I Raised A Black Dragon

Even Noah’s voice was different from Eleonora’s; hers was a little thinner. From tip to toe, there was not a single corner reminiscent of Eleonora.

“Please cover me with a blanket…”

However, her drunken mumbles and her languid expression, which was especially infectious, were the very traits of a person whom he had been with for nearly two months. A vain laugh eventually fell from Kyle’s lips. He picked up the robe again, which he had given up on, and gently patted Noah’s shoulder. “Come… bend down. I’ll put a robe on you.”

“Why do you keep…”

“Hurry up. You said it was cold.”

Noah’s face contorted, evidently displeased. ‘Why would you ask me to move when you could just pull my shoulder?’ Even though the woman’s shell had become a stranger to Kyle, he could easily read her thoughts.

Noah, who barely opened one eye, grumbled inaudible words under her breath. Albeit her inward protest, she hoisted her body and leaned her head against his chest, but Kyle could barely feel her weight. He was at a loss. He shook his head once and managed to wrap her small body with his robe. After the last button had been fastened with utmost caution, Kyle stared at the woman, deep in peaceful slumber, and a thought of concern casually crossed his mind.

I should have brought a thicker one…

“What are you doing, mister?” Muell’s cheerful voice ceased his thoughts at once. Kyle looked back, surprise and dread plastered on his face as if he had been caught doing something wrong. A black curly-haired child ran towards them.

“Mu, what about the dealers?” Kyle asked, drowning his awkwardness with a cough.

“I  tied them up under that valley so they wouldn’t move. Is Noah up?”

“No…”

The child then squeezed himself between Kyle and Noah, and peered at his master. “Fairy says it takes time for the soul to adjust to its original body. She said her soul had been gone for a long time, so she must have been very weak.”

It seemed that her attitude was not because of a simple cold. Kyle pulled the robe’s hood to cover Noah’s head, tying the ribbon tightly. “What about the body of Eleonora Asil?”

“Noah fell asleep without telling me what to do with her body, so I put her in the open space. I tried to find the body’s original owner, but I failed because I didn’t know where it was!”

“Did anything else happen?”

“Other things happened, but…”

The child blurred the end of his words, which was a rare occurrence. Kyle looked down at the child with a baffled expression. Muell seemed to ponder on something and after a moment, he shook his head. “Noah said it was a secret. Don’t tell anyone what you saw there, and don’t tell your uncle.”

Kyle repeated, “Don’t tell me either?”

“Yes.” The boy nodded.

Noah had always been an open book towards Kyle, and he had gotten used to it, so the fact that Noah was hiding something from him came quite strange to him. But that wasn’t peculiar at all. Everyone has a secret they choose to conceal, and it is only by their will that it would be revealed. It would be what unfaltering Kyle Leonard, who had constantly advocated rationality over emotions, would normally think, but…

I feel a little sad now.

“Okay, for now.” Kyle rose, his arms supporting Noah’s back and knees; he tried to control his strength as much as possible. Noah frowned and squirmed. After multiple tosses and turns, she found a comfortable position as she always did when she was held by Kyle.

The woman in front of him was merely the usual Park Noah he knew, but Kyle didn’t know why he was so agitated. The only thing that bothered him whenever he gazed at Noah was her appearance—the shell of Eleonora Asil, which had aggravated him for the last five years.

Is it because the shell, which seemed to be the last barrier, was unexpectedly peeled off? Kyle felt as if he had been swept into a sea of emotion without a single weapon to protect himself.

What do you call this feeling? Noah was still Noah, and he was still him. That’s what I think in my head, but why are the waves of this foreign feeling dragging me to an unknown shore?

He then carried Noah to the cradle, wondering if he was crazy. The yellow fairies and the young dragon followed after him cheerfully.

In the empty cradle, two shadows that appeared one and and a much smaller one, stretched long. The sun was slowly sinking under the vast mountains of Noviscosha. At last, its warm light fell on the face of the woman who had found herself, finally liberated from the chains of sixteen convictions. At an old station, seen below the valley, an old freight train waited for its passengers along the tracks, spewing black smoke.

Kyle turned his eyes from the horizon transcending the mountains and set foot again on the steep cliff road. 

“Let’s go, Muell.”

It was time to leave Noviscosha and head towards Tauren, an industrial zone where forbidden magic research was being conducted discreetly.