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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: An Unlikely Friendship
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Meanwhile, after leaving the Emerald Hall, Yulius’s golden eyes flashed as he shed the mask of a benevolent grandfather.
“A younger brother... I wonder if Leopold would welcome a sibling just like him. And how is our abandoned grandson doing?”
“Yes, he is still alive.”
“Hmm, he must stand on his own at such a young age, yet he seems to be holding up quite well.”
“It seems the Emperor is sending him supplies once a month.”
“How uncharacteristically kind of him. Especially after dealing with his own brothers so ruthlessly.”
Yulius chuckled. It was the innocent laugh of a child, unfitting for his age.
But the laughter abruptly stopped, and Yulius’s expression hardened into a blank mask.
“Deceiving my eyes and saving the twin was insolent... but since it has come to this, I shall make good use of him.”
After all, sending him to that mansion was tantamount to leaving him for dead. It wouldn't matter how I chose to use the boy, would it?
“I will proceed when he has ripened deliciously.”
With a meaningful smile, Yulius left the corridor, accompanied by his priests.
* * *
About a week had passed since Lucian's birthday. In that time, the three of them had returned to their daily routine, living out ordinary, uneventful days.
Their daily activities were done, but it was still a bit too early for bed. Lucian, hugging a cushion on the sofa, kicked his feet restlessly.
“Isn't there anything fun to do?”
Lucian stared intently at Kaizareu with sparkling eyes, and the dragon's face darkened.
He looked ready to flee at the mere mention of the word 'play'.
“Kaizareu.”
“No, not a chance, I'm not doing it.”
“I haven't said anything yet.”
“I don't know what it is, but I'm not doing it. I've played with you enough for one day.”
Lucian pouted.
“Then tell me a fun story.”
“Something fun?”
“Yeah, the dragon story last time was fun. Do you have any others?”
“Hmm, a story...”
“Come to think of it, how did you and Ria meet? You said you've known each other for a long time.”
At Lucian's words, Ria and Kaizareu exchanged a look.
“We have known each other for quite a long time. Almost 250 years, I think?”
[I met you when you were just a snot-nosed kid.]
“A snot-nosed kid! Is there anything you won't say to a dragon!”
[You were a snot-nosed kid. Weren't you, what, 50 years old back then?]
“Ahem, that's right. I came here not long after I first succeeded in polymorphing.”
To think that little brat would soon be an adult dragon. Ria was struck by how quickly time had passed.
“Well, before I talk about meeting Ria, I should probably explain how I came to be here in the first place.”
As Kaizareu began his story, Lucian's eyes sparkled, and he hugged the cushion tightly.
“I told you before, right? That I visited the human world when I first learned to polymorph.”
Most dragons can polymorph around the age of 100. Considering that, Kaizareu was a remarkably fast learner.
His parents, overjoyed, took him on a trip to the human world.
The first place they arrived was here, the Audrian Empire.
“That was the first time I saw humans, who I'd only ever heard about. Unlike us dragons, who are few in number, they were as numerous as an army of ants.”
Anyway, I remember my parents buying me lots of jewels and other things to celebrate my first successful polymorph.
“I used polymorph a few more times after that, and by the time I was 50, I could do it with my eyes closed.”
So, with my parents' permission, I came down to the human world alone. Of course, I was only given a single day, and measures were in place to signal my parents immediately if anything happened.
“You see, when dragons become adults, they make their own lairs. My parents prepared a lair for me, but I wasn't an adult dragon yet, right? So I needed my own villa.”
Even with a subspace pocket, I wanted to display the treasures I'd been collecting, and I needed a place to escape to when I fought with my parents.
“At first, I thought about buying a human mansion, but that seemed like too much trouble, so I gave up on the idea. Then, I happened to find this place.”
A grand, two-story mansion, old-fashioned and some distance from the village, with no one living in it.
It was the only place that met all my criteria.
“It was obvious no one had lived there for a long time. So I immediately claimed it as mine.”
[Oh, I remember. It was so absurd. Some little kid was running around the mansion, declaring that it was his.]
‘Uwahahaha! This mansion now belongs to the great Kaizareu!’
“Well, back then, Ria, I didn't know you were here.”
Kaizareu snickered, recalling the past.
“But this isn't your villa, is it?”
“It's not. Turns out there was a fierce ghost here.”
“What happened?”
“Oh, something happened alright. I'd been in the mansion for about an hour when strange things started happening all over the house.”
Things would fall over in a windless corridor, lights would suddenly go out, and even the head of a suit of armor on display moved.
As the story suddenly took a horrific turn, Lucian burrowed into Ria's arms.
“A-a ghost...?”
“Yep, it was all the work of that mischievous ghost.”
Kaizareu's finger pointed at Ria, leaving Lucian dumbfounded. For a moment, Ria felt it was unfair that he was afraid of her.
[Don't look at me like that. Some little kid shows up and starts running around my house like he owns it. Was I supposed to just stand by and do nothing?]
“Is that all? You suddenly set my butt on fire.”
[Suddenly? You've got some nerve. You think I did that for no reason? Don't you remember damaging part of the mansion while trying to catch the 'culprit'? I had to work my tail off to fix it.]
“A-ahem! I was young back then! I must have been so startled to do something like that!”
Indeed, startled by the moving armor, Kaizareu's polymorph had suddenly broken. In the end, he had damaged windows and walls while fleeing in his dragon form.
Furious, she had used the fire from the fireplace to chase him out of the mansion.
It was only during that process that his butt caught on fire.
“Lucian, just imagine it. Not only did the armor move, but fire started floating around and chasing me. A human would have died of fright.”
And that wasn't all. As soon as I got outside, the wide-open doors slammed shut with a bang.
As if warning me never to enter the mansion again.
“I was bawling my eyes out, so my startled parents summoned me back.”
When they saw my singed tail, they raised a huge fuss for a while, demanding to know who did it.
“My parents told me never to go to that mansion again.”
[But you managed to find your way back anyway.]
“Of course. I'm not the type to take a beating and just let it go.”
[Lucian, that's the kind of guy he is. Normally, after getting thoroughly trounced, people don't come back, right? But he showed up again a week later.]
In his majestic dragon form, no less. How absurd it was to see that little dragon flapping its wings.
“No matter how I thought about it, it was humiliating. To think I'd been scared off by a ghost I couldn't even see. I could never allow such a thing in my dragon life.”
When Kaizareu returned, he came fully prepared. Like a warrior getting ready for battle.
“I studied up on methods of exorcising ghosts in my own way.”
I brought a whole bunch of well-known exorcism tools, like salt, garlic, and holy water.
“But none of it worked. When I sprinkled the holy water, some black smoke did rise up, but it didn't actually exorcise Ria. Did that even have any effect back then?”
[I don't know. It didn't affect me at all, but it seemed to work on the other ghosts. There were a couple of spirits trying to squat in my mansion, you see. Thanks to you, I got rid of them.]
“Tch, so I just did you a favor.”
[Still, thanks to that, we're sitting here talking like this now, aren't we?]
“Hmph, isn't it all because the great Kaizareu was not afraid of you?”
[Hmm...?]
Ria gave him a meaningful smile, and Kaizareu shot a glance at Lucian, silently pressuring her to keep quiet.
Was it Kaizareu's fourth attempt? There was an incident where he polymorphed into a child, just like now, and burst into a mess of tears and snot.
‘Hic! I-I am... the great Red Dragon, Kaizareu! You vile evil spirit! I'm telling you nicely, get out of my mansion-n-n-n!’
He cried so sorrowfully that Ria, at the time, forgot all about driving him away and just stared at him with a dumbfounded expression.
In the end, though, she sent him away again once he stopped crying.
Her lips were itching to tell the story, but for the sake of Kaizareu, who wanted to only show his cool side to Lucian, Ria decided to keep his secret.
“But how did you two end up becoming friends?”
“We became friends around my 20th visit, I think?”
[I thought you were going to demand I hand over the mansion again, but for some reason, you came with a gloomy look on your face that day.]
The little brat who would invade the mansion every week or so, shouting 'I challenge you to a duel!', wore a dejected expression that day, unlike his usual self.
“Did something happen?”
“There's this one dragon who's 50 years older than me. I fought him and lost. It was my first defeat, so my self-esteem hit rock bottom.”
[Technically, didn't you lose to me, too? You got chased out of the mansion every time.]
“Hey...! That's different! You're a mysterious, invisible being, and with him, it was a fair and square fight! Besides, he's the one who picked a fight with me first!”
Kaizareu puffed out his cheeks and stomped his foot. Thump! Thump! Ria raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.
Warning her to watch her mouth, Kaizareu pointed two fingers from his own eyes to Ria.
“What a mean person... no, a mean dragon!”
“Right? He's a real bastard with a rotten personality. If you ever see a Black Dragon, just get out of there. He's not someone you want to associate with.”
[What? I thought you picked a fight and got your butt handed to you.]
“Weren't you listening to me?! He's the one who called me a halfwit who couldn't even take over a single mansion!”
She flinched at his fierce reaction.
‘Did I tease him too much? Then again, he did cry his eyes out in frustration back then, too.’
[...And that's when we talked for the first time. I also taught you how to beat your opponent.]
She couldn't bring herself to chase out the boy who looked so unusually dejected.
Because just like Lucian, Kaizareu had brought something new into Ria's existence.
She still remembered it. How he had called out to her, shouting at the empty air with a face full of discontent.
‘Hey, evil spirit. Why are you so quiet today? Come on out! If you disappeared without my permission, I'll never forgive you! It's not that I'm weak, it's that you're just absurdly strong, right? Right?!’
She was taken aback by his sudden words, and when he began to cry sorrowfully, she didn't know what to do.
In the end, Ria brought over a stone slate from the mansion and spoke to him for the first time.
-What's wrong?
“'What's wrong?' That was the first thing Ria ever said to me. I was so surprised I even stopped crying.”
Kaizareu, who had been reminiscing just like Ria, snorted with laughter at the memory.
[Stopped crying, my foot. You started bawling your eyes out again after I said a few more words.]
“Ahem! I have no memory of that!”
[...Well, if you say so.]
Kaizareu shot Ria a glare and huffed before continuing.
“It felt amazing to think that I could have a conversation with a ghost I'd only thought of as, at best, a powerful evil spirit. So we talked for the first time then. I think we talked about all sorts of things.”
[You asked a lot of questions, like whether I was an evil spirit, why I was in the mansion, why I kept chasing you out, and so on.]
“I had no idea you were in a position where you couldn't leave the mansion.”
As Ria and Kaizareu chuckled while reminiscing, Lucian's eyes sparkled. It seemed he was enjoying the old story.
“What did you mean about teaching him how to win? Did you fight that mean Black Dragon again?”
[Oh, that? He suddenly asked me how he could become as strong as me. So I told him to make his opponent let their guard down first. And I taught him a few spells.]
“Back then, I was just a novice who barely knew how to polymorph and use a few fire spells. Thinking back on it now, of course I lost. My opponent had lived at least twice as long as I had.”
There was no way a hatchling who had just turned 50 could beat someone over 100 years old.
“Lucian, did you say you were going to learn magic later?”
“Yeah!”
“Then make sure you learn it well. To be honest, I've never seen a human who can wield magic as freely as Ria.”
[What's gotten into you, praising me like that?]
“It's the truth. I'd always thought that when it came to magic, no one could match a dragon. But you're the one who shattered that belief.”
Hearing Kaizareu's serious words, Ria felt a little embarrassed and scratched her cheek.
“Is Ria that good at magic?”
“Yeah. She's the best, right after dragons.”
“Didn't you just say Ria was better than dragons?”
It seemed he was confused by Kaizareu's meaningful tone.
[That's by hatchling standards. I can't beat an adult dragon.]
“Still, if we're talking about magical talent, I honestly think Ria is better. Look at her. She draws on natural mana without even having a body. I didn't even know that was possible in the first place.”
The look in Lucian's eyes as he gazed at Ria changed. His sparkling eyes were almost overwhelming.
“Honestly, dragons are lazy and have a habit of trying to solve everything with the Dragon Tongue. We understand magic instinctively, but we don't study it. But after meeting her, I realized I couldn't afford to be lazy with my studies.”
Dragons were certainly second to none when it came to pride. And yet, Kaizareu had set his pride aside and learned magic from Ria.
“Heh heh, and thanks to her, I knocked that bastard down a peg. I achieved a complete victory less than a month after losing to that Black Dragon, and it became a hot topic among the elders.”
It was the proudest moment of his life, and Kaizareu wore an expression of deep satisfaction.
