Chapter 99
“It’s the same thing. I don’t want to think or talk about it anymore. Stop rubbing salt in painful wounds and show me somewhere nice instead. Isn’t there anywhere else good to go? This is supposed to be the imperial palace of the capital with a thousand years of history.”
When Sian spoke with a chilled expression, Carl made a troubled sound and seemed to fall into contemplation.
“Truth is, I’ve been away from the palace for so long…”
Carl looked out at the vast space that was once a beautiful maze garden, now too shabby to even call a garden. The desolate land, ravaged by dragon’s breath and finished off by the Revenant’s explosion, was no different from a wasteland.
Wasteland. The word that suddenly crossed his mind reminded him of a place. Carl’s eyes lit up as he looked at Sian.
“Sister. You mentioned before that your dragon hasn’t seen light in a long time. Then I assume you’ve never ridden it and flown?”
“What? Of course not…”
Sian’s words trailed off as she met Carl’s turquoise eyes. His playful eyes sparkled with anticipation like a young boy’s.
“…Don’t tell me you want to go riding on a dragon?”
Sian’s jaw dropped as she belatedly realized what Carl was suggesting.
* * *
“…Damn it.”
Sian clenched her eyes shut against the wind’s resistance and swallowed a curse. Even if she had shouted the expletive at the top of her lungs, it certainly wouldn’t have been heard by anyone around her.
Her mind was in complete disarray. While it had been quite warm on the ground, up here where the ground was dizzyingly far below, the air was so cold it made her skin break out in goosebumps.
In childhood stories, dragon riders always seemed so magnificent as they soared through the skies. The massive wings with membranes cutting through the blue sky, the riders perched on the dragons’ scaled backs were always described as maintaining an infinitely dignified posture as they flew—but reality was vastly different.
The powerful gusts felt like they were slapping her cheeks. Not only could she not open her eyes, but her hair whipped around so violently it felt like her scalp was being torn off.
There wasn’t actually any wind blowing. The powerful gusts tormenting Sian were simply the result of her dragon cutting through the sky at tremendous speed, heading for some distant place.
Despite Sian’s nearly painful state, her heart was soaring with excitement. But these weren’t her emotions—they belonged to the dragon she was riding.
The black dragon, who had lived in hiding as a dark shadow beneath the moon for so long, was flying in the daylight sky for the first time since choosing its master.
The sensation of euphoria felt so real it nearly brought tears to her eyes. Her dragon transmitted joy so intense it made her chest tight as it crossed the blue sky at its maximum speed.
In a peaceful state, she too might have embraced the dragon and shed tears of emotion, but Sian was definitely not in that state of mind.
“Just where are we going?!”
She had asked to be shown somewhere nice, and suddenly he summoned a dragon to go who knows where. In this nearly fainting situation, Sian shouted as if screaming, though she knew it wouldn’t be heard.
“We’re almost there!”
Carl shouted from far away, somehow hearing Sian’s voice. At those words, Sian barely opened her eyes to spy the scenery she hadn’t dared to look at before.
The blue sky was barely visible through her squinted eyes. Put differently, there was nothing in front of her eyes. The sunlight beating down from above was scorching, while the air was freezing cold.
The undulating mountains looked as small as models, and even the tallest trees that normally required craning one’s neck to see their tops were the same. The world that had seemed endlessly vast and wide when viewed from the ground now lay below like toys in a showcase.
…To think such a view existed.
It was a perspective that ordinary people could never know. Sian wasn’t sure if these feelings of wonder and amazement belonged to her or the dragon, but she deliberately suppressed them.
The world looked completely different just from the change in viewpoint. She instinctively tried to open her eyes wide, but the wind made it impossible. Instead, with furrowed brows, Sian no longer kept her eyes closed and took in all of the world spread out below.
Far away, beyond the horizon, she could see a river gleaming red in the sunlight. And then, Sian finally understood Carl’s intended destination after riding the dragon for so long.
Ivarid.
It was the land alongside the Red River, said to have been stained red with the blood of Pegadrasil and his followers after their defeat by Yggdrasil. It was Carl’s territory and also where young Sian had first seen Idelin.
Sian unconsciously twisted her lips into a dejected smile.
A distance that would take several days to cover on horseback took barely half a day when flying on a dragon.
When the Red River came into view, Carl lowered Idelin’s altitude toward the ground without any signal to Sian. Without needing verbal communication, Luna, the black dragon sharing consciousness with Sian, flapped her wings and followed Idelin.
And the place where Carl and Idelin landed wasn’t Ivarid Castle, but rather a mountain path lush with trees and grass.
Carl, who had landed first, watched as Luna decreased her altitude. Sian couldn’t help but let out another hollow laugh.
“This shabby place is your idea of somewhere better than the ruined garden?”
“Shabby? Though it may not have splendid flower beds, it has something more beautiful—memories.”
“…?”
As Luna safely touched down, Carl extended his hand toward Sian. Taking his escort-like offered hand and stepping onto the ground, Sian tilted her head.
“Remember this place?”
It was literally just a dirt field with trees, grass, and insects—not a castle or any special building. While looking around, wondering what memories could exist in such a place, Sian suddenly spotted something and her eyes widened.
Beyond the naturally sloping hill was a forest of large trees. Though it was an unremarkable landscape and difficult to recognize after the passage of so much time, Sian quickly realized this was the place where she had first seen Idelin with the Revenant in her childhood.
The place where Carl had guided Luna and Sian was the path that the young prince had taken when receiving his barren territory.
“I first saw you here. You were watching me from over there. Right?”
Showing off his remarkable memory, Carl pointed precisely to a tree trunk beyond the hill. It was as if he could see the younger version of herself, pressing down a shabby hat for fear of being discovered.
“…Wow, your memory is incredible.”
To find such a specific spot in the middle of the mountains without any coordinates.
Sian was genuinely impressed. Carl smiled with satisfaction.
“Yes, I was watching you and your party from that tree trunk with Reva.”
The memory was vivid. The prince’s party passing by on the road, Reva’s intriguing voice that was merely curious at the time, herself clutching her ragged robe tightly for fear her identity would be discovered if it came loose.
“…Thinking about it now.”
Sian wore a bitter smile at the fragmentary memory that was almost embarrassing to call a reminiscence.
