Chapter 31: Oath of Yu‑ki

Dragon Era 527

「…And that's why, in practice, whether star‑shaped or combined forms, magic circles only work up to the octagram. But the reasons they fail beyond that are completely different in each case—」

I was drawing figures on the slate with soapstone when—clang, clang—the bell rang out.

「Whoops, look at the time. Then for next class, each of you think about why nonagrams and above aren’t practical. That’s it for today.」

At my announcement, the children sprang to their feet with a cheer. They all love to learn, but the joy of dismissal seems to be something special.

「Onii-chan!」

As I was wiping the slate with a damp cloth, a little girl hugged me from behind.

Red hair in twin tails and a dazzling smile. Her big red eyes sparkled, the kind of face that makes you think she’ll be a beauty someday, though she still dresses almost like a boy, with a sword hanging at her waist.

Somehow, I feel a powerful déjà vu.

「Can you wait just a little, Yuuka?」
「I’ll help too!」
「Then I’ll take you up on that.」

I hand the cloth to the bouncing Yuuka and we wipe together.

「Sensei, what are you doing!? It’s time already!」

Just then, Rin burst in, more flustered than usual.

「What? No, hang on. The bell just rang, so it’s still ten, right? I thought it started at noon—」
「You need to change and get things ready! Don’t tell me you were going out dressed like that?」

My outfit. When she said that, I finally took stock of myself.
I’m in my perpetual red robe. It’s my dragon scales transformed, so I never need to change or wash it. If I take a bath it cleans itself, and I’ve never felt heat or cold.

…But it certainly wasn’t an outfit fit for a day like today.

I never thought Rin would be the one to point that out. She really has picked up a proper sense of things.
Maybe that’s what three years of teaching does. It’s already been three years since she took up the chalk.

「Come on, hurry up!」

While I was getting sentimental, Rin bounced on her waist fin and pushed me along from behind.

「You’re late.」

When we reached the venue, sure enough, Nina was in a huff.

「Sorry. I completely forgot I was supposed to change.」
「…Fine. That just means you’ll be surprised.」

Then she immediately curved her lips into a wicked little grin.

「Surprised?」

Without answering, Nina tossed clothes at me. She wouldn’t tell me even if I asked, I’m sure.

「Yuuka, do you know?」
「Just go get changed already!」

I stubbornly tried asking Yuuka, but she only tilted her head—and Nina yelled. No dice, then.
Resigned, I took the clothes into a private room and changed. Come to think of it, I’ve never tried it—what happens if I dispel the transformation with the robe off? I should test that sometime.

「It doesn’t suit you.」

I stepped out, musing about pointless things, and was greeted by Nina’s scathing verdict.

「Oh, hush. I’m not used to wearing stuff like this.」
「You look very handsome, Sensei. Congratulations!」

As I reflexively snapped back, a Lycos Centaur girl gave me a soundless little puff‑puff of applause and offered her congratulations.

「Thanks. It’s been a while, Luka. How’s your school?」
「Yes! We don’t have many students yet, but I think we can make it work. Is my little sister doing all right?」
「Yeah. Riko’s just like you—very capable. Give it three more years and she should be able to teach over here too.」

Truth be told, I wanted Luka to stay as well, but when she said she wanted to build a Lycos Centaur school out on the prairie, I couldn’t turn her down.
It’s precisely because she treasures her pack that she managed to pull that class together.

「Dropout, I have arrived!」

As I was sinking into those sentiments, the door flew open with a ruckus. I didn’t need to see the face—there’s only one person who calls Nina a dropout.

「Why did you bring her…」
「I’m sorry—she wouldn’t listen and insisted on coming.」

Violet bowed her head gravely to a thoroughly put‑out Nina.

「And what exactly are you here for?」
「To eat good food!」

Ultramarine declared it without a shred of celebratory spirit. Honestly, it was almost refreshing.

「Sensei, congratulations. It’s a pity the partner isn’t me, though.」
「Ha ha, you’re joking, right.」

I deflected Violet’s sweetly terrifying greeting with a laugh. With her it’s impossible to tell how serious she is.

「By the way… might this be your child?」

Violet turned her gaze to Yuuka as she asked. It wasn’t an unreasonable assumption.

「No, she’s Asata’s little sister—Amata’s second child. Go on, say hello.」
「I’m Yuuka Tsurugibe, four years old!」

Yuuka shot her hand up and gave her name in a bright voice.
The more I look, the more she’s the spitting image of Yuuki as a child.
Well, Amata also looked just like Yuuki when he was little, so she probably takes after him, strictly speaking. Thinking of the rock‑solid Amata now makes me worry a bit for her future—if possible, I’d prefer she take after her aunt.

Right then, a thud sounded from outside, like something had collided with the building.

「Sorry, I’m late!」
「You’re fine, Sig.」

The one who burst in, out of breath, was Sig.

「It took longer to fly here than I thought.」

Folding the wings he’d conjured with magic, he offered that explanation.

「Are you saying I’m heavy?」
「N‑no, that’s not what I meant at all—」

A lizardman woman smiled sweetly, and Sig flailed in a panic.
To think the defiant student Sig has ended up completely under her thumb…

「It’s been a while, Honoo-san. Not since that wedding, right?」
「Thank you for looking after my husband.」

With movements uncharacteristically graceful for a lizardman, Honoo dipped her head.
She’s Beor-san’s daughter and Sig’s wife. The one who defeats the chieftain is given his daughter as a wife. It was a sort of political marriage, but from the look of things they get along just fine.

「Still, four years, huh… that took a while. Or should I say, for you, Sensei, that’s actually fast?」
「Well… honestly, I wanted to do it sooner.」

That night—after hearing Ai’s recorded words—Yuuki’s offensive was tremendous. Compared to her innocent touches up to then, she launched a full‑on assault on me…

Pathetic as it is, I fell much more easily than I’d thought. Pretty much an instant kill.

「…Amata wouldn’t give his blessing.」
「Like, he wouldn’t approve unless you beat him?」

I nodded to Luka, who asked with her mouth covered in surprise.

「Yeah. Ridiculous, right?」
「Wait, you beat Amata!?」

Sig was astonished by a different detail. He’d been thrown to the ground by Amata all through his school days, and he’d seen Beor-san’s match with Amata. That was something fierce.

「Yeah. Yuuki did.」
「Huh, her?」
「The condition wasn’t for me—it was for Yuuki. ‘If you don’t have the skill to inherit the Sword Clan, I won’t allow you to marry Sensei.’ Isn’t that backwards?」

If they’d put it on me, I couldn’t have won. Even in dragon form I wouldn’t beat Amata. I could blast him from outside his reach with full‑power breath like Sig did to Beor-san, but that would definitely kill him.

As we were talking, the bell rang. Noon.

「Time. Everyone, to your places. You—this way.」
「Huh? What about the food?」

Prompted by Nina, we ignored Ultramarine’s senile‑old‑man comment and took our positions.

The venue was a small church. Well, we don’t worship any particular god, so functionally it’s a hall for weddings and funerals.
Same as the first time, Nina played priest.

「Bride, enter.」

In a voice a touch stiffer than usual—perhaps from nerves—Luka made the announcement.
To the joyful song of her younger siblings, the double doors swung open, and Yuuki entered on Amaga-san’s arm.
I involuntarily caught my breath at her beauty.

Grown up, the girl who once seemed boyish had become truly feminine. But I’d thought that was only physical growth and that inside she hadn’t changed much.

That’s what I had believed until now.

Clad in pure white, adorned with flowers and gems, she walked slowly—so beautiful that, for an instant, I seriously wondered which princess had graced us.
Nina was probably behind me, grinning as she watched me gawking.

Halfway down the aisle I shook hands with Amaga-san, took Yuuki’s hand, and we stood before Nina.

「Groom. In health and in sickness, in joy and in sorrow, will you love her, honor her, comfort her, and help her, and, for as long as you both shall live, pledge her your true heart?」
「I do.」

Nina delivered it in that peculiar mix of solemn and somehow throwaway she does, and I answered.
Not just for us—ever since the world’s very first wedding, Nina has presided over marriages. In a sense, she’s the deity of this church.

「Bride. In health and in sickness, in joy and in sorrow, will you love him, honor him, comfort him, and help him, and, for as long as you both shall live, pledge him your true heart?」
「No.」

Wha—!?
I nearly shouted when Yuuki shook her head. Her expression was hidden beneath the veil. What was going on—had she gotten cold feet at the very last moment?
Was this the surprise Nina mentioned earlier? But when I looked at her, even she was wearing a startled face. Why?

「Even if this life ends, I vow to stay by his side, always, always.」

A silence that felt like hours—though it was only an instant—and then Yuuki declared it.
She’d said she would do what Ai could not. That’s right.
To be honest, I no longer believe our research into immortality will be completed any time soon. Perhaps at the very end of some long, long endeavor—but not in a mere hundred or two hundred years.

Even so, I’d come to think that was fine. Even if we were fated to part someday, life with her would surely leave something of greater worth. I truly believe that.

But—even if it’s a promise that can’t be kept, that vow of hers made me terribly happy.

「Then, the rings.」

It’s a new custom. Yuuki handed her bouquet to Violet, Sig passed Nina the Hihiirokane rings, and I received one from her. I took my bride’s hand and slid it onto her finger; Yuuki then followed the same steps and placed the ring on the ring finger of my left hand.

「…Seal your vows with a kiss.」

When I lifted Yuuki’s veil, those bright red eyes were looking straight at me.
Those eyes, unchanged since she was a child. I’ve watched over her from the moment she was born.

No—not just Yuuki. Her father, her mother, and her father before that. Red eyes have always been at my side; for five centuries they’ve been with me.
And surely it will continue, just as she vowed.

Suddenly my neck was yanked forward; something soft pressed against my lips, snapping me back to myself.

「Were you mesmerized?」

Yuuki grinned with impish delight.

「I declare these two husband and wife.」

As Nina proclaimed it, thunderous applause filled the hall and petals rained down everywhere. Violet’s magic, no doubt. Looking up, I saw brambles in full bloom covering the ceiling with color.

「Dear.」

As if to take my eyes back from the flowers that had stolen them, Yuuki spoke to me. I nodded, lifted her in a bridal carry, and, bathed in blessings, we walked slowly toward the door.

Outside the church, hundreds of villagers who couldn’t fit inside had crowded in.
Adults, children, youths, elders. Not a single unfamiliar face. All born and raised in this village—students I’ve taught magic to.

Yuuki tossed her bouquet toward them. It sailed over the crowd’s heads, rose higher than the church roof, and flew off into the sky.
…Hey, isn’t that a bit too much oomph!?
Being carried like this, she still managed to throw that awkward‑to‑grip bouquet so far with just her arm strength. But at this rate no one will be able to catch—

—I thought, when a figure sprang up and caught it.
A mermaid, waist fin billowing like wings, running through the air as if swimming through water.

「Looks like it’s your turn next, Rin.」
「…I wonder about that.」

I tilted my head at Yuuki’s beaming smile. She’s still young by merfolk standards, and more than that, I just can’t picture Rin getting married. I’d half expected her to end up with Sig, but he went and got married first.

「Sensei—no, my dear… Mm. In the end, Onii-chan feels right.」

Trying the feel of it on her tongue, Yuuki called to me. It might seem odd for a married couple, but honestly, I can’t deny it fits best for me, too.

「Onii-chan, I’m going to make you so, so happy.」

Cheeks rosy, a maiden’s smile—and gallant words.

—As if she needed to.

「You already have.」

All I could manage, in my pathetic way.