I almost shot back, How do you not know who Varen is? but swallowed it.
Kallen was a peripheral extra who didn’t even appear in the original, so it was possible she simply didn’t know Varen.
Otherwise, the time line here might be before Varen makes his entrance.
“Kallen. Where’s your hometown?”
“Why are you asking about my hometown all of a sudden?”
“You’re my aide now. It’d be good to learn about each other.”
I had no interest at all. If I were truly curious about her, I would’ve asked her age first.
Still, maybe because I asked her a question first, Kallen’s cheeks flushed as she answered.
“I’m from Triven. It’s a small village near the Silvern Plateau, surrounded by herb fields. My parents were herb gatherers too.”
The place names in the novel had been hazy, but hearing the exact name made my memory light up like a switch being flipped.
The Silvern Plateau on the northern border was one of the major settings in the novel. Because beyond it lay the forbidden land, the Belzena Range, the dragon habitat.
“Are your parents well?”
The previously bright face immediately clouded over with gloom. I already knew the answer without hearing it.
“They were killed in a dragon raid. Two months ago. Not just my parents—our entire village.... Only me and a few little kids survived.”
So young, and already lost her parents. I clicked my tongue briefly at the sad news.
My philosophy was to ignore tragedies I couldn’t take responsibility for, but as someone born and raised in a Confucian country, I nearly felt sympathy for a moment.
Then, those orange eyes, damp moments ago, flashed.
“I’ll never forgive them. I’ll kill the dragon and avenge my parents and my village. No matter what.”
Kallen’s fists were clenched so hard her knuckles had gone white. Now her excessive hostility toward dragons made sense.
Setting that aside—there was a dragon raid near the Silvern Plateau early in the novel. It was the spark that ignited the full Dragon War.
If that happened two months ago, we should be entering the mid-story phase now. Right around when the deranged dragon, Varen, appears.
And of all times to transmigrate, I had to land exactly when I dropped the novel.
There’s no tutorial, no memory update, not even a status window or level-up system, and I don’t know what’s going to happen next. So what’s the point of being a transmigrator? I got absolutely nothing.
This is why you must always finish any novel you start. You never know when you’ll transmigrate into it. Even if it gets boring in the middle, you never drop it. Never.
***
The place Kallen guided me to was the Special Observation Room. When I opened the wooden door, a tiny sealed room no larger than a single square meter appeared. On a table against the wall sat a transparent cage, and inside was a gray lizard about a hand’s length long.
The unusual part was the excessive number of lightstones embedded throughout the room. Twelve of them. Brighter than most lamps. Above, below, east, west, north, south—every direction.
Because of that, not a single shadow existed in the small space. For a monster that lived hidden in darkness, this was a nightmare environment—and an efficient prison.
“What do you feed it?”
“Dampened dried hay rolled small. But it hardly eats.”
“...The damn hay again. Do you people have nothing else to feed monsters but hay?”
What lizard on earth eats hay? It’d starve to death rather than touch it.
I sat on my knees in front of the table, grimacing. Up close, its bones were painfully visible.
Its gray-brown scales were dull and cracked when they should have been smooth like silk. My chest actually hurt.
Reptiles are beautiful when fed properly! Meanwhile these people were stuffing themselves with meat stew and buttered bread.
I abruptly turned and left the facility building. Kallen shouted after me and hurried to follow.
“You’re leaving after just looking? Ah! Is it an execution?”
“Quiet.”
“If it’s that small, even I could kill—”
“Shut up. You’re in the way.”
Kallen finally went silent when I snapped, violet eyes flashing.
With her quieted, the night’s landscape whispered. A strange bird cried far off. Tall grasses rustled and leaves brushed together.
I focused my hearing. Eventually, the sound I needed arrived.
Chirrrrr—
Lowering my body, I pursued the source. Kallen, not understanding a thing, crawled along behind.
Chirrrrr— chirrrrr—
“...Got it!”
“Kya! Ceryl, why are you catching bugs!”
“Something to put this in? Anything, hurry!”
A plump cricket hopped in the grass; I caught it between my hands. Urging her, Kallen finally handed me a small cloth pouch.
“Ugh, disgusting. Ceryl, have you lost your mind?”
She must have forgotten again that I hold personnel authority. I almost scolded her, but the image of the skeletal Noak stopped me. Punishing Kallen could wait. I had hunting to do.
After crawling around for some time, I collected five plump crickets. They squirmed in the pouch until I swung it like fire-swinging play, and they went still.
With secure food in hand, I returned to the Special Observation Room. I hadn’t walked this lightly since arriving here. I almost hummed a tune.
“Hello, Noak. You hungry? You must’ve suffered, eating dried grass all this time. I brought something delicious. Want one?”
Noak lay in the center of the cage like it was dead. Starvation, yes, but the bright light was also draining it.
After a moment of thought, I lifted my cloak and draped it over half the cage. When I created shadow, Noak crawled toward it, whining faintly, not even opening its eyes.
“Just a little more. You’re doing well.”
“Ceryl, you really are insane. Why are you talking to a monster?”
“They understand just fine. Look—see how it’s coming?”
Kallen trembled, her face about to burst, and yelled.
“Talking to monsters—monsters are all demons! They only live because they have use! They deserve to die!”
Whatever. My full attention was on the lizard. The pitiful reptile dragged itself with all its remaining strength and finally reached the shadows.
The thin inner membrane ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) that had been covering its eyes peeled open. Black, obsidian-like pupils appeared.
“If it escapes—”
“Quiet. Leave.”
I raised my hand. Kallen bristled with dissatisfaction, but she stepped out.
At last, it was just me and the lizard in the tight room.
“...Ohhh, precious thing, good job. You came to the shadow all on your own? Good baby. So good. So cute.”
With Kallen gone, my natural tone came out. In truth, I’d wanted to rush in and scoop it up immediately.
Once it stabilized in the shadow, Noak eyed the unconscious cricket. It circled warily, then—confirming no movement—snatched it with a lightning-quick tongue.
It swallowed it whole without chewing. Fierce little thing. Then it flicked its tongue at me—recognizing me as the source of good food.
The moment those obsidian eyes met mine, there was a thud. Nothing physically broke—just my heart falling.
Noak devoured all five crickets in an instant, then spun in place, flicking its tongue.
Why... just why... was it acting so cute? Anyone who’d ever raised a reptile would know exactly what this meant.
My neck was stiff from holding the cloak up. I stretched, only briefly—just enough for the shadow to shrink—
—and Noak leapt.
In the instant my head dipped down, the cage was empty.
“...Baby? Where are you?”
There was nowhere to hide in a cage barely a meter in size. Damn it. Had I just lost a monster? I bit my lip in dismay—
—and felt a strange sensation near my armpit.
Carefully lifting my arm, I saw Noak clinging there. Its scales, once gray, now matched the beige of my clothing.
So Noak’s ability was not shadow absorption. It was shadow travel—movement through darkness.
In the dimness, those dark eyes gleamed. It crawled along my side toward my back, changed its mind, came forward again, then circled—before finally slipping into my jacket pocket.
I ensured the cloak kept proper shade. Noak peeked its head out, holding the pocket edge with its tiny forefeet.
At that moment, Kallen’s earlier words came back to me.
This was a devil. A tiny devil that stole my entire heart. Otherwise, this level of cuteness was simply impossible.
