SWTI 06

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Chapter 6

Anyway, he also explained that while the ring had no magical curse or blessing, it was made from the horn of the Demon Dragon Kaiseus.

“They said dragon bones never melt.”

My eyes gleamed ominously.

For now, even though I had coughed up blood, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with my body. But you never knew.

If things came to it…

“I’ll grind it down until the particles are too fine to see and scatter them into the sea. Then I’ll say I lost it.”

The Grand Duke’s household would be turned upside down if they found out their family heirloom had disappeared, but I couldn’t help it.

I simply had to become important enough to the Grand Duke’s family that, even with such a fatal flaw, they wouldn’t be able to mistreat me.

In the end, it’s another favorability-building project.

Having reached my conclusion, I groaned and rubbed the wet towel someone had placed over me when—

“……?”

Tremble.

The ring shook.

I mean, the ring actually shook.

The ring on my finger shook!

What the hell is this?

I stared at it incredulously, and the trembling ring suddenly stopped as if pretending nothing had happened.

I narrowed my eyes.

“Maybe I’m weak from being sick. I must be seeing things.”

Then I gracefully rose from my seat and walked toward the display cabinet.

The cabinet was filled with my beloved collection that I had brought from the Seton estate.

Among them, I picked up a crystal hand hammer that glittered like a piece of glasswork.

“Do you know what I hate most in this world?”

Humming to myself, I forcibly pulled off the ring, which for some reason seemed reluctant to leave my finger, and secured it beneath the hammer.

“Ghosts. Because you can’t put a price on them.”

And just as I raised the crystal hammer high—

[Waaah!]

The ring suddenly rolled away on its own, slipped out of my hand, and then—

Pop!

It transformed into something.

A plump black body.

Round, adorable red eyes.

A pair of tiny wings fluttering behind its back.

A short, stubby tail.

And two horns jutting sharply from the top of its head.

Wait. Is that one and a half horns?

The left horn, strangely translucent and almost ethereal, had been cleanly cut off halfway.

I stared at it with an utterly dumbfounded expression.

“A lizard?”

[Th-this body is not some lowly creature like that!]

“Oh? It talks, too?”

[Gasp……!]

The lizard slapped its pink, jelly-like paws over its mouth.

I stared at the utterly pathetic-looking ring impersonator with a crooked smile.

“So I really am hallucinating. I need to get rid of it.”

As I approached, the lizard frantically flapped its wings as though trying to escape.

However, its tiny wings were completely useless compared to its plump body.

It managed to hover barely three centimeters above the ground before—

Thump.

It dropped back down.

I immediately grabbed the lizard by the scruff of its neck and dangled it as I walked toward the window.

I threw the window wide open.

[Waaaaait!]

“Do you have something to say, you ring-impersonating lizard?”

[I told you I’m not a lizard!]

“Then what are you?”

The lizard raised its tiny face and proudly declared,

[This great one is Lord Kaiseus!]

—seus……

The lizard’s words echoed.

“Oh, really?”

I smiled sweetly and held the lizard out the window.

Whoooosh—

A powerful wind blew up from below. Even though it was spring, the northern winds were vicious.

“Then goodbye, you ring-impersonating, name-stealing lizard.”

The lizard’s previously proud little wings drooped.

[…Please spare me, human.]

“So you’re really the Demon Dragon Kaiseus?”

I sat on the bed with my legs crossed, staring at the pitch-black lizard in front of me.

The lizard was barely a span and a half long—

Two spans if you count the horns!

—so I had no choice but to put it on the table so we could meet at eye level.

No matter how I look at it, it’s suspicious.

My instincts were telling me that this lizard was somehow connected to my coughing up blood.

So I gave it a reasonable amount of intimidation.

The lizard—or rather, Kaiseus—quickly nodded.

[To be precise, I am Kaiseus II. I inherited the name.]

“I don’t understand a single thing you’re saying.”

[As expected, humans are so dull—]

“You’d better choose your words carefully if you value your life, you flightless lizard.”

Kaiseus stared at me like I was some villain and trembled.

[Bad human……]

“If you’re a dragon, why can’t you fly in the first place?”

[That’s because this body isn’t an adult yet. Once I’ve fully grown, you won’t even be able to look up high enough to see me!]

Kaiseus puffed out his chest proudly.

“You say that like it’s something to brag about.”

I found him a little ridiculous, but I was genuinely curious, so I asked,

“Then how old are you right now?”

[One hundred!]

As Kaiseus proudly spread his two tiny front paws wide, a possibility suddenly occurred to me.

He inherited the name? And he’s only a hundred years old?

I asked, almost afraid of the answer.

“Are you the dragon who made a contract with the Grand Duke of Runein a hundred years ago?”

[That’s right.]

“The dragon who started the Thousand-Year War?”

[That was my predecessor. Kaiseus I.]

My mind began spinning rapidly.

I stared at Kaiseus’s severed horn.

Realizing what I was looking at, Kaiseus rubbed the broken horn with his adorable jelly-like paw.

[That horn is what the ring was made from.]

“……Why? Why didn’t you continue the war like your predecessor?”

Because you’re still young? Are you storing up your strength?

I eyed Kaiseus suspiciously.

We might have been sitting here peacefully facing each other, but my opponent was supposedly a Demon Dragon.

According to legend, he was the king of monsters who brought bloodshed and slaughter.

At my question, Kaiseus answered with a sulky expression.

[This great one is a pacifist.]

What?

[Just because I inherited the name doesn’t mean you can treat me like my predecessor! It’s offensive.]

I was speechless.

A pacifist Demon Dragon?

“……Are you a vegetarian, too?”

[How did you know?]

Kaiseus arrogantly strutted about, saying that his favorite food was red, round fruit and that he would graciously accept some if I offered them to him.

I quietly raised my hand.

Smack!

[Waaah! Why did you hit me?!]

“Because your mouth doesn’t seem very peaceful.”

After giving him a little bonk on the head, Kaiseus clutched his head with his short arms, tiny tears welling in his eyes as he looked utterly wronged.

How was this thing supposed to be a Demon Dragon?

I clicked my tongue and organized the information in my head.

“So you’re a second-generation Demon Dragon who claims to be a pacifist, and you were hiding by disguising yourself as a ring?”

[H-how dare you call it a gloomy disguise!]

“It was gloomy. If you’re a pacifist, why were you hiding as a ring in the first place?”

[Th-that…… was our covenant from a hundred years ago.]

“A covenant?”

Kaiseus stared up at me.

[Eternal rest upon this land.]

The voice that came from Kaiseus’s mouth was completely different from his previous whining and fussing. It was solemn, powerful, almost as though it resonated directly with the soul.

[A hundred years ago, I made a promise to the Grand Duke of Runein. In exchange for helping me inherit this name, I promised to bring peace to this land.]

It was exactly the same voice that had urged me to change the future and pay the price.

“—You.”

[Hmph. Now you understand how great this body is—]

“Why are you pretending to be all grown-up when you’re so tiny?”

I smiled sweetly and vigorously ruffled his smooth head.

Kaiseus’s face crumpled miserably.

It was the first time I’d learned that even a dragon could make a face like that.

“Obviously, if you showed up looking like that, no one would believe you. Well, it was the right strategy. Even I wouldn’t have believed you.”

[Grr……!]

“So why me?”

[……]

“What was the reason?”