The Golden Dragon and the Metal Spirit

“Why! You let me put in an ogre! Ogres are intelligent beings too!”

Rai’s fifth body had been an ogre, and that was something Magi had reluctantly allowed after being nagged into it.

“Ugh, ogres are monsters, okay? Dwarves are demi-humans.”

“It’s the same thing! Either way, they’re both food!”

“As expected of a dragon… that way of thinking is something else.”

“Let’s add a dwarf! Yeah? Whether it’s an ogre or a dwarf, they’re both living creatures anyway. Ogres have intelligence too! They’ve got brains. And brains are delicious…”

I decided to pretend I hadn’t heard that last part.

To the eyes of the ultimate predator known as a dragon, it seemed dwarves and ogres were equally valid prey. Fairness had nothing to do with it.

“Magi, if you really like me, you should think from my perspective. I’m human, remember?”

“So?”

“Ogres eat humans, but dwarves don’t. Dwarves are friends to humans. Get it? It’s not just because they’re intelligent that I don’t like the idea of eating dwarves. It’s because there’s a bond of friendship between dwarves and humans.”

“Hmm…”

“Well? Does that make sense now?”

“A little bit.”

“Then let’s pick something else. You’re a good kid, Magi. Remember what Tokka’s Globe said.”

Compared to when I was first dragged here by Magi, both my body and mind were far more at ease now.

After spending over a month together, I’d grown somewhat attached. And I was now fairly certain that Magi wasn’t actually going to eat me.

As the days passed, Magi had grown more and more interested in me than in Rai. Now he liked me so much it was becoming a problem.

I brought him food on time so he wouldn’t eat me, patted his head a few times, and let him sleep beside me—and just like that, he’d fallen head over heels. What an easy dragon to tame.

To think my charm could even bring down a dragon. At this rate, conquering the continent might actually be possible.

“I get it! Then I’ll think of something else. Something that doesn’t have any friendship with humans!”

“Good, good.”

“Out of all humans, I like Jeanie the most!”

“Oh my… Out of all dragons, I like Magi the most too.”

Not that I knew any other dragons.

I put on a slightly artificial smile and accepted Magi as he threw himself into my arms at waist height.

When I hugged him back tightly, he looked up at me with a huge grin.

He stared only at me, as if perfectly happy right there in my embrace. With that angelic face I’d reshaped to suit my tastes.

This kid’s actually pretty cute now that I’ve grown attached to him.

Breaking news: Our dragon has changed!

At first, living in Magi’s lair had felt like sleeping next to a wild beast, utterly terrifying. But if that beast became my loyal dog, the story changed completely.

These days, I’d made a major shift in strategy—from simply trying to survive to deciding to befriend a dragon…

I’d decided to befriend a dragon, but there was one being who openly and loudly disapproved—my clingy spirit, my contracted spirit. Rai.

The jealous little brat who could never stand to see me being nice to anyone else.

There was a massive wolf openly spitting at our affectionate display, slapping the ground with his huge tail in clear dissatisfaction.

Who else could it be? It was Rai, who had finally escaped his snake body after ten long years.

His fluffy golden fur was the very definition of top-grade pelts, and his golden eyes—sharp as faceted jewels—held both the ferocity and keenness of a predator.

Unlike the original plan, his size was now comparable to a cow, making it difficult to insist he was just a dog and take him around. Still, his appearance was undeniably magnificent.

“Come here, Rai. I’ll hug you too.”

“If you don’t come now, the offer’s gone.”

Even though his appearance had changed, Rai was still unmistakably Rai.

His pupils trembled with uncertainty as he held out for a moment, but it didn’t last long. He came running and burrowed straight into my arms.

Since I wasn’t usually the type to hug and pet him all the time, he couldn’t pass up a rare opportunity like this.

When he was a snake, his head had fit perfectly in my palm. Now he was so big that even when I hugged his whole body, I could barely fit his head against my chest.

I never realized wolves could get this large. Or that petting them could feel so satisfying.

I stroked Rai’s golden fur and Magi’s golden hair at the same time.

“I’m in a good mood today. Let’s call it here and go outside to play?”

“Yay!”

“…I’m not clueless!”

“Then why don’t you go back to the spirit realm!”

Ugh, they were at it again.

“You’re the one squeezing in!”

Rai bared his teeth first and let out a fierce beastly growl. In response, Magi refused to back down, radiating a terrifying aura as his eyes widened with a predator’s glare.

The killing intent of a dragon—at the very top of the food chain—was the kind that sent chills down your spine. Even though it wasn’t directed at me, I instinctively felt my heart rate spike.

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How could Rai face that without flinching and still bare his teeth?

This guy really wasn’t normal.

“You scrap-metal spirit!”

When Magi’s eyes began to glow with a dragon’s power and golden scales started sprouting across his once-soft skin, that was the beginning of battle.

“Stop it!”

Sandwiched between their fierce hostility, I rubbed my goosebump-covered arms and hurriedly broke them up before they could really start tearing into each other.

Whenever the two fought, something always got broken—and sometimes that something could be me.

“I told both of you to stop fighting!”

“It wasn’t my fault! You saw it, Jeanie! This scrap-metal bastard started it first!”

“I’ll kill you!”

“Haa.”

I couldn’t hold back the sigh that burst out of me.

The fact that Magi had once liked Rai enough to carry him around in his arms all day had now become an unbelievable piece of history.

They’d become mortal enemies almost overnight.

“What! You ugly mutt!”

I quickly backed away to avoid the fight.

Who could have guessed the day would come when these two could actually communicate? I’d been worried they might end up fighting like this.

I almost missed the old days when they couldn’t understand each other.

The tragedy had begun the moment Rai acquired his wolf body.

It was also the reason his fur was such a brilliant golden color.

He could have taken on other colors with different forms, but in wolf mode, he was inevitably gold.

One of the gemstones used as material when crafting the wolf body was the cause.

It had exerted a powerful influence on Rai.

The unusual golden gem that Magi had brought—the one I’d glossed over while distracted by Tokka’s Globe and its measurement of good and evil.

To think it was a Dragon Heart… and a Gold Dragon’s at that.

Dragon Heart.

It was literally a dragon’s heart—and everything that dragon was.

Humans leave behind their names when they die. Tigers leave their skins. And dragons… leave behind their Dragon Hearts.

A dragon’s corpse does not rot. Right before its life ends, it gathers every last ounce of its remaining power and condenses it into a single crystal.

When a dragon dies, it transforms into a small gemstone.

That is the Dragon Heart. Naturally, calling it a mere “gem” was ridiculous given the astronomical power it contained.

True to being a dragon’s final legacy, it was quite literally an ocean of mana.

It held such a colossal amount of mana that a human could never exhaust it in a lifetime. If used as material for a sword, it would allow the blade to shoot out Sword Aura like a laser beam. If embedded in a mage’s staff, it would let them rain down meteors like a storm. It was a legendary magical material… but since none existed, it was almost embarrassing to even call it crafting material.

It was so precious and sacred that not even an emperor’s crown could contain it. What more needed to be said?

And Rai, who had absorbed the whole thing, had turned golden—probably because it came from a Gold Dragon—and had even gained the ability to converse with Magi.

Of course, that was just an added bonus. The best part was that Rai could now use his power without draining my mana.

It was all thanks to the unique magical power contained within the Dragon Heart.

Rai had gained an enormous quantity of mana. I was honestly jealous.

Throughout the entire history of this continent, I doubted there had ever been a Spirit Master who obtained a Dragon Heart and then fed it to their spirit.

It had happened by accident… but what a waste.

The more I thought about it, the more it hurt. My stomach actually felt a little upset.

Rai had absorbed it, but he said he couldn’t spit it back out. Creating a Dragon Heart was a unique authority belonging only to dragons.

If only they could be mass-produced! I’d want one too!

“Jeanie is mine!”

“What are you two even saying? I belong to myself.”

When I refused to take either side, they glared at each other again and began rolling around, biting and clawing.

“You die!”

“And I’m going to live for ten thousand years!”

Since they were evenly matched, their fights always dragged on. And they never seemed to get tired of fighting over me.

I’d rather be popular with humans. Not with a spirit and a giant reptile.

“Go back to the spirit realm! You wicked spirit!”

No matter how much they beat each other up, they ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could never settle the score.

Ever since Rai had eaten the Dragon Heart, his defense had become ridiculously overpowered. And unless Magi returned to his true form, his attack power was significantly reduced.

I was suddenly curious who would win if they fought seriously, but curiosity wasn’t more important than my life.

I had no intention of becoming the shrimp that gets crushed in a whale fight.

“Take that back right now! I’m a good dragon recognized by Tokka’s Globe!”

“Grr! You insulted dragons!”

And of course, all of this was happening in front of these two idiot whales.