Early TNG Vol. 23 Chapter 1 Part 4

Full title: THE NEW GATE

Note: If you found any typos/mistakes, pls write them in the comment. Thanks.

Translator: Canon

____________________________________________

Leaving the workshop, the two of them went straight toward the residential district of Parda Island. Apartment-style housing stood in rows, and they passed staff members who seemed to be off duty.

“This way.”

Retoneka’s room was in an apartment near the edge.

Inside, the dining area was immediately visible, with two doors at the back. Retoneka went straight to the left door and opened it. The room contained just a bed, a desk, and a bookshelf, with little sense of daily life.

The only personal touch was four drawings pinned to a corkboard.

They were dragons, painstakingly reproduced from memory in fine detail.

From Retoneka’s perspective, the compositions showed one view from below, another with its back turned mid-flight, and two more circling in the sky from different angles.

“This is the dragon’s form. It may not be perfect, but it’s very close to what I saw.”

“At the very least, it’s no lesser dragon.”

A long neck, a powerful torso, broad wings, and a lengthy tail—the quintessential image of a dragon.

And yet, many features set it apart: a crimson horn jutting straight from its brow, four wings, and four arms. Dragons with multiple arms or wings were not unheard of, but Shin’s first impression was that this specimen was anything but ordinary.

(Retoneka said its scales looked like armor, but this looks more like it was actually wearing armor. Monsters sometimes appear armed, but I’ve never heard of a dragon clad in full plate.)

There were monsters born with arms or armor: Dullahans with their armor and swords, Minotaurs with battle axes, Liches with staves.

Exceptions existed, but such anomalies had long since been catalogued by players who specialized in research and analysis.

Whether this one had escaped documentation, or whether it only emerged after the world changed, Shin could not say.

“Were the scales—or armor, whatever they were—gold beneath as well?”

“Sorry. It all happened so suddenly, and under the sunlight it shone so brightly… it might not have been entirely gold.”

The sketches showed the dragon’s plating did not cover every inch of its body. Yet Retoneka had painted the gaps gold as well, leaving the underlying color uncertain. If Shin knew the color beneath, alongside the horn and body features, he could narrow the possibilities further. But expecting a six-year-old girl to make such observations would have been cruel.

“Looking at these drawings, to me it seems less like scales shaped like armor and more like actual armor forged specifically for it. Honestly, in this exact form I can’t match it to anything. But if I set aside the armor and focus on the other features, there are a few dragons that come to mind.”

“Armor instead of scales? But it’s a monster. Sure, if it were a war-dragon raised by humans, armor wouldn’t be impossible… but I definitely didn’t see a rider. That much I’m certain of.”

Retoneka tilted her head, unsatisfied.

Monsters did not arm themselves. If they bore weapons or armor, it was innate. That was the common sense of this world, so naturally she had judged it to be scales.

“I can’t say for sure without having seen it myself. But a monster bound to a tamer’s class could be equipped. That seems the most likely explanation. Unlike a dragon knight, a tamer can remain hidden nearby while the beast fights.”

“…You’re right. Now that you say it, there are craftsmen who forge gear for mounts.”

Retoneka murmured in shock, as though astonished she had never realized it.

Watching her dazed expression, Shin wondered if the dragon’s armor might have carried some effect that clouded her awareness.

She began to mutter faintly.

“A monster… armed? A tamed beast…? The light… from the sky… I…”

“Maybe it had safeguards in place in case it was ever witnessed. But then—Retoneka? Hey, Retoneka!”

Realizing something was wrong, Shin grabbed her shoulders and shook her. Retoneka clutched her head and collapsed to her knees.

“What’s wrong? Your face is pale!”

“S-Sorry… suddenly my head—”

“Whoa!”

Shin caught her as she lost consciousness and carried her to the bed.

(Mental attack…? No, it feels more like domination. Maybe recognizing what she hadn’t been able to notice before broke the mind control, and now she’s suffering the backlash? Or is it trying to seal the memory again? Either way, I can’t just leave her like this.)

Activating 【Analyze】 to check her condition, Shin found a mark that hadn’t been there before—an icon of a chained head, indicating brainwashing.

He immediately cast 【Cure】.

“That should do it for now.”

As the glow of the skill faded, Retoneka’s pained expression eased into tranquility.

Confirming that the brainwashing mark had vanished, Shin opened a 【Mind Chat】 to Schnee and the others.

He explained the situation briefly and asked them to summon Druk if he was nearby.

As her smithing master and the one who had explained Retoneka’s circumstances to Shin, Druk was the most appropriate person to call.

𑁋

After a short while, the sound of hurried footsteps thundered down the hall.

Shin stepped out of the room and calmed Druk, who had come running in a panic. Schnee and Yuzuha were with him, so Shin ushered them all inside.

“I’ve already lifted the mind control. At the very least, that part is no longer a concern. Still, have a physician examine her just in case.”

“Mind control, you say? Such a thing… Hahh, I am in your debt.”

Druk’s expression contorted in shock at Shin’s words before he exhaled deeply to steady himself.

The grinding sound of his fist clenching tight echoed in the room. His gaze on Retoneka was filled with barely suppressed fury. Even as he tried to calm his heart, the intensity of his emotion seeped through. That was how abhorrent, how feared, mental-type skills were.

“How much has Schnee told you?”

“She said that while speaking with you, Retoneka suddenly collapsed. I never imagined she had been under mind control.”

Druk explained that Retoneka had spoken of the incident before, yet had never shown any unusual signs at the time.

“I suspect that simply recounting the event wasn’t enough to trigger it. Likely it worked more subtly; diverting her awareness, suppressing deeper thoughts. From what I can tell, it was a safeguard against witnesses. A golden dragon would have spread rumors all too easily.”

“But was there truly a need to go that far? The only ones there were Retoneka and her father. I do not wish to speak ill, but killing them both would have been simpler.”

Eliminating witnesses was the surest way. And for a dragon capable of flight, soaring at high altitude would nearly erase the chance of being seen at all. As he spoke, Druk’s anger twisted into a pained, troubled expression.

“True enough. Perhaps there was a reason she could not be killed. Or some other motive entirely. I can’t say for sure. What I can say is that she’s no longer under the influence of a mental skill. That much, I guarantee.”

“That you could dispel such a thing is astounding. But thanks to you, she has been saved. Allow me once more to express my gratitude.”

As Druk bent his head, Shin stopped him.

“No, if not for speaking with me, the mind control might never have manifested. In a way, I provoked it.”

He had met Retoneka many times before, and she had never been in an active state of mind control then. In that sense, it had been his prompting that forced it out.

“Fool. We are talking about mind control. Do you realize the damage it can inflict upon one’s heart and spirit? Leaving her bound to it would have been unacceptable! No matter the cause, dispelling it was the right thing. You deserve thanks, nothing less!”

Though furious, Druk’s words carried praise. Shin realized with some regret that he had underestimated the weight of mental-type skills.

𑁋

Leaving Retoneka in Druk’s care, Shin, Schnee, and Yuzuha returned to the dormitory they had been lent. They also informed the rest of their companions that, for now, the matter had been resolved.

“By the way, Schnee. That dragon which attacked Retoneka’s parents, do you have any leads?”

Schnee, who had spent long years traveling across countless lands, possessed information sources distinct from those of merchants or informants. As a top-ranked Chosen One, she could enter places others could not, and had knowledge of details that never made it to the markets.

“A dragon clad in golden armor, was it? Unfortunately, I’ve heard nothing of the sort. Either there are no other reports… or witnesses, like Retoneka, may have had their minds tampered with.”

“So even if someone saw it, if the information never spreads, then no faction would ever move.”

Indeed, if an incident did not come to light, it was the same as if it had never happened, except to those directly involved. Even Schnee could not obtain information or rumors that did not exist.

“What about you, Yuzuha?”

“I don’t know. At least, nothing in my knowledge matches.”

Shin turned to Yuzuha for a monster’s perspective, but she too had nothing concrete to offer. Monsters rarely used equipment beyond what they were born with, and it was hard to believe one could just stumble upon something so well-crafted as what that dragon had worn. The most likely explanation, she suggested, was that it had been a tamer’s bonded beast.

“Still, some monsters are skilled at crafting. It may be worth considering the possibility that monsters trade amongst themselves, much as humans do.”

Yuzuha—despite her outward childlike form—spoke with the maturity of an adult.

“Monsters forging their own equipment, huh. That would be a nightmare for anyone they preyed upon.”

Equipment could nullify a monster’s natural weaknesses. And if an individual intelligent enough to barter also armed itself, it would not attack meaninglessly—yet that also meant it might employ strategy beyond brute force. The thought of such a monster, one with overwhelming strength and tactical cunning, was not something Shin wished to entertain even as a former player. Yuzuha had presented it only as a possibility, but it was not unthinkable. Caution would be required from here on.

“Still, I never thought Druk would thank me so profusely. Mental-type skills really are abhorred. Unlike martial or magic skills, they aren’t meant to be used, so I ended up speaking of them too casually… I’m still stuck in my old game mindset.”

Shin chastised himself for not fully shedding his gamer’s perspective.

“In the present human domains, you almost never encounter enemies who use them. If you do, the battle is as good as lost.”

According to Schnee, there were still some among the older generation—those who had lived through the era before the “Dusk of Majesty”—who retained a mindset similar to Shin’s.

“To someone like you, Shin, it’s nothing more than a nuisance status ailment. It’s usually better to just deal direct damage and end the fight quickly.”

Yuzuha spoke from a monster’s perspective.

The higher one climbed, the more stringent defenses against status effects became. Players of Shin’s caliber typically had comprehensive counters against mental skills, to the point where they hardly ever worked at all.

“Exactly. With reinforced equipment, unless it’s some exceptional case, it won’t affect us anymore. We never relied on it, and I certainly don’t intend to. But if word got out that I could use it, that alone would cause trouble.”

“True. Even the thought of it being used is enough to inspire fear.”

Schnee added that, as an interrogation tool against criminals, such skills were immensely useful. It was whispered that some nations and organizations secretly kept individuals capable of wielding them for that very purpose.

“Anyway, let’s set that issue aside. What matters now is the dragon that attacked Retoneka’s father. Red horn, multiple arms and wings, and the classic Western-dragon look. Candidates would be… Radal Dragon, Ashira Dragon, or Geo Dragon.”

“If we knew the exact scale patterns or body color, we could narrow it down further.”

The dragons Shin listed all shared the traits of a red horn, extra arms, and multiple wings. They were variations drawn from a common base design, their coloration and attributes altered according to element or habitat. It was the sort of resource-saving design choice commonplace in games.

Because of that, narrowing down the culprit was impossible. The armor had concealed any unique scales, and the golden brilliance obscured the dragon’s actual body color. If they ignored the horn color, the list of potential multi-limbed dragons was even longer. And if it had been a special variant, its horn might differ from the base species altogether. Retoneka’s sketches simply did not provide enough to identify it.

“So we’re at a dead end here too.”

“What troubles me most is that only her father was killed. It almost feels… as if he was deliberately silenced.”

“Yeah, that bothers me too.”

The circumstances were straight out of a story: illegal research, or ties to some secret society. Yet if that were the case, Retoneka being spared made little sense. Shin judged the possibility unlikely.

“…Actually, I spoke with Armaiz about this.”

He had already told Retoneka of the tamer possibility, but there was another. Before bringing it up, Shin recounted his conversation with Armaiz to Schnee, about how Retoneka was no ordinary half-blood, and that she displayed abilities inexplicable even for a Chosen One or a hybrid.

When Shin added that he himself had not sensed anything dangerous about her, both Schnee and Yuzuha agreed.

“Armaiz could perceive it, yet I could not. Perhaps the bond of a contract changes one’s senses.”

The key difference between Yuzuha and Armaiz was that only the latter had no tamer’s contract. Since Yuzuha seemed troubled by her failure to detect it, Shin offered reassurance.

“Even Armaiz only realized it after focusing in on the oddity. It’s nothing you should blame yourself for.”

If Retoneka truly was a human–monster hybrid, she would be an exception among exceptions. Missing it was no fault.

“For now, the only thing left is to pray she wakes without incident.”

Though Shin had dispelled the mental skill, the possibility remained that her spirit might have been damaged. The aftermath of such abilities was difficult to study; lifting the effect did not guarantee full recovery.

In the end, all they could do now was wait for Retoneka to open her eyes.

Next→