Chapter 6: The Reason for The Existence of The Evil Dragon
by fnovelpia
The child’s stomach growled loudly again.
“…Oh.”
The hand that had been gently patting stopped.
The sound was so loud that the rabbit in my arms jumped in surprise.
A brief moment of silence passed.
Startled by the sudden noise, the small shoulders that had been trembling instinctively shrank.
Our eyes met.
The child’s gaze was wavering as it looked at me.
“….”
The child lowered its face.
Then, the child started trembling again.
The fire in the hearth blazed brightly, and the warmth of the cabin grew even stronger than before.
The cold late autumn wind was warm enough to wrap around us.
‘Yet, the child is still trembling like this. the child must be really sensitive to the cold.’
The child’s small shoulders were still shuddering.
What should I do?
I couldn’t just put them near the fireplace.
‘If the child was like the humans of the old days, I would have just put them there right away.’
So fragile.
Humans today.
If the child touches the fire even slightly, the child burns, melts, or screams in pain.
I glanced down at the child.
‘What should I do?’
I closed my eyes, quietly retracing my memories.
Even as I thought, I was growing more and more tired.
It felt like I was rushing through memories I hadn’t touched in thousands of years.
‘…This is annoying.’
A sigh escaped my lips as fragments of memories I had buried deep began to surface.
It was an incident at an inn.
The season was mid-winter.
The view outside the window was completely covered in snow that had suddenly started to fall.
Staring blankly at that scene, I was pondering where to go next when two travelers, covered entirely in snow, entered the inn.
The innkeeper hurried over to them.
The child was given hot water, made to sit near the stove, and was wrapped in thick, fluffy blankets.
As its complexion slowly returned, the child began to tell its story to the innkeeper.
“Thank you. We thought we were going to die. Why did it start snowing so heavily all of a sudden?”
“We were on our way down the mountain, and then… we really thought we were lost.”
“The snow was one thing, but how cold it was… we barely found a cave and huddled together to survive.”
At that time, it was just a passing story, but seeing how the child had endured in the blizzard, I thought it might be a survival method better suited for the humans of today.
‘At least it’s better than putting them by the fireplace.’
I picked up the child.
“…?!”
The child flinched for a moment, but its eyes just widened without struggling.
“You looked cold.”
The tense shoulders of the child slowly relaxed.
Carefully and slowly, I pulled the child closer into my arms.
“How’s that? Better now?”
“……”
“If you don’t like it, just say so.”
The child, who had been staring at me silently, slowly shook its head.
That was enough.
Leaning against the wall, I held the child in my arms.
As time passed, I felt the child’s body gradually relaxing against mine.
The stiff back that had been so tense started leaning gently against my chest, and the shoulders that had been hunched up relaxed.
‘Seems like the child is okay now.’
The small life in my arms no longer trembled.
My body heat, the warmth of the fire, and the child’s warmth slowly blended together.
Even the rabbit in the child’s arms had fallen asleep peacefully.
It was then that I remembered.
“…Ah, right.”
“……?”
“I don’t have anything else to feed you, what should we do?”
The child looked between me and the rabbit, fidgeting and shaking its head.
In its frantic movements, I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“I’m not feeding you. I don’t like meat either.”
“……”
“I was just thinking about what else we could find to eat.”
The child let out a relieved sigh.
But—.
I wasn’t as calm.
The dilemma deepened.
Even human food was unfamiliar to me, and in the middle of this late-night forest… what could I possibly find to eat?
“Maybe I’ll feed you my tail? Humans from the old days ate that fine.”
“……!”
“…Ah, right. That’s meat, too.”
I realized my mistake when the child, startled, grabbed my clothes.
‘This is harder than I thought.’
Gems won’t work.
Meat is definitely out.
So, what’s left…
Maybe some grass, mushrooms, or tree fruit.
‘But it’s late autumn. It’s probably hard to find any of that.’
Plus—.
I’ve heard that humans today can’t eat a lot of things.
The child says the child is sensitive to poison.
‘Should’ve just left them strong. Now look at the trouble I’m going through.’
I frowned as I gazed into the fire.
Back in the old days, humans wouldn’t bat an eye even in molten lava, and like elves, the child could eat any random plant and be just fine.
Why is the child making them weaker and weaker?
“…Ah, that’s right.”
As I sighed, a long-forgotten memory resurfaced.
“Get up. It’s time to clean up.”
The recurring prophecy.
Slowly, I opened my eyes.
The god who had awakened me began explaining what had happened during my sleep.
“And this time, humanity’s lifespan and durability have been reduced.”
“Why?”
“Because change is necessary.”
Change.
That was the thing I hated most.
But the gods were different.
The child always sought novelty.
The child created something new and watched its potential unfold.
And when the child got bored, the child would destroy it and create something new.
I knew that.
That was the role of the gods.
And—
My role was to tidy up the world.
Even chaos.
Even evil.
Even the failed creations the gods had abandoned.
“It’s time to clean up.”
That one phrase was enough.
I never asked.
Who was right? What went wrong?
I didn’t need to know.
There was no need to argue.
Because my task was already clear.
I was the final measure to bring order to an imperfect world.
When the time came, I devoured chaos and evil.
Quietly.
In the proper order.
I absorbed the remnants that the gods had abandoned.
I swallowed up everything that had disrupted order.
And then, I destroyed everything.
Someday.
When the hero created by the creations of the world—
Pierced my heart with the holy sword, on that day.
I would wait.
No, I had no choice but to wait.
Only the hero could seal away the disaster that I was.
And so, when the last page of the prophecy was completed—
I closed my eyes for the first time.
Lying in my sarcophagus,
Melting all that I had absorbed,
And gathering the fragments that could not return to order, I turned back to the ‘first.’
Then, when I opened my eyes,
Two hundred years had passed in the blink of an eye.
My role was complete there.
When all duties were finished, I was free.
The gods, the universe,
The child didn’t care what I did.
Until the next prophecy began.
Until then, I could live my life freely, without obligation, without interference.
And so, I spent that time sleeping.
I didn’t go outside,
I didn’t meet anyone,
I did nothing but sleep.
For thousands of years.
So—
“And this time, humanity’s lifespan and durability have been reduced.”
“Why?”
“Because change is necessary.”
The god’s words, as I momentarily opened my eyes—
“Ah, I see.”
I answered nonchalantly.
Of course.
It had nothing to do with me.
I turned my head, uninterested.
Usually, when I did that, the gods would sigh quietly and return to its realm.
But this time, for some reason, the god didn’t leave.
The child sat beside my sarcophagus and spoke.
“We have high expectations. We wonder what possibilities this new humanity will show.”
“Right.”
“So, don’t you want to take a look once?”
I silently looked at the long-time companion.
As my gaze met itss,
The god continued as if the child had been waiting for this moment.
“This time, humanity has greatly based its creation on your polymorph form.”
“Why?”
“Because it would be easier for you to travel around unnoticed.”
Though the words were casually spoken,
There was clearly an expectation in its gaze.
But—
I had no intention of fulfilling that expectation.
“I’m good.”
“…I see. It can’t be helped.”
“Wake me up when the prophecy starts again.”
“I will.”
The god said this last word and quietly stood up.
And that conversation ended.
‘That’s right. the child was human now.’
Naturally,
Since then,
I had returned to my sleeping life after finishing the prophecy.
This was the first time I had come out and observed humans closely.
‘…I should have asked them then. What changed?’
It had been so long since I felt uncomfortable not knowing something.
Right.
I know nothing.
Not about these humans.
Not about this child.
The fragile human body felt foreign to me,
And I still couldn’t tell what the child could eat.
The new traits,
The lost abilities,
The altered emotional expressions.
All of it was unfamiliar and unclear.
I looked down at the child in my arms.
Still clutching the rabbit I had asked for,
The child’s stomach growled again.
‘…Well, I picked them up, so I’ll have to take responsibility.’
I smiled faintly and spoke.
“Tomorrow, we’ll go to the village.”
“……”
“You stay here. It might be troublesome if I take you to where you used to live.”
I pulled out my claws and sharpened my horns.
I fed the child the powder I had just ground.
The child, despite grimacing from the bitterness, swallowed it down.
I wiped the remaining powder from the child’s forehead.
“You did well.”
“……”
“…Tomorrow, I think I’ll buy a book.”
The child tilted its head in confusion.
“……?”
“To understand you, I should learn first.”
The child slowly blinked.
I couldn’t tell if the child understood or not.
But,
It didn’t matter.
As long as I understand this child.
I gently laid the child down.
“Now, when you’re hungry but have nothing to eat, it’s better to sleep.”
“……”
The child closed its eyes.
Soon, its breathing became slow and steady.
I sat quietly next to the child.
And then—
For the first time in a long while,
I thought about how I would spend tomorrow.
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