Naro sighed deeply while treating the wound from being bitten by the baby dragon. Even if it was a dragon, it would still be a wild animal, so why hadn’t he thought it would be wary of him? Even while sitting at the table applying medicine to his hand, Naro kept glancing at the baby dragon.
Whether it still had no strength to move, it was lying still obediently, but its eyes were sharply raised. Thinking that the baby dragon wouldn’t be able to rest well if he was there, Naro left the house, carefully locked the door, and headed to the pharmacy.
It seemed better to go in when the dragon fell asleep again.
Naro, who had inadvertently come back into the shop after closing, threw himself into work since things had turned out this way. He not only prepared for tomorrow’s business but also finished organizing the warehouse he’d been putting off. And he prepared ointment and medicinal herbs to use on the dragon as usual.
On a completely dark night, Naro finally left the shop and entered the house again.
“It’s sleeping.”
As expected, the baby dragon was asleep again. Naro moved carefully, keeping his footsteps quiet in case he woke it up. It was quite ridiculous that he couldn’t feel at ease in his own home, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Naro finished organizing his things and took a deep breath. There was something he had to do now while the dragon was sleeping. No, perhaps if not now, he might not be able to do it at all.
That was to apply new ointment to the dragon’s wounds and change the bandages. He had to consistently manage them so the dragon’s wounds wouldn’t fester. Fortunately, whether the ointment he made worked well or not, though slow, it was definitely showing effects.
Naro gulped and carefully knelt in front of the dragon with the ointment he’d just made at the pharmacy and new cloth.
His hands trembled slightly, but he succeeded in unwrapping the bandages that had been on it. Of course, moving carefully meant that task alone took a full 30 minutes.
“Phew…”
After Naro wiped his forehead with his sleeve once, this time he carefully applied ointment on the wounds. Whether that sensation was ticklish or it hurt because it touched the wounds, the dragon shifted its body once.
“…”
Naro held his breath and prayed in his heart for it please not to wake up. Just until recently, he’d been hoping it would please wake up.
Fortunately, the baby dragon only shifted but didn’t open its eyes. Like that, he spent a long time again applying medicine to all the wounds. All that remained was to wrap it with cloth again.
Naro took another deep breath and carefully wrapped cloth around and around the wound area. Now if he just did this part, it would be done…
“…Uh.”
Naro’s voice lowered. While wrapping cloth around the remaining wound area, he ended up making eye contact with the dragon.
The baby dragon’s eyes gleamed fiercely. Naro’s Adam’s apple bobbed pitifully.
* * *
“Hm? Naro, what happened to your hand?”
Garnet, who stopped by the pharmacy, was startled when he saw Naro’s hand. The bandages wrapped here and there on his hand indicated that Naro’s injury was not minor. Naro fidgeted with his hand for no reason.
“I got a little bu-burned while working.”
“Oh my, you need to be careful.”
At Garnet’s advice that one’s body is one’s wealth when young, Naro just laughed awkwardly. Naturally, this was absolutely not a burn. It wasn’t an injury from work either.
“Didn’t eat today either?”
Naro came home to eat lunch. The first thing he saw was the bowl he’d placed in front of the dragon. The meat that had been prepared and cut into bite-sized pieces on it hadn’t decreased by even a single piece. The baby dragon didn’t even glance at the bowl and reflexively pulled its body back when Naro entered.
Naro sighed deeply as if troubled. It was good that the baby dragon had woken up. But because the dragon recognized Naro as an enemy or kept being wary, these days his worries were growing day by day. The injury on his hand that he’d lied to Garnet about was also all because of the dragon.
He was often caught trying to secretly tend to its wounds. Each time, he’d get cut by claws or bitten. Though it hurt to be injured, Naro still understood. Being hostile toward an unfamiliar existence would be instinct as a beast. Moreover, right now the dragon was weakened from being hurt. The baby dragon would know its own condition well too, so its defensive instincts would be working.
“Still, I wish you’d eat…”
These days, since it was recovering its strength little by little, he’d started preparing meals. But the baby dragon didn’t even touch the meals Naro prepared.
Wondering if perhaps it didn’t like eating where he was, he tried giving it food and going outside, but nothing particularly changed.
Even if it regained strength and recovered from its wounds, it would all be useless if it didn’t eat anything. Thinking the baby dragon must surely be hungry, he was giving it meat from the food storage without holding back, but since it didn’t show even a sign of wanting to eat, he was gradually getting worried.
“Dragon, this is good meat, so…”
When Naro tried to carefully approach, the baby dragon put strength in its eyes and made a threatening sound while scratching its throat. Naro also couldn’t approach further and stopped in place.
“Dragon, I’m not a bad person.”
Naro felt a little frustrated and wronged, so he began to profess his harmlessness.
“I rescued you from that cave to treat your injuries. At least until you get healthy, I want to take care of you. So you don’t need to be wary of me.”
Even while speaking sincerely, he wondered what use all this was. The dragon probably couldn’t understand human words anyway. Naro’s shoulders drooped.
But then, he made eye contact with the baby dragon. For some reason, its sharp gaze seemed to be saying ‘How can I trust your words?’, making him unconsciously hesitate.
Worrying about what he could do for the dragon to trust him, to eat, Naro’s head was very complicated these days. Since it was a problem where he couldn’t seek consultation or advice from anyone, it was even more frustrating.
Today too, Naro prepared for bed with unending sighs. Wanting to ease the dragon’s wariness even a little, he now didn’t sleep on the floor but came up to the bed properly to sleep.
Time passed and when Naro was gradually falling asleep, suddenly a thud-like discordant sound could be heard. Because of that sound, Naro’s eyelids, which had lightly fallen asleep, slowly opened.
“What’s that sound…?”
Naro got up unsteadily from the bed. Wondering if a window had opened somewhere and trying to get down from the bed to check, Naro ended up being startled.
“Dragon!”
The baby dragon that should have been lying on the makeshift bed had come down to the floor and was limping toward the door, crawling.
If it moved so suddenly like that, the wounds that had just barely started healing could tear open again. Naro quickly lifted the dragon.
“Wa-wait! Don’t move. Ah… I’ll put you down right away… Ugh!”
Even in that short moment of moving it to the makeshift bed, because the dragon struggled and resisted, scratches formed here and there on Naro’s body.
“Haah…”
He barely succeeded in putting it down on the bed, but the baby dragon, as always, glared at Naro and pressed its body toward the corner as much as possible.
“You don’t like it here? When you’re all better, I’ll do as you want.”
But that wasn’t now. Not only had it not eaten anything, but its wounds still hadn’t completely healed yet, so if it moved, its condition would only worsen more.
Naro prayed that nothing would happen and the baby dragon would just recover well.
But making that earnest prayer seem futile, these days Naro’s worries and concerns were growing more because of the baby dragon.
The baby dragon had started emptying the food he gave it little by little from a few days ago. Of course, it didn’t eat everything and seemed to only consume a little bit, just what was really necessary, but when Naro saw the bowl with reduced meat, he’d even shouted with joy.
But that happiness didn’t last very long. Because the dragon, gradually recovering its strength day by day, kept trying to leave the house.
“You scratched the door again.”
Naro said, looking at the makeshift bed. The baby dragon stared at Naro, then snootily turned its head to the other side as if snorting “hmph.”
Naro touched the door with claw marks here and there for no reason. It seemed he’d have to fix it later.
These days, a problem had arisen where the baby dragon kept attempting to escape as it became able to move. Every time he checked while working at the pharmacy, it would be scratching at the door, or if he woke up at night because of a sound, sometimes it was climbing the wall as if thinking of going out through the window.
If he could, Naro wanted to respect that will too. But unlike gradually recovering strength, the wounds on the baby dragon’s body still needed to heal more.
If he released it and the wounds tore and festered, it could really be a big problem. Even when he explained this, the baby dragon didn’t pretend to listen. Like last time, he only received a look that seemed to say he didn’t trust him.
So these days, every time Naro went to work at the pharmacy, he locked all the windows in the house and checked the door locks at least three times. The fortunate thing was that the baby dragon hadn’t completely regained its energy yet, so it still only acted within manageable limits.
So he thought just locking the doors would be fine. And he realized that was quite a complacent thought on a certain day with nice sunshine.
That day, Naro headed home after finishing business as usual. He was walking without thinking about anything when he suddenly noticed something strange about the house door.
“…No way.”
Running quickly to check, there was a large hole in the lower part of the door. Naro immediately opened the door and looked around inside the house. The baby dragon wasn’t visible anywhere.
