Chapter 22
The transformation training continued every single day without pause.
With Azu joining in, the three of them swept freely across the outdoor training grounds, racing through the skies in every direction. Progress came slowly—painfully slowly at times—but neither Tien nor Azu ever lost patience with him. No matter how many times Ando lost control or faltered, they simply guided him back and made him try again.
After each session, he could barely drag himself back to his room before collapsing into a sleep as heavy as death.
At the same time, Master Ko spent his days teaching him within the study hall.
About the Dracoserpens.
About the countless races scattered across the continent.
About the continent itself.
Simply listening to Ko speak while tracing his fingers across maps was enough to make the sheer scale of the world feel overwhelming.
“This world, according to our understanding, was born some five billion years ago.”
Ko spoke the impossibly distant number with calm matter-of-factness as he loosened the cords of a long scroll and spread it carefully across the table.
“In time, the world cooled. The crust stabilized. By roughly two billion years ago, this continent had begun taking its present form.”
His finger drifted slowly along the sprawling chronology.
“Then, around a billion years ago, countless forms of life—including the primordial reptiles—began spreading across these lands. Life moved from sea to land… and from land to sky. Species changed, diverged, and branched into innumerable forms.”
Ando’s eyes followed the branching lines flowing across the scroll like rivers.
“And somewhere within that immense current of time, roughly five hundred million years ago, the Dracoserpens emerged from one branch of those ancient reptiles. They formed communities, developed intelligence, and eventually acquired language.”
Ando quietly drew in a breath.
Five hundred million years.
The number was so vast he could scarcely comprehend it even in imagination.
“Yuki is the second Empress of Tatsuno. Though Tatsuno itself is only nine hundred years old as a nation, to our kind that scarcely amounts to more than a single lifetime. Measured by the speed at which a nation develops laws, hierarchy, and institutions, Imresia has matured far more rapidly. In merely two centuries, your people have already passed through several generations of rulers and constructed a remarkably complex society.”
Nine hundred years.
The moment he heard the number, words Tien had once let slip resurfaced in Ando’s mind.
—The catastrophe nine hundred years ago.
At the time, he had not thought much of it. But now, realizing that the founding of Tatsuno aligned exactly with that same era, the coincidence gnawed at him.
A faint crease formed between his brows.
“…Miss Tien once told me that she encountered the Dracotyrannus when they went to confront the calamity sealed away nine hundred years ago.”
Ko’s fingertip paused ever so slightly.
“And what happened nine hundred years ago?”
The old Dracoserpens gave a quiet nod and opened another book beside the chronology.
Upon its pages was the image of a monstrous creature—vast wings spread wide, long tail sweeping behind it.
“Nine hundred years ago, a great war engulfed the entire continent.”
Ko’s voice remained as calm as ever.
“Dracotyrannus seeking the destruction of the world sought to call stars down from the heavens and cast them upon this land. The races of the continent united to seal the threat away. In later ages, the conflict came to be known as the Great War.”
Ando swallowed unconsciously.
“Then the one that appeared a hundred years ago was…”
“After eight hundred years, it finally managed to escape the seal with its life.”
Ko continued speaking without lifting his gaze from the text.
“Your father arrived in this land gravely wounded and remained here for several years.”
For the first time since the lesson had begun, Ko’s voice faltered—ever so slightly.
Ando noticed immediately.
Until that moment, the lecture had flowed without interruption.
Now, however, Ko’s gaze seemed to drift somewhere far beyond the pages before him.
The first to reach the fallen Dracotyrannus had been himself.
Not to welcome him.
“…Master Ko?”
At Ando’s voice, Ko blinked once.
His gaze refocused.
“Oh. My apologies.”
At once, the familiar gentle expression returned to his face.
“The Dracotyrannus are close kin to the Dracoserpens. By nature, they are ordinarily exceedingly gentle creatures. In truth, your father, during the years he spent among us, was nothing at all like the being described in the legends of the catastrophe nine hundred years ago. We believed we had welcomed a new member of the family.”
“Then why did my father…?”
He had lived peacefully here.
And then one day, without warning, he became something else entirely. He defeated Yuki and Tien, destroyed the imperial palace and the city, and vanished from the land.
Why?
Ko answered Ando’s unspoken question with a slow shake of his head.
“We do not know. We still do not understand what went wrong… nor why destruction comes to be desired at all.”
Even as he spoke, Ko had already turned another page. The lecture drifted naturally into another subject.
“Our kind lives for roughly a thousand years. According to the records, females tend to be larger, longer-lived, and stronger in battle.”
Ando nodded a beat later. One glance at Yuki, Tien, or Hasu made that abundantly clear.
“Most races—humans especially—turned toward hereditary systems in order to avoid needless internal conflict. Across nearly every nation on the continent, status and authority are inherited through bloodlines.”
Ko’s lecture continued as calmly as ever.
“We chose a different path. Among the Dracoserpens, leadership belongs to the strongest. Inevitably, that means village chiefs—and more often than not, the ruler of Tatsuno as well—tend to be female. Though from time to time, an exceptional male does emerge. Long ago, my own strength was recognized, and I governed a settlement near this capital. Eventually, however, one stronger than I appeared, and so I relinquished the position.”
There was no pride in Ko’s voice as he spoke of the strength he once possessed.
Nor was there even the faintest bitterness over surrendering his authority.
If anything, he seemed genuinely pleased that a younger, stronger generation had risen to surpass him.
Ando found himself thinking that this might be the greatest difference between humanity and the Dracoserpens.
Humans clung to bloodlines, titles, and the worth of the individual.
The Dracoserpens, however, seemed to place greater value upon the species itself.
“Dracoserpens do not reproduce through physical mating. As such, our kind possesses no reproductive organs. The same is true of the Dracotyrannus. When a male consumes the scales of a female, an egg begins to form within his body.”
“…The father bears the egg?”
“Correct. Though successful conception occurs perhaps once every few centuries. Our birth rate is exceedingly low. That is why children are considered miracles—treasures beyond compare.”
Ko continued in the same measured tone.
“Any female can recognize Draclings born from her own scales. Even so, none become fixated upon their own offspring alone. Every Dracling is protected and raised as one of the community’s own.”
Here as well, the species itself was valued above bloodline.
Even the very idea of family rested upon entirely different foundations from those of humanity.
Ando began to understand why every Dracoserpens he had encountered since arriving in Tatsuno had shown him such overwhelming warmth and affection.
Ando hesitated briefly before speaking again.
“…Then what about the Dracotyrannus?”
At the question, Ko’s fingers paused ever so slightly atop the scroll.
“The Dracotyrannus are believed to be close kin to the Dracoserpens—another branch descended from the primordial reptiles. Though in their case, one could say they preserved a far older, more primal nature. Our kind likely diverged later, becoming increasingly social over time. That would explain why our forms resemble one another… and why the power we wield feels so alike.”
A faint crease appeared in Ando’s brow.
“Then… how was I born? My mother was human.”
For the first time since the lesson began, Ko did not answer immediately.
His hand rose slowly toward his mouth as his gaze settled upon the open texts before him.
“To us as well, that remains the greatest mystery.”
Though his tone never changed, his fingers lingered there for a moment.
“There are old tales scattered across many lands of unions between different kinds of beings producing children. But as far as any confirmed record is concerned… you are the first confirmed hybrid in recorded history. Which means that almost everything about your existence remains unknown to us.”
Only then did Ko slowly fold his arms, as though weighing his next words with care.
“…Mr. Ando. How much do you know about your mother?”
The question struck Ando completely off guard.
After a long silence, he gave a small shake of his head.
“…Almost nothing. Even my nursemaid… never told me anything about her.”
“But…”
Ando’s gaze drifted toward the vast map hanging upon the wall.
“…I heard she came from an old kingdom beyond the western mountains. That she was the woman who brought about its destruction.”
Without realizing it, his hand had tightened into a fist.
There was never any escaping such talk completely. Rumors traded across Royal Guard mess halls, idle gossip passed between soldiers around campfires during marches—whether he wished to hear them or not, the words always found their way to him.
Ko gave a small nod of understanding and stepped toward the map.
One clawed finger settled upon the lands west of Imresia.
“Your mother was likely from Magira,” he said softly. “Older even than Imresia itself, and counted among the oldest human kingdoms on the continent. Seventeen years ago, however, it fell to a sudden invasion from Imresia.”
Ando had turned eighteen this spring.
“And despite the hardship of a campaign across the mountains, Imresia neither annexed the land nor ruled it afterward. They burned the kingdom so thoroughly that scarcely a trace remained… and abandoned it.”
Ko’s finger did not move.
The room seemed to grow strangely heavy around them.
“At the time, I remember thinking it a deeply peculiar war…”
He spoke while still staring at the map.
Then, just before the next words left him, there came the faintest pause in his breathing.
“…But perhaps the beginning of it all was your mother, Mr. Ando.”
Ando’s throat tightened audibly.
Whenever others spoke of his mother, it had always been to mock her sins.
And now those same sins had become tied to the destruction of an entire kingdom.
But why?
Still staring at the map, Ando found himself frozen where he stood.
Ko did not press the matter further.
No explanation followed. No lecture. No questions.
Only silence.
Then—
“Well now.”
The shift in tone came gently but abruptly enough to feel almost deliberate.
Ko closed the book in his hands with quiet finality.
“That shall be enough for today, I think. Tomorrow we shall study the stars and clouds. Whether one flies in draconic form or astride a steedraptor, knowledge of the skies is indispensable.”
The map upon the wall was slowly rolled shut.
The name Magira disappeared beneath the cloth. Scrolls and books vanished one by one into careful stacks.
“…Was Tatsuno created…”
Ko’s hand stopped.
“…because you fought the Dracotyrannus during the Great War nine hundred years ago?”
A heavy silence fell.
Ko did not turn around immediately.
One hand still resting upon the half-rolled map, the old dragon lowered his gaze ever so slightly.
At length, he let out a quiet breath.
“…You are correct.”
He did not continue at once.
“For a very long time, our kind had no nation. We lived valley to valley, mountain to mountain—without borders, without lands to claim, living as we always had. But after the Great War, the other races increasingly turned toward survival through unity rather than isolation. They raised banners, established laws, fought wars, expanded territories, and divided the land with borders.”
Ko’s fingers continued rolling the map shut as he spoke.
“We could no longer remain apart from that tide. So we too took upon ourselves the shape of a nation.”
There, his words stopped.
Ando could not explain why, but it felt as though something more still remained unspoken.
Yet Ko offered nothing further.
The old dragon’s hand quietly left the rolled map.
And then—
Rapid footsteps burst through the corridor outside.
A heartbeat later, Azu thrust his head into the room.
“Ando! Baths! C’mon already! You promised, remember? I said I’d teach you how to dive! But every single time training’s over, you just collapse before we can do anything!”
The scent of steam and hot water drifted in with him. He must have already bathed.
“Do try not to stay too long,” Ko said mildly. “Supper shall be ready soon enough.”
“Yeah, yeah, we got it!”
Ando turned instinctively toward Ko.
The old Dracoserpens waved him off with the same warm, grandfatherly smile as ever.
And yet, for the briefest instant, Ando could no longer tell what lay behind that smile.
The thought dissolved before it could fully take shape—
and he never again found another chance to grasp the answer.
