This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

After finishing up with Shadow.Q, Rita opened Rick's private messages.

**[Rick]**: Sis!!! Where did you get that dragon? How did you do it? I want one too, Sis! Sis! Sis~!

How much is it? I'll start raising money!

**[Rita]**: It's not the kind of pet you're thinking. I signed a *balanced contract* with this dragon, so I can't order it around.

Rick frowned and relayed this message to Zoey and the others. Unfortunately, only he could see the game interface, so the butler from Lopez's family couldn't verify the truth with any skill.

Zoey also received a similar response from Rita, reiterating that she had signed a balanced contract with the dragon. Although she owned the dragon, she couldn't command it at will.

Whether or not this was true, it certainly made Rick and Zoey feel a bit better. They had been wondering how Rita, at level 7, could have contracted a level 14 dragon.

Rita also placated Samuel and Scarlett by promising to show them the dragon eventually. After dealing with them, she opened messages from the people she knew from the training camp. She needed to assess their reactions to decide if it was worth maintaining contact with them.

These individuals were lone wolves by nature, preferring direct, fair transactions over exploiting friendships for information. Their messages were either congratulations or straightforward inquiries about whether Rita would sell information about pets.

Rita responded to each in kind. For the congratulations, she replied with a simple "thanks." As for the inquiries about pets, she uniformly replied, "If you want to contract a pet, prepare a pet contract and weaken the beast to low health—that's how you can contract one." She didn't charge for this information since it was common knowledge for advanced players.

Rita passed this same information along to Shadow.Q, Rick, Zoey, and the others.

Meanwhile, Nivalis devoured all the food Rita had painstakingly prepared over the past six months, including the wine she had planned to gift to Apache. Rita patiently waited. Every time she took something away from Rick, it made her feel like her soul had been massaged—leaving her relaxed and satisfied.

Once Nivalis had eaten her fill, Rita brought her into the *Pet Space*. This space was a separate dimension that adapted to each pet's preferences. However, Nivalis didn't like it much, spending only a few seconds inside before coming back out.

Rita, with a sigh, tried to soothe her. "Just stay in there for a little while. Once we get home, I'll let you out. You're too big, and it's not convenient."

Nivalis snorted, then shrank before Rita's astonished eyes. She kept shrinking until she was the size of a smartphone.

Rita crouched down, looking at the tiny, hand-sized blue dragon on the ground. Nivalis still had a round white belly, and her cute, chubby, miniaturized form paired with her "I'm so cool" dragon face created the most delightful contrast. *She's so adorable!* Rita thought, barely able to contain a squeal.

Rita lifted the mini blue dragon high, singing a riff from *The Lion King*, "Ahhh Zabenyaaaa!"

Nivalis blinked, confused: "???"

After her brief moment of madness, Rita calmly placed Nivalis on her shoulder. "A celebration ritual," she said matter-of-factly. *Don't ask!*

Nivalis: "Okay…"

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Rita then went up the mountain, found a sheep, and roasted it on the spot. She cut the roasted lamb into small pieces, just the right size for mini Nivalis to hold and gnaw on. She placed the lamb pieces into a food box and handed them to Nivalis, who, being a dragon, had her own pocket dimension to store them in.

Nivalis, sitting on Rita's shoulder, happily munched on a piece of lamb. *This human friend is pretty great!* she thought.

Rita asked, "If I use teleportation skills, will you follow along?"

Nivalis nodded, "Of course. We're contracted. As long as I'm in contact with you, I'm considered part of you."

Relieved, Rita used her *Phantom Shift* skill to teleport to the dungeon entrance. She drank an invisibility potion but was disappointed to see that Nivalis was still visible, hovering in mid-air, happily munching away. It seemed potions couldn't affect living creatures, nor did they extend their effects to contracted pets.

Making a mental note of this limitation, Rita pulled out a bottle of juice, mixed in some invisibility potion, and handed it to Nivalis. Once the mini dragon also turned invisible, they exited the dungeon and reset it.

…

Five minutes later, Rita and Nivalis stood at the halfway point up the mountain. From a distance, they could see a giant level 15 lizard lounging on the peak.

Now it made sense why no one had added more pets after obtaining the dragon. The replacement creatures weren't nearly as appealing. If a pet wasn't as valuable as a dragon and also resistant to control, it wasn't worth the effort or resources.

Rita returned to the town. She coaxed Nivalis back into the *Pet Space*, then used her *Disguise* skill to change into the form of a teenage boy. She returned to the town to gather more information. As expected, the storyline was unchanged, except the dragon at the top of the mountain had been replaced by a giant python.

She went back to the castle to meet the new steward after the dungeon had refreshed and was given a similar task as before: head to the library to find a book about the python from among thousands of blank-spined books.

Rita skimmed through them all. Aside from the usual undead history and biographies of famous undead figures, there was only one obscure book about the python. It seemed like all traces of anything related to dragons had been wiped clean from the place.

Now truly relaxed, Rita moved through the town like it was her own home, stealing from everyone she passed. She felt completely at ease.

By the time she left the dungeon, she had picked up an additional 4 points in Constitution, 2 in Agility, and 1 in Strength. Satisfied, she returned to her villa.

Once home, she let little Nivalis out of the *Pet Space*. Rita then gave the mini dragon a tour of the house, showing her how to fill the bathtub, watch TV, play video games, where to find snacks, and, most importantly, that the cats in the backyard were off-limits for snacking.

The house was soon filled with little Nivalis's excited roars.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

In her previous life, the first time Rita had met Nivalis, the dragon had been full of rage, always on the verge of an outburst. Now, though, she was as happy as a baby, full of joy, and it softened Rita's heart even more.

People on the roof, who had been running dungeons, clearly heard the little dragon's roars but, despite their curiosity, no one dared to enter Rita's domain through the water curtain. Rita appreciated the rules the government agents followed. While she was pleased with their restraint, she also knew she had no desire to join such a rigid system herself.

Rita told Nivalis about the areas outside the water curtain, warning her that those places didn't entirely belong to them. She could go there but might encounter strangers. If anyone tried to harm her, she was free to defend herself, but she should leave at least one person alive for Rita to deal with.

As for Nivalis causing trouble on her own? Rita wasn't worried. The dragon had too much pride to bully the weak.

It was already 3 a.m., but instead of going straight to bed, Rita spent time playing games with the little dragon. She also made about 20 pounds of roasted meat for Nivalis and the backyard cats. Before heading to bed, she reminded Nivalis not to wander off and to leave the cats alone.

Mini Nivalis spent the rest of the night happily chasing the cats around the yard. She had suppressed her dragon aura and played with the fluffy little creatures, even discovering a shiny object in the cat's den. However, when the cats told her it was a gift for Rita, Nivalis didn't touch it.

While dragons loved shiny treasures, they wouldn't take what belonged to a stronger being.