Chapter 60

VOLUME 2 CHAPTER 25: Dragon-san Solves the Mystery

Lava POV

I somehow managed to escape from the remote space, but it took me some time to pin down Aru’s exact location.

But even as I was searching, I could hear Aru’s sorrowful voice.

As soon as I stepped out of the Teleportation circle, Aru run to me and hugged me tightly.

「Sorry for being late.」

「Mother, are you hurt!?」

When I held him tight in my arms, I realized that Aru was trembling all over.

Speaking of which, after I got out of my confinement, I didn’t even have enough time to properly look after my own injuries. It was truly sad.

「It’s okay, it’s not that big of a deal.」

Aru looked at me in visible confusion, but did not pursue the topic further. Instead, he said something else entirely.

「Mother, Kyle-san is!」

…… Eh, why did he mentioned Kyle’s name in a place like this?

Aru was pointing his finger towards something, and I raised my head to slowly look in that general direction.

Something was wrong here.

This presence that I was sensing right now, it seems familiar, and yet strangely nostalgic.

I let out a deep breath, and then shake my head a few time as if to chase the drowsiness away, thinking that maybe I was dreaming.

「Good grief, what’s this…… What’s going on!?」

I saw him with my own eyes, but I was so surprised to see him that my own voice seemed more startled to me than it really was.

「Kyle!? What the hell is happening here!?」

「H, hey, Lava. I would like to know that as well.」

Kyle, who at the moment seemed to be connected to Mikoto, looked at me with confusion, frowning his brows.

「She says that right now she is temporarily keeping me inside of her body by means of her country’s magic, since I was about to disappear. …… She also says that it is a technique used mostly for borrowing the power of spirits and spirit animals.」

「Mikoto was always able to do something like that?」

「Aah, looks that way, but she won’t be able to maintain our connection like that for long. A being like me is a little bit too much for her to handle, and I don’t want to hurt her by overstaying my welcome. She’s using enough of her magic as it is.」

Hearing that, Aru took off from the ground. Then he interfered with the leyline.

In order to minimalize the fluctuation of magical power in the area, he created a special boundary around us all where magic could circulate properly.

「Will this be enough?」

「It may be a little bit easier for her now. But still, once this is all over, give her my regards for making this possible.」

While Kyle was still in Mikoto’s body, there was something I absolutely had to say to him.

「Kyle, you were in the process of becoming a spirit, correct? Why did you stop halfway through, before you could stabilize yourself?」

「There was my descendant who is much like Belga. So, is it that weird that I wanted to protect those who are important to me?」

Said Kyle while looking at Elvie and closing his eyes.

It not that I wasn’t able to understand his reasoning.

Kyle said that with his expression unchanged, and at the same time he laughed with relief. Joining him, I laughed with pure joy.

「You’re such a moron! Kyle, you big moron!」

「W, well now that’s a first. I have never been called like that by you, if I do recall.」

「What’s the big deal, I always wanted to call you something like that. And I see that your magecraft is as sharp as ever as well.」

「Now, hearing that makes me strangely feel at ease. Oh well, it was a good thing to meet you again, Lava.」

As Kyle said that, I could feel Aru pulling on my arm. He told me briefly all the events that transpired up until now and brought me up to speed.

「You helped both El-senpai and me! But still, you are just going to disappear like that without seeing the present world or anything!?」

「Not quite, boy. I didn’t think that my Academy would get this big, I got to see how my descendants were doing, and I could meet the child of my dear friend. It’s a shame that I couldn’t see Nectar, but I’d say that’s more than enough.」

Kyle smiles gorgeously, to which Aru looked as if he was about to cry again.

That’s right, Kyle’s soul was being kept hibernated inside of his staff, in Signos Academy and inside of people of Hibernia’s thoughts.

Then, surrounded by stable environment rich in magical power, he was to transform into a spirit.

But Kyle stopped in the middle of the process and came back to this world.

The spirits which constituted his body were all extremely fragile and until his body stabilized they would be unstable.

But now, when he stopped the process halfway through, he would never again hope to become a true spirit and the lesser ones would all but disappear.

Nothing will remain.

「You couldn’t let that happen?」

It really happened, that despite of the circumstances both of us were here.

It wasn’t for long, but what counts is that we managed to meet one more time.

I exhaled and said:

「Kyle, just asking, but are you okay with disappearing?」

「I mean yes, but I would lie if I said that I am not afraid with what a complete death brings. But I am a human, right? I have lived for a long time, and it was a satisfying life, so I’m okay with that.」

「But you know that if you were to become a spirit, the laws of human world would no longer apply to you, right? So if you are afraid of dying, why not just change “profession” of sorts?」

「Ha?」

「Dying is really painful, and like that, you would be able to still exist, The only downside would be that you would no longer be human.」

「…… Ha?」

「I mean, getting reincarnated as a spirit is not something that would normally be possible by any ordinary means, wouldn’t you agree.」

「No, wait just a moment, I completely don’t understand what you are talking about!」

To be honest, the situation was rather complicated, and it is no wonder that Kyle may seem to be disoriented right now.

Kyle looks really confused for the moment. Lava’s words keep ringing in his ears.

「Umm, listen now, mister: you do realize that you are a very important person to both Nectar and I, right? I really respected the fact that you wanted to die just like any normal human would. True, I was sad, but I also thought that we will surely meet again someday. But this time will be for good. But now, if you do nothing, you are going to completely disappear! Isn’t it obvious that I can’t just sit back and watch as if nothing was going to happen!?」

「Lava… And here I thought that you might be used to it since you watched me passed away once already……」

Kyle declared something like that with dignity, although his face still looked troubled.

However, Mikoto’s bushy tail continued to swing from left to right in a steady rhythm.

I knew it was Kyle’s doing, but that reaction was still unbelievably cute.

Then, a small bird came flying over the Signos Plains.

It let go of a small branch from its beak, and when the branch landed on the ground, mana began to ooze out of it, forming a transparent image of Nectar.

「Nectar!」

“Lava! Are you safe!?”

Nectar hugged me tightly, even though he was only a projection.

I let out a sigh of relief and then laughed.

「We somehow managed on our end. What about you, Nectar? Are you alright?」

“Yeah, right now we are at the leyline. We managed to locate the damaged part and are currently repairing it. No more demons should be born from now on.”

「That’s Nectar for you! It goes to show that you trained under Gramps alright!」

“I still shiver while thinking about my days of training under master, but I’m glad that they were useful in the end.”

Even though Nectar laughed, his expression turned to be somewhat disappointed.

“I really wanted to come there. But I need to finish repairing this first.”

「It’s more than enough.」

Now one of the anxiety-inducing elements has been dealt with.

I smiled at Nectar and stroked Aru’s hair.

“You also did well, Aru.”

「Father, I’ll come join you so we can repair the broken leylines together.」

“No, wait there, Aru. You have to stay there.”

As Aru was told to stand by and wait, I saw Kyle smiling just a little bit under his nose.

「I see. You lot truly are a family.」

Kyle mumbled in relief, and it was in this moment that Nectar finally noticed that right now he was inhabiting Mikoto’s body.

He stopped hugging me and went straight for him.

“Kyle! Why did you wake up?! I was looking forward to observing the naturally born spirit with my own eyes! It cannot be helped, come on, I’ll teach you about the special summoning technique you can use.”

「Nectar, I see that you never change……」

Kyle sent Nectar a really hopeless look while narrowing his eyes.

But he looked really glad that he was able to see Nectar.

I knew it, I don’t want to lose that person.

I backed away from Nectar, and raised my voice so that the dragons who were watching this scene hear me.

「My brethren, my family and the spirit born from my family managed to defeat all monsters and repair all of the damages done to the leylines! Now you can clearly see that our races are more than capable of working together to maintain the order!」

Even though there was no reply, I knew that they were listening, and so I continued.

「In light of that fact, I propose for us to welcome the spirit, Kyle Slaggart, in the ranks of our clan!」

「HUUUH!?」

“I see, so you want to play it like that, huh?”

「I see. Mother, you are amazing!」

Both Aru and Nectar couldn’t praise me enough, while Kyle was the only one who was so shocked that he would probably need to pick his jaw up from the ground.

The numbers of demons are always fixed.

If one was to have a demon core, even if one’s body would be destroyed you could still function normally, although in dormant state.

It was an extreme exception, but dragons were allowed to create demons that would serve them should the circulation of magic in the region collapsed by a remarkable degree.

Of course, there are certain conditions that must be met.

The question like what core to use, and also the agreement of at least three other dragons and their cooperation in the deed.

In this way, Kyle could remain in this world.

In this way, Kyle can still remain himself.

Finally, the voices of dragons came down from the sky, full of confidence.

“The reason for demon’s creation is too weak.”

「It’s simple, really. Demons have the ability to interfere with leylines. Moreover, they can communicate like us, use magic like us, and fight strong enemies if need be. Can you think of someone better qualified to defend and maintain the leylines?」

“The matter is not urgent enough.”

「So maybe the fact that there is not enough guardians of the leylines will be serious enough to you?」

And just like that, it was decided.

「Furthermore, this spirit was once human. So can you give him some priority when assigning the guardians to the new areas? It will be super effective that way!」

「Oi, that’s a bit much, don’t you think!?」

Kyle seemed somewhat unhappy with this new development and was about to voice his complaint, but before he could do that I raised my voice again.

「With that being said, I approve of Kyle Slaggart as a newly born demon and make his the keeper of this world’s magic circulation.」

The world itself shook as if to make a declaration.

Then, as if understanding what was needed to be done, Aru raised his head and let out his voice.

「I am ‘The Night-Colored Flame Flower’ , and I declare that Kyle-san helped me defeat the demons! I welcome him to our clan!」

Also, the air shook.

In the end, Aru was recognized as a genuine dragon by the world itself.

Aru and I are two separate entities.

Ah, but there was also one more.

However, we found that the dragons were still reluctant about this.

「M, Mother. It’s not enough.」

「It’s alright.」

I said while I smiled at Elvie who looked as if he was about to cry.

「So, senpai? What are you going to do?」

It felt really bad knowing that everyone thought that Elvie was lying straight in their faces.

「I can tell just by looking at you. This person is very close to you, El-kun. Also, he is the person who has been helping you out. It’s a shame he chose to remain hidden all this time.」

Then, Elvie’s body overflows with strange magical energy that was completely different from his.

That magic begins to swirl, and eventually forms the shape of a person.

There stood an imposingly-looking man with golden hair.

His stern, rough face and deep features were accompanied by a pair of golden eyes, the same as mine or Aru’s, but were of deeper depth.

「My, my, am I glad we could finally meet, ‘The One Who Lives in the Wilderness’.」

While everyone was surprised, I continued to speak to this newly appeared person, who happened to be same dragon as I, with a thoughtful look.

「I couldn’t remember, and I couldn’t believe it, either. But then, it finally occurred to me – the reason why Elvie is unable to use magic. You are the reason.」