The Black Dragon's Wrath
Black Dragon, Wydra. “Haaah, that was a good sleep.” A man stretched leisurely on the bed before rising to his feet. He was strikingly handsome—the kind of man who would draw every eye in any room. With lustrous long black hair and matching dark eyes, he wore a languid expression. The place where he had awakened was no ordinary chamber, but a vast cavern. A lavish bed sat at its center.
“Roughly fifty years, was it? Still a bit short, but… good enough.” With a flick of his fingers, black flames erupted from the bed. In an instant it was consumed, leaving not even ash behind. A bed worth at least a hundred thousand gold had been discarded like so much trash.
“Human form really is more comfortable for sleeping. If I slept as a dragon, one toss and turn would ruin everything.”
Surprisingly, the man was a dragon. The Black Dragon, Lernaia Wydra. An ancient dragon over a thousand years old, he had built his lair deep within Helbram Forest.
“Time to go find something to eat, I suppose.”
After such a long slumber, hunger had finally stirred. Dragons could sustain themselves on mana alone and rarely bothered to hunt unless necessary. Wydra, however, was different. He genuinely enjoyed eating.
“I stored something rare fifty years ago. Time to deal with it.”
Black light rippled across his body, and the scenery shifted from cavern to forest.
“Now then, let’s have a delicious meal…?”
Wydra looked around and his expression froze. The Dark Elves who should have been swarming this place were nowhere to be seen.
“What the—? Where did they all go? And what happened to my barrier?”
Not only were the Dark Elves missing, but the barrier he had painstakingly erected was shattered.
“What in the… Scan!”
He cast a detection spell. The magic revealed everything within its range.
“There’s no one here. And someone smashed my barrier.”
Light flashed again. A small medallion lay on the ground—the core of the barrier.
“The core’s intact? That means they didn’t destroy it to break the barrier…”
Clear signs of brute-force destruction remained.
“Who the hell…”
Black sparks flew from his eyes. Black Dragons were infamous for having the foulest tempers among all dragons. They had been known to wipe out entire human territories simply because they felt like it. The slightest irritation could trigger an explosive outburst. Countless domains had fallen because of a Black Dragon’s temper.
What Black Dragons hated most was anyone trespassing in their territory.
“I don’t know who you are, but I will never forgive you for stealing my food…”
The Dark Elves had been his emergency rations. Fifty years ago he had discovered a delicious stockpile and even raised a barrier to protect it. Now some ignorant fool had broken in and made off with his provisions.
“If I catch you, you’re dead.”
Teeth grinding, black light enveloped him once more and the location changed. He now stood at the entrance to Helbram Forest. Closing his eyes, Wydra focused, sensing the lingering mana.
‘This mana signature…’
Mana carried a unique pattern, much like a fingerprint or DNA. Only dragons, the masters of magic, could read such traces.
“Grenfel Landria Gaster… That damned bastard.”
His black eyes shifted into reptilian slits, glowing with dark light. His Dragon Heart responded to his fury, pouring out mana so toxic that nearby trees withered instantly. Small animals that tried to flee collapsed, poisoned before they could escape.
“That filthy half-breed dares to trespass in my domain and even steal my emergency rations?”
He could not forgive this. Especially not from Gaster. The mere thought that such a worthless hybrid had invaded his territory made him nauseous with rage.
“Come to think of it, that mongrel should have become an adult dragon by now.”
Back when Gaster was still a hatchling, Wydra had been unable to touch him. Now that he was independent, nothing stood in the way.
A vicious, sticky smile spread across Wydra’s lips.
“No more annoying pests to get in my way!”
Following the mana trail, he located his target.
“Grenfel Landria Gaster, disgrace of your clan. This time, I will definitely kill you.”
Black light wrapped around his body.
“I’ll show you hell.”
Gaster usually spent his days sitting idly within the territory. To any observer he would have appeared to be doing nothing at all, yet he was carrying out Lord’s orders.
‘I must investigate the dimensional rift.’
It was a critical mission entrusted to him by Lord. If he succeeded, he would finally earn proper recognition. That was why he endured the treatment he received. He needed achievements—clear, undeniable accomplishments that everyone would acknowledge.
‘But I can’t wander around too conspicuously… so I’ll investigate from here.’
Since the rift had occurred within the territory, remaining at its center was sufficient. He closed his eyes and focused, probing the dimensional anomaly. It was his way of fulfilling his duty, though to others he simply looked like a leisurely vagrant lounging on a park bench during the busiest hours.
“Daddy, why isn’t that man working?”
“Shh, quiet. Some people are like that. Not everyone has to work, you know.”
“I’ve heard about this! If a handsome man doesn’t work, he’s a kept man! That’s what they call it!”
“A-A son, where did you hear that…?”
“Sometimes Mom says that about Dad…”
“That damn wife of mine!!”
“……”
Gaster felt a sudden surge of irritation. A kept man, of all things!
‘I’ll admit I’m handsome—by human standards, certainly. But a kept man?’
He refused to accept it. Though he appeared to be sitting with his eyes closed, he was performing an incredibly delicate operation, far beyond what any human mage could comprehend.
‘How could these primitive humans possibly understand my intentions?’
Gaster slowly opened his eyes and surveyed his surroundings. The lively territory. It had already been several months since he arrived on this mission. At first he had felt nothing but wounded pride and irritation, desperate to finish quickly and leave.
‘How could a great dragon like me live among mere humans? I need to finish investigating the rift and go back.’
It had been annoying. Being treated like a taxi while wearing that ridiculous yellow suit, and oddly painful that he alone received no salary while others did.
Anyway—
‘I’ll finish this quickly and return.’
That had been his initial plan. Yet the longer he stayed, the more he felt a sense of peace he had never experienced in the past three hundred years. There, he had always lived under scrutiny. An unwanted hybrid, tolerated only because he was a hatchling. Everyone except the Dragon Lord had regarded him with disdain. Especially that Black Dragon.
‘If I hadn’t been a hatchling, he would have killed me.’
“Haa…”
Perhaps that was why he now felt an unfamiliar mental stability.
‘I suppose… this is how it is.’
A faint smile touched his sculpted features. A sense of belonging he had never known before.
‘Staying here isn’t so bad. They don’t even know I’m a dragon… Though being called a kept man is a bit much, so maybe I should stay out of sight from now on…’
At that moment, a chill he had never felt before ran down his spine. An ominous killing intent washed over him.
“Grenfel Landria Gaster. Smiling like that—has the mongrel finally found his fortune?”
“……”
Calamity and misfortune that shatter peace always arrive without warning. When Gaster turned, a man’s reflection appeared in his eyes. Black eyes brimming with madness and black hair that seemed to carry disaster itself. The instant he saw him, a cold shiver ran through Gaster’s entire body.
His Dragon Heart pounded violently. Though extreme fear made his lips tremble, Gaster forced them open.
“You’re Lernaia Wydra…”
“Add ‘sir,’ mongrel.”
“Kuhk!”
Wydra’s hand shot out and seized Gaster by the throat. The moment he grabbed him, a sizzling sound rose from Gaster’s neck along with searing heat. Poison. While Red Dragons wielded fire, Black Dragons commanded venom. Wydra could release poison from any part of his body at will.
“Krrgh…”
“Do you know how long I’ve waited for this day? Mongrel, I was planning to hunt you down the moment I woke up… and yet you dared to trespass in my domain and even steal my emergency rations?”
‘Damn it… he found out after all.’
Gaster had thought he would be safe. Wydra’s territory lay deep inside Helbram Forest; surely the temperamental dragon wouldn’t care about anything outside it. That had been a naive assumption. The dragon was far more persistent than he had imagined.
“Emergency… rations… you mean the Dark Elves…?”
“Obviously.”
“…Th-they… You put up a barrier… out of kindness… to protect them…”
“Hah. As if. I only raised the barrier so my food wouldn’t spoil.”
Wydra licked his lips with a long, serpentine tongue.
“I was planning to eat them all eventually.”
To him, the Dark Elves had never been anything more than preserved food. The barrier had never been for their protection—only to keep his meal fresh. Their village had been nothing but a pen for livestock.
“And you stole them? How presumptuous, mongrel. A half-breed like you, daring to—”
His grip tightened around Gaster’s throat.
“Huh? Wh-what’s going on? Are they fighting?”
“What the…”
“Hey!? It’s the kept-man mister!”
The area grew noisy. Passersby sensed the dangerous atmosphere and began to gather. Seeing them, panic flashed in Gaster’s eyes. Wydra was the most ill-tempered of all dragons, and his poison was lethal to humans.
‘I have to protect them.’
A violent whirlwind of flame erupted from Gaster’s body. Wydra withdrew his hand— even he found a Red Dragon’s fire uncomfortably hot.
“…You filthy creature, how dare you…”
“Cough… Let’s not do this here…? I’m on Lord’s mission…”
“Ha! A mongrel like you giving orders? Whether it’s a mission personally granted by Lord or anything else, it doesn’t matter.”
A black aura surged from Wydra’s body, so toxic that merely being near it could poison someone.
“Mongrel, you die here today. And those primitive humans you’re trying to protect…”
His death-filled gaze swept over the surrounding people. They instinctively clutched their chests. An overwhelming terror—as though they were staring death itself in the face.
“I’ll kill them all too. I’ll melt them with my poison right in front of you, until nothing remains!”
Gaster stimulated his Dragon Heart and drew up his mana. Crimson energy burst forth, igniting a fierce flame that burned away the surrounding poison.
‘There’s no avoiding this.’
He knew Wydra’s personality well. The dragon had always despised him for reasons Gaster could never understand. Simply because he found him unpleasant, he had tormented Gaster relentlessly. In the past, Gaster had nearly died from his poison.
‘If I hadn’t been a hatchling, I would have been dead.’
He had assumed Wydra was still in hibernation… yet the moment he woke, he came straight here to cause trouble. Gaster had expected this eventually, but not so soon. In the past he would have fled, but now he couldn’t.
Gaster looked around at the countless people. If he ran, Wydra would slaughter every last one of them.
‘That monster is away right now… so the only one left is me.’
“……I can’t let that happen.”
One side sought to kill. The other sought to protect.
“Lernaia Wydra, I won’t let you do as you please.”
Wydra stuck out his long tongue in distaste.
“Add ‘sir,’ you half-breed who isn’t even a proper dragon.”