Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: I Picked Up a Girl Child
It was a very small child.
Pale skin.
An emaciated, skeletal frame.
Even though I had little interest in human lifespans, I noticed it right away.
That this child's time was running out.
Her clothes were ragged and torn,
and her entire body was covered in dirt and scratches.
Above all—
her eyes were completely lifeless.
No sadness, no anger.
Empty pupils that held nothing at all.
I stared quietly into the child's eyes.
"Oh, she's blinking."
Humans in the old days
said that blinking was a sign of being alive.
Even now... is that still true?
I crossed my arms and pondered for a moment.
Signs that a human is alive.
What else was there?
Breathing,
a heartbeat...
But wait,
how many hearts do humans have?
One? Or two?
I leisurely tried to recall, then gave up.
Dragons do not forget.
Memories do not fade.
Perhaps that's why.
After living for eons like me,
even my own memories become so meaningless that I have to dig deep to retrieve them.
Like bookshelves covered in dust,
like an unorganized library,
things I haven't forgotten,
but buried so deeply that I mistake them for forgotten.
Memories that take a long time to surface to consciousness.
When there's no value in dredging them up, I just leave them be.
Just like right now.
I slowly approached the child.
Even as I drew near, the child showed no reaction.
She didn't run,
didn't tense up,
didn't beg.
She just sat there quietly.
I pressed my ear to her to check her breathing.
"...She's breathing."
Then she must still be alive.
I spoke to her while looking into her eyes.
"What are you doing here?"
No answer.
No reaction.
Just the faint, dry sound of her breathing.
"Why won't you answer?"
"......"
"Where are your parents?"
"......"
"Are you really alive?"
Silence continued.
Is she even listening to me?
I sighed and quietly sat down beside the child.
'She'll answer eventually.'
I said nothing more.
I just sat there quietly.
Killing time aimlessly was one of my specialties, after all.
'...The sun has set.'
The ruins had grown pitch black before I knew it.
At least the sun let me know how time was passing.
Otherwise,
I might have sat there endlessly.
'Is she still alive?'
I turned to look at her side, which I'd momentarily forgotten.
The child hadn't stirred at all.
She hadn't moved from her spot, nor given a belated reply.
Just as she was when I first saw her.
In the same posture,
with the same expression,
emitting only the same faint breathing.
I muttered blankly.
"Don't humans go home when it gets dark?"
"......"
"Aren't you going home?"
Still only silence in return.
I looked closely at her side.
The child's unmoving profile.
Her empty eyes were open not toward me right beside her, but into the darkness.
I perked up my hearing.
The bustling noises had vanished.
The laughter of people,
the lively music announcing the festival,
even the faint busyness from somewhere.
All of it had faded away.
No, it felt like it had disappeared.
"...It's quiet."
It was a stillness as if someone had deliberately swallowed all sound.
The villagers,
the travelers come to see the festival,
they must all have gone inside to sleep.
And yet,
throughout the time I'd been here.
"No one has come to this place at all."
"......"
"Are you alone?"
After asking, I realized.
If there had been someone,
a child this young wouldn't have been left alone until now.
"What a foolish question."
"......"
"You have nothing at all, do you."
No home to return to,
no family searching for you,
not even the will to care about some nameless dragon.
"Sorry."
There were no special emotions in those words.
I'd just said what seemed necessary.
In place of a reply, a cold wind passed by.
The remnants of buildings creaked and swayed in the darkness.
I leaned in a bit closer to narrow the distance between us.
"A long time ago, I picked up a tiny human for a bit."
"......"
"She wouldn't let go of my robe, so I carried her around out of annoyance, and the village got all noisy."
"......"
"If I take you now, will it count as kidnapping again?"
The child didn't answer.
She merely existed without will, like grass leaves scattering in the wind.
I drew even closer and spoke again.
"If you don't want it, refuse."
"......"
"Just say you don't want it, and I won't take you."
I waited.
With a faint hope.
If the child said 'no' now, I planned to leave this place.
But—
The child said nothing in the end.
In place of an answer,
her small, curled-up body tilted and collapsed toward me.
"...Oh."
I let out a short exclamation and caught her body.
Quickly, yet carefully,
like blocking a crumbling wall with my hand.
"Dead?"
I quietly reached out to check her breathing.
The breath touching my fingertip was extremely faint.
But she was definitely still alive.
"She's alive."
It wasn't relief.
Just confirming the fact.
I'd long since stopped putting emotions into things like this.
"Doesn't seem like playing dead. Fainted, maybe."
She was so light,
like the fog spreading through the alley, as if she might vanish at any moment.
I lowered my gaze to look at the child.
Her sunken cheeks.
Her hollow eye sockets, dried of tears.
Skinny to the point where I could feel every bone joint.
I put a bit more strength into my fingertips.
I slowly stood up.
Holding the child in my arms.
"You didn't say no, so I'll take you."
I carefully took a step.
The debris underfoot crumbled,
gradually breaking the silence of the quiet ruins.
Wood scraps,
chunks of old bricks,
the sound of someone's body crumbling beneath my feet.
But on this night,
in this place, there was no one to hear it.
Except us.
The ruins quickly regained their original silence,
and I walked on leisurely as if nothing had happened.
I slowly exited the ruins.
The night was quiet.
And cold.
I took off my robe and wrapped it around the child's body.
"If I take this child to an inn, it'll get noisy again."
I had no desire for fatigue.
One such experience was enough.
"...Where to go."
The forest seems like it would freeze her to death.
Back to the nest? Even flying would take days.
I stopped walking and pondered.
I could feel the child's body temperature dropping further.
I adjusted the robe and held her deeper in my arms.
"...Ah, right."
At the edge of the forest.
There's an old cabin where I sometimes stayed.
Once used by hunters, then abandoned.
I can make a fire,
there's a well nearby,
and it at least has the shape of a cabin.
A roof,
windows,
though damaged.
Still better than outside.
Probably.
I changed direction.
I walked toward the forest, cutting through the darkness.
I left the village.
No more signs of people.
Except for the child in my arms.
A dark, cold, quiet night.
The moonlight was faint,
and the wind chillingly brushed the leaves.
Within it, I quietly
held a tiny life in my arms and took to the sky.
"You shouldn't have been swallowed by the bombardment."
The child's body temperature was still low.
But a very faint breath continued from within my arms.
"Just a little further."
The village lights had completely vanished,
and the forest was buried deep in darkness.
Fortunately,
it wasn't long before I saw it.
The dilapidated cabin emerging between the trees.
"...Still here."
I landed lightly, without even the sound of stepping on fallen leaves.
The outer walls buried in overgrown vines,
the roof and windows full of holes from being shattered.
"No one's inside, right?"
I quietly pushed the door.
It creaked open and crumbled.
"Ah, it's broken."
Fortunately, it didn't shatter completely.
I carefully closed the door to avoid further damage.
I kicked aside the plank that had been the door and entered.
The floor was piled high with fallen leaves,
and the wallpaper was peeling in places.
The roof and windows,
and now part of the door, let in the wind since they were broken.
"At least warmer than outside, so that's fine."
The furniture was mostly intact.
A worn chair and table.
A fireplace beside them.
The firewood I'd stacked was still there.
I slowly laid the child down and shoved the firewood into the fireplace.
I snapped my fingers.
A small flame sparked in the air.
I tossed it into the fireplace,
and soon a warm orange glow bathed the dark cabin.
A gentle warmth quickly spread through the cabin.
"...This should be okay."
I turned my gaze to the child.
As if sensing the warmth faintly, her shallow breaths grew a bit more peaceful.
But—
They were still on the verge of flickering out.
"For now, this at least."
I revealed the horns and claws I'd been hiding.
I scraped the horn with my claw to make fine powder.
The silvery horn powder glimmered faintly in my palm.
"Sorry. As an Evil Dragon, I can't use healing magic."
I carefully pried open the child's mouth.
I slowly fed her the powder from my palm.
"It doesn't taste good. But it restores vitality, so bear with it."
I knew she wasn't listening.
Still, the words came out strangely.
The powder melted the moment it touched her mouth.
Perhaps from the bitterness,
the child frowned ever so slightly.
"...She is alive."
I chuckled.
My horn powder seemed effective.
The child's small chest rose and fell visibly now.
"Good."
I carefully tucked the robe around her.
I fetched an old blanket from the corner and layered it on top.
I sat beside the child.
I lightly brushed her hair with the back of my hand.
A thin, fragile texture, as if it might shatter.
The child's eyebrows twitched ever so slightly.
"Sorry for touching you. Sleep well."
I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes.
I didn't sleep.
I just listened quietly to the crackling sounds.
For the first time in a very long while, a warm heat lingered inside the cabin.