Chapter 1
“Goodness, look at the young lady.”
“To think she’s sitting there so pitifully…”
The servants spoke toward my back as I sat there sullenly.
They were whispering to each other, thinking they were being discreet, but there was no way it wouldn’t reach the ears of a great dragon like me.
“Just looking at the young lady makes my heart ache.”
“I know, right? I wish we could somehow shower her with affection…”
Get lost.
I don’t need it.
“She’s got such a foul temper, though.”
“She screams her head off if you even get close, honestly.”
That’s right. I have a foul temper… Wait, that sounds a bit like an insult.
I whipped my head around to glare at the servants who were chatting.
“You lot.”
Then I pointed two fingers at my eyes before directing them at them.
“You’d better shut your mouths. I can hear everything.”
“Eek!”
The chattering servants hunched their shoulders and clamped their mouths shut.
Even so, they kept muttering things like, “How did she hear us?” and “Her ears must be really sharp.”
Oh, humans. Never underestimate a dragon’s ears.
I am a great black dragon! How could I possibly fail to hear the petty whispers of mere humans!
“…Or so I’d like to say.”
Right now, I’m not a dragon but a five-year-old child.
Since saying anything wouldn’t solve a thing, I let out a loud huff and turned my head back. Then I stared intently out the window. By now, *that guy* should be arriving.
“Oh my!”
“Young lady! The master has arrived!”
No sooner had I thought it than everyone announced his arrival. I sprang to my feet and scurried to the window.
Even from a distance, his dazzling golden hair stood out at a glance. A strikingly handsome man with a sturdy build, leaning on a cane with his left side, entered the mansion.
He limped slightly on his left leg, but unless you had extraordinarily keen senses, you’d hardly notice.
With my eyes gleaming, I watched his every move, determined not to miss a single thing.
“Young lady… To think she already adores the master so much.”
It’s not adoration. I despise him with every fiber of my being.
“Poor thing…”
Don’t pity me.
My rage meter is at its max right now.
Why am I so furious, you ask?
Because, of course…!
“Young lady, the hero has arrived!”
That guy is the very hero who sealed me!
And that’s not all!
“Shall we go greet him now? Your father’s here.”
Damn it all, that hero is this body’s father.
“I’m not going! I’d rather die than go! I hate him!”
I’m angry, so angry!
***
I am a dragon.
One of only five dragons in the entire world—pretty amazing, right?
But the amazement doesn’t end there.
I’m not just one of those five dragons; I’m an anomaly, an extraordinary dragon.
Dragons, considered fragments of the divine, are meant to protect each empire.
But I’m not a fragment, and I don’t even know how I came to be. That’s why I wasn’t a guardian deity.
I was a calamity.
An unstoppable calamity.
The great calamity, Celus.
That’s the name that refers to me.
Wherever I passed, not a single blade of grass remained, and nothing could stand in my way.
Humans, non-humans, even the five dragons tried to stop me, but it was futile. As my name suggests, I was a calamity.
I thought I’d live like that forever.
Until the hero, Heros Akion, appeared.
“Die, calamity.”
What nonsense was this feeble human spouting?
I figured I’d deal with him as I always had, and he’d give up and leave on his own. But then,
“Grrk!”
The hero was stronger than I expected.
“Hey, wait, hold on a second, hero!”
“Die.”
The hero stabbed my left eye.
My left eye, where my core—my only weakness—resided.
How did this hero know about it? No one was supposed to know…!
I desperately wanted to stop him, but I couldn’t control my crumbling body. My knees slowly buckled, my mouth closed shut. Holes pierced my wings, rendering me unable to fly.
“…That was a tough fight.”
The hero pointed his sword at me and said,
“It’s over now.”
I can’t die here.
Not like this!
“Raaaargh!”
I thrashed with all my might.
The hero, seemingly exhausted from our long battle, didn’t kill me. Instead, he chose the next best option.
“You will not awaken for a thousand years.”
And with that, he sealed me away.
“When you open your eyes, my descendant will end your life.”
“I’ll kill you, hero! I’ll kill you! I’ll definitely kill you!”
But my cries never reached him. I was sealed away before they could.
Why?
What did I do wrong?
Because I’m a calamity?
Because of some divine prophecy that I’d bring about the world’s destruction?
I was simply born this way—what more was I supposed to do?
It’s unfair, so unfair! It’s unjust…!
My cries became echoes, and eventually, I closed my eyes.
I thought I’d be sealed away for a thousand years, no escape.
But then,
“…”
“Y-Young lady?”
When I opened my eyes, I was at a funeral.
I was a young child lying in a coffin.
“The young lady is alive!”
“Call the doctor at once!”
I had entered the body of a dead child.
And not just any child—the youngest daughter of the hero who sealed me.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
BY ANNA 💓
