I Raised A Black Dragon

Kyle’s forehead became slightly wrinkled as he read the English text written below the logo. It was overall similar to Laurent’s English writing system, but the letters, accent, and a few of the meanings were different.

Noah interpreted them with a sigh, “This is fabric softener. If you put it together with detergent it makes the clothes softer.”

“Ah-ah. That’s good.”

He put the fabric softener into the shopping cart, and Noah watched with a slightly fed-up look as he lined up the detergent and fabric softener. Then, as she suddenly looked around, there were quite a lot of eyes staring in their direction.

When she looked around wondering, their eyes scattered away. She could figure it out even without looking at them that a high percentage of the people looking at them were women.

Since it was rare to see someone with purple eyes not only in South Korea but all over the world, Kyle was wearing his handy glasses to divert the attention away from him; the same glasses Noah had forced him to put on as a disguise when they’d gone to Edman from Lunazel a few months ago.

As for his clothes, there was nothing special about them. Black pants, white shirt. It was much simpler than his usual work uniform, so it was easy to wear here.

Then, the reason for him being stared at must be because he looked unusual. He seemed to be not hiding his handsome features. Noah felt uncomfortable when she recalled Penelope’s words that he was always picked as one of Laurent’s most handsome men.

She snuck up on him and held his hand, pretending nothing had happened. She held it as naturally as she could, and Kyle turned to her in a flash. But her reaction to him was stupid.

“What is it?”

“Huh? It’s nothing.”

“Then why did you all of a sudden grab—”

“I just want to hold it.”

Kyle’s eyes slightly grew bigger in surprise. Perhaps the reason she’d tried to get physical first was that it didn’t happen often. She just let go of the hand she’d grabbed out of embarrassment.

“I just grabbed it because it was there. I’ll stop if you don’t like it,” she said.

“I never said I don’t like it.” Before her fingertips even fell away, he grabbed her hand with immense force. He was a man that never missed an opportunity when it came. Kyle shook the clasped hands and smile convincingly. “It’s good that you held mine first.”

“Uh… it’s nothing special. I’ll hold it more from now on.”

“We promised. I may be mistaken, but it seems like you are keeping your word more and more these days,” said Kyle.

“…I don’t really like unpaid work.”

It was a ridiculous comment when she thought about it, but Kyle replied in earnest.

“Then I shall expect compensation from you from now on.”

When Noah glared at him, he shrugged his shoulders shamelessly. Completely ignoring the countless set of eyes glancing at him, he turned his body toward the Clorox.

Noah was quite happy about it, but if she showed it, she thought he would throw a strange nuance again, so she changed the subject.

“That’s Clorox, a type of bleach. If you were going to do this, I would have done the translation magic earlier.”

“We’ll be heading back soon. It’s fine.”

This man who seemed to have the instinct of a housewife, not an investigator, from the bone, dragged tugged on her hand pleasantly after another long time after packing the cart. Gradually getting tired from the long shopping trip, Noah gloated beside him and asked, “Are we done?”

“Yes. More or less.”

“Then let’s pay for this and go—”

“Then should we go to the food department?”

“Huh?”

“If you’re tired, head down to the bottom floor with Muell. That’s where the ball pit is.”

Muell, who was sitting in the shopping cart, swinging his legs, lifted his head with delight.

In the end, Noah had to stay in the kids’ cafe’s ball pit until Kyle was done filling the shopping cart with mounds of food.

***

It was midnight.

On the top floor of a building looking down over the entire Seoul city, which had so much light pollution that you couldn’t see a single star in the night sky, Noah snuggled up to Kyle and glanced down at the spectacular night view of the city.

When Noah said that she wanted to go somewhere where she could see the entire city from one place before she left, Muell immediately weaved a magic orb. Then, she and Kyle were placed at the top edge of a skyscraper famous for its height.

“Whoa. This is really high.”

Noah’s spine tingled at the thought of her bones shattering if she were to fall. She felt slight motion sickness. The safety from the arms holding her firmly was no help this time.

“I thought you had nerves of steel,” commented Kyle.

“I am not afraid at all. I’m not like this because I’m scared. I’m never scared.”

When she strained to open her eyes, Kyle smiled as if her reaction were very laughable.

“What do you mean? You’ve said about ten times that you’re afraid.”

“I said I’m not,” Noah insisted.

“Yes. If you say so.”

Next to Kyle, Muell was swinging his legs over the edge with a chattering smile. When Noah gestured to him with a blink, he stood up fearlessly.

“It’s time to go now!”

The curly-haired kid disappeared from the narrow wall without a trace. Instead, a familiar strong wind blew in. An abyss deeper and darker than the Seoul night hung above their heads.

The half-moon, which had been the sole light in the sky, became obscured by the black dragon’s body. It was an untimely moment.

With the moon hidden, Muell flew down slowly, circling Seoul. Kyle, still hugging Noah, stood up without even stumbling once.

This final view of Seoul was undoubtedly astonishing. The city, where the summer heat remained prevalent even after sunset, never slept even close to midnight.

The last page which was about to fade away fluttered dangerously. Noah hugged Kyle’s neck even tighter. She closed her eyes with the last sight of the night view pressed down in her mind.

“…let’s head back.”

At last, the farewell. Now that it’d been well over two years since she left, she finally said her last goodbye to this cumbersome world.