The guild is loud like always, voices mixing together as adventurers laugh, argue, and complain about their jobs while Luna stands behind the counter sorting through papers, thinking it's just another normal day.
Then the doors open.
At first, she doesn't pay attention, but then she hears it—a heavy dragging sound scraping against the floor, slow and sharp, making her pause. She looks up.
And freezes.
Noir is walking in, dragging something behind him.
It's a scale.
A huge black scale, almost as big as his body, rough at the edges and giving off a faint, dark aura that makes her chest tighten the moment she sees them.
The noise in the guild slowly dies down as people start noticing.
"…What is that?"
"…That isn't normal…"
"…Wait… are those dragon scales?"
Noir keeps walking like nothing is wrong, step by step, dragging it across the floor until he reaches the counter, then he drops tt.
THUD.
The floor shakes slightly and the entire guild goes silent.
Luna stares at the scale, then slowly lifts her eyes to him.
"Noir…" she says quietly, her voice calm even though her mind isn't, "…what is this?"
"I want to exchange it."
He says it so simply it almost feels wrong.
Luna takes a slow breath before speaking again.
"Everyone, leave."
Her voice isn't loud, but it's enough.
No one argues.
Chairs scrape, boots move, and within seconds the guild is empty, the doors closing behind the last person.
Now it's just the two of them.
Luna looks back at the scale, and even now she can feel it—the aura coming off it is still strong, heavy in the air like pressure pressing down on her skin.
"…Where did you get this?" she asks, her eyes locking onto him.
"It was in the dungeon I cleared."
She knows that's a lie immediately.
"…Don't lie to me," she says, her tone sharper now.
"Your the one who gave me the quest," he responds. "How could you not know there was a dragon there?"
"that cave was full with mediocre monsters, of there was a dragon scale there, someone would have noticed it a long time ago."
She crosses her arms slightly and leans forward just a bit.
"For a seven-year-old… you're too strong. I doubt you would go to a cave full of weak monsters. No you must have gone to another cave, so tell me the truth."
Noir stays quiet for a moment, then answers.
"I got it from a wyvern."
Luna's expression hardens.
"No."
Her voice is firm now as she gestures to the scales.
"This is too large to be from a wyvern. The size and the shape… it matches a dragon."
Silence fills the room for a second.
"It was a wyvern," Noir repeats without hesitation.
Luna's crimson eyes begin to glow faintly, and the air in the guild suddenly grows heavier, like something invisible is pressing down on everything around them. The wooden counter creaks slightly under the pressure.
Even now, the scales are still releasing a powerful aura, and she can feel it clearly.
A wyvern could never produce something like this.
"…A wyvern couldn't emit this much power," she says slowly, her voice low. "But a dragon could."
The pressure increases just a little more, not enough to crush him, but enough to test him.
"Dragons aren't normal creatures, Noir. They're world conquerors, beings so large they're bigger than the world itself, and they can destroy the world in seconds."
She pauses for a moment before continuing.
"But they can make themselves smaller, small enough to exist here, and even then… they're still strong enough to destroy a whole capital in minutes."
The room stays silent as her glowing eyes remain fixed on him.
"There are only ten dragons in this world. The rest are outside it, wandering the universe. They only stay away because of a pact they made with powerful mages seven hundred years ago."
Her gaze shifts briefly to the scales before returning to Noir.
"…And judging from this, you probably fought a black dragon."
Silence.
Heavy and still.
"It was a wyvern," Noir says again.
Luna just watches him for a long moment, her eyes still glowing, before the pressure in the room slowly fades and the air returns to normal.
"…You're really going to stick with that?" she asks quietly.
Noir doesn't say anything else.
Luna exhales softly and straightens up.
"…Fine. I won't force it out of you."
She pauses for a second, then looks at him seriously.
"But listen carefully, Noir. If anyone finds out about this, you won't just get attention… you'll bring danger to yourself."
Her eyes move back to the scales one more time before she speaks again.
"…I'll get these appraised."
Her tone sounds normal again, but her mind isn't calm at all.
Because she knows one thing for sure.
Noir is lying.
And whatever he really fought—
It couldn't have been a wyvern.