Chapter 21
When Ando opened his eyes, he did not recognize where he was.
After transforming, there was usually only one place he ever woke up—the punishment cells beneath the royal palace in Imresnople.
For a moment, he found himself wondering why there were no chains on his wrists.
Only gradually did his memory return.
This was the imperial palace of Tatsuno—the guest chamber Yuki had prepared for him.
Night had long since fallen. Warm air drifted through the open room alongside the faint hum of insects outside.
He lay atop thick bedding spread directly across the floor, layers of quilts and soft padding cradling his body in warmth.
A brace had been fastened around his leg for the night. Fresh bandages wrapped him here and there, and at some point, someone had changed him into a loose sleeping robe.
As he slowly sat up, his gaze settled on the tray beside him.
Someone had left food for him while he slept.
The sweets arranged on the small plate looked noticeably lopsided.
…Yuki must have picked at them.
Ando placed one of them into his mouth.
Rich sweetness slowly spread across his tongue.
And suddenly, he could not endure it anymore.
He covered his face with both hands.
It was always the same after taking draconic form.
First came the madness.
The unbearable urge to destroy—to reduce everything in sight to ashes.
He never understood where the hatred came from.
Nor why the rage inside him burned so fiercely.
And yet—
In those moments, the whole world seemed hateful to him. Even a single flower blooming before him became something he wanted to crush beneath his feet.
So this is what I am.
The thought sank like a stone into the depths of his chest.
A Dracotyrannus.
One day, he would surely burn the world to ash.
Back in Imresia, punishment had always followed every transformation.
But here, there was nothing.
No chains. No condemnation. No pain dealt back to him in return.
It almost felt as though even the right to atone had been denied to him.
Despair tightened around him.
He could not stay here.
He could not allow himself to one day reduce this beautiful country to cinders.
He had to return to Imresia.
Even if they feared him. Even if they despised him.
Even so, he had to go back.
At last, unable to endure his thoughts any longer, he stepped out into the garden.
It was just as those thoughts finally drove Ando out into the garden that—
“…Hm?”
Tien was sitting along the veranda, quietly eating sweets beneath the night sky.
“Oh. Guess I got caught.”
The moment she noticed him, she hurriedly swallowed what was in her mouth and laughed with faint embarrassment.
“I tease Yuki about sneaking sweets all the time, so I really can’t say much… but honestly, I love these too.”
Then Ando noticed the bandages wrapped around her arm.
Before he even realized what he was doing, he had dropped to his knees.
“I beg your forgiveness for the harm I brought upon you.”
Tien blinked.
“Hm? Why?”
She sounded sincerely puzzled.
“Our draconic forms are battle forms. Of course our instincts flare when we transform.”
Smiling, she lightly tapped the bandaged arm.
“You really are something, Ando. There aren’t many alive who could bite through my scales.”
Slowly, Ando raised his head.
Tien took another sweet from the tray and popped it into her mouth.
“You know, I don’t think Dracoserpens are naturally warlike… but fighting someone powerful can be surprisingly fun.”
Her cheeks puffed slightly as she chewed.
“Especially for females.”
Then her expression shifted, as though an old memory had suddenly resurfaced.
“But there was one creature that genuinely frightened me.”
Ando went still.
“The Dracotyrannus. One that appeared here a hundred years ago.”
Moonlight gleamed in Tien’s eyes.
“Yuki, Hasu, and I fought it together. Our claws couldn’t reach it. Neither could our fangs.”
She lifted her gaze toward the night sky, a faint smile touching her lips.
“It set off submarine volcanoes across the ocean. Back then, I remember wondering if this was what the end of the world would look like.”
“M-Miss Tien… that dracotyrannus…”
Ando’s voice shook.
Tien nodded easily.
“Mm-hmm. I’m almost sure that was your father.”
Ando drew in a sharp breath.
“You’re eighteen now, right? I don’t know where he went after leaving our country, or how he eventually met your mother nineteen years ago, but…”
For an instant, Tien seemed to fill the entire veranda.
A dangerous smile spread slowly across her face, and her eyes burned brighter still.
“Next time, I’ll stand my ground.”
Then that fierce gleam turned toward Ando himself.
“To be honest, right now? Defeating you would still be easy.”
Ando’s shoulders tensed.
Tien continued as calmly as ever, then flashed him a grin.
“Once your Dormancy ends, though, I think the dragon in you will become stronger than any of us. Honestly, the sensible thing would probably be to kill you now—before you grow into a real threat to us.”
Ando stared at her in disbelief.
“But part of me wants to fight you after that happens, too.”
He could barely process what he was hearing.
“How can you speak so lightly of this?!”
His hand clenched into a fist.
“What if I truly become that monster one day?! What if I lay waste to every one of you?!”
His voice shook violently. He had never wished to give those thoughts voice—yet he could no longer hold them back.
“What if your fascination clouds your judgment… and this entire country is destroyed because of it?!”
His breathing had turned ragged.
“…Would you still be smiling then?!”
Silence settled between them.
Deep within Ando, that feeling still remained.
That hatred.
That violent, maddening hatred that surged through him whenever he assumed draconic form.
It was his.
And one day, that bottomless fury might swallow this beautiful country whole in flame.
That possibility terrified him more than anything.
Yet Tien’s smile remained maddeningly bright.
“Well, yeah. I’d definitely rather not have the country destroyed,” she admitted easily. “That’s exactly why I want to get strong enough to really stand against a Dracotyrannus next time.”
Then she looked at him again and smiled—almost teasingly.
“And I want your help too. If that dragon comes back, next time I want us to take him on properly.”
Ando shook his head.
“…I do not understand you, Miss Tien.”
His breathing refused to steady.
“I may yet prove no different from that Dragon of Doom.”
His fist trembled faintly at his side.
“And if that day comes… if that hatred truly consumes me…”
His voice faltered despite himself.
“Will you still smile then, Miss Tien? Will you truly say the same… knowing you welcomed the very calamity that brought ruin upon your country?”
Tien tilted her head back slightly, thinking.
“The same thing, hm? …Maybe.”
Tien rested her chin lightly against one hand as she gazed out toward the darkening sea beyond the veranda.
“That Dracotyrannus spared us.”
A faint, almost rueful smile crossed her face.
“And if he’d truly wished us dead… he could have annihilated us.”
Andri looked up.
Tien continued quietly.
“When we found him… I think he’d only just broken free of the seal.” Her voice softened. “He was barely holding together. His wings were torn to shreds. His tail was mangled. Every fang and claw was shattered. His whole body was covered in wounds.”
She let out a breath.
“Honestly, it was hard to believe he was even alive.”
Andri listened without speaking.
“We went there ready to confront the calamity sealed away nine hundred years ago.” Tien gave a faint laugh. “And instead… we found that.”
There was no mockery in her voice. Only something old and sorrowful.
“Yuki and Master Ko hardly left his side. They treated his wounds, watched over him, and forced him to rest whenever he pushed himself too hard.”
A gentler expression touched her face then.
“And in the end, he recovered.”
The evening wind stirred the ends of her hair.
“…We were happy, back then.”
For a moment, she sounded far younger than usual.
“It felt like we’d welcomed a new member into the family.”
A faint smile returned.
“For several years, we lived peacefully together. They were such good days.”
Then the smile slowly faded.
“But we never really understood what he was carrying inside him.” Her gaze lowered slightly. “We thought the worst had already passed. We let our guard down.”
A brief silence followed.
“And then we lost.”
No bitterness. No excuses.
“We were completely unprepared. That much was our fault.We fell so easily it was almost absurd.”
Tien’s gaze drifted toward the horizon before returning to Andri.
“And even then… he never killed us.”
Her voice softened further.
“He drove us to the brink. Wounded us more deeply than I ever imagined. But in the end… he stopped.”
The sea breeze drifted softly through the open veranda.
“…I want to believe some part of what we felt reached him.”
A faint smile touched her lips again.
“And maybe it’s reaching you too, Ando.”
Andri’s eyes widened slightly.
Then Tien smiled again — small, crooked, but warm.
“You released your transformation yourself, didn’t you? Back at the ceremony, you heard your brother’s voice and came back to yourself.”
Her voice softened.
“Even today, some part of you was still listening to me.”
Andri went still.
Whenever he transformed, the world through those clouded red eyes became terribly narrow.
And within that haze, the voice he always searched for was Antonius’s.
Even during today’s training, while fighting against those maddening impulses, he had felt something in Tien’s voice that reminded him of his brother.
Tien leaned closer, smiling softly as she looked into his face.
“Ando… you’re far more resilient than you realize.”
Her voice carried no mockery—only certainty.
“After everything you’ve endured, it would be perfectly natural for someone carrying that much rage to let it consume them. But you’ve kept it under control all this time.”
She smiled faintly.
“If you hadn’t, no human kingdom—no matter how large—would have lasted long enough to blink before being swept away.”
Then she met his eyes directly.
“You don’t have to deny the part of yourself that wants to destroy everything. But you should acknowledge the part of yourself that chose not to.”
Ando lowered his gaze.
“…There’s no guarantee I’ll stay that way forever.”
Tien nodded without hesitation.
“That’s true.”
She sounded almost cheerful about it.
“But if that day really comes, then we’ll deal with it when it does. By then, we’ll have grown stronger too.”
With that, she popped the last remaining sweet into her mouth.
He still could not understand them.
How the Dracoserpens could still smile before a creature destined to bring ruin to the world.
Tien smiled, looking slightly troubled.
“I suppose this is where our ways differ. All right, then—let me put it in words that might make more sense to you.”
She swallowed the last of the sweet in her mouth and rose to her feet.
“If you’re afraid that power might one day hurt the person you want to protect, then learn to master it here. And if you were born with claws and fangs capable of tearing things apart, then hone them properly. Become strong enough that the one you wish to protect can live more safely than anywhere else in the world.”
Her golden eyes rested steadily on him.
“That’s why you came here in the first place, isn’t it?”
Ando understood her words.
But the fear lodged deep inside him did not disappear.
That hatred within him.
What if, one day, it overflowed at last—consuming even himself as it burned the world to ruin?
And suddenly, familiar scenery rose before his eyes.
The blue sea.
The endless grasslands.
The landscape shifting northward into dark conifer forests, then steep mountain ranges veiled in snow.
Below him stretched the winding roads through the mountains.
Beyond them stood Imresnople, solemn and majestic beneath falling snow.
His comrades from the First Unit of the Royal Guard Heavy Infantry looked up toward him from the streets below, waving.
He circled behind the royal palace and descended toward the pastures, where Lord Commander Antonius stood waiting for him.
Then the entire vision was swallowed by blood-red fire.
Ando jerked his head sharply, driving the image away.
There was only one answer.
No matter how terrifying it was, continuing this training was the only path left to him—the only way to master the flames raging within himself.
And someday, surely, that path would lead him to becoming someone who could stand at his brother’s side.
Ando slowly drew in a breath.
He tried to force out the words, but his throat trembled too violently for sound to emerge.
Only after a long silence did he finally raise his head.
“…I swear it.”
Fear.
Doubt.
And gratitude too vast for words for the Dracoserpens before him.
All of it blurred together into something overwhelming, and tears spilled silently from his eyes, one after another, darkening the ground beneath him.
Tien smiled and slowly lowered herself before him.
Gently, she rested the horn upon her forehead against his own.
Her large hand cradled the back of his head before pulling him close.
The scaled body of the Dracoserpens was neither soft nor warm.
And yet, in that moment, it felt safer than anywhere else in the world.
“We’ll do it together, all right? Let’s show them how strong you can become.”
So that he could return to the place where he belonged.
So that, once he returned, he could continue standing there without losing himself.
“Miss Tien… I… thank you…”
The fear within him had not vanished.
But even so, Ando closed his eyes and chose to keep walking forward.
