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My first encounter with Maouldoth was shortly after Master Alys extended my lifespan.
“Listen, my sweet Lilybell. It seems there’s a dragon in the east who’s been causing far too much havoc. I think I ought to teach him a lesson.”
Thinking about it now, people had probably been begging Master Alys for help.
And so, we met the black dragon. The Great Witch Alys beat him up with her magic, and he cried and apologized.
In the beginning, he’d been a foolish dragon who refused to learn, but after getting beaten to tears a fourth time, he finally repented for real. Honestly, I had no idea how he’d been able to think, “I can still do this,” after the first three times.
At any rate, after his moment of true remorse, he was given a name by Master Alys: Maouldoth.
“My sweet Lilybell, names possess a very special power,” she told me with a satisfied smile.
Naming the dragon had bound his soul to hers. From then on, he was unable to disobey Master Alys.
However, some time after Master Alys’s death, Maouldoth went back to harming people. When he caused too much damage and people began to fear the red-eyed black dragon, it was Saint Clarissa who stood up to him next in an unexpected—and unwanted—reunion between black dragon and white cat.
Maouldoth would later complain to me, “In a way, Clarissa was scarier than Master Alys at times.”
Master Alys had probably thought of Maouldoth as a pet. On the other hand, Saint Clarissa showed him no mercy after all the hurt he’d caused. She’d smiled as she walloped him with her holy magic.
After the beating, Maouldoth repented once more. But the dragon, ever the fool, repeated his actions again, and again, and again. It got to the point where I wondered if he was doing it on purpose.
Each time Maouldoth wreaked havoc, my beloved owners proceeded to reduce him to tears.
Matthew, the adventuring master chef, cooked some of him up—we both ate a bit of his tail, and I thought it was delicious. Conrad, whose mercantile spirit had led him to the world of alchemy, tried to use him as a reagent—I recalled the dragon sobbing after having various parts of his body taken from him. Roselia put a special magical collar on him that forcibly suppressed his power. Hinako dressed him in strange clothing.
I didn’t know if it was out of rebellion, but for some reason, Maouldoth’s behavior grew ever worse over the years until he was finally sealed by Efren the hero.
At the time, I thought, “Silly dragon, if only you’d behaved instead of hurting people, you wouldn’t have had to cry so much. Well, now we’ll never see each other again.”
And yet, the sealed and shrunken dragon, bound to the forest, eventually casually invited me to chat as if we were best friends.
Well...if he wants to be friends...I suppose I have no choice. I’m a nice cat, so I don’t mind visiting him, tee hee!
So I went to see the foolish Maouldoth in the forest and listened to his complaints, even though my first impression of him had been, “I don’t think there’s any way we’ll ever get along.”
Perhaps because he could sense the mana of my previous loving owners within me, he would always whine, “Hey, don’t get too close to me!” Still, our friendship deepened.
The turbulent relationship between Lilybell and Maouldoth continued until the day I jumped into the demon summoning circle and died.
Time passed, and now, the foolish black dragon was once again sobbing before me. Lord Felix’s blade had restored his seal to its original state, returning Maouldoth to his shrunken form that was slightly smaller than me.
“I wasn’t even doing anything bad! The seal finally weakened, and you just barged in and fortified it again! In the worst way possible! You heartless woman!”
“Who’s the one who bared his fangs at my dear friend and made her cry?”
“For all you know, it could’ve just been a prank!”
“How many times have you said that only to end up causing real trouble?”
The foolish but honest dragon clammed up.
See? I knew it! He was totally going to hurt Lady Alice! He should be grateful we fixed his seal before he could do anything, because if we had arrived after the fact, he’d have been in for a world of pain!
Suddenly, I remembered what I’d come here for.
Oh, right! Lady Alice! This is no time to be listening to the ramblings of a whimpering dragon! What am I doing?!
I shoved Maouldoth aside and rushed to his victim in a panic.
“Guh!”
“Lady Alice! Are you okay?! You must’ve been so scared. You’re safe now!”
Lady Alice, who was still sitting on the ground, looked up at me, dumbfounded.
She may still be reeling from the shock. It’s understandable, given that a fearsome dragon almost attacked her. Perhaps I should’ve hurt him more...by Lord Felix’s hand, of course.
Lady Alice seemed to be calming down, though. Her tears had subsided, and her body had stopped shaking. Relieved, I took her hand and gently wrapped it in both of mine, only for her to begin trembling again.
Oh no! I thought she’d calmed down, but I should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy.
She had a bit of a prickly personality, but she was still an ordinary, sweet noble lady. It was obviously her first time encountering such a horrible dragon, so it wasn’t surprising for her to experience a second wave of fear now that the danger had passed.
“Hey, why do I get the feeling you’ve been bad-mouthing me in your head?” Maouldoth whined.
Let’s just ignore the frightful dragon’s feeble complaints. Actually, can’t he see that I’m in the middle of comforting this scared noble lady? I wish he’d shut up for a moment.
Lady Alice shakily looked at me with tears in her eyes. “L-Lucille, y-y-you...”
The poor thing. She’s too traumatized to speak.
I nodded reassuringly, hoping to calm her down. “Yes, Lady Alice, it’s me, your friend Lucille! Everything is okay now!”
Instead of calming down, her eyes snapped wide open.
“Lucille! You!” she shouted.
“Huh?!”
“You’re capable of defeating dragons?!”
“Um...no, it was Lord Felix who quelled this fearsome dragon.”
“That was incredible, Lucille! I’ll never forget how you appeared so gallantly and yelled at the big scary dragon, refusing to back down. All for my sake!”
“Ummm...”
“Am I really that scary?” Maouldoth asked.
For some reason, Lady Alice’s words seemed to give the dragon an ego boost, even though when I called him scary he complained that it was bad-mouthing. Either way, I was still going to ignore him.
Anyway, um, what? She makes it sound like I accomplished something amazing, but I really didn’t. First of all, it was Lord Felix who fixed the seal. Even if it had come down to a normal fight, I doubt I could’ve beaten Maouldoth with my level of power, regardless of how many of his weaknesses I know.
“I can’t believe you risked your life to save me, Lucille... No, Lady Lucille... No, big sister Lucille!”
B-Big sister?! I’m her big sister now?! But Lady Alice is my dear friend and vice vers— Wait, does this mean Lady Alice is going to be like a younger sister to me? I...don’t mind that at all, tee hee!
“Lucille, how did you know this dragon’s name and weakness?” asked Lord Felix, who I’d noticed had been mulling over something this entire time.
It was a reasonable question.
I thought for a moment. It wasn’t that I desperately wanted to hide my past identity as Lilybell, but I also didn’t feel like it was necessary to explain it right here and now. Although I had become friends with Lord Felix and Lady Alice, in reality, we hadn’t established that level of trust yet. If I told them the truth, would they believe me?
I envisioned the scenario that would play out:
“Really? A cat in your past life? I’m asking a serious question here, and you respond with a joke? I really do hate despicable, foolish women like you!”
“What an awful lie, Lucille! I take back what I said—you’re no big sister of mine! Actually, from this moment on, we’re not friends anymore either!”
No! I don’t want that!
I decided not to talk about my past life until I’d earned a bit more of their trust. In other words, it was time to make up random nonsense.
“I learned about dragons during my princess training,” I said. “I also have very keen intuition, so I thought that weird-colored spot might be his weakness, and I was right!”
“Princess training?” Lord Felix asked skeptically.
“Intuition?” Lady Alice asked in the same tone.
“Hey, you’re not calling my tail ‘weird-colored,’ are you?!” Maouldoth shouted.
I guess my explanation was too far-fetched...
It was true that dragons had been a brief part of the curriculum, though. After all, they were a threat to human civilization.
Lady Alice’s countenance suddenly changed. “Wait! I remember this from a book about my beloved Champions of Destiny. Long ago, one of the Champions of Destiny, a hero, sealed a dark lord within a deep forest. Here we have a fearsome dragon also sealed in a forest, and his name even sounds like something a dark lord would be called! And big sister Lucille made him submit to her with just a few words! Could she be a...Champion of Destiny?!”
Lady Alice appeared to have been mumbling something, but it was so quiet and fast-paced that I couldn’t understand any of it. Lord Felix, who was next to her, looked surprised, so I supposed it was only I who didn’t know what she had said. I was a bit curious, but it really didn’t seem like asking would be a good idea, so I had no choice but to give up.
Anyway, as I was trying to figure out the best way to resolve this situation, a startled voice echoed through the air.
“Whoa!” It was Sir Kain, who had finally arrived at the clearing. “H-Huh? Wh-What’s that round, black thing?!”
“Round and black?” Maouldoth repeated. “I don’t see anything round and black!”
Sir Kain and the dragon stared blankly at each other.
Um...for now, let’s leave Maouldoth here and head back to the Leeuwenhoek manor.