The Time of Dragons

Five days had passed since Elaine first awoke to the feeling called happiness.

Long, if you counted every hour. Short, if you blinked.

In that time, a great many things had changed.

The first: the boulder that had once been lodged in the plains before the border now sat proudly beside the processing office, settled in like a landmark.

"Good heavens, what is that?"

"It wasn't here the last time I came through."

"Now, everyone! That right there is the very stone used in the Great Temple fifteen years ago. It'll be on your examination, so commit it to memory!"

A relic of the Great Temple, steeped in historical value, the rock had become a tourist attraction of sorts, drawing the immediate attention of every traveler seeking entry.

Of course, that meant our workload grew by exactly as much.

Put another way, the once-plain border and its processing office had gained a touch of character.

The second: the border guard's famously blunt, passive attitude had completely flipped.

The day that boulder had been pried fully out of the earth, the golems had witnessed Elaine's telekinetic power alongside everyone else.

And they figured out who she was almost immediately.

The sight of every statue atop the fortress wall dropping to one knee before her was as magnificent as the sunset bleeding across the horizon.

Thankfully, they were a race famous for being taciturn and tight-lipped, so there was no fear of the princess's existence leaking out.

But in a very different sense, they had become a headache.

The problem was the guard captain's loyalty, which demanded security measures for the princess to a frankly overwhelming degree.

With communication requests pinging dozens of times a day, the crystal orb never once went dark.

And the third change...

"What on earth are you saying? Entry denied?"

"...I beg your pardon?"

The sudden shout in front of me cut my thoughts short.

It was already late morning.

I slowly turned my gaze forward.

There stood an elderly man with a fishing rod slung over his shoulder.

And right behind him, catching my eye next, a document stamped with the unmistakable words: ENTRY DENIED.

My mind snapped back to the present.

"Ah, you see... the pufferfish you've brought contains a lethal dose of poison, and there is a risk it could be misused."

There was one thing I had overlooked.

No matter how much changed, some things would never change at all.

Namely: the work at the border, the procedures of the review process, and...

"This stuff is a miracle for a man's vigor! Eat one of these and you'll be seeing triplets by nightfall! I trekked all the way to the southern coast to get it!"

A troublemaker at the gates.

"...You cannot enter unless the toxin is removed. Alternatively, please bring certification from a chef licensed to prepare pufferfish."

"Wuuuugh...!"

At my flat refusal, the old man's face contorted and he bellowed at the top of his lungs.

"What kind of examiner for a whole country is this stiff? Get me whoever's in charge here! Who runs this place!?"

That would be me.

"If my son can't feed himself and I never get to see my grandkids, you're going to answer for it, you hear!?"

And if you dump pufferfish poison into the well and everyone here drops dead, are you going to answer for that?

I shook my head at the futile protest and spoke.

"As you have not demonstrated a cooperative attitude toward the entry procedure, I regret to inform you that I am declaring a two-day entry hold. Please return in three days."

People like him had existed 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, since time immemorial.

These days, it would feel strange if there weren't one.

It's frightening how used to this I've gotten.

Just as I thought that and moved to signal to my attendant standing behind me—

- Whumm.

The chair the old man was sitting in abruptly lurched.

"WhaaaAAAT?!"

Then, carried along by an unseen force, he went sliding smoothly all the way out of the processing office.

"Hmph."

A sniff came from behind me.

I turned my head slowly.

"...Elaine."

"That was dangerous."

There she stood, still with her hood pulled low over her face, but in a bold stance, one hand outstretched.

Between the hem of her robe, gleaming green eyes peeked through.

And there was no more fear in them. None at all.

I gave a wry smile.

"That gentleman wasn't threatening me, Your Highness. He was protesting the entry procedure."

"...Huh?"

"Please bring him back. The process isn't finished yet."

Startled, she hastily wagged her hand.

- Whumm. Grrrriiiik.

The chair and the old man promptly returned to exactly the position they'd been in before.

He looked around in utter shock.

"Wh-what just happened!?"

"The Entry Administration Office is currently running a courtesy campaign. Anyone who hurls abuse or shouts at an examiner is automatically moved to the back of the queue, as you've just experienced."

The lie flowed naturally from my lips.

The third thing that had changed.

It was Elaine herself.

She no longer cowered.

Ever since she realized she could wield her power with new emotions in place of sorrow and pain, Elaine had changed.

A little braver. A little brighter. A little more proactive.

Nothing like that first day, when she'd sat quietly in the corner of the processing office—now she was secretly using telekinesis from behind me.

And look—not a single scratch on the old man or his chair. Such precision, such delicacy.

Her ability itself had climbed a step higher, right alongside her personality.

"The pufferfish... do you still wish to keep it, sir?"

"Ah, no... forget it. I'll just toss it. Let my body through, will you."

The invisible force turned out to be useful in more ways than I'd imagined.

But it had one fatal flaw.

- Shk!

"Ow."

The moment she so much as grazed herself on a piece of paper.

"...Ugh!"

Those green eyes would flip.

- Whumm.

"Ack—WHAA!?"

And the princess would hoist my whole body up with telekinesis and sprint straight to the recovery room.

"N-no, Elaine! It was a graze! A mere graze, I tell you! I'm not even bleeding!"

"I'll protect you! You—I'm going to protect you!"

"That's why I'm saying I'm fine!"

Talk to the wall.

What was it they said—preaching to deaf ears?

My desperate pleas were cut off by her conviction-laden mumbling.

- BANG!

The door swung open, and we swept into the recovery room, thick with golden light.

"Aeh-e-ah!"

Erzena, who was already there healing the Gustatory Officer's hand, looked up.

"Yes, what seems to be the—KYAAAH!"

Then came the scream.

She and I locked eyes—me, dangling ignominiously in midair.

"...Good day to you, Erzena."

"..."

An awkward silence.

"Hello there, Central Officer!"

"Gustatory Officer. Always a pleasure."

Only the oblivious Gustatory Officer waved cheerfully in greeting.

I wanted to die of embarrassment.

Make no mistake—I was a senior civil servant of an entire nation.

Erzena barely composed herself and asked.

"Your Highness. What on earth is going on here?"

No sooner had the words left her mouth than Elaine raised her hand.

At the same time, the word cards on the desk rose into the air and assembled themselves into a sentence.

She no longer violently rejected holy power at the sight of it.

To be precise—only the holy power Erzena emitted.

The polar opposite of how she used to be, when a single brush against it would send her into convulsions.

In fact, she had taken to visiting the recovery room of her own accord, the two of them even conversing through the word cards.

Elaine threw back her hood and declared with confident voice.

"Uuu-uuooaa."

"Nathan was in danger, so I protected him."

He was not in danger at all, and "protected" is a generous word—but let's not say any of that out loud.

Erzena gave the princess a look of fond exasperation.

"You do realize this is the third time today?"

"Mm!"

New cards slid into place.

Reading them, Erzena heaved a long, long sigh.

"Haaaaaah... Come over here, then. And please put Nathan down before you walk in."

That day, I had made one request of the princess.

For all the days we are to spend together—would you please protect me?

I'd said it meaning that neither of us should lean one-sidedly on the other; that we would be friends who relied on each other and held each other up.

And Elaine had taken it absolutely, literally to heart.

If so much as a hair on my body was disturbed, if my composure wavered even a fraction—a sledgehammer of telekinetic force came crashing down, instantly.

In many senses, the Entry Administration Office was livelier than it had ever been.

And if there was one more change...

"There, all done."

"I'm sorry for the interruption, Erzena. I've troubled you for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nothing."

"Not at all. Though..."

- Gently, gently.

She ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠took my freshly healed thumb in her hand and gazed at me quietly for a long while.

"..."

"E-Erzena...?"

"It's nothing."

Erzena's gaze lingered on me a little more than... how should I put it.

She held it there a little longer than she used to.

That was when it happened.

"Central Officer."

My direct attendant stepped into the recovery room holding the crystal orb.

"Attendant. What is it?"

"Today is the Foreign Ministry's regular briefing day."

"Ah."

I'd forgotten all about it.

It had been a while since I'd seen him, hadn't it.

There was a time when the world still worshipped nature itself.

A time when people said an active volcano spewed lava because a red dragon had spread its wings ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and roared.

They said earthquakes split the earth because a demon deep underground longed to see the light.

They said the tides rose because the kraken in the deep demanded tribute.

There was an age when every natural phenomenon was read as the deed of some being greater than mankind.

We call that age the Age of Myth.

And at the heart of those myths, there was always a dragon.

- Kuguung... kuguung...

At the distant rumble of the erupting volcano again, a dragon stirred in a cave deep within the mountains.

"Mmmn..."

Mnassil slowly opened eyes that had been shut for ages.

Her long, slitted crimson pupils swept across her surroundings.

How long had she slept?

She didn't know.

Lately she'd been sleeping more and more.

She turned her gaze toward the mouth of the cave and saw the lava from the volcanic zone flowing down along the mountain range, cooled and hardened into stone.

"That's strange."

She sniffed the air.

The scent of a young vulture—the one she'd let into her cave on a whim long ago—was gone.

She looked around the cave from end to end.

Mountains of gold and treasure, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the scattered bones of the countless beasts she had devoured.

And at last, one final thing caught her eye.

In a corner of the cave, atop the little nest she had once prepared for the vulture, lay a bird's corpse.

At the sight, Mnassil murmured softly.

"...When I fell asleep, it was still just a hatchling."

But what remained now was nothing but the white skeleton of a full-grown vulture.

That alone told her how many years had passed.

And those years had swept over Mnassil too, without exception.

The scales that had once softly deflected light and magic were now dulled and lusterless.

The claws and fangs that had once sheared through steel were worn blunt, more like cudgels than weapons.

- Hoosh, fwoooorrgh!

Her breath, which had once surged forth with the fury to incinerate the heavens, had weakened to the point of barely covering a single village.

Mnassil gave a bitter smile and lowered her head back onto the rock.

"So my era is coming to an end..."

She did not feel sad.

Time was the only worthy adversary our kind ever had, after all.

Even those who command a thousand spells and hold the strength to topple mountains cannot escape the mortality of death; it comes for everyone in the end.

But she was not sad. Nor was she angry.

For we had found a way to stand against time itself.

Mnassil carefully lifted her right wing.

- Flutter.

From beneath the buried heaps of treasure, one enormous egg revealed itself.

The single way to overcome a mortal fate.

It was to bear descendants—to pass on every scrap of knowledge, every experience, every life lived.

The flesh might be devoured by time, but the mind, the soul, and the will of the race would attain immortality.

"When you break free of your shell, every fire in the world will rejoice..."

Mnassil breathed a small tongue of flame and whispered.

This egg, destined to be the last descendant of the red dragons, had to be protected at any cost.

Then—

- Fwoorrrk. Tatik, tatik.

From below the cave came the sound of something blazing to life.

"O Master of the Volcano! We have come to bless your offspring!"

"Come we have! Come we have!"

They were spirits of orange flame, taking the shape of human women.

Beings who had completed a long journey from the continent's south to celebrate the birth of a new red dragon.

Mnassil smiled.

"Ah, spirits of fire. You've arrived at just the right moment."

The fire spirits born long ago alongside the volcanoes' eruptions were, to her, old friends.

Beings made of flame as she was, fated to gutter out like flame as she was.

She lifted her tail, which had settled partway up the mountain trail.

Revealed beneath it was the cavernous entrance, hidden all this time.

"Come inside. I shall hear from you, at length, how the world has turned."

Time might be a dragon's only worthy adversary, but that time stretched well past a thousand years.

Boredom, loneliness, and world-weariness—those were a dragon's other names.

And so the tales of those who wandered the world were the finest of entertainments, and a good means of filling the empty gaps between sleeps.

"We met a wondrous human in the human kingdom at the center of the continent. He had no mana, and yet he spoke the spirit tongue. And fluently, at that."

"We were shocked! Shocked, we were!"

"Oh-ho. Do tell me more."

It promised to be an entertaining story from the very start.

Mnassil allowed herself a slight smile and settled comfortably into a new position.

"Go on, then. Your reward will be ample. Charcoal will do nicely, won't it?"

"We have already eaten plenty. That wondrous human gave us charcoal freely."

"Breakfast, lunch, and dinner!"

"Oh-ho... now that is an intriguing human indeed. Keep talking, then."

Even if her own time was running short, she had more than enough days left to spend with this egg.

At the very least, enough for the hatchling that would break free of it to know who its mother was.

But there was one thing she had overlooked.

The mighty power of a dragon who lived through the Age of Myth gives birth to countless legends and stories.

And those who covet such power will always, inevitably appear.

Yet nowhere was there any guarantee that the one who came would be good.