Can you help me out? part 4

It had been a happy day for Klein. Perhaps one of the best he ever had in his life even.

He held the empire's younger prince captive. His messenger has given his message to the royal army. And his reward was all but guaranteed.

Life could not be easier for him. He was the first fate's chosen one. After so many setbacks and harsh conditioning, he could finally sit back and deep the benefits.

Or so was his plan.

But then why? Why did things derail this badly? What had he done wrong to cause such a mess?

"Boss, we checked their rooms and the kids are no longer in there. What should we do now?"

Klein hissed as his subordinate reported back the devastating news.

He had made sure to seal the door with an alert. He should have known the moment anyone excited the doom without permission.

"Did both of them leave? Did you find Cain's body anywhere in the room?"

The brat would not dare oppose him. The kid was too much of a coward.

Klein was not a magic master but he was not immature at magic either.

Despite his rough looks and his final ending position, he had initially been from a well-respected family.

He had decent potential and has even secured a seat for himself in a local magic school. He had even made it to the top of his class.

Those were the good times of his last. Times when he did not know how cruel this world could be.

He had believed himself to have decent talent and a well-enough pedigree. He had been the chosen one.

But all his hopes had been crushed when he had come across someone from the prestigious 'Central academy' during his final year of the academy exchange course.

Compared to Klein his opponent has only been a first hear and should not have stood a chance.

But the reality was often cruel. Despite his young looks, his opponent had been a genius. The youngest to ever enter the Academy at age 14.

That had been 5 years ago.

Ever since that soul-shattering loss, Kelin's life had derailed from happy to unfulfilling. No matter what he did, he could not erase that soul-shattering loss from his mind.

He had later come to realise who his opponent had been. And it made his blood boil in betrayal.

It had been the crown prince of the empire who shattered his dream. The loss left Klein not able to access his full potential ever again.

But he had not given up. If the 'righteous' side would not allow him to flourish, he had no choice but to become a villain.

And that is why he had chosen to take the hand of the demons and utilize their powers for his gain.

And he had waited to take his revenge. The Crown prince was too heavily guarded and could not be approached.

So Klien had chosen a better target for his outlet. A more vulnerable target which did not have half the protection the crown prince enjoyed.

The younger prince of the empire. He was the perfect bait to lure out the crown prince.

But Klein was not foolish enough to fight him head-on. He could not afford to make that mistake.

No, he had a hidden weapon at his disposal. He had found that child, Cain, by chance one day.

The poor child had so much magic that it had caused Cain to look on in shock. The pure magic has oozed out of the young teen.

If guided properly, he could become an existence strong enough to rival even the crown prince.

This fated encounter sparked a new hope inside Klein. This made the small flame of hope ignore inside his heart.

And it made him believe that he was the god's chosen one after all. The fortune told at his birth was not wrong.

That was why Klein had tried so hard to keep Cain under his control. He had even gone an extra mile to make sure he had Cain's precious pendant in his possession.

No, the teen would be back for that pendant and he would bring the younger prince with him.

And then he would kill the crown prince for Klein.

===============

It was late by the time I decided to start heading back. I already knew that our absence would have been noticed by now.

"Hey Cain, do you have a carry bag on you? One big enough to hide this baby?"

Cain looked conflicted. Maybe he was going to lie to me and say that he did not have a bag on him.

But as 'the' novel reader, I knew Cain's habits better than anyone else. He always carried an emergency bag on him.

"Here. This is the only one I have so please return it to me after you are done."

Cain sounded nervous when he handed over the bag to me.

Of course, I knew that was the only bag he had. Cain lacked any means of financial resources in his early childhood.

It was not till the guard leader had taken notice of him and decided to adopt him, that he got the appropriate resources needed.

As for me? I had plenty of money available to me. And I would make sure to use it properly to set up my suicide.

"Hey, kid. Get in here. I need you to be as quiet as possible. Do you think you can do that much?"

The baby dragon was giving me a look. I did not know what kind of look it was, but it was heavy.

The dragon was certainly reluctant to get in the bag.

But I was not one to back down from a challenge.

I certainly was not someone who refused to bow. I would beg and plead for my cause if I felt it worthy.

But I did not feel like backing down in front of a baby born not even an hour ago.

Even if the baby was strong enough to end my life, I was not going to stare back at it.

"Kyuuuu~"

It did not take long for the dragon's attention span to shift its focus. Curious small paws swiped at the bag experimentally.

Cain looked like he was about to die. And I did understand his urgency.

Despite having a small body and unimpressive claws, a baby dragon was more than capable of tearing apart a cloth bag like this.

"No. We are not supposed to tear this bag. You are supposed to stay in here and now show your face."

The baby dragon was either not understanding what I was saying, or pretending not to understand.

Both choices seemed likely to me.

"That's it. You are going in whether you like it or not."

I ignored the choking noise Cain made in the background. My hands were full of a flailing dragon to pay attention to him.

It must be the protagonist's luck that made his bag just big enough to house that baby dragon.

"Here, you carry this bag. It is too heavy for me."

My hands hurt from carrying over the extra weight of the baby dragon.

Just for your kind information, the baby dragon weighed close to 10 kgs at birth. And unlike human babies that knew how to regulate their weight in someone's arm, dragon babies could or do the same.

"Are you sure it is safe? I don't think the dragon liked me very much."

It was true. The dragon was glaring at Cain in an offended manner.

Had I not been here for the whole time, I would have believed Cain to have done something stupid as well.

"He won't hurt you. Now stop being a coward and hold him."

Maybe I did feel sorry for Cain somewhere inside my heart.

But that sympathy did not stop me from shoving the dragon-filled bag in his arms.

"Ouch. It bit me. Is it poisonous? Am I going to die? What should I do?"

"Don't be dramatic. You won't die from a dragon's bite. We won't know for a while."

Cian paled. His already milky complexion went chalky white at my words.

"I'm joking with you. Dragons this young do not contain venom in their bite. That dragon would need to grow up first before being of any use to me."

Now that I think about it, dragons were another race of creatures capable of defying the logic of a world.

Maybe I could train this baby dragon to kill me? I could feed it, train it and let it grow up big and strong. And in the end, it would reward me with taking my life.

"You're not thinking of using this dragon as your suicidal tactics right?"

Cain sounded gained when he asked that question.

I could not answer him verbally. So I chose to stare at him instead.

"You're not thinking of suicide, right?"

Cain sounded like he was going to have a heart attack any second. I was amused at the range of facial expressions he was able to convey.

To be honest, this was a big reason this novel has stuck in my memory. The characters were vibrant and had their personality well defined.

That made readers like me appreciate the thought process put behind them.

But I also could not help but resent how whiny the protagonist had been before he grew up in strength.

I might have enjoyed it in the occasional flashbacks the author put in but it was a hindrance to my mental peace now.

"I promised you that I won't think of suicide. So no, I was not thinking of that. I was merely planning out my next move."

My lie fell through my lips before I could think it over.

Cain's expression spoke volumes about his trust in my words.

"So, let's hear this plan of yours. It must be something if it required you to go out and hatch a dragon."

"Kyuuu~"

The dragon did not have any understanding of what we were saying. It was just letting out senseless noises.

But somehow I could not help but feel bullied.

"Are you both ganging up on me?"

Those words exited my mouth without my permission.

"NO. Of course not. I would never bully someone. This is not what our talk is about. You! Do not try to change the subject here. Tell me what your plan is."

As expected of the protagonist. My words did not cause him to lose track of the conversation.

At this point, it was better to swallow my pride and let the truth be known.

"I was just going to sacrifice our kidnapper to the dragon baby and take this opportunity to steal your pendent. But I don't think this child here can do that yet."

Dragons were known as fearsome creatures in the novel.

There had been only one dragon that had been introduced in the story. And it had been responsible for causing the twin protagonist a lot of pain and suffering.

This information was clear in my memory since it was one of the biggest topics of debate in the novel fandom.

How could a protagonist face a calamity he would never be able to overcome? But the dragon mentioned was made out to be an immovable force.

I did not know if the author ever checked out the forms or if they even knew about its existence. But they never clarified why the dragon held such power.

"Anyway, we have to head back to the base now. The forest will become dangerous if someone senses the lack of protection surrounding it."

It had been the egg that had maintained the illusion up at all times. Without it, the forest lacked the necessary power to sustain itself.

"Alright. But what if things go wrong and the bandit boss finds this dragon? We won't be able to fight him off and protect the baby at the same time."

That was true.

But as a reader, how could I ever begin doubting the protagonist's legendary powers and golden finger.

"Things would turn out to be alright. It's already been a day since my kidnap, right? The crown guards will not sit ideally. I am sure they are bound to arrive anytime now. That's why I want to hurry back."

Cain's face went through 50 shades of colour before settling on tomato red.

"So you were going to be saved anyway? Then why did you not tell me?"

Cain looked betrayed.

"You did not need to know."

That look of betrayal deepened.

But how could I tell him the truth? How could I say that I did not tell him anything because I forgot about the existence of crown guards?

After all, they did not appear in the novel too often. Mostly, only their beautiful leader was mentioned since she was Cain's legal guardian.

The journey back to the boss's base was not difficult.

But it was lucky of me to stop the people scouting the first edge and calling out Cain's name.

"Are they looking for us? What should we do now?"

Cain sounded worried. But I did not hold the same fear as him.

"For now we go back. Hopefully, this confusion would aid us in stealing your pendant. Once we have that, we can run away. The royal guards would find me."

I knew I would be found anyway. The royal guards were one of the most accomplished groups written in the novel.

If they were tasked with something then it would be done.

"Alright. Let's head back to the base then."

I just shook my head at Cain's actions. Hopefully, his character development would come soon enough and he would start showing the op Mc traits.

Otherwise, he would be eaten alive by this power-hungry world.

To survive here, you either need the strength of your one or the strength of connections.

And I was going to use the latter one to my advantage and escape my cursed destiny before time.