"How's it over there?"
"All clear."
A guard gave a long yawn. The dragon hadn't moved at all since being stabbed during the day, and the three soldiers only idled around the dragon.
No crowds were coming as in the daytime, and there was nothing in particular to do in such an out-of-the-way place, so the most they could do was yawn lazily and chat.
And so they stood there, bored. From far off, squawking shouts began to be heard.
"Die! Die! I'm so mortified I could die, so die!"
"Urgh, uuurgh, oogh, bleh......!"
What commotion is this? Exchanging glances, one guard went out to check. When he'd walked a little way from where the dragon was held, a man and a woman were tangled together fighting on the road.
"Who do you think you are?! Who do you think you are, setting out to ruin a perfectly fine woman's lot in life?! Having a face like yours is the greatest shame of my life! Die! Die already!!"
"Me, uuurgh, with a girl like this, ugh, newly, gweeeargh."
......So is he just getting beaten one-sidedly?
Watching the man helplessly take the woman's fists and dry-heave, the guard, bewildered and slightly irritated, approached.
"Hey! Don't make a commotion here! Where on earth did you guys come from?"
"Move! Today I kill this bastard and then I die!"
The woman's eyes had already gone wild with rage. So much that the guard flinched back without realizing. He'd only seen people like this when a husband gambled away the family fortune or when they'd lost their livestock.
But that was that and this was this. As a guard of Tintagel with the duty of keeping the peace, he grabbed the shoulder of the woman who had the man pinned.
"I don't know what your husband did wrong, but settle household matters in the household. What kind of wife is so fierce? You don't look very old, so talk it out nicely."
The woman's fist stopped dead. The guard was wondering at the fist trembling in midair when.
"......Husband? You said husband?"
"Huh?"
The man, who'd been helplessly beaten while dry-heaving, got up staggering. Beneath his disheveled hair, half-unfocused eyes glowed piercingly.
The guard sensed something had gone wrong and took a step back, but the man's lunge was faster.
"Me and this bastard are nothing like a married couple, do you wear your eyes on your ass?!"
"Where do you get off spouting the nonsense that this guy and I are a married couple, you wretch with busted eyeballs?! Don't you even look at people's faces?! Die! Die!"
"Aaaaaaaaargh! Help, help!"
At the pitiful screams of the guard, suddenly being beaten by a pair of man and woman, the footsteps of other guards hurriedly running from far off began to be heard.
***
"......They've really all gone. What magic did you cast, attendant?"
"How many times do I have to say my name's Albion, not attendant? Are you dim?"
I'd said I was putting a luring magic on them, but I hadn't used any Ogham skill. If anything, all I'd done was cast the 'victory spell.'
Who was it that said this? Older brothers and younger sisters, older sisters and younger brothers hate being paired up with each other something awful. Of course, Pidrin and Daren would have to pay the price for beating up a guard, but is that my problem? Let's pick them up sometime later.
With the guards all suddenly gone, we came out of the shade where we'd been hiding. Seen up close the dragon was far more imposing than from afar, and in far worse shape.
How long had it been tied up like this? The dried blood reeked of rot, and the buzzing of insects gathered after it faintly reached my ears. If not for the sound of its labored breath I could hear now and then, I might've thought it was dead.
Erman took a step forward first.
"My prince, it's dangerous!"
"It is all right."
Despite Estan's attempts to stop him, Erman carefully laid his hand on the scales. The scales were bigger than a child's palm, but Erman simply looked up at the dragon, as if not scared in the least.
"Albion. If we talk to the dragon, will it understand?"
Why ask me that? Is it in my settings that I'm a dragon? After thinking for a moment, I realized why Erman had asked me.
-They say it's a creature from a world similar to the fairies', but nobody knows exactly where it originated.
Ah, Titania's a fairy too. Estan was right there, but since I actually thought of Estan less as an independent human being than as Erman's flunky, I waved my hand without much reluctance.
"Titania. You there?"
<What is it? It's just getting exciting, did something go wrong?>
The small fairy who popped out of midair along with glittering powder circled overhead. Estan began looking strangely at me, since I seemed to have suddenly started talking to myself.
"If I talk to a dragon, will it understand?"
<Of course, of course. It'll understand if it's Albion talking. Albion's special!>
"Because I'm adventuring with you?"
<There's that too, but first of all, Albion's bloodline is half fairy and half human, isn't it? And a dragon's a phantom beast. Dragons have been inseparable from fairies since long ago too. So you can talk to it just fine!>
......That's my setting?
Having picked a character at random without knowing a thing about its background, I felt sheepish. Where's the game that gives you settings that deep in the first place? You just push everything through with stats.
Anyway, I had Titania's guarantee. I went up beside Erman and gave a short cough.
"Hey. That...... dragon. Are you listening? If you can hear me, react or something."
Talking to a heap of scales felt like telling a fairy tale to a rock. In the darkness I couldn't even tell whether this was a dragon or a rock.
After I'd mustered my courage and gone to the trouble of talking to it, the dragon didn't react. Was it already dead? No? I thought I could hear breathing? Erman lightly took hold of the hem of my clothes. He seemed to be worried, so I was about to quietly try again, but.
With a whoosh, a wind swept over our heads. Only two seconds later did I realize it was the dragon's snort.
"Albion."
I nodded at Erman's whisper. It looked like that was the answer.
"Listen carefully, dragon. We're going to free you from the chains now, but don't go wild just because your body suddenly feels lighter. People might find out. Understand? You've got to stay quiet until it's over."
There was no separate answer, but no negative reaction either. We took that as agreement and set to our assigned roles.
While Estan and Erman pulled out the iron stakes the chains were attached to, I went to the dragon's flank. The spot with the worst stench, where it had seemed most badly wounded when I saw it during the day.
"Titania. Skills. Sort out only the incantations and show me."
<For Albion's request, anytime!>
System windows rolled down. The proficiency of 'Saille,' the Ogham script specialized in healing, and the instant-cast incantation spells unlocked below it were laid bare.
I put my hand on the dragon's flank. It was sticky and unpleasant. I could feel it swelling big and sinking with the dragon's breathing.
"<Leave what you left behind in the past. What do you face in the present?>"
Torn flesh wriggled under my palm. Not the dragon's will, but a spasm of flesh struggling desperately to join with flesh.
"<I am the one who passes by. The one who heals and makes forget. I have come to show you what lies beyond the pain.>"
Flesh met flesh, muscle fibers regenerated and joined as if tying knots, and the wound vanished. Blood-covered, broken scales slowly began to grow like new shoots. Beneath them blood circulated, and damaged tissue was cut away and fell off in chunks.
"<My word is Gort. Here and now I ask, let what is old withdraw and show me a new form.>"
A fresh, clean scent. Light green tender vines and leaves that rose and faded between my fingers. New scales sprouting over seamless flesh. Above them a transparent window floated up.
「Spirit: 310/350」
It was the first time I'd spent as much as 40 Spirit on a healing spell.
Feeling around the flank wound to check whether it had healed, I discovered the newly grown scales were thinner and smaller than elsewhere.
Why's this like this? I poured that much Spirit into it and it didn't heal completely?
"Titania. Check whether something's gone wrong with my Ogham skill. In Puil, even 5 Spirit made the wounded heal pretty fast."
<Hm? There can't be anything wrong with this world. Depending on the Magic Resistance stat of the target of your magic, effects can be amplified or halved. Plus it's a dragon, you know? It's one of the strongest races even among phantom beasts, so your magic got halved, Albion.>
"What the."
<So that's why you have to work hard on your Ogham skill level before the adventure starts. There's a resistance-ignoring effect attached according to skill level. It's still only at level 4, you know? That's why you're weak, Albion.>
"You're saying I suck?"
<I didn't go that far. Would you like me to call you Sucky Albion?>
"Would I?"
Can't be helped. It's not bleeding anymore at least, so I'll have to be content with that.
As I circled around looking for other wounds, the chains clanked little by little. Estan and Erman over there had probably pulled out the iron stakes.
At the noise the dragon slowly opened its eyes. Golden diamond-shaped eyes suddenly appearing in the darkness. The pupils were slit vertically long, and strange blazing shadows shimmered in the irises.
Apart from that there was no movement. The dragon neither tried to fly up nor made a cry; it quietly followed my path with its eyes. Seeing a pupil the size of a grown man's torso slowly move gave even me goosebumps.
Clank, clank. The chains began to slowly slide down. Then a chain that had been barely hanging on the scales slipped and fell to the ground.
-RATTLE!
The noise from afar abruptly stopped dead. As soon as the commotion of Pidrin, Daren and the guards tangled in a fight disappeared, Erman ran over.
"Albion! Help me! Sir Estan's pulling out the stakes!"
"You stay here and undo these, the dragon's wounds are all healed so you can just take the chains right down!"
Fuck. Why'd it have to slide down there! Spitting curses inside, I went around to the opposite side. The loosening chains swayed one by one. In my hurry I recklessly grabbed a thick chain in both hands and pulled down with all my strength.
No, I tried to pull it down, but.
-Crrck.
A strange pulling sensation and a small tearing sound. As the lump of iron quickly collapsed under its weight, a chunk stuck to the chain's surface dangled and then dropped with a plop at my feet.
It was skin.
My hands were trembling without my realizing. Palms glistening in the moonlight. Blisters beginning to form as if burned by fire.
-They say those phantom beasts sizzle and burn when they touch iron.
-Dragons have been inseparable from fairies since long ago too.
-Albion's bloodline is half fairy and half human, isn't it?
"Oh, fuck......"
I looked up at the chains binding the dragon's body.
Fairy half-blood. Flesh that rots and falls away on touching iron, like the dragon's. I hadn't had a chance to touch iron with my bare hands until now, so I hadn't known. But I find out now, of all times?
"Albion!"
"Wait!"
Damn it. I don't even know anymore.
I pulled my sleeves over my hands and pulled on the chain. The thing that had been clanking pulled taut again, and the chain, separated from the slowly burning scales and loosened, slid to the ground.
Only one chain, and how heavy it was. My feet dragged toward the dragon. My overworked shoulder joints screamed. To put someone still too young to even manage his own body on hard labor like this.
Meanwhile, among the clattering noises, the guards' shouts carried all the way here. I gritted my teeth and for the last time put in all my strength.
Come loose, come loose, please come loose!
The last iron stake came out and Erman screamed. The dragon writhed under the chains. The chains lashed the ground sharply as they fell from the dragon, and in the darkness the huge body rose.
<Freedom.>
A sigh big enough to ring the heavens.
In that sigh even the sharp screams and the sound of the emergency bugle were buried. Tattered wings swallowed the sky black. And golden eyes looked back this way one last time.
Without a word of thanks, without even a polite word for our trouble.
The dragon they called the fairies' watchman flew straight up and disappeared beyond the distant blue sky.