We live at the foothills of Dragon Peak.
Laira’s Fairy Tale
Once upon a time, in a certain land, there was a country where people lived alongside dragons.
In the mountainous region that spread across the country’s northeast, lived gentle Earth Dragons, and in the mountain range far to the west, lived fierce Wyverns.
For generations, the royal family of this country had subjugated and commanded dragons. Those who carried the royal blood lived alongside dragons from birth.
Then, in a certain year, a girl was born into the royal family.
As only boys had been born until then, the King was overjoyed at his first daughter.
However, this girl was a little different.
She was a princess, carrying the blood of the royal family that commanded dragons in a land where people lived with dragons. Yet, whenever this princess tried to approach the dragons in the castle, they would either become violent or cower in fear.
The other princes had interacted with dragons since childhood, and nothing like what happened with the princess ever occurred.
The castle dwellers were puzzled.
However, the King, who doted on his daughter, paid no mind to it at all.
Then, on a day when the princess welcomed her third spring.
The King decided to let the princess ride his proud Earth Dragon, which he controlled.
The princess was still disliked by the dragon, but the King said he would be there to protect her, scooped up the princess, and jumped onto a particularly large Earth Dragon.
However, an incident occurred there.
The King’s Earth Dragon, known for its gentle nature and intelligence, suddenly began to rampage.
The King was thrown from the dragon’s back and landed hard on the ground, injuring his back severely. However, the King held the princess tightly, protecting her.
His retainers rescued the King from the rampaging dragon’s feet, but the impact must have been severe. From that day on, the King lost the ability to stand or walk on his own.
The King was a respected figure, beloved by his people. He was a strong king who commanded an Earth Dragon larger than any other. The princess, who had deprived the King of his freedom, became deeply hated.
The princess, hated by dragons, hated by her people, and hated by her family.
The princess, loathed by everyone, became utterly alone in the castle.
Her mother, who had always loved her, especially hated her daughter, who had deprived her beloved husband of his freedom.
The princess apologized again and again. But no one would have anything to do with her anymore.
Even the King, who had been very kind, refused to see her after the accident.
The young princess was deeply saddened.
She had severely injured her beloved father because of herself. How could she ever be forgiven? How could she atone? The princess thought hard with her young mind.
However, the princess was not given an opportunity for atonement.
That winter. The princess died.
It was announced that she had died.
What did this mean? The princess was confused and troubled.
She was not dead. She was here. Yet, she was told she was dead.
“You are dead now,” her second brother told her.
“Since you are dead, do not appear before me again,” her mother said.
The princess wept.
Why did they say she was dead when she was not?
From the day of the announcement, no one would even speak to the princess.
Meals were no longer prepared for her.
Only the room she had been given was left as it was.
From then on, the princess lived all alone within the bustling castle walls.
When she passed someone in the corridors, they would only glance at her and ignore her. When she greeted them, there was no reply.
Until now, even though she was disliked, she had not been completely ignored. She was still given meals and clothes, even if she was disliked.
But now, no one associated with the princess anymore.
In the affluent castle, the princess became poor and hungry.
But she was still a small child. She couldn’t prepare food for herself.
The princess wandered through the castle and somehow managed to reach the kitchen. But there, too, no meal had been prepared for her.
The hungry princess searched for something to eat in the vast kitchen. There was delicious-looking roasted meat. There was soup with a good aroma. But the kitchen staff were watching, and she couldn’t take anything.
Inevitably, the princess left the kitchen.
Delicious-looking dishes, aromatic soup, and sweets. Seeing such things only made the princess hungrier.
But she couldn’t take anything while people were in the kitchen. So, the princess went back to the kitchen late at night, when everyone was asleep.
But unfortunately. When the kitchen was not being used for cooking, there was no food at all. Still, the princess desperately searched the kitchen for something to eat. Finally, she found leftovers piled up in a corner.
From that day on, the princess’s meals consisted of leftovers discarded late at night.
The delicious aroma disappeared, and she ate the pungent smelling leftovers day after day.
Then one day, there was a confection on the kitchen table. The princess hesitated, but a small child couldn’t resist the temptation of sweets. The princess took the sweet and ate it carefully.
The sweet, nostalgic taste brought tears to her eyes all night.
But since she had eaten the sweets on the table, she thought she would surely be scolded. However, even the next day, no one scolded the princess.
After all, she was being ignored.
No matter what the princess did, no one in the castle showed any interest. Even if she walked in front of them, or stood next to them, no one would look at her, let alone try to see her.
She was ignored, as if she were dead, within the castle. However, amidst this, there were a few exceptions.
The princess wanted to see her beloved father and apologize. But when she approached the King’s bedroom, she was blocked by guards protecting the King.
No. It wasn’t just the King’s bedroom. When she tried to approach the rooms of her siblings and mother, she was obstructed by women and soldiers.
And she couldn’t approach the part of the castle where the dragons normally resided. Even trying to leave the castle, she was stopped.
This was the only event that made the princess realize that she was not actually dead, contrary to the treatment she received of being treated as if she were dead and no longer existed.
From that winter of her third year, the princess continued to live alone in the castle.
She ate leftovers every day. The only pleasure she had was secretly eating sweets occasionally placed on the kitchen table.
Leftovers could be eaten once she got used to them. She didn’t have much trouble with food, but she did have trouble with clothes.
Small children grow quickly. Her clothes quickly became too small for her growing limbs.
Even though she was being ignored, she couldn’t bear to live naked; she was too shy.
Next to food, the princess searched the castle for clothes.
Then, at the back of the castle, where many women were washing many things, she found clothes drying. They were not as splendid as the clothes she wore. But it was enough if she could wear them. The princess took one of the dried clothes.
“Ah,” the princess gasped.
She had been seen by one of the women doing laundry.
But the woman ignored the princess when she saw her.
While she was relieved that she wasn’t scolded, she also felt a great sadness that she was still being ignored.
Then, in the spring of her fifth year.
The princess met a young boy in a corner of the castle.
The princess instinctively sensed that this young boy was her brother. Memories of seeing her infant brother sleeping in her mother’s arms many times since she was very young came back to her.
The boy was still very young, and surely didn’t know about the treatment she received.
In the adult-dominated castle, he found the princess, who was close in age, and spoke to her with a smile.
The princess, who had spoken to someone in a long time, was so happy that she cried. But soon, she was found by adults and became alone again.
However, from that day on, the boy began to secretly meet the princess.
He was a very kind boy.
He was always found by adults and only he would get scolded, but he still met the princess many times.
Sometimes he would share his snacks with her.
The princess’s reason for living became meeting the boy occasionally and having brief conversations.
But one day, the girl learned something.
The boy also couldn’t interact well with dragons.
She overheard adults talking in passing.
It wasn’t as severe as the princess’s situation, but the dragons didn’t listen to him well.
The boy could touch and ride dragons, but they wouldn’t obey his commands.
The princess later learned that the boy was bullied by his older brothers because of this.
However, the boy always smiled when he met the princess, showing no sign of being bullied.
But the secret meetings between the princess and the boy did not last long. Adults began to constantly stay by the boy’s side to prevent him from meeting the princess.
Once again alone, the princess gradually became withdrawn. And as a result of being ignored by everyone, her presence faded.
Still, as the princess grew older and began to think for herself, she started to feel that the world around her was strange.
She thought it was wrong to be bullied by her brothers just because she couldn’t command dragons, or to be ostracized just because she was disliked by dragons.
And the princess made a decision.
She would destroy this unjust world. She would change this country that proclaimed to live with dragons, yet depended solely on their power.
To do this, she had to prove that she was superior to dragons and show those in the castle, who continued to ignore her, the superiority of humans.
From the day she made that resolution, the princess worked desperately.
There was no one to teach her martial arts. She pulled a stick from an old piece of furniture in her room and practiced every day.
Fortunately, the princess, who was ignored, had an abundance of time.
Ignored, eating leftovers, and stealing clothes from laundry, the princess lived alone in the castle until she was fourteen years old.
And on a summer day, when she was fourteen.
The princess slipped out of the castle, which was eerily quiet.
Her destination was the mountain range where fierce Wyverns lived.
Defeating a gentle Earth Dragon would not prove her strength. To prove her existence and power, the girl set off on a journey to defeat the fearsome Wyverns and the Dragon Race who lived alongside them.
