The Black Flame Dragon's Whisper
Mint instantly understood the scene unfolding before her eyes. This was a dream. The rooftop of a concrete building, not one made of wood or stone. The clothes she was wearing. And most decisively, her gender. Her body was male, clad in the school uniform she had worn during middle school. If that was the case, then the rooftop where her dream-self stood must be the one from the middle school she had attended.
So this was what they called a lucid dream. Why was she having this dream? Did she still have lingering attachments to her previous life? …She couldn’t exactly deny it. After all, she hadn’t died of natural causes and reincarnated—she had been murdered by some lunatic and forced into rebirth. Her mother and father had gone missing when she was young, so the only family she had left was her younger sister. She hoped her sister hadn’t been too shocked upon seeing her corpse. The girl had spent every day nitpicking, picking fights, and tormenting her older sibling, but deep down she had been endlessly kind and timid.
How much time had passed on Earth? From the scattered achievements and words of the previous Heroes she had learned about, it seemed the time axis between Earth and the world she had reincarnated into was different. The fact that the Alchemy Hero, who had known about monitors and keyboards, had been a person from four hundred years ago was proof enough.
Over ten years had passed since her reincarnation, and nearly ten years since she had regained her past-life memories. It was possible that not even a single day had passed since the day she died, and her sister might still be at university attending lectures, unaware of her body.
While lost in thought, her body moved against her will, walking toward the rooftop railing. Ah, so she could only observe—she had no control. In this dream, it seemed she could only watch. It was a fascinating experience. Judging by the clothes and location, this was a scene from the past… but when exactly?
From the context, it appeared to be showing one moment from her previous life’s memories in the form of a dream. It was probably around the time her parents had gone missing… before or after?
Her body reached the railing and plopped down, stretching one leg out while bending the other at the knee. Then she raised her right hand, wrapped in bandages, and swept back her rather long bangs with a deep sigh, as if longing for something.
What was this? What was she longing for? Ah, after her parents disappeared? So she was missing her parents… Wait a second. Bandages on her right hand…? …Oh no. This was her dark history phase! The chuunibyou period she had desperately tried to forget! Damn it! Wake up! She didn’t want to see any more of this! Every single thing she said during this time was abnormal!
At that moment, her mouth opened on its own.
“I see… So this world has become peaceful. I don’t remember the details… but I know that in my past life, I fought for peace. The Black Flame Dragon sealed in my right hand is whispering to me…”
Kraaaaaah!!!
Now she understood. This memory was probably from the time she first met “that person.”
“Kuh… hm…! I finally found you! My comrade from a past life..!”
As expected, a girl’s voice deliberately called out from behind her. Her past self, whom she couldn’t control, turned her head toward the voice. In her field of vision appeared a girl with a solemn expression, her school jacket draped over her shoulders and arms crossed. To top it off, she wore an eyepatch over one eye.
Ah. Correction. It wasn’t a solemn expression. It was the face of someone enduring pain. The girl had pinned her school jacket to her shirt with a safety pin so it would stay on her shoulder, but one of the pins had come undone and the needle was poking her body.
She hadn’t noticed it at the time, but now she could see it clearly. Even though it was a dream, it strangely maintained coherence(?). Had she really been like that?
“Who are you?”
“I… I am Estella Ver… Vermilion! That was my name in my past life! My current name is Seol Bakha!”
Seol Bakha. Her pitiful chuunibyou-era comrade and best friend. This was the first time they had met. Later, when that “past-life comrade” setting had passed and they had both graduated from their chuunibyou phase, she had asked what that had been about. Seol Bakha’s face had turned beet red as she gave a half-truth answer—that she had wanted to become friends after finding another chuunibyou comrade. Yes, half-truth. The way she avoided eye contact and fidgeted while answering made it obvious there was another reason. Besides, Seol Bakha was terrible at lying, so everything showed on her face. Thinking she had found something to tease her about, she had pressed the issue. Unfortunately, no answer came. More precisely, the answer was postponed.
—I-I’ll tell you after we graduate high school. Just wait quietly until then!
But what was even more unfortunate was that she would never learn the rest of the reason. After all, Seol Bakha had died in a traffic accident the day before their high school graduation ceremony.
Mint’s eyes opened. She had been dreaming—a truly horrifying dream. Just thinking about it made her want to kick the blanket in frustration. She had dreamed of her dark history phase. Even with a body overflowing with holy power, dreams were apparently beyond her control. Ugh, just thinking about it again felt like she would suffer internal injuries. The phrase “heart demon” wasn’t just fantasy—any ordinary person could fall into it. Especially someone like her, who had a dark history.
Kraaaaaah!! She remembered again! Meaningless and ineffective as it was, she shook her head and clutched her temples with both hands, praying for the memories to disappear.
“Huh?”
For some reason, she felt moisture on her face. The source was her eyes. She seemed to have been crying in her sleep. It was probably because, even though it was just a dream and she had been in her childhood form, she had seen the face of a friend she missed dearly.
Though it was an incredibly old memory when including the time since her reincarnation, the vivid dream had brought back clear recollections of the days she had spent with her best friend—memories she had tried to forget. The girl had carried quite a large emotional wound, though she never showed it. Mint wondered how she would be doing if she had also reincarnated.
“Alright, one for muscle, two for the best.”
“Ughhh…!”
“One.”
“Grrrrrgh…!”
“Two.”
“Hnnngggghhh…!”
Three months had passed since arriving in Minoris. Right now, she was training Noah, the self-proclaimed mage. Having realized that neither alchemy nor magic could give him the masculine body he desired, Noah had chosen the most realistic and certain method: exercise. Honestly, Noah was smart… but also an idiot. If he wanted a manly body, the standard approach was to start exercising. He had spent years researching how to make his body more masculine… If he had spent that time working out and building muscle instead, he would probably be benching 500 by now.
According to Skadi, this was a problem that occasionally—no, frequently—arose because of how mages thought. Mages had a tendency to try to solve everything with magic. The combination of magic engineering, alchemy, and magic was more than enough to make that possible. Even if it was inefficient, they considered it research, so they never stopped until they reached a result or conclusion. That tendency was created by the collaboration between what was called magic supremacy and the stubbornness of mages.
After hearing that explanation, she had made up her mind. Since her body had no mana, she could never become a mage—and she shouldn’t even try. She had casually asked Noah about how to become a mage once, and the answer she received had only strengthened that resolve. Apparently, you couldn’t become a mage without money.
“Now, let’s do just one more.”
“That… that’s the thirtieth time… already…!”
“Right, so let’s do thirty more.”
“Kwaaang!”
“What are you complaining about? I’m not even using Weight Magic Stage 1 or Gravity Magic.”
“Levi… Levia-nim is the weird one! How the hell can someone with no muscles… attach not just one but several to their body and move freely like that?!”
“It just works.”
“Grr!”
She wished she knew too. On the surface she looked human, but it felt like something else was inside. There was no way for her to find out with the means currently available to her.
“Put some more effort in. In exchange, I’ll buy you lunch and snacks today.”
“R… really?!”
“Yeah.”
For the record, Noah had no money. He had sold the materials and Manpowers he had and obtained a large sum of 90 gold (the market price of Manpowers had risen). He paid 30 gold to the Magic Tower he belonged to (his dues had been overdue for a year because he was focused on research), spent 55 gold on magic books, and gave the remaining 5 gold to her as payment for training him. She had been shocked when she saw the price of magic books. The books Noah bought weren’t multiple volumes. It was a single book. Yes, a single book costing 55 gold. And that was after bargaining down from 56 gold.
“M… muscle! Maximum effort!… Th… thirty! I… I did it!”
Oh, he actually did it. He had more grit than she expected. Good attitude, Noah! You have more than enough qualifications to become a real man!
“Well done! As a special reward, I’ll let you choose both the lunch and snack menus!”
“Hah! I want to try that! The new menu at the ice cream shop across from the adventurer party building!”
Oh! That ice cream was delicious! When did they release a new menu?
“They say it’s made with a very unique combination, so opinions are divided… but it’s supposed to be cool and sweet at the same time?”
“Oh. What’s it called?”
“Uh… Mi… Mint Choco?”
“…What did you say?”
“Mint Choco, or something like that.”
Why did that exist in this world? Of all things, that flavor whose opinions were so extremely divided.