“Thanks, bro.”
“Now, Eiji. Call me old-fashioned...”
“Why?”
“...but I think that ‘bro’ should only be used man-to-man. Lest you’ve forgotten, I am a female.”
“Grrf...”
And she never forgets to educate me. She’s too good of a partner, indeed.
We had made it out here from the city of Lishua in order to hunt gagd. Apparently, they lived not too far off, but close enough to walk. We had been told that there was a forest beyond the field, which was magibeast territory. Gagd, apparently, were not one of the more dangerous magibeasts. They were also of a rather timid nature, and wouldn’t attack humans on sight. While I didn’t know how I would fare against them, we were told that Tiamat, Miss-S-Rating-All-Around, wouldn’t break a sweat. So, we decided to scope the forest out with just the two of us.
“Mister Garish deceived me...”
I mumbled as I hobbled on. When it takes a whole day on foot, that is not a walkable distance. That’s false advertising.
“A two days’ walk at your pace, Eiji. How many breaks do you need to take?”
“So it’s my fault? It’s all my fault?”
“Not that I would make the effort to understand how you feel. Do you realize that you’re making it harder on yourself every time you stop?”
“What...?”
“That’s why mountain climbers seldom sit to rest. They only set their pack down on a rock or something, and stand still for a short time.”
Once you sit down, it’s hard to get back up. Both physically and mentally, it takes a lot out of you to stand all the way up; that was Tiamat’s explanation.
“I wish you would have told me sooner...”
“Even if I did, you would have sat all the same. It’s something you have to live through to learn.”
She let out a roar of laughter.
2.
I spotted a forest in the area. We didn’t walk through an area where trees appeared here and there with increasing density, but instead there almost seemed to be a line where the field ended and the forest began.
“By any natural course of time, this kind of terrain shouldn’t exist.”
“...Right,” I answered, lacking any sort of energy.
As Tiamat had predicted, we arrived at the forest the morning after we departed... Which meant that the previous night we had slept under the stars. On the ground.
My whole body hurt. No recharging had been done. I couldn’t even tell if I had slept at all.
There may be some person out there who could sleep like a baby in the darkness illuminated by nothing but the moon and starlight, without a bed or even a sleeping bag, while all sorts of beasts could be heard in the distance. That person, if they did in fact exist, was not Eiji Kazama. The fool by that particular name instead spent the whole night clinging to Tiamat out of terror.
“Nothing to be ashamed of. You know that you can’t do anything in combat, so you relied on me, who could do something. That’s all there was to it.”
The almighty dragon laughed without a care in the world. Sure, she hit the nail on the head, but even I had a semblance of pride. There are some things in this world that men still take pride in.
“It’s not the be-all-end-all. You’ll just get in the way if all you can offer is some macho bravado with nothing to back it up.”
“You’re right, of course...”
“What you should be ashamed of is assuming that you had physical capabilities comparable to the inhabitants of this world. You had plenty of time to see that you don’t.”
“...Uncle.”
I was a feeble, modern-day man accustomed to living the easy way. There was no way for me to walk as fast as Mister Garish had expected, and my endurance was nowhere near his. When I stayed the night in Lishua I should have realized at least that much.
I suspected that Tiamat didn’t give me prior warning on purpose. This was something I had to learn the hard way, she must have assessed. She was neither a tour guide nor a babysitter. Who was I to expect white-glove service?
At the same time, I was sure that she would be kind enough to give me advice if I were to ask for it after thinking it over on my own. In the example of my current predicament, if I had asked her whether or not she thought it possible for me to adhere to Mister Garish’s ETA, she would have told me ‘no.’ By cutting that tiny corner I had left the city without the necessary preparations to keep me from sleeping under the stars. My luck had it that this was only a couple days’ trip for me, but if it had been a more long-term endeavor I could have ended up dead.
“Moving forward, I’ll make sure to ask for your advice on most things.”
“Hm.”
Tiamat nodded. I remember the dragon’s expression resembling a smile, somewhat.
We were in the forest when I began to notice shadows in the distance peeking in and out of my vision. They were considerably large, and I pegged them to belong to magibeasts. These weren’t stray cats, after all. Not a lot of wild beasts would easily show themselves to humans.
“Even on Earth, those on the top of the food chain don’t hide in fear. Same logic applies here.”
“Gotcha.”
Perhaps there was some truth to that. In the case of humans, we simply grouped together because we couldn’t hide or camouflage ourselves very well. That was our ticket to the top of the food chain on Earth. In the wild, though, it was each creature to their own. As a result the stronger individuals would be more keen to show themselves.
“I wonder where the gagd lies on the food chain. If it’s too up there, it’s not going to be easy to hunt.”
“It would be easy for me. Difficult to gauge that for humans, though.” Tiamat said, crooking her neck.
Although small in stature, she was a dragon. The tippy-top of the chain, and belonging in another dimension entirely than feeble, groveling, mortal humans. A falcon soaring in the sky and a worm crawling on the ground would naturally have different points of view. How could those who have it all sympathize with those who don’t?
“What’s with the self-pity, all of a sudden?”
Tiamat glared at me side-eyed as I was moping on.
“It’s a staple.”
“Idiot. I’m not talking about the difficulty of the hunt. You humans can’t eat your prey whole, can you?”
“Me eat you whole.”
“I am in your care.”
“So what do you mean, exactly?”
“I appreciate the lack of acknowledgment. We dragons can eat them raw, but you humans need to perform various tasks like skinning them, picking out the edible body parts, etc.”
She had a point. Come to think of it, I was sure that any wild-spirited people who would eat magibeasts alive were in the minority. Our methods of hunting differed to begin with.
“But we have ‘killing them’ in common, don’t we?”
“True. No sense debating whether hunting one is feasible or not. Let’s try it.”
Tiamat squinted. I followed her gaze to see a giant silhouette in the distance.
“There’s one. A gagd.”
“That’s not close to the size of any boar I know.”
It was easily four meters long and two meters tall. It was just, so big... And it even had some vicious-looking fangs. The creature was leaps and bounds above my expectations; it looked like it belonged in an anime. I was in a fantasy world, after all.
Could I hunt it? Not a chance.
“I want to go home...”
“No can do. It noticed us too. It seems it deemed us hostile.”
The gagd slowly turned towards us. Tucking its head down, the creature kicked the ground a few times with its forefoot. Even I, without any knowledge of wild animals whatsoever, could tell that it was about to charge.
In an instant the gagd began dashing towards us with thunderous stomps that felt like they were shaking the very ground below my feet. It came towards us, knocking down some small trees. Its r
ed eyes glowed with aggression. I estimated that we were about 250 meters apart; at the speed it was going, it would reach us very soon.
“W-W-W-W-What are we going to do!?” I yelled, scared out of my absolute mind.
“I don’t know what kind of attack will kill it. I’m sure tearing its head off in close combat would do the trick.”
In complete contrast to me, Tiamat observed calmly. Yeah, we didn’t need to be doing any kind of analysis here.
Can’t you do something, already? Like, please??
I could almost hear the magibeast’s breathing. With every moment, the gagd appeared to grow in size. It was a trick of the mind, caused by my fear and the fact that the beast was approaching. It already appeared to be as big as a semi to me.
This is bad. Super-duper bad.
I was sure that I would die on impact.
“It may not be wise to let it struggle so much that it flattens you, Eiji.”
Well, yeah. Very unwise indeed.
But if you stand there and do nothing, that’s what’ll happen anyway. Don’t you see that? Hello? Miss Tiamat??
“A breath attack then, I suppose. I can’t really gauge this thing. Let’s try it with maximum power.”
The little dragon sucked in some air, and her bluish or greenish scales began to glow silver-blue. She opened her eyes; the roaring sound came a moment later. What I was able to see was a blinding light. Laser Breath. That was the name that came to my mind as I closed my eyes from the sheer brightness. I couldn’t help but feel like it was overkill. Carefully, I opened my eyes.
“I went a little too far.”
Tiamat was scratching her chin with her short forelegs. I was impressed that she could do that. If the scene in front of me hadn’t required my devoted attention, I would have addressed the matter. But in front of me was a straight line that must have stretched two kilometers where there were no longer any trees or anything else that used to be there. It looked as if a certain giant, god-like warrior had come through.
Naturally, the gagd was nowhere to be seen. I assumed it didn’t flee but was evaporated. Without a trace. This end result didn’t seem like where we should wind up on a hunting trip. ‘Obliteration’ was a word that better suited the picture.
“What are we going to do about this...?”
“Let’s see. We can play dumb, or just run away,” Tiamat said, looking to the distance.
I understood her sentiment, but why would we flee the scene?
3.
Nothing happened. When we had arrived to the forest, it was already at the state it was now. Some giant magibeast must have gone berserk. Maybe one fought another like a scene from a Kaiju movie.
“We don’t have much of an alternative. It would be pretty embarrassing for me to admit that I made my attack too powerful.”
“Uh-huh. I wasn’t worried about dignity, Tiamat.”
I didn’t have even the teeniest, tiniest, pint-sized care for that. The problem was that her attack was as powerful as a weapon of mass destruction. If people found out that Tiamat was the culprit of this, it would be a huge deal. With great power came great trouble. Those with this kind of power would be feared and eliminated, or used for nefarious means. Either way, it wouldn’t be sunshine and rainbows.
The various overpowered protagonists would make some effort to conceal their powers if they didn’t live in the realm of fiction. The only excuse for one not to do so would be if their mental capacity was that of a teenager’s. Just as the tall trees catch more wind, life becomes harder the more one showcases their talent. That’s a lesson that anyone learns once they make it out to the real world. It’s exactly why fictional protagonists possess boundless powers, and even act like they don’t have a care in the world. If you were to act that way in real life, people would fear you, use you, and hate you until you die alone. It’s sad, but that’s human nature.
Imagine that there’s someone in your school or workplace who has good grades or is good at their job, but is a massive jerk. Could you ever sincerely enjoy their company? I couldn’t. As an adult, I would maintain some sort of cordial relationship all the while wishing for their destruction.
“In short, you’re saying I should conceal my strength.”
“Yes. I personally don’t think you’ll use it for evil, but I can’t say the same for other people.”
“Mm-hm.”
“Besides, if you kept getting all the praise, I would get jealous. Not very noble of me, I know.”
I played it as a joke, but that was the truth. Tiamat was a good soul and a good partner, that much was indisputable, but having someone extraordinary at your side is an arduous task for someone extra ordinary like me. Doctor Watson, who continued to show unchanging friendship to Sherlock Holmes despite continuously having the disparity in their intellects shoved in his face, must be of truly admirable character.
“You’re an honest man, Eiji. It may be a virtue, but it must not be easy to envy an ally.”
“Especially because you’re an ally. If you were an enemy, I’d just have to hate you. Besides...”
“Besides?”
“Part of me wants to be proud. Of what an amazing partner I have.”
It wasn’t easy because it was complicated. Intricate, perhaps. Apparently, after a mere 31 years, I was nowhere near solving the maze of the human mind.
“I’m a high-maintenance man.” I shrugged.
“You are human, after all. Tia-o.”
Tiamat smiled a smile that made things okay. My partner, indeed, had a big heart. I looked up to that.
As we continued our either fruitful or fruitless (I couldn’t tell which) conversation, something came out of the forest. A gigantic wolf appeared, walking onto the path carved out of the earth by Tiamat’s breath.
It was huge. It was bigger than huge; at least thrice as large as the gagd from earlier. It was covered in silver fur and wore a dauntless expression. Something about the creature seemed kingly.
“A Fenrir. It’s supposed to be high up the ranks of magibeasts,” the dragon explained to me.
While it may sound naïve, even I could tell that the Fenrir had no intention of attacking us. In fact, it seemed more ready for a discussion. When it reached a spot about twenty meters away from us, the wolf stopped.
“Honorable Dragon-god Princess.”
It spoke to us fluently. Yes, it was weird for a wolf to speak, but I wasn’t particularly surprised. Dragons could speak, too! In fact, the wolf’s words surprised me more than the fact that it uttered them.
“It could tell that you’re a woman, Tia.”
“Of course it could. What male would look like this?”
I’m sorry I can’t tell a male dragon from a female dragon.
I had no idea which of her characteristics made it so obvious.
“I beg your pardon. I must inquire, with what purpose have you initiated an attack upon my territory?”
Depending on our response, the wolf would stand its ground and fight. That much was apparent from the determination it exuded. In its eyes I saw the melancholy of someone who had accepted death. Dragon versus wolf... the result of that matchup seemed clear as day. I had just witnessed Tiamat’s breath, too.
...Which seemed like more power than any one creature should have, by the way.
“That’s on me. An unfortunate accident,” Tiamat answered, scratching her chin.
That was no accident. There was no arguing that it was 100% preventable.
“Accident...!?”
“Mm-hm. I wanted to try hunting a gagd. I didn’t know how much power I needed to take it down, so I just went full force. Then, voila. Imagine my surprise.” Tiamat laughed.
Imagine your surprise? Imagine my surprise!
And there she was, blabbing about the whole thing we just swore not to tell a soul. Although, on second thought, we weren’t dealing with another human, and it already knew we were the culprits.
“You...!? Fired a Laser Breath just to take down
a gagd!?”
I was glad that Mister Fenrir was also surprised. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of kinship. One-sidedly, of course.
“Mm-hm. What was I to do? It was charging at us, and Eiji could have been caught up in the battle if it came down to close combat.”
She gave me a glance. Okay. That was true. For example, if Tiamat happened to have thrown the gagd towards me via a German Suplex or something, I would have died.
“Human...?”
The Fenrir turned his gaze to me, as if it hadn’t noticed me until this very moment. In fact, I was confident it hadn’t. How could it have noticed anything but Tiamat in this situation?
“Hm. He is technically my godfather.”
“The godfather to a Dragon-god...!”
A dash of fear entered his eyes as they stayed on me.
Wait a minute. Sure, I had named her ‘Tiamat’ but this kind of reaction was unexpected. Had I majorly screwed up?
“Don’t worry about it, Eiji. It’s an old custom. A dragon gives the honor of naming them to someone they’ve come to respect. Then they love, cherish, and hold that person dear like their own parent... Until that person’s bloodline comes to an end.”
Tiamat informed me of this with an almost musical flow. So it was a ridiculously big deal. It didn’t seem like something that should have been taken so lightly. Eh, Tia?
“...Shouldn’t you have explained that in the beginning, Tia? I just named you without a clue of any of that.”
“Old custom, like I said. I’m the dragon that’s hip with the kids, so YOLO. No need to let it bother you.”
“I’m bothered by your outdated choice of words...”
I was getting really tired, all of a sudden.
“Human...”
The next emotion that entered the wolf’s eyes was pity. Ignored, feared, and now pitied. How colorfully the wolf had received my presence. I would have put up ads all over for anyone to take my place.
Isekai Rebuilding Project: Volume 1 Page 6