It was a language Imugi had never heard before.
Nevertheless, thanks to the occasional words he could make out, he was able to roughly infer the meaning without much difficulty.
He nodded his head in affirmation.
Then, he began to earnestly convey something through gestures.
‘I did come from in there. I wasn’t hatched; I was trapped. I’m not a Black something... I’m an Imugi of the Black Dragon.’
The expression of the person he was talking to became dazed.
‘A baby who can only babble...?’
No matter how much a dragon child, it was impossible to communicate immediately after birth.
However, the fact that he was attempting to communicate through his expressions and gestures, even without words, was astonishing.
Christina looked down at the child anew and thought,
Stunned, she only stared at the child, who seemed to be challenging her to a staring contest by meeting her gaze directly.
The way he looked at her with his bright eyes was quite adorable.
The head of the giant gold dragon came close to Imugi with a whoosh.
Even though it was just a nudge, the pressure was considerable.
‘Pull yourself together. I’ve lived for 999 years as a divine beast! I won’t be easily swayed by such pressure!’
Imugi opened his eyes wide and clenched his small hands.
‘Why, why is this happening?’
No matter how mature his mind was, he was still a child’s body.
He couldn’t help but tremble in the face of the overwhelming pressure.
Large, clear tears welled up in his big eyes and soon fell.
At that moment, the gold dragon hesitated, looked at him, and then turned her head.
It was a noble yet very soft and warm voice. A warm golden light spread across the gold dragon’s body like blooming flowers.
The gold dragon, now enveloped in light, gradually shrank to human size.
When the light faded, she had transformed into a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, around her mid-20s.
The pressure had significantly decreased, and she approached with a fresh charm.
“Is this form less scary?”
Imugi growled, baring his teeth.
Of course, it was... childish.
‘This little one has some backbone, huh?’
Christina, the gold dragon, smiled fondly.
Christina knelt in front of him, who was on guard.
‘A hatchling of the extinct Black Dragon, whom I thought I would never see again.’
She looked down at the black hatchling, who was on high alert, with a wistful gaze.
Christina, the leader of the gold dragons, had been keeping the last egg of the Black Dragon clan in her lair as part of her duty.
At first, there was hope that the last child they left behind might hatch.
But after a hundred, two hundred, five hundred years, the egg remained cold.
It was essentially a dead egg.
She had come here not because she expected a hatchling to be born, but to manage the legacies the Black Dragons had entrusted to her periodically.
She felt guilty for having given up.
But the guilt was overshadowed by the preciousness and cuteness of the child who had miraculously hatched.
Christina extended her hand cautiously.
“You probably haven’t eaten... Are you okay?”
Imugi, hearing the concerned words, realized his hunger.
‘Now that I think about it... I need to fill my stomach.’
Once he became aware, his empty stomach openly revealed its hunger.
He alternated his gaze between his stomach and Christina’s outstretched hand.
‘Even if she offers food... I don’t know if I can trust her enough to eat it.’
Imugi hugged the gem and subtly pulled back.
It was a clear sign of caution.
Christina sighed lightly, feeling sorry for him.
‘Indeed... Even if he was in the egg, the scars of the war and the near-death experience must still be there.’
It wasn’t unreasonable, so she moved slowly to appear as harmless as possible to the newborn.
Christina took a leather pouch from her waist.
In her hand was a bottle of milky white milk.
“It’s not ordinary milk. It’s the milk of a creature that lives in the mountains, feeding on powerful herbs.”
When she opened the cap of the high-quality bottle that usually contained top-tier mana potions, a fresh milk scent tickled her nose.
Imugi, without realizing it, sniffed and alternated his gaze between the milk bottle and Christina.
‘I don’t sense any malice from her right now. Besides.’
The rich, fresh scent of the milk wafted as the white liquid swayed.
‘Why does it look so delicious...?’
Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t be so captivated by a bottle of milk, no matter how hungry he was.
But the instinct to survive in his young body was stronger than his rationality.
He subtly extended his front paw but quickly regained his senses and stopped.
Even so, his eyes kept drifting back to the milk bottle, and his toes twitched.
‘Ugh. Pull yourself together!’
Imugi shook his head to regain his composure.
Rationality won. He clenched his fist and retracted his extended paw.
Imugi grimaced, unable to control the sound of his stomach.
Christina was frustrated.
‘How can this be? He’s clearly very hungry, but he won’t eat at all.’
Newly hatched hatchlings usually had an enormous appetite.
Even if the nutrients from the egg were sufficient, the survival instinct was strong.
He looked like a sick chick struggling to survive without food.
Seeing her pained expression, he felt a pang of conscience.
‘He doesn’t seem like a bad person.’
Though she rarely left her lair, 999 years of life had given her a certain intuition.
Imugi looked at the milk bottle again, deep in thought.
‘Since this person is the owner of this place, I have to go through him. I need to build trust.’
Even if she had ulterior motives, if she wanted to harm him, there was no need for such a complicated method.
He thought he had to take the risk, but caution made him hesitate to take the milk bottle.
Seeing Imugi’s conflicted face, Christina shook the milk bottle.
“Do you really dislike it?”
Just as Imugi, having made up his mind, rolled his eyes and was about to reach out.
“If you don’t like it, I can’t force you.”
Worried that offering the milk to the tense young life might only increase his caution, Christina tried to take the bottle back.
In a hurry, he spread his short, plump hand, grabbed the bottle, and immediately put the spout to his mouth, gulping it down.
‘Just milk... and it’s this delicious?’
Not only was it simple milk, but it also subtly restored his energy.
Already exhausted, he licked his lips and shook the bottle to drink every last drop.
Christina, surprised by his sudden action but relieved, laughed.
He was almost hiccupping from embarrassment.
Carefully pushing the empty bottle aside, he nodded, and Christina suppressed a laugh.
‘I was saving it to put in my tea, but it’s good timing.’
Adult dragons didn’t necessarily need to eat.
But they enjoyed meals for pleasure.
Christina’s preferences were for cookies, tea, and desserts like cake.
After finishing the bottle, he panted and placed the empty bottle on the ground.
Christina, with her blonde hair shining in the sunlight, knelt in front of the hatchling and spoke in a gentle voice.
“Let’s go together. This world has many delicious things and interesting things for you to try.”
The black hatchling, holding the black mana stone with his front paw, looked up at her.
‘She’s inviting me to go with her.’
He realized he had achieved his purpose of taking the risk to drink the milk.
‘Good. She doesn’t seem to have any ill intentions, and I can’t stay here forever.’
His condition was far from ideal for doing anything on his own.
His young body, when hungry, ignored rationality and craved whatever was in front of him, and he had no power from his training.
‘An instinct that makes my nearly thousand years of training meaningless.’
He was so ashamed that he almost clicked his tongue.
‘It’s impossible to make a comeback alone with a body that can’t even endure hunger.’
Imugi, who had calmly assessed the situation, rubbed his mouth with his hand.
‘I should follow her for now.’
He cleared his throat in his mind and thought again.
‘It’s not because the milk was delicious.’
With a big decision, he hugged the black mana stone he was holding.
Imugi placed one of his front paws on Christina’s hand, signaling that he was ready.
Christina smiled and picked him up into her arms.
Caught off guard by the unexpected hug, Imugi’s eyes widened.
Christina gently stroked his back.
Physically, he was a bit smaller than a hatchling of the same age.
‘He should have been born after absorbing sufficient nutrients in the egg and under the protection of an adult dragon.’
Perhaps because he hatched from an abandoned egg, he was smaller and thinner than other hatchlings.
‘Maybe it’s because he endured hardships he shouldn’t have had to before he was even born.’
Despite his high alert, the image of him frantically seeking the milk bottle came to mind.
On the other hand, she was grateful.