Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Until just moments ago, the slave had been huddled, covered in blood.
And now, a dark-haired woman resembling him.
Across her skin, shiny black scales began to sprout one by one.
From her back, enormous wings tore upwards,
bones and muscles swelling unnaturally.
The human shell was discarded.
<Polymorph>
She was no longer human.
“KRRAAAAAA!!”
An overwhelming wave of mana pressed down on everything,
crushing the space itself.
The sky turned black as she roared, a massive dragon.
And when her enormous maw opened,
destruction poured forth.
Her breath swept across the land,
obliterating the throngs of dark beasts in an instant,
reducing them to ashes.
The ruler of the sky.
It burned everything,
then wrapped itself in crimson light and folded back into form.
And as if nothing had happened,
she returned to her human shape, landing lightly on the ground.
She smirked arrogantly, looking down at the ashes beneath her feet.
Rustle.
“…Crazy.”
Back in reality, my stunned curse escaped my mouth.
My heart pounded violently in my ears.
Smack!
“Hey, you brat! How dare you glare at your master like that!”
A rough, burly man wielding a cheap leather whip mercilessly struck the small huddled slave.
The reality in front of me was so starkly different from the dragon I had just witnessed.
‘What the hell… is that really a dragon?’
I rubbed my eyes in disbelief.
‘Why is a dragon rolling around in this slum, getting whipped by a neighborhood thug?!’
Had it lost a war and been captured, sold as a slave?
Was it under some binding spell by a demon king?
Or was this just the dragon’s personal choice of… hobby?
Even if that were true, the expression looked far too ferocious… could this be some intentional display of play…?
Regardless of the reason,
my mental calculator was on the verge of overload.
‘Calm down. Don’t get swept away. Think carefully!’
I gripped my wildly beating chest, trying to steady myself.
‘Can I even buy this?’
This morning, I had thought of getting a sturdy, cost-effective slave—someone to help with work and watch over Camellia.
But the being in front of me now?
One explosion and it could devour the entire market, yet also potentially ruin my life in a heartbeat.
High-risk, high-return.
A theme-stock in the extreme.
Myrtle’s chilling warning from the tavern rang in my ears:
‘You didn’t seriously smuggle a baby dragon from that slum, did you? Your legs will be torn to bits by food costs before it even breathes fire—bankrupt instantly.’
Yes. That was right.
This was a monster whose upkeep would run wild.
I thought of Camellia’s desperate, pleading face from this morning.
“Please… don’t push yourself for my sake… Just your being here in good health is more than enough.”
‘Myrtle and Camellia are right. How am I supposed to handle a dragon? If I bite off more than I can chew, my bones and flesh will melt. Better to ignore it and move on.’
I tried to turn my head and walk away.
But.
Smack!!
The red-eyed slave stared at me, never letting out a sound even as it was whipped.
And the afterimage of that terrifying, sky-covering breath lingered.
‘Damn… how can a man resist a dragon…!’
Falling into this fantasy world without picking up a dragon is,
as an investor,
as a man,
negligence.
I wasn’t going to support this creature forever, right?
Short-term! That’s it! I’ll keep it only until it hits the peak, then extract the gains and move on without regrets!
If it’s too much, unlike with Camellia, I’ll cut losses fast.
Convincing myself, I strode toward the slave’s whip-wielding owner.
“Hey.”
I suddenly grabbed the man’s wrist. He looked at me, startled.
He scanned me up and down, his expression sour.
“What are you? Some beggar sticking your nose in other people’s business?”
“The street’s too noisy. Tone it down, will you?”
“Ha! Ridiculous. This is my legitimate property. The owner wants to train it. Mind your own business, or shove off!”
He threatened roughly, trying to push me away.
I inhaled deeply and tilted my chin, giving the most nonchalant, arrogant expression I could manage.
“Then I do care. I’ll buy it. How much?”
He froze for a moment at my words, then clutched his stomach and burst into laughter.
“Puhahaha! What’s this? Feeling some heroic sympathy? Look at you—starving, desperate little rat! Who do you think you are?”
He lifted the whip lightly, looking down at the slave.
“Do you think all slaves are the same? Mine aren’t for sale at pocket change, you idiot.”
“Yeah, yeah, how much?”
I asked firmly, refusing to back down.
He smirked and held up three fingers.
“Thirty silver coins! …No, three gold coins, you little fool! Stop playing saint and scram!”
He had started with thirty silver, then instantly hiked it to three gold coins to humiliate me.
Three gold coins. Enough to buy four adult slaves in the slums.
Insane price for a frail, barely-living slave.
But… that was if the slave were an ordinary human.
‘A dragon… for only three gold coins?!’
It’s like getting a supercar for the price of a bicycle.
The owner clearly didn’t know it was a dragon.
The price was a bargain.
The real question was what came next.
‘Even if I sell it quickly, upkeep won’t be cheap… Could I handle it? My seed money could vanish overnight feeding this thing…’
I lowered my gaze, and the slave looked up at me, eyes full of fierce pride yet somehow pitiful.
‘No, this is definitely a theme-stock that will rise. If I understand it at a glance, catch the timing, I can get out fast, right?’
I can do it! I can!
In the end, greed as an investor and instincts as a man completely suppressed reason.
I smiled grimly, pulled out the pouch from my pocket, and tossed it toward the whip-wielding man.
“This… h-huh!”
The man’s face turned to shock at the clinking weight of real gold coins.
“Enough now?”
He bit one coin, then cracked them like a madman.
“Hahaha! Real gold! Fine, deal’s done! That crazy serpent, do what you want with it! I’m out! Idiot!”
Without looking back, he pushed through the crowd and vanished.
I chuckled inwardly, seeing the man leave, thinking he’d caught an easy mark.
I slowly reached out to my theme-stock, huddled on the muddy ground like a wary beast.
“Come on, get up. From now on… you’re coming with me.”
I smiled gently, trying to ease its tension.
Just as my fingertips were about to touch the injured slave’s hand—
Snap!!
A fierce explosion echoed through the narrow alley.
A heavy shockwave hit a beat later.
My hand flared like it had been burned.
But more terrifying was the rebellious glare tearing into me.
“Get lost.”
“I’m trying to help you…”
“Disgusting.”
…
Okay.
Theme-stock personality, understood.
I still didn’t know why a dragon was rolling around as a slave here…
But now I understood why it was being whipped.
…
And somehow, less than five minutes after buying it, I wondered: if I ran up and begged on my knees, could I cancel the purchase?