When he set the skinned rabbit on the fire, Is's face was as gloomy as the sky before a blizzard, but his mood could only be described as self-abandonment.

He is the only ice dragon in the world, the greatest magical creature...... Roasting a rabbit for a little wild man who came out of nowhere.

But how stupid is that compared to buying eczema medicine for a savage baby?

He wilted and swirled the branches, watching the grease drip into the fire. Naria had taught him how to grill his favorite leg of lamb over a charcoal fire, and it was no different, but unfortunately there were no spices, and no matter how beautiful the roast was, it didn't taste good......

But at least it smells good.

The child on the other side continued to gnaw on his fingers, staring greedily at the rabbit like a wolf cub that had been hungry for three days.

When Isis went to catch the rabbit, he ran up the tree again, but when Iss began to tear down the wall panels of the hut and roast the rabbit, he scurried down under the tree and stared at Isis vigilantly for a long time, and finally could not resist the temptation of food, and silently touched it and crouched down by the fire.

Occasionally, he would glance at Iss with those bright black eyes, but soon he would turn back to the rabbit, and concentrate on it, not blinking, as if he feared that the rabbit in front of him would run away from the fire in the blink of an eye.

Before it could be cooked, the boy could not wait to snatch the rabbit from the fire, and gobbled it down silently as he changed hands incessantly. In an instant, the rabbit was a pile of bones.

He even gnawed the rabbit's head clean.

Ise glared at the pile of bones. He really didn't have much reason to be happy, but when he came back to his senses, the corners of his mouth were involuntarily slightly upturned.

The little boy, who had eaten to his heart's content, straightened his back, touched his belly with satisfaction, and suddenly ran to the side and began to dig a pit in the snow, and then, under Is's surprised gaze, he picked up a metal object larger than his head, loaded it with snow, put it on the fire, and began to boil water.

It was a helmet -- a dwarven helmet. Beautifully crafted and functional, the diamond-shaped pattern of the intersecting rings on the cheek guards shines in the firelight.

It's likely that this is the helmet that the dwarven undead lost.

Iss didn't know how to face the scene in front of him with such an expression. He wanted to laugh a little, but he thought it was weird.

"Where did you get this?"

Finally he asked.

Perhaps thanks to the rabbit, this time the child finally stopped pretending to be deaf and dumb.

"Picked up!" he replied briefly, then glanced at Isis warily.

"Mine!" he declared solemnly, with a serious expression.

“...... Yours. Eth nodded in agreement, "But do you know what this is?"

The boy threw him another contemptuous look: "Humpty Dumpty wears it on his head!"

So, he had seen him, the undead, and still dared to boil water with his helmet to drink?

“...... Do you know that Humpty Dumpty is dead?" asked Is, "dead and alive?"

This time, he finally saw a hint of fear in the child's round eyes.

"It's not that Humpty Dumpty!"

The boy looked angry and panicked.

"The other! not dead, not alive!

Iss frowned.

"How many Humpty Dumpty men are there? How did they die? Did you see them all?"

The boy stared at the fire, as if not wanting to answer a word.

Threat - or temptation?

Iss weighed it and reluctantly realized that it seemed that the latter was more effective.

"Tell me...... I'll catch another rabbit for you to roast. He seduced with a straight face and a threatening tone.

“...... Roast the rabbit first. The boy said.

- They made a deal.

Little Monkey Boy - That's how Iss decided to call this monkey-like agile and skinny boy.

The communication with the monkeys was quite difficult. The boy probably hadn't spoken to anyone for a long time, and he was always stumbling and stumbling, waving his hands and squeaking when he was in a hurry. Iss felt that his patience in his life was running out, and he was squeezing out everything he saw little by little.

The dilapidated wooden house had been the boy's home until one night a few days ago, three dwarves broke into the door.

They came from the south, panting and suffocating, rather embarrassed, as if they were fleeing some ferocious beast.

Before the boy could escape, he was caught by a dwarf. At first he thought he was going to be killed—he had never seen a dwarf before, and the short, fat, bearded ones looked menacing and bloodstained, and they didn't look like good people.

But the dwarf just threw him out of the house and told him, "Run, the sooner the better, get out of here!"

The boy obediently ran, but not far. He climbed the tall spruce tree, and there was another nest of his in the tree. In his experience, to avoid wild beasts, climbing into a tree is much more useful than "running".

But it was not the beasts that were chasing, but a bunch of savages.

The barbarians were not quite what the boy had ever seen. They walked in a strange and silent manner, not making a sound from beginning to end, and the roar of the three dwarves made one think that there were several times as many dwarves in the cabin.

The dwarves used the hut to resist for a while, but in the end they were unable to escape. A dwarf staggered out of the hut and fell to the ground, blood staining the snow in a dark streak.

But the most terrifying moment for the boy was when a man who was not tall came out of nowhere.

He used a twig to scratch around the dead dwarf on the ground, scattering some kind of shimmering powder, chanting strange incantations. The eerie melody filled the boy's heart with fear, but also with longing. His limbs, stiff from fear and cold, stopped him and kept him safe in the tall trees, hiding from everyone's eyes and ears.

He watched as the dead dwarf next to the hut stood up again, stood there in a daze, and then, as if given some order, stiffened his body and slowly walked into the forest.

And the terrible man led the barbarians north, and another dwarf, who did not know whether to live or die, was carried on the shoulders of a barbarian, and his helmet fell to the ground, unheeded.

The boy stayed in the tree for a long, long time, so long that he was almost frozen and did not dare to climb down the tree. He remembered very well that there were three dwarves and one ...... Is he already dead, or is he dead and alive, waiting for him quietly in that dark cabin?

It wasn't until the pale sun rose above his head that the boy mustered up the courage to climb down and tremble into the smashed wooden house.

In the end, the dwarf died in the cabin, his head hit by something heavy, his flesh blurred and unrecognizable.

The boy cowered in the corner again and waited for a long time, making sure that the dead man would not get up again before daring to come closer.

He tried to drag the dwarf out of the house, but he couldn't do it with his strength. A few wolves that followed the smell of blood helped him—after they had gnawed the corpse to the bone, the boy crawled down from his high shelter again, dragged out what was left of the dwarf, and dug a hole and buried it.

But he left that cloak behind. Even if it's covered in blood, it's warm enough after washing and drying, and a dwarf who is dead with only bones will need it more than he does.

Isis stared at the dancing flames. He had never heard of necromancers acting so blatantly, what kind of power had they been given to drive the undead of dwarves and barbarians so easily?

Lydia ...... He thought again of the black-haired, green-eyed, languid and gorgeous female mage. As a child he liked her very much. Her spells are always flashy and exaggerated, and even if it's just a simple light spell, she likes to make the light bloom into a flower. Ragan teased that she was like a trickster and tried everything to attract everyone's attention, but in fact, no one dared to underestimate her strength.

"She's probably the best of us. Nia once said to him, "Maybe the half-elves are the most powerful." Hey, how about we figure out how to get them into a fight?"

The thief was grinning, apparently not taking it seriously. If the illusion seen in Ankland's Underground was ever happening a few months ago...... Then they did fight, and Keller Brian clearly didn't win.

Four to one, Ragan died, Nia died, and Eren lost a leg.

The half-elf lost completely.

If Lydia became the leader of the necromancers, she certainly wouldn't be satisfied with the hiding, but what did she want to do? Iss didn't even know why she became a necromancer.

Alan apparently knew, but never revealed a word. The man he once called "Father" was hiding so many secrets that Iss was not sure how much of the kindness that had been shown to him on his aging face was true......

Isis was startled and came back to his senses. But there was no way to focus on the necromancer's machinations.

Across from him, the little monkey boy had already begun to nibble on his second rabbit.

"What about your parents?" asked Iss, who finally couldn't help but ask.

The boy looked at him, but did not speak.

“...... Do you know where the mouth of the Kuz River is?" asked Is.

The boy nodded as he scratched between his teeth.

"You can go there...... Find a guy named Borena and tell him everything you see...... He will take care of you. ”

Whether what Borena said to him was true or not, Iss believed that he had at least taken good care of his own people, otherwise he would not have been so popular in that mixed town, and he would not have treated a young boy who had brought him news.

But the boy shook his head rather dryly.

"I can also take you to a nearby village...... Valand and the like. ”

The boy shook his head again.

"Why? Don't you want to be able to sleep in bed every day without going hungry and without worrying about wild beasts?" asked Iss, puzzled.

This time the boy was silent for a long time before giving him an answer.

"I'm bad. He looked at him earnestly, "Very bad." ”

After being stunned for a while, Iss couldn't help but feel angry.

"Who told you that? How old are you? Ten years old, how bad can you be?"

The boy lowered his head and gnawed on the rabbit wholeheartedly, and did not speak again.

Isis didn't know what else to say or what else to do.

As he left, he watched as the boy climbed back up the tree. Perhaps still a little frightened, he never lived in the hut again, but he stubbornly refused to leave the neighborhood.

"Mine. He had slapped the dirty ground and explained to Is, his eyes shining surprisingly brightly in the darkness.

"My" what?...... Home?

For a moment, Iss almost wanted to take him back to the cave, but he ended up leaving in silence.

That's not right. It is not right for a human to raise a dragon or a dragon to raise a person.

He will not be able to figure out who he is, he will not know his place in the world......

That's not right.