I’m in Trouble Because The Emperor Thinks My Time is Limited - Chapter 19

“Dragon… Urgh! A dragon, what nonsense!”

Because of the hand squeezing my neck, my voice couldn’t come out properly.

“You have a scent similar to mine. There’s no use pretending otherwise. It seems you’ve been amusing yourself amongst the humans, but it’s unfortunate that you’ve been caught by my eye.”

Just as I started to question the mention of a similar scent, something changed in his gem-like eyes. The black pupils elongated vertically, transforming into something resembling the eyes of a reptile.

I already knew what those inhuman pupils signified.

The cold gaze reminded me of Laroche.

“A d-dragon…”

The man didn’t reply, but the eerie glow in his elongated pupils was answer enough.

He was a dragon.

Finally, I understood the surreal beauty he possessed.

But I still couldn’t grasp why he was choking me.

I tried to free myself, but his overpowering strength made it impossible to even push him away.

If he applied just a little more force with his fingers, my fragile human neck would snap like a twig.

Instinctive fear overwhelmed me.

Driven by a survival instinct, I glanced in the direction where Sionel had disappeared, but the man noticed my gaze and laughed mockingly.

“Even dragons struggle to survive, just like the rest.”

There was an underlying anger in his mocking tone.

“But it’s pointless. The humans you’re waiting for won’t know what’s happening here. I’ve blocked the entrance with magic, so they’ll only come in after you’re already dead.”

The man lowered his head close to my neck, sniffing briefly, and then looked me straight in the eyes.

“But your scent… It’s unusually faint. Is it because your soul was separated?”

He muttered something incomprehensible, his gaze evaluating me.

“And to think you can’t even break free from this level of power.”

“Y-you think you could do it easily?”

Even in this desperate situation, I shouted back defiantly.

Despite my actions, the words begging for mercy were on the tip of my tongue. But no matter how much I pleaded, I didn’t think this man would let me go.

Desperate to survive, I mustered all my strength and kicked him.

I hit him in the stomach, but all he did was frown slightly without even budging.

“You’re really weak, aren’t you?”

This time, his reaction was purely one of astonishment.

I was suffocating, on the verge of death, and he was making comments like that? I thought I was truly going to die when, suddenly, he released his grip on my neck.

As the sudden rush of air filled my lungs, I coughed violently, and the man stepped back, watching me with a curious expression.

He seemed genuinely confused.

“Why?”

But I was the one who was truly baffled.

This man mistook a perfectly normal human for a dragon, then suddenly started choking me—he was completely insane. No, a mad dragon.

“Since you can polymorph into a human form, you’re no hatchling. So why are you this weak?”

“Because I’m human.”

I managed to speak while rubbing my sore throat, causing the man’s face to contort with displeasure.

“Are you stupid?”

It seemed he didn’t believe me.

“If you’re this weak, your mother wouldn’t have left you alone like this.”

“I said I’m human!”

Repeating myself, I saw his face twist in annoyance.

“I won’t fall for that nonsense. Just—”

“And I don’t have a mother,” I interrupted him, my voice rough and hoarse from the pain in my throat. “I never had any family to protect me.”

I had no intention of being helplessly victimized, but after three days of lying in bed, my body was weak. My heart pounded violently, a mixture of fear and frustration overwhelming me.

“I don’t know why you’re trying to kill me, but I have no intention of dying quietly.”

“You’re a dragon.”

Before I could finish, he latched onto my words again.

Frustrated by his repeated accusations, I froze for a moment as I looked at his face. He was disturbingly expressionless.

“Even without parents, another group would have taken care of you. Dragons are selfish, but they are fiercely protective of their own.”

This endless back-and-forth was tiresome, but I had nothing else to say.

“I’m telling you, I’m human!”

The man bit his lip at my enraged cry.

***

Melaine first discovered Lindel when she was unconscious, cradled in Sionel’s arms.

It was surprising that the human, who had stopped breathing, was still alive, but Melaine quickly understood why when he caught a familiar scent from Lindel’s body.

‘A polymorphed dragon, huh.’

Yet, not all his questions were answered. Who could have pushed a dragon to the brink of death like that?

Lindel’s lifeless body was barely clinging to life, her weakly beating heart the only thing keeping her alive.

It was odd for a dragon to appear so fragile, but to Melaine, that wasn’t particularly important.

What mattered to him was that another dragon had appeared before him.

Dragons needed to be eradicated.

Despite being one of their kind, Melaine’s hatred for dragons ran deep.

That was why, uncharacteristically, he stepped forward in front of the group of humans. Rather than let her die, he had a more sadistic purpose: to bring her back to life and let her experience deeper despair.

When he used his cursed ability to bind Lindel’s separated soul back to her body, Melaine made yet another surprising discovery.

The emperor seemed to genuinely love the dragon. Even though Lindel had yet to regain consciousness, the emperor never left her side.

The dark circles under his eyes and his pale face reflected his sincerity, and Melaine could read the truth in his expression.

But all he could do was sneer at the emperor’s feelings.

‘A pitiful human who doesn’t even realize she’s being played by a dragon.’

There was no way a dragon could truly care for a human who lived but a fleeting moment in comparison.

Melaine also sensed a strange scent coming from the emperor, but he didn’t bother to look into it further.

For him, all that mattered was killing the dragon. He didn’t care about their circumstances.

And soon enough, the moment Melaine had been waiting for arrived.

When he gripped Lindel’s neck as she woke, he felt a rush of euphoria.

Her pulse, conveyed through his fingertips, was erratic. He could feel her anxiety, and her terrified eyes revealed both fear and confusion.

Before her, Melaine deliberately revealed his true identity. He believed that by doing so, Lindel would stop pretending to be frightened and show her true form.

However, Lindel’s reaction was strange.

“A d-dragon…”

Despite her weakened state, the fact that she couldn’t even loosen the grip of a hand that didn’t carry any magical power was puzzling.

‘Her scent has faded.’

In addition, the scent he had dismissed as weak because of her unstable soul grew even fainter after she regained consciousness.

Weak.

Melaine began to think that the dragon he had encountered this time was truly weak, and with that, he loosened his grip.

What he hated most were the arrogant bastards drunk on their own power. Killing such a weak creature with his own hands felt distasteful.

‘Why is she so weak?’

Melaine wondered if he should leave. Killing a weak dragon went against his nature.

But then Lindel said something strange.

“Because I’m human.”

“Are you stupid?”

Melaine seriously wondered if this dragon was a fool. She couldn’t even hide her dragon scent and yet claimed to be human—a statement only a fool could make.

“If you’re this weak, your mother wouldn’t have left you alone like this.”

“I said I’m human!”

Melaine grew irritated by Lindel’s constant lies.

‘Maybe I should just kill her.’

She wasn’t a young dragon, so there was no reason to show mercy. However, what Lindel said next made Melaine pause.

“I won’t fall for that nonsense. Just—”

“And I don’t have a mother,” I interrupted him, my voice rough and hoarse from the pain in my throat. “I never had any family to protect me.”

Her raspy voice was filled with anger and despair.

“I don’t know why you’re trying to kill me, but I have no intention of dying quietly.”

Even though her face was pale with fear, Lindel still had the will to live. That sight made Melaine think of his younger self.

But that couldn’t be possible.

There was no way this dragon was anything like him.

“You’re a dragon. Even without parents, another group would have taken care of you. Dragons are selfish, but they are fiercely protective of their own.”

Their own.

Melaine was never part of that group, but Lindel would have been protected by them.

“I told you, I’m human!”

“Again with that?”

Her enraged scream was grating to his ears.

Human, she kept saying. Melaine couldn’t understand why Lindel was so obsessed with the idea of being human.

Then, Lindel sighed deeply, as if exhausted by the conversation. Just as Melaine was about to say something in annoyance, she suddenly began to cough violently.

“Hey, are you alright?” Melaine asked instinctively, as Lindel’s condition appeared to be worsening.

She collapsed to the floor, curling into a ball as her uncontrollable coughing wracked her body.

Her small frame trembled, and Melaine, almost unconsciously, reached out his hand.

“Blood?”

When she lowered her hand from her mouth, there was blood staining her palm.

“I’m human.”

Staring at the blood on her hand, Lindel muttered weakly, her previous anger gone.

Melaine thought there were more pressing matters at hand, but seeing her cough up more blood, he fell silent.

Finally, her coughing subsided, and Lindel wiped the blood off her hand onto her clothes.

Melaine frowned at how familiar her actions seemed.

“There’s no way the dragons would’ve taken care of a human like me.”

“……!”

No one would take care of her. That meant she had been abandoned by her group. To Melaine, that was a significant statement.

He was shocked, his body stiffening as Lindel looked at him with resigned eyes.

“How would I know about being part of a group?”

Her tired eyes dropped again to her bloodstained clothes.

When Lindel fell silent, Melaine struggled to find words. He began to think that maybe Lindel had lived a life similar to his own.

“Were you abandoned?”

When her dark, sunken eyes met his, Melaine realized that his suspicions were correct.

They were alike.