Burning embers drifted up into the night sky.

Ume's eyes snapped open, and she instantly knew something was wrong. 

Based on her internal biological clock, the 53-year-old dragon sensed that some time had elapsed — meaning that she had been unconscious. Her joints felt stiff like burnt toast, a little bit like that incident years ago when she tried jumping into her dad's lava bath before her scales had fully formed.

And it hurt. 

Obviously, this wasn't normal.

Truthfully, dragons were generally not very good with pain. With invincible scales and impenetrable defenses, generally speaking dragons only felt physical pain once in several million years. Contrarily, many dragons tended to get overdramatic with the slightest papercuts and bruises, even though they were hardly injured at all.

Tears welled in Ume's eyes.

She was crying, okay?!

Her scales were a bit burnt and toasty so she was crying.

Also she was only 53 years old, so it was totally normal to cry.

Ume had no idea how this had come to happen, but somehow she must have injured herself with her own flames. Ordinarily, this was impossible, but that stupid knight with a dumb name must have done something to 「Reflect」 her fiery magic back at her. At the time, Ume's flames had nowhere to go, so the magic accumulated inside of her like a pressure cooker. Ultimately, the young dragon exploded like a bomb.

Everything was over in seconds, and it was a 1-hit KO.

+ + +

Dozens of human voices peppered all over the flaming wreckage of the tailor shop, except Ume's ears still rang with white noise from her fiery detonation. Firefighters were spraying water magic at the flaming rubble, and flashing red lights formed a security perimeter around the crime scene. The city guard was present, as well as a sizable crowd of pedestrians that had swarmed around the site of the explosion. She couldn't quite hear what they were saying, and the young dragon struggled to flail her limbs.

It was then that she realized she somehow must have reverted to her original serpentine form.

Furthermore, her limbs and torso was pinned down with steel chains.

???

What was this? String cheese? There was no way something so flimsy could hold a dragon.

Ume activated her amazing dragon powers and took off towards the sky!

......

...but absolutely nothing happened.

In fact, she couldn't levitate a single inch off the ground. Her magic was entirely suppressed, and her muscles felt as weak as jello. To an outsider, she probably looked like a giant snake twisting and struggling on the ground, and the crowd of humans burst out into a frenzied clamor when they realized that the snake monster had awoken. 

"I-It's alive...!! The monster is alive!!!" A woman screamed in the sea of bystanders.

"...How the hell did a giant snake show up in Aerelieth? It's bigger than my house."

"Eeeek! Keep it away from me!!"

Ume was beginning to hear the voices in the crowd, and she instantly felt annoyed. First of all, Ume wasn't a snake. She was a noble, honorable, and almighty dragon! Why were the humans in this universe so dumb? Couldn't anyone recognize a dragon when they saw one? Ume was a Celestial Dragon — a dragon above all other dragons! Her species was divine, and they lived in constellations among the stars!

Ume opened her mouth to educate these dumb humans about their mistake, but then she discovered that her muzzle was also tightly bound with sealing chains. She couldn't even talk!

...

......

Okay, now Ume was furious.

These evil, ill-mannered, and stupid humans were treating her like a common illiterate beast!!

A powerful roar rumbled out of Ume's throat (silenced), and the young dragon lashed out wildly against her heavy restraints. Several of the reinforced chains snapped, but the humans were quick to respond. Soon three times more chains were locked around Ume's torso. Within minutes, Ume was completely unable to budge, and she laid helplessly like a depressed worm atop the pile of rubble.

It was then that she noticed Sir Gawrgaru standing near her neck.

He had been holding a shiny sword against her throat the entire time (although Ume doubted it was sharp enough to pierce her scales), and he was firmly gripping one of the chains that was wound around her neck like leash. The bloodshot and dangerous look in his eyes hadn't yet gone away, and he watched her coldly like a cautious warrior who expected an army of orcs to attack at any moment.

That damn shark...

As before, he was completely unharmed.

If anyone was a monster, it was definitely that man...

+ + +

"Sir Gawrgaru..." An investigator approached the knight. "We've verified your testimony that an imposter of Lady Luna was witnessed at the Golden Wings tavern earlier today. To confirm, you claim that this monster damaged your airship, sent it crashing towards the tannery, stole Lady Luna's identity, sullied her reputation, assaulted several civilians, committed multiple acts of arson, and attempted murder of the duke's son?"

The tall knight was silent for a short period of time.

"Yes." He said bluntly, and did not elaborate further.

"The Great City of Aerelieth thanks you for subjugating the vicious monster. Of course, we apologize for any prior misunderstandings about the earlier incidents. Our investigational committee agrees that it is unreasonable for your airship to travel from the Slime Rocks to Aerelieth in such a short period of time, and we deem you innocent of our prior charges. Any penalties and fees attributed to your name are henceforth waived."

"And of the monster?"

"As you said, the creature was found carrying a fake Adventurer's Guild card and 100 GP in coins. We will report the falsified record to the Adventurer's Guild and have its registration and citizenship purged. It is clearly inhuman, violent, and dangerous. As the only individual to have dueled the monster, what is your threat level assessment, Sir Gawrgaru?"

"SS-tier. Nearly invincible scales. Massive mana pool. Highly manipulative, deceitful, and engages in psychological warfare. Possesses an ability to mimic the appearance of a person's loved ones, no doubt to lure an unsuspecting victim into a fatal trap."

"In other words, a Class A dangerous magical beast. Capable of burning down mansions in the blink of an eye."

"Correct."

"The Special Affairs Committee on Dangerous Magical Beasts will recommend a high security containment protocol. Unfortunately, we lack an anti-magic cell of a suitable size in Enesborg Island, as this creature is simply far too large for our existing infrastructure. Perhaps the University Island may possess laboratory space, but we will require a temporary measure until the necessary reinforcements are made."

"Are you asking me to guard it?"

"Please, if you may, Sir Gawrgaru. Temporarily. You've already demonstrated your capacity to subjugate the monster."

"I am not a zookeeper. Besides, I'm not confident I could do it twice."

"Still? Aren't you the best person for the task?"

"..."

The silver-haired hero narrowed his eyes.

His hand holding Ume's chains sagged slightly.

"If I must," he sighed.

∎