I Raised A Black Dragon

Noah actually didn’t know Hee-yeon that well. Despite having seen her from the day she was born.

From time to time, Noah vaguely thought that Hee-yeon was an active and smart child, judging from their mother's words: “She became the class president this time.” “She won first prize in a math competition.”

So it was true that it was especially hard to deal with that kid.

However, Noah had never hated her for stealing the love of their parents. Since their love had never been hers, to begin with anyway, the word ‘stealing’ never made any sense.

Hee-yeon was just born lucky to be loved by their parents, and never formed some kind of bond with her older sister who’d left home at the age of ten.

That’s why Noah didn't think her death would actually mean much to her. And she didn’t have any special thoughts about her either.

Hee-yeon was asleep in a chair in the tomb hallway with her head against the wall. There was one thing Noah wanted to check, so she’d just put her to sleep.

She felt around her sister’s side pocket for her smartphone. When she surpassed the fingerprint verification the most recent message appeared at the top of the screen. A conversation with Mother.

[11:57 You said you aren’t going to school. Where are you?]

[11:59 Today is a difficult day for me. I was hoping we’d go together this morning. Why did you go by yourself?]

Noah studied the reply to that question for a long time.

[12:02 I don’t think Sister will like it if I go.]

[12:03 I will go to school by the end of lunchtime. Don’t worry, Mom.]

Noah felt unsettled. She placed the phone down and turned back at Hee-yeon who was in a deep sleep. A yellow fairy sitting on her shoulder was flapping its wings.

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“I don’t hate you.”

Her voice oozed out after having her mouth shut for such a long time. Come to think of it, Hee-yeon was not young. She must have been vaguely aware of who Noah was for a long time at home.

Somehow she may have felt the exaggerated love and attention that only her parents had given her.

So, Hee-yeon may have noticed Noah for a long time. So she may be feeling guilty over Noah’s death.

Despite having been brainwashed and hoping for her family, there’d been surprisingly little satisfaction from that fact.

Noah thought that it was stupid for Hee-yeon to place a picture of a dead person on a tomb and ask if it was okay if she comes back next year.

Noah stood up straight, placing her tiny photo in the center of the chrysanthemum flowers piled up over the glass cover of the tomb. In the low-quality picture, her stiff face was smiling very awkwardly.

Surrounded by white chrysanthemums, it looked just like a portrait. At that moment an immense sense of rejection hit her.

Noah crumbled it in her hand as she clenched her jaw.

The people who’d known her, who had remembered her, whom she had hoped would comfort her no longer existed in this world. The thorn Noah had forced into her parents and Hee-yeon only inflated her discomfort.

It may actually have been the brainwashing that kept her from letting go of the lingering attachment. The shortage of affection somehow had created a perverse obsession to remain in the corner of someone else’s heart forever.

However, there was no shortage now.

“I’m learning to let you go.”

It was now that she could feel the words she had spat at Adrian come to fruition.

***

A few hours had already passed when she left the memorial park and returned to Seoul. The sky was starting to turn red in the west.

On this cloudless day, the sun was seen sinking between the sea of skyscrapers. The hot summer nights made Noah’s head spin.

It was rush hour, so the streets were crowded incomparably to noon. It was very new to Noah that the center of Seoul boasted a hellish crowd from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Do people come flooding out of buildings during rush hour in the Imperial Castle of Laurent? she wondered.

She squeezed her way through the narrow crowd with uninteresting thoughts. Half a day had already passed since she’d returned to this place called Seoul.

As soon as Kyle arrived here, he had snatched Muell away and only left a fairy somewhere. He hadn’t really asked her, but he seemed to have noticed that Noah wanted to be alone for a while. Well, he was someone with enhanced sensibility.

Still, she hoped he would appear soon…

Noah seemed to have finished all of her business and was getting lonely for having spent half the day alone. Where is the butler? He must be by my side for when I need him…

The crowd lessened as she passed the front of a subway entrance. Noah could read the faces of those hastily walking past her. There were many people everywhere who did their best to make it through the day.

She stopped dead in her tracks. She let out a long sigh. The hot air filled her lungs, then escaped.

Her throat strangely felt blocked whenever she took a breath. Something very hot and heavy was filling her lungs and throat, and it gradually became bulky.

How come?

As soon as she felt nauseous and pressed down on her chest, a crowd poured out from the entrance of the subway station. She was about to be swept away from it.

Woosh. Something was put over Noah’s head. Her vision had turned to black.

“Huh…?”

As she instinctively lifted her hands to pat the thing covering her eyes, she felt a slightly rough cloth. It felt… like a hat.

The one who’d put a hat on her backward dragged her away, giving her no time to process the situation. When she took a few steps back her back soon touched someone and felt a familiar warmth—warmth she had grown used to.