A witch, roaming around the market, eyed an egg dumped in the corner of a street.

“These would be good enough for at least five days,” she thought as she picked the unusually large egg, tenfold of its original size, up.

Enthused by such luck, the witch hurried home to treat herself with some fillet.

“…..”

Expecting only a big yellow yolk and its whites, the witch was greeted instead with a creature wrapped in a thin film of fluid.  It was a creature with scaly skin, a tail, a jagged jaw with rows of teeth, and spinal nodes running down its back. The beast wriggled inside the egg, forcing the shell to collapse completely.

Unable to comprehend the situation, the witch simply stared blankly at it.

“Huh.”

Only then did it occur to her that the beast was none other than a dragon: a legendary creature that appeared briefly during the days of the Old Goblin Era and disappeared since then. Now, merely a decoration at the back of an encyclopedia.

There are numerous stories about how yolks and egg whites of a chicken egg explode from within; it can also happen to quails. Such thing is common knowledge.

But who would believe a story of a person who, upon cracking open an egg, encounters a baby dragon instead?

***

Park Noah. Isn’t it a name of a commoner? Ironically, her life was not at all ordinary.

She had been sucked into a novel, caught in a romance fantasy of another world. When she died from overwork, she wandered into a different world. The knowledge of the world and of the body she occupied instantly assimilating into her own.

She became the supporting character in the novel—a villain born solely to indulge in evilness. The witch’s name is Eleonora Asil. However, despite being powerful enough to surpass the world’s strongest position, her sovereignty soon plummeted as the protagonists defeated her.

Eleonora, who hid against her enemies, unfortunately, died without anyone knowing, which means that Park Noah, who reincarnated as the witch, will take responsibility for Eleonora’s actions.

However, wanting to live as she pleases, the new Eleonora had no intention, by all means, to be involved with the novel’s plot, which she had managed to do for the last two years.

“Why did this little dragon have to appear before me?” she muttered.

The beast, unfit to be food, was washed clean and wrapped in a blanket. Distraught, Eleonora could only look at the dragon desperately flapping its wings.

The witch let out a deep sigh.

The dragon was supposed to be the pet of the heroine, and also Eleonora’s death. According to the plot, the heroine, Lenia, was to pick up the eggs and imprint on the dragon that come out of it. Instead, the witch had broken the egg first.

Noah clicked her tongue, in deep thought of what to do with the lost beast.

“Why did you come to the wrong person, child?”

I’d better return the dragon, right? How ironic. I didn’t want any involvement from this.

The next day, Noah sent the dragon, safely wrapped in a blanket inside a cage, to the capital by special delivery. The recipient, the heroine, Countess Lenia Valtalere. The sender, of course, unknown. Soon, the witch was informed that the delivery was complete.

Noah attempted to calm her nerves, anxious for any mishap to occur.

“Everything will be fine, Nora. Things would be the way they were exactly before. My peaceful life will remain as it is!” the witch convinced herself.

Or so she thought.

***

“What?!”

“…..”

Noah woke up to the sight of the baby dragon, which she supposedly returned, flapping its wings in front of the fireplace.

Bewildered, her mouth agape. Am I dreaming? She pulled her nightcap down and forcibly rubbed her eyes to test if the beast was merely an illusion.

As she removed the nightcap from her eyes, the dragon was nowhere to be seen.

“Oh.”

Noah let out a sigh of relief. She fixed her nightcap, intending to sleep again. The room had become chilly, she thought, so Noah snapped her fingers, and the flames grew big.

“Okay…I’m going back to sleep.” She muttered and returned to her bed.

Suddenly, Noah felt a tug. “Huh?”

There it is! The baby dragon was clutching the ends of her nightgown.

“…..” Hesitant, Noah pretended not to see the dragon and shifted her step. Unfortunately, her gown stretched into a tear.

My polka-dot nightgown. This set was a limited edition of the Frill Happy Night’s Wardrobe, which I paid much for! This was my favorite…

She glanced at the creature again. This time, there was sympathy in her eyes.

The baby dragon’s mouth relaxed. Once she secured the condition of her gown, with a wave of her hand, the blanket that had been placed in front of the fireplace flew like Aladdin’s magic carpet. Then, she wrapped the dragon tightly with it.

The baby dragon cooed.

“Whoops.”

It’s my victory.

Noah smiled contentedly, shaking her hands off.

If there is one thing I benefited from this body, it is her magical ability.

Eleonora was a witch who possessed magical powers powerful enough to be branded as the most wicked villain. Also, an infamous inventor of magical items.

Currently, Park Noah owns the body of Eleonora. Hence, she could not perform the deceased witch’s magic perfectly. But, her talent in inventing magical items remained as it is.

With merely a flick of a hand, she could control the flames or make her opponents fly and fall. A 100-year-old automatic bazooka that persistently harasses the heroines in a novel or a machete that pokes the opponent’s vital parts as long as you set up a target would be easy.

The great witch, Eleonora, kept a record of instructions for everything, which was very convenient for Park Noah, who couldn’t memorize everything at one go.

In short, she has control over everything in her house.

It’s a piece of cake to subdue a baby dragon!

Meanwhile, the baby dragon wrapped securely in a blanket, tottered away. He staggered and eventually fell to his side. The blanket slid off, revealing a pair of big swollen eyes, brimming with tears.

The dragon hiccupped. The fragile humanness underneath the witch’s apathetic facade was moved, her conscience attacked.

“Eh…What am I going to do with this little guy…”

Eleonora eventually gave in to its cuteness and found herself crouching in front of the dragon. She scooped the dragon into her arms and removed the blanket that was almost suffocating it.

Only then did she notice how big, compared to yesterday when it just came out of its egg, the dragon has already become. Just the day before, the dragon was all wrinkly and couldn’t even open its eyes. Now, its skin is tight, and its eyes wide open.

Eleonora tickled the dragon under its moist chin.

“Baby.”

The dragon cooed.

“Were you shipped to the wrong address?”

I must have written the wrong address. Was it returned, then? The distance from Sorrent, where I am, to the capital of Tezeba, however, takes about five days to get back and forth, even with the fastest delivery service.

What happened?

Surely, I put the dragon in a cage and secured its lock so it won’t open. Even if it was unlocked…

Noah looked down and observed the thin fluttering wings of the baby dragon.

This thing can hardly walk properly, how much more fly? It seemed something had gone wrong, and the package was returned before it even arrived in the capital.

Still, she wondered how the baby dragon entered her house. Maybe the door was open, she thought.

Worn out, Noah tried to clear her mind with the mind-boggling questions and kindly patted the dragon’s head. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you return to your rightful mother.”

After rummaging her warehouse, Noah brought out an expensive, quality cage that is larger, softer, and stronger. She also grabbed a bottle, washed it clean, and filled it with warm milk to ease the baby dragon’s hunger and quench its thirst on the way.

“Yes, is this the post office?”

Noah turned the telephone on and connected to the post office and applied for a premium express delivery service with an especially doubled amount. The shipping map this time was confirmed correctly:

The capital, Tezeba, No. 35 in Ezet, the Countess Valtalere.

“Keee!” The cage shook as the dragon twisted and turned inside. Noah was clueless.

“Baby! Just a little! Hang in there!”

The dragon wailed.

“This time, we’ll be in the capital in two days! Understand?”

Tears welled up in the baby dragon’s dark, red eyes. Her heart sank at the sight. Noah hesitated for a while but eventually opened the lid of the cage slightly.

“This is something I treasure, and I am giving it to you.”

Noah placed her nightcap on the dragon’s head, handed it the bottle, and closed the cage.

Goodbye, my limited edition nightcap. Goodbye, sweet child who almost disrupted my peaceful life. Go to your mother and grow up full of love!

***

The next morning, Noah woke up in high spirits, satisfied. The dragon gone; peace and quiet remain. She hummed her way to the kitchen and prepared for herself a cup of tea.

Today will be another day of peace, she thought, almost skipping in delight.Until a clonk was heard from the window.

There she caught the little dragon, sneaking its way in.

Again, the dragon was wrapped up and sent. It wasn’t until the third time that Eleonora realized that the damn little dragon had no intention of leaving her.

I don’t think I will go to the female lead myself. I don’t know what this dragon did, but he must have destroyed the cage and flown all the way to this place!

By that time, Eleonora, who was sweet at first, became more hostile toward the dragon.

“Hey, dragon.” She called the little dragon who had settled down in front of the fireplace.

The smart creature pretended not to hear her call, now that he knew he’d be tied up to the cage again.

The dragon had grown immensely for just a couple of days. Only yesterday, it had already worn out its forearms; the wings also changed from vinyl-like film to steel-glass-like rigid wings.

Do dragons grow this fast? she asked herself.

The witch became more anxious.

According to the novel, when a dragon reaches the incubation period, it begins to develop an attachment to human beings. Among them, he finds his favorite human and does what he calls ‘inscription’. Imprinting is an essential process for dragons, beings of other worlds, to exist properly on earth.

Obviously, from what I read, the heroine, Lenia, makes a personal vow with the dragon within a month after hatching the dragon. And the dragon, imprinting on the host, humanizes itself as a boy.

A month. Actually, it’s enough time to send him back or whatever. But why am I so anxious?

Today, there is one thing that is entirely different from the last five days.

“Hey!”

A child with black curly hair and dark red eyes walked toward me. He was a little boy who is now about two or three years old.

What on earth?

The baby dragon has already humanized itself.

What does this mean? Has the dragon already imprinted on me?  Eleanora slapped her hand on her forehead.

 “…no!”

The witch grabbed her nightcap and screamed at the child, holding onto her calf. “No, no, no!”

“Buh!”

Damn it. Eventually, Eleonora embraced the child in her arms and fed him with the bottle of milk. Desperate, she tried to rationalize the absurd situation.

It doesn’t make sense to leave a dragon egg at the corner of a street in the first place. It would be more believable that someone intentionally left it on where I often go. Then who? No one knows me in this world, but I know quite a few who know Eleanora, the true master of this body. The problem is I don’t know those people personally.

Giving up, she tried to ask the child instead. “Hey, do you remember who left you in the streets?”

“Aboo?”

“Yes, I know you were in the egg. But you’re a dragon. Did you hear anything suspicious outside the shell or something?”

The curly, dark-haired child could only blink his big, red eyes at her. Then, the child burst into laughter—a laugh so innocent it made Eleanora’s heart ache. Frustration immediately flooded her chest.

“You’re laughing now…”

Eleonora could not possibly take over the child if she’d like to keep her undisturbed living. The dragon is the pet of the heroine and plays a huge role in the novel.

In Laurent Imperial, there is a legendary egg that is handed down from generation to generation. The dragon’s egg is left as a sign of friendship from Wyrm Lizard, who helped the founding king of Laurent build an empire. And the egg, which had not even shown signs of hatching for over a thousand years, is broken by the heroine who visited the Yellow Sea by accidentally dropping it. It would then be the first time in 500 years that a dragon was born.

Naturally, the whole world’s attention is focused on who the child will take as its owner, and there were many candidates who qualified.

However, it wasn’t the royal family that the dragon imprinted as its owner, but the heroine, Lenia. It was only natural, of course. The dragon first recognizes the human being who first came into contact with him when the incubation period nears.

Then, Lenia took the child into her tutelage and received the spotlight.

With a huge amount of people supporting her from all over the continent, the heroine, who was the daughter of a powerless countess, becomes on par with some of the continent’s most powerful men. At the same time, Eleonora, the evil witch, who is after the dragon, wrecked havoc on them, which naturally drove these male leads to form alliances with the heroine.

That was the original plot.

Isn’t that just wonderful?

Unfortunately, the current Eleonora had not the slightest intention of involving herself with the novel’s course. She even shudders at the thought of being under such a bright spotlight.

“It’s enough to die by a pile of work,” she muttered.

I refuse to trade my peace with death by a dragon. Besides, the beloved egg that they had been waiting in the palace for its hatching has already disappeared, so the capital must be in complete chaos. Only a fool would willingly accept death with open arms.

Eleonora stared at the child in her arms, who was drinking milk.

The final process of imprinting is to give a name. Fortunately, she has not named this dragon yet, nor had she given him her name. If so, the imprint will not be complete yet. There’s still a chance.

“Uh…”

The child took the bottle off his mouth to see if he had had had enough milk. He would even burp lightly after she hesitantly patted him on his back. The dark red eyes blinked slowly and gradually closed and the child began to doze off with his face buried in her arms.

“…….”

Somehow, Eleonora feels guilt in her heart.

She sighed, “I’m not abandoning you, baby. I’m just trying to take you to your mom.”

You would be much happier to go to your destined mother than to live with a helpless, lazy witch like me.

Then, Eleonora left the house quietly with the child in her arms.

***

Sorrent, miles south from the capital, Tezeba, it was just a few hours ago that a man arrived in a country village with sheer coastal cliffs to the south, dense forests to the east, and fairy lakes to the west.

“I’m an investigator from Tezeba.”

“Uh!”

The chief of the security forces of Sorrent, who was dozing off, suddenly leaped to his feet. Despite his groggy stupor, he was still able to form a coherent thought. Tezeba, that’s the capital of Laurent.

“Tezeba? Where do you belong?”

“Azet.”

The first district of Tezeba, the capital, was an area densely populated by high-ranking aristocratic mansions, including the great emperor of the Laurent Empire. There isn’t any detective in those places! The manager fumbled about the desk for his glasses.

The man, with his dark boots and black hair, looked down deadpan at the flustered chief, his arms crossed. His figure was reminiscent of a sleek black leopard. The chief glanced briefly again at the man; his aura was not of a criminal.

“All right, your position…?”

“I’m the head of the investigation security department.”

“Ha?” The chief thought he was joking, though. Finally, he found his glasses. And as soon as he checked the man in front of him, he squealed.

“What! Sir Leonard?”

Purple eyes, golden brooch on the left ****** of a black uniform, and a leather holster in a belt definitely containing a revolver–the description alone sufficed.

Not a joke but a real boss!