The Fire Dragon Host

 

A mere five.

Countable on one hand, and yet

the greatest army on this earth.

 

"Time really does pass disgustingly fast, doesn't it."

Forty-nine years had passed since I'd made my decision.

"… Are you sure about this?"

Nina asked, brows knitted with worry.

"If I said I had no regrets, that'd be a lie."

No. Let me be honest.

In the forty-nine years since that day, there hadn't been a single one where I didn't feel regret.

Had this really been the right choice? Was I making a catastrophic mistake?

Those doubts had never stopped smoldering in the back of my mind.

But I'd thought, and thought, and thought—

And still, I couldn't have chosen differently.

"… You really are a fool, you know that?"

Not with exasperation but with a soft smile, Nina spoke.

"But well."

She drew a breath, her expression settling into something like resolve.

"A fool like you, I… l-l… li… I don't dislike."

Nina stammered several times before rephrasing.

Rephrasing, she called it, but she'd practically said the whole thing already… Well. Same as always.

That unchanging little mannerism of hers gave me courage.

"Mentor."

Her voice rang clear as glass, accompanied by the soft rustle of wings as Ai alighted.

"Yeah. I know."

I nodded before she could say another word.

What she meant to tell me, I already felt keenly.

"Mentor, we're ready!"

Stone sword in hand, Yuuki reported.

"There seem to be… quite a lot of them."

The ranks assembled behind her were far larger than I'd anticipated.

"We of the Swordsaints stand with you always, Mentor."

Nashim, the current head of the Swordsaints, declared, and a thunderous roar of agreement rose from the crowd.

"Understood, thank you… Chryse, you know it's okay for you to evacuate with Innis and Lufelle, right?"

"Wha— you're saying that now?!"

My daughter, the most timid of us all, went wide-eyed.

"No way. Abandoning Dad and Miss Nina to save my own skin? I'd rather die. Well, I mean, I'm already dead, so."

Trembling slightly, Chryse still managed a defiant grin as she cracked her undead joke.

"Rin. What about you?"

Honestly, I'd been a little surprised she'd volunteered. I knew that beneath her elusive exterior, Rin was unexpectedly loyal and cared deeply about her friends.

But enough to risk her life? I didn't think she had quite enough reason for that, not as she was now.

"Well, if things get dicey I'll just run, so don't expect too much from me."

Rin answered lightly, but she had to know it wouldn't be nearly that simple.

After all, we were up against five fire dragons. The most powerful creatures in the world.

The path I'd chosen was one where I abandoned neither side.

The path where we faced the fire dragon host head-on.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

East of Scarlet, in the mountain passes leading to the lizardmen's lands, they were waiting.

'Well then, the deadline has arrived. How did it go?'

The fire dragon who posed the question was my uncle, Elderbresutulfjarlinu.

Forty-nine years ago.

Which was to say, half a year ago by a fire dragon's reckoning.

I had asked them for a grace period to find the one who killed my mother.

I would find the culprit and hand them over without fail, so please, stop annihilating humanity in the meantime.

The one year I'd initially proposed was rejected as too long. The reprieve I was granted was half a year.

In that half year, I had steeled my resolve and prepared to repel the fire dragons.

'I'm sorry… I couldn't find them.'

I bowed my head, then on a whim decided to try my luck.

'Could I have another half year?'

I'd prepared for this day, but more preparation never hurt.

Given the unhurried way fire dragons perceived time, there was a chance they'd agree.

'Enough of this farce.'

My great-grandfather cut that craven hope down in a single sentence.

'Did you think our eyes so blind? We have long known you are sheltering the white one.'

… So they'd seen through that much. When had they figured it out? Perhaps they'd already known half a year ago.

'Hand it over and all will be well. Refuse, and you—'

"Fire!"

The instant I shouted, a rain of arrows flew toward the fire dragons.

Hidden throughout the mountains, the Swordsaints loosed over fifty dragon-scale bows crafted across the past half century. The arrowheads were tipped with scales from Riyo and the others. Poisoned arrows, proven effective against fire dragons during the battle with Mother.

But.

'Fools.'

The moment my great-grandfather murmured, a sphere of flame erupted outward from him.

'Did you truly believe such trinkets would work on me?'

The fire dragons, totally immune to flame, emerged utterly unscathed, while every last arrow was vaporized in midflight.

It had been as effortless as breathing, yet the precision behind it was something even Mother couldn't have managed. And more frightening still, though he couldn't possibly have known about the poison, he hadn't trusted his invincible scales to simply take the hit. That caution was what truly scared me.

But…

That much was within our expectations!

Before I could even give the signal, the earth heaved violently.

'What…?'

The fire dragons exchanged bewildered glances.

In this world where everything moved by the power of will, earthquakes were exceedingly rare. Among the spirits, earth spirits were especially dutiful. Unlike their counterparts, they almost never acted on whim, nor threw tantrums.

An earthquake was hardly a serious threat to dragons who could fly, and even caught in mundane, non-magical fissures, their scales would emerge without a scratch.

But for one instant.

A phenomenon unfamiliar even to fire dragons who had lived since time immemorial gave them a single moment's pause. Seizing that opening, boulders even more massive than the fire dragons themselves came raining down upon them.

They weren't slow enough to be crushed so easily, of course. The fire dragons dodged nimbly.

But the important thing was: we'd split them apart.

Scattered in four directions, each fire dragon now stood walled off by towering pillars of rock.

'What the hell is this thing…?'

'Chryse's the name. Pleased to meet youuu!'

The single-horned fire dragon looked up at the rock formation dwarfing it and muttered. In answer, the mountain itself groaned and shuddered as Chryse's voice boomed out.

A golem carved from the mountainside itself. Chryse had projected her soul into it and was controlling it from within.

'Tch, what a pain…'

'Road's closed.'

The two-horned red dragon spread its wings wide and tried to circle around the rock wall, only for a long-bodied blue dragon — Rin — to block its path.

'Then I'll simply smash through!'

The three-horned red dragon swung its massive arm at the rock wall. But before its claws could make contact, they were cleanly sheared off.

"Your opponent is me."

Standing atop the thunder dragon Gilta's back, stone sword at the ready, Yuuki declared.

"I hear you're his uncle."

On the opposite side of the rock wall, deep in the forest, Nina bound my uncle with countless trees as she spoke.

"Sorry, but this is going to hurt."

And then…

'So you insist on defying us.'

'My apologies, but.'

I shifted into human form, mounted Ai's back, and raised my staff against my great-grandfather.

'I will be resisting.'