REFDL 64

“Well, you see…”

“No. That’s enough.”

Kaelus received his answer and sighed.

He pushed the healer away. After skillfully securing the remaining bandages, he staggered off the bed.

He stopped after barely three steps. One hand pressed to his chest, he gasped for breaths. But as if nothing had happened, he started walking again. This time, he didn’t stop.

Nitan, who had been waiting like a piece of furniture in the corner, quietly followed.

The two crossed the corridors of Anax Fortress.

“……What about that?”

It wasn’t the Kremlis, nor was it Yuram.

Nitan faltered at the address, which felt more distant than mere formality. But he couldn’t hesitate to answer.

“They’re checking his condition in the dragon stable.”

Kaelus headed straight for the dragon stable. Yet, even as they neared, the surroundings remained eerily quiet. Kaelus’s already stiff expression grew grave.

Nitan, who knew the dragon’s dramatic tendencies, sensed something was seriously wrong. He silently sighed.

‘…It’s only natural.’

The Kremlis, who had soared up flaunting his majesty, soon wobbled and crash-landed.

Just thinking about that moment still sent a chill down Nitan’s spine.

When they rushed over to check, the Kremlis was battered.

They said he might have died if the dragon knights hadn’t been circling the lake, and if the discovery had come any later.

…The Kremlis dying.

It was a phrase hard to imagine given his majesty, yet both Kaelus and Nitan had now, unwillingly, gained a concrete example.

It was by no means a welcome realization.

A makeshift transport device was hastily constructed: sturdy cloth woven from monster hides, reinforced with chains.

The Kremlis dragon somehow crawled onto the fabric. The four corners of the fabric were secured to the legs of Pensilta dragons.

Thus, they transported him from the forest to Anax.

The dragon healer confirmed Yuram’s injuries were close to full-body fractures.

His left wing was completely shattered, and bones throughout his body were cracked or broken.

Water weighs one ton per cubic meter.

No matter how great a dragon might be, it was helpless against the torrent of water pouring down like molten metal.

“No. He only escaped because he’s a Kremlis… If it had been a Pensilta, it would have been buried alive and drowned…”

“……”

“Ca-Captain, please hold back!”

“If you hit him, he’ll die! …I meant he’ll really die!”

“That bastard isn’t a tough knight! He’s a paper thin mage!”

Kaelus controlled himself, and the dragon healer fidgeted nervously, cautiously gauging the situation.

“Um…… may I continue?”

“Speak.”

The most critical injury was his neck.

In the final moment, to shield Kaelus from the suddenly stream of water, he had bent his long neck toward his body. This action placed additional strain on his neck, already one of his body’s weaker points.

…His chest felt tight. It wasn’t simply restlessness; words couldn’t capture it.

It felt like tiny insects had burrowed into his chest, gnawing away at his ribs bit by bit.

He couldn’t shake the thought that it should have been him lying there, not the dragon.

Slam!

Kaelus flung open the door to the dragon stable and stormed inside. The stabl, large enough for six Pensilta dragons to live together, was being used solely by a Kremlis.

Though all partitions had been removed, creating an open space, the giant red dragon filling it made it seem cramped.

Finding the Kremlis wasn’t difficult. He lay quietly, eyes closed. The dragon specialist bowed silently.

Kaelus couldn’t tear his gaze away from the Kremlis, lying as if dead.

Sometimes Nitan wondered whether someone had cut round pieces of iron and set them into the duke’s eye sockets.

Because they were inside a human’s eye sockets, yet the duke’s eyes were too cold and inorganic.

Those pupils flickered intermittently.

Like the shadow of a candle in the darkness, they trembled incessantly.

To Nitan standing beside him, the duke seemed profoundly shaken.

Even though that dragon-hater shouldn’t have been affected.

‘No. Could it be… possible?’

Nitan himself had taken a major shock from this incident.

Though he usually acted like a lively puppy, Yuram was a Kremlis.

His bones were like diamonds, and his skin and scales couldn’t be pierced even by a steel sword.

Even a Pensilta wouldn’t get seriously hurt unless it was a Monster Wave.

…That assumed he was fully grown.

Nitan felt so restless that he wanted to splash water on his face.

‘I was complacent…’.

Yuram was clever and strong. That’s why he kept forgetting Yuram was still an underdeveloped individual.

Back in the Forest Village, he had gotten hurt by an ordinary iron sword while still a hatchling, and even now, as a sub-adult, he often got injured and whined.

Nitan had been blinded by his achievements and his aura.

‘I… I…!’

He didn’t even deserve to call himself a dragon enthusiast!

Beside the despairing Nitan, the dragon healer explained, covered in sweat.

“It’s not good. He’s injured too severely. The broken bones piercing his internal organs were the worst. Judging by his current state, he’ll survive… but.”

The man trailed off. Kaelus urged him on with his gaze.

“…There’s a high likelihood of lasting aftereffects.”

Kaelus fell silent. Nitan gasped.

“Th-then if you treat him properly……!”

“We’ll certainly do our utmost. But that doesn’t mean I can guarantee anything.”

“His consciousness?”

Kaelus, silent until now, spoke for the first time. In a heavy, muffled voice, he asked a question he already knew the answer to.

It was unlike Kaelus, who disliked inefficiency.

The healer shook his head.

Kaelus’s fist slowly clenched.

“I’ll come back.”

He paused as he turned to leave the hall.

“…Please take good care of him.”

“Yes. Don’t worry too much.”

* * *

The complexity of his feelings grew deeper with each passing day.

Because as time passed, the events that had occurred in the cavern came back to him.

The memories were not charred and full of holes; instead, they were as vivid as if they had just happened.

The back of his head throbbed painfully.

What to fix?

He had no clue where to even begin fixing things.

In the end, it always led to self-loathing. He couldn’t help but be angry at Yuram for toying with him, yet he knew deep down.

That Yuram wasn’t the one he should be angry at.

It was all because of his own inadequacy. …Just like the accident five years ago.

Yuram’s severe injuries, in particular, pushed the unstable Kaelus to the edge.

Cracks appeared in the once-solid iron wall. An incurable fever gnawed at his heart.

“……”

The result.

Signs of mental illness began to show.

Kaelus downed bottles of liquor he normally wouldn’t touch. Nitan’s mouth twitched as if he had much to say, but in the end, he uttered not a word.

With only a glance, he dismissed Nitan, then took the bottle’s mouthpiece back to his lips.

“……A mess.”

It was the most accurate description of his current situation.

The man, a patchwork of scars and wounds, gave a bitter smile.

Sighs piled up in the empty space left by the bottle.

* * *

Late at night.

Kaelus hurried toward the dragon stable. Nitan, who had accompanied the dragon healer, had urgently sought him out.

‘You should come see.’

That single phrase was enough to move him in the dead of night.

And what greeted Kaelus upon arriving at the dragon stable was a familiar figure wrapped in cloth.

“……”

“He suddenly transformed into a human. I was so flustered myself… I wondered if Your Grace might have any insight…”

Nitan gasped.

Knowing about the incident at the birthday celebration, he understood what had happened the moment he saw Yuram’s appearance. Nitan’s face, now deathly pale, turned around to face Kaelus.

“I know. In the cavern, he was always in that form.”

“……?!”

He knew……?

“Well, wow……. How interesting…….”

Odan, arriving late, interjected with sparkling eyes.

“…….”

You lunatic, not now!

Nitan, horrified, rushed over like a madman. He looked like an owner who’d found a dog chewing something, even though he hadn’t given it anything.

He dragged the mage, who was just stepping inside, back out.

The healer watched the scene unfold before quietly following them out. Kaelus spoke to the back of his head.

“Keep this to yourself.”

“……My lips are heavier than a dragon’s.”

And dragons can’t speak.

Kaelus didn’t reply, but he didn’t stop the healer either. The latter, his back damp with cold sweat, fled the hall.

Kaelus carefully lifted the body wrapped in cloth. Whether due to the healer’s skill or not, bandages were wrapped around various parts of the human body.

Without being seen by anyone, he brought Yuram back to his own room.

Yuram, now human, recovered more slowly than when he was a dragon. But being ‘human’ meant he could attempt treatment through far more diverse methods than a dragon.

With the aid of magic and medicinal herbs, the results were objectively much better.

Nitan marveled inwardly, while Kaelus stood guard beside Yuram, his expression giving no hint of his thoughts.

Yuram regained consciousness a fortnight after the rescue.