***
The Uar Ulrih called was a strange giant.
The giant Uar arrived before Ulrih with his group once the sun reached the middle of the sky. He was neither larger nor smaller than other giants, but his appearance was unique.
According to the scriptures, giants are the creations of the evil god Takna, hairy creatures that were abandoned by their creator and lost their wisdom. However, Uar had a small amount of body hair. Only his beard had grown long enough to be braided. He was bald, and from his neck to his shins, he only had a bit more hair than a human.
His attire was also different; while other giants roughly sewed and wore the hides of magical beasts, he wore neatly cut and meticulously sewn hides like armor. Also, Ulrih mentioned that he worshipped Dieus, the King of Heavens, rather than Takna.
“Ulrih! Were you looking for me!”
Walking from a distance, he shouted while spreading both arms upon seeing Ulrih standing in front of the tower. It was a loud voice that caused the snow clinging to the stone walls to fall.
Leaving his following group standing, he walked forward with purposeful strides alone. Because he was a giant, he took strides several times that of a human in one go, and each time, the ground let out a heavy groan.
Ulrih also spread both arms to welcome him. Because the difference in their physical size was too great, Uar had to bend his knees. At a glance, it looked like he was crushing bones rather than hugging.
“How long has it been? Has it been about 10 years?”
Uar, this strange giant, did not even have slurred speech. Since giants have low intelligence, their slurred speech is revealed in their words and actions, but Uar had no such appearance.
“It has been a little over 12 years.”
“It hasn't been long. Especially for you, it must be very short.”
“Well, not necessarily.”
The two released their hug. Knowing that he would have to look down for a long time even if he stood up, Uar did not straighten his knees and asked while meeting Ulrih’s eye level.
“I heard there have been many events during that time.”
Ulrih narrowed his eyes.
“You have sharp ears even while living in such a place. From whom did you hear the stories?”
“Hmph, I also have ears to hear. I know what I should know.”
Avoiding the interrogating gaze, Uar looked behind Ulrih. Roberta and the other companions were standing back a few steps, and Uar looked at them, showing a strange light in his eyes when he reached Roberta.
On the other hand, Roberta was quietly listening to the conversation between the two and flinched when her gaze met the giant’s. Because the giant was hiding his face with the skull of a magical beast, his bright yellow pupils flickered through the eye holes.
“What about that side? Did you take in a new woman?”
At the unexpected question, she asked back, “Pardon?”
“She is my priest. Alonso raised her.”
At the words of the priest and Alonso, his gaze shone even more terrifyingly and scanned her entire body like a snake.
“That insidious fellow?”
Uar muttered.
Roberta was certain that there was some kind of bond between the giant before her eyes and the man who was like a father to her. Since he must have stepped into the Ice Peninsula when Alonso was assigned as the presiding priest.
“Did he pass on the role? Human time is certainly short.”
“You could also see it as our time being excessively long.”
Answering that it might be so, Uar tossed out a joke.
“I wondered if you had taken in a new woman, but it’s unexpected.”
“It is not the kind of relationship you are thinking of.”
“Well, I have heard stories of you taking in and raising someone else’s child, but I have never heard of you taking in a woman. Do you intend to continue that way?”
“As long as I remain Ulrih of Dithmarschen.”
Uar scratched his bald head.
“Your stubbornness is the same as always.”
His appearance was that of a middle-aged man in human terms. However, the lifespan of giants was not specified in the scriptures, and since he looked like a human with gigantism, it could not be determined.
“The reason you called me must be because of Narbakayani, right?”
Ulrih nodded.
“Yes, I must meet that child. Guide me.”
“What are you going to do there? If it’s like last time, it’ll be difficult for me too.”
“This time will be different. Because it is that child’s problem, not mine.”
“Um? What does that mean?”
“It turns out that child had offspring.”
The hand scratching his head stopped at the word offspring.
“That fellow had offspring?”
Subsequently, he opened his eyes wide as if surprised and looked at Ulrih, then scanned the group listening to the story behind him.
“Looking at the state of these things, the partner must be human?”
Uar’s gaze passed Roberta and scanned each of the Duke’s vassals, then stopped at Duke Bailen. Bailen, unlike the vassals, met the giant’s gaze. As if that were laughable, Uar gave a smirk and stood up.
“A mixed-blood of human and dragon... it is a very, very rare thing. Is it not the first time since Ruobeideura, the progenitor of dragons, died?”
“It is not the first time. There were a few more in between.”
“Is that so? But it must be the first time for that fellow, right?”
The giant walked past Ulrih with wide strides and approached Duke Bailen. Knowing that there was no hostility, yet instinctively feeling a threat, the Duke’s vassals placed their hands on their waists. At that, the Duke pushed them back and stepped forward.
A brawny and tough hand grabbed Bailen’s head firmly. From Uar’s perspective, it would have been just lightly placing it, but because the hand was so large, it was like holding an egg.
“Narbakayani, to think that fellow would make a child.”
The giant muttered to himself while examining Bailen thoroughly. As he slightly moved the hand placed on the head, Bailen’s neck turned sharply and a scream erupted with a groan.
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
Even while saying so, his hand did not rest.
“Is it because he’s young? He doesn't even have scales. Is he really that fellow’s child?”
“It, it is true. Narbakayani is my father.” You are reading on g.com, the official source.
“Well, if you say so, I suppose it is.”
As he released his hand, Bailen staggered while clutching his neck. His face turned bright red and his breathing was heavy. At that sight, Uar apologized again, but Bailen only glared with an expression crumpled in pain.
“Why are you looking for that fellow?”
“Does a child need a reason to look for their father?”
“Considering that fellow’s personality, I doubt if he even saw you being born. And you came all the way here to meet such a fellow as your father while risking your life?”
“Of course—”
Uar cut off Bailen’s words.
“Do you think I’m stupid just because giants are stupid? I know exactly what you’re thinking! Though that’s not a very good thought either.”
Bailen could not say anything and bit his lip.
“If it’s not for another reason, but just because you’re dissatisfied with your life that you sought him out, it would be better to take it up with that human rather than the dragon.”
“...What do you mean?”
Bailen asked with a voice from which the pain had not subsided.
“Because the reason you were born would lie with that human.”
A thick index finger pointed to Ulrih.
“Why would a fellow who doesn't even pair up with his own kin pair up with something like a human? It’s because he had a reason to be interested in the species of humans.”
“……”
“And as far as I know, the only human associated with Narbakayani is that human. Since they traveled around together before he used the name Ulrih, he must have been influenced then.”
Bailen was not surprised. Because he knew of the existence of Laurant. Also, because the fact that he knew Narbakayani meant there was a bond.
However, as Uar said, the relationship was apparently unexpected enough to be called ‘influential,’ as his eyebrows went up slightly.
“We accompanied each other for a bit. Quite a long time ago.”
Ulrih spoke while looking at Bailen.
“If you ask how much influence that had, well, I do not know. It was not my intention, and that child is not the type to reveal his thoughts.”
Uar gave a snort and scratched under his chin.
“That’s how the race of dragons is. If they were the type to reveal their emotions and change their personalities easily, they would have opened their own era; would they be living hidden in a place like this?”
“That is a correct statement.”
Ulrih nodded and unpacked his backpack.
In front of him, Uar sent an interrogating gaze toward him, saying in a voice too loud to be a mutter, “How did a stubborn dragon come to have interest in humans?” Instead of an explanation, he took out a bundle from his backpack and threw it.
“That should be enough as a price, right? The forest elves sent it.”
When Uar received and opened it, tobacco leaves were inside.
“It’s enough. More than enough.”
He placed it to his nose to smell the scent. Although it was only a handful compared to his body size, he gave a broad smile. And Uar gestured to the giants who had come with him.
The giants each carried one member of Ulrih’s group. Roberta and the other companions were startled as they suddenly reached out their hands, but soon they could not avoid the giants’ touch, so they were carried by the giants toward the mountain.
<><><>
Often, seeing someone else easily achieve a result that one has achieved with great effort can cause a sense of futility, and Roberta thought that was the case now.
While being carried on the giant’s back and being hit by the cold wind, she saw the mountain growing larger before her eyes. From eight members at the start to six, it had taken fourteen days to arrive at the tower built by humans before history.
Although the straight-line distance between the starting point and the destination was short, they had to find a path they could walk safely and go around.
The distance and path from the tower to the destination were similar. By eye, it looked like they would arrive within a day or two, but it would have been a path that took twice as long if they actually went.
However, the giants were not those humans.
The giants simply ran with all their might in a straight line. If humans had done such a thing, they would have been attacked by magical beasts or blocked by a precipice, but before a giant, magical beasts ran away, and a precipice was just something to climb.
“We will wait here.”
Less than half a day passed before they crossed two peaks and arrived at the destination. Uar’s giants set the humans down below a nameless mountain in the Caldorekai range.
“How long do you think it will take? Would one day be enough?”
Uar asked.
“If it gets long, I will send word.”
“Good! Let’s do that.”
He scanned the group and struck Bailen’s shoulder with his brawny hand. Bailen bit his lip while bending his waist. Seeing this, Roberta thought that dragon blood definitely flowed in him.
“Bailen, was it? I pray in the name of Lord Dieus that the matter is concluded well.”
“Th-th-thank you...”
“You will be disappointed when you meet him, but keep one thing in mind. The reason you were born, and the fact that there is nothing that does not change forever. Then it will be a little better.”
And just before turning his body to leave, Uar slightly bent his waist and handed something to Ulrih. Ulrih quietly looked at it, closed his eyes for a moment as if in silent prayer, then opened them and put it in his bosom.
“——.”
The giant whispered in a voice too small for his size. Ulrih listened without a word and nodded. Roberta sent a gaze filled with doubt, but he looked at her and shook his head as if to say not now.
“Well, see you later.”
Those who had appeared while shaking the ground left while shaking the ground.
In the middle of the Ice Peninsula, full of disasters and magical beasts, the giants said they would wait for several days while hunting and then disappeared into the blizzard.
None of the humans worried about their leisurely appearance. Because while being carried, they had seen Uar chase and trample a fleeing magical beast. Rather, it was a situation where they should worry about the humans left alone at the entrance of the mountain.
“What should we do now?” This chapter was taken from novelping.com without permission.
Roberta asked.
She thought that this place was probably the destination Ulrih had spoken of. However, what was visible to her eyes was only a high snowy mountain and snow fluttering in the wind.
When Ulrih climbed the mountain, he looked for a cave in a place where it seemed there was nothing and used it as a shelter. And dragons build nests and live there. Where would the cave be hidden that she could not see?
“Wait. He must have noticed that we have come.”
Noticed?
Roberta followed Ulrih’s gaze. He was looking straight ahead, and that place looked like the beginning of a steep snowy mountain at a glance. However, looking closely while heightening her senses, the flow of mana was wavering like a heat haze.
In the Ice Peninsula, the concentration of mana was thick everywhere and the flow was wanton, so such a sight was common. However, Roberta’s intuition felt that something was different.
- Come in.
At that moment, words echoed in her mind.
She and the companions looked at each other in shock. They asked with their expressions if they had heard it too. Subsequently, looking at Ulrih, he was already taking a step.
The space Roberta had been watching just a moment ago rippled like a wave. She quickly chased after him. As her body touched the wave, she felt a pulling sensation and her eyes closed, and when she opened them again, a place that was not a snowy mountain was captured in her vision.
“This place is...?”
It was a garden.
A garden where there was no such fierce wind or snow, and where a warmth like a spring day hung. It was not a mountain covered in pure white snow, but a garden with leaves ripened in deep jade, multi-colored flowers, and insects chirping.
As the piercing cold vanished in an instant, her body temperature rose rapidly. Roberta, who was wearing several layers of winter clothes, thought she would soon feel the heat.
Was it a hallucination?
“It is not a hallucination.”
Ulrih asserted.
“He created nature by wielding mana.”
“But wasn't this the Ice Peninsula?”
“To be precise, the entrance of the mountain you saw a moment ago is the hallucination. He carved out a part of the mountain and decorated it like this, hiding that part within the whole so it cannot be seen from the outside.”
One of the vassals muttered involuntarily that it made no sense.
“Dragons are also wizards who possess fragments of myth. From the perspective of this era, which cannot distinguish between myth and illusion, it is natural not to understand.”
The group followed Ulrih. There was no hesitation in his steps. Like a person who had come to a familiar place, he found the way and headed toward one side of the garden.
The steps stopped in front of a man. A round table and a spread were set up in the garden. He was sitting as if a noble were enjoying the refined atmosphere and drinking tea.
He wore thin cloth clothes through which his skin was visible, and the color was pure white. Also, he was a young and beautiful man. He sat with his legs crossed and his hands folded over them, and spoke to Ulrih with a smile.
“Last time you came while I was sleeping, but what is the matter this time? Ulrih of Dithmarschen, or is it another name this time? At the very least, it doesn't seem to be for theft.”
Suddenly, Roberta recalled the words Elder Brasse had said on her first day in Dithmarschen.
‘Those words were true.’
He had said he had met a sleeping dragon. He had also said he had knocked down a giant with a whip. With this, two things had been revealed as truth. There were a few more stories, but she couldn't remember them.
“Unfortunately, it’s not this time.”
“This time?”
The young man—no, Narbakayani—tilted his head to the side. His black pupils, the same as Ulrih’s, left Ulrih and scanned the group.
A strange light shone on his expressionless face. He rose from his seat and headed toward Bailen. Even though no one had introduced the Duke, his father seemed to have felt something unknown.
“There was a fellow who had the same thought as me. Did you choose humans for this appearance? Or has the time not yet come?”
Two white and soft hands touched Bailen’s face.
“Who is it? Whose child are you?”
Bailen was about to say his mother’s name but stopped.
“Who else besides me made a child with a human? A father or a mother?”
“He is your son, Kayani.”
“My son?”
At Ulrih’s words, the dragon in human form blinked.
“Whose son?”
“Penelope’s.”
Bailen raised his hand, stopped his father’s hand, and answered.
“Penelope.”
The dragon stopped blinking and chewed on the name.
“Do you not remember?”
“Of course I do. I am a dragon. Unlike the humans over there, time does not bring oblivion to me. Penelope, Penelope of Cabonihar, human, female—I could not possibly forget.”
“In that case—”
“Why have you come?”
“My mother left a last will and a keepsake.”
“That human female told you to find me?”
The dragon asked again.
“Why?”
Bailen was about to answer but stopped.
The dragon disguised as a human was looking at him. Erasing the smile he gave Ulrih or the light and blinking he showed Bailen, he asked with a face that was merely beautiful.
“Is it not to become a dragon?”
It was a pure question. It was an act of asking because he really couldn't think of another reason, really not understanding his son’s reason. Dragons do not form groups, they are so arrogant they do not tolerate even their progenitor—Roberta recalled Ulrih’s words.