The Hero’s Disciple Has Returned

I immediately realized.

That this was again the dream world. I wasn’t dreaming, but had fallen into the dream world. I was able to realize this right away.

‘Is it the World Tree again?’

Since I couldn’t think of anyone else who would invite me like this, I naturally thought it would be the World Tree.

But after opening my eyes, I soon realized that wasn’t the case.

“…Who are you?”
“Oh? You’re not surprised? I expected you would naturally be surprised since experiencing a dream world is difficult.”

On the battlefield, the one who panics is the first to die. With luck, you might survive even if you panic, but a mercenary shouldn’t rely on luck. To begin with, someone with good luck wouldn’t become a mercenary. So there’s nothing more foolish than believing you have luck while doing mercenary work. And I’m not foolish. Therefore, I always tried not to panic no matter what happened, and that effort shone in this moment. …Well, even if I didn’t panic, I’m not sure how much it would help in this situation. A being that can create and invite someone to a dream world could probably kill someone like me easily even if I don’t panic…

First, I observed the person in front of me as much as possible.

The first impression that came to mind was that of a respected elderly lady from a noble family. She seemed quite old, but there was no disorder in her posture, and the dignity and grace felt from her atmosphere seemed uniquely profound. First impressions aren’t always correct, but they’re not something that can be ignored either. Anyway, if someone who gives off such an impression can invite people to a dream world…

She can’t possibly be an ordinary person.

“I’ve had a similar experience… So it’s not that surprising.”
“Hmm? That’s interesting. Not many can do this sort of thing. Could you have survived an encounter with a dream demon? But you don’t seem particularly wary…”
“It was the World Tree.”
“…What?”
“The World Tree invited me and we had a conversation in the dream world.”
“…Hmm. The sun rising from the west. For the World Tree to take interest outside her barrier. Well, is it that strange? Looking at your soul, it seems quite possible, yes.”

As we conversed, I realized.

The being before me is different from the World Tree. Of course they’re different beings, so naturally they’d be different… But what I mean is that they’re fundamentally different. While it felt like I had direct conversation with the World Tree… Even though I was directly conversing with the being before me, it didn’t feel that way.

In the end, I had to ask.

“Are you a living being?”
“Oh.”

At my question, the elderly lady looked at me as if she had found an interesting toy.

“I’m truly surprised. The World Tree’s protection? Or is it the power of that special soul? Whatever it is, it’s fascinating. The ‘magic’ itself should be perfect.”
“Magic?”
“Yes, I am ‘magic’. To be precise, it would be correct to say I’m like the remnants of a soul left behind by magic. Because I as a being already returned to the earth long ago.”

At that moment, I thought of a possibility.

A being that can use soul remnants for magic, and existed long ago…

Even Great Magicians don’t use magic that cuts off parts of their own soul. No, they can’t. Because the soul is part of the whole and the whole is part of it. It’s not something that can be divided just because one wants to divide it. But there are beings capable of this. A race that has souls so much larger than humans that such things are possible… A race known to no longer exist now…

That is…

“Dragon…”

At my words, the elderly lady nodded with a gentle smile.

“You’re clever, child of humans. That’s right. I am Roael, the last Dragon Lord.”

…Heh, first elves, then the World Tree… Now dragons… And a Dragon Lord at that…

…Why does this keep happening to me?

♤♤♤

“You have an interesting expression. Hohoho.”
“…So what business does a Dragon Lord have with an ordinary human like me?”
“I think it’s a bit much to call you ordinary… But that’s not important right now, so let’s move on. I invited you here because I have a favor to ask of you.”
“…A favor? I don’t have much I can do, though?”
“No, it has to be you. The fact that this ‘magic’ of me, which hasn’t activated for 735 years, could activate means that someone matching the conditions set in the magic has appeared, and that someone is you.”
“So… For 735 years, no one matching the conditions appeared so it didn’t activate, and finally a suitable person appeared and the magic activated… and that was me?”
“You understood perfectly.”
“……”

…This is unfair.

Why do incidents and accidents keep happening around me when I’m not doing anything?… If I was wandering around ignorantly and got involved, there would be room for understanding… But it’s unfair that incidents and accidents keep happening even though I’m holed up in a quiet place.

Now a Dragon Lord’s magic that hasn’t found a suitable person for 735 years has appeared before me, arbitrarily involving me like this.

At this rate, won’t all sorts of demon races start showing up? Maybe even celestial beings will appear? …For a moment, I even had such ridiculous thoughts out of desperation.

Really… It felt like the world was desperate to get me.

They say unlucky people break their nose even when falling backwards… In my case, it’s like my nose is breaking even while I’m sitting quietly in a safe place.

“Do I absolutely have to accept this favor?”
“Hmm. Interesting. When I was alive, no one refused a dragon’s request.”

…Well, that’s because they were worried you might blow up the whole area if they refused and you got upset…

But that doesn’t apply to me.

The Dragon Lord has long since died. And the fact that we can talk like this is only because magic was set up to allow it. There’s no way anything new can be done here. The Dragon Lord’s corpse that could use this magic would have already become part of the earth, and the soul would be living well in heaven or hell. In the end, there’s no chance of me being swept up in anger from hurt feelings. So if I could ignore it, that would be best.

“You can refuse my request.”
“Really?!”
“But then something very bad will happen to the world.”

…This is infuriating…

“What do you mean by that?”
“Unfortunately, once this magic activates, that’s the end of it. So then, ‘what was being kept in a time-stopped state’ by this magic would appear in the world as is. And with a very high probability, things would turn out badly for the world.”
“…What exactly is that?”
“A dragon egg.”
“……”

So…

Dragons, which were thought to have completely disappeared from this world, haven’t completely disappeared. But if I don’t agree to take care of it, it will appear somewhere in this world, and who knows what the hatchling that emerges from that dragon egg will do? Is that roughly the situation?

“…Isn’t this not a request, but just a threat?”
“Aren’t a dragon’s requests no different from threats anyway?”

The smile she made while saying that had something beautiful yet fear-inducing about it.

Wow… What a nasty personality…

In other words, she knew it would be perceived as a threat, yet deliberately used the expression ‘request’ every time? I couldn’t help but conclude that she had a bad personality.

“Hadn’t dragons completely disappeared from this world?”
“They disappeared. More precisely, we self-destructed.”
“Self-destructed?”
“Perfect beings, it sounds wonderful when you say it. But being perfect isn’t as good as humans think. Rather, it’s boring, so boring that it’s hellishly boring. In the end, we became so bored that we didn’t want to live anymore and essentially self-destructed. Because none of us wanted to live anymore. So it’s correct to see it as self-destruction.”

As a human with many shortcomings and many hardships, I couldn’t understand this at all. But I have felt like dying because I was too lacking, too weak, too pathetic. Maybe it was the exact opposite of that? No, in that case, the weak side wanted to die, so the opposite should be that the strong side wants to live, right? Hmm. My expression was wrong. Then in this case, should we say extremes meet? Whatever the case, honestly, it wasn’t a story that resonated well with me.

“But one child… one dragon egg said it wanted to live. It said it wanted to go out of this shell and see the beautiful world, to directly see and experience humans. As long as it’s alive, that child has the right to live, so I had no right to stop it. So I left this magic to wait for someone who could properly take care of this child to appear, and when they appeared, to entrust this child to them. I had to use up my entire dragon heart for this… But as an old dragon with not much life left anyway, I could do this much for a new life.”

As expected of a dragon…

Their specs were too different from humans. It was on a completely different level from stories like a wealthy grandfather building a mansion as big as a castle at his granddaughter’s request.

I want to refuse. I strongly want to refuse. I sincerely want to decline. I want to decline so badly, but…

‘As long as it’s alive, it has the right to live, huh…’

The moment I heard those words, I recalled what I did for Sera.

I was the same.

I thought that as long as that young child was alive, she had the right to live.

That’s why I gave my aura heart to that child. Hoping that she could continue to live and enjoy her rights.

Wasn’t it the same for the Dragon Lord?

It’s really something that I got involved in this…

But just as I did, the Dragon Lord was simply fulfilling her duty as an adult.

If that’s the case…

At the very least, I can’t deny the Dragon Lord, can I?

After all, if I deny the Dragon Lord here, wouldn’t that be like turning on my own kind?

“…But I still don’t think I’m suitable. I have no experience raising anything properly, so I’m very anxious and don’t think I have any qualifications as a guardian. Wouldn’t it be better to find a more suitable person?”

Although I am Sera’s master… Honestly, Sera grew up on her own. If anything, I benefited a lot from Sera. I’m utterly unqualified as a guardian. With that level of lack of experience, career, and know-how as a guardian, I really didn’t have even an ant’s eyelash worth of confidence in taking good care of a dragon egg, that is, a hatchling.

“Don’t worry. The fact that this magic activated means that you are the living being with the most excellent child-rearing talent in this world.”
“……”

Not the most outstanding sword talent in the world, but the most outstanding child-rearing talent in the world…

It’s surely meant to be a compliment… But I found it incredibly strange why it didn’t sound like a compliment at all…

♤♤♤

When I woke up from my sleep
Next to me… there was an egg.
It had such a presence that anyone could tell it wasn’t an ordinary egg because it was too big

Although it was hard to use cute expressions like ‘egg’ because of that…