Chapter 33
“Agh, they said the father stabbed his daughter with a knife, set the place on fire, and ran away!”
“They say only the little sister managed to escape?”
Rozian looked around with a pained expression.
“At this rate, people are in danger… Lady Jaina? Lady Jaina!”
Jaina dashed straight into the flames. Rozian shouted after her, but she didn’t care.
“Lady Jaina!”
Inside the burning building, black smoke clouded her vision, and the constant coughing made it hard to stay conscious. But Jaina hadn’t run in recklessly.
As soon as she entered, she began covering the flames with a shroud of darkness. When the oxygen was cut off, the fire gradually began to die down.
“Ugh…”
After doing that several times, her body began to feel the strain.
She closed her eyes tightly and muttered to herself—
‘It’s fine. I’m a dragon.’
She hypnotized herself with those words. But Jaina was still an unawakened young dragon, and in human form besides.
She was in a situation where her life was in real danger, but she refused to acknowledge it.
‘Even if it’s dangerous, I couldn’t just ignore it.’
It wasn’t logic that had driven her here. It was instinct.
“They say the father stabbed his daughter with a knife, set the house on fire, and ran away!”
Why the fire started. Who had collapsed inside.
The moment she heard what had happened, her body had moved on its own—
—because it reminded her of her past life as Min Boba.
And because, just like that girl, she too had once been destined to die, abandoned by her father.
“P-please, help…”
There was no one on the first floor, but when she climbed higher, she could sense faint traces of life.
Whoosh!
But just as she tried to go up the stairs, the flames surged up again. The wooden steps looked dangerously unstable.
As soon as she stepped on them, she heard them cracking beneath her. They could collapse any moment.
After a brief hesitation, Jaina drew on her magic to lighten her weight as much as possible, then carefully climbed upward.
At the top floor, she finally found the people who hadn’t managed to escape.
“Everyone, please wake up!”
No matter how she shook them, they wouldn’t respond.
‘They’ve all lost consciousness.’
They had clearly inhaled too much smoke.
‘Time’s running out.’
She looked around, but there was no clear way out.
Except for the small patch of floor wet from spilled water, everything else was in flames.
‘Magic alone won’t do it…’
The only reason she hadn’t lost consciousness herself was thanks to her magic. But that same magic couldn’t save these people.
Healing power could only be used through divine energy—through the power of the gods.
“…”
Then Jaina’s eyes caught sight of a little girl bleeding out, dying before her eyes.
Crash!
At the same time, a burning pillar collapsed, blocking the exit.
‘There’s no way out now…’
Jaina bit her lip hard. There was only one thing left to do.
She pulled a holy relic from her subspace pouch and placed her hand on it.
As she infused it with mana, divine energy began to flow out from the vessel.
She kept her hand there for a while, eyes closed, until she felt her body filling with power. Then she stood and began channeling energy into the fallen people.
‘Is this… the right way to do it?’
Jaina had no idea how to properly use healing magic—it was something only priests could wield.
But the relic, imbued with the prayers of countless dragons, allowed her to roughly imitate that divine power.
Thanks to the relic’s influence, the ancient Dragon Tongue—a language only accessible to those who had awakened—slipped from her mouth.
Flash!
A radiant light burst from her body, wrapping the burning mansion in its glow.
‘It’s my first time using healing magic… but it seems to be working.’
She wasn’t sure how, but the healing was successful.
Still, her poor control over mana caused far greater exhaustion than expected. Even with the relic’s help, one use of magic nearly drained her completely.
‘No time—need to get out before I run dry.’
Jaina bit her lip again.
Her human form began to grow larger. It had been a long time since she’d transformed.
Vwooom.
A dragon’s scales were tough and heat-resistant; the flames could not harm her.
With great effort, she lifted the unconscious people in her claws. Then, tearing through the burning roof, she took to the skies.
The building was gone, but in front of its ruins, people were full of life.
“Melissa, you’re safe!”
“I thought you were dead, sis…”
Families and friends embraced the loved ones they never thought they’d see again. Among them was even the girl everyone believed had been stabbed to death.
“Oh, poor thing, I thought you were gone—but you made it back!”
“What a curse, having such a father… Still, thank heavens you’re alive.”
Watching from afar, Izren quietly took in the scene.
‘Who would’ve guessed that tiny girl was a dragon.’
His sharp senses detected faint dragon energy emanating from the shattered fragments of the relic.
‘Healing magic, huh.’
Healing was supposed to be the exclusive domain of priests. Yet that unawakened young dragon had clearly used it before his eyes.
‘So that impossible feat was thanks to the relic.’
After piecing things together, Izren returned to the Mage Tower to report to Diamid.
Though Izren didn’t speak the Empire’s language well, Diamid was fluent in many tongues and understood him easily.
“He seems to have known Prince Rozian for some time. It was difficult to track him once he entered the palace, but after he left, I managed to find him again using the device you gave me, Tower Master.”
Izren held out the relic fragment.
“When the building caught fire, Lady Jaina used this relic to save and heal the trapped people.”
“She… healed them? Are you certain?”
Diamid’s voice wavered. A relic was an incredibly rare treasure, even among dragons. And yet she had sacrificed it to save humans?
“Yes, sir.”
Izren himself was just as bewildered.
A small girl, younger than she looked, running into a fire to save strangers.
Even as an unawakened dragon, she was only slightly stronger than an adult human. One wrong move, and she could’ve died too.
And still—she hadn’t hesitated.
Not even for a second.
“…”
Diamid fell silent. Outwardly, his expression was unchanged, but inwardly, he was shaken.
Until now, he’d believed Jaina to be a spy sent by the dragons—someone who approached him with an ulterior motive.
But now, she had abandoned a priceless relic—something that could benefit dragonkind—to save humans, even throwing herself into the fire to do so.
It didn’t make sense.
Every dragon he’d ever met treated humans like insects. Yet the girl called “Jaina”… she was clearly different.
“Whether dragon or human, all life has equal worth. The desire to live is the same for everyone.”
Before long, Diamid found himself seeing the shadow of someone he had once loved.
Bezritche… Before she betrayed him, she too had cherished humans.
She had always been the first to act when it came to saving lives—more devoted than even he was.
“Bezritche, why did you, of all dragons, take it upon yourself to slay the Demon King?”
“Because it was my choice. I didn’t care if I died.”
Bezritche had always seemed detached from the world, calm, unshakable. Just like Jaina.
“But then I met you—and suddenly, I didn’t want to die anymore.”
That smile of hers…
Of course, it had all been a lie. She had used him completely, then discarded him.
But still… if her logic was true, then that half-dragon girl also valued others’ lives over her own.
Now that it was clear Jaina wasn’t a spy, Diamid didn’t know how to treat her.
‘If she isn’t an agent of the dragons… then why did she come to the Mage Tower at all?’
She must’ve known she’d never be accepted here. So why leave her kin behind and come to him?
After a long silence, Diamid finally spoke.
“Izren. I have a task for you.”
“Why would you do that!”
Having heard the full story from Rozian, Michael exploded in anger.
“This time, I can’t take your side. You ran into a burning building to save a few people?!”
“…”
“Are you insane? Even a dragon can die if they rush into flames like that!”
“I knew it was dangerous. That’s why I did it.”
“What?”
“There were people trapped inside.”
Jaina’s voice was quiet.
“If one of me getting hurt means saving many others, isn’t that efficient?”
“Efficient? You leave danger to the grown-ups! Why would a child like you—”
“Because I was the strongest there.”
“Even so—your own life matters more! Why would you risk it for others?”
“…Why not?”
“What?”
Jaina lowered her head.
If she was destined to die at a dragon’s claws anyway, wasn’t it better to choose her own end?
If she was going to die miserably, then saving lives before she went didn’t seem so bad.
Michael’s words didn’t make sense to her. Still, she softened her expression and replied—
“I’m sorry. I was too careless.”
Because, in the end, she was grateful that he cared enough to be angry.
“Honestly, you…”
But Michael wasn’t done.
“So you say you understand, but I can tell you don’t actually regret it!”
His anger wasn’t going to fade anytime soon.
“Jaina, tell me it’s not true!”
And then Hilvenzia joined in, equally upset.
But Rozian, unlike the others, neither scolded Jaina nor defended her.
He just watched her quiet profile—the fragile, trembling look on her face.
Because it reminded him of the promise he had once made to his mother.
