This Is Reality
That night.
"Sister…"
"Yes."
In Eliona's room, Eliona and Riaen lay together on a single bed.
Riaen had a room of her own, but she was afraid of being alone.
Eliona knew that perfectly well, so she held Riaen close against her.
"Do you think… we might actually be dead?"
When Riaen, nestled in her arms, asked that question, Eliona looked at her with mild surprise.
"Why would you think that?"
"…There's a dragon besides Sister Silver. Two of them, even."
"That's true."
Grace and Rain.
According to their introductions, they were the Yellow Dragon Topaz and the True Dragon Garnet, respectively.
The True Dragon Garnet, in particular, was a Jewel Dragon famous for never once leaving her own territory.
Meeting dragons like that, Riaen must not have felt that what she was seeing could be real. That was Eliona's assessment.
Hardly surprising.
Eliona herself still couldn't quite tell whether everything she had experienced that day had been a dream or waking life. So she understood her younger sister's feelings completely.
"The dragons were wearing maid uniforms like us and working as inn staff."
"…They were, weren't they?"
That part felt strange even to Eliona.
From Silver, who was close to them, she had heard that the Purity Dragon Opal and the Progenitor Dragon Turquoise lived among humans with their identities concealed. But for two entirely different dragons to pose as humans — and volunteer as employees of an ordinary-looking inn, no less…
They even seemed to follow the innkeeper with genuine devotion.
"There was an inn right in the middle of the Dragon Canyon."
"…"
This… even Eliona had no idea how to explain.
She could not begin to understand what that man — the innkeeper — had been thinking when he built an inn in a place like this. Silver had called him a transmigrator, but…
Aren't transmigrators the kind of beings that only appear in fairy tales?
Even Eliona, born into royalty, knew little about transmigrators.
"And… the food was delicious."
"It was delicious…"
At Riaen's words, Eliona recalled the meal they had eaten that day, and her mouth almost watered.
The cooking itself had been simple compared to the food she had known as royalty. But the taste had been far better than anything she had ever eaten in the royal palace.
"…We even bathed in that amazing bathroom."
"It's been so long since we last had a bath…"
The employee rooms they had been assigned came with private bathrooms — and unlike the ordinary-looking facility on the first floor, these were modern bathrooms with no skin applied over them.
As royalty, of course, bathing had been a daily routine. But they had never imagined they would still be able to do so after becoming slaves — even if that bathroom was far smaller than the ones they used to use.
"Something like this… can't exist in reality."
So we must be dead. We've died and gone to heaven. That was Riaen's claim.
"…"
When Riaen finished speaking, Eliona was at a loss for words. For a moment, she too wondered if they might truly be dead — that they had already died, and the place they were in now might be heaven.
But…
"This is reality."
Eliona said that the place they were in now was real.
"It's a place completely different from every bit of common sense we know — but it's still reality."
Because Sister Silver had kept protecting them. Because Grace, who knew Sister Silver, had purchased them.
"It was thanks to Sister Silver rather than our own strength, but this is the good fortune we've seized."
We must not let go of this fortune by calling it a dream.
"So starting tomorrow, let's work hard, all right?"
"…Okay."
Having quietly taken in every word, Riaen fell asleep right there in Eliona's arms. Looking down at her, Eliona gently stroked her sister's hair and thought to herself.
Our master — and the master of this inn.
Three dragons… Jewel Dragons, no less, were loyal to him. Such a being could not possibly be ordinary.
Dragons are loyal to him… which means…
The innkeeper is the Dragon King.
Eliona was certain of it. She knew no such being had ever existed until now — but there was no law that said it would always remain that way.
The three Jewel Dragons — Grace, Rain, and Silver — were grilling meat and drinking on the first floor at an hour when everyone else in the inn was asleep.
"So this is the meat and alcohol people commonly ate in Master's world?"
"Yeah. It's a combination that was pretty universal in Master's country."
Grace said this as she laid pork belly on a grill heated by magic.
Pork belly and soju.
With the kitchen reaching level 4, various meats had started appearing, and with the pub reaching level 4, the selection of alcohol had expanded — which was how they had finally gotten the chance to try pork belly and soju for themselves.
"It's a shame there's no seasoning."
"Ah, right. Sesame oil salt, and ssamjang, and… why does Master think garlic is just a vegetable? It's a spice too."
Silver, who had been quietly listening to Grace and Rain, spoke up as if she had expected exactly this.
"As I thought — you two made a Dragon's Contract with Master, didn't you?"
The way the two of them seemed so well-informed about the world their master had originally lived in. Seeing that, Silver concluded they had formed a Dragon's Contract, which shared knowledge between them.
"Yeah, that's right."
When Grace confirmed it without hesitation, Silver looked at the two of them with interest.
"What's the reason? I know Master's mana is enormous for a human, and the skill that created this inn is impressive — but that still doesn't seem like enough to warrant a Dragon's Contract, does it?"
At Silver's words, Rain froze. The circumstances that had led her to form the Dragon's Contract had come flooding back.
"Well, for me — Master saved me when I was on the verge of death. At the time, the surest way for me to survive was the Dragon's Contract."
"Aha. So for you, Master is your lifesaver. I can see why you're so devoted. Then what about Sister Garnet?"
"…"
Rain closed her mouth. Her past self from that time was far too pathetic to speak of.
"She came to kill Master and got turned around instead."
The problem was that a dragon who knew the entire process of how Rain had formed the Dragon's Contract was sitting right there.
"Turned around? Don't tell me you won, Topaz?"
"No, I didn't fight. Master won all by himself. The titles Master holds crushed Sister Rain."
Even knowing that titles carry power, that was the first time she had ever seen them exert physical force like that.
"…He exerted physical force with titles alone? Not that his mana was strengthened by the power of the titles?"
"No. The power of the titles themselves crushed Sister Rain."
"So that kind of thing can happen too? Interesting."
Silver said this as she created a fork with magic. The meat was nearly done cooking.
"Ah, wait."
"?"
Grace stopped her.
"You're supposed to eat pork belly with chopsticks."
"Chopsticks? What are those?"
"Utensils used in Master's world. There are places in this world that use them too, I think?"
Grace said this as she handed a pair of chopsticks each to Rain and Silver. Receiving them, Rain and Silver gripped the chopsticks in their hands…
"How… do you use these?"
"This is hard…"
They awkwardly tried using chopsticks for the first time. Still, they were dragons. Though their grip was clumsy, they somehow managed to get meat into their mouths with the chopsticks, or wrap it in greens and eat it — enjoying the pork belly in the various ways stored in their master's knowledge.
"…"
"…"
"…"
As a result, similar thoughts circled through all three dragons' minds.
"Something's missing…"
"It's delicious, but…"
"We need seasoning…"
Whether they bought seasoning and spices from outside, or leveled up the kitchen until seasoning and spices appeared from it… the three dragons steeled their resolve to solve this somehow.
"…"
I, who had fallen asleep, found myself standing in the middle of the inn's first floor before I knew it.
…Is this a dream?
This inn, however, was not the one created by my ability. From the knowledge I had seen in Grace and Rain, I got the sense that other ordinary inns in this world would feel something like this. So I decided the place I was in now must be a dream.
"You're quick on the uptake."
As if hearing my thoughts, someone spoke those words to me.
Who…?
But there was no one in the direction the voice had come from. No — had it even come from that direction in the first place? Perhaps because it was a dream, my mind felt a little hazy. Or rather, foggy.
"Children of the surface often meet us in that state. As a result, when they wake from sleep, in severe cases they even forget the fact that they met us at all."
Children of the surface? Us? I had no idea what this voice was talking about.
"I don't seek a reply, so simply listening is fine. First, let me apologize."
Being told I only needed to listen put me somewhat at ease. Perhaps because of that, the haziness seemed to clear a little.
But an apology?
"I never expected you would fall into the very middle of the vast Dragon Canyon of all places in this wide world… I hastily sent the child closest to me, but honestly, I thought there was no hope."
Well… when I first heard my inn was in the middle of the Dragon Canyon, I had been at a loss. It was fortunate Grace was by my side.
"Originally I intended to send you somewhere my children were, for your safety… but I never expected you would thrive well enough to dress dragons in such clothes."
…I didn't dress them.
Grace put them on of her own accord and made Rain wear them too.
"Even if it is through a symbol directly connected to me as a medium, you are not my child. So everything I have said will be forgotten once you wake from sleep."
A symbol…
Ah — that nun… no, the symbol the Pope had left behind.
Which meant the owner of this voice speaking to me now was…
"…"
Sunlight was coming in through the window. Morning.
"Nngh…"
Stretching as I looked at the sunlight, I quietly muttered.
"…You said I'd forget, Lord Restwin."
The voice I had heard in the dream inn last night remained vividly in my memory. While I had been inside the dream, the haziness had kept my thoughts from working properly — but once I woke, the memory of an entity I could only presume to be Restwin, the God of Rest, speaking to me was crystal clear.