REFDL 44

“I know saying the wrong thing could get me charged with insulting the imperial family. But since no one’s listening anyway, I’ll just say it. Captain, do you trust His Majesty?”

“…….”

“Of course His Majesty is trustworthy. But in the matter you’re entangled in, do you truly believe he would act with impartiality?”

Even you think the answer’s probably no, right?

Kaelus remained silent.

He wavered slightly, but that was all. Nitan immediately changed tactics.

“He might have some unspoken circumstances. Think about it. Among those who can enter the imperial palace, how many wouldn’t recognize your face? Probably just the workers delivering food or supplies to the court? But if it were someone like that, you would have recognized them first!”

Kaelus, who had hesitated, nodded.

He was a man whose entire body glowed as brightly as the moon. That soft skin. Hands without a single callus. Legs that stretched out smoothly… Those were unmistakably the traits of a noble.

“He might have been deliberately approached under someone’s orders… or blackmail.”

Nitan, who received a fierce glare despite changing his words, hurriedly explained.

“Wh-what I mean is! That person might be in a difficult situation right now!”

“……!”

Under normal circumstances.

In other words, if he hadn’t been acting like a foolish boy struck by the fever of first love.

Kaelus might have realized Nitan’s opinion was an excessive leap.

…But right now, he was a fool.

“Red-gold hair, golden eyes. Fair skin, about 180 cm tall. A slim waist and a slender build for a man. I remember thinking his wrists were so thin they looked like they might break. Like the incarnation of the moon or a golden magnolia tree… That kind of person.”

“…….”

Nitan fought off his disorientation while committing every detail of Kaelus’s testimony to memory.

“Understood. I’ll mobilize every available covert resource. You need to pull yourself together, Captain. …It’s almost time.”

“I know.”

Kaelus’ expression grew serious.

“The Monster Wave is coming.”

“…….”

The disaster occurring every five years was stirring.

The festival was over.

For survival over the next five years. They had to head north again. Kaelus, who had been unconsciously scratching his opposite wrist, noticed Nitan staring at it.

Kaelus consciously withdrew his hand. He must have scratched it really hard, blood seeped from the raw flesh.

Neither spoke.

One remembers the nightmare and one dreams it.

It was an unspoken agreement between them.

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6. Monster Wave

The Sea of Trees forms a more complex ecosystem than one might think.

The stronger the monster, the more likely it was to inhabit the ‘depths’, where a ‘closed door’ was presumed to exist. The weaker the monster, the more likely it was to be found at the ‘edges’, reaching the continent’s end.

They never left their territory for their entire lives.

More accurately, they couldn’t leave.

If they ventured inward, stronger monsters would devour them. If they ventured outward, they felt a pain like having their head forced into a narrow frame and squeezed.

Only dragons were exempt from this rule.

Yet, for some reason, despite being unconstrained, they lived no differently than other monsters.

They only ventured slightly further out when giving birth.

This was due to habits ingrained by inertia. There was simply no need to relocate their habitat.

Scholars argue this, but anyway.

The crucial point is that the ‘constraint’ all monsters endure is stronger than one might think.

But once every five years.

A time arrives when all monsters are freed from the rules.

Not simply freed, but as if under a separate command, they form armies and venture out beyond the Sea of Trees.

Like waves ceaselessly invading the shore.

Monsters crawl out relentlessly.

Humans named this phenomenon, recurring every five years, the ‘Monster Wave’.

And while fearful, they adapted.

They built a barrier to the north, and every five years, gathered a large army and sent it north.

This was the case in both empires: Firmus and Denos.

***

And now.

The Grand Hall of the Firmus imperial palace.

Kaelus was in the midst of a heated argument with the emperor over dispatching an extermination force.

“Didn’t you say to take him?!”

“It is not possible.”

The emperor wanted to take the Kremlis dragon.

Kaelus opposed it, saying he was still too immature.

The emperor fumbled and sat down on the floor.

“I’m going to lie down.”

“.…..”

“I’m lying down? I’m the Emperor! This is the throne room!”

Kaelus felt the words ‘Just lie down already’ rise to his throat. But he held back. It was patience beyond human limits.

As the emperor started acting like a spoiled brat, the nobles present in the throne room naturally gathered by the windows.

“Heh heh. The bare branches have a certain charm.”

“Snow blossoms will bloom beautifully soon.”

“Considering the expedition force, it should be less cold than last year…….”

Kaelus didn’t even glance their way. He looked at the emperor, who genuinely seemed ready to lie down, with contempt. Tortan jumped up like a coiled spring, fuming.

“Ah, I just said to take him! I’m not saying to take him and put him to use! Think of it as training, I tell you!”

“Under other circumstances, that might have been possible, but this time it’s a Monster Wave. We can’t take a young, unseasoned soldier into a dangerous combat zone where even seasoned veterans often die. Besides, it’s a Kremlis. I actually thought His Majesty would oppose it even if I were the one taking him.”

Tortan didn’t reply, instead wearing a moved expression. Kaelus felt uneasy.

“Why are you acting like this…..”

“In the past, you’d have said something like ‘Non-imprinted individuals can’t be trusted.'”

“.….”

“Hmm. That one really is special, though. Such a gentle and adorable dragon. I’ve never seen one like it. ……It’s almost worrying how gentle he is.”

Ah.

‘So that’s it.’

The reason Tortan was insistently pushing the precious Kremlis’ back.

Dragons were weapons of war. They could replace a hundred soldiers and take on a dozen knights.

Even a completely lost battlefield could be turned around if the opportunity was seized.

A time of decline.

Dragons were the most powerful weapons humans could wield. So powerful, they often devoured the very ones who wielded them. They were living, breathing violence.

Tortan was worried that even the most precious of those weapons might have some kind of flaw.

“…If you had seen what happened in the Forest Village with your own eyes, you wouldn’t have said that.”

“Well, that’s a relief then.”

Tortan shrugged.

“Anyway, take him with you. As you likely already know, the situation in the north is far from ordinary.”

“…..”

A thousand years ago, the cycle of the Monster Wave came once every few decades. Now it’s five years.

More precisely, four years and ten months.

The cycle is slowly but steadily shortening.

However, it’s only a few centimeters per year. Like the edges of the Sea of Trees eroding perfectly good land.

Tortan sometimes wondered.

Perhaps humanity’s extinction was destined from the start. And perhaps they were floundering in meaningless struggles.

“But not in my lifetime.”

“……”

Kaelus felt the same.

That was why he was here.

Even though… there was almost nothing left to protect…

At that moment.

For some reason, a small dragon fluttering about came to mind……..

It was strange.

He would sit quietly alone in his cage, then suddenly leap up and dance weirdly.

He saw something shaking and charged in without thinking, biting while making a face like he had no idea why he was acting that way.

He would get scared and run away from a retriever that just wanted to play. He would eat some strange weed, spit it out, and then get angry.

‘But you ate it yourself…’

“……”

You would think nine times out of ten while watching him, ‘What on earth is wrong with that thing?’

“You.”

“……?”

“Did you just laugh?”

“What nonsense are you spouting?”

“Uh, no… I just thought you looked like you were laughing…”

“No, I didn’t. Don’t muddy the topic with pointless chatter.”

“……!!”

Tortan felt wronged!

“And we’re leaving him behind.”

Kaelus cut the conversation short, signaling it was over.

Tortan smacked his lips in disappointment, but knowing Kaelus never backtracked once he made a decision, he obediently nodded.

‘Well, I can just bring him along on the second expedition!’ he thought.

The situation changed less than a fortnight after the first expeditionary force headed north.

Urgent news arrived.

It was brought by a blood-soaked Pensilta, without even a dragon knight on its back.

The container holding the paper was tied to the saddle. Whether the dragon knight had tied it himself or not, the container itself was soaked in blood and sticky.

“……”

Everyone sensed something was terribly wrong.

The contents were despairing.

The Monster Wave had begun a full ten days earlier than anticipated.

Hordes of ogres and werewolves appeared from the very first day.

The emergence of colossal monsters like swamp giants and dragon turtles.

A scale without precedent. Irregulars pouring in.

Defeat.

Failure.

Defeat.

The end of the report, stained with devastating results, was…….

“……!!”

It stated that the entire northern army and the subjugation force were isolated in the northern fortress, Anax.