Chapter 254: Family Gathering (3)
0% “Pardon?”
“I said, what exactly did you just say?”
“Uh, well... um...”
Though the die had been cast, my uneasiness hadn’t diminished in the slightest.
It was just a simple question, and yet it felt like I couldn’t breathe due to his suffocating aura.
I didn’t even want to imagine what might happen if that man – no, that dragon – were to truly direct his wrath at me.
“... Aha.”
As I hesitated for a moment, lost in my thoughts, the old man’s lips curled into a smile, and he whispered in a friendly tone.
“Could it be... you were joking with me?”
“......?”
“I asked what kind of dragon you are, and you answered human— was it a polymorph pun?”
For a moment, I was utterly dumbfounded. What in the world was this man – no, this dragon – talking about?
“Hahaha... A millennium-old joke, is it? That’s quite clever of you, I’m impressed.”
“I wasn’t joking...”
“Come now, don’t push it too far.”
Muttering under my breath, I felt the atmosphere grow even chillier, and the old man glanced at me reproachfully before speaking again.
“Are you seriously trying to claim that you’re an actual human?”
“... Yes.”
“Haha, surely that’s impossible. Enough joking around.”
I tried to nod again, watching his reactions carefully, but the old man had already dismissed me entirely, launching into his own narrative.
“I have much to do, what with preparing to take over the world, and here I am indulging in jokes with you. Ridiculous.”
“It’s not me joking; it’s the world that’s joking with me...”
“Even under less-than-ideal circumstances, I went out of my way to prepare that dimwitted fool tied up next to my daughter for this moment.”
I wanted to shove the truth into his thick skull right then and there, but sensing that he was about to explain something crucial, I held my tongue.
“..........”
I also made a conscious effort to ignore the professor, who had been staring at me with a dazed, almost foolish look the entire time.
“Did you know? That idiot may be foolish, but she has a rather unique ability.”
“I-I... I’m not an idiot...”
“The fool can summon beings from dimensions beyond ours. Higher-dimensional entities far above this world.”
Ignoring Lovecraft’s indignant muttering, the old man smirked faintly as he continued.
“And that, you see, is the very power I’ve been searching for over the past several millennia.”
“... I see.”
“Indeed. The curse I cast upon the entire world, sacrificing half of my strength, was all in pursuit of that power.”
“Wait, you were behind the curse, sir? Is that really true?”
Unwilling to let such a bombshell statement pass without comment, I interrupted, and the old man, wearing an unnervingly kind smile, responded.
“Feel free to call me father-in-law.”
“... Ah, um. Yes.”
“Go on.”
“... Father-in-law.”
Only then did the old man, satisfied, break into a beaming smile and continue speaking.
“Of course, it wasn’t an easy task. My power was halved, and in the end, I even allowed some pesky little ambush to catch me off guard.”
“... Th-Then, am I also affected by the curse?”
“But does it even matter now? In the end, I’ve successfully resurrected myself, and by chance, I’ve also discovered the perfect vessel for wielding the power of the outer dimensions!”
Lovecraft, bound beside the professor, began to mutter in a daze, her expression utterly vacant. But the old man, his eyes gleaming with a chilling light, showed no sign of paying the little girl any attention.
“You said all dragons were annihilated, didn’t you? Well then, it’s only a matter of time.”
“.......”
“If the power of the outer dimensions combines with ours... do you not think it would be more than sufficient to take this world into our grasp?”
His argument made a certain kind of sense, yes.
Though, there was one thing I found rather questionable.
“That’s certainly true, but... isn’t that a bit excessive just to take control of just one puny little world?”
“WAHAHAHAHA! My daughter certainly picked the right son-in-law, didn’t she?”
When I cautiously prodded at him, the old man suddenly burst into laughter and made that declaration.
“Indeed, just this world... no, just this dimension alone would be insufficient.”
“Then, surely you don’t mean...?”
“I didn’t halve my powers to curse the entire world for no reason, you see.”
The words that followed were enough to leave everyone in the office utterly speechless.
“I have no intention of being satisfied with merely seizing this dimension.”
“T-Then...”
“We must advance to more worlds, to more dimensions, must we not?”
It seemed the ultimate goal of the being before me, however absurd it may have sounded, was dimensional conquest.
“That... sounds a little difficult to pull off...”
“Listen here, son-in-law. Across all dimensions, finding someone who can wield outer-dimensional power without severe penalties is an extremely rare phenomenon.”
“And how do you know that?”
I asked, my tone growing increasingly sceptical, but the old man simply responded with only a chilling smile.
“A being like me, living for thousands, even tens of thousands of years, naturally attains divinity.”
“........”
“Peeking into other dimensions is hardly a challenge anymore.”
Good God. What kind of being was I even standing before?
What kind of being is he? A glitch, a bug in the system, one so rare it’s almost impossible to find across all dimensions.
If left unchecked, everything he’s said will come to pass— it’s only a matter of time.
You have to stop him, no matter what.
As cold sweat dripped down my face, message after message popped up before me, written in the most serious font I’d ever seen from the system.
Since I risked the collapse of dimensions to bring you back here, you could at least do this much for us, couldn’t you?
Right. The reason this being was able to resurrect himself was because I, who had filled in all the narrative gaps and disappeared, returned to this world.
Had I not returned, this anomalous existence would never have made his way back to London.
And even if he did, it would have been in a distant, far-off future.
So, it was my responsibility to deal with this.
But how?
“Excuse me, I have a question.”
As I desperately racked my brain, fiddling with the final trump card I’d received from Miss Mycrony, Charlotte’s voice suddenly rang out beside me.
“Why would someone with such grand ambitions desire children and grandchildren?”
“.......?”
The old man’s expression briefly shifted to one of confusion as he glanced around, searching for the source of the question.
“Ah, my apologies. I did not notice you there.”
When he finally spotted Charlotte standing next to me, he let out a soft chuckle and replied.
“But you cannot fault me here. Tell me, do you take much notice of mosquitoes and flies that can be swatted away with a single hand?”
“.......”
“Do pardon me for the comparison.”
Though he spoke without any overt malice, the sheer weight of his presence was enough to make my legs feel weak.
“Ah, and I have delayed my answer, haven’t I?”
“Uung?”
“Ung?”
“Well, because they are simply adorable, aren’t they?”
It was hard to reconcile the sight of such an overwhelming being poking the cheeks of what seemed to be my presumed children with his fingers, smiling as if he were their doting grandfather.
“And there aren’t many who can fully withstand the superior power inherited from me, surpassing that of any other race.”
“”Kyaah~””
“Most of them lack the capacity and end up dying as infants.”
As the old man tickled the sides of the giggling children, he glanced at Professor Moriarty, who had been staring at me in stunned silence this entire time and muttered softly.
“My dearest Jane was the first child in my lifetime who didn’t die...”
“... Then, she must have been an incredibly precious daughter to you?”
“Indeed. Though she did stab my weakened heart... But isn’t it natural for children to threaten their parents’ lives at least once during adolescence? Ha-ha...”
His response made me genuinely curious about what kind of societal structure dragons operated under.
“Oh my, but what should we do?”
Charlotte’s voice suddenly broke through the tension, her tone laced with a teasing laugh as it echoed through the office.
“For such children, it’s unfortunate that they now have the inferior blood of humans mixed in, from your perspective.”
“What do you mean by that?”
The old man’s expression stiffened with displeasure as he asked, and I knew it was time to clarify the truth once again.
“Uh, well... I mean... I’ve been saying this all along, haven’t I?”
“You...”
“I am human.”
And then, there was silence, deep and unnerving.
“... Jokes are only amusing when done in moderation, child.”
Amidst the suffocating stillness, the old man, who had been staring at me with a dumbfounded expression, finally muttered, his face turning cold for the first time.
“Don’t you think you’re starting to cross the line here, hmmm?”
His voice alone was enough to make my heart, along with every organ in my body, feel as though they were freezing over, sending shivers through me.
“Then why don’t you verify it for yourself?”
Yet, despite the terror gripping me, I clenched my teeth and forced the words out.
“Haa...”
The old man let out a weary sigh at my defiance, his eyes flashing with a dangerous gleam.
“.......?”
But just moments later, his eyes widened in shock as he stared at me.
- Creeeak...!
Then, suddenly, he shot up from his seat.
- Step, step...
As he approached me, his face pale as a ghost, I tried desperately to maintain a calm expression, even as cold sweat poured down my face in streams.
“........”
But when he finally stood right before me, gazing down with a dark, piercing stare, I couldn’t hold onto my composure any longer.
“You...”
How much time passed as he loomed in front of me, I couldn’t tell.
“What the hell are you?”
The old man’s enraged voice broke the tension, reverberating through the office once more.
“You don’t smell enough like a human to truly be one, and yet, if you’re not human, something about you doesn’t add up.”
“.......”
“If this is some kind of polymorph trick, let it end here. I’ll grant you a final shred of patience for my daughter’s sake...”
His interrogation supercharged with his murderous aura made me feel as though I might faint on the spot, but I had no choice but to press on.
“Ah, well, the thing is... I used to be a devil, you see.”
“What?”
“And, well, I was also a True Vampire once.”
One moment of hesitation. That was all I needed.
“And now, having lost all my powers, I’m now completely human.”
If I could create even the smallest opening in this monstrous being’s defences...
“So those children... essentially...”
Then I’d be willing to bet my entire life on it.
“... Yes, they are hybrids of a demon, vampire, human, and dragon.”
“..........”
“Heh.”
Gathering every ounce of courage I had, I delivered the final line with as much conviction as I could muster, fully aware of how his eyes seemed to turn blank white at my words.
“”..........””
And then, the most suffocating, nerve-wracking silence I had ever experienced settled over the room.
.
.
.
.
.
“Uh, uh, uh...”
In that suffocating atmosphere, no one could keep track of time.
“Uh, uh, uh, uh...”
The old man’s trembling hands rose shakily, and from his lips came a low, strained groan.
“Uuuuuuugh...”
Then, James Moriarty grabbed the back of his neck, his eyes unfocused, as he began to stagger around the office.
“Now’s our chance!!!”
And that moment, that brief opening, was the last opportunity we had to claim victory.
Miss Mycrony’s hastily prepared sealing scroll... I pray to all Gods out there, please, make it work.
- Fzztzzzzz...
It was time to see which face of the die would land upright.
Footnotes
1. So, basically, he thought it was a joke. As in he is in his polymorph state so he was saying he was a humanoid dragon. Old man, just ain't believing.
