Chapter 37
Then Antonius stepped forward and knelt before Yuki.
“Your Majesty Yuki, Empress of Tatsuno. On behalf of the Kingdom of Imresia, I offer you my deepest gratitude for the aid you rendered us this day. Without the strength of your people, this battlefield might well have marked the beginning of the world’s ruin.”
“Nah, we were the ones asking a favor from you,” Yuki replied easily. “Civil wars aren’t exactly the kind of thing you’re supposed to tell foreign countries about, right? So sorry for making you spill it anyway. Thanks to that, though, we managed to catch that troublemaking lizard over there right in the middle of his mess.”
“Hmph.”
Drake gave an openly displeased grunt at the deeply undignified title. But Yuki, thoroughly enjoying her long-awaited revenge after being endlessly messed with by him, merely folded her arms smugly.
If war broke out, it would inevitably draw the Dracotyrannus.
Antonius had foreseen that possibility and secretly warned the Dracoserpens that signs of civil unrest had begun appearing within Imresia.
“Here. Yours has heat stones inside too, Drake.”
Yuki pulled another cloak from the packs and tossed it toward him.
“…Then I shall gratefully accept your kindness.”
Drake accepted it without resistance.
Then Andri stepped quietly toward him.
The Dracotyrannus whom every race across the continent had once united to seal away in the frozen ends of the north.
Why did such a being seek to bring ruin upon the world?
Had the races rejected him because he desired destruction—
—or had loneliness and rejection driven him to desire the world’s destruction in the first place?
“Father… is the destruction of the world truly your goal?”
“So it would seem.”
“…May I ask why?”
Drake gave the faintest shrug.
“…If only I knew.”
At first, Andri thought he had no intention of answering. Yet Drake slowly swept his gaze across the battlefield as he spoke.
“A warm land where one might live in peace. Good food. Companions who laugh together and never leave one another behind.” His voice lowered slightly. “If only I could have been content simply living in such a beautiful world… I would never wish to understand how despair could leave someone longing for nothing but ruin.”
Andri froze.
It was not the answer he had expected.
Drake spoke almost as though he were speaking of someone else entirely.
His claws brushed gently across the dragon-made cloak draped over his shoulders. Then, with weary eyes shadowed by sorrow, he muttered:
“Perhaps a creature like that deserves to be cast out by the world.”
“If you’re self-aware enough to admit that, maybe tell the rest of your troublemaking lizard friends to tone it down a little,” Yuki shot back at once. “A whole pack of world-ending lizards causing disasters just to get attention is seriously not cute.”
The remark was merciless, yet Drake seemed unable to deny it. He only let out a crooked laugh.
“…You are not wrong.”
The mages had apparently been dancing in the palm of Drake’s hand all along.
But if that were true—
Then for whose sake was Drake truly moving?
“…What did you mean by that?” Andri asked quietly. “Surely you cannot mean—”
Yuki answered in his place.
“There isn’t just one Dracotyrannus like Drake. There’re around a hundred of them. If all of them woke up right now, we’d be completely screwed. It took a thousand Dracoserpens and one Demi-Dracotyrannus just to bring down this one idiot.”
Tien pressed a hand to her forehead with a weary sigh.
“So in other words, before all the Dracotyrannus awaken, we would need a force of one hundred thousand Dracoserpens and one hundred Demi-Dracotyrannus. Wonderful.”
“And those mages are complete idiots, so we can’t exactly count on them either,” Yuki grumbled. “Seriously. The King of Imresia bears a heavy sin. If Ando’s mother had lived… maybe the future could’ve turned out differently.”
Something inside Andri’s chest tightened painfully.
Until now, he had never allowed himself to wish that his mother might have survived.
She had been queen—and yet had loved another man.
Then Antonius stepped forward before Drake and bowed respectfully.
“I am Antonius, Crown Prince of Imresia, eldest son of Irina, former Queen of Imresia. If it would please you, would you and Her Majesty Yuki accompany us to our main encampment? The fires are already lit there. Allow us to see to your injuries.”
Drake gave a faint, amused smile and shook his head.
“We Dracotyrannus are near immortal. Unless our lives are ended in battle itself, even grievous wounds will heal with time. We dislike the cold, certainly, but it is not enough to kill us. There is no need for treatment.”
Then he continued while glancing toward Andri, almost as though deliberately passing down knowledge.
“Still, I appreciate the sentiment. Were it known that you had treated the embodiment of the world’s destruction itself, I doubt your king would remain silent.”
“Your consideration does you honor,” Antonius replied smoothly. “But there is no need for such reserve. As representative of the Crown of Imresia, I gladly welcome you, Lord Drake.”
A faintly mischievous smile touched his face, like that of a seasoned statesman.
“You lost, remember?” Yuki cut in immediately. “That makes you the prisoner here. Quit arguing and move already. I’m freezing.”
With complete disregard for his dignity, she shoved Drake squarely in the back.
Urged onward by that push, the group finally began walking across the battlefield where the war had ended.
The Strategoi Knights.
The Royal Guard.
The Aerial Steedraptor Cavalry.
All had already begun the grim labor of aftermath in steady silence.
Men moved among the wounded.
Rebel lords who had surrendered were dragged away in chains.
The dead were gathered from the ash and snow.
Funeral pyres were already being prepared.
Amid ash, blood, and drifting steam, order was slowly being rebuilt.
Meanwhile, the Dracoserpens had also begun preparing camp. Massive tents rose one after another across the volcanic plain.
Before long, voices began to rise across the freezing battlefield.
Great Dracoserpens. Countless humans.
Two peoples who should never have stood side by side were awkwardly—yet steadily—beginning to work together.
Hasu casually lifted aside enormous volcanic boulders hurled out by the eruption, allowing Imresian soldiers to drag trapped comrades free from beneath them.
Under Wani’s coordination alongside the Aerial Steedraptor Cavalry, a temporary holding ground for more than a thousand Raptors gradually began taking shape. Human soldiers followed the Dracoserpens’ directions almost instinctively.
One soldier trapped beyond a river of magma was deftly snatched to safety by Master Ko’s Raptor. As its shadow skimmed across the molten surface, someone nearby answered with a sharp whistle of admiration.
For some reason, laughter had even begun breaking out around Azu—the shaky laughter of soldiers finally released from terror.
As he walked, Drake silently watched the scene unfold.
Too many emotions to name passed silently through his eyes.
It was as though past and present were quietly struggling against one another before him.
Watching that expression from beside him, Andri felt an unease he could not explain tightening painfully around his chest.
He felt he ought to say something.
Yet no words came.
Then—
A hand gently came to rest upon his head.
When he turned, Kiba and Tien stood beside him, quietly looking down at him with warm eyes.
You did well.
Though unspoken, the words reached him clearly all the same.
Their gaze carried the same warmth his brother had once shown him before he departed Imresia.
The unease inside him had not vanished.
It still lingered deep within his chest.
Even so—
For now, he wanted to surrender himself to the impossible warmth of those cold-bodied Dracoserpens who had remained beside him more faithfully than anyone else.
