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Chapter : 1
Prologue. To the Dragon Who Wishes for Death
It came suddenly one day.
“Waaah!”
“……”
Tiny, white, soft hands.
Not only were they soft, they were so small that it felt frightening to even touch them.
“Waaah!”
The red eyes quietly looking down at the loudly crying child were filled with confusion.
“……What…… is this?”
At his question, the middle-aged man beside him, who had been busily wiping away sweat with a handkerchief, quickly answered.
“Master, it is a human baby.”
At that answer, the man staring at the baby with red eyes frowned.
Pitch-black hair slowly slipped down past his shoulders.
“So why is this here?”
“That is…….”
The middle-aged man wiped away his sweat again.
“Lord Ciel left the child here and went away……”
“That white-haired bastard……!”
It was a child who appeared suddenly one day.
The black dragon of the continent only frowned deeply.
‘How can she be this pretty?’
She thought she was loved.
‘Really, I’ve never seen such a beautiful child before.’
Only in her fourth life did she finally think she was receiving affection from her parents.
When she saw smiles she had never once seen before, she believed that.
Sometimes she thought familiar negative emotions flickered in their eyes, but she convinced herself it was only her imagination.
But the child was abandoned once again, and was being led somewhere by the hands of an unfamiliar being.
“……Where are you taking me?”
The small child, already looking exhausted, asked calmly.
As if she did not care much wherever she was going.
“We are heading to the northern land.”
“The north?”
At the red eyes looking back at her, the child widened her eyes.
“Yes. If it is him…… he will be able to protect you from the curse.”
“The curse……”
Her voice was emotionless, as if she were talking about someone else’s story.
“……I have spoken too much unnecessarily. We should hurry.”
That voice ringing in her ears ended there.
The dragon held the child wrapped tightly in a thick blanket in his arms.
If anyone had seen such a strange sight, they would probably question their own sanity first.
Coral-colored hair fluttered in the wind, and sparkling amber eyes watched the scenery rapidly passing outside the blanket.
The huge white dragon glanced at the child from the corner of his eyes.
Then he used his arm as a shield so the cold wind would not touch her.
After flying like that for some time, the white dragon spoke again.
“……Are you not confused by this situation?”
Of course she was confused. How could she not be?
Just moments ago, she had been in a horrible place. A place overflowing with killing intent from every direction, all of it directed at her body.
‘No… was it really just moments ago?’
It felt as though her sense of time was becoming dull.
The dragon’s long slit eyes examined the child. Hidden beneath the blanket, she gave no answer.
She had already lived three other lives.
In the first, she was beaten to death by strange men.
In the second, she died alone while running away with a weak body.
In the third, she slipped in the mountains and fell to her death.
Even she herself did not know why she kept reincarnating, or why she still remembered her past lives.
‘One time, I asked my parents about my memories from a past life, and they beat me while saying a blind child had gone crazy in the head too…….’
That happened in her third life.
She had been born unable to see.
“It is not your fault.”
Lost in thought, the child raised her head at the dragon’s words.
“……Though I cannot say it is entirely their fault either.”
The child quietly stared at the white dragon before turning back to the scenery with an indifferent face.
“I know too. That it’s not my fault.”
She never thought it was her fault.
How could suffering such things possibly be her fault?
At the child’s answer, the white dragon laughed softly.
“It is enough that you know that.”
The white dragon, Ciel, narrowed his eyes at the faint outline of a castle in the distance.
“I plan to leave you in the care of the Dragon of Judgement.”
“What?”
The child, who had been blankly staring below with an emotionless face, suddenly lifted her head.
Unlike her indifferent expression while muttering about the curse, her eyes became round with shock.
Seeing such a childlike reaction at last, Ciel flapped his wings with slight satisfaction.
‘The Dragon of Judgement? Him? That Dragon of Judgement?’
Confusion filled her golden eyes.
As if reading her thoughts, Ciel continued speaking.
“Yes, the very Dragon of Judgement you are thinking of.”
“……”
“If you stay there…… no one will be able to harm you anymore, Hiazelki.”
“Why?”
“That is……”
Trailing off, Ciel gazed at the castle rapidly approaching them and smiled faintly.
“Because that is your fate.”
Hiazelki peeked out from the blanket and looked at the approaching castle.
A giant castle standing in the middle of the barren northern land, giving off an unbearably cold atmosphere.
At the age of four, Hiazelki met him for the first time.
The one who would truly become her guardian.
Ciel, who had been a huge pure-white dragon carrying Hiazelki wrapped tightly in a blanket, changed into a man with white hair mixed with streaks of silver.
After telling her briefly to wait, he disappeared alone.
Left alone in the enormous castle lobby, the child looked around.
The ceiling was so high that when Hiazelki tilted her head back to look at it, she lost balance and plopped onto the floor together with the blanket.
It was her first time seeing such a grand place.
The silence made it feel as though nobody lived there at all, and Hiazelki carefully watched her surroundings before standing up again.
‘But how can he leave me here alone?’
With a pouty face and her lips sticking out, she thought about going to look for the white dragon, but decided not to move.
If they happened to miss each other while wandering around……
‘……If this really is the castle where the Dragon of Judgement lives, then he definitely wouldn’t leave me behind alone.’
She firmly believed that if she stayed here, the white dragon would surely come back.
“……”
But even after standing in the lobby for a very long time, the white dragon never returned.
‘……Surely he didn’t leave for good?’
That could not happen.
Growing anxious, Hiazelki slowly began walking while looking around.
Even inside the castle, the air was cold, so she breathed warm air into her hands.
Then she wrapped the thick blanket tightly around herself and carefully took another step.
‘No, but how is there not a single person in this castle?’
She had read it in a book before.
The Dragon of Judgement was said to live while being served by a small number of humans.
“Hmm……”
Resting her chin on her tiny hand, Hiazelki furrowed her brows.
That book had contained the story of the Dragon of Judgement’s rampage.
The incident that firmly made the black dragon a being of terror among humans.
An event where an entire western region suffered under his wrath.
‘The crime was definitely……’
“Oh my?”
While walking along and recalling the book, Hiazelki met someone for the first time since entering the castle.
“……There’s a child……?”
A girl with calm brown short hair tilted her head while looking at her.
Her light green eyes stared at the child for a moment before nodding in understanding.
“……Pretty.”
“Yuri!”
“Hm?”
The short-haired girl, apparently named Yuri, quickly turned her head.
Hiazelki, who had frozen from suddenly meeting people, thought, ‘Now’s my chance!’ and ran away.
“Wait, she’s running away!”
“Huh? What is?”
“That child! Lord Ciel brought her, didn’t he?”
“I don’t know. This is my first time seeing her too.”
“She must be the child Lord Ciel mentioned. There’s no way there would be another child in this castle. The lobby is cold, so we should bring her to the reception room……”
“Lady Lisa, but……”
“Hm? What is it?”
“She’s really pretty.”
“How can only you see that? Hurry and chase after her so I can see too.”
“Yes.”
The conversation sounded strangely suspicious, so Hiazelki secretly glanced behind her.
The two people who had been chatting were now chasing after her at incredible speed.
“Kyaa!”
Startled, Hiazelki screamed without realizing it and hurriedly ran away.
Being chased made her heart pound wildly.
In her panic, her feet tangled together, and she tripped, falling flat onto the floor before getting very far.
“Oof!”
That sound did not come from Hiazelki.
Yuri, who had been chasing after her, looked even more shocked than the child and covered her own mouth with both hands.
“What do we do? She fell!”
“Hurry and help her up……”
The two were completely convinced the child would burst into tears after falling so hard.
But instead of crying, Hiazelki quickly jumped back up and started running again.
“……Lady Lisa, I…… I like that child.”
“That is not what matters right now.”
Yuri’s eyes sparkled even more as she continued chasing after her.
Seeing that, Hiazelki became even more terrified and ran faster.
Of course, she knew very well that someone as small as her could never escape the two adults.
‘White Dragon! Help me!’
As Hiazelki ran around wildly, she stumbled once again because of the thick blanket dragging behind her.
“Waaah!”
Yuri, who had been closer this time, rushed forward as if pushed from behind and caught Hiazelki before she could fall.
“Kyaa! Let go of me! Help me, Ciel! White Dragon!”
“Oh my! She speaks so well, Lady Lisa!”
Holding up the struggling child, Yuri spoke excitedly to the woman beside her.
“Of course she does. Children around her age can already speak quite a lot. More importantly……”
Unlike Yuri, Lisa calmly rubbed her chin.
“She knows that the one who came with her was Lord Ciel?”
‘They said there would be no one here who would hurt me!’
Hiazelki cried inside her heart, thinking the white dragon looked so pure and honest yet had lied so easily.
“Yuri, for now……”
When Lisa gave a signal with her eyes, Yuri obediently put the child down.
Hiazelki immediately tried to run away, but Lisa was faster.
“Hmm…… You came here with Lord Ciel, right?”
“……”
Earlier, she had accidentally called the white dragon Ciel, but she had not been certain.
Still, since they were talking about the Dragon of Judgement…… among dragons, only Ciel had pure white scales, so she called him that.
‘Eek, and I called him by his name directly…….’
As the silent Hiazelki slowly stepped backward, Lisa smiled gently.
“The air here is cold. Shall we go to the reception room? Lord Ciel told us to escort you there, young lady.”
‘The White Dragon did?’
Hiazelki blankly stared at Lisa’s gentle smile.
‘Ah…… her smile is pretty…….’
