Linus's House (8)
Hindrastar was soaring through the open sky.
Here, there was no Demon King hounding her with constant interference, and no pair of deranged humans relentlessly hunting her down with murder in their eyes. Only Hindrastar, the sun, the clouds, and the faint, rounded outline of the horizon.
In this moment, Hindrastar was freedom itself.
"Hindrastar!"
That's right. My name is Hindrastar. A white dragon who left her nest to sow chaos.
"Stop right now! I'll skin you alive!"
She'd often heard that dragon hide fetched a fortune in the mortal world. The gleaming hide of a white dragon, in particular — they said a single scale could buy several buildings. If I peeled off my scales little by little and sold them, I'd be rich in no time.
"You're not stopping, are you?! You're dead today! You fucking piece of—!!"
"Dian. We agreed not to use language like that."
At the vicious cursing, Hindrastar finally realized that what she was hearing was not some inner voice — it was noise from outside. With a dragon's senses she pinpointed the sound as coming from above, and turned her head.
Something with spread wings was silhouetted against the sun. An eagle...?
But it was rather large for an eagle, and more importantly, eagles did not speak human language. Hindrastar tilted her head a little further and at last recognized it as a wyvern with its wings fully unfurled.
Why the hell was a wyvern here?
Dragons were the apex predators of all monsters. Ordinary beasts would not even dream of approaching one. A wyvern might be a carnivore, but compared to a dragon it was a hen standing before an owl. Hindrastar could hardly believe her own eyes, seeing one flying so boldly above her.
"Hindrastar! Last warning! Land right now!"
Then, out of nowhere, the wyvern shouted and rapidly dropped altitude. As it drew closer, Hindrastar could see two humans riding side by side on its back.
Those crazy bastards?! They rode a wyvern?!
It wasn't that wyverns couldn't be used as mounts. The Demon King's army had wyvern riders, selected from demonkin of exceptional strength and courage. But demonkin were naturally powerful, and they used saddles, reins, and proper riding gear besides...
Those two were riding a wyvern bareback with nothing at all!
"Hey, you little Disruptor Lizard bastard! Don't you dare move from there! I'm about to blow your fucking skull off!"
From the rapidly diving wyvern, Dian of the unkempt brown hair shouted down at her. Having already been thoroughly wrecked by those two in their previous encounters, Hindrastar knew all too well that this was no idle threat.
If they catch me here, I die...!
Without a second thought, Hindrastar unleashed a Dragon Roar.
It was a racial trait of dragons, a sonic cry that crushed lesser beings under overwhelming terror. The wyvern, taking a direct hit, panicked and banked hard, fleeing from Hindrastar in a frenzy.
"What the hell is this thing doing?! Turn around already!"
"Not that way — that way!"
Dian and Linus threatened it in a panic, but the wyvern would not budge. Watching it climb higher and recede into the distance, Hindrastar smiled in triumph.
Even those lunatics couldn't do anything more from here. They could barely breathe at this altitude — they weren't about to jump, were they? One wrong move and they'd smash into the ground so hard even the corpse wouldn't be found— Urgh?!
"Dian! Don't!"
Leaving Linus's scream behind him, Dian kicked off the wyvern's back and threw himself into the air.
"Today, one of us is going down for good!"
Dian howled, arms and legs flung wide, as he plummeted toward Hindrastar at terrifying speed.
"YOU'RE DEAD!!!!!!"
Just as Dian was about to land on Hindrastar's wing, a sudden gust of wind slammed into him and knocked him sideways. Perhaps it was the Goddess's mercy, taking pity on a powerless dragon hunted by vicious humans.
"Ah! I almost had her!!"
Dian reached toward Hindrastar as he fell helplessly away.
"Dian! I'm coming!!"
Seeing Dian falling below, Linus raised the club in his hand and shouted fiercely.
"Get down there!"
"KEEEEAAAK!"
Linus brought the club down on the wyvern's nape, and the beast screamed in pain.
"Go down! Or I'll snap your neck right here!"
Thwack-thwack—!
"Kieeek!"
"I said go down!!"
Whether it understood the words or simply could not endure the beating, the wyvern whipped around. For a monster still inside the Dragon Roar's area of effect, it was an unbelievable maneuver. Nothing short of a miracle.
"Down! Faster!"
At Linus's urging, the wyvern tucked its wings tight against its body and began a mad dive.
"Dian!"
Just before it would have slammed into the ground, the wyvern spread its wings and pulled up. It traced a violent U-curve and caught the falling Dian safely. Leaves exploded from the treetops as the wyvern's belly skimmed them.
"You fucking bitch! Next time I see you, you're dead for real! Got it?! Try me again if you wanna die! I'll actually kill you!!"
Dian screamed himself hoarse at the receding Hindrastar. Watching that, Hindrastar made up her mind.
I have to run. Just run far away and go into hiding. Humans have short lives. If I hide for a few months, maybe a year, they'll give up soon enough. If I meet those two again, I really might die.
Fortunately, the wyvern showed no sign of further pursuit, and Hindrastar was able to put distance between them at high speed.
"Hindrastar."
At last her heart felt light. Hindrastar beat her wings and flew as far as she could. She flew for a long time, until the sun set and the landscape around her turned barren. Then she gradually lowered her altitude and landed among the rocky mountains.
"Hey, Hindrastar."
She had returned to the nest she'd briefly left to sow chaos in the war. Having flapped so hard to shake off her pursuers, Hindrastar wanted nothing more than to crawl into her nest and sleep.
"Wake up."
She was hungry too, but sleep came first. Folding her wings, Hindrastar slowly entered the cave, laid her massive body on the floor, and fell asleep at once.
"I said wake up. Let's go."
Who the hell is that? I just fell asleep. If it's some demonkin come to hound me again, I'll burn them all to ash. I'm going to rest!
Furious, Hindrastar opened her eyes — and what filled her vision was a human with unkempt brown hair.
It was Dian.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
Screaming, Hindrastar kicked off the blanket and shot upright.
"Nooooo! What am I supposed to do if you follow me all the way to my nest!!"
"What the hell are you talking about, you idiot! Get up! Breakfast!"
Dian kicked the edge of the bed, and only then did Hindrastar seem to grasp the situation, blinking as she looked around.
"Ah... so it wasn't my nest..."
Hindrastar scratched her head, embarrassed.
The dining room already had a lavish breakfast spread laid out. Scrambled eggs, bacon, tomatoes, smoked salmon, butter croissants, strawberries and blueberries, baguettes, a cheese and ham platter, pies and tarts, pastries, roasted potatoes, toast, cinnamon rolls, pancakes with syrup, waffles, yogurt and honey, granola and milk, roasted vegetables, omelets, smoked ham, roast beef, avocado, walnuts and mixed nuts, jam, jelly, warm milk with ginger and honey, ham and cheese sandwiches, salmon and cream cheese sandwiches, assorted smoothies, apple pie, oranges, grapefruit — and still more besides.
At the sight of it, Hindrastar's eyes threatened to pop clean out of her head.
The moment she sat down she lunged for the food with her hands. I stopped her and pointed to the fork and knife.
"Use utensils. Don't look like some uncultured mercenary."
As I instructed Hindrastar, we started eating.
"Come to think of it... last year I was invited to an event in Tatanok Village."
Linus spoke up in the middle of the meal.
"You remember? The civilian village that couldn't evacuate in time and came under attack by the Demon King's army."
"Of course I remember. Back then I wanted to just leave, but you insisted we couldn't, and we nearly died. What event?"
"It commemorates the day you and Linus saved the village. They invite Linus every year."
Celine explained in his place.
"The invitation always comes in two copies, but since you never told us where you'd gone, we couldn't send yours."
"There's no need for me to go too. Linus going alone is plenty."
"That's not true, Dian. The villagers are waiting for you. Why don't you come to this year's event?"
At Celine's suggestion, I offered a somewhat awkward smile.
"Well... that kind of thing suits Linus. I'm not really..."
"Celine's right, Dian."
Linus cut in.
"Let's go together this year."
"What? No!"
"If you don't show up again this time, the villagers will be terribly disappointed."
"No they won't. The Hero of the Continent himself is paying a visit. They'll be fine if one attendant doesn't show."
"Haha. Attendant? That's not how the villagers see you. Anyway, I'll take it that you're coming with us. It's early next month."
I drew in a long breath through my teeth.
I'd wanted to live quietly, but at Linus's request I had become an academy professor. I'd at least wanted to keep a low profile outside the academy. But on the other hand, I was a little curious myself. How much those children we'd saved had grown. How far the village that had burned to the ground had been rebuilt and developed. I wanted to see whether it had been worth Linus and me risking our lives to save it.
"Fine, whatever. If I'm going with you, I guess I don't have a choice."
"The villagers will be happy. And about Tiraelen Forest..."
This time Linus brought up a different topic.
"The elves' forest that was burned away by the Demon King's army."
"What about it? Do we have to go to some tree-planting ceremony this time?"
"Something like that. I visit there every year too. Let's go together."