You Need to Know Everything
This was my first warp in this life, but I'd done it a few times in my previous one, so I managed a fairly steady landing on arrival.
The eccentric whistled at me, called me skilled, and pointed out which direction the Dragon's Border lay.
"You're not heading back?"
"Bringing you to Elgrid was included in the commission fee."
So Elise had thought that far ahead.
An unintended companion had come along, but just knowing how to use warp made him more than worth keeping around.
The stele of the gods towered twice my height.
Packed with writing in an unknown tongue, it was treated as something precious—the language of the gods, they said.
I gave it a single glance, then immediately set off in the direction the eccentric had indicated.
"We're going a bit fast. Keep up."
"Ha, I may not look it, but I've got solid combat muscle and I train my stamina every day. Don't just write me off as some research-obsessed mage."
I gave no real answer to his snappy retort and shot forward at a run.
Five minutes later.
"Huff huff! Wait! W-wait a second! Slow down a little!"
The eccentric was already gasping after barely any distance. I frowned—if this was all it took to put him in that state, we had a problem—and he finally pressed a hand to his body and began channeling mana.
"Having to use physical enhancement magic just for travel..."
"If you do that, can you handle running like just now?"
"No, even then I think you'll need to go a little slower..."
Watching him whine more than read the room, I got irritated, told him to catch up on his own, and ran ahead alone.
From behind I heard him yelling something about how absurd this was.
"You're working me like this? I'm gonna skip out on the payment!"
Go ahead and try if you can.
Not only would his reputation as a working mercenary hit rock bottom, he'd also find himself relentlessly hunted by Elise.
Having already tasted how persistent she could be, the thought alone made my teeth chatter.
I kept running straight until signs began to appear: the Dragon's Border was near—do not approach.
Threatening phrases declaring that the kingdom would take no responsibility once you crossed.
The more warning signs I saw, the more power flooded my legs as I drove forward even faster.
And so, at last, I reached the Dragon's Border.
I'd heard that neither humans nor Dragonians held particularly warm feelings toward each other; even if they saw one another they would simply spit and ignore them.
They kept a high fence between them, wary, not even wanting contact.
But when I actually arrived, I found humans and Dragonians locked in a war of nerves across one stretch of the long fence.
Not that many of them.
Three humans, two Dragonians.
The Dragonian side looked like mere sentries, but the human side was different.
Among the guardians protecting the fence, an older man of clearly high rank was slamming the iron bars and shouting.
"You bastards must have done something for my soldiers to end up like that!"
His face was flushed crimson as he roared, yet the Dragonians only snorted back.
"If they've become Dragonians, isn't that a gain? Filthy, primitive humans like you turning into Dragonians—you should be grateful from a human standpoint."
"Ugh, disgusting. A human becoming a Dragonian."
"More than that, human—if you touch the fence one more time, my claws will dig straight into your eye sockets. Remember that. I swear it on Lord Shakalim's name."
"You sons of bitches!"
The man who seemed to be the guardian captain bellowed in rage, but he still did not touch the fence.
Shakalim.
Among the dragons the Dragonians served, a legendary existence called the Blue Dragon. To them dragons were no different from gods, so an oath sworn on that name carried extraordinary weight.
If he touched the fence again, the Dragonian would truly cross over and gouge out the guardian captain's eyes.
Even if it cost him his own life.
"If you keep acting like this, we'll have no choice but to report it to the kingdom. I'm saying let's resolve this amicably!"
He tried persuasion this time, but the Dragonians only cackled again.
"Where do bug-like creatures get off talking about resolving things?"
"Try kneeling and begging at least. Then it might be a little worth watching."
"Grr..."
Not just the guardian captain—the other two guardians behind him looked like the backs of their heads were burning with fury—yet they could not push any harder.
"So it wasn't just my sister, huh."
When I cut in after listening from behind, every gaze—human and Dragonian—snapped toward me.
The guardian captain studied my face, made a strange expression, then clapped his hands and exclaimed.
"Dyna McLane?"
"I'm her younger brother."
"Ahh! I see! You look exactly alike."
His delight lasted only a moment before he seemed to grasp why I had come.
"Don't tell me—Dyna too...?"
"She's becoming a Dragonian. She's in the hospital right now. I came because I thought the problem was that she'd been here, but it seems it wasn't only our sister."
"Ahem."
Glancing toward the Dragonians, the guardian captain slowly led me farther back.
"That's right. Two of our guardians are also turning into Dragonians right now. We haven't reported it to the royal family yet, though..."
"Why not?"
I frowned and asked why they weren't reporting it immediately to the Frisia Kingdom. The guardian captain looked around, then sighed and answered.
"Because it could escalate into a war."
"..."
"If things go wrong and word spreads that they sprayed chemical weapons and experimented on our soldiers, the Frisia Kingdom can't just sit still."
If the kingdom was struck first and stayed quiet, the other side would only look down on them even more.
No matter how they felt inside, they would have to react strongly on the surface.
"Are you afraid of war with the Dragonians?"
"It's not the Dragonians I'm afraid of—it's war. I personally fought in the war against the Bagrit Kingdom. War... no matter the reason, it must never happen."
The wrinkles around his eyes deepened. He clearly carried his own trauma and pain, wanting to end this within his own authority if he could.
I know the cruelty of war too.
I witnessed a massacre that could not even be called a war with my own eyes, felt it on my skin, and ultimately became its final victim.
I don't want to see that kind of scene either.
But.
"So you're just going to sit here and watch?"
"..."
The guardian captain could not speak. In his mind the weight of war between the kingdom and the Dragonians was heavier than the lives of Dyna and the two soldiers.
I understand.
I understand, but.
My current state was in no mood to accept that.
"Huff! Huff!"
In the distance the eccentric was barely catching up.
Seeing him riding a horse while catching his breath—he'd somehow borrowed one midway—I felt a little sorry.
He's going through hell because of me.
I roughly loosened up and walked toward the fence.
"What's this, a brat?"
"With humans you can never tell exactly how old they are just by looking."
Says you.
"I heard that if you jump the wall, jurisdiction over that person transfers to the Dragonians. Is that right?"
"Jurisdiction? I don't know about that, but the moment you cross over, whether we tear you apart, eat you, or torture you, you humans can't say a thing to us."
"Why? Planning to cross?"
The Dragonians snickered.
The moment you crossed the fence, the kingdom's protection vanished and you became no different from a wild boar roaming the mountains to the Dragonians.
It was the same for them.
If a Dragonian crossed into human land, the guardian captain could execute them on the spot at his discretion.
Just by crossing a single fence, life and death fell into the hands of another race, and you became a beast without even the minimum of human rights.
Watching the cackling Dragonians, I steadied my breath and suddenly kicked the fence hard.
With a creak it tilted and toppled over.
"Huh? Huh?"
"Crazy!"
The guardian captain cursed in shock; the Dragonians nearly got crushed by the falling fence.
Not missing the opening, I stepped onto the Dragonians' land and slowly drew my sword.
I had been holding it in.
When talking with Lin at the hospital.
When meeting the eccentric with Elise's help.
Only now, with the floodgates of emotion finally open, could I realize that I had been enduring with what even I considered superhuman patience up to this point.
"I have just one demand."
This was a kind of guilt.
"My sister is turning into a Dragonian. About that."
Even as I pretended calm, the thick, chilling killing intent inside must have been felt instinctively by the Dragonians; they raised their spears with panicked expressions.
I sincerely hoped—and hoped again—from them.
Whether Dogfight was involved, or the Dragonian race had schemed something.
"You need to know everything."
Otherwise I won't be able to stop myself.
A small cabin in Yggdrasil.
Numerous capable elves were nursing a small girl, yet nothing had any effect.
Along with a high fever, a small horn protruding from her forehead, roughening skin, and the wing bones beginning to jut out.
A few days earlier the girl who had been playing in the forest had suddenly collapsed and been rescued by her friends.
Since then they had tried everything—medicine, magic, folk remedies, and more.
Treatments that were the culmination of centuries of elven knowledge, yet none of it worked.
Was it even right to call this being sick in the first place?
The girl was changing.
"It's the Dragonian race, right?"
At Eris's words, almost a monologue, the Elf Queen nodded slightly while holding the girl's hand.
"Yes, it seems so."
Starting with the horn on her forehead, even wings that only grew on special individuals among the Dragonians were beginning to show signs of sprouting on her back.
An elf becoming a Dragonian was a phenomenon even the long-lived Elf Queen was seeing for the first time; there was simply no way to deal with it.
"..."
In the end the Guardian of Yggdrasil slowly gathered her sword and staff.
Not only the Elf Queen but also Serdi, the small elf working as Eris's maid, looked at her in surprise.
Yet her expression and eyes already held a firm resolve.
"E-Eris-nim?"
"Are you going?"
Serdi and the Elf Queen asked at the same time, and Eris nodded firmly.
"I'll be back shortly."
To save the small elf girl.
The Guardian of Yggdrasil began heading toward the land of the dragons.