Television

 

In order to bring this into every household,

one first had to overcome its unfortunate tendency to start fires.

 

"No."

When I asked Nina if she'd join me the next time I contacted Ai, she flatly refused.

"I told you already. I don't acknowledge that thing as Ai. Reincarnation or whatever it is, I have nothing to say to her."

Her tone wasn't as harsh as the words themselves, but the flat, emotionless quality of her voice made it all the more unapproachable.

"But, Nina…"

"However."

Just as I tried to press the matter further, Nina pointed a finger squarely at me.

"If you want to talk to her, go ahead. I'm not going to stop you."

… Was this one of those situations? The kind where I shouldn't take her at face value?

That sort of thing wasn't really Nina's style, but I'd heard plenty of stories about women saying "do whatever you want" when they meant the exact opposite, then getting upset when you took them at their word.

Even after a thousand years of life, the female heart remained an endlessly baffling mystery.

"I told you. I don't acknowledge that thing as Ai."

She poked the tip of my nose with the same finger, then narrowed her eyes and held my gaze.

"So… talking with something like that, I mean… I wouldn't exactly… consider it, um, cheating or anything."

Her cheeks flushed ever so slightly as she said it, looking embarrassed.

That expression was absolutely lethal.

"Y-yeah… thanks."

I couldn't bring myself to look at her directly, my own face burning as I turned away.

We'd been together for over a thousand years. It had been more than a century since she'd confessed her feelings. And yet here I was, still flustered. I could never get used to it.

"Then, may I join the conversation?"

"Me too!"

The ones who popped in to shatter the delicate atmosphere were Chryse and Rin.

"Wh— h-how long have you two been listening?!"

"Hmm, around the part where Mentorrr was agonizing over how to bring it up with Professor Nina, and then opened with 'It's been getting pretty chilly lately, hasn't it?'"

"That's from even before the beginning!"

All I could do was laugh ruefully.

Rin could transform into creatures as small as insects, and Chryse's body produced no involuntary movement, not even breathing or a heartbeat. The two of them were, in short, exceptionally gifted at hiding their presence.

I just wished they wouldn't put those gifts to use for eavesdropping.

"… Fine, do what you want."

"Yay! I've been wanting to talk to her!"

"Yeah, we haven't even gotten to meet her yet."

Nina sighed in exasperation as Rin and Chryse chimed in.

"Oh, then we should go get her too."

Rin clapped her hands together and murmured.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

"—Be mine ears and carry sound unto me, and reveal what is reflected in those eyes."

Once I finished the long incantation and thrust one of my scales into the ground, flames sprang from the spot.

The heatless, pure white flames projected the image of a white dragon peering in from the other side.

"Ooh, amazing, I can see her, I can see her!"

"Hello! Can you hear us?"

Rin clapped her hands in excitement while Chryse waved and called out to the figure beyond the flames.

"Yes, I can hear you clearly."

Ai answered in a clear, audible voice, quite unlike the usual communication magic that resonated directly in my mind, and waved a foreleg back at them. I'd tried this on a whim, and it seemed my magic-based pseudo-video-call was a success.

Should I be more impressed that magic could accomplish this without any infrastructure, or that science had achieved the same thing without magic? Probably both.

Magic was hopelessly weak at automation and efficiency, but in return, it was remarkably powerful for anything that could be managed through sheer imagination.

"You came down from the mountain."

"Yes. I was told there might be fire involved, so just to be safe."

From the background, Ai appeared to be in a forest at the foot of the snowy mountain, in a small clearing where the trees thinned out.

"These little ones also said they wanted to talk."

Ai shifted back slightly, and three dragons, each a bit smaller than her, peeked out from behind.

One blue, one green, one black.

'Is this that thing Teach was talking about?'

'Looks… kinda weak…'

'Is that really a dragon too?'

The three dragons eyed me and chattered amongst themselves in Draconic.

"'Teach'?"

"Oh, um… that's what they call me."

I tilted my head at the green dragon's phrasing, and Ai answered with a hint of embarrassment.

"Let me introduce everyone. This is Rin, Chryse, and… Yuuki of the Swordsaints."

I stepped back as well to introduce the three who'd been watching the call beside me.

"The blue dragon is Riyostilhiminz, the green dragon is Triesqualftihaustowindur, and the black dragon is Floarisaifirboiloimyuri."

Showing no particular reaction to Yuuki's surname, Ai recited the three dragons' names.

"I-I'm sorry, what did you just say?"

"Sorry, I couldn't quite catch all of that either."

"Way too long. There's absolutely no way I'm remembering those."

Chryse and Yuuki exchanged whispers, while Rin delivered her verdict without mincing words.

"I know, right? I usually call them Riyo, Trie, and Flora."

Ai answered with a wry smile. Chryse and Yuuki looked relieved, while Rin muttered, "That's where you cut them off…"

All three dragons appeared to be young girls. They might even be younger than Yuuki. Surprisingly, you really could tell a dragon's sex and age from appearance alone.

"How are you managing for food? Getting enough to eat?"

That was my first concern.

A dragon's territory was fundamentally proportional to its flight speed, which in turn was proportional to its body size. The only exception was the green dragon, which wasn't a particularly strong flier. In other words, a white dragon's territory wasn't nearly as vast as a fire dragon's.

Worse still, much of that territory overlapped with Mashiro's human population. Ai alone could probably get by without trouble, but with three growing young dragons to feed on top of that, I wasn't sure they could manage.

"We're fine for now. But we'll have to think about it eventually."

Ai tilted her head with a troubled look. The young dragons, having already lost interest in us, frolicked around her tail.

"Why not set up a ranch or some farmland?"

"Could a dragon really manage that?"

I groaned at Rin's suggestion.

A dragon's body was built for solitary survival in the wild, not for crafting or cultivation. The dexterous human hand was a far greater asset than one might think.

"Um…"

Yuuki tentatively raised her hand and joined the conversation.

"If only dragons are going to use it, couldn't you get away with something much rougher? Like… a forest, for example."

A forest. Come to think of it, if you grew a forest, animals would naturally gather and stay. For dragons, that was practically the same as a ranch. It would take decades to grow, but the young dragons still needed time to mature, so there should be enough of a window.

"And then there's defense. I doubt anyone could beat you easily, Ai, but you should be prepared in case humans come."

That plan could solve the food problem, at least. I moved on to the next concern.

"Do you have any ideas?"

"Huh? M-me?"

Yuuki blinked in surprise when I turned to her.

"Well… I'm not as strong as Mom, you know."

She was being modest. I knew she swung a stone sword every day. Granted, she was nowhere near Yuuka, who'd trained for centuries and earned the title of Swordsaint, but she was no amateur, either.

"So what would you do if you had to fight?"

"… Let me think."

The moment I posed the question, Yuuki's entire demeanor shifted. From a somewhat nervous young girl to that of a warrior.

… Just as I'd thought. Her true nature lay in taking up the sword. Somehow, that made me happy.

"Even if they're young, taking on three dragons at once would be difficult. If I were going to strike, I'd wait until one was alone, somewhere outside the dragon's home territory… In other words, I'd target them during a hunt."

She had a point. A dragon defending its own territory was an exponentially more formidable opponent.

But when it came time to eat, a dragon had to leave its lair to find prey. Other creatures didn't come near a dragon's den, after all.

'Trie would know if anyone entered the forest, right?'

—With the exception of a forest-dwelling green dragon.

'Yep, I'd know!'

Trie answered in a languid tone. Just as I'd suspected. The green dragon likely possessed abilities similar to an elf's. That was why green dragons were the weakest fliers among the five types. They had no need to fly long distances to find prey.

"So what if we grew a forest in a ring around Ai's mountain… and having a swamp would be good too, right?"

Rin pulled out a notebook and began sketching a rough layout with her ever-impressive penmanship.

"What are you talking about?"

Ai tilted her head, unable to follow the conversation.

I answered her.

"We're talking about building a paradise for dragons."