In the vast clear blue sky, a small figure was spotted flying with a pair of dark wings made of magic. It was a cloaked little boy with both hands in his pockets, exhibiting a relaxed figure. His lazy black eyes, which looked like they could devour anything, focused on the gigantic mountain below.
He could see a large hole leading to a cave without going through the mountain. The entrance was in plain sight; anyone passing by would be able to see it. But only a few would dare enter because it was a restricted dragon's lair. It was like the position of the hole was created intentionally to show the world where it was.
"What an arrogant dragon." The boy smiled at the thought of killing it with his own hands and witnessing the look of despair on the dragon.
Flapping his magic wings, he sped up and landed in seconds in front of the entrance. He withdrew his wings and entered the cave. It was pitch-black inside but wasn't a feat for the boy. He walked forward without hesitating like he could see everything despite the darkness.
He whistled in boredom until he was deep enough for the dragon to roar in his direction as a sign of warning.
However, the boy continued with a deaf ear to the roaring dragon.
"You intruder! Leave this place immediately, or this shall be the end of you!" The voice echoed loudly throughout the cave.
"You fool! So young yet so foolish. Beyond this shall be your death."
Unfortunately, no matter how much the dragon warned, the boy remained unperturbed.
The darkness gradually died out, and it was the light's turn to shine. Before the boy was heaps of gold coins, gems and all sorts of shiny objects piling up everywhere, and the ground could barely be seen. This proved that hoarding treasures was one of the dragon's main traits.
A lake was in the middle of the domain; above it was a hole where sunlight shone through. Next to the lake was a red dragon lying on a bed of gold coins. Its golden eyes were fierce, it was undoubtedly furious at the intruder who refused to leave, and it was a mere human boy at that.
It was a strange situation; the boy stood in front of it so fearlessly.
"Tell me. What is your purpose for coming here, human child?"
"Hm..." His mouth slowly turned from a straight line to a disturbing smile. "To kill you, of course."
This exclamation was absurdly audacious to the point that the dragon couldn't laugh at it. No humans had come here to kill it for years, but now a little human child was standing in front of it.
The dragon opened its large jaw to blow out a breath of fire at the boy, a fire a hundred times bigger than the boy.
"Daring to come here to kill a dragon when you are but a human child. I can never understand the minds of humans... The ignorance!" The dragon roared but halted midway through when it noticed the boy was still standing unscathed.
"What?! How is that possible? For being such a young mage, how can you be so powerful?"
Mages were people who wielded magic and weren't uncommon, but for a young boy to survive its fire was rare—no, it shouldn't be possible unless...
"Who knows?" The boy shrugged his shoulders.
The dragon narrowed its sharp eyes, ready to spit out a more robust fire. It didn't matter what the boy's identity was; he was going to perish anyway.
It was only then that the dragon felt something was amiss.
A light chuckle escaped the boy's mouth. He watched as the dragon attempted to move but was incapable. The creature grasped the connection with the human, and the thought of the possibility only angered it further.
"What kind of deceitful trick is this! What did you do?!" Whilst the dragon couldn't move its jaw to speak, it could still use telepathy to convey its messages; it was one of the dragon's innate skills.
It didn't know why its body was unable to move. Dragons were immune to magic, so such a thing couldn't restrain it.
The boy took out an empty vial no larger than his hand and showed it off. "Ah, you mean this? It's a newly developed poison that can immobilise a dragon. Isn't that just convenient?"
He didn't expect it to work out well since the poison hadn't been tested before, and he didn't know how long its effectiveness would last. So long as he was able to kill the dragon before it could move again, everything would go smoothly.
If it didn't get cheated and poisoned by a lesser being, it would've easily crushed the deceitful human bastard and devoured him without a problem. How could a dragon lose this quickly? Especially to a human child. It had never happened before throughout history.
However, the poison was incredible and terrifying. It could only lie still and do nothing but watch as the little mage was about to deliver its death.
When did that bastard even manage to pour it onto its body?! As expected of humans, they really were a treacherous species!
"You imbecile, daring to attack a dragon! Do you know my identity? The shame I have received, I shall reci—dark magic?! No, wait, this aura...this aura!!!"
That human child couldn't be him! If he was, why didn't he recognise it? He wouldn't be here to kill it if he knew! No, he couldn't kill it. After all, it was his...
"No, it can't be right. Impossible! The contract... How?! You are——ARRGH!"
The next thing that happened was a dragon's head laying on top of the gold coins, detached from its enormous body, and the black sword wielded by the boy who had beheaded the dragon with it had dispersed. Just like that, a powerful ancient being was slain. The coins were soon covered in thick, glittery red liquid.
"What a chatterbox."
After collecting the dragon's blood, the young mage ate its body, not leaving a single shred of bone behind. It wasn't only to erase the traces but also to increase his strength. Since it was a high-ranked dragon, it gave him a significant profit for his growth. He could already feel that his power had been enhanced.
He looked back at the spot he killed the dragon.
Not only did the dragon have a temper, but it also didn't act like the typically arrogant and wise dragon type. It was easy to defeat too. To think that it was one of the last dragons alive, a high rank one on top of that.
How did it even survive for this long?
Something told him something wasn't right. Perhaps the poison was just that strong? Either way, he got his job done, so it didn't matter if the dragon seemed strange.
Just as the boy was about to leave the place, the shimmering clear water in the lake caught his eyes. Something glistened under a specific spot in the lake; it had a black shine. The black starkly contrasted with the clear blue water; it was hard to miss. He could somehow perceive the cause of it—which appeared to be a book. Rolling his sleeve, he dipped his arm in the lake to pick up the object.
The light was coming from the black gemstone on the white leathered cover. The book was relatively thick, and it was more so heavy after being soaked in water. The boy dried it with his magic, and the book looked like it never got wet in the first place. The light only disappeared once he opened the book, and what greeted him was the handwritten title on the first page.
[Eislyn's Diary].
The handwriting was undignified and crooked, inferring that a child likely wrote it.
Raising a brow at it, the boy flipped to the next page and immediately became alarmed at the sight. The longer he looked at it, the more he saw letters appearing one after another like someone was writing on it in real time.
The language was different from the ones the current world knew. They were archaic words long forgotten by people. However, it couldn't be said the same for the boy with the knowledge.
"This language..." The boy's face turned serious. This peculiar magical book was strange, and it was not a spellbook.
It was a child's diary.
He read the content of the page at the same time the words were revealing themselves until it completely stopped.
"What's this?" His expression was weird after he finished reading it. There were unfamiliar words such as 'pineapple' and 'ananas', which he presumed the two words to be used interchangeably, looking at the way the child addressed them. He had never heard of this type of fruit before. Nonetheless, it was just an emotional child who was writing nonsense. There was nothing important and valuable to him or anyone at all.
Yet, he couldn't leave behind the book from an unknown source written in one of the archaic languages by a ten-year-old child.
Who exactly was the child, and what was the book?
He didn't have the answers to those questions but could solve the mystery. He would surely find something from the book's content if he kept it with him.
There should be another book connecting to the one in his hands, and whatever the other was writing on it would appear on the one he had. It was suspected to be the same for him if a transmission magic spell was indeed cast on the books.
Since the child had just begun their diary, more would be unveiled as time passed.
The boy looked at the drawings around the writing and couldn't help but comment on them. "So ugly."
He shut the book and left the mountain with the dragon's blood that was requested from him.
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