I Raised A Black Dragon

“It’s done, right? The day ends with this. Since this place isn’t all that appropriate.”

“…I was thinking that I should not let you come to the Protection Bureau anymore, Noah. Things don’t work out when you’re around.”

“Oh… right. Then since I can’t be here, should I go home? I have to check the trial preparations one last time. You said there's a chance that Adrian could end up being released,” said Noah.

“I’ve already finished typing. Now all that’s left for me to do is leave it up to God.”

“Oh, and the list of nobles who filed a petition regarding Adrian's arrest, you said you would let me pick…”

“I’ve already picked them. Though I’m not sure what I’m going to use them for.”

“…then take a shower and go to bed early. Separately, of course.”

“If you go to sleep now, won’t you wake up at dawn? You are sensitive and sleep well only when the temperature and humidity are perfectly set. And you thought I wouldn’t know that you and Muell went out to the garden last night because you couldn’t sleep?” Kyle asked.

Noah tried to win by any means but couldn’t find words to retort. Someone had said that Kyle Leonard was celibate. She wiggled her body to get away from him.

“Still, I don’t want to go to sleep. The people in the Protection Bureau keep looking at me strangel—”

“Who looks at you like that? Tell me. I’ll send them away, either by business trip or demotion.”

“…you’re joking, right?”

Not at all. A General, who considers his work his life, is not someone to say this even as a joke! He smiled at her suspicious look and said, "You made me this way. Naturally, you have to take responsibility if you do something.”

“What kind of responsibi—”

“Just once.”

Within five minutes of her deciding that she would not get caught up in anything today, a crisis occurred. When she bit her lip stubbornly, he made a low groan. His voice displayed his impatience.

“Oh… why are you making me so eager? I’ve even said this before, but don’t rebel; I’ll let you go if you just let me kiss you once.”

Usually, this man who never speaks in this voice to anyone makes such passionate eyes only when he is with her. Even though she tried to avoid it because it was unfamiliar and embarrassing, he approached her persistently, little by little.

Eventually, today was another day that she’d surrender. Noah mumbled quietly as she glanced at the doorstep.

“If you promise to leave quickly.”

It was a condition, but even they both knew that they were truly meaningless words. The arms that hugged her body closely, his impatient but polite lips, and the sense of him rushing in as always were firm.

The trial date was the next morning.

***

The mood of the courtroom was heavy. Glancing at the clock, it was 8:40 a.m. After it started there were around ten minutes left before the defendant appeared.

The trial was planned to proceed in a much different way than the last one Noah had been involved in. Her trial had been held to be formally visible to the public, so she had kissed the Ministry of Justice’s butt in advance, but this time it was different.

The defendant was the minister who had led Laurent's Ministry of Magic for as long as five years. Noah clicked her tongue after reading the list of Adrian Rossinell’s personal information and work history she’d received from Kyle.

“He really is a genius. At the age of fifteen, he graduated from the Royal Academy early and was scouted first in the Ministry of Magic… I can't believe he borrowed money as soon as he became an adult.”

In the nearly 20 years when Laurent's magical history began to roll again, Adrian's stake in the Ministry of Magic's achievements list was second only to Eleonora. His most representative achievement was the formula that proved the rules of flow of magic dissolved in nature. Without this formula, Eleonora could not have been able to design automatic machines of raw magic.

Noah sat in the observation hall and swiped through the document that showed the order of progress. Then, when she saw the two-word sentence that Kyle had written down, she clicked her tongue.

“So cold-hearted…”

Well, he had nagged at her and Muell, but obviously, there was no blood or tears when working. She shouldn't hate Kyle for the rest of her life.

As she decided this one more time, she checked the witnesses of the trial. And she slipped her name under the names of the witnesses appointed by Adrian's lawyer. Noah Park.

Next to her, Muell breathed a spell into her handwriting. The documents flew up smoothly and disappeared. Now, all the documents with the same content will contain Noah’s name that she had inserted.

Someone next to her said something:

“W-welcome, dragon master.”

Turning her head in surprise, there was an unfamiliar face looking at her, a middle-aged man. Whether he was afraid of something, beads of sweat dotted his forehead.

Noah spent a few seconds wondering who he was before remembering his identity after seeing him frantically fix his wig that slipped down to the right side of his face due to the sweat. Laurent’s Secretary of Treasure. The one who had picked a fight with her when she arrived in Tezeba.

Noah briefly replied.

“Oh, right. Hello.”

She thought he’d be on his way if she replied casually, but he seemed like he wanted to say something to her. After only fidgeting his lips for a long time he barely managed to blurt something out.