Please Bully Me, Miss Villainess!

Chapter 255 : Little Knight 2

Even knowing she was only in a memory, Elsa still felt the visceral shock from her perspective.

Seeing Yvonne standing motionless, she couldn't help but silently praise her:

As expected of Yvonne, how impressive. Even facing such a ferocious magical beast, she remains fearless in the face of danger—Huh?

However, upon closer observation, Elsa realized the reality was somewhat different from her imagination.

Still a child after all, little Yvonne had been startled by this sudden attack, her face pale and legs weak. She managed to stay upright only by quickly using her sword to prop herself up, avoiding a fall.

"This swift wind dragon was captured in the wild, not raised from an egg by breeders, so it's particularly difficult to tame... Miss Smollett, are you alright?"

"I... I'm fine, of course! Ugh..."

This child was a standard tsundere from a young age. Though clearly frightened to the point of tears, she stubbornly refused to admit it.

Watching her struggle to manage her facial expressions, trying to regain composure, Elsa desperately wanted to rush over and hug her.

It's okay, it's okay! At this age, not bursting into tears on the spot is already quite impressive!

From this observational perspective, Elsa felt she had completely transformed into an endlessly worrying single mother.

"As you can see, Miss Smollett, this is a dragon that can't be trained no matter what. Due to its bad temperament, it's about to be eliminated."

"Instructor, what happens to eliminated dragons?"

Little Yvonne asked nervously, leaning on the fence.

"You... you won't dispose of it, will you??"

Yvonne recalled the dragon skin products she had seen in her father's collection, suddenly becoming worried for the dragon before her.

"Of course not... The cost of raising a swift wind dragon is very high, we wouldn't go to such extremes—If it can't be used as a mount for the army, it will probably join other eliminated dragons as labor for hauling cargo."

"Ah..."

When accompanying her father on outings, Yvonne had seen those magical beasts enslaved by humans—all wearing heavy chains, their bodies bearing whip marks both old and new.

"That would be such a shame..."

Before her stood a beautiful and robust dragon.

Though somewhat dirty, its scales were clearly a beautiful silver-white, a rare color for swift wind dragons.

Not to mention those taut muscle lines and dragon claws that could grip firmly.

If it could run, it would surely live up to its name... running as fast as the wind.

Meeting those golden eyes firmly restrained by iron chains, little Yvonne felt a strange connection.

"Um... Mr. Beleck!"

"Is there a problem, Miss Smollett?"

"I want to know—if someone could ride this child, would it not have to be eliminated?"

"Hmm... theoretically yes, but so far it has injured quite a few dragon tamers. I don't think you, still at the learning stage of horsemanship, can easily control this dragon."

"How do you know without trying!"

"Wait?? Miss Smollett... you're putting us in a difficult position!"

"It's good that children are willing to try. We adults should just act as guardians on the sidelines."

"Lord Leinster?? Why are you here—"

Seeing the man before him wearing the Lionheart family crest, Beleck immediately knelt on one knee in salute.

"No need for such formality, Beleck, you were once my subordinate after all... I'm here to bring my son for the squire selection—and to check on my niece."

"Sister won't be in any danger, will she... That dragon looks so fierce."

The brother at this time had grown a bit taller, but was still temporarily shorter than Yvonne. Little Garth stood behind his father, looking somewhat timid, worriedly glancing towards the dragon stable.

"Whatever the outcome, this dragon will be taken in by our Leinster Trading Company—Of course, we won't shortchange the Knight Squadron, we'll compensate you with goods equivalent to a swift wind dragon—Is that acceptable?"

With the head of the Leinster family speaking thus, Beleck naturally had no way to refuse.

"...Then let's proceed according to Lord Leinster's wishes."

Chairman Leinster seemed very interested in seeing what his niece could accomplish, so he specifically instructed Beleck not to tell Yvonne about this matter.

"Miss Smollett, I need to inform you: You may attempt to tame this dragon, but please be very careful. When entering the dragon stable, you must wear protective gear, and also—"

"Mr. Beleck is so long-winded! I've already memorized all the precautions!"

Holding a large bucket of meat she had prepared in advance, little Yvonne protested.

"Let me in quickly, I want to feed that child, improve its diet!"

"...Alright."

Unable to persuade the Young Lady, Beleck could only make way.

"Oh, Miss Smollett—before you begin taming, how about giving this dragon a name?"

"A name? Hmm... let me think..."

The silver-white scales lying smoothly on its body, its sensitive and agitated temperament, and that emotionally expressive tail swishing back and forth like a feline, inevitably reminded Yvonne of those slender and agile hairless cats.

"Let's call it Sphinx!"

That was knowledge and memory from her previous life.

Giving a dragon a cat's name was inspired by the movie "How to Train Your Dragon," where the Night Fury Toothless was based on a black cat.

"...Sphinx?"

Though not knowing the origin of the name, Beleck just thought it was a strange name.

"Sphinx~ I'm here again today!"

"Hiss!!"

Seeing Yvonne, Sphinx still let out a fierce hiss.

"As enthusiastic as ever... It's alright, I've come to feed you meat today! Look, I'm not holding anything~ I've even taken off my sword."

But this time Yvonne was mentally prepared, so she wasn't frightened.

Though still somewhat afraid, she still stepped forward, holding out a piece of cut meat with her bare hands, offering it to Sphinx.

Sniffing the fresh, bloody meat chunk in the girl's hand, Sphinx cautiously eyed the human girl before it, then quickly snatched the meat with its beak, pulling back.

"Whoa! Such strength..."

Yvonne shook her gloved hand ruefully.

Good thing she let go in time, otherwise with that pull, she'd surely have fallen face-first into the dirty dragon stable.

"Eat slowly, there's plenty more~"

The food here didn't seem very good.

Although swift wind dragons primarily eat meat, the army couldn't afford to supply so much meat consumption daily. So they added a lot of grains mixed with crushed bones and meat scraps to feed them.

The dragon keepers simply poured the mixed feed into troughs to feed these dragons. Yvonne didn't intend to do this; she chose to persist in hand-feeding piece by piece.

Of course, this was also purposeful—knowledge from her past life told her that the best time to train animals is during feeding.

"Not yet... You can eat when I say 'okay'!"

Staring at the meat in her hand, Sphinx let out an impatient inhale.

"3... 2... 1! Okay, you can eat now!"

"Grrr—"

Watching Sphinx lower its head to eat heartily, Yvonne nodded with satisfaction.

It must be said, Sphinx was even smarter than Yvonne had imagined. After interacting for a few days, it could already understand many simple commands.

Things like 'wait', 'come', or purposefully directing it to go where she pointed, could now be smoothly accomplished.

"Alright... now let me clean up a bit! We need to create a comfortable environment for you."

Yvonne brought a water bucket and cleaning tools, rolled up her sleeves, and under Sphinx's dubious gaze, used basic wind magic as assistance to thoroughly clean the dragon stable.

"Ah~ The scales here have grown back nicely! Then today I'll clean your body a bit!"

Yvonne stood on tiptoe, using a special small brush to clean the dust from Sphinx's crevices. It also emitted comfortable grunting sounds.

This hard-bristled brush might be a bit painful on human hands, but for dragons it seemed to be a very comfortable hardness.

"There—Now you're finally clean!"

After cleaning, the silver-white scales finally revealed their true color, emitting an enchanting luster under the refracted light.

Just as she had imagined, it was a beautiful and handsome dragon.

This was her way; once she had a goal, she would become full of energy.

Elsa watched her persistently repeat these dirty and tiring tasks every day.

Her efforts these days had shown some results.

At the very least, Sphinx no longer acted aggressively towards her and could understand some simple commands she issued—Although it would only respond when she had food in hand, it was still a kind of progress!

Sitting next to this big fellow like this, it no longer acted fiercely towards her... It must have somewhat accepted her presence, right?

Though she had tried several times to mount its back, she was always thrown off heavily by this dragon.

Even wearing protective gear, falling from such a high dragon back inevitably caused bruising. Looking at the purple bruises on her arms, Yvonne sighed.

For naturally proud dragons, this act of mounting signifies conquest. Sphinx was female, so this awareness was even stronger.

To make it fully accept her would likely still take a very long time.

"Today they're practicing jumping over obstacles..."

Watching boys her age riding dragons recklessly charging across the field, Yvonne sat beside Sphinx's tail, chin in hand, muttering enviously to herself.

Having no one else to confide in, and perhaps accumulating too much pressure unsuited for her age, Yvonne had recently begun talking to herself when alone with Sphinx.

"Ugh... why did I have to become the villain... School starts next semester, and my magic rating is so low... At this rate, if I encounter the protagonist, I'll be completely defenseless... She's so strong, what if she sees me as a love rival and just eliminates me~~~"

The more she spoke, the more frightened she became. Yvonne held her head, face turning blue.

What kind of monster have I been made out to be...

Hearing this, Elsa's face was already covered in black lines.

She suddenly understood why Yvonne had always avoided her after entering school. Was it because of this??

She liked Yvonne so much, always wanting to be close to her, how could she possibly do such excessive things...

But at this time, Yvonne hadn't yet regained her childhood memories, so it was understandable for her to have such concerns.

"This won't do! At the very least, I need to master an escape skill to save my life!"

Wait a minute...

So Yvonne's efforts... were all to guard against her??

Just as Elsa was sinking into deep self-doubt, a new round of trouble had quietly arrived at the villain Young Lady's side:

"Miss Smollett, forgive my frankness—you smell of dragon dung!"

After Baron, the leader, said this maliciously with raised eyebrows, the other boys also burst into laughter.

Born with silver spoons in their mouths, they couldn't understand.

The unconventional Young Lady before them was willing to do the dirty work of caring for dragons.

"Doing that kind of work will bring shame to your family~"

"You won't be able to get married!"

In their view, cleaning dragon stables, caring for dragons, cleaning dragons' bodies... these were all things that should be done by lower-class people.

"............"

Holding the iron shovel for scooping excrement, Yvonne frowned and glared at these annoying little brats.

"Keep yapping, and I'll fling dragon dung in your faces."

Hearing this statement, the noble young masters looked at each other, closing their mouths.

This Miss Smollett was known to follow through on her words.

"Miss Smollett, next week is the horsemanship test—I wonder what spectacular performance you and your chosen dragon will give, it's truly exciting—"

Hearing this sarcastic tone, Yvonne's mouth began to twitch, but she still tried to maintain a smile:

"Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Baron—May Lord Oz bless you, bless that your riding clothes don't split open midway again this time."

Mentioning his embarrassing incident, little chubby Baron's face instantly flushed like a tomato.

Because he was too fat, his custom-made riding clothes had once split open with a large tear during riding, revealing the color of his underwear for all to see clearly.

"What are you laughing at! Stop laughing!!"

Baron shouted angrily, forbidding his followers from making the snickering sounds that infuriated him.

"You... don't get cocky, I'm waiting to see what tricks you can pull off in the horsemanship test!"

Protecting his rear with his hands, Baron left a threat before sullenly walking away, squeezing that poor dragon.

Yvonne had mastered about three points of the villain's exclusive poisonous tongue skill, but compared to the true villain Young Lady in the original work, she was still far behind—Sometimes she really wanted to ask the real villain Young Lady how to curse with the fiercest using the most elegant words.

"But... the horsemanship test... What am I going to do?"