“Kkyu.”
The imugi looked at Christina and gave another solemn nod.
Though it was still small and young, the resolve in its eyes made Christina steel her own heart as well.***
A few days later, deep underground.
It was a place where even magic did not function, so one could not enter by teleportation magic.
Christina had made her true body a little smaller and was flying down together with the imugi.
Thud.
With a heavy sound, a little dust was swept away by the wind pressure.
The golden dragon looked back at the black hatchling fluttering down on a thin membrane.
The hatchling, flapping its little wings, landed lightly on the floor and looked up at Christina with a kkyu.
Her body was gently enveloped in golden light, then changed into a human form.
“This way.”
A place where a massive arched opening had been carved out.
Unlike the other parts of the lair, the original roughness of the structure could be felt just as it was.‘It feels like an ancient ruin.’The strange unfamiliarity that could be sensed from the place indirectly conveyed just how many years it had endured.
How long had they walked?
Wooong!
Powerful energy, condensed and gathered, was pulsing at regular intervals and emitting mana.
The vast space was so large that no end could be seen, making it difficult even to gauge the distance by sight.
A magic circle was drawn on the floor, and letters mixed from the divine tongue and the ancient language were carved into the ground with mana.
It was so powerful that, despite still being a considerable distance away, the imugi’s entire body began to sting little by little.
Black scales bristled up with tension.
Christina noticed and reached out to pick the imugi up.
“It’s all right, little one. Don’t be too nervous.”
As she entered the center of the magic circle, she quietly murmured words that could not be understood.
The sight looked as though she was praying for something, and also as though she was issuing a command.
The mana of the lair began to resonate with the magic circle.
Christina set the imugi down in the center of the magic circle, drew in a breath, and began to recite words of power.
“Under the name of Christina el Arcadia. I shall pass down my life, my memories, to this child.”‘So it begins.’Several strands like ribbons of light spread out from Christina’s body and began wrapping around the imugi.
Each and every ray of light was Christina’s knowledge, magic, culture, and abilities.
“Kku, kkyuuut!”‘Urgh!’With its head aching as if it would split apart, the imugi clutched its head in its two forepaws and shook it.
As if something was playing tricks on its brain, the sensation of being rummaged through and hammered into felt like receiving electrical torture directly to the mind.
Even so, the feeling of vast knowledge being systematically constructed made its mind clearer and sharper.‘It’s coming in! The languages of this world.’Golden letters flowed through the imugi’s red eyes.
Christina’s murmured voice changed as though into a single song, riding the flow of mana and filling the hall.
The imugi thrashed as knowledge rushed in without giving it a moment to breathe, and as its nerves felt as though they were being shredded.
“Kyuhuk. Urgh!”‘It hurts, but just a little. Just a little more and……!’It clenched its barely grown baby teeth and veins stood out on its forehead.‘I’ll endure it! If I possess all of this, then this world’s abilities and knowledge will all be mine!’It felt as though its vision was bleaching white from enduring by willpower alone, determined to swallow everything that entered through the light.
“Kyak!”‘Come!’With a cry like a death scream, all the words of power and mana that had filled the hall were forced into the imugi’s body.
Thud.
The light vanished completely, and Christina staggered a little.
The imugi collapsed right where it was.
“Little one!”
Christina struggled to compose herself and approached.
“Gggh.”
Its body had originally been black, but after accepting an excessive amount of mana, it felt as though it had been roasted by electricity.
“Are you all right? Little one, come to your senses.”
“Kku……
Kekek.”
The young hatchling twitched its blunt fingers and laboriously opened its eyes.[Chris……
tina.]
It was the high-tier magic known as “Voice Transmission.”Chapter 13. Is It a Bit Unusual?
At those groaning words, Christina could not hide the surge of emotion welling up inside her, and she smiled brightly.
“Thank goodness. You really endured it well.”
“Kkuuuung…….”‘I seriously almost died. If I’d had hair, it might have all turned pure white.’It had strained itself enough to break out in a cold sweat, but as time passed, it actually felt refreshed.
The satisfaction of finally obtaining this world’s knowledge and power filled its chest.
Dragging along its limp body, it returned with Christina to its room.
And then, with gloomy eyes, it stared at the meal laid out before it.
“It’s a special meal. Medicinal herbs good for the body, and water brewed from them.”
“……”
“If you eat it all, I’ll give you a sweet apple candy.”
The imugi cast Christina a brief look.
But she merely smiled sweetly and urged it to eat again.
It had even asked to at least be allowed to eat it with some proper food, but the answer it received was that other foods would interfere with the medicinal ingredients taking effect, so it was not allowed.‘Fine. It’s not like I’m really a child. I even ate that dreadful mandragora. What’s something like this?’It chewed and swallowed the medicinal herbs said to be good for recovery.
“Kkuuek.”[Bitter.]
“You still have to eat it.”
“Kkuuuu.”‘Could this be…… revenge for eating the mandragora?’It was not a joke. The taste was so terribly foul that such a thought genuinely crossed its mind.
After it finally swallowed even the medicinal roots, its body trembled.‘Urgh. Seriously…… what an awful taste.’Its face was full of dissatisfaction as its body shuddered from the bitterness, but Christina only smiled as though she found it adorable.
Beside it, a white chick chirped as it pecked at crumbs of cookies that had been set aside for it.
Seeing itself forced to eat a plate piled high with bitter grasses while the bird ate sweet, delicious cookies naturally made it feel disgruntled.‘Tch.’“Here, this is to cleanse your palate.”
As if to soothe it, Christina gave it a sweet candy shining in five colors.
Its tongue was already numb from the bitterness, so it promptly accepted the candy and put it in its mouth.‘This is damn good.’The sweet taste soothed the senses that had been suffering from bitterness.
With one cheek bulging out, it worked the candy in its mouth and savored its flavor for a while.
Watching that, Christina felt relieved.‘I was so worried that I might have misjudged this child…… What a relief.’Even for her, who had mastered magic, this was a spell she was casting for the first time, and moreover, its target was the precious child of the one and only darkness clan in the world, so she could not relax her tension.
Only after seeing the child become comfortable, intoxicated by the taste of candy, could she finally let out a breath of relief.
“You truly endured it well. You probably don’t know how remarkable you are.”
“Kkuung.”
“A hatchling barely over a month old perfectly accepted an inheritance. And even though you haven’t fully awakened yet, you’re using Voice Transmission.”
“Kkyuu.”
“Voice Transmission,” which spoke directly into another’s mind.‘Telepathy,’ as this magic was also called, belonged to a fairly high tier, but after receiving Christina’s knowledge, it could use it as though it had always known how.
Ironically, ordinary “speech” that anyone could do was something the child could not do at all, but that could not be helped.
Before the oral structure was properly developed, even with linguistic knowledge, it was impossible to speak sentences fluently.
In any case, communication had become easier, so that was convenient.‘I can try the other knowledge slowly.’For now, the priority was to eat well, absorb power, and make its body ready to digest the things passed down through the inheritance.‘But this inheritance thing…… I couldn’t do it a second time even if it killed me. I nearly went to the other world.’The vitality and mana expended in accepting the power were tremendous, to the point that it could not endure unless it ate something.
“Oh, right. A guest will be coming soon. Don’t reveal too much of the power you possess to that child.”
“Kkuu?”‘That child…… Could it be another hatchling?’When it looked at Christina with eyes full of curiosity about the person it could guess at from that form of address, she told the curious imugi the information it needed.
“His name is Perdicion, the next elder of the Red Dragon clan. Though he is still a hatchling, he has used powerful fire since he was young.”‘Aha.’At that moment, the knowledge organized by the inheritance magic appeared before its eyes, written in a translucent window.
In short, it felt like this.
Name: PerdicionRace: Red Dragon hatchlingAttribute: FireAge: 745 yearsSpecial Notes: The sole successor of the Red Dragon elder.
After one of his two guardians died, he has honed his qualifications as a perfect elder. By suppressing the emotions he was born with, he has come to be called the Cold Flame.‘Are other inheritance magics like this too?’The answer that they were not immediately came to mind.
An explanation followed as well: due to the nature of conceptual magic, it had manifested in a form suited to the imugi.‘It’s intuitive and easy to understand, so that’s good.’As it read the information, it endlessly and efficiently swallowed not only the remaining phoenix egg and milk, but also the medicinal ingredients Christina gave it, along with precious elixirs and foods.‘I suffered for it, but thanks to that, I gained knowledge and can handle mana freely now.’Grinning, it thought of enjoying to its heart’s content the reward it had earned by enduring pain.
“Kkuu.”
Having eaten all the bread filled with elven herbal honey until its cheeks puffed out, the imugi patted its belly with its hand.
As it lightly waved its hand, creating a droplet of water in midair and slurping it down, Christina said,
“Now then…… It may be early, but it would be best to start thinking about your name.”‘A name.’A name. A word that refers to a single being.
There were cases where one received it from one’s parents, but in the world of dragons, it was a little different.
Uniquely, dragons could decide their own names.‘So they have to decide it themselves because it’s practically the activation word for word magic. Divine beasts were the same, but things are pretty strict here too.’For dragons, any promise or statement made “on one’s name” carries the compulsory force known as “words of power.”‘Would my name be a little unusual to pronounce here?’His original name had been “Yi Muk.”
Using that name as it was seemed somehow deeply out of place.‘It’s a name I’ve grown rather attached to, though.’Though it was so long ago that he could no longer remember who it had been, he recalled the words of the person who had given him his name.
—You look like the color of ink, or maybe like something singed, so let’s call your name Muk. My surname is Yi, so Yi Muk! How’s that?
He felt there had been someone who said an imugi was a being that would become a dragon after a thousand years and look down upon the world, and that they, too, would accomplish their dreams and ambitions in the same way, but it was too long ago for him to remember.
At the time, he had been nothing more than a plain black salamander.
Then, as the years passed, he grew into a divine beast, and from some point onward, he began to be called an imugi.‘Back then, I just let it go in one ear and out the other, but looking back, that guy was really a funny one too, giving the name of a divine beast to a mere salamander.’The name, given with the meaning that though he was a small existence, he should become not some insignificant creature but a being that ruled the world, was amusing, but he rather liked it.
The imugi seemed to think for a moment, then nodded.[I’ll decide on one. Christina.]
“Do that. But for Voice Transmission magic to come through this clearly…… It’s almost strange. Is it not difficult?”
[Hm, it’s manageable. I almost couldn’t speak at all, so this is a relief.]
Since it was a limitation of his oral structure, this was only natural as long as he remained in the form of a hatchling.
“It’s high-tier magic, so I’d expect you to find it difficult, but you adapt astonishingly quickly.”
“Kkuk.”
Nodding in thanks, the imugi looked at the white baby bird.‘I should give this fellow a name soon too.’At that moment, Christina raised her head and spoke as though she had sensed something.
“He’s arrived at just the right time.”
What Christina, the master of the lair, had sensed was teleportation magic.
Already knowing who would come, she smiled softly and moved.
“I should go greet Perdicion. He’s earlier than I expected.”
“Kkuuuu.”
When the imugi stood up, the white baby bird quickly climbed onto his head.
“Are you two coming with me as well?”