Don’t Run Away My Lord

1 – Dragon of the Human Continent (1)

South Great Ocean.

It leisurely crossed the endless expanse of the vast sea with its six wide-spread wings.

The toxic steam that flowed from its wings trailed behind me like a long tail, and the sea surface beneath my feet split apart, creating a magnificent spectacle.

Thousands of rays leaped out of the water in surprise, creating a simultaneous display.

It was truly a beautiful sight.

I am Eurga Duk, the Black Dragon.

The successor of ‘Lord,’ the leader of the Black Dragon lineage.

Escaping from the suffocating confinement of my habitat, I am now on my way to find freedom in the human world.

* * * * *

Flying at a rapid speed, the sea suddenly disappeared, revealing the sight of land.

This place… is the continent of humans and various species.

I heard that this place had a very diverse natural environment… But why is everything so yellow and brown?

Perhaps this area is a desert after all.

The continent is so vast, with deserts, jungles, and polar regions. It must be quite diverse.

In my heart, I wanted to find a place where humans could live, but there is no time for that.

Immediately, I lowered my head, tucked my wings tightly against my body, and began a vertical descent as if I were plummeting.

In the blink of an eye, the desert was right in front of me.

In a precarious moment, just before colliding with the surface, I vigorously flapped my wings and attempted an abrupt stop.

With the rough flapping, a sandstorm erupted from the ground in an instant.

After a while, when the sandstorm that obscured my vision dispersed, I looked down at my body.

Instead of jet-black scales and sharp claws, I saw the arms and legs of a human, with fair and pale skin.

I moved my arms and legs around, and fortunately, it seemed that there were no major hindrances to my movements.

I thought I would lose my balance without a tail, but surprisingly, the human body seemed to be quite harmoniously designed.

I touched my head and instead of horns, I felt soft hair in my hands.

When I pulled it in front of my eyes, it was the same dark black hair as the rest of my body.

I haven’t checked, but I’m guessing my eye color is similar too.

Great. The first polymorph. Successful.

I looked up at the sky that was just above me.

I saw a strange sight of a transparent liquid rapidly undulating and spreading from side to side.

It is a peculiar phenomenon caused by the waves of magic that cannot be seen with the naked eye but can be sensed with intuition.

It’s like a current caused by a powerful magic disrupting the flow of magic in this area.

Our clan’s detection magic is creating chaos in the sky, shooting back and forth.

Finally, it seems they have crossed the sea and made it to the continent.

It looks like everyone is going through a hard time trying to find me, who escaped from our habitat.

If I had flown a little longer outside the desert, I would have been detected without a doubt.

Because I would be caught by the detection magic if I were in my original form.

Unless it’s an extremely urgent situation, it’s best to avoid returning to my original form as much as possible.

I’ve worked so hard to escape from the habitat, I can’t be captured again.

Standing at the top of the sand dune, I looked at the sun and roughly determined the direction.

There is nothing but an endless sea to the south, except for our habitat. If I go north, I will come across human cities.

Let’s escape from the overcrowded and controlled habitat and go to the human world.

I will build my nest there and enjoy freedom.

With a light heart, I slid down the sand dune like a slide.

The heat of the collapsing and swirling sand and the warm breeze were pleasant.

In this vast desert, there is only me, and nothing can break my will to go where I want.

No one can stop me.

It was a few hours later when I first encountered humans.

* * * * *

Just as I was crossing another sand dune, I saw something moving below.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a procession of several humans riding camels and several large carriages.

It was such a relief to see something moving for the first time in hours.

“Hey!”

Calling out to them, I jumped down the slope of the sand dune.

The humans riding on camels looked at me and started whispering among themselves.

“What the hell is that crazy bastard doing?”

“What should I do?”

Until they reached the bottom of the sand dune, the humans stood there in the same spot, just staring at me.

They must have been quite taken aback by my sudden appearance without even wearing clothes.

“Where are you going? Can you give me a ride on your carriage? I can’t seem to find my way at all.”

Humans with dark skin and cloth wrapped around their heads slowly approached me, urging the camels forward.

Some of them had their hands on the hilt of their curved swords, as if they were about to draw them at any moment.

“I don’t know. But based on his appearance, he looks like a northern boy.”

I couldn’t understand their language at all, so I had to communicate with gestures.

When I kept pointing to the carriage, the humans looked at each other with expressions of not understanding.

After a brief conversation in their foreign language, one of the humans pointed at the carriage with his thumb.

It seemed to mean that I could ride it.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I can cross the desert comfortably.”

As a gesture of gratitude, I raised my hand, but the humans just nodded their heads or shrugged their shoulders.

I passed through them and went to the carriage.

The carriage was a large one with a cover, and several of them were lined up behind me.

They must be carrying something to sell.

As I lifted the cover and entered the baggage compartment, a pungent smell of sweat hit my nose.

The intense gaze of the people, tightly packed into wooden chairs on both sides of the compartment, all turned towards me.

They had the same dark skin as the people riding camels, and their eyes were equally stern and sharp.

One of the men carrying a knife approached the compartment and handed me a chain.

What is this…

Now I noticed that the others sitting beside me also had chains in their hands.

With the clamor from outside, the carriage began to sway and move.

Upon seeing me, the people immediately lowered their gazes to the ground.

Could it be… No matter how I look at it, it seems to be that.

What was it called… Suddenly, I couldn’t remember the word…

Ah, right. Slavery.

That strange system where people of the same race buy and sell and exploit each other.

I see. I’ve become a slave with my own two feet.

But for now, I managed to meet the people and get on the carriage, so let’s wait for a moment.

I don’t know how far we’ll go, but at least it’s certain that we won’t go back to the sea.

Once we’re out of the desert, I’ll ask them to let me off at a suitable place along the way.

And if they refuse? I’ll make sure they let me off.

“Excuse me…!”

At that moment, I heard a language that I could understand coming from somewhere.

I looked around, and someone at the diagonal corner of the compartment was waving their hand at me.

“Excuse me! Over here! Here!”

Amongst the humans with dark brown skin, there was a particularly white female… No, woman, who was looking at me.

With her cute gestures, the woman with dark brown hair motioned for me to come towards her.

Overjoyed at finally meeting a human who could speak my language, I abandoned my dragon dignity and quickly stood up, heading towards her.

“Finally, I’ve encountered a human I can communicate with.”

As I sat down in front of the woman, she began speaking in a whisper.

“Are you from the Verafche Kingdom?”

“Verafche? No. What is that?”

“Oh, then you must be from somewhere else. I thought you were from that side since you’re using the common language.”

“No, I came from the south.”

“The south…? But that’s just an empty sea…”

The woman rolled her large brown eyes, deep in thought.

“Hmm… If you’re a race with black hair and black eyes coming from the south, where could you possibly be from…”

While the woman muttered to herself, I calmly observed her.

Dressed in clothes covered in sand, the woman was considerably shorter compared to other humans.

Despite her small stature, her thighs and stomach seemed slightly plump, resembling a ripe fruit.

But compared to her height, her chest was incredibly large, enough to rest on her knees when slightly leaning forward.

Carrying such weight around, her shoulders and back must not be able to withstand it.

Nevertheless, humans breastfeed and raise their offspring, so having a large chest must be advantageous.

“But why did you ride the carriage by yourself? Did you perhaps get heatstroke and lose your mind?”

I lost my way and couldn’t escape the desert no matter what. Thankfully, there were humans passing by, so I hitched a ride on their carriage, hoping to reach the city.

“Oh…?! So you hopped onto this carriage without even knowing what it is?”

The woman stared at me with a bewildered expression.

“I didn’t know, so I got on. But even if I did know, I would have still gotten on. I had to go to the city anyway.”

“Well… what a situation…”

Suddenly, the cover of the luggage compartment lifted, and the person riding the camel shouted.

I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but they pointed at me with a whip in their hand, as if telling me to go back to my seat.

“Hurry up. Unless you want to be whipped.”

“We’ll talk again when we arrive at our destination.”

“If there’s a situation to talk about.”

As I returned to my seat, the human grumbled and closed the cover.

What’s their problem, this brat.

* * * * *

The carriage continued moving.

Inside the luggage compartment, where the desert heat couldn’t escape, it was quite hot, and all the humans were in a miserable state.

As for me, I had a tolerance for this kind of heat, so it wasn’t much of a problem.

The woman who had spoken to me earlier was quietly moving around the luggage compartment, doing something.