'So that's why...'
Upon reading the baby's information, Max finally understood.
'This girl is Tahir's child.'
'Although I'm not sure how the villagers managed to persuade Tahir into impregnating one of the women here.'
Max was familiar with Tahir's power as a mage.
It was only natural for a mage of his caliber to give birth to a child with impressive magical aptitude.
It was for this reason that the villagers had treated the baby like a treasure.
Most likely, the baby was their last hope to defeat Agatha.
While it was a good idea, unfortunately for them, Agatha had thrown a wrench into their plans.
"Hehe."
Agatha suddenly laughed and brought the baby to Max. "You're both children. I'll let you decide the fate of this child, then!"
For some reason, Agatha had handed the baby to him, and she had allowed him to choose what to do with it.
Max took the baby from his mother's hands.
The baby's light weight and her small, chubby hands that were incapable of holding anything had reminded Max of his brothers and sisters from his previous life.
In his previous life, Max had three younger brothers and one younger sister. As the head of the family, Max had the responsibility of taking care of his siblings. As he watched them grow up, a sense of pride rose within Max's heart, and it felt as if he had accomplished something great.
Max wanted to spare the baby's life.
Firstly, he could not bring himself to do it. Before the baby, his cold, merciless dragon heart had melted like butter.
Secondly, the baby girl had great aptitude in magic. If he could take her in for his own use in the future, it would be the most ideal scenario.
Perhaps due to the hard dragon scales on his body, the baby started to cry noisily and let out ear-piercing sounds.
"No! Please, Lord Dragon Hatchling! Please let Emily go!"
Immediately, the villagers hurriedly groveled their way over and begged Max to let the baby go.
Max glanced at the villagers, then he looked back at his mother.
He found that his mother's pupils had become vertical, and she was watching him with great interest.
"Phew..."
Max heaved a long sigh of relief. He understood his mother's intentions.
'This is the wisdom of a dragon, a mother dragon.'
'Agatha wouldn't have come here without reason. She has a goal that she wishes to achieve.'
'Agatha would leave us sometime in the future, and she had only just recently hinted at this.'
'Perhaps, Agatha is worried that once she leaves us, the villagers would bully us two weak Dragon Hatchlings.'
'So, this is her plan.'
Agatha's goal was to establish a foothold for the two Dragon Hatchlings prestige in the village, and to make the villagers fear them.
However, in order to make the plan successful, she needed sacrifices. The more fear that she could inflict on the villagers, the more successful Agatha's plan would be.
If successfully conducted, whenever the villagers thought of the Dragon Hatchlings, they would think back at this point in time. They would recall how much Agatha adored the Dragon Hatchlings. They would recall that she loved them so much that she had even left the matters of life and death of the villagers to her beloved children!
Whenever they thought of the Dragon Hatchlings, they would think of their mother, Agatha!
They would not dare to lay a hand on the Dragon Hatchlings!
Max nodded. If his speculation was correct, then there was no need to sacrifice the baby.
As such, Max tossed the baby forward.
The quicker ones among the villagers immediately used their own bodies the cushion the fall of the baby.
Then, under everyone's astonished gazes,
Max slowly stated, "I don't like eating babies. I'm sick of them. Didn't one of you mentioned that you were willing to die for her? Come out."
Following Max's words, an old man got up from the ground and staggered towards Max.
"Lord Dragon Hatchling, I'm willing to die for her. Please accept me."
Max chuckled. "That's right. I like my meat lean."
With that, Max opened his mouth.
Crunch—
Max chomped down on the old man.
At the same time, he deliberately bared his sharp fangs in front of everyone.
While everyone was gasping in terror or crying in grievance.
Max ate the old man in the cruelest and most inhumane way possible.
At the same time, he left the remaining half for his sister, Mia.
However, Mia said that the meat was not very fresh and was not particularly delicious.
The villagers either covered their eyes, or they watched the whole process with lifeless eyes.
Even until the dragons' departure, the villagers did not say a single word aside from the dull, "Thank you, thank you for sparing the baby..."
...
Under Agatha's lead, the three dragons continued to fly.
Not long after, Agatha suddenly stopped and hovered in the air.
"Max, do you really not like babies? Or are you secretly harboring compassion towards humans?"
'Sure enough, mother still doubts me.'
'Fortunately, I've already thought of an excuse beforehand.'
The main reason Max had let Emily off was due to her high aptitude for magic. He felt that it would be a pity for the baby to die just like that.
Max soon realized that they were not heading back to their lair.
Obviously, his mother was trying to do the same thing again.
However, Max doubted that he would find any of Tahir's children there.
They were most likely only ordinary humans.
Although Max still found the act rather distasteful, if sacrificing some humans were enough to avoid his mother's suspicion, Max was willing to do it.
After all, being labeled an outcast was a very dangerous thing to occur to dragons.
Not only his mother, but every other Red Dragon in the world would not welcome them.
Red Dragons were considered the more docile species among the dragons.
As for the other Chromatic Dragons, being an outcast would mean that they would not give up until Max died.
If they wanted to gain a foothold among the dragons, there were only two methods available.
Firstly, they would have to savor the blood of all living creatures. They needed to have the mentality that they were the rulers of the world, and that all other creatures were merely ants. With this mentality, they would be able to gain the recognition of the other dragons.
Secondly, they needed to be powerful. They needed to possess enough power to bend the rules to their will!
If they were seen as an outcast, then all they needed to do was to eliminate his enemies until he was no longer an outcast!
By then, they would be the majority!
However, before obtaining such power, Max still needed the approval of his mother.
Max looked straight into his mothers eyes and answered truthfully.
"Mother, I have no mercy towards humans! I can prove it to you in the next place!"
Mother nodded. "Remember what you said."