I Raised A Black Dragon

Muell turned with a nod, seeing the determination in Noah’s eyes, and his small feet instantly lit up in black flames. It was the same flames Noah had seen during their train ride to Battuanu.

The dark flames, which was a concentration of mana with a density that differed from that of a human, rose like a wave and swallowed the invisible wall.

The sight of black flames devouring the barrier appeared like a calm, light storm. Slowly, the barrier disentangled, producing a faint howl amidst the smoke. 

Noah glanced on her hands; her fingers were trembling. She blinked hard, feeling nauseous. A thought occurred to her. 

If I hadn’t taken the medicine, I’d be dead. Well, I should applaud Kyle’s foresight.

Unable to muster any more strength, Noah crouched on the ground. Soon, the burnt railing creaked dangerously and collapsed. Muell looked back at her and softly spoke.

“I couldn’t practice aiming… I’ll do it properly next time…”

The little boy seemed somehow apologetic for destroying the railing along and was muttering apologies. Even in the midst of fainting, Noah managed to laugh.  

“Hey, don’t be sorry, it’s not a big deal. But if I want to live with you for a long time, I’ll have to go to the capital and start exercising.” 

She managed to heave herself up but had no more strength to carry Muell, so Noah only waved at him, and he followed suit. Muell then parted his lips into an ‘o’ and blew on remaining flames that lingered around the stairs. 

Noah chuckled as she inserted the shapeshifting key into the lock of the iron door. “You’re ridiculously cute and frantic. Oh, it’s unlocked.”

Click. The lock was undone. Noah opened the door wide and after a moment’s contemplation, she turned to Muell. 

“Mu, why don’t we tear down this iron gate and throw it underneath?”

“Yeah!”

It didn’t take five seconds for the huge, solid iron gate to fold in half like a sheet of paper and roll down the stairs.

*

Kyle pressed the shutter of the recorder with a blank face. On the floor, scraps of metal were gathered in one place.

He captured all the scraps found under pipe No. 6 on the left wall and the scraps that fell under pipe No. 4 on the right wall, on the recorder without leaving any out. He wanted to collect all the valuable evidence, but it was too much work under the circumstances he was in.

Beep. The recorder signaled a warning. The compact machine, which had been running nonstop for about twelve hours, was finally reaching its limit.

Kyle checked whether the tape recorder contained all the evidence and removed a nail-sized internal chip from the bottom. The recorder, already exhausted of its purpose, was tossed among the pile of junk.

“…Give me.”

A hoarse growl resounded from behind Kyle’s shoulder. He turned his head, sparing a glance. A man with short, ragged hair, puffed like grass, was panting and glaring at him. His shoulders were covered with blood. Early this morning, Kyle’s bullet had mercilessly torn the man’s skin and pierced his bone.

The man opened his lips. “You shot everything, didn’t you?”

“Yes, from the moment I first saw you yesterday afternoon.”

Kyle had found the man in the afternoon of the previous day while he was leaving the captain’s office, heading back to his room.

From that moment on, a chase began in the crowd, but the man disappeared to nowhere after boarding the elevator. It was only after searching all the way from the third floor to the top deck of the boat that Kyle discovered he had gone down to the bottom of the ship.

Then, he found an elevator descending to the mana operating room and came down below right away.

It was not easy to deal with five skilled assassins at the same time when the entire ship was at risk of exploding lest anything wrong happened.

It would not have been difficult if only their lives weren’t essential in the investigation. It was more strenuous to capture the assassins alive than to kill them at once.

However, the General Manager of the Bureau of Investigation and Security was permitted to exercise immediate disposition if the suspect was deemed a threat to the imperial family and the public, with a clear manifestation of the crime and sufficient evidence was gathered. 

Kyle blew one of the assassin’s heads without hesitation the moment he broke the mana vessel in the first section.

Three assassins had already been taken care of and one suffered wounded shoulders. In the process, all the bizarre events Kyle witnessed with his eyes were captured on the tape recorder.

Now that he had acquired all the evidence, all he had needed was a witness.

The man with the spiked hair spouted profanities. “You’re a foxy little b*tch.”

“I’d appreciate it if you could say I was an example of a good investigator.”

“Ha…. Don’t pretend to be fine. You’re not in such a good situation, are you?”

The man’s cunning retort made the corners of Kyle’s lips twitch. His hand, which was discreetly loading the bullets, stopped.