I'd spent nearly 6 months putting things in storerooms, arranging rooms, and cleaning. In other words, it was almost 8 months since I'd moved into the lair. Apparently, it had been spring, with new shoots sprouting, when I moved in. Now the leaves were falling, so I supposed it was autumn. Ahh, 8 months, and that's only half a year. Time here really does move slowly.
Only after living in the lair for 8 months did I finally get outside and look around. I took out a map showing the boundaries of my territory—it displayed the boundary lines, my current position, and even the limits of my field of vision—to see just how large it was. Then I uttered one remark.
“Damn it, it's goddamned huge.”
The map was made of something like parchment, about the size of an A4 sheet. Apparently, the whole sheet was meant to show my territory, since the red boundary lines marking it barely fitted within the edges. In the center, I could see my position and the limits of my vision in great detail.
Damn it, I was smaller than a dot on the map—I was currently Polymorphed into human form—and the range of my vision was shown as a dot 1 millimeter across. The limit of my vision in human form was about 1 km.—By that, I mean the distance at which I could see and identify an object.—Of course, it increased in dragon form. But if a 1 km field of vision was only 1 millimeter on the map, just how huge was my territory? Even allowing for the old dragon's territory I'd inherited, this was no joke. Looking at the map, an entire mountain range was mine.
My lair lay in the middle of the range, directly beneath and inside a mass of mountains(?) jutting up as if vying to outdo one another in height. Come to think of it, my lair's smaller than my field of vision? Anyway, all I could see outside were vast mountain ridges stretching below, and the dense green forests, forests, forests covering them.
‘Our land, greener and greener.’ Whether it was due to a keen public-spirited commitment to that or some other reason wasn't my concern, but green conifers stretched on in tiresome abundance. Below them lay a sea of broadleaved trees turning dark brown, brown, and other colors, bearing leaves soon to fall that seemed to boast of their dwindling lives, each claiming to be older than the next.
This was no longer a forest. It was a sea of trees. An enormous, vast sea of trees. A Pacific Ocean of trees, beside which an ordinary forest would be a mere reservoir. Whoa, isn't this huge? A place like this must have plenty of living creatures...... Are there people too? But neither within my field of vision nor beyond it could I see signs of human habitation.
Hmm, perhaps that's only natural. What lunatic humans would dare move into a dragon's territory? A Black Dragon's territory at that, second only to Red Dragons in ferocity.
However mellow it might've grown in old age, you couldn't abandon your nature. Anyway...... Does this mean it'll still be a long while before I meet people?
First, I'd check the latest geography guides and history books to find out what sort of place I lived in. Leaving the fierce autumn wind behind me, I turned to enter my lair.
“Huh? Where's the entrance?”
The entrance was gone. Looking utterly baffled, I stared at the enormous cliff I thought I'd emerged from. I'd definitely followed the light out of the lair? Just then, a thought crossed my mind, and I closed my eyes briefly to sense the flow of mana.
Hmm, hmm. I see. Just as I thought!
I opened my eyes, walked straight ahead, and stood before the cliff. Then I extended an arm.
Swish.
It would've been nice if there'd been a sound like that, but my hand passed through the cliff's surface without a sound. Just as I thought, illusion magic. When I'd sensed the mana, it flowed smoothly before circling intensively around one spot. So the entrance was an illusion. I pushed my body straight through. Then I was standing inside the passage leading out of the lair, and behind me, the outside scenery was visible without anything blocking it. A one-way illusion.
Haha, did I learn magic for nothing? I was supposed to be outstanding even among dragons, yet I hadn't recognized such basic magic. Without practical experience, I didn't even know this sort of thing.
With a light sigh, I walked into the lair.
Now, let's study the place I live! Study!
‘El Takanris Mountains’.
The name seemed likely to have a history. In fact, this mountain range apparently had quite a distinguished past. Not only was it famous enough to be called the first mountain range formed after the land revealed its vast body above the sea, it was also forbidding and fascinating. Its fame was natural enough, but calling it the most rugged place on the continent was probably no lie.
I was in the middle of that range. I'd seen with my own eyes how rugged it was. The conifers along the middle ridges and the broadleaved trees on the slopes below gave no such impression, but I lived on a high ridge where the trees gradually grew smaller and fewer plants could survive, amid literally flesh-cutting winds and blade-like peaks.
There were thousand-fathom cliffs that almost looked artificially made to stop anyone climbing higher, and scattered rocks more fittingly described as shattered than broken, weathering here and there but still sharp as awls that could easily impale 2 or 3 people. No living creature ventured to these heights. Unless, perhaps, they were other races & monsters that loved solitude, or suffered from a fear of people, severe autism, or depression.
‘El Takanris’. Who was this namesake, to have an entire mountain range named after him? A name that made it sound as if the mountains belonged to him? By humans, no less, arrogant and insolent creatures who'd rather die than lose to another race?—I hope nobody thinks those are my words. I'm quoting the book I read, ‘An Illustrated History of the El Takanris Mountains’. For reference, its author is a dragon named Berihan, the current Lord.—But although countless human heroes, countless humans, challenged these mountains in the name of life, honor, and justice, a single dragon ultimately made this range a permanent wasteland(barren, rough, dry land where plants don't grow. And a forbidden zone.
Who was this courageous, magnificent, proud, heroic dragon who raised our standing and pride as dragons and made humans give up? You can probably guess: ‘El Takanris’.—It's a quote, a quote!
To state the facts without further descriptions of El Takanris or more quotations, he was the old Black Dragon elder who'd been the ‘previous owner’ of this lair. Apparently, El Takanris built his lair at the heart of these mountains, where blade-like winds raged amid awl-like peaks, and wiped out all the ‘humans’ within reach of the forests extending from the mountains.
Only he knew why he'd killed humans while leaving the other races alone. Anyway, after about 200 years of killing, killing, and still more killing, humans were finally driven out, unable to venture into these mountains with their rich, fertile land. Afterward, they assembled armies of heroes and great invasion forces to attack El Takanris, but his outstanding strategies, the monsters he'd allowed to settle in the mountains, and the allied dwarves and elves who'd originally lived there and had been forced into battle on his orders to defend their homes drove the human armies back.
Then humanoid races with personal grudges against humans flocked in, and it finally became a war between humans and other races. The war lasted 50 years. Afterward, the human armies offered El Takanris immense tribute and issued a joint declaration that they'd never enter the range. They named it the ‘El Takanris Mountains’ and officially designated it a ‘forbidden zone’ where nobody was ever to set foot.
It must've been a painful decision for them. They'd lost fertile land where you only had to scatter seeds for crops to grow on their own, and suffered enormous loss of life in the process. On top of that, they had to free all the humanoids they'd kept as slaves.
In those 50 years, having lost both productive land and labor, they'd achieved nothing but an enormous waste of national strength and lives. Eventually, rebellions broke out everywhere, led by farmers filled with resentment.
People who'd been swept up in the war grew furious afterward to discover they'd gained nothing and suffered only devastating losses. Everyone joined the rebellions springing up everywhere. Eventually, the strongest army, led by an obscure farmer named Myurireuin, crossed borders and transcended race to swallow up most countries.
Having seized 1/4 of the continent, Myurireuin didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow at other countries' complaints and took the radical step of abolishing hereditary nobility. Then he abolished social classes altogether and poured tremendous effort into building a society that valued ability. Amid explosive popular support, he had to don the emperor's crown.
Judging by the records, he must've been enormously loved. There was even a joke that, if their king refused to become emperor, the empire's people at the time would rise in rebellion, storm the royal palace, and confer the imperial title on him.
In the end, forced(?) to become emperor by popular support, Myurireuin proclaimed the empire's name to be ‘Mihaban’. He strictly ordered that nobody, whoever they were, was ever to enter the ‘El Takanris Mountains’, the reason he'd come to the throne. And even today, perhaps 4,000 years later, apparently nobody was permitted to set foot in the ‘El Takanris Mountains’.
Across all the continent's countries, wasn't entering the ‘El Takanris Mountains’ probably the most dreadful thing to do after treason? That was how much they feared and revered this place.
Ah, this is a secret history humans must never learn, but apparently the empire's first emperor, Myurireuin, was actually El Takanris, out on a pastime because he was bored. With overwhelming ability and charisma, he'd pacified the continent and made absolutely certain nobody would invade his territory. What an extraordinary fellow.
The one who'd spread both infamy and renown had already passed away, but since I'd inherited his territory, shouldn't I follow the old dragon's will and protect these mountains?
“Whew.......”
I closed the history book and sighed deeply. I was inside my lair, reading at a table and chairs arranged like a living room against one wall of the vast cavern, rather than in my bedroom. Why come out here to read when I could've read in my room? I didn't know either. Perhaps I simply felt like it. Maybe I wanted to make use of so much space. Anyway, moving on. After carefully comparing the history book, my map, and such, I found that the total area of my territory was nearly 1/2 the size of South Korea, where I'd once lived. That alone was dizzying.
What races lived in this enormous stretch of land, and how? I put the book on the table and went outside. An exit led out from one side of my lair, so I headed that way. Before long, I encountered the immense mountains, forest, and strong wind. Against that scenery, I felt so small—I was in human form—that I shrank back in awe. Then, remembering I'd decided to inspect my territory, I used Fly(Fly) to rise about 100 meters and began looking all around.
“Damn it, it's still goddamned huge!”
I truly felt the enormity of my territory. Even looking down from 100 meters up, I couldn't see its edges at all!
Whew, damn it. Just how huge is it?!