An Unusual Reunion
"Master Aaron? You've been looking over your shoulder this whole time. Is there something behind us?"
"It might just be my imagination, but I keep sensing a strange gaze from behind. What about the rest of you?"
"I don't notice anything."
"Neither do I."
"Perhaps you're being a little too sensitive, Master Aaron?"
"Hmm, I suppose that could be it."
Rian nodded and turned his steps forward once more. Though he'd accepted his companions' verdict that it was a misunderstanding, his senses had been dead on.
From a full three kilometers away, Scáthach was watching him.
Her eyes picked him out with pinpoint accuracy using nothing but her bare sight—no observation tools of any kind. It was vision that proved dragons hadn't been called the strongest race for nothing.
That said, there was someone displeased that the eyes of a dragon were being devoted entirely to gawking at a distant man.
"Aargh! How utterly frustrating! Just how long do you intend to sit here staring at him?"
"B-but I have no idea what face to make, or what to even say to my master when I stand in front of him!"
"Did you not tell me you used to be on the closest of terms with that human? Simply act as you did then, and all is done."
"That was then, and this is now! And honestly, I'm scared to even speak to him……."
"I cannot for the life of me fathom what confidence that coward possessed when she first appeared before me……."
Two years ago.
After escaping the Magic Tower, Scáthach had scoured the vast skies in search of Rian.
But he had hidden himself away far too thoroughly, and her search had gone absolutely nowhere. No matter which region she visited, she came up empty, time after time. As the days stretched on, Scáthach gradually grew desperate.
It felt as though, if things went on like this, she would never find Rian again.
I won't allow that!
She gave up early on the idea of finding him on her own. She resolved that, if it meant seeing him again, she would spare no means whatsoever.
And so the place Scáthach arrived at was none other than the Elder Dragon's nest—the domain of Sephira, who was called the leader of all dragonkind.
"In all my years, this is a first. That a demon sword forged from my friend's corpse would come crawling to my nest in such a grotesque form."
Sephira was an elder dragon of such overwhelming size that she made an entire mountain her nest. Yet standing before her—being reduced to the level of an ant—Scáthach showed not a trace of intimidation. Sephira watched her with interest.
"I have a favor to ask."
"A favor? You, who have wounded my children countless times, come to me with a favor you wish to ask?"
The sheer audacity of Scáthach's sudden arrival and abrupt request made Sephira snort with laughter. A demon sword willing to borrow the hand of an enemy just because she needed help. It was a situation she could not have endured without laughing—but then, abruptly, her eyes flared wide.
"Do I look so easy to you!"
The elder dragon's fury shook the entire mountain. The ground split as though a volcano had erupted, trees toppled, and every animal living on the mountain began to flee. Some of the wild beasts fainted outright, crushed by the dragon's crushing presence.
Scáthach, taking that roar head-on, could hardly have come out unscathed—bright red blood streamed from her ears.
"Done venting?"
"Venting? Ha! Honestly!"
And yet Scáthach's unflinching gaze never wavered. Two years of relentless torture, not a single day missed, had forged her heart harder than mithril. The days when she would whine and moan over a single lightning strike were long gone.
"How amusing. To think the girl who thrashed about like a child screaming she'd kill every dragon could change so much in so short a time."
Eight years had passed, but to a dragon of the long-lived races, that was no more than the blink of an eye.
"I had my reasons."
"Hmm, judging by that sour expression of yours, it must be a rather bitter memory?"
Scáthach said nothing, only nodded. Just as nothing in this world is absolute, even her hardened heart had its clear weakness.
"Then I shall hear your story. Whether I grant your favor, I will decide after."
"Understood."
She had agreed, but the words did not come easily. Digging up the past brought pain with it by its very nature—no easy thing to do. Still, for the sake of walking toward a happy future, Scáthach began her story in a trembling voice.
The day she first met Rian. The happy days of traveling at his side. And her own sins, committed in her arrogance. Then, finally, everything she had endured after being cast away by him. Scáthach poured it all out without leaving a single thing behind, and by the end, she had collapsed where she sat.
It seemed she would need time to calm the violent trembling of her body.
"Yours is a fault beyond excuse. I thought your insolence was reserved for dragons alone—who would have imagined you'd been heaping troubles onto a human you actually held dear as well?"
"Yes, my past self was a true fool. If the me of those days appeared before me now, I'd beat her into a bloody pulp."
"Whew. Let us end the self-recrimination over an unreturnable past there and move on to business. What you wish to ask of me is to help you find your former master, yes?"
"That's right."
"It is no particularly difficult favor, I'll grant you—but you do understand we are not on the sort of terms where I simply grant requests?"
A demon sword that had wanted to slaughter dragons, and the elder dragon who led them. Far from granting favors, theirs was a relationship where a brawl on the spot would have surprised no one.
But Scáthach had abandoned her obsession with dragons.
"I'm begging you……!"
"What—?"
Her deepest wish was not to hunt dragons. It was to be with Rian, the one who had once known her. And so she could kneel before Sephira and press her forehead to the ground.
Sephira, never having expected Scáthach to go this far, found herself quite flustered.
"You are serious, then?"
"I have always been serious, since before I came here. Anything other than my master is worthless to me now."
"How many things have I lived long enough to see for the first time. To think the day would come when you bowed your head to me……"
"I sincerely apologize for everything I did to dragons in the past. If you demand I pay for my sins, I will do so."
In the past, Scáthach had refused to bend her will no matter what Rian said. Her obsession with him was what had made her willingly submit to a dragon.
"One human transforming the Dragon Demon Sword like this—I've lost count of how many times I've been astonished today alone."
"So will you help me?"
"No—an apology is not enough. Swear the Oathbound Covenant that you will never again bring harm to we dragons, for all eternity, and then I shall help you."
Ask any mage what the strongest magic is, and they will all speak the same word: rune magic. Rune magic was a form of ancient sorcery—outlandish spells that produced results beyond all common sense. For instance, a simple breeze cast through rune magic might arrive bearing rain and lightning. Wield it well, and you would be remembered as the undisputed strongest mage of your age.
But all records of rune magic had been completely erased, and in the present day, not a single user could be found.
Yet there existed one more magic that stood on equal footing with it: the Dragon Tongue, known to be usable only by dragons.
"Can you accept it?"
Contracts sealed through ordinary magic carried great power, but they were not entirely without ways of being forcibly undone. A contract sealed through the Dragon Tongue, however, lasted forever, and no method of release existed at all. In other words, it was nothing to be decided lightly.
Sephira believed that however desperate Scáthach might be, she would find it difficult to choose.
"Deal."
But Scáthach accepted Sephira's proposal without the slightest hesitation. It was proof that not a shred of attachment to dragon-hunting remained. She was so eager she practically demanded Sephira hand over the contract magic this instant, leaving the dragon who had set the condition at a loss for words.
"Have it your way, then."
From that day on, Scáthach shed the image of the dragon huntress entirely. She brought out the dragons under Sephira's command, directed the search operations herself—and threw herself into the work alongside them. Those efforts left such an impression on the dragons that she rose to become the second most respected among them, after Sephira herself.
"Where on earth did you leave that proud, dignified self of yours, to become such a coward!"
"Eeeek~!"
Sephira pinched and pulled at the cheek of Scáthach, who stood watching Rian from far away. The more she thought about it, the more absurd it seemed, and she yanked the cheek even harder.
"Stop acting like a girl with her first crush and go up to him face to face!"
"Whaa? But I can't figure out what to say that won't come off as awkward……."
"What does any of that matter? The only thing you need to worry about is pouring out your true feelings! Haven't the things you wanted to say when you reunited with him piled up like a mountain?"
"They have. I have to apologize with everything in me, and I absolutely have to tell him thank you. And if he'll allow it…… I want to ask whether he'd take me back."
"That's it exactly! Go and throw your whole self at him!"
Whenever she laid eyes on Rian, Scáthach grew shy and hesitant. Sephira resolved to make her the confident demon sword she once was—the woman who had stormed so boldly into her nest that first day.
"Empty out every last desire in your heart!"
"Is it really okay to…?"
"Is there any reason it wouldn't be?"
"Th-then I'll go!"
"Off with you, and good fortune!"
With Sephira's cheering behind her, Scáthach finally steeled herself. Squeezing out every drop of courage, she set off toward Rian.
Even if it goes wrong, I won't regret it.
Plenty of people claim they'd sacrifice anything for love, but in practice, hardly anyone ever did. In that sense, Sephira truly wished Scáthach—who had sacrificed so much for this reunion—every success.
Though a touch of self-interest as a lifelong member of the true-love devotees' club may have crept in as well.
"Fufufu!"
Hiding behind a tree, Sephira calmly settled in to savor the fateful meeting from the very first moment. From the instant Scáthach appeared before Rian, Sephira's heart had been pounding. What words would open this moving reunion, she wondered?
At the height of the tension, Scáthach finally opened her mouth.
"Master! Let's achieve Sword Unity with me!"
If one were to compare it to human terms, it was the equivalent of walking straight up to someone and saying, let's sleep together, right now. The aftereffect of having her confidence pumped up far too high: the entire introduction was catastrophically skipped.
I'm screwed…….