The moment I got my name, my body turned a deep blue.
As my body grew, I began to grow wing that I had lost before birth. With those wings, I flew into the sky.
——My first flight! What a great feeling it was!!
The ground rapidly receded into the distance, and the Fenrirs appeared to be no bigger than wheat.
"GROOOOOOOOOOAAARRRRR." (Zavilia)
I spoke from the depths of my stomach. It felt good.
I plummeted from a high position. I headed straight for the Blue Dragons, which had been attacked by Fenrir and lost their timing to fly. In hindsight, I thought I overestimated my abilities at the time. With the power I already had, and the power of the leader now added to it, I felt as if I had gained incredible power.
Generally, the power of the Fenrir and the Blue Dragon was balanced. It was common sense that one Blue Dragon should face one Fenrir, but at that time, a Blue Dragon charged into the group of Fenrirs by itself. The Fenrirs were intelligent and had sharp intuitions, but at the time, they were probably overwhelmed by my strange force.
In reality, even with the leader's power added to it, I could only blow away a few Fenrirs at once, but around 10 Fenrirs dodged me at once. And with that, as if by instinct, the Fenrirs retreated from the Blue Dragons that they had been holding in their mouths. Not one to let a moment's gap slip away, the pinned Blue Dragons instantly shot up into the sky.
Now that our companions had been released, we were no longer interested in the nesting site. I soared high into the sky again and began flying towards the east. My fellow dragons must have realized that I had inherited power from the leader. They were circling aimlessly in the sky, gazing at the fallen leader, but the moment I took off, they all followed after me.
My destination was the cave where I was born. Perhaps I unconsciously felt a sense of comfort in the place where I was born. Having lost my nesting site, I was looking for somewhere safe and that was the only place I could think of.
In the cave where I was born, there was an unfamiliar blue dragon. When the blue dragon saw my companions descending one by one, it let out a threatening cry. Hearing the cry, another blue dragon came out of the cave.
——The new dragon to emerge from the cave was my older brother.
Within 12 years, my dragon brother had grown into a fine adult dragon, established his own group, and became its leader. My dragon mother was also a member of the herd.
The dragon brother's group was a group of about five dragons, but they had first resident rights over this cave. We decided to rent a corner of the place. Having taken over the power from the previous leader, I had the duties and responsibilities of being the new leader. It's to bring together my fellow Blue Dragons and guarantee them peace and safety.
I had power. In addition to my original power, I inherited all of the powers of our previous leader, giving me a power unparalleled among the Blue Dragons. I even grew wings. I believed that the leader's job was to protect everyone through force, so fulfilling my responsibilities as leader didn't seem difficult to me.
Ten years ago, I was small and had only one wing, so I wasn't much of a fighting force. But the other members of the pack accepted me and allowed me to live with them forever. Now it was my turn. No matter how young or weak the dragons were, I would protect them. It seemed like the most natural thing to do, and it became my goal as I spent my days aimlessly.
I also wanted to talk to my dragon brother, whom I hadn't seen in a while, but he was obviously avoiding me. We hatched from the same egg. It's true that one of my wings was eaten, but monsters were a species that would do anything to survive. As a monster, I could understand my brother's actions, so I couldn't bear to resent him.
——Since we were brothers, wasn't there something we could do together to protect our comrades? That's what I was thinking, but my dragon brother never gave me the chance to talk about it. Even the mother dragon never came out of her cave while I was near.
Maybe it was going well for a while. Although there were minor skirmishes between the group, they were nothing to cause problems, and they had hunted enough monsters to serve as prey. Along the way, we were attacked by other monsters several times, but I managed to drive them off almost entirely by myself. Now that I had the strength of two horses and was learning how to use it, I was getting stronger and stronger. And that made me happy.
Monsters naturally loved strength, so I was happy just to have gotten stronger, but I was also happy to have the power to protect my companions. And just as I felt joy in protecting my friends, I believed that they also felt joy in being protected and feeling safe and secure.
At that time, the problem I was having was where to live. This land was a little small for two flocks to live in. So, I began looking for a new nesting site and leaving this space more often.
And then, that night... A stormy, moonless night.
While I was sleeping, I was suddenly attacked by the dragon brother and his companions. I was woken up by the pain of the dragon brother's fangs sinking into my neck. One-on-one, he would probably be able to defeat his older brother, but there were five of them. When the dragon tribe chose a new leader, they did so in a one-on-one duel in front of their peers. It should never be something that took someone by surprise like this.
Ever since the Fenrirs' surprise attack, we had strengthened their surveillance against external enemies, but I had never expected to keep watch on the inside.
My dragon brother glared at me with blazing eyes and growled with his mouth still holding me in his mouth.
"I should have eaten you whole inside the egg, not just your wing." (Brother)
And then, in a voice full of resentment, he continued.
"That power is mine. It was originally mine, and you stole it from me. So, you're giving it back." (Brother)
In the midst of the intense pain, I tried to make sense of my dragon brother's crazy words. …What was my dragon brother saying? Even if he ate me, there's no way my powers would be transferred to him. If that were possible, everyone would start killing their own kind.
It was the first time I called him my brother.
"Brother, calm down. You understand that even if you eat me, my powers won't be passed on to you, right? We are brothers. I think that by joining forces, we can achieve something." (Zavilia)
"Yes, you were a small, one-winged piece of trash. That's why I thought you weren't worth eating, so I left you behind. I even thought that eating you would lower my own value. And yet, what about you now?! You've ambushed the leader of your pack, stolen his power, and are now lording it over us with your borrowed power! You're the biggest scum I've ever seen, a vile pile of garbage!" (Brother)
And so, my dragon brother began to spat out an endless stream of insults at me. It was not a situation in which it was possible to communicate. I decided to sacrifice the skin and some of the flesh on my neck and forced my way out from under my brother dragon's fangs. A piece of my neck flesh was caught in my dragon brother's mouth.
Then I shook off my dragon brother and his companions and left the cave. My brother's pack had five dragons, and mine had ten. If my teammates noticed, I'd won.
With that thought in mind, I went outside the cave and noticed that many dragons were standing around the exit of the cave where I had been sleeping.
Lightning flashed, illuminating the surrounding dragons. For some reason, they were the dragons from my pack.
——What did that mean?
Did my companions notice that I was being attacked by my brother dragon? Did they notice and not come to help?
As I stood there unable to comprehend the situation, my fellow dragons spoke to me.
"I've never liked the idea of you being in a superior position. Even though you were at the bottom of the hierarchy, the fact that you stole the power of our previous leader and put yourself above me is a humiliation that makes my guts boil."
"Why are you the one giving the orders?! Why are you the one making the decisions?! You were just a lowest-ranking dragon after all!"
"You, who originally had no wings and could hardly be called a dragon, cowardly stole the power of our former leader! As the lowest of the low, you did whatever we told you to do, and everyone mocked you, but behind the scenes, you were eavesdropping on the opportunity to steal the power of our former leader, you thief!"
…What was everyone saying?
If that's so, then, when the former leader was being pulled down by half a dozen Fenrirs and his whole body was being bitten to pieces, it should have been them who came to his aid instead of me.
I wished they had gone into the overwhelming numbers of Fenrirs, their countless bared fangs attacking.
And then, look. By now you guys would be the leaders and you would never have served under me.
If... if they could survive under the fangs of those Fenrirs.
These dragons knew. They said that they could not have defeated the Fenrirs and therefore could not have had a say in that situation. It was because they knew this that all the dragons were circling in the sky at that time.
With a glimmer of hope, I opened my mouth.
"If you're so dissatisfied, why don't you challenge me to a fight for leadership? You can do it right now. If you want to be the leader, you can challenge me fair and square." (Zavilia)
But my companion opened his mouth menacingly.
"Why should I take you seriously, after you used cowardly means to kill the former leader and steal his power?! You have no honor or pride, and you deserve to be killed here by an unknown dragon, dying in vain."
...That's right, huh? If it was one-on-one, there's no way any blue dragon could beat me.
However, one-on-one battles for leadership should be a rule for the proud dragon species.
I raised my head and looked at the dragons standing around me.
I understood how the male dragons felt. So, what do the female dragons think? Was it the unanimous opinion that my presence was unnecessary?
All the female dragons who made eye contact with me casually looked away.
"...Don't take it personally. But if you defeat all the male dragons, we will become your mates."
"...Yeah, that's a difference in opinion. I don't need you guys like that."
Funny dragons.
The male dragons were trying to kill me, bending the rule that the dragon race takes pride in—deciding the leader through fair and honest force. The female dragon was trying to blindly follow the dragon race's rule of obeying the strongest dragon who has survived through strength. ...Hehe, the female dragons probably didn't believe even a single chance that I'd survive, so I guessed they'd just have to tolerate me being killed in the end.
They followed or did not follow the rules according to their convenience. What free and selfish dragons.
…I wondered if my belief that I had been accepted by this flock, that I was grateful for their protection and shelter, was that just my own selfish assumption? However, even though they thought I was "convenient" and "helpful" to them—that I didn't fight back, just did as I was told, and became everyone's shield—I wondered if they never thought of me as a "comrade"?
I was looking at the other dragons with an extremely calm mood.
Was it correct that it's me versus all the remaining dragons? The female dragons probably wouldn't actively attack me, but they wouldn't help me either. The situation remained the same: I was the only one.
——This was a no-win situation, no matter what hand I took.
So, it would be best to withdraw...
I still couldn't let go of my doubts.
I was the most powerful member of this group. And at the end of the day, I was grateful for having them as my friends for the past 10 years. I thought my powers were meant to help my pack members, but...
As I was unable to make up my mind, the male dragons around me roared intimidation.
"Ugghhhhhhhhh!"
"Grrrrrrrrrr!!"
And then one of them bit me on the arm.
——With a strangely calm mind, I stared at my friend who was biting into my arm.
His face, illuminated by the light of the lightning, looked both insane and incredibly calm.
...Ah, I'm sure my companions know very well what they're doing, and the consequences.
If that's the case, there's no point in me staying here. They didn't need my protection.
I flicked my tail, knocking away the creature that had bitten into my arm, and looked up at the sky. The warm rain dripping down on my body felt like a tangled snake.
——Look, it's raining again. Bad things always happen on rainy days.
With a flick of my wings, I soared high into the air. In an instant, my fellow dragons became as tiny as grains of wheat. I looked at the dragons, my friends whom I would never see again, and roared once.
"GROOOOOOOOOOAAARRRRR!!"
——Goodbye. Thank you. And take care.
...We had been together for 10 years, but our separation was instantaneous. I didn't feel any sympathy for any of the dragons—not even for me. Maybe because I was a monster, I didn't have much affection for my companions. I felt no emotion when I said goodbye to my companions who I'd been with for 10 years. I didn't even feel a shred of pain when I said goodbye to my twin brother and mother. To think that I no longer felt any pain or discomfort about being betrayed or knowing that we would never see each other again...
I decided to head north. At the northernmost tip of the continent lied the Blackpeak Mountain, home to vicious monsters. Now that I was alone, it seemed like the perfect place for me.
——And so, I arrived at the Blackpeak Mountain, where I spent nearly a thousand years.
The Black Dragon's lifespan was at most 500 years, so it was unusual for one to live for a thousand years. I was sure when I inherited my former leader's power, he also inherited the time that he should have lived.
And so, a thousand years passed, and at the moment when I thought my death was drawing near, miraculously, I gave birth to myself.
What was born was small and weak...but also beautiful and black...yes, a black dragon.
The "Black Dragon" was said to exist only in legends.
——That was me.