Chapter 7 : The First Girl (7)

The thing I hunted,

The thing I cooked with my fire,

That small child is eating it so deliciously.

That fact brought me an unexpected sense of satisfaction.

For someone like me, who had only slept for hundreds of years in an empty cave,
It was a very unfamiliar, but pleasant emotion.

Without realizing it, I let out a low growl.

Not a threatening roar, but a soft purring sound, like that of a satisfied cat.

The girl seemed to glance at me briefly,
But soon returned her focus to the meat.

‘Huh. What is this even.’

I chuckled to myself inside.

Just because I grilled some meat for a mere human child, I feel this happy?

There was no dignity of a dragon left.

But I didn’t dislike it.

In fact, I liked it.

Helping someone, and seeing the result appear immediately, it was quite a rewarding thing.

The girl devoured a chunk of meat in the blink of an eye.

Then she even licked the leftover grease off her fingers.

Her small belly looked a little rounder.

The girl let out a small, satisfied sigh.

Maybe I even heard a tiny burp.

Then, she looked at me again.

There was still wariness in her eyes, but it was definitely different from before.

Instead of overwhelming fear, there was something else filling that space.

Curiosity?

Doubt?

Or… a hint of gratitude?

I couldn’t tell for sure.

I locked eyes with the girl for a moment.

Then looked back at the deer carcass.

There was still plenty of meat left.

‘…Should I give her more?’

But today, this much seemed enough.

It’s been a while since she ate, and overeating could upset her stomach.

I could always cook more for her tomorrow.

Silence returned to the cave.

But it was different from the earlier suffocating tension, a calmer, gentler atmosphere.

The lingering smell of roasted meat and smoke still stung the nose, but even that didn’t feel so bad now.

I looked at the girl again and laid my body down comfortably.

Just the fact that she enjoyed my cooking (?)
was enough to make me feel rewarded for a long, hard day.

I felt a warmth in a corner of my heart and quietly closed my eyes.

I was full.

I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this sensation.

The twisted, stiff feeling in my stomach had turned into a warm heaviness.

Dragon… Lord? Monster?

Anyway, it was because of that giant being,
and the black, weird-smelling meat it gave me.

At first, I was afraid—

What if it was poisoned?

What if it was planning to eat me after making me drop my guard?

But I was too hungry.

At that point, dying from starvation or being eaten made no difference.

So I shut my eyes and took a bite.

And then… it was strange.

The outside was burnt, the inside barely cooked—It looked terrible.

But the taste in my mouth wasn’t that bad.

No—honestly, it was delicious.

For someone like me, who had survived on roots and tree bark for days—maybe even weeks—It tasted like heaven.

The smokiness was strong, but somehow that made the meat flavor more intense.

I devoured the meat desperately.

I forgot about shame, forgot about fear.

I just ate to survive.

After finishing the meal, all the strength left my body.

Once the extreme hunger faded, other forgotten senses returned.

Fatigue.

And… loneliness.

The cave was quiet.

The smoke that had risen when the giant being breathed fire to cook the meat was slowly settling.

But the acrid smell still lingered.

Far off, the dragon lord had settled down again, curled up and completely still.

Was it sleeping?

Or watching me?

I couldn’t tell.

I just hugged my knees and stared blankly at the cave wall.

The dark, cold stone wall.

Is this where I’m going to live now?

‘If I go back… I’ll die.’

The words I had screamed at the dragon lord earlier came back to me.

Looking back now, maybe that was a reckless thing to say.

But it was the truth.

I couldn’t go back to the village.

They didn’t want me.

They called me “the cursed child.”

They said my eyes—my slightly different colored eyes—were ominous.

That the droughts, diseases, and failed hunts were all my fault.

The adults whispered behind my back, but the children bullied me openly.

They threw stones, spat at me, called me a monster.

Even my parents turned away from me.

And in the end, they abandoned me here.

Saying it was a sacrifice to the “evil dragon,” they believed that if the dragon ate me, the village would be free of the curse.

In their eyes, alongside fear was a sense of relief—That they were finally getting rid of me.

I could never forget those eyes.

Could never forget the cold hands that dragged me here.

I thought maybe being eaten by a dragon would be less painful.

At least here, there were no eyes that hated or cursed me.

But then… the dragon lord didn’t eat me.

Instead, it gave me water, grilled me meat.

It even made me do strange exercises.

Told me to bend and stretch my arms, sit and stand, run in circles around the cave.

It was so hard I cried, but the dragon lord just watched silently.

Why was it making me do that?

Was it toying with me?

Or…

“To become strong… so no one can kill you…”

I remembered what the dragon lord said earlier.

I didn’t fully understand what it meant.

But maybe—just maybe—it was trying to help me?

That thought was dangerous.

To hope for anything from a monster…

But right now, I had nowhere else to lean on.

The air inside the cave was growing colder.

The sun must have been setting.

With just a thin layer of clothing, I felt the chill.

I began to shiver.

There was nothing to light a fire with, nothing to cover myself with.

If I had to spend the night like this, I might freeze to death or fall sick.

Shivering, I looked toward the dragon lord, curled up in the distance.

Its huge body looked like a mountain.

Its red scales looked hard and cold, but somehow I felt like that area might be warm.

It was like I could feel the heat radiating from a living, giant being.

‘…Should I go closer?’

I was scared.

But the cold and loneliness were harder to endure.

I stood up very slowly, careful not to make a sound.

Then, step by step, I approached where the dragon lord was.

It seemed to be sleeping deeply.

Its massive chest rose and fell slowly and rhythmically.

Each breath created a low rumble in the cave.

That sound used to terrify me—But now, strangely, it made me feel calm.

I got close to its side.

I avoided the head and claws, since they seemed dangerous.

Just as I expected, there was a gentle warmth radiating from its body.

The hard-looking scales weren’t as cold as I had thought.

I hesitated.

Was it really okay?

Would touching a sleeping dragon be too dangerous?

But the cold hurried me.

I shut my eyes tightly and leaned my body against the dragon’s side.

And I curled up as small as I could.

It was hard, but strangely comforting.

And more than anything, it was warm.

It felt like my frozen body was slowly melting.

The dragon’s rhythmic breathing sounded like a lullaby.

The vibrations from the giant body strangely gave me a sense of security.

I felt my tension slowly melt away as my eyes drifted shut.

Fear.

Sadness.

Loneliness.

It felt like all those emotions were melting into the warmth.

“So warm…”

With that last thought, I fell into a deep sleep.

In the arms of the great dragon I thought would devour me, I felt warmth for the first time in so long.

Inside the cave, the atmosphere between the dragon and the girl was warm and cozy, but the outside world was not so peaceful.

Terror struck first in a small village nestled at the foot of the Black Mountain, called Fernen.

For centuries, the villagers had lived with reverence and fear, gazing at the giant cave carved into the Black Mountains like a scar.

That place was the nest of the “Evil Dragon Valakas.”

The name Valakas was said to mean “Black Calamity” in an ancient tongue, though no one truly knew if that was true.

They only knew that the dragon living there was considered a bringer of misfortune and death to the village.

A grim legend had been passed down for generations: if the most pure maiden wasn’t regularly offered as a sacrifice, the dragon would awaken, burn the village, and devour the people.

It was a forbidden place, one even the village elder or the lord’s emissary dared not approach.

Only the pitiful soul chosen as the sacrifice and the few men who escorted her ever got close, watching the entrance from afar.

But today, that taboo was broken.

“The dragon! The dragon has awakened!”

A young hunter keeping watch at the base of the mountain ran into the village in a panic.

His face was pale as ash, and his whole body trembled like a leaf.

“From the cave in the Black Mountain… a giant shadow—it’s the dragon!”

His cry spread throughout the village in an instant.

The calm of the peaceful afternoon was shattered by screams and cries.

People rushed into their homes to lock the doors or grabbed their children and fled toward the outskirts of the village.

Everyone feared the wrath of the evil dragon Valakas.

The dragon’s rage… it was seen as the end of the world.

There was once a kingdom that tried to subjugate the dragon.

The kingdom was at the peak of its prosperity, and had they succeeded, all would have hailed the dragon’s death.

But what was the result of provoking the dragon?

The capital of the kingdom, which had thrived through maritime trade thanks to its coasts on both sides, became a “strait.”

The land where the capital once stood was so thoroughly scorched by the dragon’s wrath that the seas on either side joined together.

This wasn’t just legend—it was a recorded fact passed down to descendants to this day.

News from the village near the Black Mountain was immediately sent on horseback to the lord of the nearby Eisenberg Castle.

Even the detail that the dragon had returned to the cave shortly after appearing reached the count’s ears.

Count Albrecht, ruler of the land, showed no change in expression upon hearing the report, but a flicker of fear and deep weariness crossed his blue eyes.

“…How far did it come out?”

“According to the hunter on watch, it emerged from the cave entrance, appeared at the forest’s edge, and then… disappeared back into the cave.”

“Any damage?”

“Fortunately, there are no reported casualties yet, Your Excellency. But the villagers are in a state of extreme panic.”

Count Albrecht fell silent for a moment.

The disaster that had slumbered for hundreds of years.

It was the greatest headache passed down through generations in his family.

His predecessors had always dealt with it passively, offering sacrifices without provoking the dragon.

That was the best they could do.

They knew all too well that humans could never oppose such a being.

Records said even master swordsmen and great mages who had studied profound magic were nothing more than dust before the great dragon.

And now that dragon had awakened.

Even if it was only briefly and caused no harm, this was undoubtedly a bad omen.

“Order an evacuation across the entire territory.”

The count’s voice was low and firm.

“Evacuate all villagers near the Black Mountain to safe zones immediately. Deploy the knights in case of emergency.”

The order was swiftly delivered.

Warning horns echoed from the castle walls, and messengers rode out to every village.

The entire territory was instantly engulfed in a tension like the eve of war.

Even the count himself moved to the deepest and safest room within the castle.

Despite his reputation for bravery, he had no intention of recklessly confronting the dragon.

Time passed.

The sun dipped behind the western mountains.

Everyone within the castle held their breath, listening for any sound of destruction from the direction of the Black Mountain.

But nothing happened, even as the night deepened.

The next morning, with still no sign of movement, Count Albrecht finally decided to dispatch a scouting party after much thought.

They were to investigate the forest’s edge where the dragon had appeared—to find out what it had done and what traces it left behind.

A scouting party composed of the count’s most skilled trackers and a few mages carefully headed for the Black Mountain.

They returned several hours later.

Their faces still showed tension, but more than that, a look of shock and confusion.

“Your Excellency, we found something hard to believe.”

The scout captain knelt before the count and gave his report.

“Following the dragon’s tracks, we found signs that something was hunted in a small clearing within the forest.”

“Hunted?”

The count furrowed his brow.

Was the dragon merely hunting?

Did the long sleep make it hungry? The count scoffed at the absurd thought.

“So, what did it hunt? A wild boar? Perhaps a bear?”

“It seems… it wasn’t an ordinary beast.”

The scout captain took a small pouch from his cloak, pulled something out carefully, and held it out to the count.

It was a small piece, seemingly from a deer’s antler, covered in velvet-like soft fur.

But the fur faintly shimmered with golden light.

And around it lingered a faint, pure, sacred aura.

“This is…?”

The count narrowed his eyes and examined the fragment.

A sinister feeling crept down his spine.

He immediately summoned the most knowledgeable scholar and advisor in the castle—old Elios.

Elios, though white-haired, had sharp eyes full of youthful clarity.

He examined the antler fragment with a magnifying glass and carefully compared it with ancient scrolls.

As time passed, his expression grew more and more grave.

Finally, he set down the magnifier with trembling hands and looked up at the count.

His face was pale.

“It may be hard to believe, but… this came from a kirin, Your Excellency…”

“A kirin?”

The count’s eyes widened.

A kirin.

A holy four-legged creature.

A pure and benevolent spirit beast, said to protect forests and bring blessings.

Rarely seen, but believed to dwell somewhere in the forests of this land.

“Yes. This faint golden fur and the lingering sacred aura—there is no doubt. It’s from a kirin. But… the dragon hunted it?”

Elios’s voice trembled with disbelief.

The count could not speak.

It felt like the blood in his body had turned cold.

The evil dragon Valakas.

He had thought it was merely a ferocious and powerful monster.

But now this dragon, protected by the sacred, had hunted a holy beast like the kirin—without hesitation.

This wasn’t mere hunting.

It was blasphemy.

A demonstration of unimaginable power.

The ability to harm a kirin meant that no blessing or protective magic could affect the dragon.

Perhaps the dragon’s very existence was the embodiment of absolute evil, opposing all that was sacred.

Count Albrecht felt cold sweat running down his spine.

A fear on a different level washed over him.

“……”

For a while, he could not speak.

“A kirin… it killed a kirin. The evil dragon is surely enraged. What on earth has happened?”

His mind was in turmoil.

What could they do now?

A sacrifice? What meaning could a mere human maiden hold to such a being?

“Now that I think about it, they said a cursed girl was offered… That must have angered it.”

If killing the kirin was merely a warning, that might be fortunate. But the count considered the possibility of having to fight the dragon.

Should he request aid from the central council? But even if the kingdom’s army arrived, could they stop such a being?

After a long silence, the count opened his dry lips.

“Strengthen all defenses. And… we must prepare the next sacrifice more carefully.”

His voice carried not only despair, but a faint reverence for the overwhelming power he had witnessed.

The evil dragon Valakas.

It was no longer just a threat—It was a catastrophe beyond human understanding.