“…….”
Mikhail mumbled, his expression lukewarm. Yesterday’s fake potatoes were bad enough, but eating unseasoned meat was its own form of torture. Still, Mikhail found himself grateful. Even now, the fact that the two of them could obtain food like this was something to appreciate.
The prince glanced across the campfire at Adrian Heather, who was also chewing slowly. Beside Adrian’s leg, a baby salamander was playing around, poised as if it might leap straight into the fire at any moment. Clearly intrigued by the venison skewers cooking above the flames, the little creature would occasionally cast a longing gaze at the piece of meat in Adrian’s hand.
“Why? You don’t like this either?”
Adrian wiped his mouth and asked the prince, catching that look.
“No. It’s way better than what we had yesterday.”
Mikhail responded quickly, then tore off a chunk of the venison skewer with his molars.
“If we were back at the academy, we’d probably be eating today’s special.”
“I actually like the daily special. Since it changes every day, you don’t have to stress over picking a menu.”
“What kind of… old man logic is that?”
Adrian just flashed a nonchalant grin in response to Mikhail’s incredulous look.
“Old man? That’s called wisdom. It’s rational thinking.”
“…We’re the same age. There’s not even a Darfong’s horn’s worth of age difference between us.”
Well. Adrian kept smiling as he chewed his meat. You’ll get it when you’re a little older. The Gold Dragon gnawed thoughtfully, as if the thrill of wondering what to eat for lunch had long since passed.
“Some Darfongs are actually born with horns, you know.”
What? The prince gave Adrian a baffled expression, thrown off by the sudden tangent mid-bite.
“What does that have to do with me?”
“It means there are things in this world you don’t know.”
“We’ve still got a few days until Spirit Studies class, though.”
“Oh no, did I give the prince too much useful information?”
“Hah—seriously.”
Mikhail scoffed and curled his lip into a smirk. Muttering, “Not even worth replying to,” he gave the venison roasting over the fire a quick glance.
“We should smoke the rest and turn it into jerky.”
“Yeah.”
Adrian broke off a chunk of his skewer and handed it to the baby salamander beside him. The creature stared at it with glossy black eyes for a moment, then gulped it down whole—only to promptly spit it back out with a ptooey. Adrian simply watched.
“Tastes nothing like Mikhail’s sword from back then, huh?”
The Gold Dragon laughed, flicking a stick to the ground. See? That’s what you get for scarfing down something you’ve never seen before. The baby salamander let out a small fweeeek of flame in protest.
While looking for a long enough branch to make jerky, the prince caught sight of the scene from a distance and called out.
“…Did you finish all of it?”
His roommate’s appetite was always unpredictable. Some days, he’d devour a massive meal in one go; other days, just a few spoonfuls of soup would be enough. It was as if he didn’t even know what his own portion should be.
Adrian, oblivious to Mikhail’s thoughts, gave a small nod.
“Yeah, I finished.”
Wasn’t even hungry to begin with. The Gold Dragon rose lightly to his feet, brushing off dirt and stray grass from his pants. Then he ran his fingers along the clothes that had been hung up to dry on a nearby tree.
“Oh.”
Adrian narrowed his eyes and smiled at the prince.
“Once we’ve cleaned up, we can head out right away.”
At that, the salamander responded with a loud chiiik! The prince shot it a grumpy glare.
“We were late because of you, you know.”
And with that, their peaceful lunch came to an end.
***
“That thing has a destination, right? Must be heading toward Mount Dohenia.”
Mikhail gestured toward the salamander as he spoke. It had been several hours since the two had resumed walking, following the waddling creature ahead of them. The salamander was leading them toward Mount Dohenia. The mountain that had once loomed faintly in the distance was now close enough that they had to tilt their heads back just to see the summit.
“Probably,” Mikhail said, narrowing his eyes as he carefully observed the mountain.
“…No wonder it feels eerie—it’s a volcano.”
In response, the salamander let out a sharp chiik as if to say, Enough chatter. Just follow me.
The Gold Dragon still had a faint smile tugging at his lips. But as they drew nearer to Mount Dohenia, something else started to stir within him.
On the surface, there wasn’t the slightest sign. Yet every inch of his skin—exposed outside his clothing—was screaming. Damn… the dragon groaned inwardly. The farther they followed the salamander, the louder the screaming became, as if his entire body were howling in protest. It was the mana.
He shot a sidelong glance at Mikhail, who was still grumbling quietly beside him. Thankfully, the human body wasn’t sensitive enough to feel this mana. It was that pure—so pristine, so clean.
Shit. I’ve gotten way too used to breathing dirty air…
The dragon casually brought a hand behind his neck, tousling his hair slightly. The mana touching his body was so piercingly pure that it stung—so much so that pretending nothing was wrong in front of the prince was becoming exhausting. Hoo—haaa— The Gold Dragon exhaled deeply, hoping his body would adjust soon—
Krrk…! Khuh! Kehk—
A fit of dry coughs burst from his throat, a reaction to suddenly inhaling such high-purity mana. The prince turned to him with a sidelong glance, wearing a look that said Really? That again?
“You’re catching a cold from just a few hours without a shirt?”
“…Don’t suddenly pretend to care now,” Adrian muttered, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Damn, that nearly killed me—mana that pure hitting all the way down to my lungs…
The dragon took a slow, steady breath, then closed his eyes tightly and opened them again to look far ahead in the direction they were heading. He couldn’t tell if they were still far off or almost there. More precisely, he couldn’t predict how much purer the mana ahead might become.
“Stop.”
Mikhail, who had been walking ahead, instinctively flung an arm out to block Adrian’s path. Adrian, his eyes narrowed from the mana headache, stopped short against the prince’s arm. Mikhail’s eyes remained locked on the salamander just ahead. The creature, which had been leading the way, had suddenly halted.
Fweeeeeeeee!
The salamander threw its head up and let out a piercing cry—its highest-pitched yet. Wincing, both Adrian and Mikhail clapped their hands over their ears, but the sound pierced straight through their palms.
And then—
A matching, equally high-pitched cry echoed from somewhere in the distance.
Fweeeeeeeee!
But it didn’t sound like just one salamander.
Fweeeeeeeee!
It was a chorus, like dozens—no, hundreds—of other salamanders crying out all at once. As if answering their call, the baby salamander on the ground tilted its head upward again and opened its snout.
Fweeeeeeeee!
A jet of flame burst forth from its mouth—this time on an entirely different scale. The blaze it unleashed was large enough to consume several trees. Mikhail staggered back, shielding his face with his arm from the sudden heat. That movement pushed Adrian, whom he had been blocking, a few steps back as well.
Chiik—!
As the flames from its snout gradually died down, something utterly surreal stood in the space where the fire had raged: a massive door.
It looked exactly like the strange door they had seen at Basamiel Academy—down to the eerie detail. The movement of pure, high-grade mana that had briefly surged during the door’s formation now began to dissipate. It made perfect sense why humans at the Academy hadn’t been able to feel the mana radiating from that door.
The Gold Dragon’s expression hardened as he stared at it. This power…
The salamander’s snout slowly closed. If even a dragon couldn’t sense the full weight of this mana, then that salamander couldn’t be controlling it either. Something else was at work. Something beyond the dragon’s own power. And yet… that force was aiding the fire spirits.
Slowly, the tension in Mikhail’s outstretched arm faded. Clearly, he too was stunned by what he had just witnessed. Adrian gently touched that arm, then took a step forward—just slightly ahead of the frozen prince.
The baby salamander plopped down onto the ground, its head tilting upward once more.
What is it that’s helping you? The air was thick with mana so pure it made his whole body tingle. But when Adrian looked at the creature, it merely blinked its big black eyes once, then again.
Adrian’s flawlessly clean white hand reached for the handle of the massive iron door.
“…Wait!”
Mikhail, silent until now, finally stepped forward and called out, trying to stop him.
Adrian opened the iron door, peered inside—then broke into a wide grin. He turned around, looking back at the bewildered prince.
“It’s fine.”
Just as he’d expected, a dark staircase stretched beyond the doorway.
“It’s safe. We’ve been here before, remember?”
Even without stepping inside, he could already guess what awaited them at the bottom of those stairs: a lake of lava.
