[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-saya-and-the-dragon":3,"chapter-saya-and-the-dragon-saya-and-the-dragon-chapter-152":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Saya and the Dragon",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1705139,2177,"Chapter 146: Did You Live Before","saya-and-the-dragon-chapter-152",152,"\u003Cp>The stars were out, scattered like broken promises across the black. I poked at the fire with a stick, because poking at my own self-worth seemed too ambitious tonight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So,” I say, voice casual like I’m not trying to dig at the universe’s moral plumbing, “if karma works the way they say—like, screw up one life, come back as something worse—then I must’ve kicked a puppy and burned down an orphanage in my past life.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Dragon rumbles softly. “You’re human. Beautiful, even. Doesn’t sound that bad.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Exactly,” I say, eyes narrowing. “That’s the trap. The worse the crime, the shorter the life. Real assholes come back as insects. Leeches. Flesh-eating fungi.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He hums. “They could’ve made you a tapeworm.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Theyalmostdid,” I mutter. “But then they remembered I had tits and a knack for sinning photogenically, so they went with ‘sexy beggar girl’ instead.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He huffs, smoke curling lazily out of his nose. “That’s quite the theology.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I make do.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Long pause.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He stares into the fire like it’s a mirror to his millennia. “I’ve lived three thousand years.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Exactly,” I say, wagging the stick. “You must’ve been asaintin your last life. Fed orphans. Hugged lepers. Probably donated your wings to a soup kitchen.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He snorts. “I torched a library for giving my poetry a bad review.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I blink. “That’s the most you thing I’ve ever heard.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He shrugs. “Still think I was a saint?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes,” I say. “A petty, vengeful saint who hoarded scrolls and held grudges.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He sighs. “And you think you were what? A warlord’s accountant?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I think I probably ran a brothel on top of a cursed temple. Or sold fake relics to widows.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Would explain a lot.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I glare. “Anyway. I got orphaned. Grew up in gutters. Passed around like plague wine. Meanwhile you get wings, poetry, and a digestive system that can handle live sheep.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And gout.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Gout is karma’s seasoning.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He actually chuckles. Bastard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I toss the stick into the fire. Sparks fly. “Reincarnation’s a scam.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Everything’s a scam,” he says, curling his tail around us like a question mark. “But some scams come with treasure and a travel partner who doesn’t stop talking.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Admit it. I make eternity more annoying.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He smirks. “You make it louder. Which, for a dragon, is saying something.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I grin. “You love me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He yawns. “I tolerate you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s basically karmic love.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We sit there in silence. His warmth next to me, ancient and unshakeable. My chaos humming under my skin. If I got cursed into this life, maybe it wasn’t all bad. Could’ve been worse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I could’ve been a tapeworm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And not even a pretty one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I tuck my feet under me, flicking a twig into the flames. The stars are still up there, smug and unbothered. I wish I could say the same.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So,” I say, in my best speculative philosopher voice, “maybe I poisoned a well. Or stole holy relics. Or maybe I was a noble who taxed orphans for breathing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Dragon doesn’t even look up. “That seems… likely.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Rude.” I toss another twig in. “Or maybe I started a war. Slept with the wrong general. Made off with a temple's donation box and blew it all on perfume and soft cheeses.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You do have a type,” he says dryly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And if karma’s real,” I continue, ignoring him, “this—” I gesture to myself, “—is payback. Life as a half-starved, oversexed stray with a silver tongue and a chronic inability to shut up.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’re also pretty,” he says, deadpan. “So clearly you didn’ttotallypiss the gods off.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Maybe they wanted me to sufferwith style.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He exhales a thread of smoke. “And what makes you so sure this is about karma? Past lives? Reincarnation?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I shrug, pulling my cloak tighter. “I don’t know. Just makes more sense than being randomly screwed by the universe. Besides, I like the idea that I used to be someone important. Someone terrible. Someone worth recycling.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He arches a brow. “Do you remember any of it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hell no.” I poke the fire again. “I can barely rememberlast week.And I’d rather forget half of this life anyway.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That gets him quiet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a while, we just sit. Embers crackle. Somewhere an owl makes a noise like it’s choking on its own wisdom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he says, softly, “That we have in common.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I glance over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’s staring into the fire like it’s showing him something he wishes he hadn’t seen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I nudge him with my foot. “What didyoudo in your last life? Steal celestial fire? Eat a god?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He shrugs one wing. “Probably wrote poetry no one appreciated.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You still do that.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Exactly.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Another pause.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I grin. “Maybe we were lovers in a past life. You, the brooding bard. Me, the jewel-thief queen who betrayed you for a basket of dates and a bathhouse boy.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He snorts. “Would explain the trust issues.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And the weird sexual tension.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Speak for yourself.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I lean back, arms behind my head. “Whoever we were, we’re here now. A girl and her dragon. Trying not to die poor.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He sighs. “Trying.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I glance at him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’s not smiling. But he’s not flying off either.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Progress.\u003C\u002Fp>",857,"2026-06-06T14:39:25.900Z",1,"novelbin.me","48bd0f0e24345f9b2f15eb3b4cd12b858009e546e09ca61d6109fd63c14cdb15","saya-and-the-dragon-chapter-153","saya-and-the-dragon-chapter-151",228,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsaya-and-the-dragon-cover.jpg"]