreds of plots of exotic flowers and herbs were pressed flat against the ground.

Oh wow. Something went wrong.

The slime was dumbfounded.

On the other side, Yeyuan and Aislin—startled by the sudden tremors—hurriedly turned back, then fell into mutual silence.

“It’s not like... I only touched it once.”

Vieya stood up, hands clasped behind her back, and said innocently,

“It wanted to frame me. You can’t blame me for all these crushed medicinal plants.”

“......”

The fat fairy was silent for a moment, then spoke with neither joy nor sorrow.

“Princess, how do you think we should handle this matter? Should it be reported...? Your friend doesn’t seem to be a simple slime. If she were to—”

“I can guarantee my friend is fine.”

Aislin paused, then said, “Her Majesty the Queen and the Great Shaman have both personally confirmed this. There won’t be any problem. What happened here might just be an accident, or perhaps an unknown evil dragon flew to the outskirts of our Elven Forest and affected this place.”

“But...” the fat fairy still hesitated.

“Put the losses here on my account. Tomorrow I’ll have other elves send over a batch of new seeds and fertilizer...” Aislin continued.

“It’s fine, Princess.”

The fat fairy scratched his head.

“These flowers and herbs were only pressed down—they’re not dead. There’s no need to count it as a loss. We’ll just have the juniors prop them back up later. But with so much Dragonbud Grass, we don’t know how to deal with it... Burning it would be too wasteful, and this is the only batch of seeds left.”

“Then how about letting me handle it?”

Vieya suddenly spoke up. After drawing their attention, she said in a serious, earnest tone, 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

“And I want to confirm what the source of this sudden situation is, and ensure I can give everyone a satisfactory answer afterward.”

Without hesitation, Aislin immediately nodded, then turned her gaze to the fat fairy at the side.

Stare—

“Uh...” the fat fairy said with some difficulty. “Then... okay?”

“Thank you!” the slime girl said excitedly.

......

Grasslands, stars blazing brightly.

On a small hill somewhere, a nomadic tribe was encamped.

On the verdant grass, a mound of earth had been piled up, with a pitch-black cauldron set atop it, boiling wild grasses, cheese, dried meat... a prairie hotchpotch.

Marlam held a basin-sized bowl and devoured it wolfishly, while Pike strained to tear apart the muscle fibers of the dried meat.

“This big-pot soup with meat and vegetables actually has its own kind of flavor. Thank you for the hospitality.”

“Awwoo, this meat is so tough, awwoo!”

“Sigh...”

Tiya held a bowl of clear water and wild-vegetable soup, sighing softly. She suddenly felt a bit regretful that she hadn’t shamelessly stuck by the captain’s side back then.