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Chapter 2: Time Begins to Move
“Ah... The scenery is beautiful, just beautiful.” I couldn’t help but let out a sigh of admiration.
This was northwest of the Kingdom of Friedonia, a small village on the border with the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria.
Looking out further to the west from the center of the village, the bluish-green peaks of the Star Dragon Mountain Range stood there with an incredible sense of presence. Even though they were still a long ways away, they still looked so big. It was a series of mountains the size of Mt. Fuji, so I could understand why the view was so impactful.
Was Dracul, where the dragons lived, in the middle of those majestic mountains? Just what sort of place was it? I couldn’t even imagine.
“What’s the matter, Big Brother?” Tomoe called as I stared vacantly at the mountains.
“Hmm? I was thinking, ‘Those mountains sure are big.’”
“Yeah. They’re really big.”
Seeing Tomoe and me gazing at the mountains, Hal objected. “Oh, come on. You can see the Star Dragon Mountain Range all the way from the castle.”
“Hal, you just don’t get it,” Kaede chided the unsentimental Hal with a wry smile. “Both from afar and up close, they’re a breathtaking sight, but in different ways, you know.”
Aisha and Carla returned from leaving the wagon’s horses at the inn’s stable.
“Well then, Sir Kazuma,” Aisha said, “are we to wait here in this village until they come to ‘pick us up’?”
“...Uh, yeah,” I said. “That’s how it’s supposed to work.”
Whoops. Because Aisha had addressed me as Kazuma there, like in the backstory I’d prepared for her, it had taken me a moment to respond.
Incidentally, in that backstory, I was the young heir to The Silver Deer, and I was traveling around many countries to find potential trade goods. Tomoe was my little sister, and I had her hiding her wolf ears and tail beneath that hooded robe.
The other four, Aisha, Halbert, Kaede, and Carla, were playing the role of adventurers we’d hired to protect us in our travels. For this trip, I’d actually talked things over with the adventurers’ guild and had them registered as such.
In an alternate plan, I would have been an adventurer, too, but it stood out so badly that my skill level was below that of the these four that I had to give up on that one. It was true that I was weak, but they were almost too strong. We had the best fighters in the kingdom with us, after all.
Let’s get back to the story.
The arrangement was that we would wait here for our escort from the Star Dragon Mountain Range to arrive. However, there was no set time for that. It was possible we would be delayed on our trip here, so we could only decide on a vague time, within a day or two of our arrival.
I said, “Well, if we just wait—”
“—they’ll make contact with... Uh... Wait, what?”
I had been responding to Aisha, but suddenly she was gone from my side. Actually, Tomoe, Hal, Kaede, and Carla were gone, too. More than that, everything including the village and its buildings had vanished in an instant.
The next thing I knew, I was standing alone in the middle of a field.
What, why am I in a field?! Where did everyone go?!
It was a desolate field with no sign of people or buildings.
Let... Let me tell you what happened! I was in the village, but I somehow ended up in a field. You... You guys think I don’t know what I’m talking about...
Wait, this wasn’t the time to be joking around.
Unable to believe the situation I’d found myself in, I was looking around restlessly, trying to find someone else, when the whole area suddenly went dark. Had it clouded over...? No, that wasn’t it! There was something massive up in the sky, and it was blotting out the sun. When I looked up to see what it was, there flew a massive dragon, twenty meters in length.
“Awhuhwhuh?!” I babbled incoherently at the incredible sight.
? ?
Bzzt.
Huh? Just now, for a moment, I felt something on my cheek... she thought.
At that same time, in her cave on the Dracul Plateau, Naden quizzically tilted her head to the side.
Naden had once again shut herself in today to watch broadcast programs from the Gran Chaos Empire, but she just felt something weird in her cheeks. It was small, like a little bug had landed there. However, when she rubbed her squishy cheeks, there was nothing there.
“...Well, whatever.” Naden returned to watching the broadcast program.
Suddenly, Pai rushed up to her in human form. “This is huge, Naden!”
The very next moment, bang, Pai struck her leg on the table. While Pai crouched down and grasped her leg in pain, the still hot tea that had been sitting on the table splashed all over Naden’s tail.
“Hiyahhhhh!” It was so hot Naden let out a scream that could have come from a kung-fu movie star.
Thrashing around, she almost knocked the simple receiver over, but desperately stopped herself just short enough to keep from breaking it. Meanwhile, Pai, who had already recovered from the pain in her leg, was looking at Naden in exasperation.
Groaning, Pai said, “What are you doing, Naden?”
“What am I doing?! This is all your fault! It was hot, okay?!”
“Hold on, that doesn’t matter right now,” said Pai. “This is a much bigger deal.”
“That was a big deal to me! If I break this receiver, I may not find another one...”
“I’m telling you, there’s something more important going on!”
“You can talk all you want. I’m going to sleep.”
Naden went to lie down in the bed she had acquired from the outside world, but Pai, who had a sulky look on her face, put a stop to that.
“No sleeping! Listen to me! Lady Tiamat has summoned you!”
“...Eep.” Naden froze stiff just as she was about to get into bed.
Tiamat, who was also known as Mother Dragon, the ruler of the Star Dragon Mountain Range, was sacred and inviolable, and her existence was an absolute. Not even the dragons could lay eyes on her revered face without good reason. Only when they were invited by her to perform some function, or on some other business, were they able to stand in her presence.
Furthermore, about the only time she summoned them was when she meant to bestow some honor on them, or harsh punishment.
Pai looked at Naden pityingly. “What’d you go and do this time, Naden?”
“Could you not immediately assume I’m getting punished?” Naden griped.
“Well, have you done anything you’d deserve to be honored for?”
“...No...”
While Naden was wracking her brains, thinking, What could I have done...? the idol dancing and singing on her simple receiver caught her eye. There were some dragons with more traditional values who opposed bringing in things from the human world like this.
“You think it’s this?” Naden stared at the simple receiver.
Pai sighed. “They say Tiamat can see everything in the whole world. She definitely knows.”
“I-If it was a problem, she would have told me off for it sooner!” Naden protested. “That’s never happened, okay?”
“Wasn’t she just letting it slide before? Or can you think of another reason?”
“A reason... Maybe that I’ve crossed the border over thirty times now?”
“You’ve been going out that much?! Wait, I’ve got another idea. Naden, you refused to participate in the Contract Ceremony, didn’t you?”
“But... I mean...” Naden’s face turned gloomy.
The Contract Ceremony, when the young knights of the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom came to form marriage contracts with the dragons, was a grand occasion for the dragons that came around once in a lifetime. However, for an odd, wingless dragon like Naden it was only a place where she would be a laughingstock.
Pai knew how Naden felt about it, but she also knew that skipping out on things would only isolate Naden more, so she was stern. “You skipped the dance practice for the Contract Ceremony, didn’t you?”
During the ceremony, a knight and dragon would dance together as proof of their newly formed contract. Then, when the dragon had finished dancing in human form, she would take on the form of a dragon, and their contract would be formally established when they departed the Star Dragon Mountain Range together. The dance lessons were to prepare for this.
Naden puffed up her cheeks and pouted, turning her head to the side and refusing to make eye contact. “There’s no point in practicing for an event I have no intention of attending.”
Pai groaned. “Didn’t you get in a fight with Ruby and the others a little while ago, too?”
“They made fun of me for not being able to fly!”
“Don’t you think the combination of all that is what’s getting you called in now? In my opinion, it’s impressive she let you get away with all of that for so long.”
“Urgh...” Naden had no response to that.
“But, well, if she’s never said anything to you before, I don’t think you’re going to suddenly get punished for it, you know?” Pai said with a sigh. “If you’re doing something wrong, you ought to be scolded first.”
“Y-Yeah!” Naden said with relief.
“But even if it’s just a warning this time, will that change how you behave?” Pai put her hand down on the simple receiver as she spoke. “If she told you to dispose all these things you picked up in the lower world...”
“That’s like telling me to die!”
“It’s that bad?” Pai asked.
Naden pulled the exasperated Pai’s hand off the receiver and hid it behind her back. “I can’t throw this out. The simple receiver is my longing for the outer world.”
“And the romance novels?”
“My longing to have someone choose me.”
“What are you, a maiden with your head full of dreams?”
“I am a maiden. ...Even if I’m like this.”
Pai shrugged her shoulders in dismay. “Whatever; just be ready for it. Even if she’s going to be mad at you, it’s best to get it done with quickly.”
With Pai admonishing her like that, Naden reluctantly turned off the receiver.
? ?
The big dragon descending from the heavens began to shine when it touched the ground. The outlines of its form blurred in the light, shrinking down to human size.
When the light subsided, before me stood a woman wearing all-white robes, a square hood over her head, and a thin veil over her face. It was hard to be sure with her face mostly covered, but she was maybe in her forties. Well, in a world with long-lived races, it was basically impossible to rely on how old someone looked, though.
The woman in white walked up to me. “You are King Souma Kazuya of the United Kingdom of Elfrieden and Amidonia, I presume?”
“I am... Are you here from the Star Dragon Mountain Range?”
The woman brought a hand to her chest and bowed to me. “I come on behalf of Lady Tiamat, our mother dragon. I will now bring you to the Dracul Plateau in the Star Dragon Mountain Range.”
“Our mother dragon”... Oh, that’d be that Mother Dragon, I guess. Was Tiamat her name...? Wait, huh? Tiamat... Wasn’t that the name of the oldest dragon to appear in Earth’s legends? I vaguely remembered it because the name had shown up in all sorts of things.
For starters, it was said that Mother Dragon had been around since before the people of this continent had formed countries, so she lived up to the name, at least.
I asked the lady in white, “And might I inquire as to whom I have the pleasure of speaking with?”
“There’s no need to be so polite with me. I am one of the priestesses in the service of Lady Tiamat.”
“A priestess?”
“Yes. The dragons are a race that live a thousand years. However, if a dragon’s partner leaves this world before they can have children, that dragon lives in solitude for a long time. Such dragons return to the Star Dragon Mountain Range, becoming priestesses who serve Lady Tiamat. They care for her, maintain Crystal Castle, and look after the young dragons.”
In other words, dragons who lost their families returned to the Star Dragon Mountain Range to become priestesses.
“Can’t they get remarried to another knight?” I asked.
“There are some who can,” the woman said. “However, this is a matter of fate. It is up to the guidance of destiny, and to the blessing of Lady Tiamat who binds the fates of men and dragons.”
The guidance of destiny, huh. Was Mother Dragon a god of matchmaking or something like that, then?
That aside, I decided to ask the question that had been bothering me for a while now.
“By the way, where is this? I’m pretty sure I was with my companions in the village where we agreed to meet just a moment ago...”
“This field lies five kilometers to the northeast of that village,” the woman said. “Lady Tiamat used her power to move you here.”
Who could have expected teleportation?! Appearing in dreams, instantly transporting people... Mother Dragon’s power really was off the charts. I could see why people might worship her.
“Can all dragons do things like that?!” I exclaimed.
“No,” the priestess said. “It is only possible for Lady Tiamat, who has lived an eternity, and who is worshiped as a god. It is her divine intervention, you might say. Rest assured, she will never use that power for her own selfish desires.”
“...I hope I can believe that.”
Used correctly, it was a power with limitless destructive potential, after all. This was someone I didn’t want, and couldn’t afford, to make an enemy of. I wanted very much for her to be a god that watched over the world, but didn’t intervene in it.
I scratched my head. “Anyway, you were saying you’d take me to Dracul, but what about the companions I left behind in that village? I may not have been coronated yet, but I am a king, you know? Didn’t my sudden disappearance cause a total panic back there?”
The dragon priestess looked at me apologetically, and bowed her head deeply. “I must apologize. Due to the urgency of our circumstances, while I do realize this is rude, I ask that you come to Dracul alone. One of my fellow priestesses is heading to your followers now to explain the situation. We will invite your followers to come on another day, at some time before the day of the ceremony.”
“Will I be getting an explanation of those circumstances?” I asked.
“Please, ask Lady Tiamat for the details. I will just say... Lady Tiamat wishes for you to participate in this year’s Contract Ceremony.”
The Contract Ceremony... That was where the knights and dragons formed marriage contracts, right? Did this mean that, just as Hakuya had hoped, I would be participating as one of the partners?
“I’m the King of Friedonia, you know?” I said. “I’m not from the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom, and I have absolutely no intent of becoming a dragon knight.”
“That is not a problem,” the priestess said confidently. “If Lady Tiamat says you are worthy to participate, that is all there is to it. Besides which, I hear the first king of Elfrieden was a hero who formed a contract with a dragon.”
The priestess spoke with certainty, as if Mother Dragon’s words were absolute. Even if they were... I didn’t know what to say about being suddenly told to marry a dragon I’d never even met before. Well, my engagements to Liscia and Roroa had been the same way, but it wasn’t exactly a thing you got used to.
“But isn’t the contract a vow between husband and wife?” I asked. “I still haven’t married them yet, but I already have four fiancĂ©es, you know? Is that okay?”
“That is, again, no problem,” the priestess said. “This contract is, by no means, something that has already been decided on. If you do not wish to form a contract with anyone, human or dragon, you may make that decision.”
Oh, I see, I thought. The Contract Ceremony isn’t something I’ll be forced into in any way? It’s more like a matchmaking session that’s hard to get out of because I can’t afford to offend my parents or the other party, then. If that’s all... I was beginning to feel better about the situation.
“However, Lady Tiamat is one who binds the fates of humans and dragons,” said the woman. “Lady Tiamat went to the trouble of calling you here, so I suspect that there is someone that you are meant to meet there.”
I was speechless.
The priestess said that with the same confidence as before.
Did that mean there was a dragon in the Star Dragon Mountain Range who was fated to be with me? And, if I went there, was I going to be stuck taking her as my wife? Just like the god of matchmaking, Mother Dragon, had claimed?
When I thought of how Liscia and the others would react, my head started to hurt.
Then the dragon priestess began to shine once more and turned into a dragon. “Now, I will take you to Dracul at once.”
“Wha?! Right now?!”
“Yes. Lady Tiamat said it was urgent.”
Urgent? Were the circumstances that pressing?
The dragon priestess grabbed me tightly with her large front leg. Oh, it was covered in a thin layer of fur, and was kind of warm... Wait, now wasn’t the time to think about that!
“Hold on, I’m not emotionally prepared for—wait, ah!”
“Now, let us be on our way.”
“Hold on! Ahhhhhhhhh!”
I was instantly taken away into the sky.
? ?
“Oh...” For an instant, Naden felt her cheeks buzz again.
It was slightly numbing, like there was a jolt of electricity passing through them. It felt stronger than the last time, too.
Naden wondered what it could be, but... she had bigger concerns. After all, she had been summoned by Mother Dragon right now.
In the center of the Dracul Plateau was a lake, Lake Drag, large enough that waves formed on its surface. In that lake was Crystal Castle, where Mother Dragon resided.
That palace was made from an unknown material that was translucent like crystal, and it was more massive than any castle in the world outside the Star Dragon Mountain Range. The master of that castle, Mother Dragon, was the size of a hill herself, so it was only natural that her residence be so large.
Naden was in Crystal Castle’s waiting room. Everyone who’d been called in by Mother Dragon would wait in this room, then be magically summoned to appear in front of her when she had time to see them.
Incidentally, though there were no strict rules about this, it was customary to take dragon form, not human form, when having a meeting with Mother Dragon. This was because their human form was a temporary one, taken for the pledge with a knight, and it was seen as inappropriate to appear before a godbeast like Mother Dragon in it. However, Naden was still in her human form.
She hadn’t done that because she would be appearing before Mother Dragon. Naden was usually in human form. She hated her dragon form, which had gotten her ridiculed as a “flightless lizard” and a “worm.” To put it simply, she’d developed a complex about it.
Does having wings... and being able to fly make you all so great...? Naden muttered in her head.
The area around her suddenly began glowing. Then, the very next moment, a massive silver dragon the size of a hill appeared.
Her eyes sparkled like sapphires. Her horns looked incredibly strong. Her wings were large and powerful, with feathers like a bird’s, each of them was as large as a broadsword.
Furthermore, her entire body was covered with smooth hair, and in the light that shone down from the open ceiling, she sparkled with a color that went back and forth between silver and rainbow. She was a being so absolute that even Naden, who had seen her many times now, gulped and stared in awe each time they met.
She was the queen of dragons, the holy mother dragon: Tiamat.
When Naden came back to her senses, she knelt down, putting a hand over her breast and bowing her head. “...Naden Delal. Here at your behest.”
Naden was feigning calmness, but her heart was pounding. She couldn’t help but worry about why Mother Dragon might be upset with her.
Is it my skipping practice for the Contract Ceremony? Is it my fighting with the other dragons? Or... is it my having brought a simple receiver made in the Gran Chaos Empire back here? Oh, what am I going to do if she tells me to get rid of it...?
“Raise your head, Naden.”
Naden heard that peaceful voice come from above her head. It had a depth that sounded like three people speaking at the same time, as if it were echoing inside the listener’s own heart.
When she raised her head like the voice told her to, those sapphire eyes were staring right at Naden’s face. In that tense atmosphere, Naden thought she could feel the sweat running down her back.
“Um... Er...”
Naden tried to say something, but her tongue just wouldn’t move right.
Tiamat didn’t seem angry with her. If anything, it was a soft look on her face.
She’s not going to get mad at me? Then why did I get called here? Why is Lady Tiamat looking at me with such gentle eyes?
Those questions sprang to mind one after another, throwing Naden’s heart into disarray. “Um... Lady Tiamat...?”
When she managed to force just those words out, Tiamat began speaking softly.
“The furiously moving gear approaches the gear that has come to a stop.”
“...Huh?” Naden had no idea what had just been said to her. Gears? What was she even talking about?
Without any concern for Naden’s confusion, Tiamat continued. “Eventually, the two gears will mesh. The stopped gear will be forced to move, and the gear that spins furiously as if driven by something will slow its pace. However, that is nothing to be sad about. It merely means that they will spin at the same pace.”
“U-Um... I have no idea what you’re talking about...?”
It was too abstract for Naden to make sense of. Had she been called here to hear this? The furiously spinning gear... The stopped gear... The meshing of the two...?
“Naden.”
“Y-Yes!”
With Tiamat’s eyes fixed straight on her, Naden stood up straight.
“Be prepared. It will soon begin to move.”
Prepared? Begin to move? What would, exactly...?
“Um... Lady Tiamat... just what is going to start moving?” Naden ventured.
Tiamat took on the face of an angel delivering a revelation, or a mother watching over her child, and told her:
“Your time.”