The Dragon Encyclopedia, a bestselling guide that has shaped adventurers’ expectations of dragons for fifty years, is due for a second edition. To mark the golden jubilee of this authoritative — if notoriously embellished — reference work, the publisher Blade and Comrades Publishing assembles a two-person revision team: Izumi, an editor with a childlike appearance who claims a curse keeps her trapped in a young body, and Alf, a down-on-his-luck adventurer hired as her bodyguard. Their mission is to travel the fantasy world and verify the encyclopedia’s entries, correcting the exaggerations, misinformation, and outright falsehoods that have accumulated over the decades.

As they investigate, Izumi and Alf encounter real dragons whose behavior often contradicts the book’s romanticized descriptions of gold, glory, and mystery. Their journey becomes a quest for truth beneath the legends: Izumi hopes that rewriting the encyclopedia accurately will break her curse, while Alf nurses a personal grudge against a dragon said to possess time-altering abilities. Along the way, the mismatched pair faces dangerous creatures, hidden settlements, and the challenge of distinguishing fact from fiction in a world where myth and reality are deeply intertwined. The narrative arc follows their growing partnership, the gradual revelation of why the encyclopedia was so riddled with errors, and the personal stakes each carries as they pursue their separate but converging goals.