A Dream of the Past, and the City at Dawn

On the third night after leaving the forest where her home was, Daisy fell asleep in the inn where she was staying with Katie, preparing to go sightseeing on the streets the next day—and that night, she had a dream.

In the dream, Daisy felt as if she had returned to a very distant past, so distant that it seemed to be from before she was even born.

The surroundings were somewhat blurry and indistinct, dominated by shades of white and blue; the entire world felt vast, empty, and hollow.

Daisy could not see what she herself looked like, and when she tried to speak, she could not hear her own voice.

She simply walked forward uncontrollably, step by step, moving toward some unknown direction…

Before long, as she wandered through that pale and empty world, something finally came into view.

It was a large dragon, its body covered in silver-gray scales, a pair of black curved horns growing from its head, and beneath its massive, fang-filled jaws were a pair of silver-gray eyes that felt strangely familiar.

That was… Viola?

It was the first time Daisy had ever seen Viola in her true dragon form, yet for some reason, she recognized her instantly.

She walked toward the great dragon, step by step, as if entranced.

At that moment, something was clearly wrong with dragon-form Viola.

She lay sprawled on the ground, one forelimb and leg visible on this side torn and mangled, flesh ripped open, scales curled back, with deep, crisscrossing wounds that reached the bone.

Blood poured endlessly from her injuries, forming a large pool of crimson beneath her.

At that moment, Viola seemed to notice something approaching.

She turned her fierce dragon head, her silver-gray eyes carrying a colder gaze than Daisy had ever seen before, and opened her massive, fang-filled mouth in a deafening roar.

“Get away!!!!!! Human!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Vi—Viola?!”

Daisy was startled by this unfamiliar attitude from Viola.

Yet in the dream, she did not retreat—instead, she stepped forward and spoke to the heavily injured dragon-form Viola.

However, she still could not hear her own voice.

“What did you say?! Insignificant human?!”

On the other side, dragon-form Viola seemed shocked by what Daisy had said, her silver-gray eyes widening.

“You… you actually said you want to heal me?! Have you gone mad?!”

‘This… could it be… my past memories?’

Daisy thought hazily.

Yet in the dream, her past self continued speaking to dragon-form Viola.

“Out of curiosity? Just wanting to try out some dragon-healing techniques you learned during your travels? Stop talking nonsense! You human! If you don’t get lost right now, I’ll kill you!!!!!!!!!!!!”

On the other side, dragon-form Viola seemed completely enraged.

She roared and opened her massive mouth filled with sharp fangs, suddenly spewing out a blazing, radiant breath of fire that instantly consumed Daisy’s entire field of vision.

“Ah!”

Daisy let out a small cry as she woke up, suddenly sitting upright in the bed of the inn room.

It was just dawn.

The room was still dim and hazy, and on the bed beside her, Katie was still fast asleep.

The window that should have been closed was somehow open, letting in a faint, cool morning breeze.

“…………”

Daisy sat there blankly in the blanket, wearing a loose white shirt, her pure white hair messy.

Suddenly, she seemed to catch a faint trace of a vanilla-like scent.

In a daze, she also felt as though, sometime during the night while half-asleep, someone had gently stroked her hair.

The soft and familiar touch had made her feel deeply at ease, lulling her into a peaceful sleep.

In truth, during the three days since leaving Viola’s side, Daisy—reluctant and attached—had slept restlessly every night.

Only last night had been relatively peaceful, as if she had returned to Viola’s side once more.

Staring blankly at the dim room illuminated by faint morning light, Daisy felt as though the dream still lingered vividly before her eyes.

It was the first time she had ever had such a realistic dream.

Perhaps it was because she had come out into the outside world.

As for the feeling of being gently stroked while half-asleep… she couldn’t tell if that had been real or just part of the dream.

After sitting in a daze for a while, Daisy tidied her clothes slightly, put on the large hat used to cover the small dragon horns on her head, and climbed out of bed barefoot.

She stepped onto the wooden floor, which didn’t feel too cold, and absentmindedly walked toward the door.

Pushing it open, she stepped into the inn’s corridor and leaned against the glass window, looking out at the not-yet-fully-awake street below.

The room she and Katie were staying in was on the second floor of a wooden inn.

From the corridor window, Daisy could overlook a wide stretch of streets filled with complex buildings and bustling figures.

Gran City truly lived up to what Katie had described—a key border city of the kingdom.

Even in the early morning, many people were already active.

Below, shops were just opening; clerks came out to lift the shutters, and shop owners worked alongside them to set up goods outside.

On the stone-paved streets, men and women of all ages—dressed in simple cloth garments or fine suits—were out walking dogs, taking morning strolls, or already busy with their day’s work, forming a lively and dazzling flow of people.

At one side of the street, an elderly woman opened her window and began spinning her loom by it.

Not far away, several ragged street children ran past, laughing and playing.

Elsewhere, a young man delivering milk carried a crate of bottles as he hurried toward subscribing households, disappearing into the distance.

As more pedestrians and carriages filled the streets, vendors appeared here and there, shouting and hawking their goods.

From afar, the deep tolling bells of a church clock tower rang out, gradually waking the drowsy city.

Under the brightening morning light, another peaceful day began.

‘So this is a human city… just like Viola told me.’

Daisy leaned against the corridor window, staring blankly at the bustling scene below.

As the fiery red sun slowly rose, the lively sights of human life stirred something within her—she suddenly felt a wave of longing.

It had already been four days since she parted from Viola.

The sensation of being gently stroked last night might have been her imagination.

But now, after being away from home for a few days, Daisy’s small heart finally understood what it meant to miss someone.

Viola… Viola…

She silently called that most familiar and warm name in her heart.

Suddenly, she recalled Viola’s faint, slightly lonely smile during their farewell in the forest.

Then her thoughts spiraled toward the possibility of Viola staying behind alone to draw away danger, her fate uncertain.

Anxiety quietly crept into her chest.

Just as Daisy stood there, lost in thought, missing her and worrying—

A loud clatter suddenly came from the room she shared with Katie.

Turning back toward the open doorway, she quickly saw Katie stumble out, clothes disheveled, hair messy, rushing forward in panic.

“Little Daisy?! Where are you?! Little Dai—”

Katie, flustered, held a special explorer’s dagger, looking ready to rush out and rescue someone at any moment.

But when she spotted Daisy standing by the corridor window, she froze.

Her words got stuck in her throat, and the dagger slipped from her hand with a clang.

“Katie?”

Daisy looked at her in confusion.

Before she could even ask what was going on, Katie rushed forward and pulled her into a tight embrace.

“Thank goodness! Little Daisy! Are you okay?! I thought you got kidnapped—ahhhhhhh!”

Katie shouted as she hugged Daisy’s small body, almost breaking into tears again like the night before.

Soon, her shouting drew annoyed protests and banging from other guests in nearby rooms.

Only then did she quiet down.

“Katie? What happened? I’m fine.”

“When I woke up this morning, you were gone—and the window was open! I thought someone took you… Honestly, don’t just run off early in the morning like that!”

“Sorry… I just wanted to look outside from the corridor.”

“Forget it. As long as you’re fine… Oh right, Little Daisy, did you open the window?”

“Hm? No, I didn’t. I don’t know.”

“You didn’t open it? That’s strange…”

On this fresh and breezy morning, as Gran City gradually came alive with traffic and noise,

In the outer district, inside the hall of the Mountain Hawk Guild, within the luxurious office of the guild leader—

The pot-bellied, middle-aged guild master, who had obtained the rare and precious Scorpion-Tailed Fox pelt the night before and was too excited to sleep, was still uneasy after thinking it over.

He summoned the sharp-faced appraiser from the guild exchange counter once again to conduct another detailed examination of the gray-black pelt.

“Guild Master… there’s no mistake. After verifying the magical properties and material composition, it is indeed the fur of a Scorpion-Tailed Fox.”

Beside the large desk, the sharp-faced appraiser used all sorts of magical instruments to perform a thorough inspection, yet the result remained unchanged.

“This kind of rare monster pelt—within Mirandel, only top-tier adventurer teams could obtain it. At market price, it’s worth about a hundred gold coins! If auctioned to nobles, the price would be even higher!”

“R-Really? Th-this valuable…”

The guild master’s voice trembled.

He stretched out his chubby hands, lifting the small bundle of fur as if it were a treasure, his greedy little eyes nearly bulging out.

After admiring it like a sacred relic, a sly, cunning expression suddenly appeared on his otherwise unremarkable face.

“Something’s not right… This time, the upper ranks of the Guild Alliance assigned us to explore an area suspected of having dragon activity. It was meant as a scouting mission, so we threw together that useless, money-losing team—including Katie—as bait…

Yet only that girl came back. She said she found no dragon, but somehow brought back such a valuable high-level monster pelt? There’s something off here. Very off!”

The pot-bellied guild master spoke with ill intent, his gaze greedily fixed on the pelt in his hands.

Having tasted a bit of profit, he wanted more—more and more—until all the wealth in the world would end up in his pocket.

“Guild Master, I have a plan… we can force that arrogant girl Katie to tell us the truth.”

The sharp-faced appraiser smiled obsequiously, proposing his malicious scheme.

“Dealing with a poor brat like Katie is actually very simple. We don’t even need to use force. First, we just do this… then this…”