Did You… Kill Someone?
A dragon.
A dragon was flying through the sky.
☆
Until this moment, I had believed that dragons were even more unrealistic than spirits—beings of pure fantasy.
(Because really, come on…)
Who would genuinely believe they exist?
Kevin and Cain were equally stunned. Their dumbfounded expressions told me I wasn’t hallucinating—this wasn’t just something I was seeing.
The dragon—a blue one cloaked in the presence of water—was soaring through the sky.
Flying, coiling gracefully through the perfectly clear, cloudless sky—
(Wait… it’s flying over the lake?)
The moment I realized that, it felt as if scattered points in my mind suddenly connected into a single line.
(The magic wasn’t nullified.)
The spell had probably been cast properly.
But—what if that wasn’t the issue?
What if this land, this environment, simply didn’t allow for magic to be used? Or, more precisely, if this was a situation where magic couldn’t do anything at all?
If this was a place bound by certain conditions—something unique, some unknown restriction—then it wouldn’t be strange for a spell to appear nullified. I’d never heard of such a case, so this was just my own speculation, but… say, for example, if spirits were involved.
If some mystical force was at play here, then—
Quite literally—I was out of options.
A dragon appeared.
Why now?
If it had thoughts of its own, I’d want to know what it was thinking.
So many questions assaulted me like crashing waves, but more than that—
I was captivated.
(… Beautiful.)
Yes—the dragon was breathtaking.
Each time it soared, droplets of water scattered like rain. Yet the drops never fell to the earth; they shimmered midair, catching the sunlight—
It was like something straight out of a storybook.
A dream come alive.
And then, as I stood there in a daze—my eyes locked with the dragon’s.
Those striking, azure eyes.
For how long we stared, I didn’t know.
When I finally came to, the dragon had vanished into the distant sky. That brought me back to myself in a rush.
Startled, I whirled around to face the two knights.
“Th-That just now! That was a dragon, right!?”
I asked, desperate to confirm I wasn’t imagining things.
Both of them, wearing expressions like they’d just woken from a dream, nodded fearfully.
“That was…”
Kevin murmured, still uncertain. Cain answered coolly.
“A dragon, yes.”
“…… So there was one!?”
“If we weren’t collectively dreaming, then yes—just as you say.”
Cain bowed respectfully as he spoke.
I stared at him, stunned. Then, realizing the expression I was making, I hastily covered my mouth.
(I never thought dragons were real…! This really is another world, huh? But no, even in another world, magic here works more like science… we’ve never had anything this overtly fantastical before…!)
A world where dragons—actual dragons—exist?
It was beyond my imagination.
Honestly, I still hadn’t recovered from the shock, but one thing was clear: I had to report this to Lord Runken immediately.
I had just turned to speak to the knights—when a rustling came from the woods beyond.
But this wasn’t the ethereal sound that accompanied the dragon’s arrival.
This was… human.
Startled, the three of us turned toward the sound.
And there he was.
“… Lord Runken.”
Exactly the person I’d just been thinking about.
He walked toward us, a faintly troubled expression on his face. His jacket sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.
(Why is he here?)
(And did he… did he see that just now?)
The confusion and questions swirled inside me until I blurted out, a little too forcefully:
“I have something I need to ask you!”
He paused for a moment, then sighed as if giving up.
And then—he answered.
With something I hadn’t remotely expected.
“… If you saw it, then I suppose it can’t be helped.”
… What is this, a murder mystery!?
That line was exactly what a killer says when they’ve been caught at the crime scene.
For a moment, I forgot the situation and just thought, Wow, that sounded straight out of a detective novel.
“Please, keep this matter quiet. Her Majesty the Queen, and you two knights as well—no one must speak of it.”
“… Did you kill someone?”
“… What are you talking about?”
What do you think about this chapter?
