The Sprout
“It really did burn down completely...”
Sitting in a field a little ways off from the still-chaotic scene, Tene muttered to herself. Her gaze rested on the place where, only a few hours earlier, the World Tree had stood more massive and unyielding than anything else in the world.
The great tree that should have shrugged off even an axe blow without a scratch was now nothing but ash. Every last one of its lush green leaves had burned away, and even now the remaining cinders of the World Tree drifted down from the sky like slow, gray snow.
The elves who had always smiled while leaning on that tree could no longer hold back their grief; they sat collapsed on the ground, weeping. Those who had once waved cheerfully at her now wore twisted faces as they poured out furious speeches. Even from this considerable distance, their sobs and rage-laced shouts reached her with painful clarity.
“...If I’d been able to use magic, would things have turned out differently?”
In the middle of all that, a heavy gloom settled over Tene. When she had first possessed this body, she had felt like the protagonist of the story. Of course she had—her body was a dragon’s. And not just any dragon: Tenebrix Nox, the strongest and most fearsome of them all. A single step could split the earth; a roar could flatten a forest. The ultimate being. So she had believed that if she simply set her mind to it, she could do anything.
She had been wrong.
After becoming the strongest creature alive by possessing a dragon, Tene had turned into a petty bandit who scared people and robbed carriages just so she wouldn’t starve. Even after the Evergarden baronial family took her in, she—mighty dragon though she was—had done almost nothing of real use. Treated like a guest, she had spent every day eating until she was stuffed and sleeping until she was limp, over and over. Each time, she had wondered whether she was even allowed to live so lazily.
Later, whenever dragon help was needed, she had mostly been treated like an airplane. Truthfully, she had grumbled every time they used her as a mount, but it had never truly bothered her. Carrying the Evergarden family through the free sky had been the one time she could really feel that she was a dragon.
But in the end, that had been all.
Helping Felix at the Academy, serving as a magic experiment subject, sharing her scales, and everything that had happened today—every single one of those things had needed a “dragon,” not “Tene.” Even so, she had been fine with it. They had needed her, and her kind heart felt no resistance to helping people, so she had never complained. ...Though being treated as a magic test subject had still stung a little.
If Tene had ever decided to turn wicked, no one could have stopped her—yet she never had. Some might call a dragon so soft-hearted weak, but that was simply who Tene was. Besides, who exactly would dare criticize a dragon in the first place?
Today, however, she had felt her own powerlessness down to the bone.
“...Even though I’m a dragon, I didn’t do a thing.”
She had charged into the fire with Darian, but strictly speaking, the one who had saved people was Darian. Her help had mattered, yes—but his cool judgment and perfectly timed orders had mattered more. If she had been alone without him, she never could have rescued every last person trapped inside the World Tree. And when the final survivor’s exit had been blocked by debris, Tene had been able to do nothing at all.
She possessed immense power. But that was all she possessed. She could not wield that power with Darian’s sharp precision. She could not use magic like Felix. She lacked Rosaria’s boldness, and she knew far less than Freya. All of it was the result of her own laziness. While Darian and Rosaria trained every day, Tene had been half-asleep. While Felix researched magic, she had only watched. While Freya poured brilliant intellect and drive into the territory, Tene had never been able to step forward.
She was no seasoned elder like Estel—just a simple high-schooler on the inside. Because she was a dragon, because she was the strongest, she had grown drunk on that power and lived in indolence. The result: a half-baked dragon who could not even properly control her own strength.
If she had trained her body like Darian or Rosaria, maybe she could have cleared that obstacle cleanly in Darian’s place. If she had studied magic like Felix, maybe she could have extinguished the fire on the World Tree far sooner. If she had accumulated knowledge like Freya, maybe she could have stopped the World Tree from burning in the first place. But she had done none of those things. So now she simply sat dejected on the grass, staring at the burned husk of the World Tree.
“I’m a dragon... the strongest...”
She who had boasted every day to the Evergarden family that she was the strongest dragon of all had, when it truly mattered, accomplished nothing. The thought left her so despondent that her face crumpled as she mumbled,
“I want to accomplish something too... something no one ordered me to do... something with my own power.”
For a dragon who could supposedly achieve anything, it was an almost painfully modest wish. Tene found her own self frustrating—yet she had no idea that it was precisely because someone like her had possessed Tenebrix Nox that the Evergarden family could exist at all. Unaware of that truth, she was simply a cute girl sitting there with a pout, muttering to herself.
Then—
—Zzt.
“...Huh?”
Tene’s head snapped up on pure reflex. An electric signal skimmed across her mind. She had felt this sensation before.
“This feeling... it’s the same one I had right before the World Tree caught fire...?”
Yet while it was similar, something about it was different. Back then it had been an emergency alarm warning of approaching danger. This time—
“...Someone’s calling me?”
Before she knew it, Tene had risen to her feet. Unlike before, the prickling sensation did not end after a single jolt; it kept circling through her head, persistent and urgent, as if something were desperately calling her name. Her body began to move of its own accord.
Walking through the warm sunlight while ash drifted down from the sky, Tene advanced step by step.
“—so we should strike the Empire at once... Dragon-nim?”
“Dragon-nim...?”
“Lady Tenebrix Nox...”
“O Black Dragon...”
“...Huh?”
As the fog cleared from her eyes, Tene found herself staring into the blank faces of the elves. Without realizing it, she had already reached the foot of the burned World Tree. Those sunk in despair, those shouting for war—every one of them, upon spotting the great being who had desperately rescued elves from inside the blazing World Tree, immediately turned to her with reverent eyes. Already a mighty dragon, and now the savior of the elves, Tene had become someone they felt they must not merely thank and respect, but worship.
“What brings you here...?”
“Someone... someone was calling me.”
“...Pardon?”
When one of the elves carefully spoke to the dragon who had suddenly appeared among them, Tene answered about the signal ringing in her head.
“Tene...-nim? Are you all ri—”
Whoosh—
“Tene-nim?!”
The moment someone tried to question the girl who simply stood there muttering, Tene kicked off the ground and launched herself into the air. She bounded over the heads of the gathered elves and landed lightly on the other side. Her feet touched down right at the root of the World Tree—now nothing but ash.
“Here. It’s looking for me right here.”
Thud—thud—
“What is Lady Tene doing right now?”
“Uh... it looks like she’s digging...?”
The elves watched, heads tilted, as the dragon who had appeared out of nowhere began clawing at the earth. Tene only kept murmuring that someone was calling her, never pausing in her digging. White ash mixed with the soil until her entire body and hands were caked in dirt, yet she did not stop.
And then—
She froze.
“You... no, you... were the one calling me?”
Having dug a hole deep enough that her body was no longer visible, Tene finally stopped. With the careful gentleness of someone brushing sand from a sandcastle so as not to topple its flag, she swept the remaining dirt aside. There it was.
A tiny sprout, vivid green. So slender and fragile that the lightest touch might snap it. Yet the powerful presence radiating from that little sprout was identical to the sensation that had been ringing nonstop inside Tene’s head.
“Why... were you looking for me?”
—Because I need your help.
“What kind of help?”
—Help that can protect me and my children.
“...Can I really do that?”
—If you wish it.
Even after being buried under crushing earth, the sprout still projected its presence without the slightest restraint. Tene continued the conversation unfolding inside her mind.
“...I’ll help. What do I need to do?”
—Simply place your hand upon my sprout.
“Will that be enough?”
—It will be more than enough.
“........”
Could she, who until moments ago had been drowning in despair, really manage it? What if she failed to help after all? Remembering how useless she had been at the fire, Tene’s outstretched hand trembled; she hesitated.
—Only you can do this.
“...Ah.”
—You could easily snap my sprout if you wished.
“I—I would never!”
—That is precisely why only you can do it.
“...Can I truly be of help?”
—Of course.
As if sensing her heart, the sprout answered with absolute certainty that this was a task only she could perform.
“...I’ll try. I’ll do it.”
Recognizing the sincerity in those words, Tene steadied herself and set her face with resolve.
Softly—
She carefully stretched out a finger and brushed the sprout’s leaf.
It’s soft... and somehow... this feeling is familiar.
Outwardly it looked like nothing more than a weed’s seedling, yet Tene felt an intensely familiar energy from it—almost exactly like the great tree that had stood here until so recently—
—My gratitude, stranger from a distant world.
“Huh? How do you know that?”
The sprout’s next words struck her like a hammer blow to the skull. Startled, she urgently tried to ask more—
—Twitch.
“...Uh.”
The ground of the Great Forest trembled. The earth around the remnants of the World Tree—now nothing but roots—began to heave and roll.