Chapter 2: Where’s My Pet Dragon Daughter!?

“Should I summon her directly here?”

Miss Vilyric hesitated.

If this truly was the Ancient Spirit Realm, she would probably not be able to return anytime soon. After all, even the most advanced invisible space portal couldn’t achieve a true cross-dimensional transport. As for the Void Trace Blade, she first needed to find a direct passage leading there.

In other words, if Xiao Guang were transported here, she would have to stay temporarily until Vilyric located Hen and clarified the situation.

And with the current predicament…

After much deliberation, the priestess decided to give it a try.

“Contract Summon: Xiao Guang.”

A magnificent and intricate golden magical circle appeared before the girl, radiating light.

However, that familiar figure did not descend from afar at her call, much like trying to connect a phone call where both numbers exist, yet one side is in a no-signal zone; despite sending a connection request, there was no response.

“…As expected.”

Vilyric waved away the magical circle, frowning.

The essence of contract telepathy and contract summoning was essentially the same. When she previously failed to receive a reply to her message, she already had a vague premonition.

She couldn’t help but smile wryly.

“Hen, you really gave me a tricky problem.”

But Vilyric couldn’t just leave her pet unattended. Even if it might interfere with Hen’s plans, she decided to use a more forceful method to clarify the situation.

“…Divine Kingdom, descend.”

Light surged from every corner around the girl.

However, she didn’t fully bring her Divine Kingdom into this world; instead, she used her nearly omnipotent authority to probe the surrounding environment and issue a call to the beings within her Divine Kingdom.

A clear voice responded quickly.

“Squawk!”

A snow-white giant bird emerged from the brilliance, landing beside her owner.

The power of the Divine Kingdom, compressed to the smallest range, constricted her brightness, causing the Radiant God of Light descending into the Abyss not to disturb the world, quickly folding her smooth, flawless wings and shrinking her body to just three or four meters long, lowering her head to affectionately nuzzle against the black-haired girl’s white robe.

“Squawk ~ Squawk ~”

Seeing her successfully appear, Vilyric’s tense mood relaxed considerably, and she raised her hand to gently stroke the other’s soft feathers.

“It’s Snow Wing! Long time no see! You can control your size freely now? This is what they call returning to one’s roots, huh? It’s been three days since we last met, and I should look at you with fresh eyes ~”

“Squawk ~~”

The white bird raised her head proudly, like a naive child praised by their parents for getting a perfect score, emitting a clear and pleasant chirp.

Although she still looked like she couldn’t speak, through their contract, Vilyric could understand the general meaning of Snow Wing and affectionately petted her fluffy head again, smiling.

“Alright, I know my Snow Wing is doing great! By the way, do you know how your sister is doing right now? I can’t get in touch with her, which is strange… It seems you’re the only one at home.”

“Squawk squawk! Squawk squawk squawk!”

Understanding her owner’s words, it seemed Snow Wing wanted to explain something. She circled around Vilyric, shaking her head and urgently chirping.

To an outsider, this bird’s calls might seem like incomprehensible nonsense—just like “Maka Baka”—but with the help of their contract, Vilyric could still comprehend her second pet’s meaning.

“Mm mm… you’re saying she hasn’t encountered danger and is just isolated by some force, temporarily unable to return home?”

Although the situation wasn’t far from her expectations, Snow Wing’s solemn guarantee indeed reassured Vilyric a lot. However, she immediately thought of another question.

“Wait, Snow Wing, why could you come here?”

“Squawk?”

The white bird blinked her innocent big eyes and tilted her head in confusion.

Clearly, she didn’t know why either.

“Alright…”

This question probably wouldn’t be answered anytime soon.

After that, Vilyric conducted various attempts in her Divine Kingdom and ultimately reached a conclusion.

Except for Snow Wing, all summoning skills, excluding those like the “Light Element Spirit Summon,” which directly create elemental beings out of thin air, were temporarily unusable.

It wasn’t that Miss Vilyric’s abilities were at fault; it was just that those summoned creatures in the outside world couldn’t breach some force’s barrier to arrive here, as if this entire space were sealed off.

While Vilyric didn’t heavily rely on summoned creatures—aside from Dragon Daughter, the ability to summon didn’t matter much—Snow Wing could fill in her role, so the priestess wasn’t concerned about her own safety.

Moreover, this kind of sealing wasn’t absolute. Vilyric could sense that if she disregarded any cost and expanded her Divine Kingdom indefinitely, to the point of bursting the power that enveloped this place, she could likely contact all her summoned creatures again.

But clearly, making such a reckless move without fully understanding the situation was very unwise.

Vilyric wasn’t worried about Xiao Guang’s safety; she cared more about whether that dependent child would feel excessively anxious when separated from her owner.

However, that child had grown a lot during this time; her mind was no longer as naïve as when she first crossed over. With Xi Fu Lin, Leila, and other reliable friends watching over her, there wasn’t much in that world to threaten her…

Since Snow Wing had further confirmed Xiao Guang’s safety, perhaps a brief separation wouldn’t be entirely bad for her.

It might be a bit harsh and temporarily leave her feeling lost, but Vilyric always believed that with her self-awareness, Dragon Daughter was an independent being, not merely an accessory or follower of the priestess.

She should have her own thoughts, her own desires, rather than just moving when Vilyric said so.

Even without this unforeseen situation, Miss Vilyric intended to find an opportunity to test this sooner or later; after all, the contract hadn’t disappeared, which was already enough to convey a lot of information to Xiao Guang.

With that in mind, she decided to trust the child and give her some space to grow freely.

After patting Snow Wing’s head and interacting with her for a bit, Vilyric chose not to keep her by her side but quickly ended the Divine Kingdom summon and sent her back to the other side.

After all, the Aibus world needed her to provide light; each of Snow Wing’s sudden disappearances must have been quite a terrifying sight over there.

Snow Wing was nearly the only salvation and deity for Aibus.

Unless absolutely necessary, it was better not to summon her during the day.

Shaking off distractions, Vilyric turned her gaze back to the surrounding new world.

“Ah… Alright, let me see what makes this place, the so-called Ancient Spirit Realm, so extraordinary. Lingyin Fairy Island, huh…”

Just right, aside from the matter of Hen, there were other confusions Vilyric had long wanted to clear up in her mind.

She reached her palm into the pitch-black void, pulling out a thin, bright white fox mask that seemed carved from white jade.

After silently examining it for a long time, she ultimately did not put it on her face.

With white wings unfurling, the girl soared into the sky, leaving only a fragrant aftertaste in the deep valley.

   

---