A Brief Lull

Zephet's lingering spirit wailed in agony. The core detonated several more times inside Ruby's body before, little by little, it spent its strength and fell still.

The firestorm that had swallowed the floating castle scattered to every corner of the sky as the core died out. Thousands of streaks of flame embroidered the night — a spectacle to behold.

I stood there for a moment, staring at it, half entranced.

"A companion dragon, was it?" Kalman had come up alongside me. "When I submit my report to His Majesty, I'll be sure to record your dragon's service as well."

"Then write the name out clearly. Ruby."

"Consider it done."

Strange. I'd bought the thing in the first place with every intention of raising it and milking it for mana cores, yet now I was attached beyond all reason — even proud that it had distinguished itself. So this was why people kept pets?

"So the House of Esterji is cleared of suspicion now?"

"I merely relay events as they occurred. Moving the politicians for you is not within my power."

Kalman gave me one long look, then swept down the stairs, coat tails flaring.

"Lord Iden, are you all right?"

Thalia climbed up right after him, coated from head to toe in demon blood.

"As you can see, I'm perfectly fine. Zephet has been dealt with."

"I felt the Avatar of Fire pass into nothing. Felling a Demon Viscount is a magnificent feat."

Thalia looked positively pleased with herself. Ten years I had known her, and I could not recall a single time she had seemed this alive.

It almost felt as though the woman I'd known until now had been a doll wearing her face.

"Ten years curled up under that Third Prince — how does she stand it and stay sane?" The words of Thalia's old comrade, from the road to the capital, came drifting back. She had deliberately dodged the question that day. Watching her brim with life now, the same wonder stirred in me.

Why had she let the years bleed away at my side, with a grudge seared so deep into her chest?

"Thalia, come here."

I beckoned her to the edge of the floating castle. I had questions aplenty, but this was the hour to raise a toast with her instead.

"Magnificent view, isn't it?"

"The Central Continent has its charms after all."

Thalia swept back her violet hair. Behind her, countless embers rained down like a meteor shower.

Zephet had all but vaporized the castle's upper levels, so there was precious little usable evidence to be found.

The Ironshine had burned away to nothing, and we took no prisoners. Nor could we find a single thread linking Zephet to the high-grade demons.

The lower floors, however, turned up quite a haul — costly weapons and armor wrought by enchantment-type Awoken, low-grade mana cores used to fuel the floating castle, and the like.

And there was a ledger. A damning document — conclusive proof of regular dealings between Zargon and the demons.

"This one's yours, I take it."

I handed the recovered ledger over to Kalman. "This is what you were hunting for in the first floating castle, yes?"

Kalman reviewed its contents.

"······Proof of treachery."

Killing intent dripped from his voice.

"I'll deliver this to the Investigative Bureau. As for the trading house, I will see to its dissolution myself."

I offered up a prayer for Zargon's soul in advance. Knowing Kalman's temperament, precious little of that company would survive him.

The case had been wrapped up, but a private disquiet lingered.

Could it truly be coincidence that Mabel had produced 2nd-grade mana cores by a method so like the demons'?

It was only a hunch, but I resolved to keep a close watch on Mabel. She was meticulous to her bones — no telling what she might be cooking up behind our backs next.

I had just finished the cleanup and returned to the inn when—

"Iden."

My father called to me in his sternest register.

"I've just received the report. You fought demons in the floating castle?"

"···Yes."

"The enemy was the Demon Viscount Zephet, and the creature tried to self-destruct — came within a hair of wiping District 4 clean off the map, I'm told."

"······Yes."

I glanced at Thalia, standing behind my father. She pursed her lips and flashed me a signal.

'His Grace kept pressing me, so I had no choice.' That seemed to be the gist of it.

Cold sweat ran down my spine. I had a fine premonition of a scolding — much like the day he reduced Mabel and Kris to silence so total that neither dared peep.

"I made Ophelia a promise. That no matter what came, I would raise you in safety."

My head came up in surprise. Not once had Father ever spoken of my late mother.

"House Rein, your mother's family, lost two ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠heirs on the northern front. Both were Ophelia's own older brothers. Both were talents worthy of carrying the house's future."

And just like that, my mother's letter surfaced in my mind.

Back then I'd read those words as nothing more than a mother's wish for her child's wellbeing. But if she had written them after burying two brothers, they meant something else entirely.

"I fought the demons to leave you a safe world to inherit. To fell the Demon King and put an end to that long war — that was the goal. But the demons have begun to rear their heads far beyond ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the northern front, and my son has learned to stand without leaning on his parents."

I had no idea what answer he wanted. All I could tell for certain was how deeply he mourned the way things had turned out.

Master,

what is one to say to a parent who grieves that he could not love his child enough? Is the answer written anywhere in the scriptures?

"I judged it my duty as your son."

I bowed my head to my father.

"But I should have sought your counsel first. I'm certain you would have given me a far better answer."

His expression thawed, just a little.

"I'm not here to reproach you. I have no right to. And expecting the son of a man like me to sit meekly at home — that would be the true joke."

He reached out and ruffled my hair.

"But Kalman — never again."

"···I beg your pardon?"

"What part of that sorry excuse for a swordsman did you trust with your life? 'Sure-Hit Sword,' of all things — with strength that feeble, what good does a sure hit do you? Next time anything of the sort happens, you call for me. That is not a request. Am I understood?"

Hold on, Father······ you're the one who said, not long ago, that the Sword Duke's character might be vile but his skill was beyond reproach?

Don't tell me he's sulking because I didn't call him.

"···Yes. I'll do that."

"Good. That settles it."

He smiled, well satisfied.

"While you were off wandering, I took the measure of the capital. Public feeling toward our house has rotted considerably in the meantime."

"Yes. I heard it traces back to the famine a while ago. Since the culprit was never found, they suspect us."

"The famine is a pretext, nothing more. Since when did those people ever lose sleep over hunger in our lands? They've simply seized a convenient stick to beat me with — determined to take me down one way or another."

"But······ Father, you're the 'Shield of the North.' Why would anyone want you gone? Isn't it because the North holds firm that the people of the Center can stretch out their legs and sleep soundly?"

"Does that strike you as unjust?"

A thin smile curled at the corners of my father's mouth.

"It's simple. The princes have come of age, have they not? A throne takes vast resources to claim, and if they replace me with one of their own creatures, the high-grade materials pouring out of the North become theirs alone."

"That is truly······ an idiotic plan."

How stupid must a man be, to imagine my father could be swapped out like a worn part?

To be fair, the princes no doubt kept Grand Masters of their own.

But a Grand Master was not just any Grand Master. Not every Everbright Realm was the same Everbright Realm.

"You'd be astonished how often the powerful hold idiotic ideas."

I couldn't help laughing along with him.

At first light I received Adras's report. He had evidently been run ragged on my errands; he looked a touch gaunt.

"I was in the midst of your assignment when I learned that Lord Zargon had been taken into custody."

Adras twiddled his mustache and snickered.

"Hm hm. I suppose I needn't grace him with 'Lord' any longer. A merchant he may be, but there are lines even a tradesman must not cross. However did he bring himself to strike a deal with demons?"

Adras clicked his tongue over and over. To my eye, a man who dealt with demons and a common swindler were six of one and half a dozen of the other.

"You asked me to trace the money, I believe? I pounded the cobblestones for a full day on your behalf."

He held out a single thin sheet of paper.

"The channels by which the funds bound for the demons were laundered. Whoever arranged it wracked their brains, I'll allow — but the workmanship was simply abysmal."

I ran down the entries he'd gathered. Nearly every item on the list was tangled up in illegal enterprise — the man had made free use of his own particular field of expertise, one had to admit.

"Kalman will be delighted."

I tucked the paper away inside my coat.

"And as for the mood of the people: with Zargon's arrest, several trading houses are already scurrying to reposition themselves. With your permission, I could open talks with one of them."

"I won't stop you — but any house with ties to the Imperial Family is struck from the list. Every last one."

"Excluding the Imperial Family narrows the field considerably, my lord. Are you quite certain?"

"Better that than the wrong entanglement. In exchange, start with whoever is on friendly terms with the Sword Duke."

"Understood, my lord."

Adras bowed crisply and departed. I lingered at an outdoor table, listlessly nibbling at tea and pastries.

Having poured out my Daoist arts like water the day before, I meant to hole up quietly at my lodgings today and do nothing but circulate my qi. Push myself any harder and my severed meridians might well rupture anew.

Then, all at once, a deep shadow fell across the table.

"Lord Iden."

I turned my head to find Srudal's mountainous frame looming behind me.

"There you are. You've been to the Academy, I hear?"

"Yes, my lord. A most instructive time."

"And the ecologists? How were they?"

"Well, the thing is······"

Srudal trailed off, visibly discomforted.

"I beg a thousand pardons, my lord, but I must ask your indulgence on a matter touching the Academy."

"Which is?"

I craned my neck straight back and looked up at Srudal's gleaming ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fangs.

"I originally went to consult them, wondering whether another ogre such as myself might exist. But the conversation ran long, and somewhere along the way, the Magma Dragon you keep, my lord, was mentioned."

Understandable. How could anyone hold their tongue about a Magma Dragon in front of a roomful of ecologists? It wasn't as if I'd sworn him to secrecy.

"And then?"

"And then··· they one and all declared they simply must see the Magma Dragon in the flesh, and followed me straight here."

"Scholars from the Academy came all this way?"

"Yes."

I drummed my fingers against the tabletop.

"How many?"

"A hundred — no··· nearer one hundred and fifty."

A hundred and fifty was well beyond the number of ecologists alive. Had every scholar squatting at the Academy simply come along?

"Where are they right now?"

"Gathered before the lodging. If it pleases you to grant permission, my lord, I would arrange an occasion for the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Empire's finest minds to meet your Magma Dragon."

I crossed my arms and gave the matter deep thought. This was a momentous event in a dragon's life.

"···Very well. Bring them here."

The decision was made. If a noble come of age must make a debut into high society, then a pet dragon's debut rightly belonged before the ecologists.

"My deepest thanks, my lord."

Before long the Academy's researchers came streaming into the inn's courtyard. Counted all together, there really were more than a hundred.

I had pictured scholars as venerable greybeards, but a fair number were young men and women in their twenties and thirties.

"We are honored to meet you, Lord Iden Esterji."

The scholars clutched the cuffs of their robes and bowed as one. Hundreds of sparkling eyes converged on a single point.

"P-pleased to meet you all."

I returned their greeting with a somewhat wooden face.

What was this? Why was my heart hammering so? Was this how a father felt on the day his daughter left home to be wed?

"Lord Iden, we thank you for indulging our shameless request."

An elderly scholar of keen, intelligent mien stepped forward. He appeared to be the elder who spoke for them.

"Not at all. I couldn't very well let a chance to further the advancement of learning slip by."

"An insight worth marveling at. The future of the Esterji domain shines bright indeed."

He stroked his beard and smiled like a benevolent grandfather.

"But tell me — where, might we ask, is the Magma Dragon?"

The scholars gazed up at me with naked expectation, writing implements already in hand — waiting to behold the legendary majesty of a 1st-grade monster.

"Step back a moment."

"Pardon?"

"You could get hurt. It's rather large."

The scholars shuffled backward in a hurry.

Right — these people hadn't come to coo over Ruby's adorable little self. They had traveled a long road in the name of scholarship.

Which meant I owed them the dragon's full, dignified true form, miniaturization spell released and all.

Once I confirmed they had put a safe distance between us, I dispelled the spell and hurled Ruby high above my head.

"KRAAAAARRR—!"

Kraaar? Since when did it stop going squeak?

THOOM.

A colossal metal talon slammed down into the courtyard. The ground shuddered and rippled, and the scholars toppled over in a heap like bowling pins.

Only belatedly did I realize that that gleaming rake was a single foot — for nothing else could explain five of those vicious appendages hanging side by side. I lifted my head in a daze and found a creature so vast that no amount of craning my neck could fit it all into my vision.

Hold on.

Is that really Ruby?

"···Ruby?"

"KRAAAAARRR—!"

Ruby roared.