We live at the foothills of Dragon Peak.
Beyond Limits
At the woman’s scream, the presence of many Dragon Race people inside the buildings stirred.
The Dragon Race people, who had managed to hide their presence from the tyrant, were clearly agitated.
I wonder what a Shōjō is.
From several buildings, a few Dragon Race people cautiously emerged.
“I-Is the tyrant alright?”
“Yes, this one won’t cause any more trouble. They’re fine.”
The tyrant glared at my words, but showed no signs of protest.
The tyrant, with sharp gaze but remaining still, and the Dragon Race people, gradually emerging from their buildings emitting a mysterious aura as if looking at something uncanny, approached us.
“Is it true that a Shōjō appeared?”
“Yes, it seems to be true.”
I asked the young dragon if that was the case, and it nodded.
“How did you know?”
“The tyrant just came to tell me.”
I had no idea what a Shōjō was. However, judging from the spread of fear among the Dragon Race, I suspected it might be a more dangerous being than the tyrant.
“Do you know where it appeared?”
“Yes, it seems to be deep in the mountains ahead.”
“It’s about four mountains away.”
I relayed the tyrant’s additional information to the Dragon Race people.
“That’s close.”
“What on earth…”
“Was it moving?”
“It’s not moving.”
I translated the tyrant’s words.
It seemed there was no one among the remaining villagers who possessed a Dragon Heart.
“I see…”
The people gathered with complex expressions and began to confer.
“Why are you so friendly with the tyrant?”
Koa, who had not joined the discussion, cautiously approached.
“It’s a long story, but… Please don’t worry. The tyrant won’t rampage anymore. They will atone for their past sins from now on.”
Koa raised an eyebrow in surprise at my words.
“Truly, you are a peculiar child.”
Saying this, Koa looked at me, then cautiously glanced at the tyrant, and then at the young dragon.
“Um. What is a Shōjō?”
Koa chuckled slightly at my question.
“You, who tamed the tyrant, don’t know what a Shōjō is?”
I’m sorry for my ignorance.
Seeing my dejection, Koa smiled further.
“Don’t provoke a Shōjō. If you enter their territory, you will surely die. That’s all you need to know.”
However, Koa did not provide any specific details.
“Did the tyrant go out of their way to tell us about it?”
“I believe so.”
Surely, it wasn’t just to bring me my luggage.
“I told the Chicken Dragon about the Shōjō appearing. It was close by. Then, I found your luggage, so we decided to take it to the capital city. We came here because you were here.”
Delivering my luggage to the capital city…
I shuddered,\_imagining what would have happened if that had occurred.
But it was good. The tyrant immediately acted for the sake of Dragon Peak.
If it were the tyrant from a few days ago, even if a terrifying being like a Shōjō appeared, they wouldn’t have informed other races about it.
“If it’s not moving, then we can only observe for now.”
“Naturally.”
“Let’s send word to the neighboring villages. Immediately.”
“No, wait. Even if we send word, we must confirm it ourselves first.”
I could hear the discussions of the Dragon Race people.
And their gazes occasionally flickered towards us.
The people discussing were uniformly flustered.
“So. Why are you here?”
The tyrant glared at me, seemingly disregarding the flustered Dragon Race people.
You don’t always have to glare at me.
“Ah. Actually, I have business to attend to at the Dragon Race village.”
“Then was my delivering you there in vain?”
“No, it wasn’t in vain. I had already lost my way by the time I was with you, so I was saved by returning to a place I knew.”
When I smiled, the tyrant snorted and turned away.
“Is that so? Then Rim and the others will take you to that village.”
The young dragon’s suggestion was met with a sharp glare from the tyrant.
“Revalia, is that alright? It’s a thank-you for saving my life, you know?”
The young dragon appealed to the tyrant.
The tyrant grumbled discontentedly.
Then, Koa, who had been standing by my side, and the Dragon Race people who had come out to discuss, turned back towards us in fear and froze stiff.
The tyrant is indeed feared this much.
“I’m sorry. It’s alright. We were just discussing future matters.”
I quickly waved my hands to calm the Dragon Race people.
It seemed that the mere presence of the tyrant made the Dragon Race people uneasy.
“Are you really going to escort me?”
I asked the tyrant, who looked displeased but did not show any intention of refusing.
“Are you going somewhere?”
Koa asked, looking alternately at the tyrant and me.
“Uh. The tyrant is going to escort me to Mistral’s village.”
Koa’s face contorted at my words.
“I-Is that so… However, please don’t enter the skies above our village. You seem to have tamed the tyrant, but this is truly a terrifying Wyvern.”
“Yes, I understand. But please believe me. From now on, the tyrant will live for Dragon Peak. We made a promise.”
Koa gazed intently at me and the tyrant, then muttered, “I see.”
The fear and hatred towards the tyrant won’t disappear so easily, I thought. That’s why I’ll have to encourage the tyrant to persevere.
“Prepare yourself.”
At the tyrant’s words, I slung my retrieved luggage over my shoulder.
That was all my preparation.
The young dragon jumped onto the tyrant’s back.
I also moved to the tyrant’s back using a Spatial Jump.
The people who had been discussing, and Koa, looked at me with a gaze as if seeing something strange.
“I’m going to be taken to Mistral’s village by the tyrant now. I’m sorry for the trouble I’ve caused, and thank you very much for all your kindness!”
I waved energetically from atop the tyrant. However, only Koa responded.
“I suppose even Mistral will be astonished by this.”
I waved again at Koa’s smile.
With a rustle, the tyrant powerfully left the ground. It ascended rapidly and accelerated instantly.
“Whoa!”
The violent flight made me hastily cling to the tyrant’s back.
What a guy. They flew with such force as if to deliberately shake me off.
I knocked on the tyrant’s back in protest, but it was easily repelled by the crimson, hard scales.
The tyrant quickly flew over the mountains of Dragon Peak.
Then, to the side, a little off our course, I spotted a flickering scenery.
“Hey, what is that?”
I asked the young dragon beside me.
When the tyrant had escorted me to the capital city before, I don’t think I saw scenery like that.
“That’s where the Shōjō appeared.”
The young dragon also looked up in the direction I was pointing.
“Want to take a look from a distance?”
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
“As long as we don’t enter their territory, it’s completely safe.”
At the young dragon’s explanation, my curiosity was piqued. If it was safe to look, I felt like I wanted to see it once.
A being that the dragons and Dragon Race people fear.
The tyrant changed course, as if acknowledging, towards the shimmering mountain range.
And then, I saw it.
Beyond the mountain range. A flatland between the mountains.
It was a hell of swirling flames.
To a terrifyingly wide extent, flames swirled like coiled serpents.
“What… is that?”
At the sight of such a horrifying scene, I felt despair.
A roar of flames, like the rumbling of the earth. A vortex of flames deeper crimson than the tyrant’s scales. The oppressive heat.
Even from a distance, a terrifyingly ominous presence was felt by us.
“If you enter that vortex of flame, everything will be burned to ashes.”
Even the tyrant seemed awestruck.
“Is it… a magic beast?”
I was sweating profusely, unsure if it was from the heatwave or a chill.
“It’s a type of high-ranking magic beast. A being with whom you must never get involved. If it appears, all we can do is wait for the disaster to pass.”
“Even the tyrant can’t defeat it?”
I asked out of curiosity, but I shouldn’t have asked.
“If we attempted to vanquish it, barely anyone among all the dragons and Dragon Race people of Dragon Peak would survive and escape.”
“…”
I was speechless.
Not to mention humans, even demons and divine races acknowledge the dragons and Dragon Race. And all of them together would only barely be able to escape, not win.
Overwhelmed by the unimaginable terror, I stared blankly at the swirling crimson flames.
“Once that appears, we can only wait for it to pass. It burns and devours everything in its territory, then moves elsewhere and disappears.”
The Dragon Race people had asked if the Shōjō was moving. That implied that if it were moving, everything in its path would be swallowed, so one would have to flee.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the vortex of crimson flames was swirling but not moving.
I wonder if the Shōjō, after burning down this entire area, will use the Dragon Vein to escape and move elsewhere in the world.
“Is that vortex of flame itself the Shōjō?”
“No. That vortex is its territory. The Shōjō’s true form exists somewhere within it.”
The vast vortex of flame is its territory, and it’s too wide. And a magic beast operating within that inferno.
I was made to realize that I still knew nothing about the world.
I thought the dragons and Dragon Race were at the apex of all races. But there are beings far superior to them.
Perhaps there are even higher beings in the world.
“Are you satisfied?”
I replied in a faint voice to the tyrant’s words.
I shouldn’t have seen it. I shouldn’t have known it. Gazing into a fraction of the world’s immeasurability, I felt only despair.
Koa’s hesitation must have been because they knew there was nothing good to be learned.
“It’s a terrifying being, but as long as you don’t enter its territory, it won’t harm you. So, it’s fine to just leave it as it is.”
I could only nod at the young dragon’s words.
The tyrant changed course and headed deeper into Dragon Peak.
Alright, I need to gather my resolve.
Speaking of which, does the tyrant know Mistral’s village?
Neither I nor the Dragon Race people mentioned who Mistral is or where the village is.
“Hey. Do you know the destination?”
When I asked, the tyrant scoffed.
“You are the husband of the Dragon Princess, are you not? And if you say you’re going to the Dragon Race village, it must be the Dragon Princess’s village.”
Yes, that’s exactly right.
The tyrant remembered my words when I was given the sentence. Or rather, does the tyrant also know the Dragon Princess?
The tyrant flew as if stitching the Dragon Peak.
The tyrant doesn’t seem to be able to fly as high as Asher or Nimia, above the clouds.
With the snow-covered mountain range to our side, the tyrant proceeded without hesitation.
I couldn’t tell where we were even looking at the rugged mountains, but the tyrant, flying freely in the sky, must have had a precise grasp of its location within Dragon Peak.
Soon, a small patch of lush green appeared in the distance ahead.
The surrounding scenery was all white mountains or bare rock faces, so the green ahead stood out.
The tyrant slowed its speed and began to circle.
“Are there any places where we can land?”
The young dragon peered below.
“Is the village nearby?”
“Yes, your bride’s village is in that forest.”
At the young dragon’s words, I felt a little nervous.
A distance that would take several days on the ground journey could be covered in a single flight from the sky. We arrived near Mistral’s village in no time, and while it was quick, I didn’t have time to prepare myself mentally.
Below us, there were only rugged, jagged rocky areas. It was difficult to find a suitable spot where the large tyrant could land and where I could then head into the forest.
Just then, something sprang up from beyond the forest.
It ascended higher than the tyrant and pierced through the clouds. Then, it flew towards us with terrifying speed and reached directly overhead.
The tyrant and the young dragon were surprised by the being flying far above the clouds.
Ah.
Suddenly, something surged within my chest.
Nimia! It’s me!”
I waved my hands to make my presence known to Nimia, the being above the clouds.
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