Choice

 

Life is a series of choices.

— William Shakespeare

 

Annihilation. There was no other word for what had happened.

Buildings, the people who lived in them, city walls — everything.

All of it destroyed, evaporated without leaving a single trace.

Nothing remained but blackened, scorched earth.

There was no need to wonder who had done it.

Only one species in the world was capable of such a thing, and…

More than that. It hadn't ended there.

After Mashiro came Roiro. Then Asagi. Hashibami. Shiou. One after another, nations were annihilated from east to west.

This bore no resemblance to the sporadic attacks that had come before, scattered and random as natural disasters. Witnessing the sheer thoroughness of the destruction, I understood.

— The fire dragons intended to exterminate humanity as a species.

After hearing the accounts of refugees who'd fled the eastern nations, I steeled my resolve.

"… You're going, aren't you."

That night, after Chryse had fallen asleep.

Nina's words drew a rueful smile from me.

"I haven't said a word, and I didn't think I was letting it show. How did you know?"

It hadn't even been a question. She'd stated it as fact. Was I really so transparent?

"How many years do you think we've been together?"

Nina leaned back against me where I sat on the edge of the bed and murmured softly.

"… You'll die."

"Not necessarily."

If the fire dragons were killing humans to avenge Mother's death, there might be a way to resolve this. If they possessed the capacity to grieve for one of their own, they might be willing to hear me out.

"Besides, if we just sit here and wait, we'll be destroyed all the same. And that… I can't accept."

The fire dragons didn't strictly distinguish between human settlements and the surrounding land. If they found a village in a cleared forest, they burned the forest along with it. If a village stood at the foot of a mountain, they incinerated the mountain whole. When the time came to destroy Scarlet, they wouldn't spare us.

"… I'm coming with you."

"You can't, and you know it."

A fire dragon's flames made no distinction between humans and elves. Honestly, I doubted they could even tell the two apart. If I was going to negotiate, I had to go alone.

Nina didn't answer. She'd known all of it from the very beginning.

That was exactly why she sat with her back to me, keeping her face hidden.

"If a week passes without any word from me, then—"

"I know."

Nina cut me off.

"I know…"

The only sound was a faint, stifled sob, barely audible in the quiet room.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

It took just one day's flight from Scarlet to find them.

A fire dragon, breathing flames upon a small village and trampling it to ruin.

What are you…?

In length, it was perhaps a little under twice my size.

The dragon noticed me and cocked its head, seemingly bewildered.

No… I know. I know you. You're the whelp of Leikrusemsweifrarelyerdfyarlrinu.

The name it spoke was Mother's.

I am. You knew my mother?

Knew her? Ha.

The fire dragon laughed. It was a grin utterly at odds with the image of an incarnation of ruin… far too cheerful for a creature that had just razed a human village moments ago.

I'm Leikrusemsweifrarelyerdfyarlrinu's younger brother, Elderbreswtourfyarlrinu. That'd make me your uncle, kid.

My uncle!

I hadn't expected a blood relation. My eyes went wide. This was a welcome surprise.

Suppressing the surge of hope at the prospect of a far more productive conversation than I'd anticipated, I pressed on.

Well, well. Only about ten years old and you've come all this way to find us? Admirable spirit, kid. Go on, have at it — burn something.

Please, wait.

My uncle jerked his chin toward the still-burning human village, and I summoned every ounce of resolve I had.

Would you… please consider not burning any more humans?

Come again?

My uncle didn't sound particularly offended. It was nothing more than pure, genuine puzzlement.

They are small, weak creatures. But… Mother was fond of them. It pains me to see them killed.

It wasn't a lie. She had gone to the trouble of learning the human language, and she'd accepted Nina and Chryse. At the very least, Mother hadn't disliked humans. Even if one had slain her, I couldn't believe she would have wished for humanity to be burned to extinction in revenge.

Hmmm.

My uncle rumbled thoughtfully, appearing to consider it.

Could this work…?

If he wouldn't listen, I'd have to consider fighting. Fortunately, my uncle didn't radiate the overwhelming, impossible dread I'd felt from the fire dragon I'd encountered before.

I was smaller, yes, but I had the accumulated wisdom and magical arts of human civilization on my side. Ingenuity was the province of the weak. It was hard to imagine that fire dragons, supreme by birthright, would have ever bothered studying the art of combat.

Surely, somewhere in that gap lay my chance—

Did you hear that?! What do you think, Grandfather?!

Without warning, my uncle hurled that question into the empty air.

No need to shout. I heard everything.

Words died in my throat. My entire body trembled, and I could not make it stop.

Emerging from behind a mountain was the red dragon I had met once before.

— And trailing behind it, three more.

A somewhat small fire dragon with a single long horn protruding from its forehead.

A mid-sized fire dragon with two horns that curved like a goat's.

A large fire dragon with three horns extending from the back of its skull.

Including the uncle I'd met first, five red dragons now stood assembled.

The three newcomers appeared younger than me, but even so, no amount of ingenuity or technique could overcome these numbers.

If I crossed them, I would be crushed in an instant.

Of that, I was certain.

Boy. You said not to burn the humans.

If my uncle had called this one "Grandfather," then to me, it would be my great-grandfather.

The dragon Mother had once spoken of: over two hundred years of age. In human years, that meant over twenty thousand. An elder wyrm.

Please… will you show them mercy?

Very well.

I had gathered every scrap of courage to force the words through my trembling, and my great-grandfather agreed so readily that I gaped in spite of myself.

We have no particular interest in those creatures.

Then… why?

So it wasn't revenge?

To flush out the master of this.

What my great-grandfather showed me was a half-melted scale, pure white.

The moment I saw it, my heart lurched.

That… is…

A scale of the white one. It carries the lingering scent of the creatures you call humans.

It was Ai's scale. Part of the armor the archer had worn.

The very same armor that Aisha had once worn.

The one who killed Leikrusemsweifrarelyerdfyarlrinu was the owner of this scale. It dwells among the humans. That is why we are flushing it out.

Of course. Unlike me, they hadn't witnessed the circumstances of Mother's death. It had never occurred to them that a human could have done it.

And the trouble was, their reasoning was almost entirely correct, except that the culprit wasn't Ai. The scale was undeniably hers, and right now, Ai was living among humans in Scarlet.

Correcting this misunderstanding would be difficult. And even if I succeeded, they might simply decide to exterminate humanity regardless.

… I can't imagine Mother would have been felled so easily. Surely her killer must already be dead as well?

It is possible.

My great-grandfather nodded easily, as though it were a matter of no consequence whatsoever.

But perhaps not. We will simply burn until we are certain.

And it truly was of no consequence to him. I understood that now.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

"… I don't mind."

When I returned to Scarlet and explained the situation, Ai answered quietly.

"If killing me is all it takes to satisfy them, it's a simple matter. Please, take care of the children."

"There's no way I could do that!"

Ai had done nothing wrong. Heaping all the blame on an innocent person and offering her up as a sacrifice was something I could never do.

"Then will you abandon the humans?"

But when she put it that way, I had no answer. That, too, was something I could never do.

"Why not just let them go?"

Nina, who had been silent until now, spoke up.

"… Nina?"

"It's the humans' own fault, isn't it? They killed a dragon, and now dragons are killing them. What could be more natural?"

Her voice was flat. Devoid of emotion.

"You've done more than enough. Not just for the people of this village. You tried to protect people in other nations too, as much as you could. If this is where it leads, then it can't be helped. Walk away, and no one will blame you."

We'd been together a long time. I could tell she meant every word.

It was neither a joke nor a trap.

"You're counting yourself among the humans, aren't you?"

She simply hadn't included her own safety among the things that mattered.

"What choice do I have? Without me, they're completely helpless."

Nina shrugged.

In other words, what she was telling me was this:

Abandon us, and be happy with Ai.

Sacrifice Ai to protect humanity.

Abandon humanity to live with Ai.

— I was being forced to choose.