Chapter 5

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Chapter 5: Add To The Blacklist

Naya touched her stomach, remaining silent for a long time before responding to the system.

[System, isn’t this… too inhumane?]

[There’s nothing inhumane about it. What’s inside you is just a cluster of cells, not even a fully formed egg. The egg membrane hasn’t even developed yet. It’s comparable to the early stages of human fertilization, just a split zygote, not yet a life.]

[But it will eventually become a life, won’t it?]

[Host, please don’t morally bind yourself. Iris implanted her genes in you without your consent. That was wrong on her part, and you have every right to choose whether or not to keep it. Have you forgotten? You were once a man and had made a promise with your comrades to return home and marry after defeating the Dragon King. Are you really content to live as a dragon girl? And worse, to let this absurd dragon egg form inside you?]

Naya lowered her head and looked at her belly and at the high bulge on her chest.

Curiously, she lifted the mass of flesh, it was so heavy.

Why was her breasts so exaggerated?

And yet, when she pressed her legs together, she didn’t feel the discomfort she remembered. Instead, she felt empty and a little lost.

Her body seemed familiar with this sensation, but it only felt awkward when she remembered that she had once been a man.

That’s right!

She had a female friend, not exactly a girlfriend, but a close companion.

She was a priest.

Usually, Naya was the main attacker, Leo the secondary, and a girl named Lina served as the priest in their team.

Among the three, she and Lina had the closest relationship.

Of course, because of Leo’s presence, they didn’t have the courage to be together directly.

Otherwise, their stable triangle dynamic would have shattered. That’s why they quietly promised each other that once they defeated the Dragon King, they would go home and get married after achieving success.

Could it be that Leo found out about their secret relationship and, out of jealousy, betrayed her in the battle Lina didn’t participate in?

I wonder… is Lina okay?

That guy, Leo…

Did he treat Lina well after I died?

[System, can you detect how my former teammates are doing now?]

[If the system were that omnipotent, able to monitor your comrades at any time, your previous system wouldn’t have failed to foresee Leo’s betrayal, and that tragedy wouldn’t have happened.]

[System… sigh… yeah, why didn’t the system predict something like that?]

[Host, please remember, your life was saved at the cost of the previous system’s sacrifice, and it was killed by the Dragon Queen Iris. You must remain clear-headed, she is the target of our mission and also our enemy.]

That’s true.

After losing her memory, she had forgotten the main mission.

Forgotten the existence of the system, and the sacrifice it had made.

Because of Iris’s small favors, she willingly stayed by her side, serving her.

In the end, they even developed into a husband-and-wife relationship.

If she had known this would happen, would the system have still turned her into a dragon girl?

[By the way, System, why did I become a dragon girl? And why did I lose my memory?]

[It’s estimated that the previous system changed your form to adapt to the environment. If you also became a dragon, the Dragon Queen likely wouldn’t kill you outright. As for your memory loss, it probably resulted from the disconnection between the system and your consciousness, which damaged your mind. Once I reconnected with you, I restored the memories of both your past life and this one.]

[I see. Then how did you reconnect with me?]

[After the previous system died, the echoes of its death reached the Main God Space. I received its signal and tracked you down, taking over. Now, after five years, I’ve determined that you’re capable of killing the Dragon Queen Iris, which is why I’ve reconnected with you.]

[Why am I now capable of killing Iris? Even if my holy spear were repaired, I can only defeat Iris’s first stage.]

[Because Iris now cares deeply about you, and her daughter, the Dragon Queen’s future heir, is in your hands, so you can use this to threaten her.]

[That’s Impossible!]

Hearing this, Naya’s previously calm demeanor instantly erupted into a surge of anger.

Illya…

Illya is still so young.

How could she ever bear to use Illya like that?

This was her most beloved daughter.

Illya might be a way to threaten Iris, but she was also her bottom line!

According to the system, she now held Iris’s lifeline in her hands, and she could fully use that to kill Iris and complete the main mission.

That was what she, as a hero, was supposed to do.

But the thought of using Illya made Naya feel as if someone had touched her weak spot.

She couldn’t tolerate anyone harming or taking advantage of Illya, not even herself.

[Host, once you complete the main mission, you’ll become the strongest hero in this world. The main mission reward will allow you to evolve directly into a god…]

“Shut up!”

She snapped at the system, unable to control herself.

Naya clutched her head.

The system’s endless stream of cold words, every word meant to tempt her into killing Iris, felt like knives slicing into her heart.

She couldn’t understand why she cared so much about Iris.

After all, she was a Hero…

A knight of the human race, the enemy of evil dragons.

“Let me think… calmly…”

[The conflict between your memories and your personality is understandable, but I urge you to remember why you became a hero. Don’t forget the heart of a hero. Don’t forget you’re human.]

Naya took a deep breath.

She didn’t want to engage with the system anymore.

She lay down on the bed, sprawling out.

Gazing quietly at the gray ceiling, she touched the bedding, still warm from Iris’s presence.

She rolled over, hugging Iris’s pillow.

The familiar scent filled her nose, and she couldn’t help but recall all their intimate moments, every time they had been so close…

“Ah!!”

Naya pressed the pillow against her face.

“What am I thinking? How could I ever harm my beloved?”

[Mute the system.]

A ban was issued.

With that command, she finally no longer had to worry about the system’s voice suddenly intruding on her thoughts, disrupting her peaceful mood.

The whole hero thing…

Let’s put that aside for now.

Thinking about the past and present had nearly fried her brain’s CPU, and Naya didn’t want to dwell on it anymore.

But whenever she thought of Iris’s face, her heart would feel warm and sweet.

Yes!

Rather than worrying about all that, she should just enjoy the present.

Naya got up, tidied the blanket on the bed, and then looked out at the fiery red sunrise.

It was time to wake Illya.

The story of the Hero and the Dragon had ended, but tonight, what story should she tell Illya? She’d have to come up with one in advance, or she’d risk running out of ideas and having to think on the fly again, which was too mentally exhausting.

Oh!

Naya clapped her hands and smiled with squinted eyes.

Now that her memories were fully restored, she had more fairy tales to tell Illya!

It seems that regaining her memory wasn’t entirely useless after all.