Villanelle carefully picked up Ignis and cradled him in her arms. The dragonet used his claws to lightly hook onto her robe, burying his head into the crook of her neck so she could hold him more steadily.
The newly hatched whelp was roughly the size of a medium-sized dog, making him easy to carry.
‘He’s so warm, like holding a large hot water bottle,’ Villanelle thought.
As the distance between the girl and the dragon closed, Ignis suddenly felt something stirring within his body.
It seemed to be… a sense of hunger.
Ignis’s gaze fell upon Villanelle’s snowy-white, slender neck, and a violent thought rose uncontrollably in his mind.
‘Bite it.’
‘Kill the human in front of you. Feel her life force slowly fade away and enjoy the pleasure of the slaughter…’
‘She has no defenses. One bite is all it would take to end her life, and warm blood would spray into my mouth…’
‘Wait, no.’
Ignis was horrified by his own train of thought.
‘Why am I thinking like this?’
It appeared his predatory instincts as a dragon were taking over. Although his memories of his past life were somewhat blurred, he obviously could not accept the idea of cannibalism.
‘I’ll have to be more careful when I’m with her in the future, lest I accidentally take a bite out of her.’
Villanelle was completely oblivious to his inner turmoil. She gently rubbed her cheek against Ignis’s head, an involuntary smile appearing on her face.
‘So… does this count as a successful dragon taming?’
The Dragon Tamers of Dragon Cliff believed that the whelp hatched from this egg would have a violent temperament, but she couldn’t see a trace of aggression in him. He was gentler than a kitten or a puppy.
Villanelle didn’t think her meager knowledge of dragon taming had anything to do with it; it was simply that the little Black Dragon lacked any desire to attack.
It was a rare sight for the Dragon Tamers of Dragon Cliff to be wrong. After all, everyone employed at Dragon Cliff was a top-tier talent from the various provinces of the Empire.
“Thank the God of Fate. I’ll be sure to give you offerings every day from now on…”
Villanelle sat down against the wall, stroking Ignis’s head while she stared blankly into space.
The crisis she had feared for years had passed peacefully in a way she hadn’t expected, and the nerves that had been taut for so long finally relaxed.
‘I’m so sleepy.’
Villanelle’s eyelids gradually grew heavy, and she fell asleep while clutching Ignis.
Ignis was squinting his eyes in enjoyment when he suddenly felt the small hand stroking him stop moving. Looking up, he noticed the little girl’s closed eyes.
‘She fell asleep?’
‘Well, all right.’
Ignis shifted into a more comfortable position on her thighs, which were clad in white silk stockings, and began to process his current situation.
Judging by the layout of the room, this was likely a facility specifically designed for hatching dragon eggs. A staff-like implement lay on the floor. In the center of the room sat a platform, and the ceiling was engraved with patterns arranged in a specific sequence—they looked like… Runes.
There were dragons, magic, and Runes; this was definitely a Western fantasy world.
However, it didn’t seem like a typical one. The design of the incubation room was simple and bright, bearing no resemblance to the Middle Ages. Instead, it looked somewhat like the product of a modern industrial civilization.
The sleeping girl before him seemed to be a weak caster. Ignis had seen it clearly; when she reached out to him, her body had been visibly trembling. The incubation room was warm, so it certainly wasn’t from the cold. If her abilities were sufficient to handle the situation, she wouldn’t have been that afraid.
Why would they allow a weak girl—one who looked like she hadn’t even reached adulthood—to handle a dragon? If he hadn’t retained his human memories and suppressed the dragon’s predatory instincts, it was a mystery whether she would have made it out alive.
What was her identity, and why was she being targeted like this?
Ignis’s gaze drifted over Villanelle’s clothes. Her robe was severely worn, with many areas covered in dense stitching. This suggested that her life was quite difficult.
‘Using common sense from my previous life and combining it with the current information…’
Regardless of the world, dragons were powerful and rare creatures. Establishing a facility specifically for hatching dragon eggs was something that likely only a national power could achieve. Since this was a fantasy world, the country this facility belonged to was most likely an absolute monarchy—either a Kingdom or an Empire.
As for the girl’s true identity, he had a preliminary guess. To be sent to handle a newborn dragon, her status couldn’t be ordinary. She was likely a disgraced member of the royal family who was hated by others for various reasons and marked for death.
Of course, this was just Ignis’s speculation; whether it was the truth remained to be seen.
‘What should the plan be moving forward?’
‘Will I be kept here to be raised, or… will I leave with the girl?’
‘Forget it. The information I can gather right now is too limited. I’ll just rest for a while.’
Ignis stretched and closed his eyes to rest.
***
2 hours later, outside Incubation Room 114.
“It’s about time,” Agrippa said with a yawn. “We can open the door now.”
“What a damn hassle. Wasting so much of my time on this trivial matter…” Brutus grumbled.
Several guards pressed the switch for the incubation room door while simultaneously activating the Mana Shield at the entrance. The incubation room was well-insulated, so no matter how loud the noise inside was, it wouldn’t reach the outside. Consequently, the people outside knew nothing of what had happened within.
Agrippa glanced inside indifferently, but then his pupils suddenly constricted.
There was no expected scene of mangled flesh, and the shield had not been attacked. Instead… there was the sight of a person and a dragon leaning against the wall, fast asleep.
‘That’s impossible!’
He had personally selected this dragon egg for Villanelle. The data had been calculated five or six times; there was no possibility of an error.
‘That damn dragon! Why were you tamed so easily? It shouldn’t be like this. As a newborn Black Dragon, you should have felt hungry first, then targeted that annoying brat as prey. You should have killed her and chewed her up, bone and all, so I could report back to my superiors. How could you just be tamed? I won’t accept this!’
“Strange,” Brutus muttered, rubbing his eyes vigorously. “Do Black Dragons also have the ability to create illusions? Could this be a hybrid of a Black Dragon and an Illusion Dragon?”
Agrippa laughed out of sheer anger. “Have you lost your mind? What kind of illusion could fool a High-order Mage? This is real!”
He then signaled the guards to deactivate the Mana Shield and strode toward the girl by the wall.
Sensing someone approaching, Villanelle opened her eyes groggily. “What time is it…”
“This is no place for sleeping.” Agrippa bent down, his hands on his knees, and stared at her coldly.
The data wouldn’t lie; the problem had to be her. What kind of ability did she possess to tame a Black Dragon—renowned for its violent nature—without a scratch?
“Oh, I—I understand…” Seeing a greasy face suddenly loom in her vision, Villanelle woke up instantly. She hurriedly stood up from the floor while clutching Ignis.
Her legs were a bit numb from the weight.
“You may go.” Agrippa looked her up and down for a moment. Finding nothing unusual, he waved his hand. “Take your dragon—it’s yours now.”
Villanelle struggled to keep her expression neutral so as not to annoy the old vulture in front of her. After saying goodbye, she hurried toward the exit with Ignis.
It was finally over. The nightmare that had haunted her for years had ended at this very moment.
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