Disaster Strikes Again – Part 02

“Oh, I thought that since you summoned me, you would want such a grand entrance. Was I wrong?”

“Who would want to burst their eardrums willingly? They almost did burst, by the way.”

“You cannot simply summon me on a whim. You overstep your bounds.”

“I want to collect the debt you owe me.”

“Hmm? I roared at your request and even gave you a piece of my mane, didn’t I?”

“Think about it. Considering the effort to break your seal, don’t you think your compensation was too cheap?”

“You really are a greedy human. Be careful what you wish for.”

The dragon’s large eyes bore into Hikaru.

Kujastria, watching up close, felt very uneasy. What was this conversation about? Were Silver Face and the drakon acquaintances? Nothing made sense.

“Fire!”

The castle soldiers fired a volley of arrows. They had improved significantly since their last encounter with the drakon.

But the arrows couldn’t even get close to the Fire Drakon. They were deflected by some mysterious air current and flew off in random directions.

“Okay, I see how it is. I guess I shouldn’t have freed you back then. Did you want to remain sealed for another couple hundred years?”

The drakon guffawed. “Instead of fearing me, you provoke me? You are very reckless.”

Silver Face and the Fire Drakon continued their conversation, ignoring the soldiers, leaving Kujastria even more confused.

“Hmm? If I recall correctly, you are not from…”

“Let’s not talk about that. Your voice can be heard by many others right now.”

The Fire Drakon knew Hikaru’s name and that he was from another world. It was crucial to prevent this information from spreading.

“Oh? So, I am the one with a hold on you.”

“I’ll keep quiet about the fact that the proud Fire Drakon likes blabbering about other people’s secrets.”

“You never run out of arguments, do you?”

The Fire Drakon’s merry laughter produced shockwaves that swept through the castle, causing the stone walls to tremble and some weaker sections to crumble.

Hikaru, covering his ears, shouted. “Keep it down! You’re bothering people.”

The drakon stopped laughing, crestfallen.

“We’ll call it even after this. So help me out.”

“I don’t know. I lost motivation when you said I should keep it down, that I was bothering people, right after summoning me.”

“What a pain in the ass,” Hikaru mumbled just loud enough for Kujastria to hear. “You gave me your hair back then expecting this would happen, didn’t you?”

“You thought that far ahead? No one from this world would think like that. It must be because of your origin.”

“I said stop bringing that up.”

“Oops.”

The Fire Drakon shut his mouth, a puff of flame escaping from the corner.

“Just once, let me ride on your back. There’s a place I need to go.”

If the Great Labyrinth was floating, he just needed to fly to access it. A plain and simple solution.

“Lord Hikaru, haven’t you flown before?”

Paula had reminded him about the Fire Drakon.

“Hmm.”

It should be a simple request. The Fire Drakon had carried Hikaru before.

“I cannot.”

But Hikaru did not expect a refusal. “What? Why not?”

“Drakons must avoid interfering with the human world too much. I came to tell you that this is the last time I will answer your call.”

“You said it yourself. People like me have changed the world. That’s why you gave me your hair.”

“Indeed. But we drakons can only do so much.”

“That doesn’t make sense!” Hikaru gave the drakon a sharp glare.

Hikaru couldn’t understand why the drakon refused when all he needed was a short flight. He didn’t care about what they could or couldn’t do.

“Fine, fine,” the drakon gave in. “I am grateful for what you did. You want to go to the floating magic castle, yes?”

“You know about it?!”

The magic castle was none other than the Great Labyrinth of Runay-aas.

“Of course. We drakons believe humans should solve their own problems, but it does not mean we ignore the human world.”

So mystical was the presence of the Fire Drakon in the night sky that its solemn words might have sounded like a divine message to some.

“Are you pretending to be an observer or something?”

“You are incredibly rude!”

Hikaru’s comment shattered any mystique the drakon had.

“But you speak the truth. We drakons act like we are observers. After being sealed underground for so long, that is what I came to believe. Though my kind knew of my imprisonment, they chose not to interfere and never came to rescue me.”

With the power of drakons, rescuing the imprisoned Fire Drakon would have been easy. Yet, the Fire Drakon remained underground for hundreds of years.

“And you think that stance is bullshit.”

“Oh, such vulgar language. Dirty words lead to dirty thoughts and eventually, a corrupted spirit.”

“Spare me the lecture. Unlike you, I don’t plan to live for thousands or millions of years. So, will you help me or not?”

“Short-lived human child. You seem to be in a hurry.” The drakon nodded. “I will not help you.”

Hikaru’s eyes widened. “You little—”

“But what you do with what I leave behind is up to you.”

The Fire Drakon opened its mouth wide. Kujastria thought it was going to breathe fire. The balcony railing started to melt from the intense heat coming from his mouth.

But no fire came out.

Instead, there was…

---

“Your Majesty!”

Lawrence, Commander of the Knights of Ponsonia, rushed into Kujastria’s private chamber, finding her surrounded by guards.

“Are you unharmed?” he asked.

“Yes… though I am quite exhausted,” she replied.

“I apologize for my delayed arrival in such a dire situation.”

Lawrence had been in the town below the castle, which delayed his arrival.

Seeing the massive, muscle-bound Lawrence looking crushed by regret, Kujastria managed a slight smile. “It’s fine. Even you would have found it difficult to face that Fire Drakon,” she said gently.

“Ugh.”

Her blunt statement of the truth seemed to brand him as useless, and realizing her mistake, she quickly added, “Of course, it would have been reassuring to have you here. The knights arrived only after the drakon had left.”

This time, she had unintentionally criticized the knights, some of whom had been paralyzed with fear at the sight of the drakon. Though true, it still cut deep, and they had no choice but to reflect on their failure.

“The Knights and the Royal Guard will take this incident seriously. Starting tomorrow, we will review all emergency, duty, and training procedures,” Lawrence declared in a chillingly low voice, causing the guards to pale and stand even straighter.

After having fresh tea brewed, Kujastria dismissed everyone except Lawrence.

“Your Majesty, where is Duke Nightblaze?” Lawrence inquired.

“If anything happened to me, it would be disastrous for the kingdom, so I had the Duke leave the castle for safety.”

By that, she meant her own death.

“What?!”

“You understand, don’t you? This is a recurrence of the Fire Drakon Catastrophe. Anything could happen,” Kujastria explained.

“Your Majesty.”

Seeing the young queen’s resolve to ensure the kingdom’s stability even at the cost of her life, the knight’s heart swelled with emotion. He knelt once more, bowing his head.

In truth, Kujastria knew there was no threat from the Fire Drakon, but she found it difficult to explain the situation any other way and decided to treat it as a continuation of the previous threat.

“I apologize again. From now on, I will reside in the castle,” Lawrence said.

“But surely, you have other duties and matters to attend to.”

“My affairs are trivial compared to the kingdom’s fate. What happens twice will happen thrice, so I must be ready to act immediately should the drakon return.”

Kujastria knew the dragon would not return.

“I-I don’t think the Fire Drakon will come back,” she said hesitantly.

“Your Majesty, did you speak with the drakon?”

“Uh, yes. The drakon wanted to know if the kingdom had changed.”

Last time the drakon appeared, it had said: “Cease your preparations for war this instant. Dethrone the current king and install a new ruler. Or else, my flames will rain down upon this castle.”

She had already discussed this part of the excuse with Silver Face.

“I… see. And you informed the drakon that you are now ruling the kingdom?”

“Yes.”

“From what I saw, the drakon appeared to be smiling. Did it react to something you said?”

Kujastria stiffened. “P-Perhaps, but I can’t pretend to understand the thoughts of a drakon.”

“So, you don’t know why it wanted to change the ruler of the kingdom?”

“No.”

“Hmm.” Lawrence pondered.

It pained Kujastria to lie to the Knight Commander, who was willing to sacrifice his life to protect her. Now that she thought about it, she found it infuriating that Silver Face had snuck into her room, used her balcony without permission, summoned the Fire Drakon, and left her to clean up the mess.

Should I just reveal everything?

The thought crossed her mind briefly, but having a secret shared with him didn’t sound so bad.

“So, the Fire Drakon is watching over the glorious Kingdom of Ponsonia for reasons unknown and is satisfied with Your Majesty’s reign. Needless to say, your benevolent light shines throughout the kingdom and will be remembered for generations.”

“I never thought you were the type to flatter,” Kujastria said.

“These are facts, Your Majesty. Even the Fire Drakon, a being beyond human comprehension, recognizes you as an extraordinary ruler.”

“…”

After repelling the Fire Drakon twice, Lawrence’s trust in her had increased even further.

“But if the Fire Drakon appears again, I will turn it into rust on my sword,” he declared quietly, but his eyes were deadly serious.

From the next day on, the training for the knights and the guards doubled, with additional sessions for volunteers. No one trained harder than the Knight Commander himself. When the anti-monster training was introduced, the monsters around the castle were nearly wiped out, causing adventurers who relied on those monsters for work to leave the capital, a development that would come to pass in about six months.

Unexpected for Kujastria but expected by Lawrence, rumors spread throughout the city that the Fire Drakon feared Queen Kujastria’s majesty and flew away to the eastern sky.

Kujastria, of course, was unaware of these developments.

I wonder what Silver Face is planning, she thought during a rare moment of free time amidst her daily duties. The Fire Drakon said it couldn’t help with flying, but what will Silver Face use that thing for?

Her thoughts always returned to this matter.

What the Fire Drakon had left behind must be some sort of magic catalyst or a magic item. Her mind burned with curiosity and longing to study it herself.