Chapter 16: Timid Dragon

Now, what should I do?

『I yield. I lose!』

With Dalga prostrating himself on the ground, head bowed, I wrestled with what to do.

I couldn’t afford to be taken in again and again; if I were to cut off future troubles, maybe I should kill him here. I couldn’t have him harming us again.

But if you ask whether I can kill a person, the answer is as close to no as it gets.
If I meant to do that, I should have blown him away with that last blast.
Even in that rage, I shied away from killing.

Of course, Ai and Nina being unharmed was part of it. Gai-san and the others were injured to some extent, but not fatally. If anything had happened to any of them, I might have blown him away in my anger.

But in the end there was no real harm done, and now that things have calmed down, I just can’t.

More than anything, I don’t want to kill someone in front of Ai.
As a teacher, even in name only, I couldn’t do that, I thought.

『...All right. That’s enough.』
『“That’s enough”... meaning what?』

Dalga timidly lifted his face.
They probably don’t have a concept like kneeling with your forehead to the ground, but seeing someone crawl and grovel like that doesn’t feel great either.

『If you swear you’ll never lay a hand on us again, I’ll let it slide this time.』

When I said that, Dalga blinked in surprise.

『Let it slide... as in, you won’t kill me or take my women?』
『That’s right.』
『It’s rich coming from me, but...』

Wearing a troubled, bewildered, oddly mixed expression, Dalga said:

『Aren’t you being too soft?』
『If you’re saying you want to die, I can grant that wish.』
『Wait, wait, wait—that’s not what I meant!』

I planted my forefoot with a thud and bared my jaws; Dalga flapped his hands and backed away in a panic.

『Fine. If you don’t repent and you break your word, go ahead and try it.』

I suppose I am soft.
I’ll also admit I lack backbone.

But that’s because, in the end, Dalga kept himself from crossing the last line.

『If you do, I’ll make you regret ever being born.』

With those words, for the first time in a while, a lick of flame slipped unbidden from the corner of my mouth.
Dalga just stared at my face, mouth agape.
Was he dumbfounded by such a trite threat?

He suddenly stood and strode straight toward me.

I tensed, thinking he might try to go at it again—when it happened.

『Aniki!』

Dalga suddenly grabbed my arm in a tight grip and said:

『Please let me call you Aniki!』
『...Huh?』

In Elvish, that word doesn’t refer to blood relations.
I’d heard it was a special form of address used for someone you personally respect.

『Up to now I thought there wasn’t anyone stronger than me. Even after losing to you, I figured if you were going to kill me, so be it. ...But you know, for the first time in my life, I felt it from the bottom of my heart.』

Ah. I see.

『—That you’re terrifying.』

To me it was a hackneyed, worn-out threat, but in this age it wasn’t.
The world had only just acquired language; figures of speech and euphemisms hadn’t yet developed.
For Dalga, the phrasing was frightening enough.

『Well, call me what you like...』

That said, I couldn’t quite shake the suspicion this might just be a ploy to make me drop my guard, so that’s all I gave him for now.

『Really!? Thank you!』

Dalga hopped up and down like a child, delighted.
He was so rugged I couldn’t pin down his age, but maybe he was younger than I thought.

Watching him, something suddenly came back to me.

『It is ever with thee, yet the eye cannot behold it. It hath thorns but no blossom, fangs but no mouth. When thou doest harm unto our companions, dost thou swear to accept that one?』
『Hnn? What’s that supposed to mean?』

Apparently he didn’t understand the Elvish I had chanted; Dalga tilted his head.

『It means: will you swear never to defy us again?』
『Oh, sure, of course. I’ll never go against you again, Aniki.』

He nodded with a grave look, but nothing in particular happened.
...Whoops. I improvised that one and forgot to weave in a way to confirm whether it took effect.

『For now, could you try punching me?』
『Huh? Why?』
『Just do it.』

He did balk at being told not to defy us and then being asked this, but Dalga still drew back his fist.

「Guh!」
『Gah!?』

Along with a dull impact, two cries rang out.

...It hurt a lot more than I expected.
I’d thought only that sword could damage a dragon’s scales, but not so at all. My cheek throbbed and twitched, pain swinging back and forth like a pendulum.

『What the hell!? My whole body hurts like crazy!』

And apparently, the magic had worked.
The Tightening Fillet—what folks call Sun Wukong’s headband.

『Looks like it worked. If you try to attack us, it’ll hurt like that, so watch yourself.』
『I don’t mind that, but... did you really have to get punched for it? It started hurting before my fist even landed, you know.』

So he gritted his teeth and followed through despite the pain. Some grit he’s got.

『If I’m making you suffer for an experiment, it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t take a hit too, would it?』

When I said that, Dalga snorted with laughter.

『You really are a softie, huh.』

There was no derision in it—just a pure, hearty laugh.





「All right, hold on tight, okay?」
「Yes.」

I felt Ai hug tight to the spines along my back.
Like with hair, I could tell I was being touched, but not the texture itself.
It left me with a complicated feeling—grateful and yet somehow a waste.

「What are you doing? Quit dawdling and get a move on already—」
「Wait. I can’t turn as nimbly as you can.」

I shot back at Nina flying above and spread my wings with a snap.
With a powerful beat, my body shot up into the sky, and I surged past Nina, freed into the heights above.

「Eh—ah—hey, wait!」
「Quit dawdling and get a move on.」

I joked as I said it, then beat my wings again and left her far behind in one go. Come to think of it, this was the first time I’d flown side by side with Nina.

「Ai, you okay? Not scared?」
「Yes, I’m fine.」

—Carrying someone on my back and flying through the sky, too.

「...Sorry for scaring you.」
「Eh? I’m not scared.」

Puzzled, Ai answered, and I shook my head.

「No. I mean it was my fault you got put through something like being snatched away.」

I laid everything bare to her.
That I went to Dalga’s village because he told me to.
That I got drunk and slept it off.
That my spinelessness made him look down on me.

Every last bit of it was my responsibility.

「I wasn’t scared at all. Not one bit.」

In a gentle voice, Ai repeated the same words.

「Because I believed Sensei would come save me.」
「That’s just hindsight talking.」

Even if it happened to work out, one wrong step and she could have suffered something awful.
At that, Ai giggled.

「Ai...?」
「I’m sorry. It’s just... somehow it struck me as funny.」

Stifling her laughter, she went on:

「Because, Sensei—magic doesn’t produce the process, it only produces the result. Isn’t that right?」

Her words caught me off guard.
She was exactly right.
If science is heat and light being generated as flame combines with oxygen, magic is the generation of heat and light out of nothing.
I couldn’t hide my surprise at how deeply she’d come to understand magic without my noticing.

「So this outcome is only natural.」

Ai, proudly—

「Because my Sensei is the greatest magician-san in the world.」

—stuck out her chest and said it.

「...You’re overestimating me. I’m really not that great.」
「That’s not true.」

In a tone that brooked no argument, Ai denied my words.
Only recently have I slowly started to understand.
Ai is, at her core, a modest and quiet girl, but when it comes to one particular thing she suddenly becomes stubborn.

「There’s no one stronger, kinder, or more wonderful than Sensei.」

That “one thing” is anything that concerns me.

「I’m not a person, though.」

I tossed out a light quip to hide my embarrassment, and Ai squeezed her arms tighter around me.

「Even so, more than anyone, I—about you, Sensei—」

Just then, a strong wind blew.
With a roaring whoosh, the wind swallowed Ai’s voice.

「Sorry. Did you say something?」

I asked.

「...No.」

Ai answered that.

「Nothing.」

She just shook her head and answered, that was all.



Ah.

...After all, I really am a timid dragon.