Rights
Stepping into her own lair, Astria still wore a rigid expression as she turned her questions on the resolute Secretary of Defense.
Just what had happened? When had the American soldiers gone missing? And why, of all people, had he come all the way to her to talk about it?
The Secretary's face darkened further at her questions, yet he opened his mouth all the same.
"The truth is…"
She had already roughly guessed as much, but even after meeting her, America had never stopped exploring As. Perhaps because the territory she freely roamed looked narrower than expected? Or because they believed Earth's great technology could easily harvest resources the people of As never could?
Or maybe it was to discover another Transcendent of As who might keep her in check. If one side possessed nuclear weapons, the other wanted them too—or at least allies who had them. That was human greed for you. Even if she and America were allies, it made no difference.
They had continued their exploration. And then, once the expedition had pushed a few hundred kilometers out from the Gate's domain, contact with them had simply vanished.
"We've been out of contact for over a week now. All we've found are traces we believe the unit left behind…"
"Over a week, and you're only telling me now… So this isn't a rescue request, is it?"
"…I am deeply ashamed to say it, but frankly, that is exactly what it is."
That was simply how humans operated. Like a child who, after doing something wrong and terrified of being scolded, tried to fix the mess alone and only made everything worse. The environment of As and the monsters that lived there made them look like children in much the same way.
Astria looked at the Secretary with open discomfort. If he had come to her soon after the incident, perhaps. But a full week had already passed. Even she could not guarantee their lives now.
"Still, if at all possible, we would like to recover their remains. These were courageous men and women who volunteered for deployment not to another country, but to another world entirely. We want to return them to their families."
"…They're only corpses. Bones and flesh. Worthless lumps of meat."
Astria fixed the Secretary—still insisting he wanted even the bodies—with a piercing stare.
"—And you would pay any price for mere lumps of meat?"
"Yes. Of course."
Even under Astria's terrifying, open-ended threat of what that price might be, he did not flinch.
"That is how America has always lived."
"…Hahahaha!"
He had held to his conviction.
Watching him, Astria threw her head back and laughed, looking down at the Secretary of Defense.
This is why I like humans… If something similar had happened among elves, dwarves, or any other race of As, they would never have made a choice like this. They knew a corpse after death was nothing but a slab of meat.
They might seek revenge against whoever killed their comrades, but they would never go begging beings far above them just to retrieve the bodies of the dead.
A path no one in As ever walked.
A path walked only by humans.
"Very well, Secretary. For you, I'll make a special exception."
And that very humanity stirred the dragon's heart.
"I'll find their remains for you, at least."
"Th-thank you!"
"Save the thanks until after I've found them—"
And so Astria set out first for the place the American soldiers had supposedly gone.
"Ah, Astria!"
"…Aiteru?"
"These are your kids, right? Looks like they're hibernating for summer. They won't wake up…"
Not long after—
"Mmph—!"
"Mmmph!"
—she found the American soldiers, perfectly alive.
Just tightly bound in spider silk.
I myself am a dragon, of course.
But As is home to mythical creatures that do not exist on Earth. Aiteru is the collective name for the mythical birds among them.
Her two wings are like those of the great peng that blots out the sky; her strength rivals the three-legged crow that lives inside the sun and snacks on dragons. Her overflowing vitality calls to mind the phoenix and the undying bird.
In fact, I first met her while she was devouring one of my own kind, and the racial compatibility made the fight brutal. If I hadn't already awakened to magic, she would have eaten me on the spot.
The fact that she treated dragonkind as her staple diet also meant, in a twisted way, that she liked dragons—so she latched onto me.
When an ingredient she loved enough to eat on sight suddenly became something she couldn't eat, the emotion that remained was simply affection. Thanks to that, Aiteru was an extremely awkward opponent to deal with.
She directed nothing but goodwill my way, yet the moment she spotted an opening she would try to eat me anyway—a birdbrain through and through. I couldn't casually treat her as an enemy, yet fighting her in earnest would cost me dearly as well.
She was the classic "rival character who, after one fight, somehow becomes ridiculously friendly" from some second-rate comic. That was more or less how I treated Aiteru.
And right now—
"Astria～."
—she was clinging to me, drawing my name out in a long, syrupy voice, stuffing my horns, ears, and cheeks into her mouth and chewing on them with relish. From her perspective it was a form of affection: putting me in her mouth without actually harming me. From the receiving end, it was just wet and sticky.
I peeled her off with one hand and fixed her with a sharp glare.
"—Aiteru. Why do you have these people?"
"I found 'em."
"Where?"
"Where was it…"
"My territory, I assume. I told you not to enter my territory."
The remark seemed to hit home; Aiteru flinched, then immediately launched into a defense as if she still had an excuse.
"I-I didn't go in."
"That's a lie."
"It's true! …I went right up to the edge, but I didn't go inside the territory. Really."
She watched my face carefully, scrambling for excuses. She had gone near the territory. She just hadn't entered it. She had picked them up outside—in the domain of some spider woman whose name she couldn't quite remember.
Confirming there was no falsehood in her story, I gave a light nod and gently stroked the back of her neck. She immediately started rubbing her whole body against my hand like a parrot in heat, but well.
I decided to overlook that much. She had earned it.
"—Are you all right?"
"Cough, cough—! Haa, haa… Y-you are—"
"I came at the Secretary of Defense's request. US Army Ranger Omega Unit. Correct?"
"Y-yes, sir— ma'am."
"Congratulations."
Bound tight in spider silk for so long they could neither eat nor drink properly, the soldiers had been rescued and healed with my magic. After an entire week without a single bite, they were terribly emaciated.
The reason they hadn't died was twofold: they had been bound so thoroughly they couldn't even waste calories by moving, and the spider venom injected when they were captured had done its work.
Some spiders have the habit of storing their prey. In the process they inject venom so the catch doesn't rot. Prey injected with that venom enter a half-dead state—neither rotting nor truly alive.
According to Aiteru, the one who had caught them was likely a spider-type Transcendent. The habit of immediately venom-storing prey was probably the only reason they had survived…
"—So you can go home now, then?"
Setting aside the fact that they had nearly died after being captured by that spider monster, it had actually been lucky they ran into a spider of all things.
Because of that, they could return home alive.
And so I freed the American soldiers and prepared to send them back to America—
"—No."
At that moment, Aiteru, who had been watching blankly, blocked my way.
"These are my collection."
"…What?"
"I caught them. They're my collection. Why are you taking them?"
"…You."
"Anything that comes out of a territory is fair game. We promised, remember?"
She was right.
I needed to speak carefully.
In the end, Aiteru herself had been the one to free them from the spider monster's grasp. Their right to life and death—and even the right to decide where they would stay—belonged to her.
Suddenly showing up and casually trying to take them was ignoring her rights. Worse, it was plundering what was hers.
"—What do you want?"
"Hehe. Astria, you really are smart. That's why I like you."
In the end, the only reason she would interfere with me taking things she had no real use or interest in was because she wanted something of her own.
I asked her what that was.
"Take me with you too."
"…Where?"
"Wherever Astria is going."
The Great Sky King of the vast heavens demanded a new sky she had never seen.
"There's something, right? I can smell it."
It is common knowledge that birds migrate thousands of kilometers with the changing seasons.
And what of a mythical bird among those birds—one whose true wings alone stretch for kilometers?
Needless to say, she could cross between worlds.