The scorn dripping from his voice carried unmistakable intent to kill.
Kallen, rooted like a nail in place, began to shake.
I bored into the red dragon’s back and lowered my voice to a whisper.
"Kallen, breathe. Dragons of the same house look alike. You can’t be sure from appearance alone."
"..."
"And you... you weren’t in any state to take it all in back then. You could be misremembering...."
It was a delicate thing to touch her trauma.
I tried to choose my words, but when Kallen snapped her head up, I shut my mouth.
"No, there’s no way I saw wrong."
"Kallen..."
"How could I forget. The face of the one who killed my parents."
Ah.... My mouth fell open without me knowing.
The face of the one who killed your parents—no one forgets that, not until death, not even after.
I was the same.
I didn’t have time to sink into thoughts. Kallen, glaring at the red dragon’s back, broke into a run before I could stop her.
"I’ll kill you!"
"Kallen, no!!"
The dragons clustered in small knots within the cavern all turned their heads toward Kallen at once.
Kallen, fists clenched empty-handed, shot into the air before she could even reach her target.
The red dragon glanced back at the commotion following him and moved no more than a finger.
"What is this vermin."
With eyes full of contempt, he looked at Kallen flailing in midair.
"Ugh— let go! I’ll kill you!!"
The girl who’d charged in without a plan shrieked herself hoarse, so incensed her face flushed to match her hair.
At the sight of a child who posed no threat at all, the red-haired dragon let out a crooked laugh.
"Kill me? Amusing. How will you do it."
"Y-you... I won’t let you go! I’ll avenge my parents!!"
"Your parents’ killer?"
The dragon—eyebrows red to match—cupped his own chin and thought.
Meanwhile, I stepped in front of Kallen and lifted both hands toward the dragon. It was a gesture of surrender, but no dragon was obliged to understand human body language.
"I apologize. It seems Kallen’s mistaken. She’s young still, and frail."
"Mistaken me for whom."
"For no one in particular—she had a nightmare last night. A child living among dragons is bound to be frightened. Please understand."
I forced a gentle smile, but it felt like the blood was cooling in my veins. I kept the expression in place and swallowed a dry gulp.
There was no proof he was the dragon who killed Kallen’s parents and burned her home.
Even if he was, we couldn’t brawl with a dragon in the middle of Belzena.
The red dragon’s face held no hint of mercy. Even so, I let my brows droop and begged for it.
"Please, set her down. She’ll have come to her senses by now...."
"It’s you! It’s you, isn’t it!! The dragon who burned Triven!!"
Suspended three meters up, Kallen screamed. She thrashed her limbs and wept, raw and ragged.
"You burned my parents—burned the whole village to death!! I’ll never forgive you!!"
I pressed my forehead and squeezed my eyes shut.
Hotheaded even on a calm day, but what is she thinking, making a scene like this.
A few minutes ago she’d been shaking that dragons still scared her; was this the same person.
Whatever the case, we were barely hanging on to our lives; this was not the time for a rampage.
"Kallen, please—close your mouth."
I pressed a finger to my lips and spoke up toward her.
Kallen panted, eyes glossy with tears.
The red dragon let out a short, bright note.
"Ah! I remember. That herb village?"
"..."
"Every house had herbs strung up. The smoke was vicious. That’s why it stuck."
Kallen froze mid-flail. She hung there, blank, while tears dropped from her wide eyes.
Seeing that, the red dragon clutched his belly and laughed.
"Ahaha! I’ve still got far to go. I thought I killed them all—I didn’t expect vermin to slip out."
The confession nailed it down.
Right in front of us stood the dragon who had burned Kallen’s parents and home.
He had stolen Kallen’s life and cursed her with a lifelong nightmare—and he grinned like he was dying of laughter.
Blood that had gone cold moments ago boiled up again. My guts heaved; though I wasn’t a dragon, a furnace roared in my belly.
If I felt like this, what about Kallen. I looked up at her with worry and saw an expression I’d never seen on her face.
"Kallen, stay with me. Kallen!"
Her face had gone white and slack, dangling like a puppet with its strings cut.
As if there were no anger left, no sorrow. The look of someone who had let everything go sent panic rising.
Just then, a tall woman walked out from deeper in the cavern.
Dragons who’d been whispering fell silent at the sight of flowing golden hair.
"What is this noise."
Neira—first time in three days—was ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) exactly the same.
Still a cold impression; still a voice studded with barbs.
I clutched my throbbing brow and dipped my head to her.
"I apologize for the disturbance...."
"Igram, you explain."
As if she had no intention of hearing a human, Neira spoke to the red dragon.
The man she’d called Igram shrugged, grin still fixed.
"A human rushed me, saying she’d kill me. She was being ridiculous, so I was teaching her a lesson."
"A human tried to kill a dragon?"
Igram’s words were a one-sided truth. He left out what he’d done and picked at Kallen’s guilt alone.
Neira had never planned to hear a human out in the first place; she glared at Kallen hanging in the air.
I had no choice but to take a step closer to her.
"Neira, hear me. She’s a human who lost her home and family to a dragon."
At that, Neira’s golden brows lifted. Thankfully, she didn’t look like she meant to ignore me.
I could feel Igram’s easy smile slowly harden.
That face held plenty of meaning; I had to keep my lips from curling.
"It was this dragon. This dragon burned the village and killed the humans. Kallen is only a child who lost her parents to a dragon."
I made a deliberately big show of it, jabbing a finger at Igram as if making an on-the-spot report.
Neira crossed her arms and turned to Igram.
"Is that true, Igram."
"..."
"Why did you do it."
Triumph bubbled up at the twitch of anxiety on his face. So justice isn’t dead yet.
Igram rolled his eyes, then finally mustered a last line of defense.
"T-they kept... crossing the mountains. What if they invaded Belzena? I cut the bud before it grew, that’s all."
"Triven lived by gathering herbs. They weren’t invading Belzena; they climbed to pick plants, nothing more."
When I cut him off without mercy, those black eyes flashed toward me.
It was pressure enough—but nothing compared to the glare of a Dravergh.
I tipped up my chin, sending the message: try me.
"Igram, what is Belzena’s one rule."
Neira asked in a dry voice. Without waiting for his answer, she reached out a hand toward him.
Her hand never touched the man. But Igram rose into the air, and at the same time Kallen dropped to the ground.
I hurried to prop Kallen up. Her face was still vacant, which hurt to see, but for the moment I watched Neira.
"Kh... my... mistake...."
"A dragon does not strike a human first."
Belzena’s single rule was, unexpectedly, human-friendly.
I looked up at Igram hanging in the air with tense, curious eyes.
"...Huh?"
But something was wrong with the red dragon’s body. His limbs twisted at bizarre angles with creaking snaps, and the skin of his face and belly bulged and crawled.
The sight raised gooseflesh; I looked to Neira. She twitched her knuckles and didn’t take her eyes off Igram.
"Have you still not understood that this rule is for protecting dragons, not humans."
"Kh—ghk...."
"A dragon who endangers his kin is of no use."
Neira clenched the fist she held up to the air, and Igram’s body burst like a water balloon.
It happened in an instant, brutal. I moved too late to cover Kallen’s eyes.
But Kallen wasn’t looking at Igram. Her unfocused gaze was fixed on Neira.
Neira, who had executed Igram with a single motion, turned her head and looked down at us.
To be exact—at Kallen.
"Dravergh do not want war. We do not strike humans first."
"..."
"But the human who strikes a dragon first is an exception."
Which meant she wouldn’t spare Kallen.
I rushed to shield Kallen behind me. This time I had no idea how to talk our way out; the motor in my head spun tight.
"N-Neira...."
"Stand aside. Even if he is Varen’s guest, a human who attacked a dragon cannot be forgiven."
Twenty years searching, and the shelf life on gratitude toward his son’s benefactor was brutally short.
At that moment, a familiar warmth touched me. Hard as rock and soft at once—a body heat I missed now.
"Ceryl is not a guest. Step back."
Varen wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me tight.
Relief flooded me just from his presence. My eyes burned wet.
When I tilted my head back to look, a face matured in three days gazed down at me gently.
"Ceryl is the human who will be my mate."
At that, the tears that were about to fall retreated.
Right. I’d forgotten because he’d collapsed coughing blood. Right before that he’d been going on about making me his mate.
Neira, no less shocked than me, scrunched her face all at once.
"Varen, what are you saying. A human cannot be a dragon’s mate!"
My words exactly.
I swallowed my urge to agree out loud.
