Hope and Despair
If thousands of years in As had honed my ability to wait for something with unwavering patience, then a few dozen days on Earth had done precisely the opposite — stripping away every last scrap of my capacity to endure. Or rather, the age itself had converged on that evolutionary path.
Modern humanity, pickled in the dopamine of short-form video, had become a race of cyber-nomads who could not tolerate more than three seconds without entertainment before fleeing to the next clip. And I, who had spent nearly a millennium on a dopamine detox only to have shorts as my first contact with the medium, had fallen into much the same condition.
In short: I could no longer bear the repetition of the same routine.
—How dull.
Helping with the exchange between As and Earth. Teaching magic to Americans. Enjoying the conveniences they provided. Day after day of the same turning wheel had begun to feel intolerably tedious — as if I had been locked inside a cage.
The moment I felt it, I informed the nearest people at hand: the agents perpetually on standby, ready to fetch whatever I requested.
"I am going for a walk."
"Ma'am? What do you—"
"Nothing more than a look around the world."
"P-please wait just a moment. We'll finish preparations and—"
"What preparations does one need for a stroll outside the house? I shall be back shortly. Do not worry—"
With those words I teleported away. A few more spatial jumps later, I had relocated to a neighboring city in the blink of an eye — and there I hesitated, struck by an atmosphere one hundred and eighty degrees removed from anything I had felt in Manhattan.
"……This."
Only then did I understand why they had been so wary of my moving about as I pleased.
The instant Astria vanished from the secret safe house, alarms went up among the White House security detail and agents from every intelligence organization imaginable.
"Codename D is gone!"
"After her, now!"
"GPS — where's the GPS!?"
This was graver than a presidential kidnapping. Put bluntly, you could always elect another president — but Astria, who had come as the representative of As, could not be replaced. Not for anything.
So countless personnel scoured the GPS signal from the smartphone they had gifted her, pored over satellite cameras, and raked through street CCTV until at last—
Thankfully.
"We've got her!"
"Where!?"
"Pennsylvania! Philadelphia!"
"You've got to be kidding me — over a hundred miles in that short a time? What kind of monster…"
The agents who had locked onto Astria's GPS signal more than two hundred kilometers away broke into hollow laughter. Even a supersonic rocket would not have been this fast.
Still, knowing her location was an enormous windfall. Dozens of government vehicles and helicopters immediately tore across Washington in a frantic scramble — praying all the while that America's more uncivilized citizens would not commit some discourtesy against the king of As.
Back when I was still human, humanity's future had looked remarkably bright.
South Korea, once labeled a water-scarce nation, had ended up with water so abundant it was exporting the stuff. Oil reserves that were supposed to run dry within a decade had only grown, enough to last decades more without the slightest shortage.
So when I returned to Earth and heard that a little over a decade had passed since my death, I believed the world would be somewhat better than before. What I had seen with my own eyes had seemed to confirm it.
The reality was otherwise.
"Uuheh, uuheheheh—"
"Hihhoooooo!"
"K-kik! Kiiik! Kik-kik!"
Zombies stumbling down the street, lost in their high.
"Whew — look at those silicone implants."
"And the size on her? I thought she was a tranny at first."
"Hey, sister — how much for a night?"
Gang members swaggering past them, openly leering and laughing.
"……"
"Poor thing…"
"Should we call it in?"
"Forget it. Just keep walking. Don't look."
And ordinary people who passed the whole scene without so much as a glance, as though it were nothing out of the ordinary.
That all of this was happening in the same country — that I had merely crossed into the next city over — was not something I could easily accept. At the same time, I finally understood why those agents had been so reluctant to let me go out.
……This is what it is.
If everything I had hoped for and witnessed up to this day represented the hopeful face of humanity, then what lay before me was the opposite. The despair of human beings. The bottom of society. The national failings that everyone carefully averted their eyes from.
"So this is reality."
"What? You talking about us, big lady?"
"Think she's lost her mind just 'cause she's tall…"
The gang members overheard my muttering and swaggered over without a shred of fear, seizing me by the collar. No matter how hard he squeezed, my body did not shift so much as a millimeter — if anything, he was the one being lifted. The blow to his pride at being overpowered by someone who looked, outwardly, like nothing more than a woman must have stung; he yanked a handgun from the small of his back and leveled it at me.
"You fucking bitch! Who the hell do you think you are, pulling that strength shit…!"
"—You would do well to put that away."
"Scared now? Too late, you stupid bitch. I'm gonna stick needles all over your body, pickle you, and dump you in a whorehouse—"
He jammed the muzzle against my forehead and kept ranting, spittle flying, face contorted as though he might pull the trigger at any second. Yet a firearm would leave not so much as a scratch on me, and neither rough words nor fists could ever leave a mark. My warning had never been for my own safety. It was entirely for his.
And sure enough, moments later—
Thud-da-da-da-da-da—
"Wh-what—?"
"What the hell, cops?"
"No way — even if someone called it in, that's way too fa—"
A helicopter rose overhead and pinned the gang in a spotlight. Black government vehicles swarmed in from every direction, sirens screaming. Startled by a convoy that looked nothing like ordinary police, the gang members missed their chance to run and found themselves surrounded in seconds by agents pouring out of the cars.
"Wh-what is this—"
"I did warn you."
That it would be better to put it away—
I gave the still-stunned gang member a light shove, and agents who had been waiting for the cue crashed over them. One of them hurried to my side, scanning me for injury with a look of deep concern.
"……That was far too reckless, Miss Lia."
"Come now. Did I not say I was only going for a short walk?"
"I also asked you to wait just a moment…"
Of course I knew that expression was pure performance — that underneath it he was closer to an office worker fretting about being fired — so I simply offered a wry smile and looked around.
"Had I waited, I would never have seen a sight like this."
"For the record, the entire United States is not like this. This place is an exceptional—"
"I know. You need not explain. A place like this could never be ordinary."
"I'm glad you understand."
"And yet."
America as a whole was no hellscape — but the fact that a hellscape like this still existed within America was also the truth. And now that I knew, I could not simply look away while such a hell unfolded in the next neighborhood over.
The time had come to exercise a little force. I set a hand on the shoulder of the agent who was busy making calls and spoke.
"—Contact the President."
"Y-yes?"
"Tell him I am coming to see him now."
Knowing full well how busy the office of the president was, this was not a demand to barge in and demand an audience. It was simply a declaration that I would be riding a government car to the White House, and that they should prepare accordingly.
And given that the distance I had covered in that brief span already exceeded two hundred kilometers, even the fastest drive to the White House would take at least two hours.
……How frustrating. Shall I teach them teleportation first?
The thought crossed my mind, but teleportation was hardly simple. It would be like telling toddlers who had only just learned to walk to fly. In the end I would have to build the infrastructure myself, piece by piece… and that prospect did not appeal in the slightest. More than anything, it was a bother. That laziness was itself a hallmark of dragons — their arrogance, and the proof of their strength.
I settled into the government car's seat and idly fiddled with my smartphone. The agents who had scrambled all this way could only laugh hollowly at the sight — like parents who had raced out in a panic to find a missing child, only to discover the kid had simply been playing at the neighborhood playground and lost track of time.
"……So what you're saying, Miss Astria, is—"
"Indeed. King of America. Even a king still needs the support of his people, does he not?"
Inside the White House, at an abruptly convened As–United States summit, President Ronald's expression stiffened slightly at Astria's sudden proposal.
"I shall help you earn the support of your people."
It was a proposal as welcome as it was terrifying — for he had no idea what on earth he was supposed to do with it.