The Dragon's Blacksmith and Burnt Rabbit
I pointed at what appeared to be the boss of the wolf pack.
Its fur looked exceptionally fluffy, as if it took great care in grooming, and it sported a magnificent mane around its neck.
“Undain, would you please take care of that one for me?”
The wolves all leaped at me at once, but I remained standing atop the ogre’s back, perfectly at ease.
There’s always that brief moment, isn’t there?
The instant when swordsmen glare at each other, neither daring to strike first, each waiting for the opponent to make the opening move.
Because the one who moves first gives the other a chance to attack.
The moment they charge in with murderous intent is also the moment they willingly walk into the trap.
It’s the perfect timing to bring a strike crashing down.
“Yelp!”
“Whine!”
Seven bolts of lightning slammed down from the empty air.
The intense heat made the atmosphere sizzle, and where the lightning struck, wolf corpses lay scattered without exception.
Lightning was an incredibly effective weapon for instant kills.
Though it seemed Adore had failed to control its power again—the stench of burning flesh was overwhelming.
And it wasn’t just the wolves… my hair was smoking too.
“Adore, you did it again!”
[It wasn't on purpose!]
I could let the loss of tonight’s dinner slide, but I absolutely could not forgive it for singeing my hair again.
Thanks to that, I now had an awkward layered section on the side of my head.
“Do you have any idea how many times you’ve burned my hair?!”
What a difficult spirit to handle!
Even though I was scolding it like this, Adore was a spirit with terrifying destructive power, and sometimes the aftershocks of that power splashed back onto me.
If I made it attack something right next to me, it didn’t matter if I was its master—I ended up like this too.
That was why I always doused everything with water first. It wasn’t just to prevent electric shock.
It also served as fire prevention.
I rubbed the scorched ends of my hair and gestured to Undain, who was busy swallowing the wolves.
“Suppress all of them here.”
[Understood, Master.]
I couldn’t let the mountain catch fire, so I had to make sure every last ember was extinguished.
I watched Undain carefully spray water over the scorched ground, then turned my head toward the direction where the sun was setting.
The sky was dyed in golden hues.
The forest was peaceful today as well.
It was absurdly beautiful and vast, filled with such vibrant life that simply breathing felt like a joy.
If not for the fact that I was the only human here, it would have been a rather livable place.
It was the fifteenth day of my kidnapping.
Against my will, I was growing accustomed to life in the forest.
Today’s hunt had been a success in many ways.
I had caught the ogre that Magi had requested, secured rabbits for my dinner, and even gathered a gift for Rai.
“Magi!”
The moment I returned to the lair, I looked for Magikos first.
If I didn’t feed him on time, his tantrums would only get worse. Making sure he ate well was one of the key tricks to living peacefully here.
It was absolutely not because I was terrified he might eat me instead. Absolutely not.
Clang!
Ka-clang!
The location of Magi rarely changed, so I followed the sound of hammering.
This ridiculously huge cave had several smaller caves attached to it like side rooms, mostly used as storage.
Treasure vaults, libraries, cold storage—things like that.
And there was one unique space that probably didn’t exist in any other dragon’s lair.
A forge.
Inside the cave arranged as a blacksmith’s workshop, a single dwarf was hammering away without pause. It was Magikos.
Nickname: Magi.
“Magi, time to eat.”
At times like this, I felt exactly like a nanny.
But Magi was so absorbed in his hammering and quenching that he didn’t even notice me calling.
Magi truly loved making weapons.
After watching him do nothing but that for about two weeks, I was starting to get confused whether he was a dragon or a dwarf.
“Magi?”
Maybe he was too focused to hear me.
I thought about going inside to call him, but the inside of the forge was incredibly hot and stuffy, like a blazing sauna.
At least Magi was still a dragon—he didn’t sweat a single drop.
Several furnaces blazed inside the forge, and the walls were densely lined with weapons of various shapes that Magi had made over time.
On one side, a towering pile of the incredibly rare metal known as mithril reached all the way to the ceiling.
It was the very same treasure the empire had been robbed of.
I’d been horrified at the time, but thinking that it had all come from the empire’s ill-fated treasure vault made me feel a little pleased.
Master! You've come to rescue me!
When Rai spotted me, it vigorously wagged its snake tail and brightened up, so I gave it a small wave in return.
Rai was neatly tied to Magi’s waist alongside tongs and clamps, looking exactly like one of his tools.
Apparently, the special alloy Rai created didn’t melt easily even in the furnace, so having Rai around made it much easier to work with.
Like how only a diamond can cut another diamond.
M-Master? Master! Take me with you too! Master!
First, I needed to eat.
Masteeeeer!
Luckily, Magi was only obsessed with making swords and showed little interest in me.
As long as I handed Rai over, he would be as happy as a child and completely satisfied. He was a simple dragon.
Thanks to that, my main job was supplying mana to Rai, and everything else was just preparing meals for Magi under the excuse of going outside.
Though it was less “preparing meals” and more “hunting monsters.”
Anyway, when you added it all up, it meant I had disgustingly little to do.
Mana leaked out on its own if I just sat still, and I wasn’t some perverted noble who got pleasure from hunting.
I was in the most bored state I had ever been in since birth.
“Hmm, maybe I’ll read this one today.”
I was so bored that I had even dug through Magi’s treasure vault looking for books worth reading.
It was a book about magic theory, written in ancient script.
It wasn’t that I was interested in magic.
I was simply so unbearably bored that I had resorted to finding books to read on my own.
Unfortunately, every book Magi owned was related to magic, so I didn’t have much choice.
I flipped through the pages and grumbled.
“Seriously, if you’re going to kidnap and imprison someone, you should at least prepare some entertainment. There’s nothing to do. Nothing at all.”
Then, while complaining, I suddenly realized an unpleasant truth.
Normally, people didn’t keep their victims alive, so such things weren’t necessary.
Yes. In front of a dragon, I was nothing but a pathetically weak human.
I swallowed my dissatisfaction and rummaged through the storage a little more.
There was a separate vault for jewelry, so this one was filled with a chaotic mix of miscellaneous items.
The clothes I was currently wearing had also been excavated from here. I couldn’t tell exactly since I was a Spirit Master, but they were clearly enchanted with high-grade magic.
No matter what I did, they never got dirty, and they always maintained a comfortable temperature.
“What’s this?”
The storage contained clothing from unknown races, books, artworks, and many objects whose origins and identities were completely mysterious.
There were some items that looked familiar to humans as well.
Statues, full sets of armor, animal pelts. And I could easily guess how they had been obtained.
They had probably stormed in and stolen them, obviously.
It seemed dragons had a strange—but in their own minds, refined—collecting habit.
“Oh, these shoes look nice.”
I tried on a pair of light brown boots that had been hidden under a pelt.
I liked the pattern. At first, they clearly didn’t fit my size.
But by the time I took a few steps toward the mirror, they had automatically shrunk to perfectly fit my feet.
As expected of a dragon’s lair.
Everything you picked up was a treasure.
It was a shame there weren’t any items related to spirits.
It had been fifteen days since I became trapped in this dragon’s lair hidden deep in the wilderness. During that time, I had learned to do a few things I had never done before. One of them was preparing raw meat.
It wasn’t exactly a required skill for a lady, but I had gotten the hang of skinning rabbits and squirrels, removing their innards, and roasting them over a fire.
The sad fate of no longer seeing a squirrel in the forest and thinking “Oh, how cute!” but instead thinking “You’re dinner tonight!” while my eyes lit up.
They say hunger is the best spice, and I was living proof of that.
Since Magi had said I could use anything in the treasure vault as I pleased, I picked out a decent book and a new pair of shoes, then headed toward the campfire with light steps.
It was about time for the rabbit I had prepared earlier and hung over the fire to be cooked.
“It actually smells pretty good now.”
At first I had almost burned everything, but now that I had developed some skill, a mouthwatering aroma wafted from it.
I squatted casually in front of the campfire and transferred the glistening, fat-dripping roasted rabbit onto a large metal plate.
Ah, that plate had originally been a shield.
Since I couldn’t find any proper dishes in the storage, it had become my personal plate a few days ago.
It was a luxurious shield finished with exquisite craftsmanship, but since there were so many of them lying around in Magi’s vault, I had grown numb to their value.
“Haa, hot, hot.”
I tore the steaming hot rabbit meat into bite-sized pieces and tried a mouthful.
It was perfect.
There was no way freshly grilled meat could taste bad.
It was a satisfying warmth. I bit into a hind leg and opened the magic theory book I had brought as a dinner companion.
Just as I was about to begin my leisurely meal—
Magi walked out of the darkness without a sound.
One hand stroking his belly, his glowing eyes stared at me with a fierce intensity. They were the eyes of a predator, and I nearly dropped the rabbit leg in my hand.
“Jeanie……”
“Hmm?”
“I’m hungry.”
“There’s an ogre over there!”
I quickly pointed in the direction of the food to save my own life.
Magi immediately scampered off that way, and while I breathed a sigh of relief, a completely charred black snake slithered up to my feet.
The dejected-looking snake was Rai, who had been worked to the bone by Magi lately.