I used both hands to repeatedly check the hard and smooth things that sprouted out on both sides of my head.
“Horns…”
It"s horns.
“Why…?”
Question marks fill my thoughts.
“There"s also wings growing in the middle…”
“You"re kidding!?”
I turned my neck around to the limits of its range of motion.
A white object appeared at the edge of my field of view.
Pure white wings, different from Aoi, Jaja and Nana.
A thin skin stretched over a skeleton covered with scales, exactly like wings.
It grew slightly upward from the back and was considerably smaller than Aoi"s wings.
“When I twisted my body because it was hard to see, it moved in response to my will.”
Seriously?
“There"s also a tail…”
I lowered my line of sight because of Aoi "s words.
Just like she said, I have a tail.
A tail covered with white scales that continues on from the bottom of my back.
I tried moving it.
The tail moved as I wanted it to.
“Hah? Haaaaaa?”
Wait a minute!
Calm down, Kunpei!
If I remember correctly, I didn"t think I could manage Yule"s thunderball, so I ate Jaja and Nana"s egg sh.e.l.ls like Alba Germain told me to.
I remember up until the part where I was suddenly attacked by an intense headache.
I can"t remember anything after that.
It feels like I heard a very nostalgic voice.
“That"s definitely a dragon"s tail, wings and horns…”
Aoi, who was dumbfounded, reached her hand towards my head and ouched my right horn.
“What"s going on…”
“I-I don"t know.”
Even if I asked Aoi, she had no idea whatsoever.
“Uaaaaaaaaaah!!”
“!? Mother!!”
Yule"s sorrowful scream brought us back to reality.
It was already too late, the thunderball has already swelled to an impossibly large size, it was expanding and shrinking vertically and horizontally, you could tell it had reached the limits just by looking at it.
“Kunpei-san, get behind me for the time being!”
Aoi stood up and transformed into a dragon with a flash of light.
A beautiful deep blue body.
Aoi was about three times my height in dragon form.
I noticed more strange things while looking up at her.
“W-what are those.”
It was a band of light like the aurora.
Small particles of light flowed around Yule while drawing irregular rays of light.
A sight that I have never seen was projected in my field of view.
When I carefully observed the particles of light, it looks like a b.u.t.terfly that was repeatedly flapping its wings to the limit on each flap.
“Maybe… these are spirits…?”
Hundreds, thousands, no, possibly even hundreds of millions of light b.u.t.terflies gathered towards Yule in distorted rows.
The light clinging to Yule"s body turns into a single luminous body, distorting as if it was trying to escape.
The light ma.s.s that could not escape was connected from Yule"s head to the thunderball in the sky, the b.u.t.terflies collided with each other and filled the sky with splashes of each others" remains.
“Gaaaaaah!!”
Aoi"s roar shook the ground.
“Uwaaaaaaaaaah!”
Yule stopped screaming, lowered her head and looked down at us, no me, and swung her arms downward.
At the same time, the thunderball started to move.
It wasn"t fast.
It fell straight towards us at a speed that was about how quick the average human walks.
However, the thunderball was destroying an area even larger than itself.
The rock at Yule"s feet was scorched.
Tusk Crag was trembling.
A violent storm collided with us, rocking our bodies.
“Gwaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Aoi roared.
A thin black cloud was produced, swirling around and gathering in front of Aoi.
No matter how you look at it, the amount was less than the black cloud from earlier.
Tiny b.u.t.terflies flapped for their dear life around that cloud but was blown away one after another by the aftermath of the thunderball.
Is that how it is?
By manipulating those b.u.t.terflies, Aoi and Yule are creating wind and lightning.
Yule who was rampaging, was overwhelmingly collecting b.u.t.terflies, is that why Aoi isn"t able to make clouds?
“Aoi!”
I clung to that large foot and wanted to support her body, even if just a little.
“Eh?”
There I noticed.
There were a little bit of b.u.t.terflies that followed me as I moved.
“… Perhaps”
I remembered.
When Aoi and Yule manipulated lightning, their horns reacted by emitting light.
I tried to concentrate on the horns that grew out.
It was an amazing feeling.
It was like moving your fingers, when you are aware that you want to bend your fingers, they"re already bent.
The b.u.t.terflies flew to the black cloud that Aoi manipulated according to my will.
I felt the gently flowing wind.
A gentle wind that rustles the trees but still has a presence.
“More… more… please! Gather more!”
Did those words that unconsciously come out of my mouth reach those b.u.t.terflies? The amount heading towards the black cloud increased just a bit.
However, it"s not enough.
Not enough at all.
The thunderball mercilessly arrived before our eyes.
Aoi"s black cloud came into contact with the thunderball that was under Yule"s control.
We were enveloped in a dazzling light.
“Gaaaaaah!!”
Pain ran throughout my entire body.
It was hot to the point where it felt like my blood was boiling.
My skin was charred and even the flesh was burnt.
Aoi"s roar tore through the air and reverberated in my head.
That instant was h.e.l.l.
An instant of torture.
The fear of death is what prevented my consciousness from leaving my body.
Things and people you don"t want to lose.
Such a daunting image ran through my mind in an instant.
I wasn"t sure how long had pa.s.sed.
When I realized it, I was lying on the ground.
I was on top of Aoi, who had returned to human form for some time. I think I blacked out for a bit.
“Gah, uuhhh….?”
I picked my body up.
The burnt areas were stiff and it was physically hard to move.
It took a few seconds to remember that I fell down.
“Uuuhh… Kunpe…sa…”
Aoi groaned with a frail voice.
Black burn marks covered her body, it was extremely painful to look at.
The wounds were slowly healing while emitting red smoke.
“I"m alive?”
You"re kidding.
Even though I already thought I was done for.
Why am I alive?
I opened my hands and stared at them.
The countless wounds on my palms were slowly healing.
The red smoke that I thought was coming out of Aoi"s body seems to be mixing with me.
Was this because I became a dragon?
“Ai…?”
A sorrowful voice.
When I looked up, Yule was standing still in a daze.
“Huh? What did I… do…?”
Light was lost from Yule"s eyes, who was looking at the unconscious Aoi.
I forcibly turned my neck to see the situation at the nest.
I was relieved to find my father hugging the twins with a blue face.
Did that Alba guy properly protect them?
I heard crying.
The sound that echoed from far away reverberated in both my ears.
Jaja and Nana were crying.
That"s no good.
At this rate, we will all be unhappy.
That cry was a fearful cry.
It was not the usual hungry cry.
It was not a call for warmth.
That was a voice that was crying for fear of losing, a little heart that was afraid.
Think.
What should I do?
I am not doing anything.
I came all this way because I didn"t want to heart that cry, didn"t I?
That"s right.
I still haven"t told Yule anything.
I have to tell her my true intentions.
I forcibly moved my aching body and got up, and staggered towards Yule.
“… what in the… Ai…”
A trickle of tears ran down her cheeks from her eyes that were wide open.
The ‘mother" is crying because she cannot accept what she did.
This person is surely thinking too much.
Dragon King of the Sky.
Arbitrator of the skies.
What is it?
This person is a “mother”.
It was only a ‘mother" who thought of a child, no matter what their t.i.tle, no matter how long they live, and if he had the power to transcend living creatures.
“Yule…san”
She slowly looked at me.
“…Ah, I just wanted to protect Ai and those children … even though I just wanted to protect them.”
The dignity of the king of the sky was nowhere to be found in that frail figure.
“Why… this kind of thing…”
“Mother…”
Aoi spoke from behind me.
“Mother… I"m fine… so please. Don"t make that face.”
I stopped and looked back.
Aoi stood up holding her body.
The wounds on her body were mostly healed.
My wounds still haven"t healed yet, so that"s the resilience of a real dragon.
“Calm down an listen.”
Aoi looked at Yule with a strong gaze.
“Ai…”
Yule was fl.u.s.tered and took a step back.
“… It would have been over if it wasn"t you.”
“Uuu..”
Yule silently trembled from my words.
“If we were driven this far by someone other than you, not only me and Aoi, but Jaja and Nana would be done for as well.”
That"s right.
Being afraid of that scenario is what we have in common with Yule.
“We"re weak. We can"t win against you even when you"re riddled with wounds and can"t make rational judgments, so it"s normal for you to worry.”
“…that"s why!”
“That"s why!!!”
I cut Yule off and continued speaking.
The only thing I can do right now is to tell you.
“… We"ll receive help. There are still a lot of things that we"re lacking, so I can"t fill it right away and have to get help. So I"ll bow as many times as I have to. You can laugh at me. I want to stay with them, so it doesn"t matter even if I"m laughed at.”
I slowly got down on my knees.
“I look very tiny and unreliable to you. I know. I"m aware. That"s why…”
I placed my hands on the ground.
“Please help.”
And then I put my head on the ground.
“Y-you…”
“Kunpei-san…”
I could hear Yule"s confused voice and Aoi"s trembling voice.
“When we make a mistake, when all is hopeless, when we have no way forward or back. At that time, please help us.”
I kept my head down.
I can hear footsteps.
I heard crying.
My father seems to have brought the kids.
“Please help your daughter and your grandchildren. I don"t mind if you abandon me. Please somehow protect your ‘jewels".”
I don"t know if this figure is something the twins would be proud of.