The Nation of Mashiro

 

The standard souvenir is a Mashiro manjuu.

 

We're going back to Scarlet.

The three of them each reacted to my decision in their own way.

"Huh, but… um…"

Chryse's face was a picture of bewilderment, her gaze darting between me and Nina.

"… …"

Nina said nothing, only watching me in silence. She'd been by my side long enough. She'd probably anticipated I would say this.

And then.

"Why?"

Rin, ever the straightforward one, simply came out and asked.

She must have understood my reasoning. She was neither slow on the uptake nor oblivious to nuance. She just refused to read the room. Deliberately, I was fairly certain.

"Are you okay with giving up on going to see Ai?"

"I wouldn't say okay, exactly…"

I managed a wry smile.

"But right now, I'm honestly more worried about Scarlet. If a fire dragon like that one decided to drop by… Gilta wouldn't stand a chance."

Then again, I might not stand much of a chance either. Still, the fire dragon yesterday had chosen to let me go. If that had been because it recognized me as a fellow fire dragon, then simply being in Scarlet might be enough to keep the village safe. We'd had peace for over a thousand years, after all.

"Once we're back, we can develop some kind of sorcery to defend against fire dragon attacks. I'm sure Innis could figure something out. And once that's done, we can set out again."

"That's a lie, though."

Rin cut right through it.

"Even Innis couldn't pull that off so easily. And there's no guarantee Ai will still be alive by then."

She was right. Who knew if technology capable of countering a fire dragon was even achievable within a century or two? At the very least, it wouldn't happen during Ai's lifetime. Even if she'd reincarnated multiple times, there was no guarantee the next would succeed. This journey might very well be our last chance.

"Are you really okay with that?"

I couldn't answer Rin's question right away.

Scarlet might be attacked, or I might never see Ai again. Both were uncertain.

"So here's the thing."

While I was still wavering, Rin fixed me with a steady gaze.

"I'll go back instead."

"Huh…?"

The words had barely left her mouth before her body swelled before my eyes. Her limbs thickened and grew massive, her neck stretched long, her hair vanished as horns and spines sprouted in its place. Hard scales spread across her skin, and wings and a tail burst forth.

Seconds later, a magnificent fire dragon stood before us.

"… Incredible."

It wasn't just a surface imitation. Complete with genuine draconic presence, a perfect fire dragon stood there.

"How on earth did you do that?"

"I used this."

As Rin shrank back to normal, she produced a red scale from inside her clothes. One of my scales, given to her long ago for communication.

That said, it was different from the scales I kept wrapped in dragon-ward cloth. It had long since separated from my body. A dead scale, nothing more. It shouldn't have been giving off any draconic presence. If it had, Rin would have been killed ages ago, wandering through other dragons' territories with it.

"If you can become a dragon by wearing your scale and the draconic presence comes out, then obviously the same thing happens if I wear it and become a dragon, right?"

Rin declared this with absolute confidence.

I could see the logic… even in my previous world, that sort of sorcery existed.

Sympathetic magic. In taxonomic terms, a type of imitative sorcery.

Like wearing a wild beast's hide to gain its strength, or eating its flesh to make its power your own.

"So I can take your place, right? At least until you get back."

"… Are you sure?"

It was a generous offer, but it felt somehow unlike her.

Rin had always craved novelty, new things, new places. She wasn't without attachment to Scarlet, but abandoning a journey to stand guard alone wasn't her style at all.

It was obvious she was doing this for my sake.

"Well, honestly, I'd love to meet Ai myself, but…"

She said, casting a meaningful glance at the others.

"I'll leave that to Professor Nina and Chrys."

"Mm."

"Leave it to us!"

Nina gave a quiet nod while Chryse thumped her chest and took on the task.

"If all goes well, we can bring her back with us. Then you'll get to meet her too, Rin."

At my words, Rin made a complicated face, and Chryse let out a weary sigh. Nina didn't even bother looking exasperated. Apparently I'd said something strange again. Over a thousand years alive, and I still couldn't fathom these particular subtleties of the female heart…

"Anyway."

Rin collected herself and flashed a reassuring grin.

"Leave the village to me. You just do what you want, Mentorrr."

"Rin…"

Her expression abruptly shifted to bewilderment and alarm.

"Wait, why are you crying?!"

Before I knew it, a single tear had traced its way down my cheek.

"No… I was just thinking how much you've grown."

"I can get smaller too, if you'd prefer?"

With that, she transformed into the size she'd been when we first met — a young girl of about eight.

I'd watched her grow from that form twice now. Perhaps because of that, or perhaps because of her free-spirited nature, the impression of her as a child had never quite faded despite our six hundred years together.

But she had, it seemed, grown into a truly dependable mage.

"Then I'm counting on you."

"Mm. Consider it done!"

We clasped hands, lingering a moment in parting.

"Hey."

Watching us, Nina spoke up.

"Rin just gave off draconic presence, right? Don't you think the nearby dragon noticed our location?"

We fled from that spot at full speed.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

A month and a half passed after we parted ways with Rin.

"Wow, this is incredible…"

"That really is something."

We all stared wide-eyed at the towering wall before us.

It stood taller than I was in dragon form. The colossal barrier of gray brick stretched beyond the horizon, so vast that its full extent was impossible to gauge.

Pointed towers rose at regular intervals along the wall, each topped with an enormous bow.

The nation of Mashiro — its capital. Mashiro City.

"Halt."

As we approached the gate, guards with leveled spears blocked our path.

"Present your travel permit."

Caught off guard, we exchanged glances. Neither Rin nor any of the travelers from Mashiro had ever mentioned such a thing.

"Um… we don't have one."

"What? What backwater did you lot come from?"

Then again, Rin's last visit to Mashiro had been well over two hundred years ago, and even the most recent traveler had come nearly a century past. Customs could change any number of times over such spans.

"From Scarlet."

When Nina answered, the guards eyed us with suspicion, looking us up and down. As a precaution, we'd hidden Nina's ears and Chryse's horns under hats, so to all appearances we should have looked like three ordinary human travelers, but…

"Very well. If you don't have a travel permit, you'll need to pay a toll."

"Um… will this be enough?"

According to Rin, the Mon currency from Scarlet wasn't used outside the village. But the value of gold should be universal. I produced a gold coin from my leather pouch and held it out, and the guards' eyes went wide.

"… That's not enough."

"Yeah. You'd need ten of those, at least."

Their surprise quickly turned to greedy grins.

Ten coins was an amount I could easily afford, but this was clearly…

"Dad, these people are lying!"

While I was deliberating, Chryse pointed at the guards and shouted at the top of her lungs. I know that!

"Wh— How dare you call us liars?!"

Predictably, the guard's brow shot up and he barked back at her.

Now how was I supposed to defuse this?

Most likely, flashing the gold coin had triggered their greed. They must have figured they could swindle travelers from the sticks who didn't know local rates. I probably should have offered a cheaper denomination to begin with…

But the only currency in circulation in Scarlet was gold coins and scarlite coins. And based on Nokia's reaction when she'd visited Scarlet, scarlite was almost certainly worth more than gold.

"What seems to be the trouble here?"

A clear voice cut in.

"L-Lady Aisha…!"

A knight clad in pure white armor and helm sat astride a great-antlered deer with a magnificent set of antlers. Judging by the voice, a woman.

"Well, it's… these travelers here can't afford the toll."

She appeared to be someone of high rank. The guards immediately turned flustered and fumbled out their answer.

"They couldn't pay in En, so… when we asked for an alternative, they refused."

I see. Without any established exchange rate, how much to accept was entirely at the guard's discretion. They were taking advantage of us, but it wasn't technically against the rules.

"I see…"

The woman called Aisha drew a slip of paper from her pack and wrote something on it before handing it to the guards.

"Then this should settle the matter."

"Ma'am! … You may pass."

The guards snapped to attention with crisp salutes and thrust the slip of paper at me.

Written on it was authorization for the bearers to pass, along with her signature.

"Thank you so much!"

"Not at all. Safe travels."

Aisha replied warmly, then rode past us and out through the gate. We bowed to her retreating figure and made our way into the city.

"We met an unpleasant person and a kind person the moment we arrived. I don't know what to make of this place."

Nina muttered, her expression sour.

"Oh, come to think of it, I never got my gold coin back."

We had a travel permit now, so there should have been no reason to pay a toll… Well, never mind.

"Ah!"

As we were talking, Chryse suddenly cried out.

"What is it?"

"D-Dad, that person just now…!"

Her gaze was fixed on the city gate, the direction Aisha had departed.

"That person is Ai!"