99. The One Loved by All Creation
99. The One Loved by All Creation
After hearing Jang's words, I took a moment to retrace my time with Tachia.
To search for any hint of why she might have arrived at the conclusion that she loved me.
'Since you're here, you might as well eat before you go.'
The first thing that came to mind was simple: without exception, she always prepared a meal whenever we met.
Yeah, now that I think about it, from the day she gave me my weapon onward, she cooked for me every single time I visited. There might have been an exception once or twice, but honestly, nothing comes to mind.
The same held true even when I already had dinner plans with Airi.
'Sorry, I've got someone to eat with tonight...'
'Then eat here, and eat again later.'
'...Excuse me?'
'At your age, you need to eat plenty to grow big and strong. Eat before you go.'
'I mean, it's not like I'm still going through a growth spurt...'
'Do you not want to eat my cooking?'
'...No, that's not it.'
'Then eat before you leave. I'll set the table.'
In a way, her attitude was almost overbearing.
Because of that, I ended up eating what felt like three dinners in one evening, but I didn't dislike the food. The taste was genuinely good, the portions were generous, and she never asked for a single coin.
Back in my early adventurer days, when every copper mattered, even that was something I appreciated deeply.
In those days, before I knew anything about her circumstances, all I felt for her was pure gratitude.
'Hey, Miss Tachia. Are you... maybe lonely?'
But no matter how favorably I viewed her, I couldn't shake the disconnect between that hospitality and her gruff nature.
One day, sitting across from her mid-meal, I committed the discourtesy of asking outright—a question that might have been deeply rude.
'...What?'
'Ah, no, I just... wondered if maybe you didn't have anyone else to share a meal with.'
I knew it was rude, but I couldn't help my curiosity.
Her base of operations was a remote place, devoid of people—both then and now—so it seemed unlikely anyone else would ever visit. I figured maybe, beneath the rough exterior, she was actually lonely, and that was why she kept hosting me for meals.
'...If I was lonely, I'd have grabbed just anyone and fed them.'
But the answer I got was far from that speculation.
When I looked back at her, puzzled, she had already turned away, gazing out the window at a distant mountain.
'Huh?'
'Don't ask pointless questions and just finish your food. It's getting cold.'
'Ah, right...'
Her voice had been unusually sharp, even for her.
I could tell she was trying to gloss over something, but even now, I remember those words clearly.
She'd said she doesn't do this for just anyone.
Wasn't that statement alone more than enough to mistake myself for someone special to her?
****
Of course, this is a world where dying at any moment wouldn't be strange.
Having barely survived countless brushes with death, I was fully aware of how dangerous it was to jump to conclusions.
And now that I'd come to know a little about her situation, it felt certain she'd never harbor those kinds of feelings for me—yet... love? Was such a thing even remotely plausible?
"You, my boy, have some nerve eating meals she's made for you as if it's nothing."
But after hearing my story, what Jang focused on wasn't her inner thoughts—it was the actions she'd shown toward me.
"...Is that really so astonishing?"
"Not just astonishing. It's more credible to hear the world will split in two tomorrow than what you've just told me."
I honestly thought he was exaggerating.
Yet the cold sweat trickling down his furrowed brow told me his words were born from sincerity, not jest.
"If you met the soul within that spear, you must already know. She is no ordinary human."
"......."
After a moment of silence, I finally nodded.
The reason I didn't answer outright was because part of me wished my assumption about her true identity was wrong.
That she was the dragon who had nearly destroyed the world in a past era—the one who abandoned her daughter in the Age of War, then went so far as to kill that daughter with her own hands when she tried to intervene.
Wasn't that story completely at odds with the first impression I'd had of her: someone, however gruff, who still knew how to be considerate of others?
"Obviously, I had a hunch about that, but even so... to say I'm loved just because she made me meals..."
Conversely, if all those stories were true, then I couldn't understand why she bothered to show me that rough consideration at all.
Her goal should be to get me to make her daughter kill her—yet she looked after me with every meal as if she held genuine affection.
"Why limit love to just the relationship between a man and a woman? The bond between parent and child, the affection one holds for a pet—those are also, strictly speaking, forms of love."
A pet, huh. Did Miss Tachia really see me as something like that?
From a dragon's perspective, were humans just... cute little creatures?
...No, I don't know.
In the first place, I was someone who got unintentionally tangled up in her affairs, and to navigate them, the cooperation of the man before me was inevitable. Having been kicked out mid-conversation with Philoi, there was no way I could immediately understand her thoughts.
"...Does being loved by Miss Tachia have something to do with me becoming able to generate a circle?"
So rather than dwell on unresolved questions now, it was better to focus on what needed doing. Since I'd clearly need strength no matter what lay ahead, I decided to set aside my curiosity for the moment and focus on training with him.
"Before I explain that, let me ask you something."
As if reading my intent, Jang didn't press the issue. Before we dove into training, he began to ask me one more thing.
"Before you generated a circle in front of me... hadn't you done so in front of her as well?"
"Ah, yes. I did try in front of Miss Tachia."
"And before that, did she feed you her blood?"
"...Blood?"
"I'm talking about the blood flowing from her body."
For a moment I thought he meant something like blood-soup, but I soon realized the reason behind his question.
We were inside a dragon's tomb, after all.
Even the remains of a long-dead dragon were considered coveted resources by humanity, so here and now, Tachia as a living dragon could be regarded as a resource possessing special power in and of herself.
"No, she just took the cigarette she was smoking and put it in my mouth."
But ironically, I'd never directly received and consumed her blood.
She might have hidden it in the meals she prepared for me, but considering I generated a circle after she put her cigarette in my mouth, the basis was likely that incident. Thinking back, it was a pretty embarrassing situation, but anyway.
"A cigarette, huh... well, being so utterly spent, feeding you its ashes wouldn't be much different."
"Utterly spent?"
"You'll come to understand in time. For now, let's focus on training. First, sit down, close your eyes, and breathe deeply when I signal."
"Ah, right. Like this..."
Whatever the case, dragging this out wasn't a good option.
Afterward, following his instructions, I spent time going through the preparations before the real training began.
Quietly closing my eyes, breathing out as if in meditation.
As I felt a gradual sense of refreshment spreading from my lungs through my body, he placed his hand on my back and spoke quietly.
"Do you feel something different from usual?"
"Yes, it feels more invigorating than normal. My head feels clearer, too."
"That is the effect of the dragon vein's abundant energy. In that state, try quietly circulating your mana."
-Vwooom.
Jang's mana, transmitted through the hand on my back.
Along with it, as I borrowed the armor's power to manipulate mana, I began sensing a collision with the physical force arising from behind me.
No, the collision lasted only a moment.
The instant I exerted my will to accept his mana, the sense of rejection vanished, and soon I felt the mana he controlled seeping into my body.
"...You adjust well even without my guidance. A cooperative student is a rewarding one to teach."
As I continued circulating mana while his energy flowed into me, I gradually felt the vibrations on my skin become more distinct.
Yes, the moment his mana seeped into my body, some kind of change occurred.
-Vwiiiiing....
The strange ringing that followed was like an ultrasound generated as the natural vibrational hum of mana intensified—as if the medium producing that hum had multiplied in an instant, like a swarm of cicadas.
"Are you starting to hear something?"
"Yes, a kind of ringing in my ears..."
"They are being drawn to the dignity you carry, and beginning to perceive your existence. It's progressing faster than I expected. Continue a little longer."
'They,' he said.
Had someone else besides the two of us entered this place?
-Vwiiing, vwiiiiing.
Amidst my curiosity, the resonant sound grew more pronounced.
It now felt less like cicadas and more like an echo, making my head spin—but I gritted my teeth and concentrated with everything I had.
And then...
-Vwooom.
Some time later, I felt a vibration at my fingertips as something was grasped.
It felt soft at first, then eventually slipped between my fingers, and before long, the sensation of something folding over my hand as if holding it was exactly like when a person clasps hands with another.
Had Jang taken my hand?
No, for a hand, it wasn't hard, nor did it have any wrinkles.
Above all, at this moment, Jang was pressing both hands against my back.
If someone had still grabbed my hand, that meant it was a third party.
-Thump, thump.
Maybe one of the undead I'd encountered on the way here had appeared before me.
"Now, then... Prepare yourself, and slowly open your eyes from that spot."
Though I felt that surge of anxiety, the voice of the man behind me was utterly serene. The words 'prepare yourself' made me uneasy, but I decided to trust him and quietly opened my eyes on the spot, steeling myself not to be startled, no matter what appeared before me—just as he'd said.
-Vwooom....
What finally appeared before me was a bluish afterimage within a shimmering space of light.
Its shape was humanoid, but that's all it was—a shape.
It had no facial features whatsoever, and only its upper body had manifested. The lower half was half-formed before vanishing as if evaporating, leaving only a faint afterimage behind.
-Vwiiing, vwooom....
Nevertheless, at this moment, the sensation of it holding my hand was being felt, however unstable that grip was.
Imperfect as the texture was, it was enough to register that this was a physically touchable entity.
"This is... a ghost?"
With all the undead running amok, had ghosts shown up now too?
"They are spirits."
Denying my assumption, Jang removed his hand from my back, stood beside me, and began explaining the being that held my hand.
"Spirits are existences you might call very, very tiny creatures that inhabit this world... They follow the flow of mana, the energy that resides in all things, so they exist everywhere and can move anywhere."
Beings that ride the flow of mana, yet are so minute the human eye cannot perceive them.
To draw an analogy, you might think of them as cells, molecules... or even smaller concepts. If they are beings that parasitize and live off the energy dwelling in all creation, that would be the most apt way to conceive of them.
"And to speak of spirits in another way, they could also be called 'fragments of will.'"
"Fragments of... will?"
"Mana is an energy drawn to will, and it exerts physical force in response to that will... Even mere insects possess a pull on mana, so if something invisible can attract mana, could we not say they too possess a will?"
They are only called fragments because their scale is extremely tiny. But contrary to that description, the entity before me possessed enough consciousness to touch a human hand and even face one—as if all those fragments of will dwelling in creation had gathered, eventually transforming into a single cluster imitating human form.
"Of course, they have little to no intelligence and merely follow the flow of mana. Yet, because of that, they are instinctively drawn to beings who exert a powerful influence over all things."
"Beings with strong influence... Does that mean I gained the power to attract them because I received Miss Tachia's power?"
"Indeed. It is but a fraction, yet it's enough to more easily seize opportunities for contact. And when a certain number gather, they merge into a shape mimicking the one whose dignity drew them forth, and approach."
That was the reason why Tachia, who used a dragon's tomb—called the paragon of all creation—as her training ground, had put her cigarette in my mouth back then.
Although the coalesced form was still incomplete and it could not speak, the hand holding mine trembled over and over, as if it had something it wanted to convey.
-Vwiiiiing.
Existences that were nothing but fragments before being drawn to me.
At this moment, as a result of clustering together to mimic a human, something akin to intelligence and personality had been born within them.
"......Haha."
And interacting with such beings must be the very foundation of the craft he had demonstrated earlier.
Intuiting that point, I immediately began to analyze what had just occurred, trying to form my own conclusion.
"Old man, will my ability affect these guys too?"
"I expect so. Considering they've already begun mimicking a personality, albeit imperfectly, from your very first attempt, it likely means you have a constitution that spirits find easy to be drawn to."
Indeed, if these creatures also possessed a will, they wouldn't be an exception to my ability. Just like the ego weapon or the undead, these spirits were bound to be influenced by my power, and some distinct phenomenon would surely occur.
Like swarming me the instant they recognized my existence and then chanting my name right in front of me, for example.
"So in other words... these guys are also doing the U-hyo thing in front of me, huh."
-Vwooooom....
The spirits cried out as if reacting to my words.
It was a statement I could understand even without a translation.