The once-calm waves dream of change.
Nereis, the capital of the Aqua Empire, was quiet.
Even in the depths of the sea, the citizens’ daily lives continued in peace, and at the center of that tranquility was a colossal being.
That being was the black dragon, Marinus.
Splash, splash, shwaaash…
Marinus kicked up sprays of water with his feet above the surface, and with them, the currents of the sea shifted.
Marinus also swam through the seawater, moving here and there as though on patrol.
Slowly turning its massive body, covered in hard crystal, it looked out over the heart of the empire.
The citizens of Aqua looked up to Marinus in awe.
Shwaaa…
“Hyah!”
“Ooooh!”
Some of the citizens boldly climbed onto Marinus’s back, then hurled themselves far away.
As befitted citizens who enjoyed deep-sea surfing, they matched themselves to Marinus’s movements as it roamed the sea and spent an enjoyable time.
The citizens exchanged words with one another.
“Doesn’t it feel really reassuring? We have a dragon too now.”
“Exactly. I feel like I can finally worry a little less.”
One citizen glanced toward the south, where Terra lay.
“Still, if another dragon appears from Terra, we’ll have to be on edge. Honestly, earth and stone are stronger than us.”
“We won’t just sit still either. But quite a bit of time seems to have passed since that dragon fell, so why haven’t they summoned it again yet?”
“I don’t know. What are they preparing this time?”
“Who knows. Silva’s dragon might even reappear first.”
The topic of their conversation shifted briefly to Silva’s blue dragon, Nemorensis.
“Silva’s dragon was a little unexpected. Why did it move to protect Ignis?”
“Only that dragon knows the real reason. They say it wasn’t something Silva intended either. Silva must have originally hoped their dragon would protect their own forest, but what it actually protected was Ignis. Even sacrificing its own body to do it.”
One citizen thought for a moment, then asked,
“They said it collapsed in the same place while fighting the dragon from Metallum, right?”
“Yes, apparently so.”
“Isn’t Silva weaker than Metallum? It did fall too, but it succeeded in subduing Metallum’s dragon. Looking at that alone, it’s impressive. Against Metallum’s dragon, no less.”
“The conditions probably weren’t completely equal. Metallum’s side had already taken a certain amount of damage from Ignis. But Silva’s dragon likely hadn’t suffered any particular damage on its way there.”
“Well, in any case.”
They turned their heads and looked at Marinus.
Several citizens were still clinging to Marinus’s back.
“Our dragon seems very different. It’s protecting the sea instead of going somewhere.”
“I heard it went to Silva once and came back. Since then, it’s been staying inside our territory the whole time.”
“Why doesn’t it go outside?”
“Probably because there isn’t any major trouble right now. Terra hasn’t been moving much lately, and Ignis even less so.”
That citizen slowly sank beneath the surface.
“It’s actually for the best. It means our dragon will stay by our side that much longer. Considering how much chaos that dragon from Terra caused last time, things have been much better since then than they were before. Even our relationship with Silva, which had grown awkward for a while, has returned to how it used to be.”
“It almost ended up looking as if Terra’s dragon helped both us and Silva. Should we be grateful for this…?”
“On the other hand, tremendous sacrifices came with it. How many of our soldiers fell trying to stop that dragon? We were only able to stop it because Silva supported us, even if it was late.”
The citizens scattered again, riding the waves.
With Marinus’s kicks, the citizens drifted here and there.
They wanted to remain by Marinus’s side if at all possible.
Inside the fortress, Empress Nereia was also watching Marinus above the sea’s surface.
Her retainers approached her side.
Levian said,
“Your Majesty, Marinus continues to remain in our sea and hardly seems to leave. The citizens are pleased, but I cannot feel at ease as to whether things are truly fine this way.”
Nereia asked him,
“Is there something you are dissatisfied with?”
“I am not saying there is a problem with Marinus’s attitude. However, on the other hand, I had hoped it might do something for us. Just as we suffered at the hands of Terra’s dragon, I thought perhaps Marinus might attempt a counterattack against Terra, or head south to keep Ignis in check when it occasionally approaches Silva.”
Nereia glanced back toward her retainers.
“Why do you not move?”
Naus stammered in embarrassment.
“W-we lack the strength to do so… If Marinus were to move, then wherever it went, we intended to lead our army in that direction as well… but since Marinus does not move, we cannot move the army either.”
Nereia turned her gaze back to Marinus.
“We have no reason to be hasty. The same must be true for Marinus. Rather, the fact that Marinus is not moving means we are not in a dangerous situation. But since we do not know when or how it may move, it would be best to always keep watch over Marinus’s location.”
At that moment, as Marinus passed before the fortress, its eyes met those of Empress Nereia.
Marinus looked at her for a moment as well.
No conversation passed between the two.
Yet Marinus’s eyes held feelings deeper than words.
Meanwhile, the researchers of the Aqua Empire were moved to a fusion facility near the border with Silva to the northeast.
They were devoting themselves to the production of slime cores.
The only dual-attribute cores Aqua possessed were slime cores and mud cores, and among them, mud cores had almost no practical effectiveness.
Chief researcher Birellen and senior researcher Miriel were looking around the coastline outside the fusion facility.
Birellen said to Miriel,
“Did you see it too? Our black dragon passing by.”
Researcher Miriel nodded.
“Yes, I saw it. They say it sprayed water over Silva and came back.”
“Whew, yes. When Terra’s dragon came here, the shock was no joke, but now that our dragon has appeared, my heart feels at peace.”
“We won’t have to worry even if that dragon appears again next time.”
“When that happens, Silva won’t just stand by and watch either.”
Inside the fusion facility, slime cores were being produced as soon as Aqua’s wave cores and Silva’s life cores were supplied.
Birellen continued,
“If I heard correctly, I believe Her Majesty said that when our dragon appeared, it would write a new history in this world. But what history? For the appearance of our dragon, it’s surprisingly quiet—more than I expected.”
Miriel looked toward Silva and replied,
“Silva’s dragon did write a kind of history. To give its life for Ignis…”
“It looked rather strange to us. To think Silva would help Ignis again. But Her Majesty understood Silva for doing so. At first, I thought, ‘Because of whom did our relationship nearly fall apart?’ but Her Majesty’s heart is as vast as the deep sea.”
“I don’t know the details, but they must have had their own circumstances. Circumstances that left them no choice but to help Ignis…”
Their conversation paused for a moment.
In truth, they were exhausted from repetitive work.
“I’m getting a little tired of the work these days. Is the only thing we can make slime cores? I understand why we don’t make the mud cores we once made, since they’re practically unnecessary, but there are plenty of other cores, aren’t there? Our wave cores have spread everywhere, yet no cores are coming in to us.”
“Do you think I haven’t had that thought? But the circumstances we’ve been given are what they are. The only empire we have exchanges with is Silva. Unless we start another war, we can’t obtain cores from anywhere else. At least cores from Silva continue to come in for us, but if other empires want to make dual-attribute cores, they have no option other than war.”
Miriel leaned against the wall of the fusion facility.
The wall, formed from intertwined vines from Silva’s side, was wet with water.
“Setting aside mud cores, the one made by fusing with Ignis’s core was the geyser core, right? That seems like it would be somewhat useful, but let’s set that aside for now too. Could we perhaps try fusing with Metallum’s core? It’s not as though we have any particularly bad feelings toward Metallum…”
Birellen looked at her with a stern expression.
“Do you know who Metallum is a dangerous force to?”
“What? Ah…”
Miriel lowered her head.
“If we research that, Silva probably won’t like it very much.”
The opposite of an opposition is mutual generation, but at the same time, the mutual generation of mutual generation is opposition.
That is the law of this world.
Metal creates currents in water, and water allows trees to grow, but metal cuts down trees.
This relationship was obstructing three or more empires from moving together.
But Miriel still had her complaints.
“So we have to produce only slime cores? We might be able to attack Terra with slime cores, but I’m not sure whether keeping only Terra in check is enough. Even now, Ignis bothers me a little. They say Ignis has four kinds of dual-attribute cores. Right now, it’s been pushed to the brink of ruin because of Metallum, but if the situation improves later, won’t they be able to invade whomever they want?”
Birellen frowned slightly and shook his head.
“Even so, what will they do once they use them all up? Touch another country, seize its cores, fuse those cores, and when they run out again, touch another? Like that?”
Miriel looked blankly up at the sky.
“Doesn’t it seem like Ignis would be perfectly capable of that? From what I’ve heard, they’ve been stirring up trouble everywhere.”
“E-even if they did, what does it matter to us if those bastards act that way? They’re the strange ones. That’s why they’re the only ones who can’t form an alliance with anyone.”
Miriel sank into thought.
Because Silva’s contribution to defeating Terra’s Montanus had been great, it was likely Aqua, not Silva, that had to be careful of the other’s mood.
For that reason, they could not interact with Metallum, let alone carelessly obtain their metal cores for research.
‘If you maintain an ambiguous relationship with everyone, do you end up losing everything…?’
Terra, on the other hand, had done just that.
Terra, which had once received protection from Metallum, had delivered Aqua’s wave cores to Ignis without concerning itself with Metallum’s mood, unlike Aqua.
At the time, Metallum had already declared that it would cease supporting Terra, but Terra’s approach to Ignis immediately afterward meant that it was not at all concerned about the relationship between itself and Metallum growing distant.
Birellen said to her,
“Let’s go in now. We need to continue the work.”
“Yes, understood.”
They returned to the fusion facility.
The waves crashing against the coastline surged over the forest.
The forest of the Silva Empire had regained its stillness.
Although their blue dragon, Nemorensis, had sacrificed itself magnificently—and in another sense, futilely—other matters were not bad.
They had begun to grow again.
The direction of that growth, as though reacting to something, was toward the northwest, where the Aqua Empire was located.