Chapter 19
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: The Children of Luobeidela
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“Am I wrong?”
Duke Bailen did not answer.
He stood with a complex expression, facing the young man before him. He had the appearance of a young, handsome human male. His skin was fair, and his eyes and hair were as black as a moonless night.
The young man was his father. Duke Bailen had lived for over 600 years. And so, while he had reached the appearance of middle age, his father looked not even half his son's age.
With no resemblance in the color of their skin, eyes, or hair, nor even in their features, no one would ever suspect they were related by blood. And yet, the two were father and son.
Because the young man was not human. He was a dragon named Narbakayani, and his current form was nothing more than a guise he had crafted.
“Bailen, you came seeking compensation from me, didn't you? To demand a price for my leaving your mother, the human woman, Penelope.”
There was no warmth in the father's face as he looked at his son. Nor was it cold. To Narbakayani, Bailen seemed no different from an object placed before him.
“I—”
“Bailen came to see you, Kayani.”
Ulrich interrupted Bailen to answer.
“The reason is that you are his father.”
“Not to ask for help with his shedding?”
“Indeed. Though I can't say that's entirely untrue.”
“Is that really the reason?”
Narbakayani tilted his head. It wasn't a sarcastic tone. It was a tone of pure inquiry, as if asking how that could possibly be a reason.
“You haven't changed. Not at all.”
“So it seems. I believed I had come to understand humans, but now I see I was wrong. It seems acting, no matter how good, was still just acting.”
“Acting?”
Bailen asked in a tone of disbelief.
“Are you saying that what you did to my mother was an act?”
Narbakayani answered, “Yes,” without a hint of hesitation.
“To be precise, I should say I was ‘mimicking.’ I spent a long time with Ulrich, observed how he treated other humans, and did nothing more than imitate that.”
“Wh-what...”
“From the beginning, I had no plans to stay with that human woman, Penelope, for long. Did he not tell you? Dragons do not form groups.”
Family and descendants are concepts that only humans value; to them, dragons, they mean nothing, Narbakayani added. Unless there were no other choice, dragons do not form groups.
“Then... then, what was your plan? Why did you choose my mother, and why was I born? If your actions were an act, a plan, there must have been a reason, right?”
“I wanted to understand humans.”
Narbakayani turned his back and sat in a chair placed before a round table. He then gestured for the humans to sit. Though no one accepted his offer, he tilted a teapot over an empty cup.
The aroma of the tea in the cup drifted on a gentle breeze to the humans. Roberta furrowed her brow slightly without thinking. It was pine pollen tea.
Not expecting to smell such a strong aroma in this place, at this moment, she felt a sense of absurdity before suddenly looking at Ulrich. Her intuition whispered that the actions of the dragon in human guise resembled someone.
“Ulrich, Ulrich of Dithmarschen.”
Narbakayani said, looking at him.
“You're using quite a long name this time. I'd think you'd be getting tired of it by now. What name will you use next?”
Ulrich did not answer. As if he hadn't expected an answer, Narbakayani gently stirred his teacup and continued speaking.
“When that human who neither ages nor dies used the name Oscar, he took me from my nest, made me his squire, and we roamed the world. It was then that I felt the need to understand humans.”
When the dragon in human guise roamed the world for the first time in his life, the era already belonged to humans, it was said. In the age of humans, dragons were nothing more than fierce beasts, so even if a dragon revealed its true form, humans would only be startled for a moment before treating it as prey.
How could humans, with their tiny bodies crawling on the ground, catch dragons that frolicked in the sky? How had the dwarves and elves been defeated by humans and had their era stolen away?
Narbakayani wanted to know this, so he sought to understand humans. He decided to experience their life as a human.
“Meeting Penelope, that bold human woman, was a coincidence.”
He took a sip of tea and continued.
“I tried to understand humans through her. Compared to the years Oscar and I have lived, it was but a fleeting moment, and though I ultimately failed... it was a decent experience in its own way.”
The reason he left a descendant was his own form of compensation. He judged there was nothing more to gain by staying by Penelope's side, and just before leaving, he decided to grant one of her wishes.
Wish. At that word, Bailen's shoulders trembled. Because his very existence revealed his mother's choice. And also, the choice she gave up by choosing him.
“In my memory, Penelope has no reason to look for me. If she had felt enough to leave word for you to find me, she would have chosen me in the first place, not you. Asked me to stay, that is. That's why when you said you came, I thought the last words were an excuse, and the shedding was the real reason.”
Dragons can change their form into that of other races. What happens if they produce offspring in the form of another race? Usually, they are born with the appearance of that changed race and remain so until death.
However, some lose their previous form. This process is like shedding a skin, so it is called shedding. A half-blood who undergoes this shedding takes on a form closer to that of a dragon.
Narbakayani asked again if that was what he wanted.
“Bailen, is there truly no other reason?”
“...To say there isn't would be an obvious lie. How could there not be?”
Bailen let out a hollow, low laugh. The honorifics disappeared from his speech.
“But... it's also true that I sought you out because you are my father, and to deliver my mother's last words. To the point that it's hard to say which reason came first.”
He took out a silk-wrapped letter from his coat. It must be the letter his mother left. Narbakayani glanced at the letter for a moment as it was taken out, but that was all.
“I see. But the order doesn't matter. In the end, the moment you arrived before me, you've accomplished all your goals, haven't you? You've met your father, you can deliver your mother's last words, and as for the shedding, I can make it happen for you.”
Bailen tilted his head back with a deep sigh. The sky came into view. The blizzards of the ice peninsula had been so fierce, yet the sky of the garden crafted by the dragon was clear, without a single cloud.
The journey was now nearing its end. Meeting his father, seeing his mother, achieving the shedding—all of it could be accomplished right now with just a word or two.
“So this is what a dragon is.”
But what came out of his mouth was a long breath, close to a sigh of lament.
A void, devoid of any sense of accomplishment, settled upon him.
“Laurent, there's something I'd like to ask.”
“Speak.”
“What happens if I undergo the shedding?”
He wasn't asking because he truly didn't know the facts about the shedding.
“It differs for each individual. If you're lucky, you become a full dragon.”
“...Does that mean I'll become a being like my father?”
“There's a high probability.”
“And if I'm not lucky?”
That too depends on the individual, Ulrich answered.
“You just don't become a dragon, but the ambiguous problem of being caught between human and dragon is resolved. You have things you're hoping for, right? You can assume most of them will be fulfilled. However, the problems will be the same.”
*Tap, tap.* He tapped his temple with his index finger.
Bailen nodded as if he had expected as much.
“In the end, you were right, Laurent. I had hoped that coming here would solve all my problems, but not a single one will be completely resolved. I understand now why you tried to stop me from this journey.”
“You seem greatly disappointed.”
“How could I not be?”
After a moment of silence, Ulrich spoke.
“Not necessarily. You might be wrong.”
*What do you mean?* Bailen asked with his eyes.
“Didn't I tell you? It's a matter of possibility. After the shedding, you could become a dragon. And, unlike Kayani, you might still be able to understand us. It's the same even if you don't become a dragon.”
It's not without precedent, Ulrich added.
“If you become such a being, why not try doing what I did?”
He was talking about roaming the world with a dragon under the name Oscar. Bailen's eyes lit up at the thought, but he soon dismissed it.
“What would that change?”
“What was the result of my actions?”
“...”
“I didn't travel with Kayani to change him. I simply had to take him as a squire against my will. As a result, you came to exist in this world. If I hadn't been with him, would you be here?”
Ulrich approached Bailen and placed a hand on his head.
“Nothing is eternal. In this world, nothing is unchanging.”
Not all dragons avoided forming groups. The dragon progenitor, Luobeidela, and a few other dragons knew how to understand people.
Their numbers were too few to change the fate of their race, but changing a single dragon might be possible, Ulrich said.
“But... what if I become unable to understand you?”
“This is but your first time. For Banares, it was four.”
Bailen trembled.
“Or, you could give up on the shedding and just try to hold on. Fortunately, you'll have plenty of time. Isn't it worth a try? Rather than succumbing to impulse out of boredom over the ages, you could take on an endless challenge. I wouldn't mind teaching you, until you grow tired of it, or until your time runs out.”
Laurent smiled, stroking Bailen's head as if remembering a child he had cared for. The appearances of the two made it seem as if their roles were reversed, but none of the humans standing there perceived it that way.
“If that child comes to understand you, if that truly happens, then our journey will have been truly worthwhile.”
Ulrich spoke in a quiet, gentle voice.
“And when that time comes, let me know. I have more time than the two of you, so I will wait forever. Descendant of Banares.”
Bailen's eyes reddened, and soon, tears streamed down his face.
“Yes, I will, Laurent.”
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Duke Bailen, grandson of the great king Banares, decided to awaken the blood of his father.
He told Ulrich and Roberta that after completing his shedding, he would travel the world with Narbakayani. His remaining vassals decided to follow him as well.
Narbakayani welcomed his half-blood son's decision. He hoped he might learn from his half-blood son the feelings he had failed to understand in pure humans.
*'Can he really succeed?'*
Roberta wondered.
She wanted Bailen to achieve his goal, but wanting something and it being possible were two different things. Hadn't Ulrich told her? Even the dragon progenitor couldn't save his own race. Of course, Bailen was trying to change a single dragon, not an entire race.
On top of that, it was uncertain whether he could even complete the shedding safely. He might not become a full dragon, and he could lose his humanity.
*'No. He can do it. I have to believe that.'*
She chided herself to stop thinking such foolish thoughts and shook her head. Bailen is a strong person. He would be able to overcome any trial that came his way.
But she would not be there to see the result. Because she was a human, with no other blood mixed in, by the time Bailen achieved his goal, she would have turned to dust.
Such was the life of a human, unable even to wait. The only thing she could do was pray in the name of Ganymea. Every day, she prayed for those she had formed connections with in her short life, and now Duke Bailen and his vassals were added to that list.
Not devout, but with a sincere heart, she offered a prayer to Ganymea, who had left the heavens. She also prayed to Hestio, hoping he would return and lead humanity once more.
*'Mother Ganymea, please watch over the humans your son has nurtured.'*
Roberta finished her prayer and stood up.
It was dawn, with the first signs of sunrise appearing.
Eight humans departed, and after a fortnight, two returned, riding giants. Roberta, along with Ulrich, returned to the city of Freiche with the help of the giants.
And so, the journey to the ice peninsula with the visitors from the Kingdom of Kabonihar came to an end.