THE DRAGON'S MATE

Chapter 3

Izuku hurriedly made his way to the potato field.

He had overslept.

Normally, he would wake up before sunrise to tend to his field. But last night he had stayed up late crying and missing his mom, causing him to wake up later than usual.

Izuku groaned, internally scolding himself for being so careless. Being late like this posed a great risk to his farm, and Izuku couldn't believe that he had allowed himself to be so careless like this.

Despite his legs screaming at him to slow down and his hands shaking from carrying heavy farming equipments, Izuku quickened his pace. A sense of bad feeling started to creep over him, but he tried to ignore it as he sprinted towards his farm.

And his bad feelings were right. As he finally reached the potato field, he was taken aback at the sight in front of him.

His once neat and well growing field was now a mess. The field looked like as if it had been ravaged by a pack of wild dogs, leaving behind countless gaping holes across the ground. The land was in complete disarray, with numerous ripe potatoes missing and small potatoes scattered about. Many young potatoes were crushed and broken, as if someone had intentionally stepped on them and destroyed them.

Devastated, Izuku sighed as he approached his field, picking up a smashed potato to examine it. It was clear that this damage was done on purpose. The townspeople often vandalized his farm, stealing his ripe potatoes and destroying the young ones. This was nothing new to him. However, since he usually woke up before dawn, the townspeople never had the chance to ruin his field. But now, because he overslept, it seemed those townspeople had returned to their old habits.

A bitter laugh escaped Izuku's lips. It was ironic how they all spoke of him being a cursed one, how they all said that his produce was dirty and unworthy, yet here they were, stealing his "dirty" food from his field themselves, shamelessly feeding those dirty food to their children's mouth.

Hypocrites.

Izuku let out a weary sigh as he gazed down at the crushed potatoes in his hands. The snowy weather was approaching in less than a week, and if his field continued to be destroyed like this, he wouldn't have enough supplies to last through the season.

It was already difficult enough for him to trade his carrots and potatoes for just a loaf of bread, as the bread maker charged him double compared to the other townspeople. Now with his farming yields diminishing due to constant theft, he doubted he could even exchange what little remained he had for a single slice of bread.

With a heavy heart, he trudged back home, thinkinh and muttering to himself about which other vegetables he could cultivate during the winter season.

As he approached his cottage, his footsteps slowed down when he noticed an alpha guard standing in front of his poorly self-constructed fence.