My parents died in an accident when I was in the second year of junior high school.
I was then taken in by my grandparents, but my grandmother died when I was in my first year of high school, and then my grandfather, the last of my family, passed away when I was about to graduate in my third year of high school.
When my parents died, I didn't think I was that depressed, but later a childhood friend living nearby told me that in reality, judging from how I looked, I was extremely depressed.
Even now, I can only be grateful to my grandparents for welcoming and raising me, a troublesome person, without a single complaint.
After graduating from high school, I was accepted into a local university, so I had a life plan that was quite unusual for me: once I graduated, I would work hard in my hometown and give back to my grandfather, who was my last remaining family member.
At that time, my grandfather suddenly collapsed at home and I called an ambulance, but he passed away the moment we entered the hospital...
To be honest, at my age, I'd experienced death up close and often enough, so I'd grown accustomed to people being gone.
When my grandmother died, I didn't feel as many emotional ups and downs as I did when my parents died, but afterwards I was forced to become aware of my own cold-heartedness, and it seemed that my grandfather was vaguely aware of it as well.
After being taken away in an ambulance, Grandpa regained consciousness for just a moment. He turned his weak gaze towards me, who was standing beside him, and spoke in a weak voice from trembling lips.
"Yakumo... Don't be alone... Being alone is... painful... I'm sorry... for leaving you... alone..."
He held my hand and apologised.
After my parents suddenly died, I tried to act cheerful, joking and making snide remarks as much as possible, whether in front of my friends at school or when I was living with my grandparents, and I thought I didn't show my weak true self.
I thought I had created a character that was just a weirdly tough and playful guy, but maybe my behavior seemed somehow unnatural to Grandpa.
I had always thought of myself as cold-hearted, but when my grandfather's final words, "I'm sorry," were apologetic, I felt pathetic for making my grandfather, who was family member who understood and supported me until the very end, apologize. I probably wouldn't have cried that much when my parents died, but I cried so hard that I felt like all the water was gone from my body.
Even now I don't quite know why I cried so much, but I remember being surprised that my grandfather had been more worried about me than himself until the very end, despite the situation he was facing, his own death, and I remember feeling something inside me bursting at the love he had for me.
A few days after the person who had cared about me until the very end passed away and ascended into heaven in a puff of smoke, I was just about to graduate from high school, so I was living alone at my grandparents' house, doing housework and such.
"Oh, we're almost out of soy sauce and rice... shall we go shopping?"
Wanting to give something back in return for all the care they'd given me, I learned a lot of housework and cooking from my grandmother, and I became quite good at cooking myself, to the point where my childhood friends would sometimes come over to eat my cooking.
Then I suddenly remembered that I was running low on seasonings and rice in the kitchen, so I decided to head out to the nearby supermarket.
I put on black jeans, a long-sleeved black shirt, put my wallet in the shoulder bag that was hanging on the chair, put on my sneakers, and when I opened the front door and left, there was...
".....What is this?"
At that moment, the smell that appealed to my sense of smell was the smell of pure grass.
....Next, it was warm, dazzling sunlight.
....And that was a blue sky that stretched endlessly.
As I stepped out of the front door, I found myself standing on top of a small hill, surrounded by a beautiful grassland that was lush and swaying in the breeze; it made me wonder how far it continued, and the clear blue sky stretched out before me, the like of which I had never seen before, living in a relatively urban area.
Naturally, when I left my grandparents' house, which lived in a relatively urban area, there were no vast grasslands like those in the Alps where little girls could run around.
And of course, I haven't taken any drugs, or cocaine that'd make me strangely high and have hallucinations...no, I'm serious.
I looked back towards the entrance I had just come out of, but it was gone...
Unable to move a single step, unable to think of any reason or logic for what was happening, and feeling my heart start to beat faster and faster, I was just looking around me in this unfamiliar place when suddenly, a mass of darkness enveloped me.
It took me a moment to realise that it was a shadow of some kind, and the moment I felt myself being enveloped in the shadow, a sudden gust of wind blew around me.
I was hit by a gust of wind that reminded me of scenes I've often seen on TV or in movies, where a helicopter is flying and hovering close to people on the ground. I bent down, shielded my face with my arms from the wind, and looked up - and there it was!
"GUAAAAAAAAA...!!"
With its huge black body and huge, flapping wings, and its enormous jaws with a row of fangs the size of a human, stretched out towards me, it let out a roar that threatened to burst my eardrums... and then, together with the soil around me on which I was standing, it was swallowed by its huge mouth.....and then, with a snap, my consciousness reached its limit and I flew away...
...Ugh
...Where am I?
I was standing alone in a pitch black, empty space with no one around.
Looking around briefly, I found myself standing alone in the darkness, unable to see even a landmark, and when I looked down I could see no ground. The only way to describe the situation was that I was standing on "Black," and my consciousness was simply hazy.
Soon, a white, human-shaped mist appears in the black space.
Is that my grandmother?
....And what about Grandpa?
...Also, that was my childhood friend's...
The white mist figures quickly took on the appearance of people I knew well and gathered around me.
But why does everyone look so sad?
"Please..."
...Huh? What?
"…Come."
No, say it louder.
"...Wake up! —Enough already, wake up!!!"
With a sudden jolt, stronger than even I expected, I shot my upper body up.
As soon as I opened my eyes, I looked around. But gone was the beautiful meadow that looked like something out of the Alps — replaced instead by nothing but rocks. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks everywhere. A dry, barren land with only a few patches of green branches and leaves growing here and there. And above all… the sky was pink. A color I had never seen before in all my life.
Where… is this place? Where did that clear blue sky go? What the hell happened to me?
Strange events were unfolding one after another, far beyond what I could comprehend. My thoughts were already in a state of chaos, almost at the point where I wondered if I had completely lost my mind.
And then, from behind me, I heard the same female voice I had heard in my dream just moments ago.
"So, you've finally awakened. Honestly — you've got some nerve, making me wait like this."
In this desolate world of rocks and sand, under a sky dyed pink, I slowly turned my head toward the voice.
There, sitting on a rock about as tall as my waist, resting her right knee in her right arm, was a woman. To me, with the knowledge I had, she looked like someone wearing a cosplay costume.
She had long, straight black hair. Her ears were slightly pointed. Her face was unbelievably beautiful, almost like a doll, with black eyes shining sharply. Her skin was deeply tanned, almost bronze, giving off a wild sort of beauty.
"What's wrong? Can't you speak?"
She tilted her head slightly, as if genuinely puzzled, her doll-like expression adding to her mysterious charm. I had no idea how I was supposed to react.
"Ah... I can speak. But, um... where is this? And why am I here?"
I asked her the most natural and obvious question I could think of.
"Hmm? You don't remember? You were — eaten by me."
…Huh? ...What? Eaten? What's with this sudden horror story twist?
"Um... Eaten?"
"Yeah?"
That innocent tilt of her head was so absurdly cute that it could make any man forget everything else in this situation. But that didn't have much of an effect on me!
"I mean, what do you mean by 'eaten'? Like, seriously?"
"Oh, right. I just happened to find you, and then I went like this, *Gaaah!* opened my mouth wide, and swallowed you whole."
She even opened her mouth dramatically while saying that. But... there's no way I could fit inside such a small and cute mouth.
Wait... the one who ate me was that huge black shadow…
"That's right! I was suddenly swallowed in one bite by some giant black monster...."
"...Ah, yes. That giant shadow was me."
"...Huh? No, no, that thing didn't look anything like a human."
"The huge black dragon you saw, that was my true form, the mighty Black Supreme Dragon, the Midnight Dragon."
A dragon... A Supreme Dragon...? And this girl's true form...?
Everything she was saying sounded like something out of a fantasy story, no, like some over-the-top anime conspiracy. Combined with her cosplay-like appearance, my confusion just kept deepening.
The only thing I knew for certain... was that this situation had gone far beyond anything I could have imagined as a normal human being.
Her whole body was exposed, from a sleeveless, tight-fitting jet black swimsuit-like suit that looked like something a race queen might wear, to her bell-shaped chest with beautiful curves that looked like they were about to spill out, to the left and right sides of her waist and back, a black, frilly lace skirt that reached just above her knees, which was transparent? And because her lower abdomen in the front was not covered, the high-cut of the suit was digging into her body, which was a real eye-catcher. With her sitting on a rock with one leg held up, it was even more difficult to know where to look.
"Ah… Sorry, but… could you, like, explain everything from the beginning? You are…?"
"I told you already! I'm the dragon that rules over the western region of this Fronte Continent! The great Black Supreme Dragon, Midnight Dragon!"
Yup. The same stuff, huh? What kind of worldline is this? Need a hospital or something?
Or rather, if this is a dream, can I wake up already? The gritty feeling of the sand under my feet is way too real, constantly screaming at me that this isn't a dream.
"Ah, well, Black Supreme Dragon-san. What I want to know is: where am I? And why am I here? I'm guessing you know something about that?"
When I said that, she lightly hopped down from the rock and slowly walked toward me.
"You've got a point. Alright, I'll explain everything to you first. I'm the type who values classroom learning too, after all. But… black hair, black eyes, and quite a handsome face to top it off, right! What's your name, by the way?"
She stared at me up and down like she was appraising me, then gave me a bright smile and asked.
"…Yakumo… Kuzuryu Yakumo. Yakumo's my first name."
That's how I answered.
"Yakumo, huh… Hmm, alright then, Yakumo! For now, let's head to my base!"
Saying that, the Black Supreme Dragon-san took the lead and started walking along a narrow path between the rocks.
The narrow path sloped upward a bit, and after walking up that gentle incline for what felt like forever, I finally saw what looked like the summit.
Normally, if you were forced to walk this far in total silence, you'd probably complain at least once, that's just human nature. But considering I'd been thrown into this unknown place, or rather, eaten by a dragon and then thrown into this incomprehensible situation, the smartest move here was probably to follow her obediently and silently, since she seemed to control the situation here.
As I was thinking all that and staring at her back, I couldn't help but notice her race-queen-like suit was completely open at the back, and with every step, the area beyond her see-through lace skirt swayed from side to side, jiggling her beautifully curvy ass.
My eyes were glued to it.
To be clear, I'm not exactly a quiet pervert or anything.
If anything, I'm the type who openly says whatever I want to do.
Which is exactly why…
"…Damn, that's a fine ass."
"Hm, what? My ass?"
Hearing my clearly audible comment, the Black Supreme Dragon-san walking ahead suddenly turned back to look at me.
"Ah, sorry. It's just… your figure was so stunning that I blurted it out."
"Hmph, what's this, you're getting turned on by me, are you? Kukuku! Well, no matter, after this…"
"Eh? Did you say something?"
She looked back at me with narrowed eyes, grinning mischievously, and I couldn't help but feel a shiver run down my spine. But right now, securing my situation and prioritizing my own safety was more important.
The gentle incline still continued like my depressing life.
The gritty sensation of the sand beneath my sneakers.
The surrounding scenery was just endless rock formations on both sides, stretching far into the distance.
The landscape was utterly unremarkable, but for some reason, it didn't feel burdensome at all.
In front of me, there was the sight of beautiful curves swaying gently as she walked.
And finally, we reached what seemed to be the top of the hill.
When we were near the top, she turned around and pointed.
"Look! That's my castle. What do you think? Isn't it magnificent?"
She flashed me a childlike smile as she pointed toward what could only be called a fortress. The large structure was surrounded by towering black walls, more like a stronghold than a castle.
The walls formed a perfect square, and inside those walls were even more black barriers, with various buildings of different heights arranged inside. At the center, there was a particularly large building.
That building at the center resembled a European medieval castle, with dark black walls.
"It's impressively nig.. I mean black…" I muttered.
"Right? Isn't it wonderful?!" she exclaimed with excitement.
I felt a little taken aback, but she seemed to think that my reaction was one of awe at her "prideful castle," so I figured I might as well offer some praise.
"It definitely looks solid. From its appearance, it's clear it would be hard to attack. The height and thickness of those outer walls are incredible. It seems like cannons wouldn't even put a dent in it. Also, there are watchtowers all around, positioned so they can cover all directions. With the double outer and inner walls, the important buildings are inside the inner wall, so it looks like it would be easy to defend. Oh, and there's a moat between the walls! Raising the drawbridge could delay any attacks."
I'd meant to give a casual compliment, but I ended up pointing out every good detail I could see.
I've always loved games, like 'Clash of Kingdoms' or other strategy games, where you grow your country or fortify your castle. It's a feeling I've enjoyed, even if only in the games.
I'm also a huge fan of castles, and I've visited many famous ones in Japan, so it only made sense that I'd praise the design without holding back.
"Ahhh~!" she sighed, her eyes sparkling with joy, as though my praise had touched her heart.
"Yay, you understand, don't you, Yakumo! Yes! This castle was built to be easy to defend and hard to attack! That's the concept behind it!"
"Wait, you built this yourself?" I asked, surprised.
"Of course! It's my home, after all!" she responded proudly.
"I get that, but what you're saying goes beyond the usual human logic. Seriously, that's incredible," I said, still amazed.
"Well~ it's nothing special, really~ heh heh," she said, her visible happiness overflowing despite her modest words after hearing some manipulative admiring words from me.
"Now, let's head to my castle!" she said excitedly.
With that, Black Supreme Dragon-san started walking down a gentle slope with light steps, and I followed her, admiring her ass and how it jiggled so perfectly at every step, still watching her back intently as I walked behind her.