Why Won't This Move?

The food the new apprentice heroes had brought was a cookie called a Ddujjonku.

It was small and round enough to fit in the palm of my polymorphed hand. Shaped almost like a rice cake, it was far too tiny to eat in my dragon form — it wouldn't even register as a snack.

Fwoooosh…!

So I had no choice but to transform and eat it that way…

Munch, munch.

"Waaaaaah, she's so cuuuute!!"

"Look this way! Look this way and smile just once! Please? Please?"

"…These people are not right in the head."

What on earth was wrong with them?

I stared in disbelief at the two heroes fretting and fidgeting beside me, desperate to cling to me somehow.

They hadn't been like this at first.

They had presented me with Ddujjonku and all sorts of other food, and in return they'd offered to help with training.

Then run laps.

Excuse me?

I said run. Right now.

Well, "helping" just meant ordering them to circle the nest, but still.

At my words, the party of two men and two women glanced at each other — and then the party split.

The two men, looking the combative type, seemed to spark some competitive fire and threw themselves into sprinting around the nest at full power.

The two women, on the other hand, eyed the situation carefully and sidled up next to me.

? You're not running?

How is a person supposed to run a thousand laps?

If you can't even manage that, you should leave.

We're more of a…

We're just here to hang out. Heh heh. We can watch those guys from the sidelines, right?

Fine, whatever.

I had a feeling more of these types would show up going forward, so I raised the required lap count.

That was how I'd settled on a thousand laps.

Of course it would go higher if even more people came, but a thousand wasn't all that many. Compared to proper training it was a fairly light number — the real intensity was waiting further down the line.

I wasn't exactly fond of apprentice heroes who quit without even trying, but they'd brought food, so I let it slide.

At any rate, they settled in beside me and started chattering away…

How do you eat this?

Ah, the Ddujjonku? You're supposed to hold it in your hand, but Dragon-nim is so huge you just swallow it whole…

Hold it?

Fwoooosh!

Like this?

Huh? Huh?

Oh my god.

The moment my polymorphed self held a Ddujjonku filling one whole hand, their expressions changed.

Until then it had been curiosity and interest — but the second they saw my transformed appearance, an unconcealable affection and possessiveness poured out of them.

Just like Haring…

"Cute! So cute! I have to post this on Insta!"

"Come on, just one hug? Pretty please? Just once?"

"No."

Don't get ahead of yourselves.

Thwack! Thwack!

I swung my staff and smacked the two apprentice heroes who had already started creeping closer.

Clutching their heads, they teared up and scrambled backward.

"Ugh… so mean."

"Big sis gave us those Ddujjonku! Have a conscience!"

"You offered ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them as tribute. And what 'big sis'?"

I might be young for a dragon, but I was still far older than these apprentice heroes. Looking young didn't mean I actually was. And they'd been pushing past the line this whole time — keep that up and I'd kick them out no matter how much food they brought.

They seemed to sense that instinctively, because after getting hit once, they didn't come any closer.

"Tch. Those Ddujjonku were a pain to make. Do you know how hard it is to make them out here? The ingredients are almost impossible to find."

"But they taste good, right?"

"Yeah, they do."

"We really worked hard on them~"

They did taste good.

On the outside they looked for all the world like chocolate cookies — or chocolate rice cakes — but inside there was something crisp and nutty. At a glance it almost felt like sand, or finely chopped straw?

But somehow it's delicious.

It shouldn't have worked, and yet it did.

I kept eating one after another without pause, and before I knew it I'd polished off every last Ddujjonku they'd brought.

Nyam…

"Hmm."

"You finished them all."

"They must've been really good. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Want us to bring more next time?"

"Yeah."

"Then maybe just one little bit of aegyo…"

Thwack!

All four apprentice heroes were gone.

The two women had left the nest ages ago, rubbing the swollen lumps on their heads, and the two men had declared they were quitting — they just couldn't take it anymore.

Giving up after a mere fifty laps.

"No grit. Zero grit."

Even Haring hadn't managed much at first, but she'd refused to quit even if it meant collapsing. And yet these perfectly able-bodied guys threw in the towel at fifty laps.

"Next time I'm just kicking them out."

Collapsing from exhaustion was one thing. There was no reason to take back people who'd outright declared they were quitting. Types who gave up that easily would just go looking for shortcuts, and they'd only poison the training atmosphere for the other apprentices.

No matter how good the tribute, I'd drive them off.

Having sorted my thoughts, I got up and headed for the secret vault.

The Flying Staff was extremely useful, but if I was going to run Haring and Yong-ba's training tomorrow, I needed better tools. I wouldn't demand anything too intense at only the second stage of training, but…

Then I'd have to move around myself.

Wherever possible, even the small stuff was better automated.

Rummage, rummage.

"Let's see… I left it around here somewhere…"

The automated photosynthesis golem I'd received from the Magic Kingdom seventy years ago should be right about…

"There it is!"

Clatter-clatter-clatter!

Found it.

From between heaps of gold coins and jewels, a golem caked in rust revealed itself. Roughly three times the size of my polymorphed form, its body was built from gray mana-condensed stone, with a high-purity mana crystal embedded in its chest. The mysterious crystal orbs that served as its eyes glimmered faintly.

It was dormant now, but a little sunlight and it would be up and running in no time.

I spun the golem around like a toy and set it down in the sunlit courtyard.

Thunk-thunk!

"Alright! Activate!"

Thunk-thunk!!

"Hey?"

Why wasn't it moving no matter how hard I hit it?

Machines were supposed to work when you smacked them.

I lifted the golem and set it back down, then poured mana directly into the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠crystal in its chest — but only a faint light flickered, and it still didn't move.

"What the. Why won't this move."

Did I need to take it in for repairs?

But going all the way to the Magic Kingdom across the continent was extremely annoying, and the golem's origin was the Tower Master himself. A golem the Tower Master of seventy years ago had personally crafted and gifted.

"…He's probably dead."

Mages lived longer than ordinary humans, but even back then the Tower Master had been past middle age and tipping into old age. No matter how long he lived, he wouldn't have lasted another seventy years after that.

I gave the golem a few more idle thumps and scratched my head.

"Think my disciples could fix it?"

At the time it had been quite an innovative golem, and no one had been able to replicate the Tower Master's craftsmanship. But a full seventy years had passed since then. By now, golems that made this one look quaint ought to exist, right?

Fixing it should be possible — the problem was I still couldn't be bothered to go far…

"Huum… maybe I should just run the training myself, huh?"

It was getting noisy.

"Over here!"

"This is the dragon's nest! Come on, everyone, this way!"

"Nong— I mean, Dragon! Wait right there!"

Again?