A Day Off Work (1)
"I thought I would never see your eyes open again!!!"
"N-no, Lady Mnassil, just a moment—mmph!"
Before I could even finish my sentence, she grabbed my head and pulled it into her chest.
Skin met skin.
The warmth that only a dragon—no, only a living body could give, along with a faint, skin-deep scent that tickled my nose.
Being smothered by that mature, voluptuous frame was dangerous in more ways than one.
"Ugh—mph, puhah! Why are you doing th—mmph!"
Just when I thought I'd barely escaped those two enormous soft mounds, I was buried in them all over again.
"^#$%^@&@!!!"
"Thank goodness. Thank goodness..."
Mnassil stroked my head, tears brimming in her eyes.
"Agh, would you PLEASE let go of me!!!"
In the end, my patience ran dry and I shrieked.
Only then did Mnassil pull back—by a fraction. The width of a single finger, no more.
But that shout had consequences.
"That voice... Nathan!?"
"Uuuugh!?"
"Central Officer!?"
It had caught the attention of the other women in the house.
- Thud thud thud thud, BANG!
With the thunder of frantic footsteps, the door was flung open with force.
In the same instant, Erzena and Elaine saw it all.
Mnassil straddling my waist, and me, squirming helplessly beneath her.
"..."
"..."
Silence.
A terrifying pressure of stillness unlike anything I had ever felt before.
I shook my head like a madman and spoke.
"...This officer did nothing wrong."
I bear no responsibility for this scene. I was just lying here, minding my own business. I'm the victim, for crying out loud.
But the two women didn't spare Mnassil so much as a glance.
Instead, they stared only at me—the man wrapped head to toe in bandages, struggling to free himself from her.
Slowly, the rims of their eyes began to redden.
"He's really... awake...!"
[He's alive. This isn't a dream...!]
They approached slowly, voices trembling.
"Ah."
The moment I realized what they were about to do, I shouted in desperation.
"If you two pile on as well, this officer will genuinely di—"
Too late.
"Nathan!!!"
[Nathan!!!]
The words had barely left my mouth when both women launched themselves into my arms.
And so I was forced to endure two more full-body tackles.
"Kghaaak!"
It hurt.
And then I felt something hot soaking into my shirt against my chest.
"Hic... Nathan... you..."
[Never do that to us again...]
I had never seen them cry so sorrowfully before.
I couldn't bring myself to coldly push them away.
"...I'm back."
So instead, I simply stroked both women's backs.
*****
Roughly thirty minutes later.
"Complete necrosis of the kidneys, stomach, and pancreas. Partial necrosis of the lungs, heart, and liver. Cessation of cardiac muscle function."
Agent R, who had come running the moment word spread that I was awake, spoke calmly.
"Internal bleeding in the eyes, bronchial rupture, paralysis of the central nervous system..."
The dire terms poured out one after another.
Any single one of them, appearing in a human body, would have been fatal.
"...That concludes the symptoms diagnosed when you first collapsed, Central Officer."
"That's what happened to me?"
"To be precise, that's only what the garrison captain managed to confirm in that moment. There were also numerous minor internal injuries and ruptured blood vessels besides."
"..."
Excuse me, how exactly am I alive?
As if reading my mind, the agent gazed at me with something like wonder and said,
"Under normal circumstances, you would be in the ground by now. Fortunately, Lady Erzena's divine power manifested with unprecedented intensity, and it appears a catastrophe was averted."
"I see."
He added, to my curt reply,
"One might call it a miracle."
A miracle, huh.
Well, she does wield divine power powerful enough to heal a wounded dragon.
'She probably just poured the whole thing into me at once.'
If it hadn't been for her, I would have truly died on the spot.
I could feel it. The moment I spoke the Dragon Tongue, I knew I would pay an excruciating price.
That pain—like my heart being torn out of my chest while I was still breathing—remained vivid in my memory even now.
I turned my head and spoke.
"Thank you, Erzena. I'm forever in your debt."
"I'm just glad you woke up. Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
Erzena answered flatly.
But there was something strange about it.
"...Erzena."
"Yes?"
"The agent is watching."
"So?"
The thing was, Erzena was pressed flush against my right side, face buried in my shoulder, showing no sign of moving.
"Could you perhaps give me a little space?"
"No."
A firm refusal.
"I saved your life, so don't you dare complain about this."
"..."
I had nothing to say.
'She must have been worried sick.'
We had barely ever touched before. For her to cling to me this tightly, refusing to let go...
The last time she'd been this close was after the sow incident, and after she told me the story of the examiners on that sofa.
It made sense. Even I had been certain I was about to die.
And she had miraculously pulled me back from it. Of course her shock hadn't faded yet.
Every now and then, a muffled sniffle escaped her.
'Nothing I can do about it.'
I couldn't bring myself to pry her off coldly, so I gave up.
Instead, I addressed Elaine, who was clinging to my left side with equal determination, not moving a muscle.
"Elaine."
[No.]
I hadn't even asked yet.
"This officer is perfectly fine now. I'm not in any danger, so it's all right."
[I can't talk.]
You could just write it like always, though.
Why are they acting like this? They're never this clingy.
I tried sliding my arm discreetly to extricate myself from the two women.
- Squueeeeeze...
Psychokinesis on one side, divine power on the other, both clamping down on my arms like a vice.
"K-kghaak! That hurts! I said it hurts!"
"I'm not letting go."
[Not going anywhere.]
"F-fine, I get it, so please, ease, ease up on the grip!"
Those yellow eyes and green eyes glinted sharply, as if to say they would never, ever release me.
Once again, there was nothing I could do.
With the last thread of hope I had left, I turned my head to face forward.
Toward Mnassil, who still hadn't stirred an inch, her head buried against my chest.
"Could Lady Mnassil at least grant me some distance?"
"Nay."
"We already had our tearful reunion, did we not? It would be rather problematic if you did this in front of the agent."
Please, just you listen to me.
But she too held firm, burying her head even deeper into my chest.
"I am not troubled."
"This officer is troubled. Also, you are heavy."
"Patience. I am savoring the moment of our reunion."
"...Are you aware of how improper it is for a grown woman to be sprawled atop a young man's body?"
"I feel no shame in that either."
Not a single point conceded.
She only buried her head deeper, clinging to me like a barnacle.
All three women were utterly incorrigible.
At last, I gave up and turned to the agent.
"I apologize. All three of them seem to have been badly frightened... Please, don't misunderstand."
As far as anyone else could tell, I must have looked like the greatest lecher in history, after all.
Thankfully, the agent seemed to accept it, shrugging his shoulders.
"Understood. They were all dreadfully worried, after all—you were unconscious for quite a long time."
Hold on.
Quite a long time?
That didn't sound like I'd woken up right away.
"How long... exactly have I been like this?"
Half-dreading the answer, I asked him.
He hesitated for a moment, then pointed at the calendar hanging on the wall.
Tuesday.
The day we caught the dragon hunters was clearly a Saturday, so...
"Three days."
Oh. My. God.
A chill ran down my entire body at those words.
"Th-three days? Then the Immigration Office!?"
"Has been operating normally the whole time."
Oh, heavens.
I left my post unattended for a full seventy-two hours?
What horrifying news is this?
"Rest assured. While you were unconscious, the Smell Officer has been serving as interim director and managing operations."
"The Smell Officer?"
From somewhere far away, I could faintly hear the howl of a werewolf. Surely that was just my imagination.
"And... there is something even more important than that."
More important than that?
But when I followed his pointing finger and turned my head, I had no choice but to concede.
"Kirba."
The egg I had named—it was sitting right there beside the agent.
In an instant, I understood exactly what situation this was.
"...How much do you know?"
All I had told the Intelligence Department was that Mnassil was the master of the volcano.
Everything else, I had kept strictly confidential.
The agent answered with a grave expression.
"Everything. The egg, and the fact that you spoke the Dragon Tongue, Central Officer."
"..."
So they learned all of it.
Just then, Mnassil suddenly spoke up, her voice carrying a note of reproach.
"Central Officer. What you did was reckless beyond all measure."
What's that supposed to mean now?
"Re-reckless, how so?"
"All of it. Naming my child. Swearing to guard me and Kirba alike. Every last word."
She finally pulled herself off my body, walked over to the egg, and continued.
"To name a thing is to bind it, soul to soul, in near entirety. Even in the tongues of men, the meaning would not have diminished—and yet you spoke it in the Dragon Tongue."
"With respect, this officer only gave it a temporary name because 'the egg' felt rude to keep saying... If you wish, you may give it another."
But Mnassil shook her head firmly.
"This child's name is Kirba. So it has been decreed—by your very will."
"..."
Against all intention, I had named the child.
"And the world accepted your declaration. You are now the Central Officer, and something more besides. Namely..."
She gathered Kirba into her arms and looked at me.
"Dragon Guardian."
A title at once magnificently grand and staggeringly burdensome had been bestowed upon me.
But it didn't end there.
"And... my m-, mate."
"I'm sorry, WHAT!?"
Mnassil dropped a bombshell out of nowhere.
"!"
"!!"
Elaine and Erzena, who hadn't moved so much as a muscle with their heads buried in my shoulders, snapped their heads up.
It must have been my imagination that both women's eyes seemed to flash.
I shook my head furiously.
"W-w-w-w-wait just a moment! Lady Mnassil! Stop right there! This officer said nothing of the sort!"
Why on earth would I be your mate?
That was the kind of talk that ended in disaster.
But Mnassil simply laid a hand over her chest and murmured,
"You staked your name, and swore upon the Dragon Tongue to guard Kirba and me. That is a vow that shall never be broken, so long as you live."
"And so I too have decided. We shall guard you in return."
"If that is not companionship, then what is it?"
Oh, good grief.
So in other words—I told Mnassil 'I will protect you and your child with my life,' and she took it not as a duty of my office, but as a vow I made as an individual?
As if to drive the wedge deeper into my hypothesis, she gently took my hand.
"...I shall gladly accept this life. Just as you gladly accepted me."
"Um..."
Unlike her usual self, her expression was utterly serious.
Mnassil looked me straight in the eye, her face faintly flushed, just a little embarrassed.
"I, uh..."
Faced with a side of her I'd never seen, I found myself unable to say the word 'misunderstanding.'
Just then, Erzena spoke up quietly at my side.
"Nathan. Swear it. Right now."
"Pardon?"
"I said, swear it!"
"Sw-swear what, exactly?"
"That you'll protect me too! Swear it on your name!"
"..."
What is wrong with this woman now?
"This officer already protects you as a holder of temporary asyl—"
"Not that."
Erzena cut me off clean.
"'I, Nathan Kell, Central Officer, do swear to guard Erzena Selaphe for all eternity.' Say it. Quickly. I have the right to hear it."
Her gaze was terrifying.
Meanwhile, Elaine had written [One-Hundred-Year Guardianship Contract] on a piece of paper suspended in midair and was thrusting it against my cheek.
"Urk."
- Squeeze, squeeze.
Could you please not use psychokinesis for things like this?
"E-Elaine, hold on..."
"Urk."
A voice more resolute than I had ever heard from her.
Agent R, who had been quietly observing all of this, grinned like the Hearing Officer and spoke up.
"Asymmetric marriage registrations must be filed separately with the Ministry of Home Affairs, you know."
"...Please don't you start too."
"Just joking."
You're turning more and more into one of the Five Senses Officers by the day.
"Regrettably, however, the situation is not entirely rosy."
"..."
"What you reported to our department was only that the master of the volcano was here. But now we have a dragon's egg before our eyes, and we have confirmed that you, Central Officer, are capable of speaking the Dragon Tongue..."
His voice turned grave once more.
"We have a duty to report this to Her Majesty the Queen."
Queen Rio.
A heavy name I hadn't heard in a very long time echoed in my ears.
"Once the report is made, I have no doubt Her Majesty will summon you to the Royal Castle, Central Officer."
He was right.
Mnassil—the last dragon and master of the volcano. The existence of her descendant, Kirba. And the Dragon Tongue I had spoken.
Each one of the three was critical intelligence from the Intelligence Department's perspective.
Failing to report them to the Royal Castle would itself be dereliction of duty—a failure of responsibility.
He hates the gods.
And yet the reason I survived at all was Erzena's divine power.
How would the Queen regard that?
No—more than that...
Who was the being I met in my dream?
The questions surged up without end.
Even having dealt with the leviathan that was the dragon hunters, the problems and doubts I still had to resolve remained piled up like a mountain.
"No rest for the wicked..."
I murmured, lowering my head back onto the pillow.
"The good news is that none of this has yet been exposed to the outside. Thanks to your swift handling that day, the existence of the dragon—and everything beyond it—is known only to a very small circle of people involved."
"What a comfort that is."
It wasn't, actually.
Far too many enormous things had happened, one right after another.
"Still, judging by your condition, it seems you require absolute rest."
"I'm fine now. Thanks to Erzena, I'm perfectly—urk."
The moment I tried to sit up, tired of lying down, my entire body screamed in protest.
At the sight, the agent shook his head.
"The healing via divine power was a success. However, the garrison captain insists you need absolute rest."
"If I rest any longer after three whole days, the Five Senses Officers will probably try to kill me."
I could picture it perfectly.
The venomous expressions of the people who had been forced to work seventy-two hours of overtime on my behalf.
If I went back now, I'd surely get an earful from every direction.
Seeing my face, the agent drew a crystal orb from inside his coat.
"Then, first things first—I brought this orb along, so why not begin with an interview with Minister Katon?"
The Minister, huh.
Come to think of it, today was Tuesday.
Regular reports were due on Monday.
Since I'd missed my weekly report, the Minister had surely already sensed that something was wrong.
"How much does the Minister know?"
"I've already reported what needed reporting. He'll know the broad strokes."
Good.
I'd have to give a detailed situation report anyway, and this was a fine opportunity to consult with him on what to do about the current state of affairs.
There wasn't a single reason to refuse.
"Then I'm in your hands. Please connect us."
If it was him, he'd surely offer a better solution than anything I could come up with.
*****
The moment the crystal orb activated, the Minister spoke.
- Get out of the office and take your leave.
"...I'm sorry, what?"