Even If I'm Reborn as a Cute Dragon Girl, I Will Still Make a Harem-Chapter 56Book 6: : Past

“Nonsense… You’re spouting nonsense…”

Lilith slowly crouched down, clutching her head. It felt like all the strength had drained from her body. Her limbs were weak, and the world around her was spinning.

“You’re lying… Dragons were exterminated nine million years ago? Haha… How could that be? If the dragons were wiped out, then what about them…? What about those idiots…? What about the Dragon Queen…?”

Her eyes reddened as she asked, “And what does that make me?”

“Is that a question you want me to answer?” Li Desheng exhaled another ring of smoke.

“Cut the crap and just answer me!” Lilith snapped.

“Alright, alright.” Li Desheng flicked the cigarette away and took two measured steps back.

With a serious expression, he explained, “As I said earlier… the dragons were wiped out nine million years ago. But it wasn’t extinction in the way you’re imagining. Not every last dragon was slaughtered by the Dragon Eater.”

“In fact,” he continued, “after that battle that shook the entire Great World, there were still two dragons left alive. One of them was Gerald, the progenitor of the dragon race. He wasn’t in the ancestral lands when it happened. The other… was Regalis, the Queen of Dragons. Her power was so immense that not even the Dragon Eater could do anything to her. They were the only survivors.”

“Then… what about the others? The ones I lived with all this time?” Lilith asked.

“Calm down. Let me explain,” Li Desheng said gently, holding up a hand. “But before I continue… do you mind if I ask you something first?”

“Go ahead.”

“About half a month ago… did you start noticing that the dragons you knew were beginning to disappear?”

Lilith’s pupils contracted sharply. “You…”

“Don’t be so surprised. Sometimes outsiders can see things a little more clearly,” Li Desheng said, shrugging.

He turned to look up at the looming Dragon Monolith.

It was covered in densely packed names—many belonging to once-mighty figures who had been renowned throughout the Great World. Unfortunately, they were all dead now.

“Their traces are gone, and everything related to them has vanished. Someone had erased their existence with an eraser. And yet the world continues to spin, as if the dragons had never existed at all,” Lilith said.

Li Desheng let out a long sigh and softly asked, “Tell me, Your Highness… Have you ever considered another possibility?”

“What possibility?”

“That the dragons you remember… never existed in the first place.” He lowered his head, looking at her with something close to pity. “Wouldn’t that explain everything?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re saying I made it all up? That I’ve been dreaming this whole time?” Lilith snapped. “And what are you then? Why have you come into my dream?”

“Unfortunately, this isn’t your dream,” Li Desheng murmured.

He gave her a moment, then continued, “Let me pick up where I left off.”

“After the war, only two dragons survived—the Dragon Queen and the Dragon Ancestor. For reasons unknown, the two clashed. Perhaps she blamed him for not being there during the invasion. Who knows?”

“But as you already know, the Dragon Queen’s strength is unmatched. Even after battling the Dragon Eaters, Gerald still didn’t stand a chance. He got his a̲s̲s̲ kicked. After that, they parted ways.”

“Gerald joined a temporary alliance of the Great World’s forces to continue fighting the Dragon Eaters. He provided crucial intel on the creature’s weaknesses and became our most important key to defeating them. His name spreads far and wide in the Great World and he is also a highly respected guest of the six supreme factions.”

Li Desheng waved a hand dismissively and added, “Not that any of that’s relevant to us right now.”

He paused, glancing at Lilith. But her expression hadn’t softened. Her eyes were still filled with suspicion and restrained fury.

It seemed like she was really clueless…

“The important part is what Regalis did next. After the battle, disillusioned, she returned to the dragons’ ancestral land—this very planet. And she didn’t come back alone… or rather, she didn’t come back empty-handed. She brought with her the only remnants of the dragon race—over a thousand unhatched dragon eggs.”

“Dragon eggs…?”

“What’s wrong? Did something come to mind?”

Lilith opened her mouth, but no words came out.

*Dragon eggs?*

*Aren’t those…?*

Didn’t she just finish digging up over a thousand just now?!

“I’m sure you’ve already guessed by now—the dragon eggs never hatched. That goes back to what I said earlier—the dragons were wiped out.”

“No, they weren’t exactly wiped out as two survived. But in that war, the dragons suffered a catastrophic defeat. It wasn’t just about numbers. But more importantly—what was lost in that war was the Racial Foundation of the dragons. It was destroyed by the Dragon Eater and devoured completely.”

“The Racial Foundation?” Lilith frowned. “What does that even mean?”

“You don’t know?” Li Desheng blinked at her. “Alright… let me explain…”

He paused, thinking for a moment, then said, “Imagine a race is like a giant tree. The individuals—the people—are the branches and leaves. You can lose some, even many, and the tree will recover. But the root system is the foundation. Once that dies, the whole tree dies with it. There’s no saving it.”

“The Racial Foundation is similar to those roots. It has one function—connecting the race to the heavenly order, and receiving the pure, unsullied souls that are destined to be born into that race. Without it, that race will produce no more newborns. That’s why the eggs didn’t hatch. They became dead eggs.”

“Racial Foundation… unsullied souls… dead eggs… no more newborns…”

Lilith repeated the words in a daze. She wanted to argue…

*Then what about me?*

But… She paused. Suddenly, something clicked. Who was she, really? Was she truly reborn into this body and became the Dragon Princess by accident or coincidence? No. Looking back, it didn’t feel like a coincidence. It felt… inevitable.

Without the Racial Foundation, the dragon race could no longer have newborns. That was why “she” was born.

That was why an ordinary person named “Tadashi” was pulled from another world by two beings who called themselves goddesses and placed into the body of this “Dragon Princess”.

“If the heavenly order… couldn’t send souls anymore… they could use other souls… like wandering spirits from some battlefield…” she said.

“Are you saying that they fused another’s soul into a vacant body?” Li Desheng raised an eyebrow. “That’s a fascinating idea, but someone has explored that option before. And I can tell you now that it didn’t work.”

“W-Why not?” Lilith asked.

“Because, they’re just… incompatible.”