Slacker Second Gen C42

Chapter 42: Dragon Dad 12

Seeing the principal’s serious face, Larry instinctively touched the translucent little mask he wore for style, reassuring himself that the principal definitely hadn’t recognized him. After all, he wasn’t an outstanding student or anything.

Forcing himself to keep up his act, Larry finished his opening performance, then quickly slipped backstage amid the cheers of the audience.

He found his two friends, Milo and Botrun, intending to tell them that Principal Aeregon was in the audience.

But the moment he saw them, Larry suddenly changed his mind.

They were brothers—how could he be the only one to get scared?

Feigning nonchalance, he approached Milo and said, “There are a lot of people in the front, especially plenty of wealthy gentlemen in the front row. Milo, this is a great time for you to sell some snacks.”

During the breaks in the magic show, it was a common practice to push a snack cart around to sell treats.

Milo had a sharp, rat-like face and loved making money. He was the one who had suggested joining this parade magic show—to experience life and earn some extra cash.

“It’s still a bit early,” Milo said, though he still got up and pushed the cart outside.

Since Larry had said so, Milo made a beeline for the front row. He specifically targeted those with children—usually, if the cart lingered near them, the kids would catch the scent of the snacks and start clamoring for them.

Anyone sitting in the front row was bound to have money. Nine times out of ten, they would buy something.

Milo happily collected money, barely looking up as he moved toward the center.

He spotted two children sitting on either side of a well-dressed man and instinctively asked, “Sir, would you like to buy some snacks for the children?”

A familiar voice replied, “…Two portions.”

“Got it!” Milo looked up and saw an even more familiar face.

Shocked, he jumped back, instinctively wanting to hide behind his cart.

It was the principal!

No, no, maybe he wouldn’t recognize him…

Aeregon frowned at his reaction. “What are you acting so skittish for?”

Milo stiffly straightened up.

“That boy on stage just now—he’s Larry, your fourth-year classmate, isn’t he? You two ran off during break, so how’s your homework coming along?” Aeregon asked.

How was it coming along? Obviously, they hadn’t even started.

But he couldn’t say that.

“Haha, yes, yes, homework? It’s… almost done,” Milo stammered.

The unfortunate student felt unbearably awkward, but the little girl waiting for snacks, Fenny, was getting impatient. She tugged on her grandfather’s sleeve. “Snacks!”

The little dragon next to her, who could barely talk, also reached out a claw to grab Principal Aeregon’s sleeve. With both children tugging at him, Aeregon struggled to maintain his serious expression.

Milo quickly grabbed two portions of snacks and handed them over. “Here, for the kids! Hahaha, I’ll be going now—I have work to do! Hahaha!”

He pushed the snack cart so hard it nearly flew away, not even bothering to collect the money, and in the blink of an eye, he had disappeared backstage.

Backstage, Milo stormed over to Larry, who was grinning knowingly, clearly enjoying his misfortune. Milo was about to curse him out, but when he saw their other friend, Botrun, still clueless, he swallowed his words.

Larry elbowed him playfully. “So? Business was good, huh?”

Milo gritted his teeth. “Yeah, real good!”

Then he turned to Botrun with a fake, friendly smile. “Your turn’s coming up soon. You better give it your all. I heard that if you get closer to the audience and interact more, they’ll throw you tips.”

Botrun was chubby and loved eating. His act involved singing alongside dozens of trained birds. Of course, he wouldn’t perform in his human form—he would drink a transformation potion to turn into a rare animal from the faraway cold regions, using human speech to interact with the audience. This was always a favorite among the children.

Egged on by his two dear friends, Botrun drank the potion and transformed into a plump, two-legged creature. He waddled onto the stage, heading straight for the front, close to the audience.

The spectators saw a strange but adorable creature toddle forward, but then, all of a sudden, it stiffened. Its short neck shrank back, and in a panic, it turned around to flee, radiating nervous guilt from its very posture.

It had a black back and a white belly, resembling a tuxedo.

Many audience members had never seen such an animal before. When they saw it trying to leave, they called out in surprise.

But Botrun had spotted the principal and was so startled that he ran toward the curtains, only to see two familiar heads peeking out from the shadows. His two friends frantically waved at him, urging him to go back.

The poor transformed Botrun slipped, belly down, and shot toward them like a rocket. But his so-called friends showed no brotherly love and extended their legs, kicking him back toward the stage.

With his belly skimming the ground, he slid right back onto the stage. Unable to stop himself, he flew off the platform and, amidst the audience’s gasps, crashed straight into Principal Aeregon’s arms.

Botrun: “…”

Was it too late to drop out of school?

Just then, a small hand suddenly grabbed one of his trembling front limbs.

Beside him, Qian clutched his flipper and cheered excitedly, “Penguin! Big penguin!”

Somewhere in her fuzzy memories, she seemed to recall seeing an animal like this before.

In the end, the big penguin was personally returned to the stage by the principal. Botrun didn’t dare look at Aeregon’s perpetually serious face. He stiffly kept his head down and finished the performance.

He had a feeling—this moment might be the most painful of his entire life.

Despite all the mishaps, for the two children, the magic show was an absolute delight.

They munched on their snacks, clutching the little gifts they had snatched, holding hands as they excitedly discussed the show.

Fenny: “My gift is candy! Qian, what’s yours? Wow, a glowing ball!”

Qian echoed, “Glowing! Ball!”

Fenny: “That big bird Grandpa was holding was so cute! I want one too!”

Qian shouted along, “Penguin! Penguin!”

Fenny: “That magic made everything disappear! Poof, poof, poof! I want to play too, Grandpa! Make me disappear and bring me back!”

Qian nodded eagerly, “Disappear! Poof!”

Following the dispersing crowd, Principal Aeregon led the children to a small stand outside, using little trinkets to divert their attention.

With the two kids finally quiet, Aeregon’s sharp gaze returned to the magic show’s tent, where a sneaky head had just popped out to assess the surroundings. As if expecting this, Aeregon gestured for them to come over.

Not long after, two people and one penguin stood obediently in front of him. The transformation potion hadn’t worn off yet, so the penguin remained a penguin.

Aeregon looked at Milo first.

“Why did you run so fast? I didn’t even pay you for the snacks. How much?”

Milo waved his hands frantically. “No need, no need!”

Aeregon: “The school teaches you magic so you can do this?”

The three of them instantly fell silent.

Aeregon: “Is this place where you work legitimate?”

“……”

“Over there! What are they selling over there? It smells so good! Qian, let’s go take a look!” Fanny pulled Qian along, running from one stall to another.

The maid followed behind them, and the two guards hurried to keep up.

Suddenly, the crowd swelled. A large group of people squeezed through the narrow road, excitedly discussing a new animal performance happening on the other side.

The two guards were separated by the throng and were struggling to make their way through when they suddenly heard the maid scream.

The two children in front of the stall had vanished.

Qian was jostled by the sudden influx of people, but before she could react, a pair of arms scooped her up amidst the chaos.

At the same time, another person grabbed Fanny.

Two inconspicuous-looking men, each carrying a child, swiftly turned into a side alley.

The man holding Fanny covered her mouth to stop her from struggling.

Her head quickly drooped, and she slumped against the man, motionless.

The man carrying Qian also covered her mouth, and she caught a strong, acrid scent.

She stared at the man in confusion, unsure of what was happening. As a school mascot, she played with different people every day—was this person playing with her too?

The man holding Qian was just as puzzled. He had used the drug, so why wasn’t this child unconscious?

And she was actually quite good-looking. A child like this could fetch a high price. The other one wasn’t bad either. As long as they could get them out of the city, finding buyers wouldn’t be a problem.

Since she wasn’t struggling or making noise, the man didn’t bother with her any further. They were experienced kidnappers and quickly navigated the labyrinthine alleyways, bringing the two children to the back of a tent on the other side.

They belonged to a traveling animal performance troupe that used “novelty” as a selling point, moving from city to city. Along the way, they also dabbled in human trafficking.

The children they had recently kidnapped from previous cities hadn’t yet been sold. They were all hidden behind the animal cages, drugged so that even if they were awake, their voices couldn’t be heard over the roars and cries of the caged beasts.

Just as before, the two men carried the children behind the tent and shoved them into a cage.

It wasn’t until she was shoved inside and saw Fanny lying beside her that Qian realized something was wrong.

Her gaze swept over the other children in the cage—some unconscious, others whimpering softly—before she looked up at the men outside.

Suddenly, Qian reached out and grabbed the bars of the cage.

These sturdy bars, designed to contain wild beasts and impossible for an adult man to bend, twisted effortlessly in her small hands. In the blink of an eye, a large gap appeared.

One of the men, who had witnessed this scene, widened his eyes in shock and stammered, “L-Look! She—!”

His companion turned his head just in time to see the small child, who wasn’t even as tall as their waists, climbing out of the bent-open gap.

Without thinking, he grabbed a nearby stick used for taming animals and charged forward.

But before he could get close, the child suddenly transformed into a creature they had never seen before.

Its body was long and sinuous, with fierce claws, its form covered in emerald-like scales, whiskers flowing in the air.

It was as thick as the giant python in their tent, yet it could soar through the sky.

“Monster! Monster!”

“AAAAHHHH!”

The two men screamed as the dragon lunged at them.

A tremendous force sent them flying. They crashed into an empty cage on the side—one of them fainted instantly, while the other coughed up blood.

Hearing the commotion, other members of the troupe cursed and rushed over, only to freeze in shock at the sight of a green dragon perched atop the children’s cage, letting out soft chirps.

“What? The children are missing?!”

Aeregon hadn’t expected that in just a few moments of distraction, the two children would disappear.

“What?! The principal’s child is missing?!”

“We’ll help the principal find the child!”

“Squawk!”

The three students who had been disciplined before shouted even louder than Aeregon himself, then immediately turned and ran.

Aeregon had no time to deal with them right now. He turned to the guards and ordered, “Gather people and search immediately! Seal off the city for now!”

Milo and his group ran into the alley, with the struggling penguin falling behind and asking, “Where are we going?”

“Yeah, where?”

The three of them huddled together for a quick discussion before Milo decided, “Let’s check the big performance troupes in the city first! Didn’t the owner of the magic show tell us that some of those troupes use performances as a cover for kidnapping?”

“Yeah! Wasn’t there just an animal performance troupe earlier?”

They were incredibly lucky. The first place they checked was the right one.

Seeing the connected tents and hearing the cries of various animals, the three of them stretched and recalled the combat magic they had learned at school.

“Let’s sneak in first. As long as we can rescue the kids, the principal will probably never scold us again!”

“Brothers! This is our time to shine!”

They stealthily entered a tent, only to be completely shocked by the scene inside.

Unconscious people lay sprawled on the ground, bloodied bodies slumped against cages, others twisted and fainted in piles of debris—seven or eight men and women, all seemingly part of the performance troupe.

And there, sitting in front of a cage filled with children, was a pretty little girl, casually eating snacks. She was also hugging another girl who was even bigger than her.

Because she was small with short arms, holding the other child was a struggle, so she frequently had to adjust her posture.

She suddenly sneezed, and a puff of smoke escaped her mouth, enveloping the girl in her arms. The girl immediately rubbed her eyes and woke up.

Milo and the others: “……”

When Aeregon finally arrived with a large search party, he anxiously pulled back the tent flap—only to be greeted by the sound of his granddaughter’s laughter.

The two children who had made him frantic with worry were now bouncing happily on the belly of a giant penguin.

The poor penguin lay sprawled on the ground in despair, its two front limbs splayed out.

Inside the deformed cage, several other children peeked their heads out, watching them play with faces full of longing.

Milo and Larry, crouching by the wall, looked up at the approaching principal and shouted excitedly, “Principal, you’re finally here!”

To an outsider, it would seem as if they were the ones being rescued.