#442 A Dialogue Between the Strong

My name is Al Gor, once the strongest dragon.

But things are different now.

Perhaps it was the cause of my fall from the highest rank, but I saw a dreadful face at a wedding I was forced to attend.

I had hoped never to see her again, even by chance. So why?

To us dragons, mankind is a trivial opponent. They are nothing more than insects hovering in our peripheral vision.

However, on two past occasions, Al Gor, once Geyser Dragon, was threatened by such small insects.

One of those two is right in front of him—Mahi Kanne, a solmization mage.

***

After the wedding ceremony ended, I had a chance to talk with fear personified.

I didn’t want to talk to her, mind you.

But if I defy her and anger her, the current me won’t be able to fight back.

My son has taken all of my powers after beating me, you see.

I have no more power left to escape for dear life the second she decides to kill me!

“What a twist of fate for us to meet again,” says the horrifying woman.

She’s the same woman who tortured me when I was still Geyser Dragon, and could have killed me at any time.

“...I never would’ve expected the group leader that defeated me to be your son. Fate does move in mysterious ways.”

That’s the most I could say to make it seem like I’ve got myself together.

There were two humans who survived during their fight with me in the past.

One of them was this woman.

Her solmization magic can change the way of the world, surpassing even our magic.

We dragons are mere lizards before it.

“You don’t have to be so frightened. You’re the father of my son’s friend. Likewise, doesn’t that make us friends too?”

“Nonsense! The ferocious Geyser Dragon, making friends with mankind? I could never!”

“What did you say?”

“I humbly offer you my camaraderie!”

I am nothing more than a helpless dragon; I cannot resist the strong!

“...Well, as your new friend, I’d like to point out your drastic change. You used to go on and on about ending the world, but you’re now behaving yourself as some queen.”

She has a different air to her than, say, 20 to 30 years ago.

The woman I met at that time had a wild look in her dark eyes as if she had despaired of everything in the world.

She was small, and her breasts weren’t as voluptuous as they are now.

“Oh, how you remind me of things I don’t want to remember.”

“S-Sorry!”

“...It’s all right. I really shouldn’t forget about it. I thought the world had no value and that it would be better to wipe it out, and so I tried to...”

The frightening thing about her is that she CAN do it!

All of this is possible because of her solmization magic.

“What do you call her again? The Lifeless Queen who gave you that magic?”

“Old Princess. She was an immortalized mermaid who lived in an underwater cave dungeon. She discovered the mermaids’ primordial magic after a great deal of research. And in order to obtain it, she conducted numerous experiments.”

This woman was one of her subjects.

It’s quite common for a mage who has lost their way to use a human as a test subject to develop new magic.

If they abduct orphans for that purpose, they are less likely to cause a scene.

This woman was probably not the only victim of the underwater undead queen and her antics.

“I was the lone survivor among the hundreds of other children the Old Princess used as test subjects. Everyone else couldn’t endure the hellish process of opening the magic circuits.”

“Only you endured the experiments. I see.”

And then, she mastered it.

The first thing this woman did with the transcendental magic she had acquired was seek vengeance.

Old Princess, the Lifeless Queen, disappeared instantly.

“Though it was a tragic ending, I made friends with all the children at the testing site. When their lives were discarded like trash, I thought of how wrong this world was...”

The shock must’ve been enough to send a child of ten or so to despair.

A young mind and the power to determine the world’s destiny.

These two extremely unbalanced elements coexisted in one body— an obvious world crisis.

“Solmization magic reconfigures the way the of the world. It’s a system that has a different dimension from other magic forms, the ideal truth for the immortals to pursue in their endless time...”

“Indeed. In fact, Old Princess wasn’t the only one who planned to revive solmization. Almost all of the underwater Lifeless Kings and Queens did the same. So, I eradicated them.”

What she said was neither a metaphor nor a joke.

Just as there are countless dungeons on land, there are countless dungeons on the ocean floor.

These are called underwater cave dungeons.

If there are dungeons, there should also be a significant number of mermaids that absorb the dense mana there and become Lifeless Kings.

However, at present, there is not a single Lifeless King that is merfolk of origin.

She wiped out all of them. Alone.

None of the underwater Lifeless Kings may have had power equivalent to the Three Wise and One Fool, but the fact that she was able to pull off such a horrific act was only possible because of the magic she acquired.

It was a forbidden and sealed magic form for good reason.

I, too, experienced its horror firsthand.

At the time, this woman slaughtering the Lifeless Kings piqued my interest, so I tried to mess with her.

But that was a mistake.

I did all I could to escape.

“...Destroying the world may be too extreme, but with your power, you could have easily taken over the whole world. But to see you now, governing one nation not as its ruler but as the ruler’s spouse...”

Quite the eccentric woman she is.

“A happy family is all a woman needs sometimes. I used to think the world was worthless, but my darling taught me differently. I will devote myself to him for the rest of my life and bear his children. What could be better than that?”

“What?”

I don’t get it.

“Besides, ruling the world isn’t really possible, is it? I’ve heard there’s a strong land-dweller who pays you, the former Geyser Dragon, no attention.”

“Ah.”

The other person I didn’t want to remember.

He was also incredibly strong—Belphgamilia.

“Belhgamilia inherited the secret from the Three Wise and One Fool’s Sage, ironically becoming a Lifeless King while still alive. He’s not one to be messed with.”

I had fought him once on the spur of the moment, but no matter what attack I tried, I couldn’t hit him. On the other hand, his counterattacks were painful and lingering.

In the end, I ran away, unable to bear the feeling of inevitable defeat.

It was no fun, and I never wanted to fight him again.

“Looking back, these are scary times to live in. You and Belphgamilia, two humans with the power to defeat me, were born in the same timeline.”

“But you’re not as strong as you say you are. Your son has already surpassed you, and there are others with enough power to do the same should they desire to do so. For example, that saint.”

“Ah, the saint... But can we really call him a human...?”

He’s mysterious in ways more than one.

However, what she said isn’t wrong either.

“But the only thing more annoying than mankind are the Lifeless Kings. Both you and Belphgamilia eventually surpassed a Geyser Dragon thanks to the transcendental power given to you.”

These immortals are typically like that.

They cease being human, and with the eternity they have acquired, they pursue a certain truth.

Something beyond the long, long road that will never be reached in a human lifespan.

Both the solmization magic revived by the Old Princess and the Sage’s secret method are proof of this.

“But why would the immortals give it to the living?”

As a result, they’ve made menaces out of Mahi Kanne and Belphgamilia.

They worked hard to get what they wanted, so why didn’t they just keep it to themselves?

Why, of all people, would they give this “truth” to the most vulnerable species?!

“Because they both know that the truth is too much for the dead to handle,” replies Mahi Kanne. “Truth means nothing when it is in the hands of one person. It is only when it’s passed on to someone else and spread around the world that truth gains meaning. Old Princess only saw me and the children as guinea pigs, but the Sage must have wanted someone else to inherit what he had created.”

“You think?”

“Ultimately, humans cannot sever their connection with others, even after they become immortal. This is also one form of truth. The truth I got upon meeting Darling took them thousands of years. It’s silly if you ask me.”

Huh.

I still don’t get it, though.

“Wait a minute. But isn’t that bad? What if other Lifeless Kings start doing the same thing?”

There are still many Lifeless Kings on land.

If they were to do the same and offer to the humans the great spells they have nurtured for hundreds and thousands of years, more threats like Mahi Kanne and Belphgamilia would ensue!

“Oh, but isn’t that already happening even as we speak?”

“What?!”

“There’s this Lifeless King called Sensei who’s acquainted with the saint, I believe. He has been gathering young people and teaching them. My daughter even tells me how his classes are easy to understand.”

Right!

I saw him when I went to visit the saint before!

I thought he was just an oddball of an immortal. But now that I think about it, this is a disaster!

A Lifeless King teaching multiple students = countless Mahi Kannes and Belphgamilias among them!

“Perhaps Sensei is the most dangerous Lifeless King right now. Giving the secrets of the immortals generously to the living like that...”

“The world’s power balance is in danger! That farm... That farm is a threat! Should we destroy it now while we still have the chance...?!”

“And do you think I’ll let you do that?”

“Eek!”

For the first time, I felt Mahi Kanne’s old, intimidating aura.

“Two of my daughters are staying with the saint. If you do anything out of line, you’ll be making an enemy of me.”

“Sor! Sorry!!!”

I apologized as fast as I could.

“Still, this venture may bring about something new and influence the world positively. Our generation should watch over it.”

What kind of world will come out of it?

A future where we, the dragon race, are no longer the strongest?

Anyway, my rambling conversation with Mahi Kanne kept changing topics like so...

And we ended up talking for hours before realizing it.

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hi! sorry for the lack of update yesterday; i was off my PC for an entire day. make-up chapter to be posted either tomorrow (as a typical double update) or on saturday.