The Black Dragon Princess Has Deep Misunderstandings
I opened my eyes.
More precisely, I had no choice but to open them.
The floor was freezing, my back ached, and my tail was pinned underneath me.
And above all else, it was dark.
"...Am I alive?"
My voice echoed faintly. A weak reply came back as a hollow reverberation.
I remembered the magic circle lighting up under my feet in the dormitory hallway, and something black yanking me away. The moment that memory surfaced, a chill ran down my spine.
"I've been kidnapped."
Someone had laid a trap in an academy corridor and dragged a passing student off somewhere. If that didn't count as kidnapping, then kidnapping simply didn't exist in this world.
I checked my chest on pure reflex. The Yeouiju was safely cradled between my arms.
Thank god.
If I'd lost that too, my soul would've left my body long before my mind did.
Clutching the Yeouiju tight against my chest, I surveyed the room. Thick curtains were drawn so tightly that not a single ray of light slipped through. Unfamiliar magic circles glowed with violet light across the walls and floor, and tiny flames drifted lazily along the ceiling.
The bookshelves were packed with ancient grimoires. Black feathers. Suspicious glass bottles. Decorations that looked uncomfortably like bones. Atmosphere-wise, it was the research lab of a cursed witch.
And perched atop one bookshelf sat a tiny black dragon.
Cat-sized body, little wings, round eyes. It might have been cute under normal circumstances, but with only those purple pupils glowing in the dark, it looked more like a surveillance camera.
The familiar tilted its head. I tilted mine back. Neither of us said a word. It was awkward as hell.
"You're here."
A slow, quiet voice drifted from deeper inside the room. I froze on the spot.
Someone stepped out of the darkness. Pitch-black hair that fell long and straight. Small black horns. Dark purple eyes. An oversized black cardigan that swallowed her entire frame, sleeves hanging past her hands. A thick magic tome rested in her arms.
The Black Dragon. The fourth heroine of the original story.
"Noel Nachtveil..."
Her name slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it. Noel's eyes widened just a fraction.
"You know me?"
Crap. I hadn't heard her name yet. I scrambled to cover.
"Princess Nachtveil is rather famous, after all."
"Ah."
Noel nodded without a shred of suspicion. I was safe. Probably.
I glanced again at the dark room and the magic circle on the floor.
"Why did you bring me here?"
Noel didn't answer. Her gaze had been locked on one thing from the very start: the Yeouiju in my arms.
"That orb."
She took a step closer.
"How did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Outside your body. How did you take it out?"
I hugged the Yeouiju even tighter. Here we go again. Dragon Heart. The crazy girl who walks around carrying her heart outside her body. Every single misunderstanding since enrollment had revolved around this damn pearl.
"I didn't take anything out. This isn't a Dragon Heart—it's a Yeouiju."
"Yeouiju."
Noel repeated the word slowly.
"Nice name."
"This isn't about the name."
"It looks like a transformation core."
"Excuse me?"
She wasn't listening. Hands hidden in those long sleeves, she looked me up and down. Height. Horns. Tail. Yeouiju. Then back to my face.
It wasn't the look of someone planning to eat me, or dissect me. It was the look of someone who had just found the last limited-edition figure left in a goods shop.
Wait. Goods?
That was when I finally noticed the dissonance mixed into the room. A pink mascot doll sitting next to the grimoires. Star-shaped ornaments hidden behind the curtains. Ribbons and lace neatly arranged on the desk. And on the cover of an open magazine, a pink-haired dragon girl beaming with a full smile.
"You like it too, right?"
Noel's eyes shone far brighter than before.
"Like what?"
"Magical Dragon."
Silence crashed down. I stared at Noel. Noel stared at me. Even the familiar on the bookshelf stared at me.
Until a second ago I thought I'd been kidnapped by a dark mastermind. Turns out the mastermind was an otaku. A natural enemy in an entirely different sense.
"I've never heard of it."
"It's fine. I understand wanting to hide it."
"You understand absolutely nothing."
Noel flicked a finger. One familiar dragged over a small chair. Another set down a teacup. Tea was being served in a kidnapper's room. The situation was so wrong it was somehow even more terrifying.
"In Magical Dragon, they use a Dragon Heart as the core when they transform. The magic wand forms around it, and the heroine accepts her own power."
Her voice carried a strength that hadn't been there before.
"But you already have yours out."
Her gaze pinned the Yeouiju again.
"Outside."
"I keep telling you, it's a Yeouiju."
"You even gave it a name so you could reenact the transformation, right?"
"How does that even follow?"
"Besides, you look alike."
"Alike who?"
"Magical Dragon Blue."
"Who is that?"
"One of the companions in Magical Dragon."
"How am I supposed to know that?!"
Instead of answering, Noel opened a drawer under the desk. I tensed. A weapon? A cursed tool? Or actual binding magic this time?
What came out of the drawer was clothing. Pink and sky-blue fabric. Ribbons. Lace. Sparkling star ornaments. And a hole that looked precisely sized for my tail to slip through.
My brain refused to process it.
"What... is that?"
"A costume."
"What kind of costume?"
"Magical Dragon."
"Hold on. How do you know my size?"
"I observed you."
"That's creepy!"
Noel tilted her head as if she couldn't understand why that was a problem. There was no malice in her. That made it worse. Malice you can fight or run from. But that face was pure sincerity. One hundred percent uncut fandom.
I remembered friends from my past life who would spend three hours explaining lore to people who had never even heard of their favorite series. I knew those eyes. They were eyes that did not speak the same language as the rest of the world.
"Noel-senpai. For the record, I am not a Magical Dragon fan."
Noel stopped. Every familiar in the room lifted its head at once.
"You're not a fan?"
"No."
"Then why did you take out your Dragon Heart to reenact it?"
"I didn't take anything out!"
"Transformation core."
"Yeouiju!"
"The tail."
"I was born with it!"
"The build."
"That is not my fault!"
Noel studied me for a moment, then muttered under her breath.
"Not a fan, yet the completion rate is this high."
"That is an even scarier thing to say."
"Talent."
"I do not need that kind of talent."
She hugged the costume to her chest. The dark-mastermind look was gone. In its place was the look of a craftsman.
"It's fine. You'll understand once you put it on."
"Understand what?"
"The heart of Magical Dragon."
"I don't want to understand it!"
Still clutching the Yeouiju, I backed away. Desk behind me. Familiars to the side. In front of me, a Black Dragon holding a magical girl costume.
In the original story, Kyle got a strangely romantic event in this very room. I was getting a cosplay crisis in the same room. Why was only my genre different?
"I'm not a dragon, I'm a yong. And I don't even have wings."
I threw out my final line of defense. Noel considered it seriously.
"Wingless limited form."
"No."
"Magical Yong."
"Do not just decide that!"
At that moment a crystal orb in the corner of the room flashed. Golden light streaked down a dark corridor at high speed. It was Lydia. Gone was her usual elegant walk; she was sprinting full tilt, holding her skirt. Selene followed right behind her with a notebook in hand.
"They're here already."
Noel muttered.
"Of course they are! You kidnapped someone!"
"I only invited you."
"Dragging someone against their will is kidnapping!"
"So no time to try it on, then."
"No time!"
BOOM!
The door slammed into the wall under a surge of golden mana. Lydia stood in the doorway, smiling as always. Her blonde hair was a little mussed, and glittering mana dust drifted from the tips of her folded golden wings. Then a gaze that did not match that smile at all swept the room: the forced-summoning circle on the floor, the familiars, the costume in Noel's arms, and finally me.
"Miss Cheongha. Are you hurt anywhere?"
"My body is fine."
"Nothing frightening happened to you?"
I looked at the costume cradled in Noel's arms.
"Mentally, a little."
Lydia's smile deepened a shade. She came straight over, checking my shoulders and arms, even scanning my tail with her eyes. It felt exactly like a mother coming home from the market and making sure the eggs hadn't cracked.
"I'm so relieved."
She hid me behind her back. Thanks to the height difference, I was completely covered. I had become a baby Azure Dragon peeking out from behind the Saintess. The real problem was that this position was starting to feel a little familiar. At this rate I might actually turn into a baby.
"Miss Noel Nachtveil. I will be taking Miss Cheongha with me."
"I still have things to confirm."
"She herself says she doesn't want to."
Lydia took my hand and headed for the door. That was when the familiar on the bookshelf spread its wings. Its small body dissolved into black smoke and blocked the doorway. At the same time, shadows surged up from the magic circle on the floor like snakes.
A golden barrier wrapped around me in a sphere and knocked the shadows away. The smile vanished from Lydia's face. Her folded golden wings flared wide, shielding me completely.
"Miss Cheongha. Stay behind me for a moment."
"You're not seriously going to fight, are you?"
"I'll finish this quickly."
When a mother says that, it usually does not finish quickly.
Noel carefully set the costume down on the bed. A grimoire opened by itself, and purple eyes bloomed into existence all over the room—on the shelves, behind the curtains, in the corners of the ceiling. Under the bed there were so many I wanted to give up counting.
"The Saintess meddles too much."
"When it concerns Miss Cheongha, yes."
Lydia stretched out her hand. Golden mana fragments shaped like scales rose from the edges of her wings and poured toward Noel. The familiars turned into walls of black smoke.
CRASH!
Gold and black light collided, shaking the entire room. Grimoires tumbled from the shelves. The torn smoke split into three familiars that surrounded Lydia. One dove under her wing; a golden tail sliced through the air.
THUD!
The familiar slammed into the wall and scattered into smoke. Black chains immediately lashed around Lydia's wrists and wings. Noel tugged her fingers.
"Got you."
"Did you, now?"
Lydia smiled softly. Dazzling golden light burst forth and reduced the chains to dust. A purifying wave swept the room; the familiars shrieked and recoiled. Noel didn't take a single step back. The shadow on the ceiling swelled and opened a jaw large enough to swallow half the room.
"Wait! The dormitory is going to collapse!"
Neither of them listened. Noel raised her hand to strike; golden light gathered at the tips of Lydia's wings.
Crack.
Pure white frost flooded in from outside the door. The magic circle on the floor and the shadow on the ceiling froze solid in an instant. Even Lydia's golden scales locked in place inside a thin wall of ice.
"That's enough."
Selene, arriving late, stepped over the frozen threshold. Her face turned even colder as she took in the door embedded in the wall, the cracked plaster, and the frozen magic circle. Her notebook opened.
"Gold Dragon Saintess. Destruction of dormitory facilities and private combat."
"I had no choice if I wanted to rescue Miss Cheongha."
"I'll note it as a mitigating circumstance."
The pen moved.
"Black Dragon Noel Nachtveil. Installation of an unauthorized forced-summoning circle in a dormitory hallway, and private combat."
"It's my room."
"It is an academy dormitory."
"..."
Noel closed her mouth. Apparently no one in this academy could win against Selene's notebook.
Selene dismissed the ice and looked at the clothes on the bed.
"And what is that?"
"Magical Dragon."
"She tried to make me wear it."
I reported her immediately. Noel glared at me like I was a traitor. We had never even built enough trust to betray in the first place.
Lydia picked up the costume.
"Without her consent?"
"She might like it once she puts it on."
"I said I didn't want to before putting it on."
"That's because you don't know Magical Dragon yet."
Noel's logic was full of holes. The problem was that she didn't care about the holes and simply said whatever she wanted to say.
Lydia examined the costume carefully. Short skirt. Fluffy ribbons. Sparkling star ornaments. And a hole meticulously cut so a tail could pass through. Her brows drew down slightly.
"The skirt is far too short."
"Original accuracy."
"Miss Cheongha might get cold."
"I put warmth magic in it."
"She could trip while moving."
"There's automatic balance correction too."
"Wouldn't the tail be uncomfortable?"
"The girth is adjustable."
Huh. Weren't they fighting a second ago?
Before I knew it, Lydia had picked the costume up from the bed and was checking the inside. Noel pulled her hands free of the long sleeves and began explaining the magic patterns embroidered on the hem one by one.
"This part is defensive magic."
"Are all these little stars magic tools?"
"Yeah. A barrier activates if she falls."
"That sounds nice."
"I can add a cape too."
"A cape would make it even warmer."
Hold on. Why is the atmosphere getting better?
I tried to slip quietly out from behind Lydia's back. One step. Two steps. The moment I tried for a third, a golden tail gently wrapped around my waist. Caught. Without even looking away from the costume, Lydia returned me to my original spot.
"Miss Cheongha, where were you going?"
"You two seemed to have made up."
"We're still talking."
"I feel like you could do this without me."
"It won't work without the protagonist."
Noel said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Protagonist. That word originally belonged to Kyle. So why did it only come back to me when a magical girl costume was involved?
"I'm not the protagonist of that series."
"You can become one."
"I don't want to."
"It would be a waste of talent."
"What talent, exactly?"
"Small, has horns, has a tail, and even a transformation core."
"It's a Yeouiju."
"The name is original too."
Words were not connecting. A natural enemy in yet another sense. Erika tried to talk with her fists. Lydia treated me like a baby. Selene wrote every incident down in her notebook. And the last heroine translated everything I said to fit her own tastes. Somehow every single heroine was my natural enemy in a completely different way.
But if I couldn't get along with any of them... maybe my social skills were the ones that had shattered? No. There was no social skill in the world that could stay calm after seeing that costume.
Lydia looked at Noel while still holding the outfit.
"Miss Noel. Please promise you will never bring Miss Cheongha here like this again."
"Then how am I supposed to call her?"
"You go to her yourself and ask."
"And if she refuses?"
"Then you give up."
Noel's expression hardened. It was the face of someone whose entire world had just collapsed. Lydia was firm.
"If she herself says she doesn't want to, you must not force her."
Oh. As expected of the Saintess. She was on my side. I looked at her with eyes full of gratitude. She glanced down at the costume once more.
"But if Miss Cheongha gives permission..."
Saintess?
Lydia lightly spread the hem of the skirt.
"Trying it on just once might not be so bad."
"Lydia."
"I think it would suit her wonderfully, too."
"Lydia?"
My call grew more urgent by a full step. But her eyes were already moving back and forth between the costume and me. I knew that look. The look from when she dried my hair at the hot spring. The look from when she tidied my dorm room. The look of a mother who wanted to dress her cute daughter up.
I was doomed.
Noel extended a hand from inside her long sleeve.
"Want to fix it together?"
"We need to reduce the exposure a little."
"Possible."
"And strengthen the warmth magic."
"I have materials."
"We have to make sure Miss Cheongha won't be uncomfortable."
"I already know the measurements."
"How did you learn those?"
"Observation."
The atmosphere chilled for a second. Noel quickly added,
"From now on I'll get permission."
Lydia hesitated briefly, then took that hand. Reconciliation. Astonishingly, the conflict between the Gold Dragon Saintess and the Black Dragon Princess ended right there—under the shared goal of turning me into Magical Dragon.
I stared blankly at their clasped hands.
"Why has my opinion already been cut out of this?"
Selene's pen moved.
"Dispute resolved."
"It is not resolved."
"The clash between Gold Dragon and Black Dragon is over."
"Instead, I got sacrificed."
"Collateral damage."
"Do not turn a person into collateral!"
Selene closed her notebook.
"Unauthorized costume fitting targeting a student is prohibited. Forced summoning as well."
Her cold gaze turned to Noel.
"From now on you will always obtain the party's consent."
"If I get permission, it's okay?"
"From Cheongha."
Three pairs of eyes locked onto me at the same time. I hugged the Yeouiju to my chest and took a step back toward the door. Lydia rested a hand on my shoulder and smiled warmly.
"Don't worry, Miss Cheongha. If you don't want to, you don't have to wear it."
"Right?"
"Yes. But deciding after seeing the finished product once wouldn't be too late either."
I felt zero reassurance. Noel nodded in satisfaction.
"I'll make it perfect."
"Don't make it."
"Next time I'll invite you properly."
"Don't invite me either."
"I'll prepare snacks too."
"Are you even listening to me?"
Noel didn't answer. She simply hugged the costume and smiled with deep, quiet satisfaction.
That day, I was safely rescued from my kidnapper.
And I lost my rescue team as new accomplices.
Being kidnapped had actually been better. At least then there had only been one of them.