We live at the foothills of Dragon Peak.
Tears of the Rotten Dragon
A giant, peach-colored dragon descended, surprising the Dragon Race folk in the valley.
Then, a human child dismounted from its back, causing astonishment, followed by a kitten-like dragon that grew giant, making them lose their footing.
Nevertheless, when a Dragon Race folk approached to observe the situation, Asher glared at them with killing intent.
It was a warning: “I will show no mercy if you approach us.”
He must have felt greatly hindered by the Dragon Race folk while fighting the Rotten Dragon.
I offered a bitter smile and faced the Rotten Dragon.
The Rotten Dragon growled, its caution fully exposed.
“Or rather, it’s spewing… fireballs!”
However, thanks to the wind barrier Nimia had erected, the fireballs exploded and vanished before reaching us.
“Even Nimia’s barrier can block them, huh.”
The Dragon Race, whose attacks don’t affect young dragons. Uh, Ancient Species Dragon Race are on a whole different level, aren’t they.
“Um, I want to talk with you.”
I wonder if words can even reach a Rotten Dragon that has lost its reason. It’s a fundamental question, but I can’t communicate without speaking.
I spread both my hands to show I have no hostility.
However, the Rotten Dragon roared and regarded us with caution.
I understand its caution. After all, we were fighting until just now, and now there are two giant dragons.
“Please, let’s talk.”
I desperately put on a smile and spoke to the disturbing and disgusting-looking Rotten Dragon before me.
Nevertheless, the Rotten Dragon remained wary and retreated.
And then, it mercilessly fired a fireball.
It had no effect on Nimia, but was she firing it as a warning?
Since the Rotten Dragon retreated whenever we approached, I reluctantly stopped trying to close the distance.
“By the way, how am I supposed to converse with a Rotten Dragon?” I wondered, grasping my head as if it were a revelation.
Nimia, Old Man Sleigsta, and Asher are Ancient Species Dragon Race, so they can read my mind and speak human languages.
But I’ve never heard any flying dragons speak human languages.
“That’s precisely when the Dragon Heart comes in, nya~n.”
“What’s a Dragon Heart?”
“Nya~n. It’s about consciously directing your dragon energy to your consciousness, nya~n.”
I don’t understand what Nimia is saying. What does it mean to consciously direct my consciousness?
Despite my confusion, I focused on refining my dragon energy. Then, I concentrated my consciousness to try and understand the Rotten Dragon’s heart.
“Who are you?”
Suddenly, I felt like I heard a deep, unfamiliar voice, and I was startled.
“Who are you to command such a fearsome dragon?”
When I focused more, I realized a voice-like consciousness was flying from the Rotten Dragon towards me.
The Rotten Dragon’s sunken eyes emitted a red light as it glared at me.
“I wonder if Nimia and the others can hear this, too.” I turned and looked up at Nimia.
“It’s the dragon’s heart, nya~n. Elnea-aniki can hear the Rotten Dragon’s heart, nya~n.”
“I see.”
The Rotten Dragon’s throat was rotten, and its jaw hung loosely, preventing it from speaking, but it seemed we could communicate.
“My name is Elnea Eris. I am of the Human Race. You seem very sad.”
I conveyed what I felt.
“Oooooh. You can hear my heart?”
“Yes, I can. We want to talk with you. Please stop attacking.”
“Oooooh, hate. Why can you reach my heart, but they cannot?”
What is it talking about? Nimia and I tilted our heads.
“Aaaaah, if only my heart could have reached them, I could have died without being cursed.”
The Rotten Dragon, saying “hate, hate,” fired fireballs at us.
However, all of them were blocked by Nimia’s barrier and exploded.
“Please calm down. Who is ‘them’?”
I shouted towards the Rotten Dragon amidst the tremendous sound of exploding fireballs.
“My beloved. If only I could meet them again…”
Was it his wife? Or a child? Perhaps he couldn’t die because he wanted to meet his beloved again, the one with whom he couldn’t connect his heart, and thus was cursed and became a Rotten Dragon.
The Rotten Dragon cried sorrowfully, “Oooooh, oooooh.”
It made my chest tighten, and I felt pained.
“Um, is there anything I can do to help?”
What can I do?
Perhaps I can convey the Rotten Dragon’s feelings to its beloved.
If his feelings can reach them, maybe the Rotten Dragon will have no regrets and can pass away.
“A strange child of the Human Race. Do you pity me in this hideous form?”
“Pity, perhaps. I simply wanted to do what I could.”
“Aaaaah, if only I could have connected our hearts like this with them too.”
A liquid, like tears, flowed from the depths of the Rotten Dragon’s sunken eyes.
“Who is ‘them’?”
I took a step closer to the sorrowfully crying Rotten Dragon.
The Rotten Dragon did not retreat.
And it didn’t fire fireballs.
“A daughter of the Dragon Race, my beloved.”
Hmm. Could it be that this Rotten Dragon fell in love with a female Dragon Race member when it was still a dragon?
“You fell in love with a Dragon Race woman?”
“I am foolish. Why did I come to like them? Dragons and humans are incompatible beings.”
Perhaps the Dragon Race and the Dragon Race are near yet far from each other.
The Dragon Race seems to be a race deeply connected to dragons, but they still look different.
Even though they are races that live in the same Dragon Peak, there must be an insurmountable wall between them.
“Excuse me, but where is that person?”
If there was a settlement nearby, perhaps Nimia could whisk me away there in an instant.
“I cannot meet them. Not in this form.”
The Rotten Dragon looked at its rotten and ugly self and cried sadly.
“What should I do… How can your feelings reach them?”
“They cannot understand my feelings for them. They were very weak.”
Then the Rotten Dragon began to speak.
When the Rotten Dragon was still a dragon…
In a corner of Dragon Peak, in a sunlit flower garden, he met a daughter of the Dragon Race.
She was a delicate and sickly girl.
The dragon that flew in startled her, but she could not flee.
The dragon became interested in the seemingly frail girl and approached her.
The Dragon Race daughter smiled at the dragon with no hostility.
Her smile shone brighter than the blooming flowers, apparently.
From then on, the dragon and the girl met often in the flower garden.
However, the wall between the Dragon Race and the Dragon Race, two races that seemed close yet were far, was terrifyingly high, and the dragon’s feelings never reached the girl.
One day, when the dragon went to the flower garden, some men of the Dragon Race attacked him.
“We must protect the girl!” they shouted, chasing the dragon away.
The girl’s face stiffened as she watched the flying dragon.
He thought they were close. He even thought of her as beloved. But it was brutally shattered.
The dragon, mortally wounded by the Dragon Race’s attack, fled.
And when death approached, out of regret and hatred, he was cursed and became a Rotten Dragon, he said.
Listening to the Rotten Dragon’s story, I felt a surge of emotion, and tears welled up in my eyes.
“A boring story. In the end, I am a dragon, and they are humans. Allowing me to approach was to lure me in and defeat me due to my carelessness.”
A dragon’s scales, bones, and skin become high-performance weapons. And its flesh is the finest delicacy. The same applied to the Dragon Race.
But, I thought.
Would they really set up a trap to lure dragons by using a weak Dragon Race woman as bait?
I can’t believe the Dragon Race would do something like using their own clan’s women as bait.
One wrong move, and that woman would be brutally killed by the dragon. If it were a flying dragon, they would be attacked from the sky without ever getting close.
Surely, there must be a reason why the Dragon Race men appeared.
As I reasoned with it, the Rotten Dragon looked up at the sky and roared.
“Hate. Hate. I hate those who separated me from them.”
“Damn, its hatred has turned in the wrong direction.”
“What should I do?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll punish the bad guys, nya~n,” Nimia whimpered sympathetically.
“Oooooh, will you carry on my feelings?”
“Nya~n, I understand your feelings, old man. Nya~n, I have human friends, nya~n. Humans and dragons can connect their hearts, nya~n.”
“I see. Nimia is very close with Priscilla-chan, isn’t she?”
“That’s probably why the story of the Rotten Dragon and the Dragon Race didn’t sound like a stranger’s tale to her.”
“To think there was someone who shared my feelings.”
The Rotten Dragon’s hostility and intent to attack had vanished.
“I see. I can entrust my feelings to you. You who forge bonds between humans and dragons, please deliver my feelings to them.”
Saying this, the Rotten Dragon plunged its own arm into its chest.
We were startled by the sudden event, me and Nimia.
With a gurgle, the Rotten Dragon spewed out a large amount of gray blood.
Then, as it slowly pulled its hand out, a seven-colored glowing orb was held in it.
“Please, give this to them.”
The Rotten Dragon offered the orb to us.
“It’s the crystallization of a dragon’s soul, the Ryūhōgyoku, nya~n. I’ll take it, nya~n.”
Pushed by Nimia, I approached the Rotten Dragon.
“You can’t touch a Rotten Dragon, nya~n. They corrupt everything, nya~n.”
“Uwah! Why are you telling me that now?” I hesitated.
The Rotten Dragon had lost its regenerative power, and its skin and scales began to melt away listlessly.
Tremblingly, I approached the hand the Rotten Dragon was extending.
Its limbs had already begun to rot, and the flesh of its arm sloughed off.
The rotten smell stung my nose, but I endured it, pretending to be unfazed.
It would be cruel to show a displeased expression to this Rotten Dragon.
Dodging the occasional splattering gray blood, and avoiding the steaming purple smoke from the peeling skin and exposed flesh, I received the Ryūhōgyoku.
The Ryūhōgyoku was about the size of two fists put together.
“I will definitely deliver this to the Dragon Race woman.”
I nodded firmly.
“You strange human boy. I entrust my feelings to you.”
Saying this, the Rotten Dragon slowly sank into the ground.
The red light in the Rotten Dragon’s sunken eyes quietly faded.
Then, its slightly remaining scales peeled off, its skin melted away, and its flesh rotted and dissolved.
As we watched, the Rotten Dragon dissolved into the white, ashen earth.
In the end, even its bones decayed and were scattered by the valley winds, dissipating into mist.
I had been entrusted with something precious by the Rotten Dragon. I must deliver it to the Dragon Race woman as promised.
“The Ryūhōgyoku is an amazing thing, nya~n. It’s filled with a dragon’s life and feelings, nya~n.”
Nimia also gazed at the dragon jewel with a sense of emotion.
From the Ryūhōgyoku, which shone with a rainbow of colors in my hand, a powerful yet gentle vibration, like a dragon vein, emanated.
“Well then, shall we go deliver this?”
Saying this, I started walking towards the Dragon Race people who were watching the situation from afar.
