“Wow, this is really amazing. The bread is super soft!”
Without rye or any other grains, the bread made solely from premium wheat and rich butter was incredibly fluffy and chewy.
On top of that, fresh vegetables and crispy, salty bacon made for a hearty and delicious sandwich, which was being shoved into the mouth of a girl with plump cheeks, making them swell even more.
“The cream stew is also super fluffy! It’s way better than the boiled potatoes I had at the rest area!”
She had large, black horns on either side of her head that gave her a somewhat fearsome look, but they were now swaying as her hair shook from side to side.
“Ugh, I’m so full… Wow, I’ve only been eating rough bread and jerky until now, but this is so good. This is living!”
As she quickly devoured all the food from the basket Felix had brought, the thing patting her swollen belly was definitely a tail, not a hand.
Her thick, black tail, reminiscent of a lizard’s with its scales, was elegantly beautiful, almost like it had gems embedded in it.
Tenebris Nox.
Not long ago, she had boasted a size that could easily topple a high-rise apartment, but now she looked like a cute girl in a cosplay costume, draped in ragged clothing, devouring the meal Felix had brought as if possessed.
The girl, who had just cleared the lunch Felix brought in one go, seemed satisfied as she patted her belly with her tail.
The siblings stared at her, dumbfounded.
“…Huh? I, I am! The black dragon that will bring about the end of the world, the being that brings eternal darkness! Tenebris Nox…”
“Hey, you’re Korean, right?”
“How do you know that…?!”
The girl, caught off guard by their gaze, looked shocked at the realization that her previous attempts at intimidation had failed, and her tail, previously wiggling, stood straight up as if it were a cartoon character.
“Ah… so that’s why. If she’s a vessel, it makes sense for the plot to twist. Clearly, Tenebris Nox wasn’t supposed to appear yet.”
“Um… so, uh, you guys…?”
“Yeah, we also came from Korea, just like you.”
“I didn’t know there were other vessels… this is the first time I’m learning that.”
Seeing not the grand and evil dragon he had imagined from novels but rather a girl nervously fidgeting with her fingers while staring at them, Felix smiled as if he had finally resolved a mystery that had been troubling him.
It made sense now why the black dragon, who shouldn’t have appeared yet, suddenly showed up: she was a vessel.
Felix Evergarden, the character he had possessed, had been entirely reliant on magical tools without knowing how to use magic. But now, he could feel and wield magic.
However, the fact that not only his family but others had also become vessels was quite shocking.
This meant that not only this time but in the future, he couldn’t be sure that the flow of the story he knew was perfect.
At that moment.
“…Hik!”
“…Huh?”
“Hu…Huaaaaa!!! Uuuhuhuhuhuhng!!!!”
“What’s going on?! Why are you suddenly like this?!”
“Eh?! Wait, stop…! What’s happening?!”
“Finally..! I’ve met someone like me!!!”
“Hey! Hey!! Snot! Snot!! It’s dripping snot!!!”
As the siblings revealed their identities, the girl suddenly burst into tears, running towards Felix and hugging him while wailing loudly.
Kang Chanho, 18 years old, male.
He was the being inhabiting the body of the black dragon, Tenebris Nox, which biologically corresponded to a female form.
That day had started like any other.
As usual, he woke up to the alarm, managed to lift his lethargic body, ate the breakfast his mother prepared, and headed off to school, a typical start to a day for an ordinary high school student in South Korea.
Before reaching the bus stop, as he turned on his smartphone to check today’s webtoon, everything felt just as it always did.
However, that day, the good weather prompted him to place the pot containing his ornamental plants on the balcony wall, which was the trigger that disrupted his routine.
In a way, it was an accident that occurred due to the overlap of his usual activities.
While engrossed in the webtoon, his gaze was directed downwards, and as a result, he unconsciously stepped towards the apartment, causing him to drop the pot when his pet dog suddenly nipped at his feet.
All those moments overlapped, and at the moment when the 3.42 kg pot, influenced by gravity, became a deadly weapon, it smashed into Chanho’s head as he passed beneath it.
Everything happened so quickly that Chanho didn’t even have the awareness that something had hit his head before he closed his eyes.
However, despite the blow being strong enough to prevent him from opening his eyes again, Chanho woke up, and at the moment he realized he had possessed the black dragon from the fantasy web novel he had once read, [The Starlight of Dawn], his ordinary day as a high school student in South Korea was completely shattered.
At first, it was amazing and mystical.
With a body that could easily blow away an apartment, scales that were hard enough to repel any object and beautiful, large wings that allowed free flight, and sharp teeth that could chew anything.
And dragons.
Boys have always admired dragons.
In any work, they are the strongest beings, exerting overwhelming power, the ultimate life forms.
Moreover, the black dragon he had possessed was set up as a being stronger than the final boss in this work.
And Chanho, who had always enjoyed fantasy and isekai stories, was thrilled.
…For about two days.
As the two moons rose twice in the sky and the dawn light signaled that it had been three days since he arrived in this world, Chanho felt gloomy.
At first, it was fun, but gradually realizing that all of this was not just a dream made him naturally think of the family of the gods that remained in modernity.
“Mom, Dad, Hyung, and school friends.
For an immature high school boy who couldn’t even take responsibility for himself, being forced to leave the comfort of home for independence came way too early.
And above all, the biggest problem was that he was hungry.
When Chanho woke up and escaped from the cave, he realized he was deep in the mountains, which were filled with nutrient-rich ingredients that living creatures could consume.
The issue was that the soul of an ordinary high school boy was now in the body of Tenebris Nox, the black dragon that stood fearsomely at the top of the food chain.
Chanho, whose cooking experience only extended to instant ramen made on lazy weekends when his parents were away, didn’t know how to distinguish between the wild fruits and mushrooms scattered around the mountain.
As his hunger grew, Chanho managed to catch a wild animal while utilizing the knowledge he had recalled from watching survival videos on YouTube before bed.
However, being a shy boy from the city and somewhat timid, Chanho couldn’t muster the courage to even dismantle the beasts he caught, and even if he managed to catch one, he had no idea how to cook the meat.
By the time his belly started growling loudly enough to sound like thunder, Chanho finally decided to seek out civilization, pushing through the wooded paths with his robust dragon legs.
In the process, he stumbled upon a well-maintained path that seemed to lead to civilization, and at that moment, he witnessed a merchant traveling along the path with a cart full of goods.
Chanho, who hadn’t seen a human in days, ran out with tears in his eyes, but he had no idea what his current appearance was.
The merchant, who was simply passing by the Evergarden territory and heading to another domain, began to sweat profusely from the rumbling of the ground he felt from a distance.
When he finally caught sight of Chanho’s massive figure, he collapsed in shock.
It was understandable; even though modern people knew dragons were just a fantasy, seeing one in real life was enough to terrify anyone.
In this world, the notion that dragons were so powerful that a mere human couldn’t even resist was already a firmly established concept.
As Chanho rushed towards the merchant, he saw the man fainting from fear, which made him remember that he was indeed a dragon.
He waited for the merchant to regain consciousness, but when the man finally opened his eyes and saw Chanho again, he fainted once more, this time turning pale.
After this cycle repeated several times, Chanho expressed his regrets to the unconscious merchant and rummaged through the cart with his massive claws, which felt like Lego pieces to him, finding useful food supplies.
There were dried jerky, cheese that smelled awful, lukewarm milk, and preserved dried fruits.
Compared to modern diets, it was quite meager, but Tenebris Nox was grateful enough to have it.
He managed to escape the disgrace of dying from starvation, which was ranked first in the list of worst ways to die for dragons.
Although his first encounter with human civilization ended in disappointment, Chanho continued to challenge himself.
He waited for passing merchants and mercenaries, trying to approach them in the most friendly manner possible, but they all fainted or ran away in fear, leaving Chanho in a very difficult situation.
It was important to communicate with them to learn where he was and where humans lived, so Chanho kept waiting for people and was able to use polymorph in the process.
Hoping that resembling a human would reduce their wariness, he was able to use the ability almost by accident.
On the day he transformed, he was thrilled by his slender arms, smooth skin, and human-like sensations, but he also felt a sense of despair realizing that the naked woman he saw for the first time was actually his own body.
Despite that, his overwhelming curiosity as a pubescent boy led him to sneak glances at his reflection in pools or rivers.
With renewed determination, Chanho discovered a group of approaching humans and used polymorph to approach them.
To his astonishment, instead of fainting or running away, they looked at him with curiosity.
Chanho was overjoyed to finally communicate with humans.
…Until he noticed the lewd expressions on their faces and saw them approaching with a sturdy rope in hand.
As a rare hybrid species (a half-dragon polymorph) that had never appeared in this world before, with a beautiful face and attractive body, and to top it all off, completely naked.
Mercenaries with limited funds soon realized that despite his odd taste, Chanho would be in high demand among those who had plenty of money.
Realizing the atmosphere was turning ominous, Chanho forgot he had the strength to easily crush them with a light flick and fled into the bushes.
Having lived a life far removed from violence, he didn’t even think about choosing to kill them.
Since he had never had such power before, he didn’t know how to handle it.
If Chanho were the protagonist of a web novel, he would have received dozens or hundreds of comments about how slow his story was, but as an ordinary boy, he simply chose to run away.
With the option of meeting humans through polymorph gone, and his hunger cries growing louder as if he were a monster, Chanho—no, Tenebris Nox—decided to stay here for now and fill his belly.
And thus, rumors began to spread about the black dragon causing a stir in the Evergarden territory.