“Yes. Also, you don’t need to say things out loud, you know?”
“No… I find it a bit unsettling, so please let me speak out loud.”
This was a space where nothing could be hidden. I decided to ask her about it straight out.
“So, about the Mechadra… you were saying you had nothing to say about it?”
“I have no intention of telling you what you can and can’t do with remains when the soul has already departed, and, on a physical level, the bone had been replaced by stone.”
“…Even if they were the bones of one of your kind?”
“You people put the fossilized remains of your own ancestors on display, too,” she said. “I can’t say I have no reservations about it, but it is unavoidable. All living beings eventually die, and then rot away. Animals, plants, humans, and dragons alike, we all return to the soil in the end. In that case, are we to lament that as we tread the earth, we kick those who were once our brethren?”
I was surprised. Even though she was an object of worship, Mother Dragon spoke in realistic terms. Also, if her mention of returning to the soil was in reference to being broken down by microbes, I really couldn’t afford to underestimate the dragons’ knowledge.
“If it’s not about issues with the Mechadra, why have you set up this meeting?” I asked.
Mother Dragon narrowed he eyes a little. “You who have a familiar smell, King of Elfrieden and Amidonia, Sir Souma Kazuya. I would like for you to come visit the Star Dragon Mountain Range.”
“The Star Dragon Mountain Range?” I asked.
Mother Dragon nodded quietly. “In the near future, we will hold a ceremony for the young dragons of the Star Dragon Mountain Range to form ‘riding contracts’ with the knights of the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom. I would like for you to participate in that ceremony.”
“Huh?”
I was going to participate in the dragon knights’ ceremony?…Wait, didn’t the Star Dragon Mountain Range have no diplomatic relations with anyone outside of the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom? When I tried to ask for more details, Mother Dragon’s body began to shine like when she had first appeared. It was so bright, I squinted my eyes.
Just before her form vanished, Mother Dragon left me with these words:
There is something I wish to entrust you with.
When I opened my eyes, I was on a bed in a dark room.
I looked around with my mind still hazy. It was probably still night. It was dark, but the moonlight streaming in through the window allowed me to make out the inside of this neat and tidy Western-style room.
This is… Oh, right. I’m in Liscia’s room.
Last night… or rather, every night lately, unless I was especially busy with work… I’d gone to sleep and woken up in Liscia’s room. Of course… well… that was so we could do a lot of fooling around.
When I looked next to me, as expected, I found Liscia’s sleeping face. It was hectic the next morning if we did it in the governmental affairs office, and when it came to my room, half of it was my doll-making workshop, and the other half was where we spent time as a family, which made it awkward; so, as a result, we were using Liscia’s room every night.
“Nngh…” Liscia, who had been lying on her back next to me, asleep and naked, seemed to lift her head up, but then rolled onto her side. Then, slowly opening her eyes, she rubbed the sleep from them and looked at me. “Mmm… Souma?”
“Sorry. Did I wake you?”
“…No. It’s fine. What’s up?”
“Oh… I just had a kind of incredible dream…”
“A dream?”
That was when it happened.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh…
Suddenly, there was a sound like that. It was a mysterious sound, almost like a siren, or perhaps the howling of some creature. We could hear it from a considerable distance, so it must have been at a very high volume, but it didn’t make our ears ring at all. It wasn’t going to wake those who were asleep, probably. I had never heard it myself before, but I imagined it was like the singing of whales.
I put on my shirt, and pulled on a pair of pants, then got out of bed and went over to stand by the window. When I did, I saw a large shadow in the sky flying away to the northwest.
“How unusual,” said Liscia. “That’s Mother Dragon on one of her sightseeing flights.”
Liscia stood next to me, naked except for the blanket wrapped around her.
“Sightseeing flights?” I asked.
“It’s my first time seeing it myself. On rare occasions, there are times when Mother Dragon flies around the continent. She doesn’t do anything in particular, but the Mother Dragon worshipers say that good fortune comes to those who see her out on her sightseeing flights.”
“Good fortune… huh.”
Liscia seemed to think it was a coincidence, but when I considered the dream I’d just had…
It was a dream, and yet not a dream… Is that it?
I had a premonition that something was about to happen again, and I let out a small sigh.
The next day…
While I was still concerned by the events of last night, I was working like usual in the governmental affairs office when an exhausted Prime Minister Hakuya came in.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “You look horribly tired.”
Hakuya walked over, and then said to me with a tormented look, “Your Majesty… Could I ask you to get away from the castle for a while?”
“…Come again?”
Get away from the castle? He was telling me to get out of the castle? I was kind of the king here, you know?
“You’re overthrowing me?” I asked. “Really, Hakuya, if you want the throne, it’s okay, I don’t mind letting you have it.”
“Don’t talk nonsense. I don’t want that thing.”
“‘That thing’? Now listen…”
“It’s fine. Just listen. Just recently, you announced the date of your wedding ceremony, right?”
When Hakuya asked me that, I nodded.
The other day, I’d announced that I, who was still just a caretaker who had not formally ascended the throne yet, would carry out the coronation ceremony which would make me the fourteenth king, along with my wedding ceremony with Liscia and the others, at the end of this year. I had decided to do it this way because handling the big events all at once would be easier on the national treasury.
However, Hakuya said it was causing a problem.
“The castle is now being flooded with proposals from nobles, as well as from the kings of medium-sized and small states in the Union of Eastern Nations, all of whom want to form marital ties with you, sire. They’re hoping to slide in now, before the marriage ceremony happens.”
“It’s a last minute rush of suitors, then?” I said. “Can’t you just refuse them?”
“We could, but… these are all houses whose position makes it hard to refuse when they say, ‘Even if you are going to refuse, we would like to meet with you at least once before you do.’ Recently, the number of marriage proposals brought to the castle has been on a rising trend, and the section responsible for them is about ready to burst at the seams.”
“…There are that many people sending me marriage proposals?” I asked trepidatiously.
“No, they aren’t just for you, sire. The single men at your side who are seen as having promising futures, every one of them, have been receiving a fairly large number of marriage proposals, too.”
So if they couldn’t marry into the royal family, they at least wanted to marry a retainer with a promising future. That was probably an easier challenge for them to clear than becoming a member of the royal family, after all. Honestly… if you were to say that this was all nobles ever did, it would be true, but… still, it was impressive that they could keep it up like this.