In the end, for those kids my worries were just none of my business.
Still, for me, it was so frustrating that I lost sight of myself.
I was looking up at the moon from the top of the roof.
Is it a half-moon today?
Certainly, the day I gave birth to Ai was also a halfmoon.
Three hundred years ago, when the previous Dragon King of the Sky, Nerke died, the family had a consensus that the strongest of us, I, should succeed him.
Honestly, I still feel a heavy burden even now.
I have never had a nest and wandered around to various places relying on the few relatives I had.
I would have never thought that different worlds would collide.
The civilization level at that time was laughable compared to now, there were primitive beastmen and some clever demons.
I traveled around the world while observing various races, various organizations, and various countries from the shadows.
I went to the Earth Dragon"s Forest and the Sea Dragon"s Island.
2,000 years old is still very young for dragons, in human terms it would be around late twenties.
I still wanted to keep playing, and didn"t want to take over the Sky Dragon King position.
However, there were no dragons stronger than me and younger than me, so I couldn"t do anything to refuse it, and became the Dragon King of the Sky.
It was terrible.
The Dragon King is a mediator.
The sky that I loved sometimes changed completely and devastated the earth.
Gouging the ground with winds, scattering rain, and burning forests with lightning.
It was my duty, as a Dragon King, to fix the distorted parts while humoring such a whimsical sky.
Starting from that point on, I didn"t have any time to rest.
From the west to the east, from the north to the south.
I traveled busily every day alone while pacifying the sky.
That"s when I gave birth to Ai.
I probably wished for some sort of support.
I built a nest in a convenient place and bid farewell to my lonely days.
When the egg-laying season began, my power declined and I was afraid to endure alone.
Even though I had laid eggs several times before, but the pain from that time is still unforgettable.
It felt like my body was being torn apart.
I cried and screamed when I found out that there was life in the egg, I embraced the egg and fell asleep.
Soon after, I met Ai.
Big round eyes and squishy cheeks.
A pampered child who easily succ.u.mbed to loneliness.
She would cry and laugh at a flip of a switch.
A beautiful light was cast into my world.
It was enjoyable to be together.
It was calming to sleep together.
It brought me a smile to play together.
That was when I remembered Alissa.
Alissa, who was younger than me, before one knew it, was nowhere to be seen.
I remembered that the adults were clamoring with scary faces.
Since I was still a child, n.o.body told me what happened to Alissa.
Since I was worried, I hugged the small Ai and visited Alissa"s mother, Sati.
Sati and Alissa lived on the top of a snowy mountain where other living things did not approach.
I was speechless after I saw her.
A little Alissa who always laughed and followed behind me in my memory.
A bright, tomboyish, and a little selfish, but a very lovable child.
That Alissa had a cold expression like she was a sculpture in front of me, it was painful to look at.
Sati explained to me, who was perplexed.
Being captured by beastmen and demon merchants.
Since then, Alissa has stopped laughing and getting angry.
If Sati doesn"t open her mouth, she doesn"t even eat.
The body of the dragon was a treasure that non-dragons coveted.
It was said that it gave one long life.
Or you"ll receive matchless power.
There are many people who believe in that idle gossip and aim for dragons.
But most dragons won"t lose, so those guys won"t be able to get their hands on us, that"s what I thought up until then.
Sati told me in a self-ridiculing tone.
『Yuriel, if that child is really important, you have to make sure to protect her, alright?』
I couldn"t do anything but nod.
Since then, I sometimes have nightmares.
The instance I take my eyes off her, Ai who was playing disappears, and her cry could be heard from a distance.
That kind of dream.
After waking up, I frantically looked for Ai and only became relived after I saw her.
It continued for a long time even after Ai grew up.
I became overprotective.
I have seen other races for a long time, so I know that some of them are kind.
But I"ve also seen enough evil with my own eyes.
It was horrible and unbearable.
There was a time where I was made to think how could anyone do such a cruel thing.
Ai is my jewel.
Shining brightly, and beautiful.
I decided to raise a strong child before she became independent.
At any rate, the other races coveted dragons.
I thought that we were more likely to deal with those attacked with knowing than those who attacked without knowing.
We went to various places starting from the nest.
Wealthy countries, poor countries, secluded villages, and extinct races.
I taught Ai how to fight while showing her these things.
Ai was not suitable for straightforward battles.
She was a cowardly crybaby, and instantly behaved like a spoiled child.
It was cute, and it was also my fault that I wasn"t strict on her.
Nevertheless, it was about 10 years after the solitary age set by the sky dragons that she grew up to be able to fight by herself.
I gave her the name Aoinoun, an ancient G.o.ddess"s name.
The G.o.ddess of the moon.
The t.i.tle “Soukyuu” seems to mean blue sky in this country.
A beautiful pale moon floating in the clear blue sky.
With that kind of image, “Soukyuu” Aoinoun Dragoline became independent.
Ai was crying and making a racket about not wanting to part, I was the same.
But to live strong, you have to stand alone.
If the dragons gather, there will be a fight for the dragons.
I left my memorable nest.
It was also related to the world collision.
There were scars everywhere in the sky, and I don"t know how many hundreds of years it will take to cure all of them.
I am the Dragon King of the Sky.
The guardian of the sky.
Even though I was away from Ai, I have never forgotten about her, not even for a second.
Even if I was busy or my mind and body were exhausted, I never suffered as long as I thought about Ai.
Because I was proud of protecting the world where that child lives.
I found out that Ai gave birth when I was working to eliminate a distorted storm in a place called the Grand Canyon.
The wind flowing from the distant sky blessed me.
I thought it was impossible.
I thought it was too early.
Dragon sp.a.w.ning and birth are very rare.
I realized there were too many things that I didn"t teach her yet.
I finished my work in a rush and return to j.a.pan.
When I wanted to take the shortest route, I was obstructed by the distortion of the sky, and could only use the route that humans use.
When I returned to the nest after finishing a very tired air travel while fixing the distortion that I happened to see, while avoiding being discovered, Ai was nowhere to be found.
But I knew she was nearby.
No matter where Ai was hiding, I had always been able to sense it right away.
When I left the nest to go meet her, the rat sage was there.
A shady dragon doctor who has been alive since before I was born.
No one liked this guy, but only his reliable skill was trusted.
There was no doubt that not a single dragon has died of an illness because of this guy.
The rat sage told me something unbelievable while laughing foolishly.
『Aoi? She set up a child with a human and is living with those people right now.』
My vision went dark.
I remembered Alissa hard to look at appearance.
Ai and my yet to seen grandchildren"s crying appearances.
A calm me in my head told me to calm down.
But the agitated me, who makes up the majority, screamed at me to go help them.
I immediately descended from the nest and looked for the house relying on Aoi.
I found the house and took a deep breath.
First, I"ll check on Ai and my grandchildren. Then I"ll listen to everything.
I thought so and rang the doorbell.
Because even I knew a little bit about humans.
No one came out no matter how many times I rang.
Impatience tried to manipulate my hand to break the door, but I managed to keep pushing the doorbell.
Finally the door opened and a man came out.
The man who came out was tall with evil looking eyes.
He didn"t look like a good person at all.
After that, my thoughts were in disorder, acted recklessly, hurt Ai, couldn"t even fix the mess I made, and then woke up in the house of the man I antagonized.
I opened the window, flew up to the roof and looked up at the moon.
However I just felt pathetic.
“Yo, you woke up, huh.”
When I turned towards the voice, the rat sage was standing there.
“… aah, what is it? Aren"t you in a good mood.”
“Well that"s right. For a long time, for a truly long time, I finally found something I was looking for that I didn"t stop wishing for a long time. It"s fine to be happy about it, right?”
“What is it?”
“Secret.”
“Is that so?”
I"m not interested.
Anyways, even if I hear it, I can"t trust it.
“… What was that?”
“That?”
I remembered the most strange thing.
“… that brat changed into a dragon. Was that your work?”
In the first place, I know that this guy instigated me, and helped Ai and them.
Perhaps even now, we dragons are dancing on the palms of this great sage.
“That wasn"t a dragon. There"s no way a human can become a dragon, right.”
“No, that was a dragon. The proof was that the heavenly spirits obeyed him.”
That"s right.
The source of the Sky Dragon"s power, the descendants of the Great Spirit, definitely followed that guys horns.
No one other than dragons could do that.
“It"s not a dragon, if you become a dragon just by eating an egg sh.e.l.l, the world would be full of dragons.”
He turned the staff on his waist and looked at the moon.
Well, I wonder if he"s evading the question.
“… It"s still better if that guy is a dragon.”
That"s right.
A dragon can be trusted much more than humans, beastmen, and demons.
There will also be no worries if I entrust Ai and the kids to him.
Though I"ve never seen a male dragon.
“Don"t worry about that. I came from Ruby"s earlier.”
“Ah?”
What"s this guy talking about?
What business did you have to take care of with the Dragon King of the Earth?
“You know Ruby"s daughter, right? She"s a good friend of Aoi. According to the customs of the Earth Dragon, it"s that child"s time to leave the forest. So taking that opportunity, she agreed to come and protect the kids until they grow up.”
“… That"s”
I am grateful.
Amongst the dragon species, the earth dragons are the strongest in terms of combat ability.
“Then that"s good.”
“Aoi and the others were trying to convey this.”
… Was it because I didn"t listen.
“… Good”
There were still a lot of remaining anxiety.
However.
“… Are you leaving already?”
That"s right.
Nothing good will come out of me staying by those kids sides after coming and making such a mess.
“Oh, I lost unsightly and I"m running away.”
“If you were in good shape, those children would be done with a light breath.”
Why should I hit my daughter with a breathe?
Even if it"s light, it has the power to gouge the earth.
“… Tell the kid. It doesn"t mean that I trust him.”
It doesn"t mean that the matters with the other races were resolved with what happened today.
Rather, the amount of stuff I"m worried about increased.
“If anything happens to Aoi and the twins, I"ll be coming to kill.”
“I understand, I"ll tell him. What about Aoi and the kids?”
What should I say?
There are many things I want to tell her.
“… Mother will always love you … and”
I couldn"t endure it anymore, so I spread my wings and started rising.
“… Don"t show me your crying face.”
“… I can"t face that.”
I told him and flew up high.
I didn"t want to hear the rat"s reply, since I already couldn"t stop crying.
I flew straight towards the halfmoon.
Since there weren"t many clouds, the moon was suspended clearly in the sky.
“Aa, hic, uwaaa”
My throat stung and the corner of my eyes were hot.
My small jewel.
My cute Ai.
You"ve become splendid.
You"ve become a mother.
It was me that was stupid.
Forgive your mother.
I flew straight while transforming those miserable thoughts that you want to disappear into tears.
“Mom!”
I heard a voice.
It was a voice that I wanted to hear, a voice I couldn"t help but want to hear.
I stopped and looked down at the distant ground.
There I saw Ai who was panting for breath.
“Me twoo! I also love mother!”
Ai, no, Aoinoun was screaming with a tearful face.
“Mwother can come amytime!! Jaja and Nana as well, pwease come see them!”
Hhaha!
I don"t know what you"re saying.
“… Ah, if I feel like it, I"ll come see you.”
I whispered with a voice that she probably couldn"t hear, and I looked back and spread my wings.
I headed towards that halfmoon.
I wished for the happiness of those children who live in this world.