Prologue: This Must Be a Dream
This is a dream. It has to be a dream.
That was what the boy thought as he stared at the scene unfolding before his eyes.
A spacious room whose style called to mind early modern Europe.
“Mom! Dad! Come look at this!”
At the same moment, a young girl’s voice rang clearly in his ears.
When he turned his head, he found a girl looking down at him.
“Oh my, how adorable~”
“A dragon with black scales…”
The next instant, a man and a woman who had approached from behind the girl spoke as they gazed at him.
Black scales? A dragon?
Confused by the incomprehensible words, he lowered his head to look at himself.
“Piiiii—!!”
What burst from his mouth at that same moment was a cry whose nature he could not even begin to grasp.
His body was covered in scales the deep blue-black of a night sky. The underside of his belly, by contrast, was sheathed in scales of a bright, pale hue.
“He must be hungry, by the look of him.”
“Just wait a moment! I’ll bring you something to eat right away!”
Seeing his flustered reaction to the sudden situation, the woman spoke those words. The girl flashed a bright grin at her mother’s remark and hurried off somewhere with quick little steps.
“Here! Eat this!”
A short while later the girl returned, set a plate of meat pieces down in front of him, and spoke.
“….”
Yet he paid the meat not the slightest attention.
Instead, he carefully approached a silver vase that stood on the table.
This… is me?
And as he stared at the reflection there, the boy’s mouth fell open in sheer disbelief.
Black scales covering every inch of his body. A long, protruding snout. Vertical amber pupils like those of a reptile. Horns of every size sprouting here and there across his head, and a small pair of wings nestled near his shoulders.
The figure looking back at him was that of a dragon—the sort that appeared only in fantasy novels.
“My lord Count, dinner is ready.”
Just then the door behind them opened, and an elderly man in a butler’s uniform entered, bowing his head toward them.
“We’ll be there shortly. Tell the head maid to wait a moment longer.”
“As you wish.”
At the words of the man addressed as Count, the elderly butler bowed politely once more and withdrew. The two adults, leaving the girl behind, turned and began to walk away.
“Milia.”
“I’ll be right there!”
Answering the voice that called her, the girl looked at him, carefully transferred him into a basket lined with a soft blanket, and then declared:
“Your name is Schwarz, because you’re black! From today on, you’re my pet dragon! Take good care of me from now on!”
And so a nineteen-year-old boy of South Korean nationality became the pet dragon of a count’s daughter.