"Was I wrong?"
Duke Bailen did not answer.
With a complicated expression, he stood facing the young man before him. He was a young and beautiful human male. His skin was pale, and his eyes and hair were as black as a moonless night.
The young man was his father. Duke Bailen had lived for over 600 years, reaching a middle-aged appearance, but his father's appearance was not even half that of his son.
Skin, eyes, hair color, and even facial features were so different that no one could suspect they were related by blood. Yet, the two were father and son.
The young man was not human. He was a dragon named Narbakayeni, and his current form was merely a mask carved by the dragon.
"Bailen, you came to be compensated by me, didn't you? To receive the price for me leaving your mother, the human woman, Penelope."
There was no warmth on the father's face as he looked at his son. Nor was it cold. To Narbakayeni, Bailen seemed no different from an object placed before him.
"I—"
"Bailen came to see you, Kayani,"
Ulrich answered, interrupting Bailen.
"Because you are his father."
"Not to ask for help with molting?"
"Yes. Though I can't say it's entirely unrelated."
"Is that really the reason?"
Narbakayeni tilted his head. It wasn't a sarcastic tone. It was a purely questioning tone, as if asking how that could be a reason.
"You're still the same. Unchanged."
"I suppose so. I believed I had understood humans, but now I see I was wrong. Acting is just acting, no matter how well done."
"Acting?"
Bailen asked in an absurd tone.
"Are you saying that what you did to my mother was acting?"
Narbakayeni answered without the slightest hesitation, "Yes."
"To be precise, I should say 'imitated.' I spent a long time with Ulrich, observing how he treated other humans, and I merely copied it."
"Wh, what..."
"From the start, I didn't plan to stay with that human woman, Penelope, for long. Didn't he tell you? Dragons don't form groups."
Family and offspring are concepts that humans value, but to them, dragons, they are nothing, Narbakayeni added. Unless there was an unavoidable situation, dragons do not form groups.
"Then... then, what was your plan? Why did you choose my mother, and why was I born? If your actions were acting and a plan, there must be a reason."
"I wanted to understand humans."
Turning his back, Narbakayeni sat in a chair in front of the round table. And he gestured for the humans to sit down. Though no one followed his suggestion, he poured tea from the teapot into an empty teacup.
The scent of the tea in the teacup reached the humans on a gentle breeze. Roberta inadvertently frowned slightly. It was Songhwa tea.
She was taken aback because she didn't expect to smell that intense scent at this moment, and then she suddenly looked at Ulrich. An instinct whispered that the actions of the dragon in human form resembled someone.
"Ulrich, Ulrich of Ditmarsken."
Narbakayeni said, looking at him.
"You're using quite a long name this time. I thought you'd be getting tired of it soon, but what name will you use next?"
Ulrich did not answer. Narbakayeni, as if not expecting an answer, stirred the teacup gently and continued speaking.
"When that old, never-aging, never-dying human used the name Oscar, he took me out of my nest and made me his servant, touring the world. It was then that I felt the need to understand humans."
When the dragon in human form first toured the world, the era already belonged to humans. In the human era, dragons were nothing more than ferocious beasts, so even if a dragon revealed its true form, humans would only be briefly surprised and soon hunt it down.
How could humans, crawling on the ground with their small bodies, catch dragons soaring in the sky? How did dwarves and fairies lose to humans and have their era stolen?
Narbakayeni wanted to know this, so he sought to understand humans. He decided to experience their lives as a human.
"Meeting Penelope, that headstrong human woman, was accidental."
He took a sip of tea and continued.
"I tried to understand humans through her. Compared to the years Oscar and I had, it was only a fleeting moment, and in the end, I failed, but... it was a decent experience."
The reason he left offspring was his own price. He judged that there was nothing more to gain by staying by Penelope's side, and he decided to grant her one wish before leaving.
Wish, Bailen shuddered at that word. His existence revealed his mother's choice. Also, the choice she gave up by choosing him.
"In my memory, Penelope has no reason to look for me. If she had feelings strong enough to leave a message for me to find her, she would have chosen me instead of you from the start. She would have asked me to stay. So, when you said you came to find me, I thought the will was an excuse, and molting was the real reason."
Dragons can change their appearance to other races. What happens if they create offspring in the form of another race? Usually, they are born with the appearance of the changed race and do not change until they die.
However, some lose their previous form. This process is like shedding a shell, so it is called molting. Hybrids who have undergone molting become closer to the form of a dragon.
Narbakayeni asked if that was what he wanted.
"Bailen, is there really no other reason?"
"...It would be an obvious lie to say there isn't. Why wouldn't there be?"
Bailen laughed emptily and lowly. The honorifics disappeared from his words.
"But... it's also true that I came to find you because you are my father and to deliver my mother's will. It's hard to say which reason came first."
He took out a letter wrapped in silk from his chest. It must be the letter his mother left. Narbakayeni glanced at it briefly when he took out the letter, but that was all.
"I see. But the order doesn't matter. From the result, you have achieved all your goals the moment you arrived before me. You have met your father, you can deliver your mother's will, and I can help you with molting."
Bailen took a deep breath and tilted his head back. The sky was visible. The snowstorm on the Ice Peninsula was so fierce, but the sky in the dragon's garden was clear without a single cloud.
The journey was now nearing its end. Meeting his father, seeing his mother, achieving molting, all could be achieved with just a word or two right now.
"So this is a dragon."
But what came out of his mouth was a long sigh close to a lament.
A sense of emptiness without any accomplishment settled upon him.
"Laurent, I want to ask you something."
"Speak."
"What happens when you molt?"
It's not that he really doesn't know the facts about molting.
"It varies from individual to individual. If you're lucky, you become a complete dragon."
"...Does that mean I become the same being as my father?"
"There's a high possibility of that."
"What if I'm not lucky?"
That also depends on the individual, Ulrich replied.
"You just don't become a dragon, but the ambiguous problems between humans and dragons are resolved. There are elements you expected, right? You can assume that most of them will be achieved. However, the problems are the same."
He tapped his temple with his index finger.
Bailen nodded as if he expected it.
"In the end, you were right, Laurent. I hoped that all my problems would be solved by coming to this place, but nothing is completely resolved. I understand why you tried to stop me from this journey."
"You seem very disappointed."
"How could I not be?"
Silence followed, then Ulrich spoke.
"It's not necessarily true. It might be wrong."
Bailen asked with his eyes what he meant.
"Didn't I say? It's a matter of possibility. After molting, you might become a dragon. Also, unlike Kayani, you might still be able to understand us. It's the same even if you don't become a dragon."
It's not that there are no precedents, Ulrich added.
"If you become such a being, how about you do what I did?"
He was referring to the time he traveled the world with a dragon under the name Oscar. Bailen was intrigued by the thought but soon denied it.
"What would change by doing that?"
"What is the result of my actions?"
"······."
"I didn't try to change Kayani by being with him. I just had to make him my servant against my will. As a result, you came into existence. If I hadn't been with him, would you have existed?"
Ulrich approached Bailen and placed his hand on his head.
"Nothing is eternal. Nothing in this world is unchanging."
Not all dragons did not form groups. The progenitor of dragons, Ruobheidra, and some dragons knew how to understand people.
Their numbers were too small to change the fate of the race, but wouldn't it be possible to change one dragon, Ulrich said.
"But... what if I can't understand you?"
"You only have one chance now. Banares had four."
Bailen trembled.
"If not, it might be okay to give up molting and cling to it. Fortunately, you have quite a lot of time. Wouldn't it be worth a try? Rather than succumbing to impulses because you can't bear the boredom of time, try an endless challenge. It would be nice to teach you until you get tired of it or until the given time runs out."
Laurent smiled, stroking Bailen's head as if recalling the child he had cared for. The appearance of the two seemed to have reversed roles, but none of the humans in this place recognized it.
"If that child comes to understand you, if that really happens, our journey will truly become valuable."
Ulrich said quietly in a soft voice.
"And when that time comes, let me know. I have more time than both of you, so I will be waiting forever. Descendant of Banares."
Bailen's eyes turned red, and soon tears flowed down.
"Yes, I will. Laurent."
#
Duke Bailen, the grandson of King Banares, decided to awaken the blood of his father.
He told Ulrich and Roberta that he would travel the world with Narbakayeni after completing molting. The remaining vassals also decided to follow him.
Narbakayeni welcomed the will of his half-son. He hoped that he could learn from his half-son the emotions he had not understood from pure humans.
'Can he really succeed?'
Roberta wondered.
She hoped that Bailen would achieve his goal, but wishing and being possible are different. Didn't Ulrich tell her? Even the progenitor of dragons could not save her race. Of course, Bailen is not changing a race but one dragon.
In addition, it was uncertain whether he could complete molting safely. He might not become a complete dragon, or he might lose his humanity.
'No. He can do it. I have to believe it.'
She shook her head, scolding herself for having foolish thoughts. Bailen is a strong person. He will be able to overcome even when trials come.
But she will not be able to see the results. Because she is a human with no other blood mixed in, even if Bailen achieves his goal, she will be soil at that time.
It was a human life that could not even wait. All she could do was pray in the name of Ganymea. She prayed every day for those who had been connected to her in her short life, and now Duke Bailen and his vassals were added.
Although not devout, she prayed to Ganymea, who had left the heavens, with a sincere heart. Also, she hoped that Hestio would return and lead humans again.
'Mother Ganymea, watch over the humans your son has raised.'
Roberta finished praying and stood up.
It was dawn, just showing signs of sunrise.
Eight humans left, and two returned on a giant after half a month. Roberta returned to the city of Freieiche with the help of the giant, along with Ulrich.
The journey to the Ice Peninsula with the guests of the Carbonihar Kingdom ended like that.