Claimed by the Dragon King

Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Royal Hatchlings
 POV: Gift

This palace is very big, but the king’s voice is even louder as he keeps ordering the guards to stay away from me. I’m just quietly walking, so what is this man’s problem with me? I’m not sick, so why should they stay away from me? Everywhere I look, I see pure gold, expensive crystals, and images of huge dragons. I came from a dark and dirty cell, and suddenly, the place around me became beautiful, but my mind wasn’t focused on that. My thoughts were on the two baby dragons I had tried hard to raise in my apartment with the money I earned as a cashier at the bakery. I couldn’t stand being separated from them. We had been together for a year, and I truly saw them as my children, no matter what they were.

“Here,” Kaizen said coldly as he stopped in front of a wooden door with a design of flying dragons.

Before Grumblewick could even touch the doorknob, a loud explosion echoed from inside, followed by loud crying.

“Ma-ma! Mamaaaa!”

It felt like my heart was being peeled apart by that cry. I knew that voice. It was Lumi’s. Then came a growl that sounded like an angry dog. That was Vharkan.

I didn’t wait for them to properly open the door. I pushed myself forward and forced the wooden door open. The moment it opened, I saw a large room that looked like a tornado had passed through it. The expensive silk pillows had their stuffing scattered everywhere, and some of them were still smoking because something had exploded. Three women with long ears, wearing uniforms, were crouching in the corner, clearly terrified.

In the middle of the room, standing on top of a large bed, was a small black dragon and a small white dragon. Their eyes were full of tears.

“Vhan! Lumi!” I shouted.

The two of them froze. They both turned in my direction. In the blink of an eye, their wings started flapping quickly.

“Mama!” Lumi cried as she quickly flew toward me. Vharkan, on the other hand, rolled off the bed like a ball and ran toward my feet.

I hugged them very tightly, letting my tears wet their smooth scales. I felt Vharkan’s tiny claws gripping my blouse while Lumi buried her little head against my neck, sobbing and releasing small sparks of fire that quickly disappeared into the air.

“Mama is here… I’m here now. Sorry I suddenly disappeared. Sorry, my children. M-Mama got lost because this… palace is so big,” I whispered as I kissed their heads.

“Tsk. They’re so dirty,” I heard the man behind me comment.

I quickly turned to look at him with sharp eyes while protectively hiding the two children against my chest. “Can you please be quiet, Kaizito? If you don’t have anything nice to say, just go back to your hall and throw a tantrum by yourself!”

“I said Kaizen is my name!” he snapped angrily again, his eyes starting to glow with blue light.

“Your Majesty, your attitude seems to be making the children… even more angry,” Grumblewick said with a smile, looking like he was enjoying watching, “Perhaps it would be better to leave them for now so the cute little dragons can eat.”

Kaizen looked at the two baby dragons, who were now glaring at him while clinging to me. The irritation and disappointment on the king’s face were clear because, in the eyes of his own flesh and blood, he looked more like an enemy.

“You have one hour, mortal. After that, you will speak with me in my office about your stay here. And don’t ever try to take them away because the entire palace is guarded by my skilled guards,” he threatened before turning around harshly, making his expensive cape that looked like a table cloth sweep across the floor.

“I’ll feed my children! And I have no plans to talk to you in your office. You’re not a school principal!” I shouted after him before the door finally closed, “Psh. Arrogant creature,” I muttered to myself.

Grumblewick approached us with a wide smile, holding his old cane, “Try not to mind Kaizito too much, young lady. The truth is, he is terribly worried about the children. They have been throwing tantrums since earlier and refusing to listen to anything their nannies say. They haven’t eaten anything all day.”

I stopped stroking Lumi. “What? They’ve been hungry for an entire day?!” I looked around and saw several golden plates containing raw meat and strange fruits that appeared to glow, yet remained untouched.

“Is this what you’ve been feeding them? They don’t eat this.”

“That is the traditional food of blue-blooded dragons, my lady, but it seems they are more accustomed to…” The old man scratched his head. “…bread?”

“Of course! My cooking is nutritious, and most importantly, it’s made with love!” I looked at Vharkan, who was now chewing on the edge of my blouse, while Lumi was softly crying and pointing her tiny snout toward her stomach. My babies were starving.

“Grumblewick, where is the kitchen? I need to bake some kind of bread for them. Otherwise, they might burn this entire nursery down.”

Grumblewick exchanged looks with the two royal nannies, who had been standing in the corner trembling in fear. “The palace kitchen is reserved only for the official cooks of the kingdom, my lady. But because the king ordered that everything be provided for the children, I will find a way.”

A few minutes later, I entered the royal kitchen with the two baby dragons clinging to my shoulders. If the nursery was large, the kitchen was even more enormous. There were gigantic stoves, massive ovens powered by real dragon fire, and countless strange ingredients. The chefs inside, who also had horns and tails but looked much rounder and friendlier, gasped when they saw us.

“H-Hello! I’m going to cook here,” I said as I placed Vhan and Lumi on a clean counter made of gleaming wood.

“Grumblewick, I need flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and milk. Do you have those here?”

The kitchen staff quickly moved under the old man’s orders. I had some difficulty at first because their flour was blue and sparkling, while the sugar looked like tiny pink crystals. But when I tasted them, they were sweet and seemed like suitable substitutes for the ingredients I used in my bakery.

I began kneading the dough. With every press of the flour against the table, Vharkan and Lumi watched me closely. Every now and then, Vharkan tried to pat the flour with his tiny foot, covering his face with white powder and making me laugh loudly. Lumi simply sat there, watching my every movement while sucking on her own tail.

“That’s right, my babies. Just a little longer, and we’ll eat,” I said as I placed the shaped dough onto a large tray.

I put the tray into the oven. As the bread baked, a delicious aroma slowly spread throughout the entire kitchen. I noticed the chefs who had been watching me gradually move closer, closing their eyes as they inhaled the scent and practically drooled.

Even my two babies began jumping excitedly while staring at the oven.

When I finally pulled out the tray, the bread was perfectly baked, although it had a slight sparkling blue color because of the strange flour from this world. I blew on one piece before breaking it apart and giving portions to Vhan and Lumi.

Vharkan immediately devoured his share, while Lumi slowly chewed her bread with a delighted smile on her face. At last, they stopped crying, and the little male dragon rubbed his stomach happily.

“Is it delicious?” I asked with a smile as I wiped the crumbs from their snouts. Both of them nodded in response and immediately asked for more bread.

“What’s that smell?”

A deep and familiar voice echoed once again from the kitchen doorway. All of us turned, and there stood King Kaizen again. His brows were furrowed as usual, and his eyes were fixed on the tray of bread in my hands. I noticed the slight movement of his nose, as if he was even attracted to the smell of the bread I had baked.

“Kaizito,” Grumblewick greeted him, “the beautiful young lady prepared food for the children. And as you can see, they are finally eating.”

Kaizen stepped closer. He looked at his two children, who now had bread crumbs all over their faces as they happily played on the table. Then he looked at me, back at the tray, and then at me again with suspicion.

“A simple mixture of flour stopped my dragon children from crying? What kind of magic did you put in this, mortal?”

“Seriously? Magic already? Is it impossible that I’m simply a really good cook?” I raised the tray in front of his face, almost pressing it against his sharp nose. “Want some? Why don’t you taste it and find out how delicious the bread of a ‘filthy mortal’ like me can be? It’s free, so don’t worry.”

Kaizen’s eyes narrowed, clearly offended by the attack on his pride as a king. He stared at the bread as if it were poison, but his jaw moved slightly. I could tell that he really wanted to taste it, but he refused to embarrass himself in front of his servants.

“I do not eat mortal garbage,” he answered coldly before turning away again. “Clean my children and teach them how to love me.”

Huh? I grimaced. How demanding could he possibly be? Did he think love could be taught in the blink of an eye?

I finally breathed a sigh of relief, but when I looked at the large window of the kitchen, that was when I finally saw what was outside. The sky was purple with two moons, and in the distance, huge dragons were flying between towering mountains with glowing water flowing through them.

I really was in another world. And the only allies I had here were the two baby dragons and my own courage against an arrogant dragon king who acted like he was the king of the universe.