In a ruined battlefield, the massive body of a golden dragon lay motionless in a vast, deep crater in the ground. Red blood seeped from deep wounds across its once-radiant golden scales. Large chunks of its outer shell were missing, revealing only raw, bloody flesh underneath.
From the edge of the crater, Miria, dressed lightly, gazed down at the dragon that was slowly losing its breath—but had not yet fully lost its life. Her eyes were calm as they focused on the majestic creature, though her thoughts were elsewhere.
The dragon below was the summoned hero of this world—specifically, a Monster Hero. Miria had faced her fair share of monster heroes, and they all had a few things in common. They were always monsters: demons, lesser beasts, a faction of dragons, or any creature that lived by instinct more than reason. That's why these kinds of heroes were classified as weapons—their wild will was bound to a chosen individual of this world. They were used solely as tools to fight the Demon Queen.
Some of those monster heroes developed a mind will of their own, like the dragon under Miria's gaze. Yet even so, the bond that defined them as monster heroes, as weapons, couldn't be shattered by intelligent will alone.
This particular monster hero was bound to someone from this planet. But compared to her, he was easy to deal with—so Miria had simply killed him first. She would've done the same to the hero, just so she could return to her domain—to her beloved Lian. But in the last moment, Miria paused.
Her distant gaze returned to the present as she leapt into the crater, landing atop the dragon's enormous body, right beneath its eyes. The beast opened one of them, revealing a golden slit pupil like a burning sun. The dragon's calm gaze focused on Miria's small figure—insignificant beneath the massive eye—but she could still feel the fear behind that forced calm.
"Tell me, Hero… how many years has it been since you were summoned?" Miria finally spoke, looking straight into the beast's eye.
The dragon blinked several times—each blink stirring gusts of wind that whipped at Miria's hair and clothes, threatening to throw her off. But she didn't move, as if she were anchored to the colossal body beneath her by some unseen force. She still waited for the beast's answer, unshaken.
"Thirty years, and three after your arrival... I wish you'd come sooner!" the dragon finally replied—not with her mouth, but through a voice that echoed in Miria's mind. It sounded like a disgruntled girl with a tone of dark amusement.
"That's a long time… Good. Useful," Miria nodded to herself repeatedly before returning her focus to the golden sun in the beast's eye. "I take it you know this world better than I care to learn. So let me ask you this: what do you think would make a fitting gift for me to take from here? A souvenir… for my beloved?"
The expression of the colossal beast didn't change—not that Miria could see it from where she stood—but the eye losing focus for a few seconds was enough to reveal the anger brewing inside. If that wasn't enough, the slight tremor in its massive body—more like an earthquake—made it even clearer. Then came her words:
"This damn world feared me, rejected me, enslaved me! So like you, I didn't care to learn about it, let alone answer your question. My only comfort is that I'll die knowing, and happily so, that this world and its people won't live beyond me. If I had the chance—the freedom—to do what you're doing… to them… I'd do it without hesitation. Maybe I'll even kill them again in Hell. Though I doubt I'll get that chance…"
Miria raised an eyebrow. The words weren't exactly heroic—but they had come from a hero. "And why not?"
The dragon laughed again with dark amusement as she replied in Miria's mind, "Why not...? Because I'm a sweetheart. I'm definitely going to Heaven!"
Miria chuckled a little at the monster hero's joke but didn't add anything. She was disappointed that she couldn't get guidance on the gift she had promised Lian. Before, she had so many ideas in mind—but now, being in this world, outside her domain, what she once thought would be suitable suddenly felt… inappropriate.
'Maybe I could take him on a date to the Demon World?' Miria thought to herself, and quickly found herself agreeing with the idea. 'Lian might even recover some of his memories in Narot's nature?!' Again, she nodded more eagerly at the thought.
She had never considered taking Lian to Narut, the demon planet, because she always thought of it as merely a place to store her troops. She never thought that the demon race might build instead of destroy. But maybe what she had been… wasn't necessarily a reflection of her entire race. If she was born to destroy, it didn't mean the demon race as a whole was the same. After all, even she destroyed for the sake of balance.
'We could explore the planet together!' Miria thought with growing excitement, a wide, silly smile spreading across her lips. 'Yes, we can do that! Even I barely know anything about the world the demons built!'
"You… you're smiling a smile that's not evil!" The Monster hero's alarmed voice broke into Miria's thoughts. Her golden pupil was trembling slightly as it focused on Miria's small form.
"So what?" Miria straightened her back and looked again into the wounded dragon's eye.
"That!... That scares me more than death itself!" the monster hero replied with a mocking laugh, then added, "Come on, hurry up and kill me. I don't want that smile to be my last memory. But we don't choose how we die, do we?"
Miria smiled under the dragon's gaze but made no move to act on her words. Instead, she said, "You have a good sense of humor… but mine's better than yours." Her grin widened. "Wanna hear a riddle?"
The dragon's pupil trembled again, her voice trembling in Miria's head. "Nooo, I don't see how a riddle would help me—your smile already did enough damage…" Her tone turned into a desperate plea, "Just kill me. I'm really in a lot of pain… and I hate this feeling of life slipping away slowly." Then her tone turned mocking again as she added, "Though it's only slightly worse than your not-evil smile!... A riddle? I think a riddle from you would end me worse than the thirty-three years I've lived here!"
Miria's grin only grew wider as if she hadn't heard a word of the dragon's complaints. After a few seconds of silence, she finally spoke.
"What is a gift…
that can't be wrapped…
but would still look good with a red ribbon?"
"…What?" the dragon hero asked after a pause.
Miria didn't answer directly. She leapt backward from the dragon's head, back to the crater's edge. She took one last full look at the enormous dragon's body, and finally allowed her smile to widen completely, no longer under control.
"A hero with a plea, became a gift for all to see… I like it. Poetic!"
The dragon didn't respond. Her breath was ragged, her gaze uneasy. Only after a long moment of thought—when Miria's words seemed foreign to her, like they were in an alien language—was she finally able to say, "Nooo…!"
Miria leaned forward, hands on her knees, and said softly—but audibly. "Yes!"
Then she continued, her voice almost singing. "I'll wrap you in red ribbons… And write on your forehead: 'To Lian, with love.'"