Leave a comment

Efrain and the “Wisdom Eye Vortex” floated midair, held by an unseen force—until it suddenly vanished. Monica fell, still gripping the azure staff, yet she showed no hesitation. Even in freefall, she let loose a furious barrage at the Regalia.

“You absolute fool! Spoiled brat!!” she bellowed, with the intensity of someone shouting straight into your ear, her voice charged with enough pressure to feel physically crushing.

Thanks to Giselle’s ring, Monica had gained the ability to speak Dragonian, a language of layered meanings, where even brief, neigh-like utterances carried rich torrents of thought and emotion. Yet Monica, like a wildfire, swept over all those nuances, blasting out her words in a singular, burning hue. It was her unfiltered passion, the raw, childish honesty that defined her. Lucella recognized it for what it was: the true Monica, beneath her usual guarded shell.

Still tangled in the swirling waters, Monica and the Regalia plummeted. The water dragon’s stirring had caused the water levels to drop, turning the terrain below into thick, muddy sludge. They crashed hard. A violent spray erupted around them, but through it all, Monica rose at once, soaked through yet undeterred.

“You scream into someone’s ears to drag them to your side, then toss them away like trash… Don’t give me that!” Monica shouted. “You should be grateful someone even agreed to go see your mom with you!”

With that, she lifted the “Wisdom Eye Vortex”—yes, an actual Regalia—and smashed it repeatedly into the mud. Each slam left deep marks gouged into the sludge, though the staff itself, naturally, remained completely unharmed.

“Your whole way of choosing is messed up to begin with! What, only miserable people are allowed? Did you really think being equally unhappy would magically make you friends? That you could sit around licking each other’s wounds and feel better?”

“You utter fool! A drowning person can’t save someone drowning beside them! You’re even more clueless than a human! High and mighty, discarding anyone who doesn’t fit! Like that, you’ll never make friends with anyone! Not humans, not dragons! No one!”

Then, with a furious cry, Monica hurled the “Wisdom Eye Vortex” into the mud and began stomping on it with all her strength, each stomp growing more forceful. The azure staff showed no damage, but it sank deeper into the sludge beneath her feet. Lucella could only stare, stunned. In all of human history, no one had ever dared to treat a Regalia this way.

Monica’s Dragonian didn’t shimmer with layered complexity; it seethed with raw emotion. It wasn’t sharp like hatred, but close—frustrated, like being angry at someone you cared about. Abruptly, she snatched the staff from the mud and shouted directly into it.

“Shut up! Just get rid of this stupid storm already! Life isn’t so simple that you can fix it just by shutting yourself away!”

In the next instant, light broke through.

“…It stopped,” someone murmured.

Like snapping out of a nightmare, the clouds and rain vanished at once. Sunlight gleamed through the dispersing remnants, casting glittering droplets across the air. A rainbow arched through the clearing sky.

Only the water dragon remained, its chest still gaping from the wound Togul had dealt.

“Return it…” came a groaning whisper.
“You shut up too!” Monica snapped.

She thrust the Regalia toward the creature, and the moment it made contact, the massive water form exploded. Water crashed down in thick waves, splattering mud in every direction.

Then silence fell. After the endless downpour and thunder, the sudden stillness felt almost eerie.

“Take it away,” Monica muttered.
“Right,” Lucella replied, finally coming to her senses as Monica tossed her the staff.

But before she could grip it fully, another hand reached out and took it. The elegant, blue-haired nobleman examined the Regalia with a contemplative gaze.

“I see… So when wielded, this connects directly to the world…”

He was no ordinary noble, he was the avatar of the Blue Dragon King.

Togul studied the staff carefully and let out a small snort.

“Wasn’t this Regalia meant to be sealed on Mount Kuguse?”

“It was,” Lucella confirmed. “Through the Regalia Lines, it managed the homeland’s environment and could be dispatched to battlefields if needed. It’s been used before, but always returned afterward.”

“That makes sense. Bringing it into direct contact with such dense dragon aura would awaken its will far faster than mere overuse ever could.”

Lucella found herself both surprised and convinced.

A Regalia’s rampage began when the tool, meant to be wielded, started acting on its own, powered by lingering energy. Under normal circumstances, this energy built up from repeated use. But this time, Kafal’s dragon aura had substituted for that. And considering that Regalia were originally dragons themselves, it wasn’t surprising the aura fused so seamlessly.

“So that rampage… it was the Regalia’s will all along.”
“In the last great war, humans forged Regalia from dragon remains,” Togul said. “The one near the Sylnir Sea probably contains the remnants of water dragons, our kin. Some may have been parents and children.”

Her words carried the weight of certainty.

Items crafted from the remains of countless dragons, perhaps even parent and child, made up the Regalia of Setulev and Maltgartz. It wouldn’t be far-fetched.

“Did it plan to destroy the Regalia to free its kin?”
“Who can say? Even if this wreckage holds a sliver of will, it’s doubtful it has any true thought behind it. Regalia are human tools. I know very little about them.”

Togul gave the staff one final glance before handing it back to Lucella. Much about dragon views on life and death remained a mystery, but at the very least, Togul showed no interest in Regalia forged from the bodies of his fallen kin.

“Anyway, if you want to avoid trouble, make sure the humans never awaken this thing again.”
“Can’t I just become friends with it?”
“…What?”

The question caught Togul completely off guard. His expression twisted, like he’d just sipped the world’s most bewildering potion, equal parts sweet, bitter, and sour. For a moment, the dignity of a dragon king was nowhere to be seen.

“I don’t know what Maltgartz’s Regalia was thinking… but this one, I think it was just lonely,” Lucella said. Monica heard her too. In the end, it had embarked on a journey not to destroy, but to find its mother, to fill the emptiness inside. To call it a disaster and seal it away again felt too cruel. At least, that was how Lucella saw it.

If the Regalia was indeed a tool of humans, then perhaps it was Lucella, who stood between dragons and mankind, who should decide its fate. Togul paused, tilting his head and tousling his hair before exhaling a long sigh.

“Do as you please. I won’t interfere, no matter the result.”

Lucella had the distinct feeling he was a little amused.

The mud-soaked battlefield was bathed in the fading hues of sunset, while waves crashed softly beneath the reddening sky.

Half-submerged in the muck, Efrain stared at the sky and murmured, “I wonder what a happy family feels like…”

His body had changed. Most of the armor-like carapace that once encased him had flaked away, leaving behind scattered patches of immature blue scales. His right arm had been severed at the elbow, with only the twisted remnants of carapace hanging limp, no flesh or blood beneath. Yet his gaze—still human, if barely—remained fixed on the glowing horizon.

“To marry someone you love and be loved in return… to have kids, maybe even grandkids… to laugh together like we used to in the dormitory lounge… I wonder if that’s what I should’ve been looking for,” he said.
“I wonder,” Lucella replied, her voice steady. “Family, happiness…they don’t come in just one shape or form.”

Lucella never imagined she’d gain a family this way, or find happiness within it. It was far from conventional, but she had come to believe happiness didn’t need to follow a script.

“It’s not that a family makes you happy,” she said. “You build a family because you’ve found happiness. If you don’t know what that is, how can you look for it?”
“Yeah… I guess you’re right. I really screwed things up again…” Efrain murmured.
“You didn’t mess up. You just… were never given anything to start with.”

Sometimes, those most in need of saving don’t even know how to ask for it. Lucella had been lucky. Everything had fallen into place when she needed it most.

Efrain turned his head toward her, joints creaking, and asked, “Lucella… will you be my girlfriend?”
“Idiot,” she said, locking eyes with him. “Find someone yourself. You’re free now, Efrain.”
“…Yeah. You’re right.”

Birds silhouetted against the crimson sky drifted overhead. Even they wouldn’t fly endlessly across an empty sky. Before nightfall, they too would land—somewhere, on some branch.

Support Us

Unlock Early Access ------- Select Project ------- Project Gender Bender Project Necro ∴ Support your favorite series and unlock chapters before the public release.