***
The sun rose over the wide fields. The snow that had fallen in winter melted as it met the spring, and the rain that had fallen with the wind the previous night had ceased. The ground took on a deep brown color. The scent of earth spread thickly as sprouts raised their heads here and there.
There were dozens of round tents, called gers or yurts, on those fields, and as the livestock began to cry out, people came out one by one. While they were checking if any livestock had disappeared during the night, they felt sweat building up inside their layered coats.
Here in Dithmarschen, winter and spring had been one for a long time. However, the boundary was becoming clear recently. It had become a cycle where the flow of mana found stability.
The causes that had summoned disasters by wielding nature at will were subsiding. The people of the Bard tribe offered prayers while praising the mercy of God.
In the midst of that, a girl held a basin and headed toward a certain tent.
The girl was the daughter of the tribal chief. Except for the fact that her eyes were sharp like her father's, she was a girl no different from her nine-year-old peers. And the girl had been looking after a strange person recently.
‘He is still sleeping.’
That person was lying alone on a bed.
Even though sunlight entered as she opened the door and shone on his face, he was in a deep sleep without moving. The girl placed the basin down beside the bed and examined him.
“……”
His skin was white without a trace of blood, and his hair was black and loosely disheveled like a lion's mane. Usually, when living outdoors, the sunlight would burn the skin and create wrinkles, yet he looked like a young master who had been raised preciously somewhere.
But he was neither a young man nor a young master.
He was Ulrih, the Lord of Dithmarschen.
The adults of the Bard tribe called him by various names. Ulrih, Lord, Master, and Elder. The girl understood the first three titles, but she did not understand the title of Elder.
Why did they call a person younger than her father that?
The girl’s father told his daughter that he was a person who had lived for a very long time. The adults said that even when they were the same age as the girl, he had looked the same as he did now. It was hard to believe.
The girl was eight years old. She was at an age where she did not fully understand the fact that time made people old. Similarly, she did not fully understand the fact that a person who had lived longer than anyone else could have such a young appearance.
‘A strange person.’
Therefore, to the girl, he was a strange person.
And the strange person was in a deep sleep.
It was not just a deep sleep. It was not a matter of sleeping for just a day or two. It was a sleep so deep that after three days passed into a week, worries arose that the person called Elder might have fallen under a curse or a disease.
However, the adults of the tribe seemed to have little interest in how deeply the Elder slept. To the girl’s worried question, her father said:
“He will wake up when the time comes.”
He added:
“It is not the first time the Elder has slept deeply. When he truly slept deeply, he slept until the following winter.”
This, too, the girl could not understand.
But what could she do, since the adults said so?
Since the Elder had left for dreamland, the girl entered the sleeping quarters where the Elder slept every morning during prayer time to clean and wipe his face.
At first, she worried, ‘Will he wake up?’ but the Elder did not budge. The girl’s father was sensitive enough to wake up even at the sound of a wolf's footsteps inside the ger, but the Elder lay there without even making a sound of breathing, no matter what the girl did.
She even went as far as placing her hand under his nose.
After wiping his face, she always placed her index finger slightly under his nose. To check if he was breathing properly. Then, she would feel a faint, very faint breath, and each time, the girl would leave the sleeping quarters feeling relieved.
But today, this moment was different.
“Oh?”
When her finger touched his skin, he opened his eyes.
“Huh?”
The gazes of the two met. As the Elder’s black pupils looked up at the girl, she froze with her index finger still placed under his nose. While staring down at him, her lips began to tremble.
‘Did I wake him up? Did he wake up because of me?’
Suddenly, worry boiled up. She had only done it because she was worried about the Elder, and she had no other intention. She opened her mouth to make an excuse, but the words did not come out. She was afraid she might hear a scolding.
“I am thirsty.”
As the girl’s expression began to turn into a sob, he spoke.
“I, I will bring it right away!”
Like a person who had discovered light at the end of a long, long cave, the girl quickly turned her back and ran out of the ger. A cry of “Daaaaddyyyy—” followed.
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‘The day is warm.’
Immediately after the girl left, Ulrih thought.
He lay still on the bed and looked up at the ceiling.
It was not the color or shape he always saw. His sleeping quarters were built with gray stone, but what he saw now was yellow fabric.
‘Why?’
He blinked a couple of times.
Then, his memory told him that this was not the Lord’s manor, but the residence of a certain tribe. It was inside a round ger tent that a tribe named Bard had set up for him. You are reading on novelping dot com, the official source.
A warm wind blew through the slightly open door of the ger.
‘Has winter passed?’
Because he had just woken up, the drowsiness remained, and his memories were tangled for a moment. He could not recall the dream he had dreamed, but his heart was uplifted. It seemed he had dreamed a rather pleasant dream.
He raised his hand and covered his face.
‘It is fine. It is fine.’
He had fallen asleep toward the end of winter.
After finishing a monster hunt, he had stopped by the Bard tribe to rest and suddenly felt boredom. When one lives for a long time, there are times like that. Moments when life feels too familiar, and that familiarity turns into boredom.
When that time came, he slept a deep sleep. Just as a bear enters hibernation to pass the winter when there is no food, he also fell into a deep sleep occasionally because his life was like that. He did not set a time limit. There were times when he slept for decades in a row.
For an ordinary person, it would be an act of throwing time onto the ground. But he was fine. Because he did not die, and he did not age. He possessed so much time that even the dragons asked him if he lived forever.
That was his way of escaping boredom.
“Have you woken up?”
While he was having such thoughts, the girl returned with two people.
“The day is very nice, Kureut.”
“Indeed. It is a full-blown spring.”
The tribal chief named Kureut, the girl’s father, smiled and gave a silent bow. In that appearance, Ulrih recalled the elder named Brasse. Brasse was Kureut’s father, and he had died last winter.
The last time he had seen Brasse was last summer. Because he had seen death hanging over the old man’s face, he had returned the item the man had entrusted to him in his youth. It was like an ominous prophecy, but the old man merely left one word: thank you.
Now the old man was gone, and his fourth son was here.
Traces of Brasse were in Kureut. The two were different beings, yet they were connected and stood before him. It was a sensation he had seen and felt too many times.
“……”
Ulrih raised his upper body and asked.
“How long did I sleep?”
“You slept for a little over a month.”
Kureut added, “It was quite short this time.”
“This time? Ah, right.”
Suddenly, a memory surfaced.
“I saw you before as well.”
“Do you remember? I stayed at the manor as a page.”
About thirty years ago—that is, before Kureut was even ten years old—there was a time when he stayed at the Lord’s manor as a page and received teachings from Ulrih.
If his memory was correct, at that time, he had slept in the summer and woken up the following winter. Since it was the first time he had slept that long while staying as the Lord of Dithmarschen, there had been quite a commotion.
“Compared to then, it is not even one-tenth.”
Kureut smiled.
“I suppose so. Compared to then.”
Ulrih also smiled along and nodded, then spoke while looking at the priest standing beside Kureut.
“Did you hear that, Roberta?”
Roberta scratched the back of her head awkwardly.
“Yes... it seems I worried for nothing.”
Glance. Her gaze turned toward Kureut.
The young tribal chief replied to that gaze with a smile, saying, “I was right, wasn't I?” It seemed there had been a struggle over the question of whether Ulrih would wake up on his own.
“It is my first time seeing someone who sleeps like the Lord.”
“It is something I hear often. Among other things.”
Receiving a teacup from the girl, Ulrih asked Roberta.
“Has anything happened during that time?”
“Nothing happened. Nothing that could be called an event.”
Ulrih felt a piercing gaze.
“Is that so?”
It was the interest she directed at him. She tried not to show it in her own way, but she could not deceive him. He had experienced this more than once or twice. When looking at a creature they cannot understand at all, people take on those eyes of an observer.
Roberta, the presiding priest of the Dithmarschen Duchy.
Nearly a year had passed since she was assigned. However, her intense curiosity about him seemed to remain the same. To her, he must have been a strange Lord, an existence that shattered common sense itself.
She must have checked the records and confirmed the fact that he had lived for 300 years. She must have heard several claims with her own ears that he had lived for even longer than the records. With her own eyes, she had seen him performing the Sacrament of Infancy and the sight of his wounds healing by swallowing back the blood he had shed.
It was impossible for her not to have interest.
“While the Lord was sleeping soundly, Sir Bernhard performed the duties very perfectly. To the point that the residents of the territory didn't even know the Lord was sleeping.” You are reading on novelping.com, the official source.
He nodded at her joke.
“He is doing well. That child always fulfilled his role.”
Ulrih took a sip of tea and continued speaking.
“However, the one I asked about was not that child, but you. Since Bern is a child I raised, I have no worries about what he does out of my sight. On the other hand, you? Roberta, have you been doing well as the presiding priest?”
She turned her gaze away.
“...You ask even though you know.”
“I thought there might be a little change, but it seems it didn't work out.”
Just as Roberta was interested in Ulrih but had no progress, Roberta was managing the diocese as the presiding priest but had no progress.
Upon her assignment, she had to travel all over Dithmarschen to restore the diocese that her predecessor had ruined. The diocese was not at a level where there was just a temporary administrative vacuum due to the predecessor’s disappearance.
In 16 years, the presiding priest had changed 13 times, and in the midst of that, the temple had even burned down. It meant that the relationship between the temple and the believers, which should have been built over generations, had vanished both privately and publicly.
Come to think of it, her cheeks had hollowed out quite a bit.
“If you need help, tell me right away.”
Roberta let out a short sigh.
It was a breath in which the weight of the karma built by her predecessors was felt.
“It is fine. I should take care of this much myself.”
Ulrih examined her while making a “hmmm” sound.
“It seems you didn't seek me out because of the diocese.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“For what reason did you seek me out? Did Bern, that child, ask you?”
“Yes. Sir Bernhard asked me to look after the Lord. Because guests have arrived.”
“Tell me in detail.”
Roberta did not answer immediately and looked at Kureut. Sensing the signal to leave the room, he took the girl and left the sleeping quarters, after which she began to speak.
“Do you know about dragons?”
Dragons?
His head tilted at the unexpected term.
“Dragons as a race with scales and wings. Not magical beasts.”
“Of course I know. It would be strange not to know.”
“Have you actually seen one?”
“Naturally. I didn't just encounter them through books or words. I have seen many living existences. They possess very long lifespans. Therefore, if I were to list the people I have formed bonds with in chronological order, they would be far at the top.”
And he continued speaking. Seeing that her curiosity had suddenly turned toward the race of dragons, it seemed a unique guest had arrived and asked.
“Yes, that’s right.”
She nodded her head a couple of times.
“There is a person looking for a dragon. They say they need a guide.”
“The reason? Why do they say they are looking for a dragon now?”
To the answer that they did not reveal it, he furrowed his brows.
“I cannot understand. Of all the many things, a dragon.”
“Is there some problem?”
“Well.”
Ulrih pondered for a moment and then asked.
“Roberta, how much do you know about dragons?”
“About dragons... I don't know much. As the Lord knows, it is very rare for dragons to appear in the world in their true forms.”
That they were one of the races created by the gods when they resided in the heavens, and that after the gods of the heavens left, dragons occasionally intervened in the world in human form—Roberta answered that the contents in the scriptures were everything.
Ulrih muttered, “I suppose so.”
“Dragons have rarely revealed themselves in history. The last time they left a name was also in the previous era. In the era you are living in, a dragon is merely a mysterious race that appears and disappears in human form in fairy tales. It is natural to think of them that way.”
He paused between every word and sentence.
As Ulrih began the story, he felt memories of the distant past surging up, to the point that he didn't even realize he had forgotten them.
It was truly an ancient memory. It was a story that even the dwarves and elves could not continue as a recorded history and was severed. Now, he would be the only person with experience or who remembered the history.
He could not know how similar the memories diluted by oblivion were to the facts of the past. He had to continue cautiously, word by word.
Because the words he spat out would be considered facts of the past, and because they would be considered truths that no one else could refute, he could not help but be cautious in testifying about ancient events that others did not know.
“It is a pity. The flow of history is not a line that continues long. Too much history has disappeared. Dwarves and elves established their own eras and left long, deep footprints, and because their numbers are large even today, they are remembered, but dragons are being forgotten without even having their own era.”
Ulrih wrapped both hands around the teacup and looked down at it.
“There must be few people left who know the fact that the first intelligent being was a dragon. That a certain four-legged lizard was gifted with a name along with intelligence, and that name was Ruobeideura. That he was a wise and affectionate dragon.”