The next day, Margon left without even greeting me.
If he was going to descend the Belzena Mountain Range at a human pace, it would take half a month, yet he took neither water nor food.
At least it looked like he’d brought along the sword Varen had given him. He wouldn’t get stabbed to death by someone else, at minimum.
It wasn’t a parting as beautiful as I’d expected. But I consoled myself by saying I’d meant to give Margon freedom from the start.
Kallen said she would think about whether to stay by my side or return to her hometown.
I couldn’t shove her out by force, so I let her stay after getting a promise that she would remain safely in the reception suite.
And I spent most of my time with Ordin.
We climbed to the edge of the cliff and looked down over the gorge.
“Humans use capture harpoons and crossbows. They catch dragons with nets attached to the harpoons. The crossbows explode on contact.”
“Explode, hm. Are they powerful?”
I pictured Varen from a little while ago.
He’d been hit by dozens of crossbow bolts, but the golden dragon had been unshaken.
“There is physical shock, but not at a lethal level. They didn’t leave a single wound on Varen’s body.”
“That’s because Varen is Dravergh. The most solid-bodied among dragons.”
“That could be.”
I nodded and recalled the original.
There had been a description of fire poured down from atop a cliff, but among cliffs that all looked the same, there was no telling which one it meant.
“We have to destroy the crossbow arrays themselves. I can’t pinpoint the exact locations, but humans will attack from the very top of the cliffs.”
“Is that a height humans can climb?”
“With high mages, it won’t be difficult.”
“What kind of magic will they use?”
“The mages don’t attack dragons directly. They protect the hunters who throw the crossbows and harpoons.”
In truth, in the Belzena war in the novel, the mages’ exploits didn’t stand out.
Most dragons were killed by the original’s Varen.
So now that Varen had awakened as a complete Dravergh, as long as he didn’t get complacent, the outcome of the war would change.
“What is their objective.”
“Dravergh hearts. Since kidnapping Varen will be difficult now, they may target other dragons. It would be best to move Dravergh’s children somewhere safe.”
“Ha ha, when humans receive one, they always want ten.”
I glanced sidelong at Ordin’s cynical smile.
He seemed, fitting for a king of dragons, to have a keen grasp of human nature.
“When will the humans come?”
“Well.”
I said that, but quietly ran back through the timeline.
I compared the incidents that had happened since I possessed this body to the flow of the original.
“...They should already have attacked. It’s later than what I know.”
I couldn’t estimate the exact date, but I felt the timing was oddly off.
I had definitely read up through the Belzena war in the original. What did I miss.
“Hm, Aylos. How do you know that.”
“You said you wouldn’t ask.”
Ordin, tireless, asked the same question every day.
And each time I gave the same answer.
That this place was actually the world inside a novel, and that I was a reader of that novel.
Above all, that your son had been the villain who killed half the monsters.
They were secrets I could never confess to the king of Dravergh.
“...Very well. I won’t ask.”
Ordin quietly looked down at me.
Those blue eyes identical to Varen’s felt like they were laying bare everything inside me.
Whenever I felt like this, the ordinarily kind Ordin felt distant.
***
I returned to the Dravergh palace with Ordin.
No matter how many times I went through it, flying with my bare body didn’t grow on me.
With no safety gear at all, it was frightening, and I got severely airsick.
Even if I looked like a crane-game prize, it was far more comfortable when Varen carried me.
“Oh, Varen!”
Right on time, I spotted Varen.
Proving he was a prince of Dravergh, he was surrounded by several dragons.
Seeing how popular my kid was made me smile without trying. I lifted my hand high and waved in delight.
“Varen, did you eat? If not—”
But before I could finish, Varen flicked around.
Then, without giving me a chance to catch him, he strode off and disappeared down a dark corridor.
He’d been saying things that made my face burn not long ago. Now his attitude was icy wind, and I was dumbfounded.
I awkwardly lowered the hand I’d raised so happily.
“Why on earth is he like that?”
Once he’d acted like he could only see me. Now treating me like I was invisible rubbed me the wrong way.
Unable to hide my hurt, I stared only at the corridor where Varen had vanished.
Then Ordin beside me gave a low chuckle.
“It’ll be hard to see Varen for a while. He said he’d stay alone in his room.”
At the news I’d never heard, my eyes nearly popped.
“Why? Why come all the way here to be alone?”
“Good question. Tsk, his stubbornness is something else—I’m at a loss myself.”
Ordin clicked his tongue briefly, saying something I didn’t follow.
Varen alone in a cave.
Just picturing that sentence made my breath catch.
Do you know what it took for me to get you out of that.
While I stood there speechless, Ordin bent his head and murmured at my ear.
“Varen’s in rut.”
“......”
“He must have come out to warn them not to lay a hand on you.”
The blood that had been boiling hot went ice-cold in an instant.
I turned my stiff neck and looked at the dragons gathered there.
The moment my eyes touched them, they hurriedly averted their gazes and scattered.
“...In... rut....”
“Good thing we got here before it started.”
A few days ago, Varen had told me he couldn’t hold back anymore. I’d wondered what he meant; it must have been because rut was approaching.
Come to think of it, even in the forest he’d sometimes shown symptoms like rut.
If so... sure, that could be. Puberty, then rut. A very natural growth order.
I pressed my lips tight and only nodded.
“The first rut is hard to endure. So usually you spend rut with your mate.”
At the syllable “mate,” I couldn’t manage my expression.
Varen was recognizing me as a mating partner. He’d bandied the word mate several times, too.
But I just—
“Varen has a fiancée.”
“...What?”
“We choose mates before we hatch from the egg. Continuing Dravergh’s bloodline is our reason for being.”
“Ah... I see.”
“If humans hadn’t dragged Varen away, he would have married the moment he hatched. Then he wouldn’t be spending his first rut alone.”
I’d thought Varen held feelings for me because he hadn’t met other dragons.
When you first encounter kindness in your life, it’s natural your heart leans; I firmly believed Varen would change when he met a suitable mate.
But news that a mate had already been decided hit as a shock.
I pressed my throbbing brow.
So I... stole the first love and first kiss of a dragon who has a fiancée. No—second and third kisses, too.
I felt like a scoundrel. Heat flushed my face even standing still.
After he’d had his fill of watching my torment, Ordin spoke on ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) with a smile.
“As expected, Varen said no. He says he’ll endure it alone though it will hurt. I’m in quite a bind since he won’t listen to me.”
Ordin looked at me with a sly glint.
It felt like he was asking something of me, but I couldn’t tell the exact meaning.
Working my brain hard, I scratched my nape and spoke.
“Would Varen even listen to me?”
“Hm, it will be hard to spend the first rut alone.”
“Well... he’ll pull through. Whose son is he.”
“He’s my son.”
Acting like it was nothing, I quickly fanned through my mental database.
In animals in rut, reproductive instinct surges. Hormones spike, appetite falls, and they get extremely sensitive.
But not mating isn’t fatal.
Though they do wail at night in pain.
“He’ll... pull through, sure....”
For a moment, I pictured Varen collapsing in high fever every sunset.
I could hear, clear as day, his voice groaning, out of his wits, begging me to hold him.
Ordin watched me quietly, then asked in his usual tone:
“You love Varen, don’t you?”
It was a question that made my heart drop with a thud. I could do nothing but widen my eyes.
With his characteristic kindly smile, Ordin went on.
“You cherish and worry over Varen very much. Perhaps more than I do.”
At the sound that finally let me breathe, I gave an awkward laugh.
The emotion “love” doesn’t have to mean “eros.”
Because Varen kept saying strange things about mates and whatnot, it felt like it had rubbed off on me.
“Y-yes. I worry when he’s hurt, and I worry if he’s not eating.”
“Hm....”
“And if he’s alone... I worry again.”
Given the subject, I pointlessly flapped my top in embarrassment.
Rut is something every monster goes through, but picturing Varen holed up in a cave suffering alone made my heart heavy.
“Um... do dragons’ ruts last long?”
At my worried question, Ordin smiled faintly.
“Not long. He’s my son; he can endure it alone.”
“Ha... that’s truly a relief.”
“About three years?”
“......”
“For a dragon, it’s the blink of an eye.”
At the time-scale on a different plane for long-lived dragons, I was at a loss for words.
My whole body went rigid as I stared blankly down the dark corridor.
And like the whisper of a devil, Ordin murmured at my ear.
“Even without a mate, after about three years of suffering he’ll be fine, so don’t worry too much.”
