Creation (1)
“It's time to let you go too... hic.”
Mother dabbed at her damp eyes with a handkerchief.
Her youngest child, now an adult heading off to the academy—she must have been worried sick.
“I just hope you'll be okay there. What if some nasty kids from bad families bully you...”
“I'll be fine, Mother. I'm an adult now, you know.”
I flexed one arm to show off my bicep. The bulging muscles from my past life were long gone, replaced by these scrawny, fragile limbs. Not exactly the most convincing display.
Still, adding up my ages from both lives, I was basically middle-aged already.
No way I'd let myself get pushed around by a bunch of fresh-faced academy kids.
“Of course, but still...”
Mother trailed off, her worries unassuaged.
“Don't worry, Mother. I'll keep an eye on him at the academy too.”
A healthy beauty with a ponytail cut in, her athletic build radiating confidence.
Adelina Bernier.
My sister in this reincarnated body.
“...Right. With you there, he'll be okay, won't he?”
She'd reached the pinnacle of Sword Expert upper class, one of the Empire's top talents. No one would dare mess with her.
And even setting that aside, who would tangle with the second son of a duke's family?
“Yes, so please don't worry.”
“...I understand, Albus.”
“Yes, Mother?”
“Even at the academy—or no matter who asks—you must never reveal your secret. Understood?”
My secret.
She probably meant the story about that world.
“Of course. I value my life, you know.”
“Sigh...”
Even my reassurance didn't ease her mind; Mother let out a soft sigh.
“Well, we should get going now.”
Adelina finished her goodbyes and climbed into the carriage first.
“I'll be off too. Stay healthy until I get back?”
I slipped inside after her.
Then, leaning out the window of the moving carriage, I waved until Mother was out of sight.
Parting from her felt more bittersweet than I expected—maybe because I'd never had a mother in my past life.
But every noble in the Empire, including the imperial family, was obligated to complete the academy's curriculum.
It was a policy set by the founding emperor, one even the royals couldn't dodge.
I didn't want to go either, but there was no choice.
Settling comfortably inside the carriage to catch some sleep, I heard it.
“It seems you're unhappy with parting from your dam.”
A mysterious voice echoed in my mind.
'Kartesia.'
The ancient dragon I'd somehow gotten entangled with—Kartesia—was reaching out via telepathy.
“If you wish, I could speak to the humans' emperor myself and keep you from the academy.”
Not just any dragon—an Ancient Dragon.
She could probably make the emperor dance to her tune without breaking a sweat.
Especially since she was the Empire's guardian dragon.
'N-no, it's fine. Thank you, but I can't shirk my noble duties.'
The Empire's guardian dragon asking the emperor to exempt a duke's second son from the academy? That'd raise eyebrows!
I wasn't advertising myself as that world's creator or anything!
“Hmm... Very well.”
Dragons sure had radical ways of thinking.
“You humans have always obsessed over noble status and honor since ancient times. I understand.”
No, I couldn't care less about that stuff.
A guy who'd lived in 21st-century Earth and reincarnated into a fantasy world wasn't gonna sweat honor and duty.
If I could, I'd skip the academy and chill at home.
“That said, you mustn't neglect managing that world.”
'O-of course! No way that'd happen!'
“Good. But if that academy delays the 'update' even slightly, I'll raze it myself. Remember that.”
'Yes! Got it!'
Click.
Only after her telepathy cut off did I finally relax.
“...What a mess.”
Of all things, getting tangled up with a dragon.
An Ancient Dragon, no less.
All because of that world.
After dying in my past life, I awoke as the second son of the Bernier Ducal family: Albus Bernier.
A newborn reincarnation.
Born into a duke's family, I never worried about food or shelter, and the household was so harmonious—Father the duke, Mother the duchess, and even my big sister—that life was smooth sailing.
At first.
This fantasy world's civilization was primitive compared to modern Earth.
Obviously, for a fantasy setting, but there was nothing to do for fun.
No games, no TV, no radio—not even basic entertainment.
The best they had were plays or books, but that junk wouldn't satisfy me.
So from childhood, I scrounged for ways to entertain myself.
Luckily, this body had magic talent, and my family's status got me help from the Mage Tower.
And above all, this world had Illusion Magic—a mystical art worlds apart from Earth's science.
With the Mage Tower's aid, I studied Illusion Magic and poured three years into it, birthing a basic virtual reality spell: Luddera.
It wasn't the high-quality world I'd dreamed of.
More like the clunky early VR games just emerging on past-life Earth.
But if I kept developing it, maybe I could shape it into exactly what I wanted.
That was before she showed up.
No matter that I'd invented the spell independently—it ran on the Mage Tower's mana orbs and mana stones.
So my world ended up linked to one of their mana storage rooms.
The storage room was like a server room back on Earth—a critical vault.
Once connected, the mages accessed my world.
And one of them...
She was polymorphed as a human mage, amusing herself at the tower: Kartesia.
She took an interest.
She wiped the mages' memories of the world-related stuff, ripped out the storage vault, and kidnapped me to her lair.
I still remember it vividly.
Waking up to a strange ceiling—that terrifying day.
“Human.”
As I sat up, her true form filled my vision: a massive, crimson dragon body.
“Dr-dragon?!”
I was so shocked I tumbled backward.
“I am Kartesia, master of this mountain range and guardian dragon of your human Empire.”
I'd never dreamed of getting dragon-napped.
“Human, the world you created... it pleases me.”
She brought her enormous head close.
“Develop it further. Add more so I can enjoy it.”
With that, she showered me with artifacts, elixirs, treasures galore.
And taught me Illusion Magic spells to evolve my virtual world, Luddera.
“In my thousands of years of draconic life, I've tried countless amusements to combat the boredom. Nothing satisfied me. But your magic... that world was different.”
I could feel her excitement.
“Even I enjoyed it. For the first time, I felt truly alive!”
Like an adventurer stumbling on an oasis in a barren desert.
“So, human. Create and improve that world. Make it worthy of my enjoyment. You have no choice.”
Thus, under the mad dragon's threats, I had no option but to keep building the world I'd made for my own fun.
Back then, I couldn't have imagined it.
How a virtual reality that even modern Earthlings confused with reality would hit this world's people.
How an illusory world born of magic would be no different from reality to them.
Or what ripples that virtual reality would unleash.