It didn’t mean I didn’t miss the golden dragon.
“We should get to Eterna Nest quickly. You can take dragon form and rest properly.”
“You don’t just want to see my dragon shape?”
“Well, that too, while we’re at it?”
At my teasing grin, Varen answered with a sulky face.
“Ceryl, you’re truly strange. Why do you, a human, like monsters more than humans?”
“You’re the same.”
“I am a monster.”
“...That’s true.”
I looked away, and his steady gaze followed. He tilted his head and stared.
“When we first met underground, you said something similar. That you hate humans too.”
Why is he so dogged today. I waved my hand, fobbing him off like shooing a fly.
He promptly caught my wrist. He’d gotten good at controlling his strength; it didn’t hurt.
“The human who died today knew your childhood.”
“You mean Leobin?”
“Yes. I want to know too. Your childhood.”
Calling Leobin “the human who died today,” really. Where do I even start correcting him.
But the blaze in his eyes stopped my mouth. In the end I tapped his cheek with the hand he hadn’t caught.
The burning look softened at once.
“Dragonboy, what are you so curious about.”
“Your childhood. Your family. Everything about you.”
He said he wanted everything, but I couldn’t lay out everything honestly.
Ceryl Aylos’s past wasn’t mine. I didn’t know anything to begin with.
“I told you [N O V E L I G H T] I don’t remember.”
Varen pushed out his lower lip, displeased.
“I don’t like it. That I don’t know, and the dead human did.”
“Right. The one thing I don’t know, Leobin knew.”
If I’d known my time with Leobin would be that short, I’d have spent it more carefully.
Why do I only regret after someone is gone.
“What kind of person was Ceryl Aylos.”
He spoke the name that’s mine now as if it belonged to someone else.
Varen quietly watched my profile. Hiding the biggest secret, I couldn’t meet his eyes.
“You were kind when you were little too.”
“Hm?”
The unexpected line made me turn my head at once.
Even with no special expression, the warmth in his eyes carried the feeling.
“Losing memory doesn’t change nature. You were kind and lovable when you were little too. I’m certain.”
Stacked up dragon-style comfort loosened today’s layered gloom. I let out a dry laugh and hugged the golden tail.
“When you say ‘when you were little,’ you’re saying I’m kind and lovable now too?”
“Yes. You were probably even cuter when you were small.”
“......”
“It means you’re cute now too.”
Whoa, no. Behave. Don’t get up, you old fogey inside me.
“Who are you calling cute, you snot-nosed brat.”
“Ceryl Aylos, I called you cute. And the only blue thing is my pupils.”
I keep forgetting not to use human idioms with a dragon.
But Varen had also forgotten something important.
“In case you forgot, the one who fed you corpses as rations was Ceryl Aylos. I executed countless monsters at the facility.”
At the plain confession of past faults, the light in Varen’s eyes dimmed.
He no longer turned that anger on me, but the wound I’d left was still there.
I let go of the tail I was holding. Then opened my palm and looked at it.
Suddenly, it felt like these hands had no right to be holding a dragon.
“These are filthy hands, stained with a monster’s blood.”
Ceryl Aylos’s life is mine now. So the past he left is also mine to carry.
At my bitter voice, Varen said nothing for a while. Then he covered my open hand with his.
With a big body came a hand like a pot lid. Each finger was a segment longer than mine, and twice as thick.
With our hands overlapped, mine looked like a child’s. He really did handle it like a child’s, carefully twining our fingers.
“The hunters chasing us stink. Rotten-hearted humans smell rotten.”
As I relaxed, he lifted our joined hands to his mouth. I flinched, thinking he would kiss it, but he only pressed his nose to the back of my hand and drew in a deep breath.
“You smell good. You say this hand is stained with blood, but your heart hasn’t rotted.”
Varen is such a strange being. He isn’t good with words and mostly makes people uncomfortable.
Yet somehow, being beside him put me at ease. It gave me the gentle illusion that whatever I did or said would be all right.
“So don’t be sad. I like it when you smile.”
There was warmth in his voice too. If he liked me smiling, I wanted to oblige, but the stiff face muscles wouldn’t move along with my mind.
Then the dragon’s tail, which had been drifting in the air, swayed. Its tip tickled my cheek and scratched under my chin.
“Pff— what are you doing. That tickles.”
My unplanned laugh tugged a smile out of Varen too.
Night sank deeper, and the darker the dark grew, the more the stars asserted themselves.
Brighter still, the dragon’s gold light kept me smiling all night.
***
With each passing day my nerves tightened. I worried daily that the war might break out before we reached the Belzena Mountain Range.
But we just couldn’t pick up speed.
“Wait. Stop.”
At my voice everyone halted.
I dropped to one knee and studied the flattened grass.
One, two, three impressions where someone had sat. Looking closer, scattered footprints dotted the area.
Professional Dragon Hunters didn’t leave traces. Either ordinary folk or beginners. One of the two.
Either way, they weren’t much of a threat.
“I don’t feel any other humans.”
Varen swept the surroundings and reassured me. Ella snorted, a calm sound.
But I thought of Leobin, buried deep in the earth.
“They could be nearby. Let’s turn back just in case.”
We’d only been attacked by Dragon Hunters once.
And in that one strike, I lost Leobin. The price of letting my guard down was far too high.
I changed direction at once and started walking. Kallen let out a long, weary sigh, but followed without a word.
Against plan, we kept drifting east. The farther we went, the higher the temperature climbed, and the air even grew humid. Broadleaf trees spread where tall conifers should have risen.
In a vast forest, even the climate changed by locale. Damn this fantasy world.
“Ugh, Ceryl. The mud’s making it hard to walk.”
“Let’s go a little farther, then we’ll get into the river.”
“It looked like brown water....”
A mudflat spread instead of grass, and a turbid river ran where a clear stream should have been.
Thick trunks were wrapped in wild vines. Moss caked the bases so we slipped more than once.
We crossed bright, clear woods and entered jungle. Mud-weighted shoes gripped our ankles and tired us faster than usual.
Rami alone was thrilled. The shadow lizard bounded through the lowered trees and tightroped along vines.
And she worked hard sampling the region’s specialties.
“Rami, what on earth are you eating?”
Her tiny hand clutched a worm. A common enough creature, but my face pinched on its own.
I’d never seen a worm with legs. Dozens of them.
“Squee...! Squee, squee...!”
Rami chomped it like jelly. Whatever shock of flavor it had, she was more excited than the first time she tasted strawberries.
“Just try putting that in your pocket.”
It had been bad enough when living crickets ended up in my pocket. A worm with legs was where I drew the line.
The east truly lacked human traces. Thanks to that, Serif and Ella’s tension dropped markedly.
Kallen, on the other hand, stayed taut, glancing around the whole time we walked.
“Kallen, you okay? What is it?”
“W-we have to be careful. The east has... a lot of dangerous monsters.”
“What could be more dangerous than a dragon. Don’t worry too much.”
It wasn’t exactly praise, but Varen subtly squared his shoulders.
In this tropical forest the day was long. The sun was still high, but our body clocks were knocking on the belly button.
I started looking for a hideout to prep dinner. Rami focused hard and bustled around. But there were no caves here.
We had no choice but to set up under a huge old tree. Three sides were open, but at least we could put our backs to the trunk.
We split roles as usual. I dug in the pack for cookware, and Kallen said she’d go dig up something edible and slipped into the woods with Ella.
“Aaahhh!”
But not far off, a tearing scream.
“Kallen!”
I flung the pot off the boil, grabbed the pack, and sprang up on reflex.
There had been no sign of hunters. I’d let my guard down. I ground my teeth and ran the short distance.
Kallen, who had shrieked, was staring into the brush, trembling. Her legs had given out and she’d slumped to the ground.
“C-Ceryl... run, run....”
But something was off.
If the threat were that severe, Serif wouldn’t be quiet.
Ella stood at Kallen’s side as always. She held her head low and watched the brush, but her crystal horn didn’t light.
Most of all, Varen trudged up with a bored face. He snorted at the rustling foliage.
“We have a guest.”
“A guest?”
At the dragon’s words, something pushed through deep green leaves and stepped out.
Short brown fur and a long tail. It looked like a massive puma, but a pair of fangs about a meter long jutted past its muzzle.
I knew it at a glance. It was one of the kids from the facility.
