In front of the Dragon's Lair castle, Mei, clutching a plastic-looking toy short sword, mustered her courage. She raised the sword, pointing it towards the absurdly large Dragon's Lair castle before her.
"D-Despicable evil dragon Homusilla! The brave... Knight! The Knight has come to vanquish you!" Mei stammered out the embarrassing lines loudly.
Memorizing these two sentences was less difficult for Mei than the preamble of any speech she had prepared before.
But reciting such lines aloud in public was, for her, no less challenging than teaching Kiana to memorize Mei's own speech!
---||---
In a hidden corner of the Dragon's Lair, the Homu squatting with Schrodinger was so excited it almost jumped up.
"Homu! (Homu used to be like this too! Holding the Homu Holy Sword, very coolly shouting out such cool lines!)"
As it spoke, the Homu placed its short hands on its hips, tied a scrap of cloth around its neck as a cape, and picked up a twig.
"Homu—! (Despicable evil dragon Homusilla, the brave, strong, helpful, and true-to-his-word Homu Hero has come to vanquish you!)"
"Homu! (Return the princess to the Great Homu Kingdom!)"
---||---
"Return the princess to me... ahem, to the Great Homu Kingdom!" Mei instantly corrected her slip of the tongue, glaring fiercely at the Dragon's Lair gate.
The evil dragon Homusilla didn't emerge. Instead, a white furball popped its head out of a window above the gate.
"Mei, you look so cool! Mei, save me!! Mei, I'm over here... sob sob!"
A small hand shot out, clamping over the kidnapped princess's mouth, and yanked Kiana back into the Dragon's Lair.
Hearing Kiana's voice, Mei's heart tightened. She was about to charge upwards, sword in hand.
The cheap, five-dollar toy sword in her hand managed to calm her down just in time. She could only focus on waiting in front of the Dragon's Lair for the "evil dragon" to appear.
Kiana was still lively and energetic, able to shout so loudly. She must have eaten well.
Thinking this, Mei let out a slight sigh of relief. Just then, the great gate of the Dragon's Lair opened, and out walked Bella, puffing out her chest to feign courage.
Mei instinctively lowered her stance, preparing for battle, her gaze level... then gradually lowering... lowering... Looking at Bella who had walked right up to her, Mei suddenly didn't know what to say.
Compared to the spirited Kiana, this "ferocious evil dragon" before her had dark circles under her eyes and a face etched with exhaustion. Yet, she persisted in maintaining a fierce demeanor, tilting her head back to glare angrily at Mei.
"Have you stumbled here by mistake, or have you come to challenge me!?" The "evil dragon" placed its hands on its hips, glaring up at Mei from below, and barked sharply.
But from Mei and Bronya's perspective:
Tiny tear-like droplets still clung to the little evil dragon's eyelashes. Its upper body and lower body displayed completely different postures—one part exuding aggression, the other trembling uncontrollably.
Especially the way it puffed out its cheeks and tilted its head back to look at them; both silently lowered their weapons.
"Lines..." Bronya whispered a reminder. Mei snapped back to reality, quickly recalling her prepared lines and clearing her throat.
"Ahem... Evil dragon Homusilla! Hand over the princess immediately!" Mei said sternly.
"So you're the ones from that kingdom!" Evil Dragon Homusilla grew furious. She slowly floated up from the ground, revealing her most terrifying side.
Mei and Bronya once again adopted combat stances.
Watching Bella's hands slowly rise, the Genesis Key on Mei's person began to emit a faint steam.
It's coming!
"Rawr~"
Mei: "..."
Bronya: "..."
Schrodinger: "..."
Homu: "Homu homu! (The evil dragon is so terrifying! Such a fearsome posture, even the evil dragon we faced back then was no match! Miss Knight! You can do it!!)"
No, no, no, it's completely different, okay?
Schrodinger's expression faltered slightly. The evil dragon under Joyce's command back then was a genuine, massive dragon, one that perched on this Dragon's Lair, not lived inside it...
And considering the volume, timbre, pitch, and the size of the vocalizer, no matter how you looked at it, this "evil dragon" before them was clearly not as terrifying as that one, right?
Is this also a Homu setting?
Schrodinger helplessly pulled back the Homu, who wanted to jump in and help. She glanced down at the watch on her wrist, then looked worriedly towards the area behind the Dragon's Lair.
Joyce... isn't back yet?
"Rawr— Rawr rawr— Dragon's Roar! Rawr..." Bella performed with all her might in mid-air, successfully making Kiana, who was watching from the window, stare wide-eyed, making Mei halt her actions, and making Bronya stop thinking.
For some reason, the three of them suddenly imagined Shu in Bella's place, picturing Shu as the Demon Lord "rawring" here...
Kiana shivered involuntarily. Mei's eye twitched. And Bronya chuckled.
"Pfft..."
Bronya's chuckle successfully interrupted Bella's performance. Bella instantly shrank back, flapping her wings and flying to a distance in a flash, clutching her head and shouting repeatedly.
"The powerful Knight possesses the power of the Homu Holy Sword! I can't beat her!" Bella yelled, then turned, landed on the ground, rolled three times, pulled out a tomato from somewhere, and splat smashed it on her own face.
"I lose!" Finally, with a head full of bright red tomato juice, Bella tilted her head, stuck out her tongue, closed her eyes, and lay sprawled in a '大' shape in the middle of the road.
Oh, can't lie in the middle of the road.
Mei and Bronya silently watched Bella wriggle on the ground to move herself to the roadside, look up at them, and then repeat the eye-closing, tongue-sticking-out routine.
Mei didn't understand, but she was greatly shocked.
She looked at Bronya, who was equally stunned, and asked with her eyes: Were you guys always like this?
Bronya shook her head decisively, her twin spiral pigtails whipping around.
Impossible, absolutely impossible!
"Homu! (What a thrilling and exciting battle!)" Beside them, the Homu raised its short hand, which couldn't reach the top of its own head, wiped its brow, and let out a long sigh of relief.
"Homu... (Thanks to the brave Miss Fairy, the Knight was able to successfully defeat the evil dragon!)" The Homu stated this matter-of-factly, much to Schrodinger's exasperation.
"Where exactly was it thrilling?" Schrodinger's lips twitched a couple of times. In the end, she couldn't hold back and asked.
"Homu? (It was thrilling the whole time! Miss Schrodinger, you weren't paying attention, were you?)" The Homu even asked back, puzzled.
Schrodinger: "..."