Mutual Assured Destruction (Except Me)

"Hah... what a day it's been."

Having finally put the Black Dragon incident to rest, Freya returned home and sank into the chair in her study.

She had been about to lead the troops out herself, only to go clean up after her children's mess — and somehow, the very source of all the rumors had come trailing home with them.

"So then... what's Tene doing now?"

"Yes, my lady. She seemed rather exhausted. After finishing her meal, she retired immediately to the guest room prepared for her and fell asleep."

Tene.

Tenebrix Nox, the Black Dragon — that was Kang Chanho's new name.

It had been the product of a discussion held over dinner, once Rosaria and Tene had finished their bath and everyone had gathered around the table, on the subject of what they ought to call her from now on.

With no way home in sight, she would have to live in this world for the foreseeable future. The name Kang Chanho stuck out far too much — and using Tenebrix Nox outright was every bit as conspicuous.

So they put their heads together to invent something new, and a whole assortment of suggestions emerged.

Black. (Rejected: Because she's a Black Dragon? Still feels a little too half-hearted.)

Blud. (Rejected: How is this any different from Black...? If anything, it sounds even tackier.)

Blackie. (Rejected: That sounds like a neighborhood dog's name. Wait — have you all just been messing with me this whole time?)

N-Word. (Rejected: Hyung! Just because I glanced at the comments a little doesn't mean you have to— mmph! mmph!)

Raven. (Rejected: Come on, isn't this cool? A raven of purest black setting out along a midnight road— what? Cringey? No, it's cool, though...)

Hybrid Saemisosa Rioleivy. (Rejected: ......I'd rather just go by Chanho.)

A thoroughly diverse, colorful, and impressive (with one exception) collection of names had been put forward, but the subject of all this naming herself rejected every last one with stubborn finality. In the end, they simply took the first two syllables of Tenebrix and settled on Tene.

"Still... a dragon. A dragon. It hardly feels real. Just looking at her, she's nothing more than a girl around the same age as our children."

Freya murmured to herself, her thoughts drifting between the Black Dragon crisis they had just weathered and the girl currently snoring away in the guest room.

For a dragon — a being people feared so thoroughly — she seemed far too human.

Of course, that was partly because the original occupant of that body had been replaced by a modern high-school boy. Even so, Freya couldn't see anything threatening about her at all.

...At least, not until she had watched that same girl casually pulverize ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Gordon's blade into dust without so much as a scratch.

Ever since arriving in this world, Freya had been able to move with a certain degree of freedom precisely because of Gordon.

The man who had sworn absolute loyalty to the Evergarden Count family was, in every practical sense, a one-man army. Day to day he handled nearly everything that happened inside the manor; he was excellent with paperwork, formidable in a fight, and somehow always had his ear to the ground, bringing in every scrap of useful intelligence. A truly all-purpose butler.

And yet that same Gordon had been neutralized so effortlessly — and the culprit had been a flustered girl staring at the shattered sword and fretting over what to do. The sheer disconnect of it left Freya reeling.

"Gordon, what's your take?"

"Mine, my lady?"

"Yes. You were the first one to notice, weren't you? That's why I'm curious."

Mulling it over, Freya put the question to the one person who had actually clashed with Tene. Neither she nor Darian had so much as suspected that the adorable girl before them was a dragon — yet Gordon had shifted into combat readiness faster than anyone else.

"If I may ask, my lady — how do you regard the existence known as a dragon?"

"Hmm... I can't summon a precise definition, but something like... untouchable? An apex predator? That sort of feeling."

Gordon had answered her question with one of his own. Freya replied by drawing on every dragon-related piece of media she had encountered in her previous life. Fundamentally a powerful monster. Some lofty, neutral being. A final boss. Even a casual mental skim produced a string of words that defined what a dragon was supposed to be.

"This is my first time encountering a dragon as well. Countless sightings and anecdotes have been handed down through the ages, but as my lady is no doubt aware, to humanity they are creatures that border on myth."

"According to the founding legend of our Obina Empire, a guardian dragon aided the first emperor during the wars of conquest a thousand years ago and helped establish the empire as it stands today. Dragons, in short, have always been described as beings capable of feats that human reason can scarcely even imagine."

"Which is to say — Lady Tene, being a dragon herself, could, if she so chose, do the reverse of what that guardian dragon once did. She could bring the empire to ruin."

"...Heavens. And she looks like nothing more than a cute little girl?"

"Forgive my impertinence for a moment. My lady may not feel it, but I find it profoundly unnatural that you treat Lady Tene as a human being at all."

"Simply looking at her with the naked eye, one feels a pressure so crushing it seems it might flatten you on the spot — an endless, bottomless presence. A monster that could snuff out every life in this manor with a single finger, wearing human skin and performing some absurd little play."

"In my younger, hotter-blooded days, this Gordon once dreamed of becoming a dragon slayer straight out of the myths. But the moment I leveled my blade at Lady Tene today, the only thing that rose unbidden in my mind was death. Even if a hundred men like me, a thousand, tens of thousands — hundreds of thousands — charged her all at once, I cannot conceive of any path to victory. No — the very word 'victory' is an impossibility..."

"It's all right. Take a breath for a moment."

"...Forgive me."

"Well now... this gives me rather a lot to think ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠about."

Even before consulting Gordon, Freya had already gotten a rough briefing from Felix on what dragons were. She had been told that one of them had nearly wiped out most of the empire and the demonkin alike, along with a number of the story's supporting cast — and that even the protagonist had only barely managed to subdue it after being driven to the brink of death.

Considering that the protagonist's specs by the late stages of the story had earned him the epithet of the strongest human in history, the sheer scale of that power was impossible to miss.

And so Freya's mind arrived at a single conclusion: Tene equaled a nuclear bomb.

A nuclear bomb.

The pinnacle of modern humanity — and its greatest sin. A weapon so devastating that merely possessing one was enough to hold war itself in check. Its power defied imagination.

But the very act of holding such a weapon also meant living under crushing pressure.

And Tene was, in theory, even more powerful than a nuclear bomb — and completely beyond anyone's control.

"Gordon. This is a purely hypothetical question — the most remote of possibilities. If word got out that a dragon was here... what do you think would happen?"

"...I believe it would be the end."

"The end?"

"The end, in the most literal sense. So long as a dragon exists, there is nothing in this empire capable of threatening that existence..."

"Whether one staged a coup, seceded from the empire to form an independent state, or simply swallowed the empire whole — no one would be able to stop it."

"An ordinary human who laid eyes on a dragon would lose the will to fight on the spot. Even the empire's highest leadership would find it impossible to so much as attempt anything against it."

"What am I supposed to do? My head is starting to hurt."

Freya's brow furrowed as she absorbed Gordon's explanation. She had just finished solving the headaches of running the territory — and now a problem of an entirely unmanageable scale had dropped into her lap.

At least Tene's actual personality is still that of a naive student. If she'd been the type who could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠commit crimes without batting an eye... the thought alone is horrifying.

Thankfully, the terrifyingly powerful dragon was, in reality, just an ordinary high-school student possessing the body. For all that world-devouring strength, the most she had managed so far was shaking down a few merchants to fill her stomach.

Frankly, if anyone other than Chanho had been the one reincarnated as a dragon, it would not have been the least bit strange for them to storm the Evergarden Territory and wipe it clean off the map.

"Gordon. For now, treat the fact that Tene is in this manor as a matter of absolute secrecy. No one can be allowed to find out."

"Yes, my lady. Understood."

Judging by her personality, she seems like a diligent, good-natured kid of that age. Let's just keep an eye on her for the time being.

Freya ran through a mental inventory of everything she herself would have done if she had been the one reincarnated as a dragon — then came to a decision. For now, letting Tene stay at the manor and watching how things developed was about the only option available.

"Besides, we have a more pressing problem."

Setting the matter of Tene aside for the moment, Freya reached for a letter lying on the table.

Unlike ordinary administrative correspondence, the stationery practically reeked of old-world elegance. Anyone could tell at a glance that it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had come from a noble.

"Looks like someone's finally taking the bait."

The sender: Viscount Bjorn. A letter announcing his intention to visit the Evergarden Territory.

The man who had been scheming in the shadows all this time was finally making his move — preparing in earnest to devour the Evergarden lands whole.

"He's probably coming to collect on all the debts he's been stockpiling."

"I would expect the same, my lady."

The letter was stuffed with nothing but formalities about wishing peace and well-being between their houses and wanting to sit down for a chat — but there was no chance Viscount Bjorn was coming all this way just for that.

Then again, Freya had hardly been sitting idle herself.

"Deliver this letter to Fenril."

She tossed Viscount Bjorn's letter into the fireplace as casually as if it were kindling, then handed Gordon a different piece of stationery from across the desk — one sealed with wax bearing the crest of House Evergarden, resting among a stack of documents.

"Well then. Shall we collect our fee for handling that commission?"

Just as Fenril had proposed, they had dealt with the Black Dragon rumors. Now it was time to collect what they were owed.