Varen led me out to yet another clifftop. A cool night breeze blew, and the moonlight, as always, shone bright.
I sat on a flat rock and stared blankly up at the night sky. Then I sorted through the things that had happened in such a short time.
To settle my nerves, I hugged a body pillow close and stroked it.
“Ugh... nn—ugh....”
But an incessant, irritating noise kept getting in the way.
I shot Varen a sidelong glare; his face flushed red and he averted his eyes.
In the end I flung away what I’d been holding.
“For—sake, is that an erogenous zone or what. Why are you groaning like that?”
“What’s an erogenous zone.”
“...Nothing you need to know.”
The word slipped out unfiltered because my head was cluttered with other thoughts. It was a term Varen had no need to learn.
My arms felt empty, but my head cleared. I decided to work through the problems step by step in the order I’d set.
“Sigh... Varen, did you really gain the power to see the future?”
First, I asked what I most wanted to know. Varen gave a small nod.
A low sigh slipped from me at that answer.
You can see the future? Did the original even have a setup like that.
“Hah... you really can do everything, huh.”
“When a Dravergh soaks in the Spring of Wisdom, each of us gains a unique ability. I awakened an ability to see the future and the past at the same time.”
Varen opened both hands and then closed them lightly. It was as if his left hand held the future and his right the past.
I watched him and tilted my head.
“Can you see all futures?”
“No. Only a few scenes that left a strong impression on my future self flashed up.”
“...And one of them was my wedding with you?”
“Yes. Of everything I saw of you, you looked the happiest then.”
The way he squared his chest so proudly left me speechless.
I couldn’t pick a proper reply; I buried my face in both palms.
Believe that—or not. I couldn’t decide at all.
Sure, life is a wheel and you can’t see an inch ahead, but—
The idea that I would marry a dragon—and a man at that—was hard to swallow.
“Th—that was just a short scene, right? Yes?”
“Yes. A fragmentary scene.”
So more a photograph than a video.
If so, maybe it wasn’t a wedding at all, just another ceremony where I’d wear formal whites.
Or I was attending someone else’s wedding.
Thinking of it that way let my heart ease a little.
“I still can’t use the ability fully. Once I complete my awakening, I’ll see more futures.”
“You’re not complete yet? What does that damned awakening even take to finish?”
I snapped my head up from my palms.
We’d come all the way to the Belzena Mountain Range and he’d soaked in the Spring of Wisdom. What more could it need?
Varen only looked at me with a sly smile.
For some reason, the look felt ominous.
“Why... why are you looking at me like that?”
“You’ll help, won’t you?”
“Me? Help how?”
I leaned back without meaning to, and Varen let out a small laugh.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to force you.”
“...So it would take forcing?”
“Mmm, probably. You’re delicate.”
I didn’t know what he meant, but there was a quiet heat in the words.
Instead of asking again, I waved a hand and looked away.
“Fine. As you say, a delicate human has already been pushed plenty far. You got me to your home; that should be enough. Ask the other dragons for the rest.”
Even with my peevish tone, born of embarrassment, Varen laughed, delighted.
“The other dragons? If it’s not you, I don’t want it.”
I fanned my jacket in the warming air and swallowed dry.
With Varen, everything kept slipping off into side paths.
I thumped my queasy chest with a fist and got back to what I’d meant to say.
“Quit the nonsense. Like I said before, the human army will be attacking the Belzena range soon.”
“Yes. I’m discussing it with Father.”
He used the word Father as if it were the most natural thing.
At that, my reedlike mood lifted at once. It finally felt real that Varen had his family back.
“‘Father’ rolls off your tongue now, huh?”
“I call him Father because he is my father.”
Fair enough. Little brat only ever picks the lines that are exactly right.
I smiled despite myself and faced that commendable face.
“Varen, you know, right? When the humans attack Belzena, who you’re supposed to protect?”
“You.”
“...You’re supposed to say ‘the dragons.’”
“Ceryl Aylos—you.”
The straight fastball left me flummoxed for only a moment; ridiculously, I laughed out loud.
“Haha, fine. If you have the time, protect me too.”
I held out my pinky to Varen.
At first he hadn’t known what that meant and had tried to grab my finger, but now he hooked his pinky properly with mine.
His voice went quite serious as our fingers locked.
“Promise. No matter what happens, you’ll protect the dragons.”
“Right. As I am now, I can do that.”
“Look at you, my little dragon doctor. Solid. Very solid.”
I gave our hooked fingers a light shake.
Varen let himself be shaken and shook his head with a smile.
Then, staring at our linked fingers, he whispered low.
“I knew it, but still—Ceryl, you really are... cute.”
The words ran a chill through my heart; my face froze as-is.
I flung his hand away and straightened up.
Since the Spring of Wisdom, Varen did feel markedly more mature. But there are bounds even to cold water.
“You little punk—who are you calling cute? How long has it been since you hatched from your egg.”
“I haven’t counted exactly, but about twenty years.”
Twenty years in an underground prison was a heartbreaking thing.
But that didn’t mean I’d tolerate a mutiny against the age gap.
“A brat of twenty calls me cute? You should be calling me ‘older brother.’”
“You’re not ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ my brother.”
“Blood doesn’t matter. A man older than you, you call him ‘older brother.’”
It would be awkward hearing Varen call me that now, but it beat being cooed over.
I meant to draw the line clearly while I had the chance.
“Dragons keep every memory from the egg. When you gave me back my name, most of my memories from the egg returned.”
I hadn’t expected that. I gaped like an idiot and asked:
“How many years were you in the egg?”
“Well. I don’t know exactly, but roughly—”
“No. Don’t say it.”
I cut him off, clean.
There are truths in this world you are better off not knowing.
“Just call it twenty. Your real age starts the moment you come into the world.”
“Why should I? I’m older than—”
“Hey—call it twenty! It suits you!”
“What does it mean that twenty suits me. I don’t understand.”
“Because you’re cute!!”
I’d excused most of Varen’s incomprehensible behavior on the grounds that he was young.
And now I was supposed to accept that my pinky partner might be older—maybe ancestor-old? Not a chance.
At my unreasonable outburst, Varen only blinked those blue eyes.
And after a moment—
“Ceryl, am I cute to you?”
“......”
“Like this? Not in dragon form?”
“...For—sake.”
I turned my head away, dodging the hopeful sparkle in his gaze.
I hadn’t even realized it myself, but—apparently I’d been finding that big lug cute, under my breath.
It was those eyes. The one thing perfectly the same as when he was a dragon. When I looked into them, I stopped caring about the surface.
When I didn’t answer and stared off into the distance, a small murmur came from behind me.
“Understood. I’ll be twenty.”
I’d expected him to be stubborn, but he obediently volunteered to be the younger one. For such a big body, he sure liked being fussed over.
Not that every younger man is cute. Not that Varen is cute because he’s younger than me. Anyway.
With a strange feeling, I gave my shoulders a light shake and stood.
Varen stared up at me. I mussed his face with my palm, any which way.
“Don’t you dare act cute.”
He shot me a look of feigned injustice—as if to say he hadn’t acted cute at all.
I gave him a faint snort and stretched. I still had problems to solve; I had to go back to the others.
“Sigh... I’m sending Kallen and Margon back before the humans attack this place.”
“Why should you.”
“Why do you think. There’s no need to keep them in danger.”
With the situation changed from the original, I couldn’t gauge the scale of the Belzena war.
Even so, if the dragons and the human army clashed in earnest, ordinary humans wouldn’t last on that field.
I’d made my choice, but those two had only followed me. I couldn’t leave them in danger.
An obvious conclusion—but Varen’s reaction was unexpected.
“Doubt it. They won’t leave.”
“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?”
He stood and glanced aside, evasive.
I caught his forearm and turned him to face me again.
I’d already wanted to ask when he gave them swords.
“Did you see Kallen and Margon’s futures, by any chance?”
Varen pressed his lips into a line. I chased his gaze, impatient, and asked again.
“Varen, tell me. Their futures—”
“Little one, you can come out now.”
Instead of answering, Varen shifted the subject.
And that little one was effective at snapping my attention.
When Varen said little one, he usually meant Rami.
I turned toward where he was looking. From between a pile of stones, a white body slithered out, slow.
“...Miyaaang....”
The white snake that had saved me from Jed’s tower.
I had never expected to see that creature again, but there it was, in the Belzena Mountain Range.
