The Beginning of the End

 

Know this.

No matter how absolute something may seem,

the end will always, inevitably, come.

 

"I challenge thee!"

A booming voice rang through the air and jolted us awake.

"Ugh… what is it at this ungodly hour…?"

Rubbing her eyes, Nina sat up and trudged toward the front door.

"My, my! What a beautiful princess! Fear not, milady, I shall most certainly rescue you!"

"Huh?"

The moment I heard that exchange, I knew exactly what was going on.

Ah. One of those again.

Stifling a yawn, I grabbed the staff leaning against the bed and headed outside.

"Hmph. Who are you?"

The one who had been accosting Nina at our doorstep was a swordsman clad in gleaming armor and helmet.

"Hello there. I'm the wicked dragon."

"So it is true that dragons take human form to beguile the hearts of men! Indeed, a fine figure of a man, a pretty boy. You seduced the princess with those looks, did you?"

I'd given him a polite nod of greeting, and that was how he'd responded, growling as he looked at me.

Um… thank you for the compliment, I suppose…?

"My name is Friedrich, the Stormbreaker! Come, let us have an honorable duel!"

The sword he drew glinted blue-silver. Oh? That made me blink.

"Here I come!"

The blade came down in a direct overhead strike, and I caught it reflexively with my left hand.

Ow!!

"Wh-what?! My holy sword, Gramsandol, was stopped…?!"

"Did you truly think the alloy of a mere blue dragon could pierce the scales of a fire dragon…?"

The words I forced through gritted teeth came out satisfyingly raspy.

Still gripping the sword with its name like some fancy cut of meat, I raised my staff in my right hand.

"Gyaaargh!"

I swatted him away with a field of magical force, and Friedrich went flying in spectacular fashion.

"Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha! Foolish mortal! Let this be a lesson, and never come at the crack of dawn again!"

Because I'm sleepy.

He was probably unconscious and couldn't hear me, but I threw it in for good measure before exchanging a look with Nina.

"… Well, we're awake now. Might as well have breakfast."

"Sure."

 

＊　＊　＊

 

While we had been living peacefully in Scarlet, the world outside had changed dramatically. Humans were gradually acquiring the power to stand against dragons, and tales of dragons being slain across various lands reached us with increasing frequency. Grand, glorious tales of dragonslayers.

Well, dragons had been attacking and destroying human settlements too, so I suppose it was fair play.

Either way, the age when people cowered beneath the walking natural disaster that was dragonkind was drawing to a close.

The problem was that would-be dragonslayers had started descending on Scarlet as well, the village said to be ruled by a dragon.

Apparently, I was seen as an easy mark… and, well, that wasn't entirely wrong. I was being challenged to fights constantly.

Still, anyone with ambitions low enough to chase the title of dragonslayer by picking off a supposedly easy target was never going to be strong. The challengers who showed up were all ones even I could handle without trouble, so it was fine.

"Was today's challenger strong?"

"Strong isn't the word I'd use. He had a good weapon, though."

After we'd finished eating, I answered Chryse's question while Nina tended to my aching left hand.

It hadn't been cut, but a nasty bruise was already forming. I'd cast a defensive spell, but the blow had punched right through it.

"It was probably a blue-scale steel sword. His technique wasn't anything special, so he likely bought it rather than earned it by slaying a dragon himself."

Had the warrior wielding it been skilled enough to fell a blue dragon on his own, my arm would have been lopped clean off. That was the kind of magical potency blue dragon scales contained.

"I challenge theeee!"

"Again…?"

I sighed at the booming voice coming from outside.

Well, at least this opponent had the decency to announce himself openly.

There had been one fellow who, for whatever reason, tried to set our house on fire. I wasn't about to burn to death, but Nina, Chryse, and all our belongings would have been a different story.

"I was deceived by a strange spell before, but it won't work this time!"

I'd thought it unusual to get two challengers in one day, but it turned out to be the same man from before. Friedrich.

More resilient than I'd expected.

"Sorry, but I'm going to use a weapon this time."

I didn't want to injure my hand again, so I decided to bring something besides my staff.

"You dare mock me?!"

"I'm not… well, actually, I suppose I am."

After all, I was holding a frying pan. You could hardly blame him for thinking so.

"Take this… Fang-Breaking Heaven-Rending Strike!"

I blocked his entirely unimaginative thrust with my frying pan.

"I-impossible…?!"

While he stood gaping, I swatted him away with my staff just like before… no, a bit harder than before.

According to Innis's theory, objects imbued with magical energy become durable and long-lasting regardless of their original structural strength. The magical coating seals them so thoroughly that they never deteriorate.

That was why papyrus paper crumbled to nothing within a century, while vellum books remained intact after hundreds of years. The repeated applications of magic used to soften the hide during processing thoroughly saturated it with magical energy.

Which brings us to my beloved frying pan.

Sturdy, light, and nonstick. A red frying pan made entirely of scarlite.

According to Innis, scarlite was essentially a mass of magical energy given physical form, harboring power rivaling my own scales. Even now, after taking a blow from the blue-scale sword, it was completely unscathed.

A weapon forged from pure scarlite would be devastatingly powerful, but the supply was scarce. The only places extravagant enough to have items made of the pure material were our kitchen and the Swordsaint main house. Plenty of swords existed in the iron-alloyed version, but those had far less magical potency.

"Are you sure you don't want to clear up the misunderstanding?"

"Nah, it's too much trouble."

I waved my hand dismissively at Chryse, who had been watching the sprawled-out man.

In the beginning, I used to explain things properly. That I wasn't a wicked dragon, that I got along well with the villagers, that there was no glory in defeating me. And it had actually worked, for a time.

But then.

These aspiring dragonslaying heroes truly, genuinely would not listen to reason.

Even when I pleaded my case and had the villagers vouch that I'd never harmed a human, they'd say the people were being deceived, that I was a cunning evil dragon.

That alone I might have stomached. But when they started calling Scarlet a wicked village in league with a dragon, even I couldn't let it stand. Much less could I bring myself to fight gently against self-proclaimed heroes who would harm my people.

If the villagers were going to get hurt anyway, it was faster to lean into the evil dragon act, beat the would-be heroes soundly, and break their spirit. So that was what I'd taken to doing.

Well, the people of Scarlet were mostly stronger than these dragonslayers anyway, so anyone who tried to hurt them would just get beaten right back…

"Ai, how are things on your end?"

With my light morning exercise concluded, it occurred to me to check in, so I opened a communication link to Ai.

"Perfectly peaceful so far, thanks to you."

Perhaps it was because she'd settled deep in a forest teeming with magical beasts, or perhaps because a flock of dragons now lived together there. Either way, no deluded self-proclaimed heroes had come knocking at her door.

"Oh, it's Red Teacher!"

Hearing my voice through the link, the young dragons, who had by now thoroughly learned Japanese, came swarming over.

"Hi, Pink Teacher! Hi, Gold Teacher!"

Even among dragons, children were innocent creatures.

They'd grown completely attached to Chryse and the others, greeting them with casual familiarity.

"… Lately, I've been thinking it might not be a bad idea to come over there."

After some idle small talk, Ai let that slip, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Did what you were waiting for finally come?"

When I asked in surprise, Ai gently shook her head.

"But when I really thought about it, there was never any reason I had to wait here. If it's never going to come regardless, I suppose it doesn't matter where I wait."

There was a note of resignation in Ai's voice.

"Besides, it's gotten rather cramped here."

She wore a helpless sort of expression as the three young dragons nuzzled against her. They had already grown larger than she was.

"Nina."

"I don't care. Do what you want."

When I turned to check, Nina answered with a show of total disinterest.

But I knew better. When she put on that act of not caring, it almost always meant she was in favor.

What sustained Ai and the others' way of life was the vast forest and its resources.

Ai's group had done the work of cultivating it, but the direction and advice had come from us.

The thing was, I knew next to nothing about forests. So it was only natural to seek counsel from the most knowledgeable person around… the guardian of the forest and the embodiment of its bounty: Nina.

It was equally natural that Nina, growing tired of me coming to ask her about every little thing, had started giving Ai instructions directly.

Beneath her cool exterior, Nina was a woman of deep compassion. She could never truly leave someone in need to fend for themselves, no matter what she might say. All the more so when young children were involved.

And so Nina had ended up maintaining quite regular contact with Ai and her group.

"Well then, why don't you move over here sometime soon?"

We'd already set up an area where dragons could live nearby, in case we ever needed to send supplies in an emergency. With a few adjustments, they could relocate almost immediately.

I had been riding high.

—To put it bluntly, I had been looking down on them.

On humans… and on dragons alike.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

I bolted upright in bed.

"What's wrong?"

Nina propped herself up beside me. I couldn't answer her.

Sweat coated my body. My heart hammered like an alarm bell. In the darkness, I could only stare.

This was nothing like the hazy dreams I'd had before.

Not even conviction. Simply fact.

"Mother… is dead."

I said it aloud.