Aerthemil part II
Part 3
The next day, they used the secret path known from the dragonkin woman to return to the upper route.
When they reached the spot where she was, Zal was stunned by the surroundings.
The area was covered in blood stains and signs of battle as if it had been a battlefield.
Blood smeared everywhere—on trees, grass, and rocks.
Several trees were knocked down, and there were craters and claw marks scattered around.
Yet, the dragonkin woman was still sitting by the stream, her white dress spotlessly clean as if nothing had happened.
Zal looked around at the condition of the area without noticing her outfit and quickly approached her with concern.
“Sister…
Are you alright?”
“Huh?
Why do you ask?”
“All these signs of a battle…”
“Oh?
Did I forget to clean up?
I was wondering why the smell of blood hadn’t faded yet.
Ah, well…
Could you please wait on the bridge for a moment?”
Embarrassed, the woman told the two to wait as she began to cast a spell.
Green energy flowed from her hands and seeped into the ground below.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake slightly as if the surrounding flora was being invigorated.
The signs of battle gradually faded with the movements of the plants around them.
Blood stains were absorbed by the grass, craters reformed and covered with lush greenery, and fallen trees stood up straight again.
The area had transformed back into a beautiful garden as if nothing had ever happened.
Zal looked around in awe, his eyes wide with amazement.
Even Sandro showed a hint of surprise on her face.
“Is this druid magic…?
Strange that an ice dragon would learn earth magic, which is fundamentally opposite to their nature…”
“I have a fondness for nature, especially the green of the plants.
It’s refreshing.
Even though I can’t see it now, just the scent helps calm my mind.”
Seeing her cheerful and relaxed demeanor made Zal feel inexplicably sad.
He held back his feelings and approached her, offering her a package of food.
“This is food from the city.
I thought you might like to try some, so I brought it for you.”
“Really!?
For me!
Are you sure?
Thank you so much!
Can I eat it right now?”
Her reaction was overtly joyful.
She seemed to hesitate a little in an attempt to maintain manners, but before Zal could respond, she took the food package from his hand and sat down on a nearby rock to open it immediately.
Zal had brought meatballs, roast meat, and a bit of sausage.
Although the woman did not know what they were, just one deep breath of their aroma brought a delighted expression to her face, as if she had discovered a treasure.
She nodded in thanks to Zal and then began to eat eagerly.
Before long, she had finished everything.
She turned to Zal with a shy look and thanked him for the third time.
“Oops, sorry for the lack of manners.
I haven’t had such delicious food in a long time.”
“Have you never been to the city?
What do you usually eat?”
“I usually eat the meat of monsters or wild dragons that pass by, and some fruits I can find around here.
They actually taste not bad!
But since there are no spices, it always feels like something’s missing.”
Zal had anticipated this.
He had guessed that she must be leading a tough life and had deliberately bought the food for her.
“It feels a bit wrong to accept things for free…
Oh!
I know!
I have some ingredients I’ve collected from monsters stored up.
Please, take these as a return gift.”
Although Zal tried to refuse, she insisted so, he ended up accepting them.
After they talked and said their goodbyes, Zal and Sandro headed towards the dungeon area to build dungeons as planned.
That day, they managed to set up three more dungeons by late afternoon.
Zal asked Sandro to return a bit earlier than usual so he could stop by and talk to the woman again, to which Sandro agreed.
Every day, Zal would buy food for the Dragonkin woman and stop to chat with her both on his way to and from his duties.
The woman seemed genuinely happy to have someone to talk with.
After almost a week, Zal had placed over twenty dungeons in the lower region of Akatosh.
Sandro had moved on to the upper area, without any issues they managed to establish three dungeons in just one day.
Today, as usual, Zal stopped to talk with the woman, while Sandro headed back to the city earlier to check out (and eat at) a local food festival.
The two of them sat and talked closely.
Mostly, the woman shared stories of her days as an adventurer and her travels to various lands, while Zal listened intently.
But the more he got to know her, the less he could shake the idea of helping her leave this place.
Today, he finally decided to discuss this with her.
“So…
what’s your real name, anyway?”
The question made the woman fall silent for a moment, but eventually, she gave the same answer as before.
“Just call me ‘Aerthemil.'”
“Not that name.
I want to know your real name.”
“You must have heard about me, haven’t you?”
After a long silence, and since he had already broached the subject, Zal felt compelled to speak his mind.
“I don’t see how you are to blame at all.”
His straightforward words surprised the woman a bit, but she responded with a faint smile.
“I am to blame.
If it weren’t for me, none of this would have happened…”
“It was the demons’ scheme!
This could have happened to anyone.
That man was merely deceived, and you didn’t intend for any of this to happen!”
“Not intending doesn’t work as an excuse…
I was the reason Canon chose that path…
If I hadn’t used our lifespan difference as an excuse, he wouldn’t have been tempted to seek immortality and fall prey to the demons…”
“You were just trying to spare his feelings.
Normally, no one would bluntly dismiss another’s affections so cruelly.
What you did wasn’t wrong.”
“It is wrong…
because I…
didn’t tell Canon the whole truth…
That led him to believe there was still hope, and he chased that hope until he lost his way…
If I had told him the truth from the beginning…”
Her words left Zal perplexed, unsure what she meant.
“The truth?
What truth?”
The woman turned her face away, avoiding Zal’s gaze, and thought for a while with a melancholic expression.
Then she turned back to him with a soft voice filled with remorse.
“The truth is…
I don’t have those feelings for humans.
Even though I can feel affection, as a companion, humans are just a different kind of creature to me.
I could never view one romantically…”
Hearing her reasoning, Zal was initially confused, but after reflecting and seeing things from her perspective, he began to understand what she was trying to convey.
Because she currently had a human form, which was the same as when she met Canon.
For humans, this woman was just another human being, so developing feelings of love and affection was not strange.
What if she was not in a human form, but in her dragon form all the time?
Would a human male like Canon still think of her romantically?
Zal was sure that the answer would almost certainly be ‘no’.
They might communicate and be friends, but for a human to develop romantic feelings and want to marry a dragon, a high-level monster that looked like a reptile would be difficult (unless they had very peculiar tastes).
If humans could not develop romantic feelings for dragons that looked like dragons, the situation would likely be the same for dragons.
Even though the woman had the appearance of a human, her mind was still that of a dragon.
In her eyes, humans were still a different kind of creature, not dragons like her, so she could not develop romantic feelings for humans.
“Because I don’t want anyone to know this…
I don’t want others to think that I was an arrogant prejudiced dragonkin, therefore I didn’t tell Canon the real reason…
If I had told him the truth from the beginning and made him give up…
then Canon’s life, and the lives of many others, wouldn’t have been destroyed because of my selfishness…”
Zal thought that even if she had told Canon this, the outcome might not have been much different. Find the original chapter at g.com.
Canon might have tried to turn himself into a dragon instead.
But telling her this thought would not make her feel any better.
In fact, it might make her blame herself more for getting involved with him in the first place.
So, Zal did not voice this thought and instead looked for other ways to persuade her.
“But even if you continue to accept this punishment, it won’t change anything.
You’ve already been punished far beyond any crime you might have committed.”
“Hundreds of thousands of people died in that invasion.
Many innocent lives were destroyed because of me, so no amount of punishment will ever be enough…”
“And how does staying here imprisoned make up for anything!
It’s not like it brings back those who have died!”
“At least I’m acknowledging my guilt…
I’m protecting my homeland from monsters and wild dragons.
It’s not useless…”
“Actually, they sent you here to die!”
“At first…
it was hard, I nearly died several times.
But over time, I adapted, and now it’s no longer a problem.
Don’t worry about me.”
The woman gently patted Zal’s head while smiling at him.
It was a sincere smile, devoid of pretense, but he could sense the sadness hidden within it.
Seeing her like this, Zal found it even harder to give up.
“So…
do you really regret everything?”
“Huh?”
“Everything about exploring the world, meeting humans, encountering that man, and your friendship.
Do you regret all of that too?”
“About that…”
“The Dragonkin didn’t punish you just because you caused the arrival of a Doombringer.
They punished you because you associated with humans.
They don’t want Dragonkin to mingle with humans, so they used you as an example to prevent others from doing the same.
If you continue to accept this punishment, you are agreeing with them that Dragonkin shouldn’t interact with humans, and you are also acknowledging that every encounter that happened was a mistake.”
Zal’s words made the woman fall silent, reflecting on his words with a gloomy expression before she replied softly,
“It might…
really have been a mistake…”
“Then why are you friendly with us!?
Isn’t being friendly with humans bad, a mistake!?
If you really think it was wrong, shouldn’t you avoid humans like us!?”
Zal’s words hit the woman like a fierce wind, shaking her heart.
She did not know how to respond and remained silent without saying anything further.
Silence enveloped them for a while, with only the sound of the flowing river.
Zal felt slightly guilty, thinking he might have spoken too harshly, but he felt it was the only way to make her forgive herself.
“Do you really accept the way things are now?
Don’t you regret anything?”
The woman thought for a moment and then answered with her usual gentle smile,
“Actually, it’s not too bad.
Living peacefully amidst beautiful nature is a life I once dreamed of.
Although it’s not always peaceful here, haha.
But if there’s anything I still regret…”
She stood up and looked around, her eyes still tightly shut,
“It would probably be that I can’t see these beautiful natural scenes with my own eyes…
I’d really like to see the real, detailed images just one more time, not just forms…”
“Is that so…”
Since Zal could not find anything words to comfort her, he excused himself and walked away.
Alone, the woman pondered over his words, but ultimately her conclusions remained the same.
The next morning, when Sandro arrived at the stream, the woman was surprised to see her alone, and Sandro was also surprised to find her there by herself.
“Ah?
Are you here alone today?”
“Huh?
Hasn’t Zal arrived yet?
I left before him…”
“I haven’t seen him yet.”
“Damn…
where could that boy be dawdling…”
Sandro tried to contact Zal through a communication ring but received no response.
She then cast a spell to bring up a map to locate the bearer of the ring.
The woman was worried, thinking Zal might be upset with what she said and did not want to meet her again.
But as she was lost in thought, she heard Sandro’s exclamation,
“This is…”
The position on the map showed Zal in the upper part of the city of Akatosh, the place he should had avoided.
Sandro’s face changed immediately,
“That crazy kid…
What’s he doing there!?…”
“Ah!?
He’s in the upper city!?
Can’t be!
Or could it!?”
Without saying more, Sandro enveloped herself in mist and flew swiftly toward the city gates.
Meanwhile, the woman, still hesitant and confused about the situation, could only watch as Sandro disappeared into the distance.
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