CHAPTER 98: DRAGON WITH FAMILY

Yun Qiqi looked smug.

She did what she had promised and helped Umbu open up to Mia, creating a foundation for their future relationship.

Puff slithered across the floor, completely uninterested in the food.

The dragon, on the other hand, didn’t even notice that someone had entered the room.

He just chewed the meat and made loud gulping sounds. Even saliva dripped down from his mouth, remaining unaffected by the unsettling silence.

Mia just stood there, eyes unmoving.

She was still holding onto Umbu’s tail, its softness permitting her to relish.

But there was no time for that.

Something that shouldn’t have happened did happen.

Evan, her and Noa’s father, had returned hours earlier than she expected, walking in on a quite bizarre scene inside his house.

For one, she was feeding a baby dragon.

She was even holding his tail, wiggling it around like a soft plushie.

Then there was Puff.

A literal blob of mass that slithered through the chairs and smiled emotionally with lips and eyes that looked like a child’s drawing.

What’s worse, Evan wasn’t drunk.

There was no way for her and Noa to save themselves from this situation.

He would have questions.

And of course, he would ask them and corner the siblings in a situation she personally didn’t know how to escape.

Yet, she quickly got hold of her feelings and sighed, releasing the soft tail from her hands.

Yun Qiqi shared the same sentiment.

She also wanted to be honest with Evan and allow Mia and Noa to speak with him.

So she turned around, about to join her big sister.

However, before anyone could utter a single word, Noa’s grin widened, his voice slipping out faster than the rest.

"Dad, you are back."

He said it calmly.

Immediately, three pairs of eyes landed on him.

Mia, Qiqi, and Evan watched him closely, especially the latter, whose eyes flickered with questions as he studied him carefully.

"I am, but..." he said finally, his words trailing.

Again, his eyes wandered across the room, studying the strangeness inside.

He may not be as well-versed in fictional stories as his children, but he could at least easily recognize a baby dragon when he saw one.

Unaffected by his surroundings, Umbu ate like the beast he was.

The slime felt like a foreign concept to him.

It was weird, had no solid body, slithered like a snake, and shifted colors like a chameleon.

The last one was his daughter.

Mia was suspiciously hiding her hands behind her back, as if hiding the fact that she was playing with a dragon’s tail only moments ago.

Evan blinked.

He squinted his eyes, wondering if he had drunk something without realizing it.

"I wasn’t hallucinating this morning," he said, pointing his fingers.

Mia swallowed hard.

So much so that Evan looked at her, almost speaking with his eyes.

"W-What exactly am I looking at?" he asked, surprisingly calm about the situation.

It felt like he was calculating how deeply the madness had settled in his mind, and speaking dangerously calmly, he continued.

Noa wanted to laugh.

Not holding himself back, he stepped forward.

There was an unusual, but at the same time, familiar aura dancing around him that followed his composure.

"It’s a dinner," he said, locking eyes with his father. "A dinner with family members."

Noa pointed at Umbu for a moment.

He let the silence linger, allowing Evan to digest his words and understand that by family, he also meant Umbu.

"Family?" Dad repeated, not convinced.

He didn’t move.

Without moving a single muscle, Evan stood in the kitchen doorway, watching the scene from afar.

"Yes," Noa said casually. "You should join as well. Mia cooked enough for all of us."

Suddenly, Umbu stopped eating.

To be more precise, there was no meat in his mouth, and he had to pause.

So, he glanced at Evan.

These two looked at each other for a long second until Umbu began licking the meat juice from the plate, disregarding every manner Yun Qiqi had taught him earlier.

Evan raised an eyebrow.

Silently letting his thoughts wander, he didn’t move.

"He is usually polite," Qiqi said suddenly, "It’s just the food was delicious and he couldn’t hold back."

She defended the little dragon.

It sounded like a sincere justification for a misbehaved child.

Mia coughed.

Her hands finally settled in front of her.

"He is clean, I swear. I think brother bathes him every day," she said, trying to convince her father.

’I don’t remember doing that,’ Noa thought, smiling.

But he also went into a thinking mode, because Umbu really had a distinctive, fresh smell to him, even though he hadn’t taken a shower yet.

Hearing this, Evan stepped forward.

He hesitated, opening and closing his mouth. Then rubbed his temples.

"Alright. Start from the beginning and explain everything I need to know," he muttered, taking one more step.

Umbu, watching the situation unfold, raised his paws.

It felt like he could speak in their stead.

Evan sighed. "Oh god, please not you."

A chuckle followed his reactions, causing Noa to exhale with a smile, his voice reaching new heights of softness.

"Well," he began. "I own a dimensional portal, walked into another world, opened my store, made a few deals with locals, and accidentally adopted a dragon. Now, I am back... sort of."

Complete silence.

Noa had decided on this discussion.

Yet he had no script to follow, speaking solely on instinct.

Umbu lowered his hand.

Evan blinked at him for a moment, before finally breaking the silence. "You... what?"

’I knew it wouldn’t be easy. But that’s what I have decided,’ he thought, and continued his speech, this time with more details.

In truth, he had gone quite a bit.

And though his journey hadn’t been just as exciting and dangerous as the other fictional protagonists he grew up with, Noa still had an enjoyable life to this point.

He had crossed a dimension, met cultivators, manipulated them, and even created a sect.

His products were top-tier in the universe, and one of his employees was a godlike being who looked after an enormous library.

Whether he liked it or not, his former life had been altered.

"And I want to bring you there and show you this mysterious world, too," Noa said at the end of his speech, looking forward to Evan’s reaction.