I Raised A Black Dragon

Noah bit her lips and muttered, “I don’t have any more restraints, but if I say something weird again, please hit me on the head.”

“I won’t hit you. I’m not crazy. Stop talking nonsense and get a hold of yourself. Don’t bite your lips, look at me.” Kyle cupped Noah’s cheeks, who was trying to avoid his gaze and turned her face towards himself. “When I’m done with my work, I’ll go down to Sorrent and take care of you. You shouldn’t cry over anything, Miss Noah. You’re not even a child.”

In other words, Kyle had just declared a vow not to take his eyes off Noah for at least the next few years. He cannot completely manage her; he has no choice but to observe from the sidelines and run to her aid whenever she spirals out of control. Fortunately, Noah seemed to like his proposal to return to Sorrent and recuperate.

“Would you like to go on a trip with me?” she asked.

“Of course,” Kyle replied with a smile. 

“Clean for me?” Noah blinked several times.

“Don’t think about taking advantage of this opportunity. You must be feeling better now that you’re trying to play with words.”

At last, the brazen Noah returns. Kyle stretched her cheeks to both sides in exasperation, but inwardly, he felt relieved. “Don’t scare people. How many more times do I have to say ‘please’?”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“No, sorry won’t make up for it.” Of course, his grudge fell apart as soon as Noah apologized again. While Kyle was tending and soothing Noah, Muell was listening to the stories told by the creatures hiding in the opposite side of the cave.

[This is the land where Sailor left for the dragon to inhabit.]

[And then humans found it.]

[When I opened my eyes, it was like this.]

Upon entering the entrance to the Maobiana mine, the young dragon had heard voices of fairies that fluttered their wings underground. The fairies’ eggs, which belonged to the dragon that had settled in this cradle, hatched the same moment Muell hatched in Sorrent. Fairies with golden wings circled around the little dragon and whispered stories.

[Humans keep tearing down the nest containing the magic of Sailor. I don’t know what they’re going to use it for.]

[I hate it.]

“So where are they all?” asked the little dragon.

[I locked it up.]

[I often see a man trying to get away with it.]

[I threw a few people outside as an example.]

[I don’t think there’s any need to forgive them.]

“No… wait…” Muell glanced nervously at Noah and Kyle. No matter how young a mind was, or how a dragon had not yet adapted to the human world, the little boy now knew that Noah wouldn’t like it if he thought of morbid things. Kyle had also said that in human society, murder or assault is a felony wherein the offender must be locked up in a prison and rot for his entire life. Muell used to ask Kyle why he would have to live his life confined in a prison if he didn’t want it, but he seemed to understand it a little, taking Noah into account.

Noah likes to relax. Prison is a place where you can’t relax. Noah hates prisons. So, I shouldn’t do anything that would put Noah in jail, the young boy thought.

Muell had been in Kyle’s arms for the past few days, touring the Bureau of Investigation and Security to study and learn simple logic, and he made a brilliant application of the division’s reasoning he had learned in his studies.

“No indiscriminate killing. Let’s think before we act. Whether Noah would like it or not.”

He hugged the butterflies in his arms and approached Noah carefully, who was just complaining to Kyle, pouting as if she had calmed down. Muell’s last wish was to be hated by Noah, but he thought he had done something wrong this time. He shut his eyes tightly and tears trickled down his cheeks.

“I have something to say, Noah!”

***

Noah walked with Muell firmly in her arms despite Kyle’s dissuasion. Surrounding them were the very yellow lights that she kept seeing as they descended the lake. These yellow lights were fairies with golden wings, similar to that of a butterfly, on their backs.

A little while ago, Muell had told her with a grim face and close eyes that the fairies living in the cave knew where the missing miners were. Soon, a few hundred butterflies swarmed around them and led the way.

Kyle muttered in an astonished voice as he stared at the butterflies filling the aisle, “I didn’t know there were still any fairies left.”

“Isn’t there any fairy in this world?”

“It didn’t exist in Mute. Records say that only some of the dragon’s family came to this land along with the dragon and left when the last dragon returned, but there must have been some that remained.”

One of the fairies that hovered over Muell flew towards Noah.

[She’s the owner of the baby dragon.]

[She’s seeing a lot of it.]

Perhaps because she was the master of the dragon, the whispers of the fairies, which were inaudible to Kyle, were loud and clear to her ears.