“Man, why are you so surprised?”

Seeing me at a loss for words out of amazement, s.h.i.+g spoke.

“I mean, you, why…”

“We can talk later. We have to do something about these guys first.”

Around half of the mice had been destroyed by everyone’s a.s.sault a moment before, but reinforcements seemed to suddenly come out of nowhere. The heck, how many thousands of them are there?

“Mentor, can you give me some fire to work with? Just a single-word one would work.”

“Fire… Is this alright?”

“Thanks.”

Creating a flame like he asked, s.h.i.+g suddenly thrust his hand into it.

“s.h.i.+g!?”

“That which is red, which is hot, the flame that burns everything. Follow my guidance and become my sword.”

s.h.i.+g’s hand dragged out the flame. Stroking it with his other hand to form it into a cylindrical shape, he held it and recited an incantation, transforming it into a shape more similar to a sword.

“Here. Yuuko, you help out too.”

“Eh? U-uh, okay.”

Handing the sword to Yuuki, s.h.i.+g returned to facing the mice.

“Umm… big brother? I-It’d be helpful if you let go of me…?”

“Huh? Oh, s-sorry!”

Realizing that I was still embracing Yuuki, I hurriedly opened my arms.

“I’ll be back.”

Yuuki’s expression quickly grew serious after a final smile at me before running toward the mice.

“Hey s.h.i.+g, which side of this is the bladed side!?”

“Oh come on it’s fire, just swing it!”

“Even if you tell me that…!”

A mouse jumped up high to attack Yuuki just then, so she swung the sword down on reflex to slice through it. With that, the sword extended straight and far out, gouging through all of the mice it came across and reducing them to ashes.

“Woah, Mentor, your fire’s crazy strong.”

“There’s no way I can use a weapon this dangerous though!?”

It was just for an instant, but seeing that flame extend far into the horizon, Yuuki shouted out almost as a scream.

“You can. That’s a sword made from Mentor’s flame, and you are a Swordsaint.”

But s.h.i.+g just responded matter-of-factly. Staring at the sword in surprise, Yuuki took a moment before nodding.

“Alright. I’ll leave my back to you… Rin!”

“Yeah yeah here I go~! Big flame, go boooom~!”

Following the merfolk’s energetic incantation, a huge, explosive flame shot from her fingertips.

“Become my spear and eradicate this person!”

Seizing the flame midair, s.h.i.+g shaped it into a spear like clay before throwing it in one, mighty stroke. It penetrated into the group of mice where it distorted before returning to its original flame-like state and exploding, scattering the mice about in a burst of heat and force.

“You are me, I am you. Howl, run, and travel on, we have work to do—shadow clone!”

The flame creating a stark shadow behind Luka, a number of figures stood up following her incantation. Splitting away from her, they ran on their four legs and collected the mice that had been attempting to escape the flames into one place. Once the pitch-black forms spread their arms open wide, they turned into ten fangs and pierced through the mice.

“It is not like I could allow you to head this way, now could I?”

Violet pointed her supple hands to the mice that were trying to escape the fangs piercing through their ranks. Just as I saw thorns grow along the bramble sprouting from her fingertips pierce into the ground, that bramble sprung up through the ground from under the mice.

“Yep, I got the hang of this thing now!”

Yuuki freely altered the length of her fire sword as she swung it, erasing the existence of any mouse it came across. Standing in the center of a ring of charred corpses, she focused on any of the mice that were aiming for her comrades who were focusing on magically controlling the battle.

Luka controlled their positioning, Rin created opportunities, s.h.i.+g utilized any chances he saw. Violet filled any gaps that were opened in their defense, while Yuuki backed any of them up.

—It reminded me of how the cla.s.sroom once was.

“Guess I don’t need to help out, sounds good to me.”

Taking in a deep breath, Nina said such an out-of-place thing.

“Wouldn’t not helping not be not bad?”

“Oh shut up.”

Nina responded, her tone obviously disappointed in my sense of humor.

It wasn’t as though she meant she wasn’t going to do anything. She was treating Amaga, after all. Using magic to heal wounds is excessively difficult. It required both strong magic and highly proficient control, so Nina was pretty much the only person that could use it practically at this point. Even for her, emitting even a tiny flame will be impossible for her for a while after healing as much of Amaga’s wounds as she did.

“Professor Nina, thank you.”

“Yeah yeah, it’s fine so just make sure to protect us, okay?”

Nina just waved her hand in response to Amata lowering his head deeply to her. Amaga, a man who couldn’t move with his legs broken as they were, and Nina, a woman who was out of mana. The mice obviously wouldn’t let such easy prey go.

Amata slashed downward with his stone sword, his head still bowed toward Nina. I didn’t understand what I’d just seen even though it just happened right in front of me. He was skilled for certain, but he must have been exhausted—-and yet that technique was absolutely precise. He truly was fit to carry the Swordsaint name.

“Wait!”

Perhaps deciding that the current battle was progressing unfavorably, the white mouse shouted.

“Have you forgotten? We have your brethren as spare food.”

“Spare… food…?”

Not liking the sound of that, s.h.i.+g’s hands stopped moving.

“Correct. If you continue attacking us, we will take all of our spare food and—”

“By spare food, do you mean this?”

A deep, baritone voice contrasted the white mouse’s high, shrill pitch.

“—Beol!? Why—how!?”

Carrying a number of villagers using his four arms, the lizardmen patriarch stood proudly despite the wounds covering his body.

“I cannot say that everyone is safe… but please, Mentor, be at ease.”

Pulling a tray loaded with some sick villagers on it, Luka’s father, Tauro, smiled cheerfully.

“Please show me your wounds. I will treat you.”

With that, Pea Green, the elf, came up and rolled a number of yellowish-green leaves over my legs.

They weren’t the only ones. A lizardmen clan, Luka’s siblings, even a few elves I hadn’t seen before all appeared one after another.

“Everyone, why…?”

“What do you mean why?”

Elated, s.h.i.+g responded to my confused mutter.

“I brought them along, obviously!”

“But… how in the world did you do it?”

Now that I think about it, Rin being here’s obviously strange.

I flew almost straight back here from when I left her. There’s no way she could be here now unless she could move as fast as me flying.

“I’ll tell you the secret afterward.”

s.h.i.+g spoke, then turned toward the white mouse.

“Let’s make a deal.”

“What sort of deal?”

The white mouse responded to s.h.i.+g.

“The spear lord offered his right eye to obtain wisdom.”

“… What are you talking about?”

Both the mouse and I tilted our heads in puzzlement.

“The merfolk princess offered her voice to obtain legs.”

However, once I heard his following sentence, I realized what was wrong. He wasn’t talking to the mouse.

“I offer two of my arms. They may have no fingers nor elbows, but they are still my prided arms.”

—It was an incantation.

“Give me the power to soar through the sky!”

s.h.i.+g’s upper arms, the two lacking anything at the elbows and beyond, spread out as they made a cracking noise.

They were wings. Not the feathered wings you’d see on a bird, but more like a bat’s—no.

They were undeniably dragon wings!

Flapping his wings, he danced through the air like an arrow loosed from a bow. Immediately afterward, be thrust into the group of mice and accurately seized the white mouse like a bird of prey.

Given his current appearance, it was probably more suitable to call him a dragonkin than a lizardman.

“So Mentor, what do you want me to do with this guy?”

The white mouse, held by s.h.i.+g, had already given up and was just staring fixedly at me with its red eyes, not raging or trying to escape at all.

“… Right.”

After taking a moment to think, I responded.

“If you answer my questions and promise to no longer make any moves the village, I’ll turn a blind eye.”

“You’re still saying that, after all this…!?”

Placing my hands on Nina’s shoulders to calm her down, I winked at her. She glared at me in obvious dissatisfaction, but she didn’t take it any further. Her expression told me that she wouldn’t hold back if she didn’t agree with what I did next.

“Acknowledged.”

“Alright, then now for my questions.”

Seeing the mouse in s.h.i.+g’s hand nod, I spoke.

“Algernon said that he was the only one able to talk. Is that true?”

“Affirmative.”

“Then are there now rats other than you that can speak?”

“No.”

It wasn’t lying, probably… rather, the mice couldn’t lie.

That’s the kind of feeling I got from them, at least.

Because lies were things meant to be used for deceiving another person. To deceive someone, you would first need to understand them. Also I’m sure the mice are able to predict our actions to some extent, I doubt they can understand us.

Similar to how we can’t understand their way of thinking.

“After you die, how many mice capable of speech would there be?”

“One.”

—So that’s how it was.

“The heck?”

Hearing the white mouse’s contradictory answer, Nina frowned and spoke in irritation. There were no mice who could talk other than the white mouse, but somehow there would still be a mouse that could talk about it died. Thinking normally, that was off.

However, I was thinking about the possibility of what that meant.

“They’re a colony. They treat themselves as one living thing.”

That’s why they weren’t afraid of death, as well as why they considered there to only be a single mouse capable of speech.

Like how a person didn’t care about haircuts, and like how they only had a single mouth that spoke.

“Even if we killed this white mouse, they would just produce a new white mouse.”

“Affirmative.”

That’s why even if this mouse was unique, it wasn’t the leader.

“That’s why I’m certain… certain that killing the mice here is meaningless.”

“Affirmative.”

If I wanted there to truly be meaning in killing the mice here, I’d have to entirely exterminate them… However, doing that didn’t seem possible.

They weren’t foolish. They’ve almost definitely left a minimum number of themselves at some other location.

Although I don’t know to what extend they are able to do so, they are able to share memories. They a.n.a.lyzed our strength through this battle. With that, they would build up their strength so that they are able to win the next time.

“That’s all I needed to hear. At the very least, I’ll reduce your numbers… so that the day of your counterattack will be as far away as possible.”

I produced a ball of flame and suspended it above the surviving mice.

“You said that you would turn a blind eye.”

“Yeah, I did. There are still a number of you out there somewhere, right? I’ll be turning a blind eye to them.”

To be accurate, I had no choice in the matter. I didn’t know where they were and I had no way to find however many of the small mice there were out there.

“Oh.”

The white mouse muttered. It didn’t cry out, nor did it criticize me.

“I see.”

Leaving behind something that sounded more ominous than grudging—the mice burned, leaving behind no traces.

 ====

“By the way, s.h.i.+g, there’s a few things I want to ask you…”

We’d removed the ice walls that were affixed to the ice house’s entrance and were protecting the injured villagers, and we were currently working on repairing the broken fences and cleaning up the mouse corpses. I’d been wracking my brains about how we were going to deal with the damage we’d sustained due to their a.s.sault when I decided to finally ask the lizardman youth.

“Why did you come to help?”

“Why?—Wait, you’re serious?”

s.h.i.+g responded incredulously.

“I knew that the mice would eventually attack the village, they were just waiting until they were sure they could win. I’ve been preparing so that we could fight back… I mean, I even made sure you knew.”

“… Huh?”

“Remember when I had you look into my eyes?”

He was talking about back when he left the village. Sorry. I didn’t get what you were doing. I just looked back since you were looking at me. If I had to put his expression from then into words, even with his frustration, he didn’t seem disappointed or disgusted… to be honest, he looked trustworthy.

“So you pretended to split away from the village like that because you knew the mice were eavesdropping, huh… but you thought this many would attack?”

I could understand if it was just him, but he even came with the lizardman, the lykoscentaur, and the elves. If the mice hadn’t been so confident, they wouldn’t have gone so far.

“… They’re very similar to me. Small, weak… but unable to stand it.”

Gazing into the sky, s.h.i.+g spoke in self-ridicule.

“They don’t think anything about their comrades… But that’s the same as lizardmen. The weak are the ones at fault. That’s why you just have to be strong. No one even thinks about trying to help or save their dying comrades. It was the same for me, too… yeah, was.”

It was then that he looked back to me.

“That changed when I met a certain softhearted idiot of a dragon!”

Saying that, he just smiled freely. It was the first time I’d ever seen s.h.i.+g smile so innocently.

“I’d always known they were listening into our talks. That’s why I left; so I could return to my hometown. I even had a convenient method to get it done, too.”

He spread his wings at that. Wings… he had wings.

“Remember when we were talking about how we all had six limbs?”

Did we talk about that? Oh yeah, it was about me, Rin, Luka, and him.

In my previous world, all vertebrates were four-legged. Some, the humanoids, evolved into their forelimbs being arms, while others’ developed into wings, as the birds’ had. However, in this world, evolution diverged into those with four—humans and elves, for example—and those with six—dragons, lizardmen, and lykoscentaur to name a few.

The merfolk muddled that concept somewhat, but you could take their waist fins as what their legs turned into.

“Which is why I wondered. What if I could have wings like you, Mentor?”

Saying that, s.h.i.+g unfurled his wings to display them.

“But how did you get even Beol to come?”

“Oh, that part was simple. I’m stronger. Therefore, he followed what I said. That’s just how the lizardmen sense of values work.”

“You won!?”

Yuuki’s eyes opened wide in surprise. I knew that s.h.i.+g was getting much stronger, but I never thought he’d gotten strong enough to take on and defeat Beol. His four arms were able to unleash an incredibly powerful and fast stream of blows. Amata would even probably have a tough time against him in an honest fight.

“It’s not like he lost. I mean, none of them use weapons, they don’t even throw stones. All I had to do was fly high enough that he couldn’t reach me while I attacked with fire.”

Oh.

“You mean like a…?”

“They all kept saying that I was being a coward. That it wasn’t true strength even if I won that way. However, they all went quiet when I asked them what true strength was.”

It made sense. To them, the peak of strength was a red dragon. s.h.i.+g’s combat strategy mimicked that of a red dragon on the hunt.

“After that, I kept tabs on what was happening by keeping in contact with Violet, as well as using the elves to track what the trends of the mice. I figured that Luka would be heading back to her home eventually as well, so I figured they would count her out for the village’s strength.”

“But what about Utai d—… dying?”

Did the merfolk lie about that to present a fake opportunity for the mice? When I looked to Rin after coming upon that thought, she shook her head slowly.

“Utai, mm… she—right after you flew off, it, it happened…”

Her brows knit tightly, Rin started shedding tears. She wasn’t a child that could act out such a cruel joke as that.

“She was doing everything to last… to see us…”

“O-Oh…”

Even so, I hoped it was all a joke. It’s something I’ve felt countless times so far, this sense of loss. Like a cold feeling from something inside you disappearing.

“I think… I think she didn’t want you to see her last moments, big brother.”

Yuuki mumbled.

“Why?”

“It’s just a feeling I get.”

Yuuki spoke with her hands clenched firmly together.

Like she was praying for something.

“Big brother, do you… have a moment?”

It was evening by the time Yuuki came to my house.

Somehow, a part of me had expected her visit. Taking care to not wake Nina, who was doubtlessly exhausted and was sleeping like a log, I left my house and followed Yuuki.

“Um… well.”

We stopped in front plaza outside the ice house. The mouse carca.s.ses that had piled up were burned in fear of disease, so there were few traces of the tragedy that had happened earlier that day.

Bathed in moonlight, Yuuki looked up to me.

“I’ve… I’ve been thinking about it a lot. What you told me that day, big brother.”

I knew exactly what she was talking about, it was impossible for me to forget.

[It would turn out the same, even with you. In less than a century, I would be alone again.]

I still hadn’t apologized to Yuuki for the words I spoke.

“I’m sorry, Yuuki, I…”

“No. I’m the one that should apologize.”

However, Yuuki lowered her head before I had a chance to.

“I hadn’t thought about how you felt, big brother. About what it would feel like to be left…”

I couldn’t find it in myself to blame Yuuki for that, though. Anyone, even I, would find thinking about something like that to be not something so simple.

“He who wears clothes of ice, who drops the autumn leaves, who melts to spring’s sunlight—the spirit of snow and ice, Jack Frost. Please, show yourself to me.”

Facing the ice house and reciting her incantation, flakes of white began to fall despite it still being early autumn. Gathering into a single ma.s.s, it slowly formed into the shape of a small snowman.

“It’s been a while… I suppose?”

“Hoh, hoh, hoh.”

Jack Frost hooted an owl-like sound from his crescent mouth when I greeted him.

“Jack Frost. Could you bring it?”

Hearing Yuuki, Jack Frost turned to study her before returning to face me. I could never tell what he was thinking behind those blank eyes of his.

“Hoh.”

However, possibly in consent, Jack Frost temporarily entered the ice house.

“What’s inside?”

“A secret handed down through the Swordsaints… I suppose.”

Yuuki responded when I asked her. Was there something like that? No one told me though?

After waiting for a while, Jack Frost came back from inside the ice house holding a block of ice.

“Jack Frost, please.”

“Hoh.”

“—It’s been a long time, Mentor.”

Hearing that voice, her voice, I stiffened.

It was as soft as the morning sun, as gentle as spring wind.

Something I would never forget. Ai’s voice.

“Ai!?”

“Shh. Keep quiet, big brother.”

Yuuki put her finger to her lips and had be quiet down.

“By the time you hear this, I don’t think I’ll be by your side anymore.”

With what Ai said next, I understood everything.

It was a parting message. A trace of her voice frozen with magic.

“If you’re hearing this, I suppose it’ll have been at least ten years? Maybe a hundred? If not, I’ll be sad.”

It’s been four hundred and fifty-four, Ai.

Four hundred and fifty-four long years since you pa.s.sed.

“… I lied. To be honest, no matter how long it’s been, I’ll be sad. Because I’ll have left you alone.”

Both her voice and her way of speaking was exactly how I remembered her.

“But I’m sure that even now, Mentor, you’ll still listen to my selfishness. Oh, well, if I’m totally off, please don’t listen to anything after this, okay? Please?”

I had no clue know what sort of selfishness Ai was talking about. I don’t think she ever said anything selfish to me. Still though, there’s no way I could ever not hear what she wanted to say.

“Maybe it’s Utai? Or perhaps Jergo’s grandchildren? Or maybe it’s something I don’t know about at all… or maybe…”

Just then, Ai hesitated and stopped talking.

“No, anyone’s fine. I’m sure whatever child is next to you loves you very much, Mentor… in the same way as me.”

Those words brought me to look to Yuuki. The girl had been staring at the ice Jack Frost was holding seriously, but suddenly smiled in embarra.s.sment when she noticed my gaze.

“Please love her back, somehow. Forget about me… actually, if you really do forget, I might be a bit sad…?”

Dragons’ memories were good. Even though nearly five centuries had pa.s.sed, I could clearly recall each and every one of Ai’s expressions. Despite there only being her voice, I could virtually see an illusion of her standing in front of me.

Una.s.suming, reserved, yet more gleeful than anyone.

“Please, Mentor, be happy. That’s all I wish for, all I want.”

Ai spoke, looking up to me.

But—

I thought to myself. Her words shouldn’t be faked.

But still… is thinking of someone else while still keeping my love for Ai not betrayal? To Ai, and to Yuuki. Even if she wants me to, that’s just what my mind keeps coming back to…

“And if you can, please make whatever child standing by you happy as well, Mentor.”

But Ai… my wife, was able to antic.i.p.ate my feelings.

“It’s incredibly painful when your feelings don’t reach the person you love. Besides—I… I’ve already been given more than enough happiness.”

With that, the ice melted and disappeared. Jack Frost vanished, his role to an end.

“—I wasn’t ready for that.”

Yuuki spoke as she continued wiping the tears flooding from her eyes.

“Big sis Ai was always, always thinking about what would happen to you after she was gone. But I hadn’t thought about it at all…”

She then turned and looked straight up at me.

“But I won’t lose. Because I love you, big brother. I’ll always be by your side. I’ll definitely do what big sis Ai couldn’t. Even if you can only see me like a sister or a daughter, that’s fine too.”

She looked at me, her gaze resolute.

“So… I’m… I’m going to love you… okay…?”

Her self-confidence immediately crumbling, she spoke as though clinging to a lifeboat.

“… I give up. You win.”

Raising my hands, I responded.

Once my heart decided on giving priority to her life over the villagers’, this was going to happen sooner or later.

“If you want me to tell you whether I’m attracted to you as a woman, then I still can’t answer that properly.”

You could say that this whole thing extends to Nina as well, but my feeling here weren’t fake. If I was a man capable of controlling his emotions so dexterously as that, I wouldn’t have been suffering so much the past four centuries.

“However, Yuuki. I think… I definitely love you… and want to be with you… and want to make you happy.”

“Big brother!”

At that moment, Yuuki jumped.

“Thank you! I love you!”

The way her voice rose as she rubbed her cheeks on me hadn’t changed at all since she was young.

“Your habit of clinging to people hasn’t changed, huh.”

While I was happy at this happening for the first time in a while, it made me smile wryly at her childishness.

“.. Ignoring when I was a kid, you’re the only one I do this for, you know?”

But Yuuki just tilted her head to the side and answered with her eyes upturned.

Her gaze and the soft pressure of her against me caused my heart to throb.

“Or did you think I did this to other people?”

“No, I didn’t, I mean…”

Come to think of it, I don’t think I’d ever seen Yuuki cling to anyone other than me. Imagining her do that was… well, it made me feel more unpleasant that I thought it would.

—At this rate, my capitulation might go even faster than expected.

Should I lament my weakness? Or maybe I should fear Yuuki’s charm?

I was a bit worried for my future.