Magi's Grandson 92 (Teaser)

Heard a Heavy Story - Part 4

"Hmm? Ah, so you didn't know, s.h.i.+n?"

"There are things like herbivorous dragons and carnivorous dragons, lizard-like creatures that, while not actually becoming demons, have very large bodies that are several meters tall."

Lizard-like herbivorous and carnivorous dragons…?

"Dinosaurs!?"

"Dino…saurs?"

"What are you talking about? Dragons are dragons."

"Ah, ahaha. I… I see. So there are still creatures like that around, huh?"

Oops. I just blurted that out of my mouth without thinking.

But leaving that aside, dinosaurs are still alive, huh?

"Dragonhide is a material of extremely high quality. Magical humans have hunted them down excessively, and their numbers have gone down dramatically. They're even a protected species in a certain region."

"It appeared that the bigger and the wiser a creature is, the harder it is for it to become a demon."

"When humans become devils, even bigger creatures such as dragons can become demons…"

"Well, it's not like there are no precedents of dragons turned into demons. However, those are limited to literature, and don't happen in real life."

"Still, that which rarely happened had actually happened. We had been given a request."

Ah, right. Back then, they were already the heroes that had defeated a devil.

I guess they could expect something like that after being so famous.

"The demonized dragon was defeated. However…"

"…During that battle, Slaine was protecting Ekaterina…"

"That's enough! You don't have to talk about it anymore!"

Both of their faces seemed to be in so much pain.

They don't have to tell me how they lost their son.

That's what I was thinking when I interrupted them.

They seemed tremendously saddened after remembering that scene, but they started talking again before long.

"It was so cruel seeing Ekaterina being so depressed and distracted. Somehow she was able to endure without allowing her heart to be completely broken, but to this day she still carries that pain. That's fair proof that she's been unmarried to this day."

"We too had a hard time dealing with our son's loss… What kind of hero fails to protect their own son? So we decided to quit being hunters."

"The death of our son has changed our relations.h.i.+p, too. We both deeply regretted not being able to protect our son. We blamed ourselves, but also each other for it."

"It's impossible to continue living on as a married couple in such a state… so we got divorced."

I see…

I had figured they had quite a story, but I had never imagined it would be this deep.

"Then, several years later, we found you, s.h.i.+n."

I can't imagine myself feeling the amount of pain these two have suffered.

And all this time, they've gone through great effort so as to not let their sadness show…