chapter 2

I am a human.

That is an unquestionable truth.

But, I cant remember. Dad and mom, the friends Im sure I have, my own looks, I cant even remember my own name.

I have fragmentary memories of being a human, but I have no irrefutable proof.

In addition to that, since I at the moment look like a dragon, I have trouble persuading myself.

I even have recollections of being a young clueless dragon, and certain other knowledge.

How should I put it, its almost like my human self was pushed inside the dragon as is.

Almost like possession.

And more than anything, Im amazed at how calm I am, no matter how confused I am.

[Vito, you o-kay?]

Whilst making cute sounds, it was worried Now that I think about it, Saus isnt actually speaking. What I hear is the squeaking, and my brain translates it to the closest [j.a.panese] terms.

Ah, now that I think about it, Im j.a.panese. But I cant remember where I lived.

Annoying.

Vito is apparently my name. When I search my memory, it seems that Ive been staying indoors since I was born in the Vizannu mountains, and thats where my own name comes from. The one who named me was Saus right after meeting him, since I had no name at the time.

Isnt it dangerous to randomly name dragons? I feel like Ive read something like that in a story about the master-servant relations.h.i.+p or something like that. When I tried asking Saus, hereplied with: [Whats that?]. Well, for now, having a name forced on me doesnt seem to give me any trouble. Aah, what a relief. Im afraid I might carelessly stomp himflat if my lifelong companion ended up being this tiny rabbit But its cute, so I might stay with himanyway.

Oh no. Right nows not the time for that.

[Saus, theres something I want to ask you.]

[Ive been listening so far? Youve kept saying strange things.]

In order to at the very least slightly look each other in the eyes, I sprawled down on the ground. When my head almost grazed the ground, I got a good look at Saus. The rabbit whose eyes met with mine had a long pelt and fluttering, red, fruit-like irises.

[I am, a dragon, right?]

[Yes]

[My name is Vito. Since I was born, Ive lived in this mountain, eating humans.]

[What youre really eating is magical power though-]

[Magical power? Can magic be used, here?]

Now that you mention it, the earlier village girl I ate was delicious because she had abundant magical power, I seem to remember thinking that.

[It can be used, however, the ones who can use it are mostlyhumans! This is because, only humans who are blessed by the spirits can use magic!]

[Blessed by the spirits? Is that like the spirit of earth and such?]

[Yes! Wind, or fire, or water, there are lots of them!]

So its fantasy, huh. Magic and things like that arent the stuff of dreams here. Im getting excited!

[How do you use magic?]

[Yes, I dont know that that. I mean, Im only a rabbit. I dont have any magical power, either.]

I see, just a rabbit. No magic power, huh. Okay, since hes cute, I pardon him.

Im feeling sad that only humans can use magic power, but dont I eat magic power in order to live? Maybe I can use magic too!

I asked Saus about that. Saying that hedidnt know, suddenly hebegan to munch on gra.s.s stuffing hischeeks. Whats with this animal. hestoo cute! If I had hands! If I had humans hands, right this moment I would cuddle himto death!! Oh, how hateful!! Oh how I hate my dragon paws!

Feeling frustrated, I tried to touch my chin against Sauss head, when a small yelp could be heard from beneath my chin. Oh no, I dont know howmuch strength I should hold back.

[Heeeavy-.]

Sorry.

After living as a dragon for a while I have realized various things.

How surprised I was after watching my own reflection in the river. The shape of a pure white dragon swayed on the waters surface. My iriseswere also pure-red like Saus, and I think they looked like large snake eyes. I dont think they give off a bad feeling though. What I was the most surprised about was the food.

Apparently I need to eat humans, living on the magical power that resides withinthem.

Whats more, ordinary humans dont possess large amount of magical power, and thus I need to eat three of them to fill my stomach. This needs to be repeated at the very least once every month. Saus brings me humans to eat, so I dont have to worry about that, but the facial expressions and screams of the humans I a.s.sault makes it slightly awkward.

However, when I put them in my mouth my instincts as a dragon take over and I finish them without any issues. Clothes and all included. Back when I was a human the B-horror style grotesque scene would probably have made me feel unwell, making me vomit whereafter Id probably have fainted.

I wonder if theres a method where I can do without eating, but only sipping the blood isnt enough, and I end up eating the human in two or three bites anyway. I must say that my thinking about how these persons probably had family and sweethearts while munching on them, is ridiculous. Well, I cant help it, I also want to live. In order to live, the sacrifice of others is necessary. This is a perfect example of the food chain. One day I will die, becoming nutrition for the earth.

Besides my own food, I dont needlessly kill anyone. Since Im alone, I lick the blood thats stuck around my mouth.

The human I ate this time had a reasonable amount of magical power, yet it left a bad taste in my mouth. Its that, the feeling of eating a pudding after its expiration date has expired.

Im just glad I didnt get an upset stomach, though.

After I finished eating the human, I lovingly watched the close by Saus who was munching on gra.s.s. When henoticed me watching, helooked back.

[Finished-?]

[Im finished. Lets go to the summit of the mountain as promised.]

[Really!? Weee, the gra.s.s over there is reaally tasty-! Probably because of the closeness to the sun-!]

When bouncing around in happiness, hedraws hispaws close to hisbody. Hessoo cute.

In order to not crush himbeneath me, I sprawled down on the ground, and Saus settled down near my cheek. My skin is covered by hairless scales, but I could feel the warmth of Saus body.

Ive been living as a dragon in these mountains for half a year now, and while Im amazed at my adaptability I dont really think its anything strange. Sometimes I get the feeling that this is a dream and sometimes I remember my human memories fragmentarily, but they are no hindrance to my daily life as a dragon. Rather, Id say the the memory storage is divided in a ratio of Dragon : Human = 8:2.

And whats more rea.s.suring than anything is Saus presence.

When looking at, hes only a small rabbit, but to me in this world hes my precious only friend. Ive heard that there are other dragons, but in this mountain Im the only one, and otherwise there are only bears and deer and such typical wildlife. From simply seeing me they run away as fast as they can. Its making me slightly sad. Even though I dont eat animals. When talking about startled hares, Saus is a rabbit, but hes an exception.

Suddenly asking him [Am I a human], not thinking badly of me who has strange gaps of knowledge about this world, simply teaching me what he knows.

Recently hes been worried about me, so he hasnt even went back to hisnest and simply slept together with me.

Such a kind rabbit.

Yup. As I thought, the view from the summit of the mountain is superb.

The Vizannu mountains where I live are the biggest mountains around here, and its a mountain where you can watch the entire surroundings from one place. Theflatness and it being covered by trees are the mountainscharacteristics.

At the foot of the mountain there is a small village, and further away there is a bigger town. Crossing a small mountain and traveling slightly further from the town, is where an elegant castle can be seen. If I flew for one or two hours Id reach it, but for the legs of humans itd probably take weeks.

I once flew high and took a look at the shape of the land, and it was a single giant continent shaped like the letter C. In the center it widens to become thinner at the bottom half. The continent looks like half of a yin yang symbol, or almost like a fetus that has been laid in a circle. The Vizannu mountains reside in the very middle of this continent.

The terrain of the earth that I knew of did not have this shape. Neither did dragons exist there, and no matter how much I watch the sky I dont see a single aircraft.

Sometimes I saw strange dragons that looked different from me flying past. All of them were mounted by humans who looked like they were part of an army, and it almost looked like they were going to a war.

Since I was curious of where they were going, I followed them while taking care not to be seen, but as expected they were going to a war. I always thought all dragons lived in the wild, but it seems like there are dragons who follow humans. When I asked Saus, it told me that those dragons are nearly all fire drakes. Some small dragons were also kept as pets, and I realized that the world was filled with things that I dont know.

Now Ill tell you the reasons why I decided that this is a different world from the one I lived in as a human. I pondered a lot, but this world and my previously lived world are completely different, and I cant even with any certainty tell if the world I lived in as a human actually existed. My ego as a dragon has been established, and my recollections of humanity act more like a background. Even now I dont even remember my own name, so I cant be sure if these memories actually are real or not.

At least for now, I dont need to know anything except how to live as a dragon.

While I was thinking this on one side, Saus was busy stuffing its cheeks with gra.s.s. I dont know the taste of gra.s.s, but the gra.s.s here is according to Saus the rabbit comparable to how I view humans with a high amount of magical power. The comparison is weird but thats the short of it.

As I laid sprawled out on the soft gra.s.s, I decided to take a nap.

Saus is, no matter how he looks, a glutton. If I leave him alone, then all the gra.s.s as far as I can see will be eaten. I wonder where he stores all that gra.s.s in that tiny body.

The suns warmth made me sleepy.

I slowly closed my eyelids.