Chapter 109
Chapter 109
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 109
Chapter Title: Alakishi's Daughter
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The red dragon, able to peer beyond the blizzard with its Eye of Authority, led us to a nearby cave, saying we should rest first.
The entrance was cleverly concealed by ancient conifers, making it perfect for hiding out for a while.
While the red dragon kindled a fire with its breath, I erected a barrier over the entrance, sealing it off from any potential enemies—or the cold.
“First, warm yourselves. The road ahead is long.”
The red dragon carefully laid Kasena down on the ground as it spoke.
Every motion was as gentle and delicate as a mother with her child—something I’d never seen in any of the other red dragons I’d encountered.
In the peaceful silence that felt like the first in ages, Rain plopped down beside Kasena and checked her condition.
The poison had already crept down to her ankles by now, so even Fride’s divinely inspired detoxification seemed a step below this red dragon’s power.
“Truly, thank you so much... Um, I’m Rain Ludwig.”
As I wrapped a bandage around the arm where the dead one’s fang had torn away a chunk of flesh and bowed deeply, the red dragon nodded.
“The name bestowed upon me by the creator of the great fire dragon Bell’Dakidun, Karen del, is Alakishi. You may call me that as well.”
Alakishi... If my knowledge was correct, that was ancient draconic for “mission” or “destiny.”
A name given to a divine dragon at birth, one they lived their entire life to fulfill—it felt profoundly meaningful for some reason.
So it was you, Alakishi.
Three hundred years ago during the war, I’d only seen four true red dragons. I’d heard one had gone north on a different mission, but that was it.
“You show a remarkable lack of fear toward this Alakishi. Do all humans these days act this way?”
“I’ve had plenty of dealings with your kind.”
Of course, I didn’t drop the formal speech. With Yoshuhar, Rista had told me from the moment we met to speak casually, which made it possible.
“I wouldn’t know the state of affairs in the south, but for one so young to have frequent dealings with my kin... things must be quite tumultuous there as well.”
Someone might wonder how I could drop my guard so quickly after just meeting, but dragons as a race were created to safeguard the world, making them inherently amicable toward humanity.
As long as we didn’t dabble in worthless pursuits like black magic, that is.
Having regained her body heat, I slowly stroked Pipi in front of the fire, then decided it was time to clear up that earlier doubt.
“Um, Alakishi? Do you happen to know where we are?”
I carefully licked my cracked lips with my tongue as I awaited an answer. Honestly, I’d already made my worst guess... I just hoped I was wrong.
“Hm. This is Harbadonia.”
But Alakishi uttered that name of terror, turning my guess into reality.
“North of the Barrier, the continent of snow, darkness, and madness.”
Just as I’d feared... I pressed a hand to my forehead with a deep sigh. In this world, “Barrier” was only ever used for two places.
The northern polar boundary, [Frost Ridge Wall].
The southern polar boundary, [Flame Myriad].
Beyond the barriers protecting the civilized world lay... the Abyssal Lands, forbidden to humans as domains of death no one could traverse.
And if this wasn’t sweltering heat but a howling frozen hell, there was only one such place.
If the red dragon legions had built the [Flame Myriad], then the white dragon legions had built the [Frost Ridge Wall]. Now, the ‘White Wolves’ guarded it...
How in the world had we come from the southeastern Blade Peninsula to this Harbadonia?
The space-time magic black mages borrowed from the Abyss was all short-range. Only gods could manage a long-distance transfer like this...
“Now it is I, Alakishi, who asks. Who exactly are you? How did you come here?”
Alakishi eyed Rain and Kasena alternately, clear suspicion in its gaze.
“I sensed the presence of gods and rushed here in haste, yet it was you I found.”
“The presence of gods?”
“The humans of this land are all beasts given form by the gods’ light... yet your souls carry the fragrance of the divine for some reason.”
Beasts given form by light...?
I had no clue what the first part meant, but the latter clicked immediately.
“Could it be because of this?”
I held up the Black Sun Lin pendant, which I kept secured around my neck with an iron chain. Alakishi’s brow twitched, its eyes widening in awe.
Determined to dispel any lingering doubt, I explained how I’d come to possess it and how we’d ended up here (even though I didn’t fully know myself)—the whole story from start to finish.
Alakishi listened intently, stroking its chin, then narrowed its eyes subtly.
“So Anridal was involved in the commotion south of the Barrier after all.”
“Anridal?”
“The true name of the Lord of Time. If a sealed evil god has used its power, that means something is stirring south of the Barrier as well...”
South of the Barrier too?
Which implied something was happening north of it as well... That question burned, but I had a more urgent priority.
“We need to get back to the Empire. As soon as possible. Is there any way?”
I wondered what Yoshuhar had been about to say regarding Tureina right before the incident.
And with this attack, I worried what had become of Lin’s body. If they could resummon the [Forgotten Kings], achieving some special goal with that flesh would be child’s play.
On a lesser note, we couldn’t keep dragging Kasena around this frozen wasteland.
Alakishi, who had been reverently caressing the Black Sun Lin, finally returned it and spoke.
“If it is true that the Black Sun has personally chosen and sent you here in such circumstances, then there must be meaning to it.”
“...!”
“Honoring the mission granted by the Fire Dragon, I, Alakishi, shall guide you to the Barrier.”
Things were working out this smoothly?
With a true dragon’s help, we’d reach the Barrier in less than a month. We could just fly there on its back.
Did it read the hopeful gleam in my eyes? Alakishi tilted its golden dragon face toward the fire and gave a short shake of its head.
“I understand your haste, but it will be a long journey.”
“Huh?”
“For one, this Alakishi cannot fly. As you saw earlier, my wings were damaged in the endless battles.”
Amid the despair of dashed hopes, I thought back. Come to think of it, its wings had looked grotesquely twisted...
A true dragon that couldn’t fly? Such a thing existed? A single visit to a divine dragon would’ve fixed it right up.
Unless it hadn’t met one even once during that ‘endless battle’ Alakishi mentioned.
“And the state of Harbadonia is not one to be taken lightly either.”
Because of all the dead swarming around?
I had a vague sense of Harbadonia’s infamy from various books, but if a true dragon was warning like this, it must be even worse...
It was right around then. A wriggling came from the basket on Alakishi’s back.
“I’ve been wondering since earlier, but... what is that?”
For a split second, it felt like Alakishi smiled at my question.
I doubted my eyes. Red dragons, being a battle race, rarely smiled.
That bewilderment piled onto fresh bewilderment with the answer.
“My daughter.”
Its daughter...?
And that moment also revealed why Alakishi had handled Kasena with such tenderness.
With the care of one handling the world’s most precious treasure, Alakishi gently lifted a massive egg from the basket with both hands.
An egg the size of my sitting height, red with three golden stripes etched across it.
“Th-this is...?”
Even Lin’s knowledge offered no clue, leaving me blinking in shock.
True dragons laid eggs?
I thought that was only for divine dragons and lesser dragons.
“You claim much familiarity with my kin, yet you know nothing of this, it seems.”
As Alakishi caressed the egg tenderly, it—and the life within—wriggled vigorously.
“True dragons lay new life as their lifespan nears its end. And they ensure that life carries on their mission.”
They travel alongside it until it reaches adulthood, teaching it the mission and guiding its character. All to ensure it can bear the burden in their stead.
“No need for such surprise. If you knew the years this Alakishi has spent in Harbadonia—over three thousand—you’d think differently.”
Three thousand? Three thousand years?
For real? No, dragons didn’t lie... but that meant it had lived here alone since the start of the Tersia calendar.
I couldn’t even fathom how it had endured this mad land for such an eon.
Alakishi seemed to share the thought, gently pressing its forehead to the egg and offering a sad smile.
“That is why I worry a little. Whether this child can endure the mission I, Alakishi, have had to bear...”
* * *
All night, Alakishi caressed the egg while chanting draconic words like a lullaby.
Only dragons could infuse raw power into language itself without catalysts, and Alakishi’s draconic resonated deeper into my soul than any holy psalm or hymn I’d ever heard. Like a campfire on a winter’s night.
Was it prenatal care? Consideration for us? Perhaps both.
As that fiery timbre echoed through the cave, color returned to Kasena’s face, and the accumulated fatigue of days washed over me, blurring my consciousness.
What roused my drowsy mind was a smell. A truly horrific one—like a dead one had ambushed us in that instant.
“Lin, Lin, Lin.”
Pipi, who knew when she’d woken, flew over from where she’d perched on Kasena’s unconscious head and nuzzled my cheek.
No time to celebrate the reunion—I traced the stench to its source.
“What is this?”
By the fire, some grotesque meat skewered on a spit was burning to a crisp.
And atop it, something bubbled and boiled in a rusted helmet of unknown origin or owner.
A murky sludge of guts, blood, and meat all mixed together... What the hell was this?
“You’re awake.”
Alakishi strode in from behind then, filling a crudely made earthen bowl with the stuff from who-knows-where and carrying it to Kasena.
“Uh, Alakishi? Mind if I ask what you’re doing right now?”
It tilted its head as if I’d asked something obvious.
“Humans are frail. They require nutrients. This is what I, Alakishi, hunted.”
It gently cradled Kasena’s body and was about to pour the liquid into her lips when Rain let out a shriek.
“W-wait! I’m! I’m hungrier, so could I eat first?”
Alakishi handed over the bowl as if to say, why not.
Up close, it was... what kind of oppressive aura was this? Cold sweat poured like rain.
Compared to Christa’s lethal cookies, this was in another league.
“Emergency, emergency, Lin emergency!”
Pipi, staring with me, flapped about frantically and tried to ignite herself—maybe mistaking it for an enemy.
“Don’t, Pipi! Alakishi prepared this for us since dawn... We have to gratefully... eat it...”
Mustering the courage I’d used against black mages, I squeezed my eyes shut and filled my mouth with the liquid.
But when I opened them, the horizon was tilted, my head spun, and Pipi was wailing that I’d died.
It was an enormous rudeness to someone acting in good faith, yet Alakishi didn’t seem embarrassed—more puzzled, brow furrowed.
“Don’t human children eat like this? So picky.”
“It’s not that I’m picky, it’s just... this is...”
“Truly a pitifully delicate race.”
Dragons subsisted on natural mana from maturity onward, so they naturally had no concept of cuisine... Even as hatchlings, they’d just tear into raw meat a few times.
“Then what to do? You need nutrients to recover.”
If you just bring the ingredients, I’ll cook... I started to say, but Alakishi peered outside and decided first.
“The blizzard has cleared, conveniently. Prepare to move, human boy. We must go to the village.”
Village? What village?
There couldn’t be human villages here... It didn’t mean a cursed beastkin village, did it?
“Of course, but is there a problem?”