Dark Warlock in the Apocalypse

Snap, crackle, smash.

Soon, a head, arms, and legs broke through, and the egg finally collapsed entirely. Only the bottom portion of the egg remained, like a small stand. Sitting on top of it was a tiny baby dragon.

"Kyururuk."

The dark little dragon let out a cute sound as it looked up at him. Despite being a reptile, it had an oddly cute appearance.

\'They did say it would already recognize me as its master,\' Justin thought, swallowing nervously as he extended his finger towards it.

The baby dragon blinked its eyes and rubbed its cheek against his finger. It was clear that the dragon recognized him as its parent.

"Kyiiik!"

The baby dragon let out a happy cry as he gently stroked its head.

After a moment of bonding, he left the dragon alone for a while and stepped outside, shouting, "The dragon\'s hatched!"

Hearing his words, his resting companions threw open their doors and rushed out.

"A dragon! It\'s a real dragon!"

"Since it\'s a baby, it\'s still pretty small."

Everyone gathered at Justin\'s house, eager to see the baby dragon. Despite being surrounded by unfamiliar faces right after hatching, the little dragon seemed unbothered. In fact, it even flopped down, looking indifferent, as if it were bored.

Derek reached out his hand toward the creature.

"Come here, little guy... Whoa!"

"Kyaaak!"

Snap!

Derek recoiled immediately as the dragon snapped at him, almost biting down hard on his hand. The sound of its jaws snapping shut could be heard in the air.

"B-boss, this thing\'s way too aggressive!" Derek said nervously, pulling back.

"Really? It\'s nice to me, though," Justin replied.

"Kyiiik!" The baby dragon rubbed its head against Justin\'s finger again, its attitude completely different from before. Derek looked dumbfounded at the sudden change.

"Look at this little guy, already able to tell people apart from the moment it\'s born," Derek muttered in disbelief.

"No, this is probably normal," Ethan chimed in, nodding as if he understood something.

"Dragons are known to be creatures that embody arrogance and ferocity. The Lord is its master, so it\'s an exception, but to everyone else, it\'ll naturally be aggressive," Ethan explained.

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"Come on, it\'s probably just like that with Derek . You\'ve got to approach it gently so it doesn\'t get scared," Zachary said confidently, extending his hand toward the dragon. "Whoa!"

"Kyaaak!"

Zachary quickly withdrew his hand. It seemed he had experience with raising animals before, but the black dragon wasn\'t an ordinary creature. No matter how gently Zachary tried to approach it, the moment his hand got close, the dragon would snap at him aggressively. Yet, when the hand retreated, it would snort and move back, as if annoyed.

It wasn\'t biting out of fear—it seemed to find the attempt to touch it insulting.

"It\'s really fierce! Are we sure it was just born an hour ago?" Zachary exclaimed.

"Yeah, it hasn\'t even been an hour since it hatched," Justin confirmed.

"I\'ve never seen a newborn animal go straight for an attack like this. I guess even baby dragons are still dragons," Zachary marveled.

Though the others seemed put off by the dragon\'s behavior, Justin found himself even more fond of the creature. A dragon that only obeyed its master and refused to yield to anyone else—it meant that while the dragon could be killed, stealing its ownership was almost impossible.

\'If there had been even a slight chance of it turning to an enemy, I might have been worried,\' he thought. But seeing how it acted, those worries vanished. Even as a newborn, the dragon rejected everyone except its master. There was no need to worry about someone taming or controlling it through persuasion.

At that moment, Rachel spoke up, drawing her attention. "It seems to like me."

"Huh?"

Justin quickly turned his head, surprised. To his astonishment, the baby dragon, which had been rejecting everyone else\'s touch, was now holding tightly onto Rachel\'s hand. Not only that, but it was even licking her hand like a puppy.

"Wait, why is it licking her after snapping at all of us?"

"Does this thing know how to tell apart men and women?" Derek joked.

"Don\'t be ridiculous," Rachel chided, rolling her eyes.

However, Ethan seemed to take it more seriously, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "No, it could actually be something related to that."

"Are you saying the dragon is sexist? That\'s ridiculous!" Rachel protested.

"It\'s not about sexism. Look closely. It\'s completely focused on licking her hand and nothing else," Ethan pointed out.

Everyone turned their attention to the baby dragon. Indeed, it wasn\'t pushing its head toward her for petting, just licking her hand over and over again. Whenever Rachel tried to stroke it, the dragon would grab her hand and go right back to licking it. It licked so much that its saliva began to drip from her hand.

"Why is it licking me so much?" Rachel asked, bewildered.

"I have a theory, though it\'s just a guess," Ethan said.

"What\'s your theory?" Justin asked.

"In ancient myths and legends, there\'s often mention of evil dragons favoring the tender flesh of young maidens."

"...."

A heavy silence fell over the group as the dragon continued licking Rachel\'s hand. Now that they looked closer, it did seem more like the dragon was sampling some tasty food rather than showing affection.

"Kyuruk! Chuurr!"

"O-oppa, this thing is scaring me," Rachel said, her voice trembling slightly.

Justin let out a grimly smile. "Looks like we\'ll need to be cautious while raising it."

The black dragon was fierce to anyone else, but with Justin, it was as docile as a puppy. Before long, the baby dragon clambered onto his shoulder and perched there comfortably. Although it would probably outgrow that spot in time, for now, it wasn\'t much of a burden to carry around.

Deciding to keep the dragon with him, Justin gave it the most important thing—its name.

"Your name is Fafnir. How does that sound?"

"Kyiiik!" The baby dragon let out a pleased cry when Justin named it after the legendary dragon from Norse mythology.

Watching this, Derek grumbled under his breath.

"Isn\'t that name a bit too grand? Just calling it \'Drako\' (a simple term for dragon) would be enough."

"Kyaaak!"

"It doesn\'t seem to like that," Derek remarked as Fafnir growled in response.

"Can it really understand us?" Derek blinked in surprise at Fafnir\'s reaction.

Well, considering it\'s a dragon, it wouldn\'t be too surprising if it could understand human speech.

After naming the dragon, Justin decided to visit the store to find some food for Fafnir. As soon as the merchant NPC, Algrim, saw the dragon, he let out a startled cry.

"A dragon!? By the gods, you\'ve acquired a dragon!?"

"It just happened somehow. Do you know what kind of food this little one needs?"

"Black dragons will eat any kind of meat. But they don\'t eat anything other than meat," Algrim explained, smiling without a hint of discomfort despite Justin\'s now informal speech since becoming a lord.