Dragonlord

Ep 181. Some Things Don’t Need To Be Taught. (3)

Ep 181. Some Things Don’t Need To Be Taught. (3)

Beneath the morning sun, Serenis stepped back into the familiar plain.

Unlike last night, she was alone; and unlike last night, the plain was full of other dragons.

‘…Quite the gathering it’s become.’

It was almost as if the entire dragonkin had come to put their lord to the test.

Of course, the agreement between her and Xerun was never intended to bring about such large crowds; considering how the meeting was only yesterday, it wasn’t likely that simple word of mouth would have spread so fast, either.

In other words, it only meant that someone had intentionally publicized the details of yesterday’s meeting.

“…”

As Serenis glanced at the gathered dragons, she could see a myriad of expressions.

Some were hopeful and trusting; after having their lost families returned home, many had already come to trust their lord. Even Xerun himself held nothing but appreciation for Serenis’ deeds in Astellion.

But even among those that had come to accept Serenis, a shadow of doubt had remained in their hearts: their first meeting had not been with the dragon before them, but with a human child instead.

How many would truly believe that someone had returned to life, a thousand years after their death? That alone was a dubious tale. It didn’t help that many of the elders from yesterday’s meeting were leering at the dragonlord, almost as a predator would at a prey.

But once Serenis took notice of Ardion’s warm smile, her own expression immediately loosened.

It wasn’t because she was a brilliant ruler that she could stand here today.

In all her ventures thus far, numerous bonds had led and protected her. She’d met those that trusted and remembered her.

It her own kin would look at her in doubt, then she needed but prove it to them – that her son wasn’t cursed, and that she wasn’t a human child.

With a comforting sigh, the dragonlord stepped forth with a faint smile to meet Xerun’s gaze.

When words couldn’t convince her kin, she’d sought to convince them through her deeds.

But since her deeds couldn’t convince all of them, all that remained was for her to…

“…”

…Convince them through a gentle, loving display of affection.

After all, she’d promised Ardion to be lenient on his son.

✧   ✧   ✧

As Serenis stepped forth, Xerun likewise stepped forth from the crowd to meet her.

As the two dragons stood against each other within a ring of their own kin, Xerun once again scowled at the dragonlord.

“I see you haven’t fled. I applaud the courage, pretender.”

“Have you forgotten my name already? It’s Serenis.”

“…”

Xerun bit his lips in distaste.

After scowling some more, he dismissively wove his hand in the air.

“Let us begin. As per our agreement, nothing but pure strength will be used in this bout – no magic or sorcery or anything of the like.”

“I do remember. It was only yesterday.”

“…You sound quite confident considering your visage itself is a fake. Should you not be dispelling the spell that’s keeping up your ruse?...Human?”

Serenis almost let out a laughter at the question.

She then spared a moment to glance at Bruton, who was amidst the crowd of dragons – indubitably the source of Xerun’s mistaken knowledge.

Though, for obvious reasons, the elder red dragon was refusing to meet his lord’s gaze.

“…If you wish to see me proper, then…very well.”

Shrugging, Serenis took several steps back – which confused her kin all the more.

But just before Xerun could throw another snarky remark, a layer of light encased the dragonlord’s figure.

Quite a number of eyes widened at the sight.

And almost all of them did when the mass of light grew at an explosive rate.

The mass was far larger than what anyone had expected: dragons didn’t change much in size after reaching adulthood, and all of them were about equal in size once they were fully grown. Some even began to think it was another trickery of sorts.

But when the light melted away to reveal the towering dragon within, no one dared to speak of trickery.

…In fact, Xerun’s jaw dropped open without him even noticing it.

“Well, have at it then.”

“…”

Considering how big Serenis was now, ‘have at it’ was a tall order.

Though, the dragonlord’s rumbling voice did shake Xerun back to his senses – but instead of the given order, the first thing he did was giving a furious glare towards Bruton.

‘Bruton, you’d dare trick me-!’

Unfortunately, Bruton had done nothing of the sort. It was quite plain: Bruton’s jaw was open wider than Xerun’s was, with Aether looking just as surprised as her husband.

The only dragon that didn’t seem even remotely surprised was their daughter: Ilias was covering her overjoyed smile with one hand, and teasingly pointing at Xerun with the other.

‘Oh, you are soooooo screwed.’

Although Ilias hadn’t said her thoughts out loud, Xerun almost felt as if he could hear what she was thinking.

But before he could do anything more, a giant claw tapped the back of his turned head. Extremely gently at that.

“Are you alright, child?”

“…”

Clicking his tongue, Xerun pushed himself away from the dragonlord’s claw.

“…Don’t flatter yourself. Whatever you did to imitate our form, the kin’s strengths cannot be gotten from mimicking our appearance alone!”

Following suit, Xerun’s form likewise covered itself in crackling lights. The golden mass soon exploded to reveal a yellow-scaled dragon lunging forth towards the dragonlord.

And this time, Serenis really did laugh.

“…I know.”

Dragons were large: fully grown kin rivalled the size of a small mansion, and Xerun was no different. There were small variances among the kin, but it’d never been to a jarring extent.

…Until today.

Thud!

“…Brgh!”

In one swift motion, Serenis effortlessly knocked down Xerun mid-leap, pressing him into the ground before he could reach her.

And with him pinned to the ground, the gathered dragons could properly recognize just how big the difference was. It was like an elder pressing down a half-grown youngling.

Although, that wasn’t the only reason Serenis could overpower Xerun so easily.

“Hm. Perhaps you should engage in something physical more often, child. You seem rather slow.”

Xerun didn’t even register the comment as he rolled his eyes to look up at the speaking dragonlord.

And, once again, he would ask a pointless question to his opponent.

“…You’re…a dragonkin?”

“I don’t recall ever claiming that I am not.”

Xerun grit his teeth in frustration. He clawed at the ground to lift himself upright from the dragonlord’s talons pressing him.

“No…you were but a human child, we all saw you that day…this has to be that cursed treasure’s influence!”

“…Well, I do suppose that’s true to an extent, but…”

Snorting, Serenis simply lifted her claws off of Xerun’s back.

But before he could indulge in his regained freedom, her tail flung forth from the side to wrap around Xerun, lifting him into the air against his will.

“A human would not know how to use a tail, child.”

“…! Release me-“

“And…”

A pair of giant white wings spread open from Serenis’ back.

And, after a powerful wingbeat, the dragonlord took into the air – with her complaining opponent still securely wrapped in her tail.

“A human would not know how to use our wings.”

“Khh…! Release me at once!”

“Perhaps you should try asking rather than commanding.”

“Nonsense, I am an elder of the kin! I will not ask anything from you, pretender!”

“Very well. Stay, then.”

Even as Xerun squirmed to free himself, Serenis only tightened her tail around him.

As sorry as she was to Ardion, it was quite the amusing sight – what with all choking and struggling.

“R…release me…!”

“Add ‘please’ to that. Then I’ll release you immediately.”

“…”

“…Stubborn, aren’t you?”

Serenis let out an amused snort as Xerun shut his mouth thereafter. It really was like watching a rebellious child.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Although, their tantrum really wasn’t doing much.

And, from far below, the crowd of dragons were watching the scene with nothing short of amazement. Even Bruton and Aether, who’d initially thought they knew the dragonlord quite well, were surprised at the event’s turnout.

“This is…hardly a contest. I knew her skills in magic were far beyond us, but…”

“…Looks like we were worried about nothing.”

And Ilias soon chimed in, poking her head between her parents.

“See? I told you there’s nothing to worry about!”

Aether broke into laughter at their daughter’s confident voice. It hadn’t made sense to her before, but now, it was making too much sense.

Meanwhile, Bruton was frowning at the youngling’s triumphant tone.

“…Ilias, did you already know Lord Serenis could transform?”

“Well…yeah. And I mean, you should’ve known too, father.”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“Think about it. Remember how I carried Raizel back home?”

“Yes?”

“And remember how Lord Serenis arrived later with everyone else?”

“…Yes?”

“How do you think they got here in the first place? You’re not seriously thinking Lord Serenis carried them all in her small form, did you?”

“…”

He had not thought of that.

…Nobody had thought of that.