Chapter 55
Speaking of which, long ago—back when I was still part of a group—one of my fellow dragons once said:
'Any kind of dragon can become a Black Dragon if it lives for a thousand years.'
I thought it was just a fairy tale, but it turned out to be true after all... I thought vaguely.
Having just inherited the name, memories, and power of the Blue Dragon I used to be, I was still in a daze.
My memories were hazy, too, making me feel as though I were in a dream.
Yet even through the haze, I could feel immense power coursing through my body.
Hehe, amazing. Is the Black Dragon's energy really this immense?
A Black Dragon is an ancient species, a calamity-class monster that inherits the power of antiquity.
A dragon so different from all other dragonkind that it might as well be a separate species.
And I had become one...
A year passed.
I became a fully grown dragon.
The strength I felt as a juvenile was nothing compared to how powerful I was as an adult.
I could scatter most monsters with a single sweep of my tail.
My strength was overwhelming and absolute. That was why I needed no one else.
I had no trouble on my own, and I could manage everything by myself. I needed no one but me.
So I made my home in the deepest cave of the Sacred Peak of Kurodake and spent most of my time there.
I couldn't feel the rain inside the cave, and no foolhardy creature would come anywhere near a Black Dragon's lair.
For a thousand years, I spoke to no one and had no dealings with anyone.
I lived comfortably in the solitary kingdom I had created for myself.
Then my time came once more... and I was reborn as a small, frail Black Dragon.
When I raised my gaze, I saw the gigantic corpse of a Black Dragon lying there.
It looked just like a moss-covered ancient tree.
And so another thousand years began, just like the last...
When I was first born, my memories and power hadn't settled into place. I would probably spend some time in a drowsy haze.
I curled up deep inside the cave and wandered through the stillness of dreams.
How many weeks had passed? I awoke suddenly, sensing hostility.
―――Oh, what a dreadful situation. I'm surrounded.
In the pitch-black cave, several pairs of yellow eyes gleamed brightly. One pair was red.
This is bad...
I slowly got to my feet.
This cave has several exits in case of an unforeseen situation. But all the passages leading to them had been blocked.
I really do have terrible luck with Fenrirs...
A sigh rose from the depths of my heart.
At some point, the distribution of monsters across this continent came to be determined by three monsters at its center.
I was one of those three, a Black Dragon. Another was the Black Fenrir, a superior species of Fenrir.
This pack of Fenrirs surrounding me... There was no doubt the one among them with red eyes was a Black Fenrir. Its energy was completely different from the others'.
...This is bad.
They'd chosen to attack during the one-in-a-thousand-year period when I was weakened...
I acted before the Fenrirs could leap at me.
"Gwooooooooooo!"
I roared, and while the Fenrirs were momentarily stunned, I broke through their encirclement. I headed toward a point ninety degrees west of the Black Fenrir. Charging straight at it would be the worst possible choice, and there would probably be traps along the opposite diagonal, too.
To be precise, they had probably set traps in every direction, but I made for the spot that seemed the least heavily guarded.
Fenrirs clamped onto my shoulder, legs, and wings one after another, but I had no time to shake them off.
If I stopped even for a moment, they'd pull me down and refuse to let go until I was dead.
I ran and ran through the pitch-black cave, dragging several Fenrirs along with me.
Along the way, several Fenrirs tore pieces from my body by force, then tumbled away from the force of their bites and dropped out of the chase.
By the time I finally reached the cave's exit, I was covered in blood from head to tail.
Even so, I summoned my last reserves of strength and beat my wings.
Southwest.
I didn't know why I thought to go that way.
But when I wondered where I should head, the direction I needed to take appeared clearly to me, like a ray of light shining through darkness.
I continued beating my wings with the strength I had left. Far away. As far away as possible—to the distant southwest, where the Fenrirs couldn't find me.
One of my wings was badly torn, making it difficult to fly straight.
My legs, which had kept running while dragging the Fenrirs, had gone completely numb, and my tail had been torn off at the root.
I seemed to have lost too much blood. My consciousness was growing hazy.
Several times, I nearly lost consciousness. Each time, my flight altitude dropped, and the pain of crashing into tree branches brought me around again.
At last, my strength gave out, and I plunged straight down into the forest.
“...Ah, I was so close.”
Half-conscious, I thought vaguely, somewhere between dreaming and waking.
As I fell, I felt my body growing smaller. I was reverting to my juvenile form.
It seemed I could no longer even maintain my own body.
With pain as if my body were being torn apart, I landed heavily on the ground.
Warm rain poured down over my body.
There it is—rain again tonight. Whenever something bad happens, it always rains. Even at the very end...―――
My instincts as a monster did everything they could to keep me alive.
By reverting to my juvenile form, I reduced my activity to a minimum and focused on recovering, but my life energy was draining away faster than I could recover.
This is hopeless...
As my consciousness faded, I regretted what had happened.
I was too badly wounded.
...How frustrating. For a Black Dragon like me to meet my end at the hands of an enemy...
It was the most humiliating and shameful way for a monster to die.
I had become a Black Dragon, but it was no different from when I was a Blue Dragon.
In the end, I was going to die all alone―――...
Then I lost consciousness. I probably didn't have the strength left to stay awake.
When I next opened my eyes, a human was peering down at me.
A girl with crimson hair and golden eyes.
As I stared at her vaguely, she soothed me, saying, "It's all right," and made me drink something.
...What did she make me drink?
I tried to think with my muddled mind. The liquid spread throughout my body.
Then suddenly, excruciating pain seized me from head to toe.
―――Poison. I'd been given poison!
Recognizing the clear attack, I summoned my last strength and returned to my original size.
I wouldn't let someone kill a Black Dragon like me with a cowardly trick like poison!
With a roar, I sank my teeth into the girl's shoulder. Then into her side.
The girl offered no resistance as I ate her body.
How easy. Had she come to kill me, prepared to die herself...?
The moment I wondered, the girl suddenly began to laugh.
As if she found it utterly hilarious.
Then, in the next instant, the girl moved her hand slightly, and light overflowed―――my body was restored, without a single injury.
“...Huh?”
My nearly severed wing was whole again, my tail had regrown, and every wound on my body had vanished.
As I stared in confusion, unable to understand what had happened, the girl began explaining by using her own body as an example.
In other words... the girl slowly healed her own injuries.
Her shoulder and side were restored, and the wounds all over her body disappeared.
...Ah, she was a Saint. And she'd saved me.
I thought it was amazing.
I had been on the verge of death, and in just a little while, I would have lost everything.
My future, my emotions, and the knowledge and skills I'd accumulated over two thousand years.
It was truly amazing. This girl could overturn the one thing that comes to everyone equally—and that, once it arrives, no one can escape: death...
It was a shock so powerful it made my body tremble.
I wanted that power with all my heart.
I wanted to serve her.
I wanted to stay by her side.
I wanted to bask in the benefits of her power.
―――Then I would be free from “absolute death.”
I realized it clearly. I understood why, when I was on the verge of death after being attacked by the Fenrirs, I'd headed southwest.
Just before dying, I had desperately searched for a way to survive with every fiber of my being.
And she had been the only way to save me.
In the end, I was a Black Dragon. I would only consider serving someone stronger than myself.
And yet I had instantly wanted to serve this girl with all my heart... Just how immense was this Saint's power?
The girl, seemingly oblivious to my intentions, readily agreed to form a contract of servitude with me.
Her power was incredible, but what a careless girl. By allowing me to serve her, she was binding herself to me.
Wasn't it far too risky to do that without even making sure who I was?
Monsters appeared one after another that night.
They were lone monsters lured out by the scent of Fia's blood. They could never have been a threat to me.
Still, after we'd passed thirty of them, I started to feel a little exasperated.
...Isn't Fia a little too popular with monsters?
The last one I defeated was an A-rank monster.
It was supposed to live only in the Abyss. Just how far had Fia's scent traveled...?
And yet the Saint, who possessed power no one else could hope to wield, asked me anxiously:
"Could you keep it a secret that I'm a Saint?"
If Fia made it public that she was a Saint, the world would bow to her power. Why would she want to hide it...?
While I wondered, Fia began to tremble violently.
"...It seems I was killed in my previous life because I was a Saint. I was killed pretty horribly. ...I'm scared that if I say I'm a Saint, I'll get killed again."
Because I was connected to Fia, the scene she seemed to be imagining came to me along with her emotions.
It was a gruesome sight, one I couldn't imagine a young girl enduring.
...This is awful.
I answered sincerely.
"Of course I'll keep it secret that you're a Saint, Fia. It's my job to help you do what you want. But remember this: I'll protect you with everything I have."
Hearing that, Fia blushed as if embarrassed and looked away.
I'd lived alone my whole life, and I wasn't exactly good at handling people.
Even I couldn't help worrying about her.
...What is this Saint? She has no social skills at all. If she goes out into the world like this, won't people just take advantage of her?
After that, I watched over Fia from afar and accompanied her, but her words and actions always far surpassed even my worst expectations.
I was exasperated, yet sincerely impressed that no one had realized she was a Saint.
It was only possible because Fia's abilities were so exceptional.
Her abilities were so incredible that she went far beyond everyone's expectations, leaving no one able to arrive at the answer.
No one could even imagine that such an option existed.
Monsters' lives have almost nothing to do with human ones, but sometimes I hear rumors.
―――As far as I know, there has been only one person called the “Great Saint” in the past two thousand years.
An honorific used for only one person in two thousand years.
...I think Fia should understand what that means.
The other day, she turned all the water in a pond into healing potions, but to her, it probably felt like playing in a puddle.
As if it were a game, she recreated a high-quality healing potion from ancient times that no longer existed and devised a way to use it semi-permanently.
That red-haired, golden-eyed girl was surely the most valuable person in the world.
The problem was that no one—not even she herself—realized it.
"A transformation kit just for Zabiria!!"
The Saint, whose value was beyond measure, said that as she spent her time making something for me.
"Zabiria, you're so cute!"
She smiled brightly and patted my head.
Since Fia let me, I always slept snuggled up against her.
Fia was warm, so I slept well when I was close to her.
And sometimes, I dreamed of the past—the many things that had happened during the two thousand years I spent all alone.
"Hehe, Zabiria. You said you dreamed about the past... What past could you possibly have at age zero?"
Fia laughed as if she found it amusing. She looked at me and kept giggling happily.
...Then I suddenly understood.
Ah, I had been wrong about what I needed to protect.
My Blue Dragon companions hadn't mattered to me.
That's why their betrayal hadn't hurt me very much, and I'd been able to abandon the Blue Dragons so easily.
Meeting Fia had made me realize it. This feeling was completely different.
I could give my life without hesitation.
No matter what happened, I could never abandon Fia.
Because Fia accepted all of me.
She got angry for my sake, fought for me, and laughed with me.
Whenever I was with Fia, it was always fun, warm, and reassuring.
That was why remembering a past so utterly different... the long time I spent all alone... made me realize all over again just how worthless it had been.
And in turn, it made me realize the importance of my time with Fia. That it was irreplaceable.
So when the two Blue Dragons dived toward Fia, I was overcome with such fury that I felt the blood in my body might boil over.
◇◇◇
I immediately stepped in front of Fia and transformed into a Black Dragon.
A blast of wind kicked up a cloud of dust.
I roared at the approaching Blue Dragons.
The Blue Dragons stopped their descent and soared back into the sky.
But they didn't leave. They circled overhead.
They must have known the difference in our strength was obvious, and yet they couldn't bring themselves to leave.
―――Fia, there you go again.
I sighed, thinking of Fia, who attracted monsters one after another until it was exhausting.
Thinking back, Fia had been casting healing magic on her familiars since morning.
Fia was resistant to pain, so she probably hadn't noticed, but she must have been injured somewhere.
And the sweet scent of a Saint's blood must have been spreading from there.
Otherwise, there was no way to explain the abnormal rate at which monsters were appearing.
Everyone seemed to think the Black Dragon's arrival had disrupted the monsters' habitats in the forest, but that alone couldn't make vicious monsters appear one after another so close to the forest's entrance.
The cause was undoubtedly the scent of Saint blood Fia was spreading around.
The proof was that the Blue Dragons had targeted Fia alone when they attacked.
Even though they knew how great the difference in strength between us was, they still couldn't bring themselves to leave.
And yet Fia reached out, touched me, and patted me.
"Thank you for protecting me. And thank you for warding them off. Leave the rest to me and the knights."
She had taken my selfish wish not to fight the Blue Dragons seriously and was trying to figure out a way to handle things.
I found it so amusing that I couldn't help laughing softly.
What a funny, foolish, adorable Saint.
...Fia's true nature was always that of a Saint.
Even though she wanted to hide the fact that she was a Saint, she never hesitated to use her power when the knights' lives were at stake.
She devoted herself to protecting the knights' lives and forgot all about protecting herself.
Fia, the most valuable person in the world, would casually risk her life for knights who could easily be replaced.
And yet she was so incredibly weak and fragile that it was ridiculous.
―――That was why I would become the Dragon King.
To be her guardian.
To protect her from everything.