The current state of the continent?
Adrian halted mid-step, having turned to leave, and quietly looked down at Kyle’s face. A lone deer stood proudly beside the dragon, as if to declare that he alone ruled this forest.
“……”
Kyle, injured and slumped on the ground, stared blankly up at Adrian.
Adrian was already sick of those kinds of looks. He’d seen far too many of them before.
“How bad is it?”
He slowly leaned forward, lowering his upper body toward Kyle as he asked the question.
“What exactly is going on with the continent?”
“……”
Staring closely at Adrian’s face, Kyle was forced to retract every thought he’d had until now. The man standing before him may have shared the same appearance as the Adrian he knew, but he was entirely different.
There was one thing this man possessed—something the Adrian he knew never had, and never could. Those eyes—strewn with golden mana particles that shimmered like a river of stardust—were the proof.
“Hey. Snap out of it and answer me.”
Adrian frowned, his voice tinged with irritation. The sound of it finally jolted Kyle back to his senses, and he slowly parted his lips.
“The monster you just crushed with such ease… creatures like that are covering the entire continent. There are barely any regions left where humans can live safely—”
Kyle squinted, blinded by the sunlight behind the man. He swallowed hard.
The figure before him was not Adrian Heather, the one who once walked the halls of Basamiel Academy at his side. The voice that slipped from Kyle’s lips sounded more like a humble plea to a mighty dragon than speech to an old peer.
“We don’t know how much longer we can hold out.”
“Yeah? That’s unfortunate.”
Yet his voice held not a trace of sympathy. Adrian merely nodded along, half-heartedly. Then, suddenly, a certain memory brushed past his mind—of a man who once vowed confidently to become a Sword Master.
As luck would have it, the person who could answer him was right here in front of him. Adrian asked Kyle directly:
“What about Mikhail?”
“……”
Kyle blinked in confusion at the abrupt shift in topic. They’d just been discussing the survival of the entire continent—why bring up Mikhail out of nowhere? He couldn’t keep up with the dragon’s train of thought.
Adrian, noting the look on Kyle’s face, kindly clarified once more.
“I asked what Mikhail is doing right now. He’s not the kind of guy to sit around in some safe zone just because he’s royal blood, right?”
“…Well, no, he’s not.”
Kyle had unknowingly begun speaking in honorifics.
“Of course, Mikhail is out on the front lines, fighting the monsters—”
“Ugh.” Kyle groaned and stopped mid-sentence. Pain surged from a forgotten wound.
From a distance, Adrian watched him and raised an eyebrow. Then, with a clear voice, he asked:
“Need help?”
Truthfully, the fact that he had once known this human wasn’t a major factor in whether or not a dragon chose to extend kindness. Of course, it was annoying. That guy had clearly come to enter his lair in the first place. That alone made Adrian not want to bother with him…
But seeing he was injured, Adrian couldn’t just walk away. There was no need to hide his power anymore, so a bit of help was nothing.
Still, I’ll have to ask more questions later.
Adrian finished his thought on his own, then raised a finger. Kyle’s eyes widened at the clear sign of a spell about to be cast, but that wasn’t something a dragon needed to concern himself with.
“Once we’re in the lair, you’re going to explain everything in more detail.”
Adrian didn’t wait for a reply.
With those final words, he snapped his fingers lightly. As Kyle remained slumped on the ground, a teleportation spell activated. The movement of the dragon’s thumb and index finger appeared almost in slow motion.
Blink—Kyle’s eyes closed and then reopened.
“…Just a moment ago, I was still in the forest…”
He blinked rapidly, mumbling weakly. His soft voice echoed through the space.
Since it was his first time experiencing teleportation magic, it took Kyle a moment to register what had just happened. Was it really possible to transport a person this completely and cleanly? Just how much mana would a dragon need to cast something like this?
The place he now sat in was a cozy room, softly lit by warm-colored candles placed here and there. He could feel the plush texture of silk rugs beneath him. Various kinds of carpets were laid out without any particular order, yet they all looked pristine—as if a merchant had come by just yesterday and they’d never even been used.
“So, where exactly is this place?”
That was when a single word flitted through Kyle’s mind—something Adrian had mentioned right before sending him here.
He said “lair.”
Wait—no way. Kyle’s eyes widened instantly.
“This is the…?!”
He tried to stand, but a sharp sting in his injured arm made him flinch, and he had no choice but to let his legs go slack again. So this is what a dragon’s lair looked like? Its master didn’t seem all that interested in his guest after dropping him here. Kyle glanced around, but saw no sign of anyone else.
Which meant he had free rein to look around to his heart’s content. Like a scholar sent to study the nesting grounds of dragons, Kyle observed everything with a keen eye.
Strangely, despite one wall being taken up by an enormous glass window, the room itself was dim—like evening had already fallen. It seemed to be magic. Nodding to himself, Kyle stretched his neck as far as it would go to peer outside.
Ah—
A quiet gasp slipped from his mouth, unbidden. The view beyond the window was nothing short of paradise. A vast meadow stretched out before him. Wild animals, as if liberated from the food chain, ran freely together with no regard for species. The sunlight danced on the surface of a surrounding lake, scattering delicate reflections like a painting. Behind it, dense, towering trees stood guard like a living fence protecting the sanctuary.
And then—
“Seems like you’re feeling better already. Should I just take you back to where I found you?”
Adrian’s voice rang out from behind him. Kyle flinched, stiffening before turning around with a forced cough. Adrian was there, smirking with only one corner of his mouth raised. At some point while Kyle had been admiring the view, he’d entered and taken a seat at the marble table beside the lair’s wall.
Sweat beaded on Kyle’s forehead as he tried to smile.
…Is that his real personality? He must’ve gone through hell keeping that attitude in check back at the Academy.
But since he only had one life, Kyle wisely kept those thoughts to himself. He couldn’t afford to risk offending a dragon and losing this once-in-a-lifetime chance to speak with one. He forced a smile and awkwardly praised the lair.
“The scenery is… really lovely. Haha.”
Apparently uninterested in his response, Adrian flicked his fingers through the air with a sharp motion. At that gesture, Kyle’s body moved on its own. His feet lifted off the ground, and he floated effortlessly.
“Ugh!”
He was thrown unceremoniously onto a soft couch, completely against his will. Adrian gave the sprawled Kyle a quick glance, then tapped the table with his index finger.
“Sit properly. Hold out the injured arm.”
“Y-Yes, sir.”
Outwardly, Adrian looked like a young man several years Kyle’s junior. To an outsider, the scene would’ve seemed bizarre—but Kyle was too overwhelmed by Adrian’s presence to say a word.
He carefully extended his arm onto the table. In an instant, golden mana particles swept over it, and the wounds vanished without a trace, leaving only clean, unblemished skin. Kyle bent and straightened his arm, amazed.
“So.”
Adrian’s cold voice froze Kyle mid-motion. He slowly turned his head toward the dragon seated across from him.
“If it’s that dangerous out there, why are you wandering around alone?”
A fair question—exactly the kind a dragon would ask.
“…Before I answer that, may I ask you a different question first?”
Kyle swallowed hard. His lips felt dry. He could feel those bright eyes staring directly at him, silently allowing him to proceed.
Kyle opened his mouth again.
“Do you remember the research we did on the Ordinas while we were at Basamiel together?”
The pressure radiating from the dragon made his whole body tremble—but Kyle managed to say everything he wanted to.
Adrian’s expression shifted subtly the moment he heard the question.
