Brewing

Inside the dragon's nest at the bottom of the lake.

“Sis, are you sure this batch isn't toxic?”

Daviel held up an oversized transparent glass jar and looked at the bright red liquid inside, which was mixed with numerous impurities, asking rather hesitantly.

“You'll know once you try it. It won't kill you anyway.”

The little dragon girl, looking like a loli, wore a white lab coat. With a sheet of parchment in one hand and a quill in the other, she quietly awaited the experimental results.

Daviel swallowed hard. This was already the Nth time he had been forced to taste-test these bizarre concoctions.

For an entire month, without exception.

Every single one had been so repulsive it made a dragon gag.

The taste was simply indescribable.

Even for black dragons, a species that ate carrion, it was hard to stomach.

“Are you going to drink it or not?”

Irene raised an eyebrow, putting away her quill and parchment as she spoke with her arms crossed.

“I mean... can't you just let the kobolds drink it?”

Daviel tried to make excuses, only to receive the response that had been repeated countless times before.

“I'm afraid it will poison them to death.”

“Damn it! Aren't you afraid of poisoning me to death?!”

Daviel lay on the ground, rolling around and throwing a tantrum.

“I'm your actual little brother, you know?!”

“The emotional card is ineffective.”

Irene stared with dead-fish eyes at the little black dragon performing a mock crocodile death roll before reaching out a hand to pin him down.

“Those kobolds are precious labor. If they're poisoned to death, who's going to do the work?”

“Besides, you're a black dragon with innate immunity to poison. It would be a miracle if you actually died from it.”

As she spoke, she stepped on the little black dragon's face, forcing his jaws open.

The glass jar floated into the air.

The cork popped open on its own,

and the liquid was poured straight down his throat.

“Mmph! Mmph! Mmph!!!”

A tragic howl instantly echoed throughout the entire dragon nest.

“Aargh!!! Shis is murther-ing her own brutherrr!!! Mmph, mmph, mmph!!!”

“Go ahead and scream for ‘nobody’ all you want, nobody is coming to save you!”

“Cough, cough, cough... Nobody! Nobody!”

The helpless little black dragon tried to struggle further, but the little dragon girl cast a spell that bound him in chains, making him look like a hairy crab ready to be steamed.

He no longer had any ability to resist...

The reason for all this went back to a month ago. Irene had been inspired and suddenly came up with the idea of using the knowledge from her past life to brew alcohol.

Although the brewing methods of the two worlds differed significantly, the taste of the alcohol was quite similar.

Perhaps it was the romanticization of her memories, but Irene believed that the alcohol from her past life might taste even better than the ones in this fantasy world.

What was indisputable, however, was that the ingredients used for brewing in her past life were far cheaper than the magical materials used by mixologists.

Lower costs naturally meant higher profits.

If she could successfully brew alcohol in this fantasy world, it would mean a continuous stream of gold coins from then on.

Engaging in trade was much safer than going around burning, killing, and looting like other evil dragons.

Perhaps she could even single-handedly monopolize the entire continent's alcohol business.

Become the CEO,

rise to the pinnacle of dragon life,

and become a wealthy dragon whose name would be etched forever in the Draconic Inheritance!

Harboring such a grand dream, the little dragon girl began her experiments.

Before preparing to brew, she first used fire magic to melt sand, refining a batch of glass jars to replace the traditional wooden barrels.

Then, she placed fresh fruits inside the glass jars to ferment, attempting to brew fruit wine.

As a result, the little dragon girl, who had absolutely zero brewing experience, produced alcohol that was either covered in bizarre molds or emitted a pungent stench.

To verify whether these experimental products were actually drinkable, Daviel, the shut-in dragon, was successfully relegated to the role of a guinea pig.

He was in charge of taste-testing.

The glass jar slammed heavily onto the ground, not a single drop of liquid remaining inside.

Irene hopped off the little black dragon, clapped her hands after releasing the magical restraints, and asked:

“How does it taste?”

Like a fish rescued from drowning and brought ashore, Daviel lay on the ground with vacant eyes.

“Sis... I think I saw Aunt Tiamat waving at me...”

“Tsk, looks like another failure.”

The little dragon girl practicedly took out her quill and parchment, preparing to record the experimental data behind the table labeled "Grape Wine Brewing Method."

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Daviel licking his lips. He suddenly sat up, his expression turning rather peculiar.

“Sis...”

“Hmm?” Irene tilted her head.

“What? Did Aunt Tiamat think you were too ugly and send you back?”

“Uh... no.”

Daviel extended a claw, dabbed a bit of the spilled wine from his body, and licked it. Under the little dragon girl's gaze, he said word by word:

“I think... you might have succeeded.”

...

When the old kobold, Fido, arrived at the dragon's nest at the bottom of the lake with a wooden cart piled high with food,

what he saw was the little dragon girl performing breakdance moves on the spot out of sheer excitement.

Beside her was the little black dragon, crying a river of tears out of pure gratitude that he finally didn't have to be a guinea pig anymore.

Although he didn't understand what was going on, Fido still bowed respectfully to the pair.

“Your Grace, here is today's food.”

“Hmm?”

Immersed in her excitement, Irene noticed someone had arrived and hastily stopped her handstand 360-degree Thomas flares.

She cleared her throat in slight embarrassment.

Smoothing out her white robe, she nodded slightly.

The success of this experiment had indeed made her a bit too thrilled.

Her current mood was probably comparable to winning a hundred million on a scratch-off ticket in her past life.

However, now was not the time to relax.

Now that she had a method for brewing, the output wouldn't be as measly as the few barrels handed down through the kobolds' ancestors.

This would be a continuous stream of production.

It was foreseeable that brewing with this method would yield a vast quantity of grape wine.

Once this freshly minted batch of grape wine flooded the market in large quantities, it would definitely deal a massive blow to the originally stable alcohol market.

Those mixologists who made a living by brewing would probably go mad over this.

They might even follow the clues right to her doorstep to challenge her to a duel.

Irene already had a countermeasure in mind for this.

And that was watering it down.

As long as she watered it down enough to lower the quality, it wouldn't disrupt the entire alcohol market.

Instead, it would target the low-end market—those who could only afford watered-down wine.

Compared to the high-end market managed by famous mixologists, the cake of the low-end market was mostly fought over by low-tier mixologists.

These low-tier mixologists were generally not very strong.

Even if they somehow tracked her down to her doorstep, Irene was confident she could finish them off in this godforsaken God-Forsaken Land.

And no one would ever find out.

The main problem now was that she was a dragon.

Before reaching adulthood, dragons would inevitably fall into a deep slumber every once in a while.

During these slumbers, they would undergo rapid growth and comprehend the Draconic Inheritance.

Once she fell asleep, if someone came knocking on their door, these weak kobolds wouldn't be able to resist at all.

In that scenario, exposing the brewing method would be a minor issue; if the two of them—weak, helpless, yet highly gluttonous hatchlings—were exposed, they would be doomed.

Irene had no desire to wake up from a nap only to find herself surrounded by a mob of dragon-slaying adventurers.

Therefore... she needed to bolster the strength of this tribe.

And for a dragon, the simplest way to enhance the power of their vassals was to transform them into dragonborn.

That meant utilizing the powerful corruptive nature of the dragon's bloodline, letting other creatures bathe in or consume dragon blood.

It only took a tiny drop of dragon blood entering the body for it to act like a virus, wildly corrupting and remodeling the recipient's body, causing them to undergo unpredictable evolution toward the bloodline master's nature.

This process was extremely painful; those who couldn't endure it might even lose their lives.

But once they pulled through, they would obtain a portion of the dragon's power.

This was also one of the key reasons why dragon-slaying heroes were always so tirelessly eager to throw their lives away.

With this in mind, Irene's gaze drifted toward Fido, who had finished delivering the food and was preparing to leave.