REFDL 65

The first thing I did after regaining consciousness was open the window, jump out, and scrape my collarbone against the window edge.

… It was a catastrophe born of confusion and momentary panic.

Fortunately, Kaelus, who was beside me, reacted in time, so I ended up dangling from the terrace.

Kaelus gritted his teeth and pulled me up. I lay sprawled on the floor, catching my breath.

I… I survived…

“…”

……No. I’m going to die.

The gaze I felt on the top of my head was terrifying. My knees buckled and I trembled, and with a rough sigh, he picked me up. Unlike the angry veins bulging on his neck and forearms, his movements were extremely careful.

“…….”

“…….”

At least he put me back on the bed.

What am I supposed to do about this suffocating air….

I didn’t know where to start. I just rolled my eyes, trying to read the situation. My brain, which had been acting like an idiot since I woke up, started spinning rapidly.

……But there was no answer.

Thinking about what happened in the cavern made me close my eyes.

No matter how I look at it, that’s something he remembers!

Lying in the bedroom as a human was one thing.

But judging by the glare he was shooting, it wasn’t just a matter of remembering.

I must have lost my mind.

Actually, I was a bit like that. Unlike Kaelus, I had maintained my self, but looking back now, I wasn’t exactly normal either.

If it were now, I wouldn’t have acted so impulsively, without a second thought.

I was drenched in cold sweat from the overwhelming sense of dizziness, and my gaze happened to fall on Kaelus’s neck.

I saw the tattoo, carved like claw marks.

My breath hitched, and my body turned rigid. Kaelus noticed where my gaze had landed. His eyes darkened like ink.

“Judging by how you react, I guess you already know how those tattoos came to be.”

“……”

…..I’m screwed.

I couldn’t say a single word of explanation, and just trembled. That alone must have been answer enough.

Kaelus’s expression darkened further.

……Things were spiraling toward the worst possible outcome. I tried to say something, but Kaelus was one step ahead.

“Was it Nitan?”

“Ah, no…!”

Nitan was indeed the source of the information, but it wasn’t his fault.

Of course, blaming everything on Nitan here might slightly salvage what was already a ruined relationship with him.

But…

How could I do that…

I slumped my shoulders and answered gloomily.

“I forced it out of him. I got him really drunk. …I didn’t mean to hear it in such detail.”

My voice trailed off, growing fainter.

Kaelus’s voice fell like a sledgehammer.

“I… cannot trust anything bearing the name ‘dragon’.”

My breath hitched.

Only my ears pricked up, gathering Kaelus’s tirade.

“I can’t like them either.”

…But then.

“But you…”

That was the end of it.

Kaelus, who seemed full of things to say when he glared at me, left the room without saying even a hundredth of it.

His expression was unreadable.

The situation wasn’t like that, yet somehow it felt like he was running away.

I was flustered.

“…?!

But you…

What comes next?!

But you’re a dragon too, so you’re disgusting as well? Is that it?

You eavesdropped on someone’s important secret. You really can’t be trusted. Is that what you meant?!

Having committed the heinous act of cutting off an important conversation, Kaelus vanished without a trace.

Then he began avoiding me. I tried desperately to meet him, but it wasn’t easy.

I was a wounded dragon, my movements restricted, and Kaelus was a duke.

If he refused to see me, there was nothing I could do.

I lay there, groaning in agony.

My body steadily recovered, but my heart withered like a tree infested with pests as time passed.

I lay on the warm bed and stared at the ceiling.

“……”

I thought it was a doomed love.

So I would forget it.

I’d put it behind me soon.

All my chatter had been nothing but shallow bravado. It was ruined, but I couldn’t accept it. I couldn’t give up or let go.

The lingering attachment, thick and sticky, seized any chance it got, pushing reason aside and bursting forth to run wild.

Everything that happened in the cavern was like that. Looking back, it was even clearer.

I was like someone intoxicated by a dream.

I accepted even the senseless, irrational things without question.

I embraced Kaelus, surrendering to instinct and impulse. If I really feared the future, I shouldn’t have held him close thinking, ‘How will you see me later?’, but should have pushed him away.

…But to refuse him? He was too sweet a fruit.

And the joy that filled my chest in that moment!

“Wow… I’m going crazy.”

I chuckled.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity. I snickered for a long while, my brow furrowed.

Everything became crystal clear, as if my head had been cleared.

I liked Kaelus.

I wanted to make it work with him.

This was a feeling I could never, ever give up.

The intuition I felt the moment I first saw him was closer to a revelation than intuition.

It wasn’t my intention. But I was drawn to him, and that’s how I came to this world.

…It was only natural I wandered in that other world. How could I settle and be satisfied when what I sought wasn’t there?

He was my missing piece.

The only one who could fill that ancient void.

Trauma? Feed it to the dogs.

I’ll overcome it somehow. No, I’ll make myself overcome it!

I’ll make him kneel before me and beg!

…I dreamt such a delusional fantasy.

But I believe what matters is determination.

The will to achieve one’s purpose.

So at least, I won’t give up feebly like before.

“……”

But I need to see him first before I can do anything

My body recovered steadily.

Nitan and Odan took turns visiting intermittently. Occasionally, the dragon healer with the subtle expressions was dragged along too.

He protested, “I’m a specialist dragon healer,” but it fell on deaf ears.

Fortunately, the parts requiring surgical treatment were finished. The rest just needed time to recover.

Time flowed like water.

And until the date for returning to the capital was confirmed. Kaelus never showed his face once.

* * *

Half a month passed.

I could return to being a dragon again.

Once the wounds were fully healed, I felt it. I could transform now.

When I told Nitan, he paused briefly, then draped a cloth over me and led me to the empty dragon stable in the dead of night.

In the stable, with only Nitan and Odan present, I transformed into a dragon. Once I got the hang of it, it felt as natural as breathing. Odan’s eyes sparkled. Nitan marveled.

“Good heavens. You’re much larger than before!”

“……This is ……unusual. Yes. Unusual. Your growth pattern shouldn’t be different from a Kremlis. You could already be considered an adult. ……Could you possibly grow any larger? Interesting…….”

“Amazing! Truly incredible!”

An excited Nitan kept exclaiming how amazing it was. Embarrassed, I scratched my cheek scales with my front claws.

I’m not really sure.

I flapped my wings and wiggled my tail.

Something felt… overflowing with power.

It felt like my entire body had been upgraded.

I should be able to use my breath much more naturally now too.

Only one thing came to mind. The cavern’s influence.

Suddenly, I remembered the light mass that had dragged out time. Even if it hadn’t planned for me to live there forever, the fact it’d kept me there for a certain period suggested something had been naturally imparted.

I remembered the illusion I’d witnessed the moment of submersion. My mood sank like a conditioned reflex. I shook my head vigorously, trying to force it away.

* * *

The subjugation force finally prepared to return.

The war against the monsters had long ended. Cleanup was in its final stages. The return had been delayed solely because of me.

Everything proceeded as smoothly as flowing water. In truth, it was almost like a torrent.

The determination of the long-serving members to go home was formidable.

On the day of return.

I finally reunited with Kaelus.

His body seemed normal yet strangely stiff. His face was cold. I felt distance between us.

Thud.

He mounted my saddled back, and ordered in a tone like a muttered soliloquy.

“Cry.”

……I feel like crying, but you want me to actually cry?

“……Roar.”

Ah. Uh. Ah!

Gr…..Grrrr…

I roared, but my voice cracked.

“…….”

The back of my head hurt. It stung so much I wondered if it was pierced.

Unlike Kaelus, who glared with cold eyes, Nitan, leading the Pensilta group, buried his head in his partner dragon’s nape and trembled intermittently. ……He looked like a cat trying to vomit hairballs.

Odan, riding behind another knight, was slumped like a limp rag from the dawn-started return ceremony. He must be nocturnal.

Anyway, I’d been sweating bullets, worried I’d ruined the reputation I’d worked so hard to build, but fortunately the reaction wasn’t bad.

The soldiers looked strangely overwhelmed as they gazed up at me and Kaelus behind me, while the Pensilta prostrated themselves.

The piercing stares that had been stabbing the back of my head finally dropped away.

“……We’re returning!”

This time, I didn’t mess up.

GRRRR!

I roared once more and flapped my wings. Thunderous cheers followed as I soared high into the air.