Chapter 91

"Hey! Togo! It's been a while, hasn't it!"

"Yeah, sorry. I slept ten times longer than I promised."

"Really! You were supposed to wake up in three days, but it's been thirty days... But, well, this time you did it for us, so I can't really complain..."

When I went to see him, Fei immediately said this... and then, he rubbed my head, saying, "Anyway, I'm glad you woke up."

"Yeah."

"So, that's the end of this story. Did you hear about it from Cloa or someone?"

"Yeah. I heard the royal family is in trouble."

When I answered, Fei nodded with a wry smile.

"Anyway, let me tell you about the current situation of the royal family..."

Then, Fei started to speak as he sat on the sofa, offering me the opposite one. As soon as I sat down, he said,

"One of the royal family's direct territories has withered."

"What... withered? What do you mean?"

"The spirit vein, yeah."

"Why... why did it wither?"

The royal family, after all, had been working with the Argent family to block the Redgard family's spirit vein. If the spirit vein withered, what does that mean? Is it my fault?

"No, it's not your fault, it's not your fault. Don't look so worried. Um... where should I start?"

Fei waved his hands in front of me and then thought for a moment... before he started to tell me.

"First, let's start from after you collapsed. You summoned a dragon, right? After that, you collapsed, and the dragon, seeing this, picked you up and laid you down at the roots of a tree on the crystal island. It carved the crystal to make it just right. Pretty skillful, that one."

Oh, that's why... I see, that's why I had such a comfortable bed.

"Well, I thought that was fine, but then I saw the dragon fly away... There's an open space in the cave ceiling, right? It went out from there."

Yeah.

"...Then, it started to rain. The dragon made it rain, right?"

"Yeah, probably."

I haven't seen the dragon make it rain yet. Maybe the gentle rain I woke up to was it.

"Thanks to that, the Redgard territory was nourished! Since the dragon is protecting it, there won't be a lack of magic power in the future! ...Up to that point, everything was good."

"Yeah..."

The problem is what happened after that. I listened to the rest, a bit tense.

"...First, let me say that my speculation is a bit of a stretch, okay? Well, my speculation is that the royal family wanted to summon a dragon so badly that they used the magic power from two spirit veins to prepare for it."

"...A dragon?"

Summoning. Summoning... huh? Is it possible? I might be doing something similar, though...

"Right. Summoning a dragon. I don't know why the royal family wants a dragon so badly, but they seem to want one."

Well, the royal family has always wanted a dragon. The Geolain family tried to make a dragon appear to give to the king, and the king also tried to get a red dragon from Fei.

"They tried to summon a dragon, and if they succeeded, that would be great. If not, by blocking the two spirit veins of the Redgard territory, they would make the Redgard territory suffer. Then, as a reward for helping the Redgard territory, they would make them offer the red dragon. They probably thought something like that."

I see. No matter which way it went, they would get at least one dragon. ...Hmm.

"...The people of the royal family are not nice."

When I said that, Fei looked surprised and then laughed.

"Haha! You're right! ...I didn't expect you to say something like that."

"Yeah..."

Maybe it's not good to say things like that, but I do get angry sometimes. Yeah.

"Anyway, leaving aside the fact that Togo is unusually angry and I'm glad about it... The 'not nice' people of the royal family used the magic power from two spirit veins to try to perform the dragon summoning ritual... but just before that, something that looked like a dragon was confirmed."

"...A dragon?"

"Right. A dragon!"

That... well, the royal family must have been in a bind. They were trying to make a dragon appear, but a dragon came from somewhere else. They probably panicked, thinking they had failed or been tricked. They might even think the Redgard territory stole their dragon.

"...So, from the perspective of the royal family? The land, which had been blocked from magic power and was about to wither, suddenly had something that looked like an ancient dragon appear, and it made it rain, and after that, the Redgard territory's magic power was nourished. That's what happened."

...Yeah.

"Isn't that unbelievable? They had prepared a lot of magic power by blocking two spirit veins to summon a dragon, but the dragon appeared in the Redgard territory, which had run out of magic power."

I don't know how to make a dragon appear without drawing a picture, but I can imagine that they probably prepare a lot of magic power and use it to summon one.

It's probably similar to preparing a gem for a summoned creature. They prepare the gem and magic power, and not only do they prepare food, but they also prepare a home for it...

"As a result, the royal family... misunderstood."

"Misunderstood?"

"Right. Misunderstood. ...'Dragons appear in lands with little magic power!'"

After listening to Fei's story, I think I was stunned for a while.

But... from the perspective of the royal family, it might be an inevitable conclusion. After all, a dragon and a dragon appeared in the Redgard territory, which naturally has less magic power than the capital.

Especially this time, since the royal family had blocked the spirit veins themselves, it was clear that the land had less magic power. And from the perspective of the royal family... 'After the magic power decreased, the dragon appeared,' so it's understandable that they would connect the two directly.

"It seems there was quite a commotion in the royal family. 'An ancient dragon, only recorded in the ancient documents of the royal family, appeared.' ...At first, it didn't seem to be recognized as a dragon. It was only called a dragon because there was a similar description in the ancient documents of the royal family."

"Yeah, it doesn't have wings and is long."

Dragons, from the perspective of people from another world, are not like that. Yeah. When you think of a dragon, it has wings and can fly. Dragons can swim through the air without wings, so they don't look like dragons.

"Well, that's how it is... My dad was called to the royal castle and asked various questions..."

"Yeah."

"My dad answered, 'The newly appeared dragon did not become part of the Redgard family. We don't know where it went after it appeared. However, it seems that there was an anomaly in the spirit vein in the Redgard territory. So, it must be that the spirits pitied the withering Redgard territory and sent the dragon.'"

"...Yeah. That could lead to a misunderstanding."

"Yeah. My dad came back with a big smile, saying, 'Roses! Fei! I made the royal family misunderstand thoroughly!'"

Fei's dad is a pretty good person. Yeah. No, really, in a good way.

"...So, the royal family started to speculate that 'dragons might appear when the land's magic power suddenly decreases.' And they seem to have thought that 'if the land's magic power decreases, a dragon will appear'..."

...Ah. I have a bad feeling about this.

"So, they withered one of their direct territories a bit away from the capital."

"Wow..."

So, that's why one of the royal family's direct territories withered... That's what happened.

"By the way, they've been blocking the magic power for over half a month, but apparently no dragon has appeared yet."

"Probably not..."

Somehow, the land feels a bit pitiful. There are probably living things and people living there.

"Thanks to that, more fairies have appeared in Saphire's garden and your forest."

"Again!?"

Oh, right! Living things can move! That's good! ...The forest will be lively again.

Anyway, I now have a general idea of what happened while I was sleeping.

The dragon appeared, and the royal family was confused. Fei's dad helped a bit with that, and as a result, the royal family misunderstood and withered one of their own territories.

"So, the royal family's direct territory will probably see a sharp decrease in tax revenue next year... But it's not our problem!"

"Yeah."

I feel a bit sorry, but since they tried to do something terrible to the Redgard territory, I'll let it be.

After that, I decided to take Fei to the forest.

Fei had been busy with the royal family's misunderstanding recently, so it was for a change of pace.

"That crystal cave is really beautiful, but when you try to get close to the island, the dragon gets angry... You know, I went to see it sometimes while you were sleeping, and when I tried to enter the island where you were sleeping, the dragon would threaten me..."

"Huh?"

...Thinking back, I remember that when I woke up, Laocrates came riding on an Alicorn, and the dragon and I stared at each other for a moment. Was the dragon waiting for permission? I see.

"What should I do? I was sleeping in such a place for a month..."

"...No, I think the dragon probably didn't want anyone to enter while you were sleeping."

Is that so? But the cave is the dragon's bed, so maybe I shouldn't enter it too much...

So, a bit tense, I arrived at the dragon's bed.

The dragon was coiled up on the crystal island, but when I approached, it moved slightly, stretched, and came towards me.

"Um, I'm sorry for disturbing you..."

When I greeted the dragon, it tilted its head in a slightly puzzled manner and growled in its throat. ...Then, my body started to float.

"Whoa"

It's the dragon's supernatural power. I floated and flew... and ended up on the dragon's back.

"...Um"

The dragon chirped and then grabbed Fei.

"Whoa!?"

The dragon carried us to the middle of the lake, to the crystal island. ...Fei was let go there, and I was also put down.

"...I guess this dragon is attached to you."

"Attached... well, I'm being taken care of..."

Somehow, for me, the dragon is a bit... awe-inspiring. I mean, dragons are like gods in some cases.

...But as soon as I said that, the dragon looked at me with a slightly intense gaze and lightly tapped my stomach with its tail.

Suddenly, I felt full. I won't say what of.

"...U, uh"

I need to go. I won't say what, but I really need to go! This is the opposite of what happened before!

"Um, please, can you change this back?"

When I said that, the dragon made a slightly pouting face. So skillful!

"No. Hey, this is no good. Stop it..."

But I'm at my limit. I can't let it happen here...

...As I was struggling, the dragon lightly tapped my stomach with its tail again. I thought it would come out from the shock, but it disappeared before that. ...What is this...?

As I was confused, the dragon loosely coiled around me and licked my face a little.

When I was surprised, the dragon uncoiled and flew up to sleep on a tree.

...This dragon is quite mischievous!

"You... are being attached to, aren't you?"

"Where?!"

Fei is grinning, but I'm not really good with this dragon...

Leaving the whimsical dragon aside, we talked a bit on the crystal island.

"This place has really settled down, hasn't it?"

"Huh?"

"Look, a lot of magic stones suddenly appeared, and the magic power increased, so it felt a bit like the magic power was floating. But maybe because it went through the trees and water, it feels settled or properly circulating..."

Fei said this while looking up at the tree. I followed his gaze.

...The crystal I drew was absorbed by the tree I drew, and the fruit it bore fell into the water, dissolving the magic power into it... which the dragon made rain. Yeah. It's a beautiful cycle, except for the starting point. I should probably draw more crystals occasionally...

Thinking about this, I suddenly became concerned. It was a definite sense of discomfort.

"By the way, I was thinking... doesn't magic power circulate?"

"Yeah. The magic power seeps into the land, is used by living things, and when living things die and decay, it returns to the land... It circulates like that."

As I suspected.

...When I was researching spirit veins, I wondered...

"...Am I ignoring this and just drawing out magic stones and such?"

Am I doing something really troublesome?

...Fei was also frozen for a while.

But... then, he gently started to stroke my head. What's going on?

"...Yeah. You're different. Don't think too much about it! Yeah!"

"But I don't think I can just ignore it..."

"But you're not absorbing the forest's magic power to make magic stones, right?"

I don't feel it. I don't feel like I'm absorbing magic power from around me, and the forest's barrier is intact. It doesn't seem to be affected.

"...Well, it's fine. Togo is Togo, so you can do it. Maybe you're bringing magic power from somewhere we don't understand. Don't think too much about it. After all, you can do it."

Hmm... But isn't this ignoring the law of conservation of mass and energy in my world? Is that okay?

"Maybe this world is something you drew out?"

"No, I'm not a god."

"Haha. Just kidding. Well, isn't it fine? If it's convenient for you, it's not a bad thing."

"Hmm..."

...Well, thinking about it won't change anything, so I'll just think of it as something like that. Yeah.

But... the law of conservation of energy... hmm...

I decided not to think about the law of conservation of energy, the law of conservation of mass, or the law of conservation of magic power. Yeah. I think magic power circulates, but the total amount isn't fixed. If it were, it would be hard to explain other things...

Anyway, I was gradually returning to my pre-dragon life, dealing with the backlog of drawing requests and drawing other things... and then, a piece of good news came.

"Hey! Togo!"

When Fei flew in, his face was beaming. I could tell something good had happened.

"What's up?"

"Listen and be amazed! ...!"

Then, Fei paused for a moment before announcing it.

"A baby was born at Saphire's house!"