As If It Were an Obligation
A full month had passed since the existence of As was announced to the world. People who had first treated it as little more than a close encounter with aliens had, by now, grown surprisingly accustomed to the sight of a giant bird whose wings stretched for kilometers.
It helped that the enormous creature, once it appeared, mostly just tore trees from here and there for nesting material and then spent the rest of its time lying around in one place, too lazy to move.
If the military and police had not rushed to the mountain range where it nested and declared the area off-limits, the surroundings would almost certainly have been packed with tourists hoping to meet the giant bird.
And then—
“—You’ve come a long way.”
—……Astria.
Astria appeared before Aiteru, who had been sprawled across her nest, staring blankly at the sky and letting time drift by. Looking down at the bird’s limp, exhausted form, Astria let out a dry laugh.
She had told her to get along with the humans, but she had never expected Aiteru to reveal her true form so openly. Still less had she imagined the bird would simply build a nest right out in the open and take peaceful afternoon naps without a care in the world.
Yet she could not very well criticize the choice. That would have been disrespectful—and, more than that, it would have meant taking responsibility for her.
Dragons were, at their core, individualists. As long as no one caused them trouble, they rarely cared what others did. Astria, who had once been human before becoming a dragon, was not so different.
—Well, if I stayed close, Astria would hate it……
“I thought you at least understood the concept of a border.”
—Border? What’s that?
Aiteru tilted her head with pure, innocent confusion. Astria nodded as if she had expected exactly that answer.
The place Aiteru had chosen—Algonquin Provincial Park—was a vast nature reserve of roughly two billion three hundred million pyeong, about eight hundred kilometers from Washington, D.C., where Astria had settled. It belonged not to the United States, but to Canada.
There had been plenty of other options if she simply wanted a nest, yet Aiteru had instinctively picked a spot that was far enough from Astria—yet not too far—and reasonably suitable.
“Do you like it here? The humans aren’t bothering you, are they?”
—Mmm…… I don’t really know. Sometimes they seem noisy?
“If they become too much of a nuisance, you’re free to strike back. I’d prefer you didn’t kill people if you can help it, but tanks and fighter jets—you may smash those to pieces as much as you like.”
—Tanks? Fighter jets?
“Those noisy lumps of metal.”
She said it lightly, yet Astria would not have cared much even if Aiteru killed humans. Humans were precious, of course, but that did not mean she had to tolerate their rudeness.
The warning existed only because Aiteru had no sense of proportion. Without it, the bird would simply destroy and devour everything that approached her. If tens of thousands of people died in the process, the military would inevitably intervene.
And once the military arrived, Aiteru would of course neutralize every weapon modern humanity had created. She might even grow angry enough at the persistent humans to overturn the entire country.
If one nation collapsed, the shockwaves would reach others no matter what. A small ripple might only mean the manga Astria enjoyed would go on hiatus; a large one could see the whole world declare war on them.
She had no intention of destroying with her own hands the civilization she had finally found. Earth and human culture were far too precious for such waste. There was still so much left to enjoy.
“Understood, Aiteru? Think of humans as…… something even less than the microbes eaten by the insects you eat. That level.”
—Mmm? I don’t really get it.
“They aren’t even food to you—you wouldn’t notice them at all—so don’t bother. Think of them instead as the kind creatures who produce the food you eat.”
True to her bird-brained nature, Aiteru still looked puzzled, tilting her head. Yet she somehow grasped that Astria valued humans, and so she nodded vigorously, as if promising to do her best, and gave her wings a great flap.
……Every time she did so a typhoon rose, flattening the surrounding wilderness and the forward bases the humans had built far away—but that was another matter.
Little by little, the transcendents of As were growing accustomed to Earth.
“Please launch a nuclear strike.”
[Talk sense, Prime Minister.]
Prime Minister Owen of Canada was demanding a merciless bombardment from President Ronald over the secure line.
Of course, no matter how much of a madman Ronald was said to be, he was never going to authorize something like that.
[If we fire a nuke there, America takes damage too, doesn’t it? You want us to nuke a place that dangerous? What kind of lunatic nukes an ally in the first place?]
“Then at least permit us to develop nuclear weapons.”
[That’s even more ridiculous! Do you think I’m crazy enough to allow nuclear development? Absolutely not!]
“You can’t just do this! You unleashed that monster on our country!”
Prime Minister Owen slammed his desk and roared. On the screen in front of him played the footage of the colossal bird that had flown in from the United States not long ago.
Once it finished building its nest it had barely moved, as if it had simply gone to sleep—but this was still a monster that could whip up a storm with a single flap of its wings. The mere fact that such a creature had coiled itself inside his country filled him with dread.
And since the monster had come from America, it was America’s responsibility to drive it out of Canada. That was the Prime Minister’s firm belief.
Naturally—
[Monster?! Watch your mouth! That person is a king!]
Ronald, who knew the true identities of Astria and Aiteru—and who could roughly guess at the power they had not yet shown—was never going to grant such a request.
These were divine beings, after all. Personal gods of the sort that appeared only in the distant myths of Greece and Rome. Anyone who remembered how harshly those mythic deities had treated humanity would know better than to utter something as blasphemous as “drive the god out.”
“……Then we will have no choice but to expel it ourselves.”
[Just try it! You’ll taste America’s iron fist first!]
“Is there any guarantee that monster won’t charge straight into our parliament building? Of course there isn’t. America itself can’t even control those creatures right now!”
The fierce argument continued for some time. In the end, Prime Minister Owen managed to wring a great many concessions out of the United States—tariffs, adjustments to defense cost-sharing, and more. Everything he had aimed for from the moment he first opened his mouth.
Things that normally never got so much as a nibble had fallen into his hands with surprising ease, precisely because Owen’s resolve had been genuine. If the talks failed, he really had looked ready to fire missiles……
Yet once the negotiations ended, the Prime Minister’s complexion was far from healthy. For a man who had just scored a victory over America that no previous prime minister had ever achieved, he looked remarkably pale.
And for good reason.
……President Ronald gave in this easily?
The very fact that the deal had succeeded filled him with dread.
President Ronald—the man whose first term alone had been a parade of madness that drove his own supporters and every government on the planet to the brink. Left and right alike had declared there had never been a president like him. He was the sort of lunatic who would tip his own children off to stock themes in advance and then casually announce at a press conference that he intended to revitalize that very industry.
His own and his family’s interests always came first, of course—but right after that, he was a monster who looked after his country’s interests!
No government on earth had ever walked away from a negotiation with that monster holding a win. You always left with losses.
Impossible. What the hell is that thing?
For Ronald to volunteer concessions so readily (it had not been quite as easy as it sounded, and more than a few rounds of pure WWE theatrics had flown back and forth)—it was unprecedented, and it defied every profile ever written about him.
Something about that monster was powerful enough to change the President’s behavior. And that monster had now nested inside a provincial park of Owen’s own country.
Nothing could be more terrifying.
The Prime Minister shuddered involuntarily as he stared at the monitor.
“W-wait—?”
The monster that had been visible on the screen a moment ago was gone. Disaster. He snatched up the receiver in a panic, desperate to learn where the creature had gone—
His gaze—
“…….”
He carefully turned his head.
There.
A
gi
gan
tic
eye
ball
stared back.
“—Aaaaaaah!?”
Owen tumbled to the floor in pure shock, squeezing his eyes shut. This had to be a dream. It had to be.
Yet no matter how much time passed, the presence outside the window showed no sign of leaving.
At last he cautiously opened his eyes and found himself locking gazes with the enormous bird-monster that was glaring down at him.
“……W-why did you come here?”
—……Food.
“……H-huh?”
The colossal bird that looked as though it could swallow an ox in a single bite spoke with absolute confidence, as if the Prime Minister were simply obligated to provide.
—Hungry. Feed me.
Owen could only let out a hollow laugh.