“And… after he gives it to you?” the hall leader’s gaze landed on her this time around.

With a smile that made the following statement even more chilling, she responded, “Kill without mercy.”

****

“Long Tian Yan, why must you continuously break your mother’s heart!?”

“Meow!”

“Waaah!”

A furious sobbing echoed out that shook the surroundings.

“Meeow!”

“WAAAAH!”

“Fine. stop crying then!”

A conversation that made no sense but somehow struck fear in the second most powerful active dragon in the dragon race took place. The aforementioned second strongest in the dragon race stood afar off, refusing to take part in this argument, he simply wasn’t qualified.

“Long Zhe, get your ass over here!”

“Damn it!”

Ever since the mother of the young master visited, his days were filled with pain, and it seemed that today would be no different.

Every time that infernal demon cat spawn thing over there displeased his mother, punishment would be vetted.

The problem was that the one who received this punishment was him, Long Zhe!

In addition, her reasons for doing so were overbearing and illogical!

“Yes, my queen?” He came over with a steady gait at her call.

It should be noted that, much like the Dragon King, no dragon had ever held the moniker of queen either. The bizarre thing, however, was that this was not due to her relation to the current Dragon King in any way. Truthfully, even if he didn’t exist, the dragon race would still refer to her as queen.

Why, you ask? This was because she was the very embodiment of what a queen was or should be. Strong, ruthless, domineering, beautiful, and everything in between.

In her earlier years, she submitted to no one and was a wild existence that sought no one’s acceptance.

The ruling powers were unable to control her and her genius-level strength didn’t allow them to be too strong-handed with her, either. She only calmed down somewhat after her union with the current Dragon King. Unfortunately, recent events with her son rendered such a calm state a foregone moment in history.

“Why is my son still meowing?”

‘The same question again,’ Long Zhe thought to himself before replying. “My queen, this is not my fault! I told him repeatedly to cease, but he refuses!”

“Oh? So you’re saying that is what my son is like this normally!?”

“I-I…”

Long Tian Yan, also known as Pebbles the Wondercat, stepped out to defend Long Zhe, “Leave him alone, mother!”

“You!” she looked at Pebbles the Wondercat in shock before she turned back to Long Zhe, “So you turned my son against me? Is that it!?”

“My queen, I would ne-”

“So what if he has!? What are you gonna do about it mother? He’s the second most powerful active dragon in the dragon race!”

“Young master, stop defending me! PLEASE!”

“Oh, so you want to challenge me with your strength?” she asked Long Zhe as the heat in the small cave suddenly rose.

Long Zhe paled in terror, “N-No, my que-”

“Hell yeah, he does!”

“Young master!”

“Then come at me!”

“Noooo!!!”

As Pebbles the Wondercat fulfilled his role as the most detrimental hype man in the world, Long Zhe underwent another round of beating for the day.

…

Sometime after everyone had calmed down and others went through… recovery. Long Tian Yan and his mother were outside the mouth of the cave.

Clouds surrounded the peak upon which this cave sat. It lent a diaphanous look to this ‘land’. It betrayed the power and will that was required of one to reach and traverse this height.

As she lay there watching the clouds drift by, many thoughts went through her head.

She was truly a magnificent beast. Her red scales glistened in the sunlight, akin to a polished ruby. Their defensive capabilities were comparable to even high ranked defensive spiritual tools.

She was massive, only slightly smaller than Long Zhe, who was colossal in his own right. With this comparison, she towered over many other male dragons within the Dragon Domain.

In addition, she was a true genius. The techniques created by her now man, the Dragon King, had their greatest number of mastery achieved by her, reaching a staggering number of eight out of the nine.

She reminisced about the past during her wilder days. The other races would tremble whenever she left the Domain, wary of her next target.

“Hehehe…” she chuckled, thinking back on it. A time when she never cared who liked her or disliked her, and yet, “Do you hate your mother?” she suddenly asked.

Pebbles, who was beside her, was startled by her sudden questioning, “N-No…”

A fearsome row of teeth came into view as she smiled, “Don’t lie to me. Sometimes I feel a coldness in your eyes. A detachment of malice that wounds me. Is it my temper that angers you… son?”

Pebbles went silent in the face of this question. Unlike Long Di, who grew to love his parents fairly quickly, Pebbles’s circumstances were a bit… dissimilar.”

Everyone knew that when Pebbles was born, it was a huge uproar for several reasons. His pure, almost alien-like draconic aura was felt for miles around. It sent several magical beasts into a frenzy. Stampedes of magical beasts would take place frequently.

The stampedes were so destructive that even the locations where the aura didn’t reach were affected by them. Magical beasts that were normally within the deepest forests were caught up and added to the pandemonium. It was a dangerous domino effect.

Countless villages, towns, and cities were destroyed or damaged in some way. It took years for the turmoil to calm down. It was within the midst of all this that word came that the dragon race heralded such a terrifying being.

However, the mother that brought forth such a being went into a rage of her own when the first word that her son spoke of was someone she didn’t know of.

After some more unsavory incidents that may or may not be related to Pebbles’s particular… feline persuasion, it was decided that he would be sent off to train with the Dragon King’s right-hand man, Long Zhe.

Pebbles’s treatment under the conditions of all this never got him the love that he needed to recover from what he experienced in his last life.

Once, when he was binge-watching that slime anime with Long Di back at the Anima Palace, Long Di had told him that if he ever meets someone he feels he should trust, he can tell them about his origins.

Wanting to test his mother a bit, “Mother, let me tell you a story.”

“Huh?” his mother was puzzled but went silent, so her son could continue.

Pebbles then spun a tale that was quite literally the story of his life.

Pebbles was an orphan, as he had no parents. His earliest memories were that of awakening inside of a water-damaged cardboard box in an out-of-the-way alley. Thinking back on it, he had no idea how he survived back then, considering he had no mother to breastfeed him, but much like Long Di, his answer to that moment of realization was… meh.

Back to the memories, he had trouble surviving the streets as a street kitty. The other cats didn’t care if he starved and would steal whatever scraps he managed to get for himself. His street smarts developed, and he almost ended up in juvie, or what the other cats called the pound.

However, he was saved from that fate. One day, he was being chased by a cat catcher and was finally cornered. He had out-maneuvered these cat catchers before, but apparently, his reputation preceded him and they came for him full force. He was about to be captured when a mysterious cat knocked out the person who was trying to catch him.

Pebbles was troubled by this act of goodwill as he never experienced something like this before. He didn’t want to owe anybody and asked the cat what he wanted in return for saving his life.

This cat told him to address him only as his uncle and to follow him from that day on. No explanation was given about where he came from, who he was, or anything along those lines.

Pebbles always wanted to repay him, but that opportunity never came. About a week after that day, the true colors of that uncle came to light.

Every night, he came home drunk and high. Pebbles wasn’t sure what got him drunk, but he was sure that his uncle was high on catnip. He could smell it on him.

Pebbles doesn’t remember exactly when the beatings started. Only that they took place and that they were the reasons why he had trouble sleeping at night.

This experience gave Pebbles a messed-up definition of love and care. After all, his uncle saved him, so he must care… right?

At the end of the day, whether he knew this answer didn’t matter. He wouldn’t leave this cat since he didn’t repay him.

The only time these dark clouds retreated a little was on a certain day. He saw a boy in the streets on a rainy day. He had neither an umbrella nor a raincoat like the other humans.

Blood ran down his body, and his face was devoid of hope. He sat on the ground in a corner on the streets, and no one paid him any heed.

Even as the rain pelted him, in his hands were a few sheets of paper that he was desperately trying to keep dry. Though his face was impassive, his eyes were twinkling as he read what was on the page.

Feeling a bit of curiosity, he approached the boy. When he got close enough, the latter stopped what he was doing and stared at him for a while, then asked a question, “Do you like isekai?”

The day he met Long Di was a day of days. They quickly became best of friends and learned each other’s interests.

Pebbles recounted several scenes in his life to his mother up until the point he died.

He then asked his mother at the end of his story, “Now this creature has a new lease on life and received a mother and father. He received no love like he did from his best friend, but massive expectations and a refusal to who he is at every turn. Should he love them? Can he love them?”

He heard a few growls and looked up to see tears pouring from his mother’s eyes.

“M-Mom!? Why are you cryi-”

“Long Tian Yan,” she called as softly as she ever did. “What do you know of a mother’s love?”

“I-I… don’t…” he mumbled into silence.

He used different names in his story and terms that he could use to help build her a picture so she could follow along, but her reaction made it appear as if she…

“I love you,” she said finally. She never said it before. The dragon race’s customs were a far cry from the humans, or even his last world.

With dragons, the concept of love has no root, and as such, it is not observed. Power, strength, will, courage and determination. These were the concepts observed by dragons.

Pebbles understood this after years of living with them, but it was this love that Pebbles yearned for. He had lost his only friend for many years and his so-called family in both lives never gave to him that love.

Yet, out of nowhere, his mother said something to him that shook him to his core.

He looked at her in bewilderment, “You lo-”

“Though love is not observed within our race, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, and I have it in spades for you, my child.”

Hearing this, he stared at her wide-eyed. Was it so simple to engender such a reaction from him? But he couldn’t help it. “Oh, what’s this?” he didn’t realize when he started crying and attempted to wipe his tears.

Fwoosh!

Suddenly, his mother got up and extended her massive wings.

“W-Where are you going!?” he asked her in a rush, confused by the emotions that ran rampant within him.

“I have a visit to pay,” she said softly as she lowered her massive head to touch his. “I shall meet this Long Di of yours.”

He panicked when he heard this, “Mother ple-”

“I shall see if he is worthy of your love is all…” saying this, she leaped from the cliff’s edge and allowed her colossal wings to take flight. A whisper on the wind was all that greeted him as she left.

“Continue your training my son… I love you…”