[V10C21] Dragon Logic and Human Logic

After asking Robson to check for dragonling sightings, Monica and Silas, along with the red dragon disguised as a tanuki, advanced into the depths of the forest.

The sky was still covered in clouds, but the rain had already come to a complete stop.

Leading the way with his detector set with a scale from the dragonling, Silas furrowed his brow as he observed the sky.

“Now that the rain’s stopped, your kid might be on the move again. How far can he fly?”

“Hmm, not very far, since he can’t fly higher than the trees here. He’s still too young to breathe fire properly.”

“So long-distance flight seems pretty unlikely.”

With so many trees blocking the way, it would probably be faster for the dragonling to walk.

After checking the height of the sun, Silas paused and turned to Monica.

“Nee-san, it’s almost noon, so let’s take a break.”

“Oh, okay…”

Monica, who had been silently walking behind Silas the entire time, secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Silas had adjusted his pace to match her, but Monica’s innate lack of stamina left her exhausted after several hours of continuous hiking.

Spotting a large and flat stone, Silas uttered a shortened incantation for fire magic. This spell dried the rain off of the stone, turning it into a makeshift chair.

“There, it’s dry now. Have a seat.”

“T-Thank you very much.”

Monica sat down on the still-warm stone and let out a deep breath.

Meanwhile, Silas took out his water canteen and some travel rations, before glancing at Monica’s small bag.

“Nee-san, did you bring any food?”

“Uh, no…”

When packing for today, Monica’s first thought was, “I hardly ever go hiking, so I had better minimize my luggage.” She understood her lack of stamina, and therefore wanted to keep her luggage as light as possible. Thus, the first thing she removed from her bag was the food.

“Um, I’m used to skipping a meal or two, and I can make water with magic…”

Monica tried to mumble out an explanation, but Silas and the tanuki were staring at her in complete disbelief.

“Nee-san, you really shouldn’t underestimate hiking. Food and water are essential, and maybe a knife too.”

“Yeah, let’s not take the forest lightly,” the tanuki followed. “Especially since this region doesn’t have much food. Here, I’ll give you a bug.”

“I-I’m s-sorry…”

While lowering her head, Monica began rummaging through her bag. Her last hope was the possibility that she had forgotten to remove her stash of nuts.

Her fingers brushed up against an unfamiliar bundle.

(…Huh?)

At the bottom of her bag, there was a flat, cloth-wrapped bundle small enough to fit in her hands. Monica tilted her head as she did not remember putting this in.

She opened the bundle to find a set of biscuits wrapped in oil paper, along with a pile of raisins and nuts. There was even a small bottle of honey tightly wrapped in cloth to prevent leakage.

“Wow…”

Monica lacked the ability to prepare such a thoughtful set of emergency rations. It went without saying who was responsible.

“My disciple is amazing…!”

Monica spread the bundle on her lap, as Silas and the tanuki peered in from both sides.

“…Seems more like a considerate wife than a disciple.”

“Oh, you even have honey. How wonderful, I love honey.”

The tanuki began licking her lips, which prompted Monica to pour a bit of honey on a biscuit and offer it to the tanuki.

“H-Here, you can have one. Ah, and one for Silas-san too.”

“Oh, uh, thanks.”

Monica gave Silas a honey-covered biscuit and began nibbling on the raisins and nuts.

In exchange, Silas gave Monica a bar that seemed to be made out of nuts and hardened honey.

After finishing the biscuit, the golden-eyed tanuki let out a happy sigh as she licked the honey around her mouth.

“There’s really nothing better than honey. Eating a whole beehive is the height of luxury. Oh, but I guess that’s something humans will never get the chance to experience. I’m lucky to be born as a dragon.”

Upon hearing those words, Monica paused with a nut still in her hand.

No matter how harmless this tanuki looked, her true form was that of a red dragon, a creature categorized as a Second-Class Dangerous Species.

Silas swallowed a gulp of water and looked down at the tanuki.

“Hey, Auntie Tanuki… or rather…”

Silas closed his eyes and scowled. Then, he continued with his eyes shut——likely intentionally in order to avoid seeing her tanuki form.

“Red Dragon of Dalsmore. Tell me. Have you ever killed a human?”

Monica gasped, looking back and forth between Silas and the tanuki.

Silas had closed his eyes to remind himself that the creature in front of him was a red dragon. On the other hand, the tanuki was staring back with her round, golden eyes without so much as a blink.

“In the past, I probably would have replied with a ‘What about you?‘…”

Her response caused Silas to deepen his scowl.

The tanuki went on to rest her front paw on her cheek and shake her head. It was a very human-like gesture.

“Humans killing each other was an everyday occurrence back then. But I guess that’s a different era now, so I have to come up with a different response.”

The tanuki leaped onto the stone that Monica and Silas were sitting on, then tapped Silas’s thigh with her front paw. This led Silas to open his shut eyes, and the Red Dragon of Dalsmore gave her answer while peering straight into them.

“Humans have tried to kill me more times than I can bother to count, and I breathed fire at them in return. Not that I’ve checked, but I assume some of them ended up dead.”

“…!”

Silas clenched his teeth as if to hold himself back from denouncing the dragon. To call her a murderer was, in essence, the same as saying, “you should have allowed yourself to die at the hands of humans.”

(Silas-san understands that…)

That said, he had witnessed the devastation of a dragon disaster firsthand. How could she possibly tell him to let go of his hatred of dragons?

Monica clenched her fists on her knees, contemplating her next words. There was no way for her to convince Silas or the red dragon to change their ways. She did not know the correct approach.

However, she was here on a mission as one of the Seven Sages. Monica knew that there was something she needed to tell the red dragon.

“Red Dragon-san. Um, you see…”

“Yes? What is it?”

“If, by chance, the humans ended up finding your child and wanted to protect him… They would probably, um, put him in a cage.”

The tanuki tilted her small head to the side as she looked up at Monica.

“Why is that?”

The simple expression of doubt weighed heavily on Monica. Still, this was something that needed to be conveyed properly, so Monica explained to the best of her abilities.

“To ensure that the dragonling… does not go to any dangerous places…”

Only after the words left her mouth did Monica realize this was nothing more than deception. She was making the excuse that it was all “for the sake of the dragonling”. Thus, Monica decided to express her honest opinion.

“Humans are much weaker than dragons, so we would have no way of stopping one if it tries to escape. Therefore, we confine the dragonling in a cage, then investigate where it came from and release it there.”

Robson had mentioned that mother dragons sometimes got enraged at the sight of humans caging their child. This was something Monica had to explain beforehand.

“I won’t ask for forgiveness, but… um, I want you to understand that we are not caging dragonlings with malicious intent…”

“So it’s for the convenience of humans then.”

The tanuki calmly dismissed Monica’s argument in a single sentence. Once Monica fell silent, the tanuki gently swayed her fluffy tail left and right.

“But then again, I suppose we dragons also act to our convenience, so the feeling is mutual.”

“…Eh, um…”

“You know, back then, the border between human and dragon territories was much more ambiguous than it is today. Well, though it was you humans who decided on those boundaries in the first place. But I guess the times have changed. If I enter human territory, I should adapt to human ways to some extent.”

Monica widened her eyes, and it wasn’t just her. Silas also stared at the red dragon in surprise.

The tanuki made what seemed to be a gentle smile.

“As long as my boy remains unharmed, I’ll overlook the cage.”

“…!”

“A lot of humans think that talking to dragons is futile. That we won’t understand no matter what they do. Thanks for not giving up on me.”

In the past, Monica had often given up on dialogue, even with humans, thinking that there was no way she could convince anyone. That a mutual understanding was impossible.

The red dragon’s words hit Monica straight in the heart, causing her eyes to water up.

“No human will believe everything a dragon says, right? Similarly, there’s no way I can accept everything a human says as fact. That’s why I chose to live in dragon territory instead of disguising myself as a human… But if I intend to interact with humans, then I may as well listen to them a bit.”

Silas, who had remained silent until now, interjected abruptly in a gruff tone.

“In that case, listen to me when I say that humans don’t eat bug larvae.”

“Oh dear, is that so? How unfortunate. Would a grasshopper be better?”

“It’s not about the type of bug. This is what human food looks like.”

Silas tossed one of his honey nut bars at the tanuki, who gave her thanks as she swayed her tail back and forth.

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