[...Did you marry a dragon?]

At the golden dragon Reinysius’s question, Alon was left speechless.

He swallowed down his bewilderment and barely managed to ask back,

"What did you just say?"

[...Exactly what I said?]

Reinysius looked more puzzled by why Alon found it strange.

"...Huh?"

"When in the world...?"

At the sudden turn of events no one had seen coming, Penia and Evan, who had been listening from behind, each blurted out a fragment in shock.

Alon let out a deep sigh.

"Forgive me, but I can’t make heads or tails of this. I’d like you to explain it from the beginning, slowly."

At that, Reinysius made a dubious face, then for some reason subtly drew its body back.

Like it was avoiding something.

While Alon was still wondering about that, Reinysius spoke.

[There is nothing particularly special about it. Our dragon race, once it finds a mate, basically leaves its scent on the other.]

"...Its scent?"

[Yes. To make it clear to the other dragons.]

Leaving its scent on purpose.

"So dragon marriages must be held rather quietly."

[Not so.]

"...Hm?"

[Most of dragonkind attends a dragon wedding, but... why would you think that?]

"If you go so far as to leave a scent, I assumed it was to make it known to others."

At that perfectly reasonable inference, Reinysius nodded.

[Well, it is not that. As I said, when dragons marry, the whole race gathers to celebrate. Even so, there is a reason they still leave their scent. Sometimes... troublesome things happen.]

With a somewhat strange expression, it continued.

[As you know, dragons are beings blessed by magic power, and the polymorph dragons use is extremely precise. So precise that even dragons cannot recognize one another.]

"I see."

[And roughly a thousand years ago, it became popular among dragons to polymorph into humans and amuse themselves.]

"...?"

And then Reinysius fell silent.

Alon felt puzzled, but—

"Ah...!"

As if she had realized something, Penia let out a dying gasp.

And soon after, Alon’s thoughts reached the answer too.

"...No way."

[Yes. A little unintentional adultery... And so that custom came into being.]

As if it did not want to expose any more of its race’s dirty laundry, Reinysius cut its explanation short.

Alon understood that for a moment, but soon returned to the real issue.

"...Putting your words together, are you saying there is a dragon’s scent still left on my body?"

[Yes. Especially around your waist. Quite a lot of it.]

Even as Alon looked down at his waist, he tilted his head.

That was only natural, because recently he had not met any dragons at—

"Ah."

That far into the thought, Alon let out a sigh before he knew it.

Come to think of it, there had been one more dragon Alon had met besides Reinysius.

"...You’re talking about Arculainysis... right?"

At Penia’s question, clearly having thought of the same one, Alon nodded and looked again at his waist.

Because she, who had done nothing but cry, had always wrapped her tail around his waist.

Having roughly grasped the source of the scent, Alon lightly drew in a breath to smell it, but—

[Scent is not something you can detect that way.]

"I see."

[And...]

Reinysius looked at Alon with a dubious expression.

[There is something I would very much like to say.]

"What is it...?"

[A dragon’s life is not the same as a human’s.]

"? I know that."

[What...?]

Reinysius looked startled by Alon’s response.

For some reason, its eyes filled with even more contempt.

[...You know that?]

"Well, at least that the length of their lives is different."

[Yes, it is different. No matter what, even if a dragon has lived thirty years, by human standards it is still only a child. In other words, an immature individual.]

"That’s true."

[...And you married one anyway? An immature dragon?]

When Alon answered immediately, Reinysius asked again as if it could not believe what it was hearing.

"Hk—"

"...Lord Alon?"

[Hk.]

[Kyuu?]

At that, Evan and Penia were startled in turn, and so were Basiliora and Blackie.

No, why are you two reacting like that too...!? was what he wanted to say, but—

[I already knew True Mages had unusual tastes, but to think you would do such a thing while knowing that—]

"Excuse me, but I’d like you to throw out that grotesque assumption that I ever married a dragon before we continue...??"

Even hearing Reinysius’s direct condemnation, Alon squeezed his eyes shut.

Thirty minutes later.

"I keep saying it, over and over, but I did not marry a dragon."

[...I see.]

After painstakingly explaining his relationship with Arculainysis, Alon finally managed to escape the dragon’s suspicion.

"...Whew..."

He had not even brought up the real issue yet, but the fatigue already crashing over him made his head spin.

As Reinysius watched Alon sigh, it finally—

[Then did you come here... to keep your promise?]

—jerked its chin toward Blackie.

"...Do you think I’ve gathered enough strength to keep it?"

[Did you come here without even knowing that?]

"I also had something I wanted to ask while I was at it. Including how much stronger Blackie would need to become to keep that promise."

Reinysius looked silently at Blackie.

[From what I can see, your Shadow Dragon is already at a level sufficient to free me from the seal.]

"...Really?"

[It is not yet an adult... but strangely enough, it possesses power beyond that.]

When Alon looked at Blackie on his shoulder, it tilted its head adorably and went, "Kyuu?"

"Blackie, if you would."

When he spoke to it, the creature nodded as though it understood exactly what he meant, then moved toward Reinysius.

Soon, as Blackie climbed onto the dragon, black smoke began pouring from its body.

And then—

Fwoooosh—!!

The black smoke instantly covered Reinysius’s body.

At the same time, the dark spear that had been lodged in the golden dragon until just moments ago slowly turned into black smoke and scattered.

Fwoosh—!

A change began to occur in Reinysius, who until now had been waiting for the day of death with no hope at all.

Fwoooosh—!

The scales that had emitted only a dull brown light took on a fierce golden radiance, and the hollow brown eyes filled with brilliant gold.

Kwagagagagagagagagak—!

Along with it, an immense wave of magic power, enough to make one’s skin crawl, ran wild through the entire space.

And at the final moment—

■■■■■—!!!

A burst of noise erupted, and Alon witnessed it.

[...Ah, it has been a long time.]

The true form of the golden dragon, wrapped in brilliant gold.

And that was not the end.

With the return of the golden dragon, the overwhelming magic power that spread out in every direction instantly took the shape of chains, linking Alon and Reinysius together.

Before Alon even had time to be startled by the unforeseen turn—

[You have kept your promise to me, so it is only right that I keep my promise to you.]

At Reinysius’s voice, dozens more layers of chains were created and began linking Reinysius and Alon together.

And at last, when they fused once more into a single chain so massive it could never be severed—

[I, Reinysius, in accordance with the great covenant, shall serve the being before me as my master until the moment he is consumed and disappears into magic power.]

Reinysius’s words rang out through the cavern.

And as the chains that had formed all surged toward Alon at once—

[Take good care of me from now on.]

Alon had obtained a golden dragon.

####

Alon gave the golden dragon a rough explanation of everything that had happened until now.

[...So to summarize, you are saying the Shadow Dragon became able to absorb and use the power of these things called Divine blood?]

At the conclusion Reinysius had drawn, Alon nodded.

The dragon then thought for a moment before speaking.

[Even I would have difficulty properly grasping exactly what happened.]

"...Is that so?"

[However, there are a few things that come to mind. So if you give me a little time, I will investigate.]

After Alon nodded, he asked,

"Then what do you plan to do now?"

[Me?]

"Yes."

[What is there to do? You have become my master, so I intend to follow you. Is there some problem with that?]

The moment Reinysius asked that, it quickly seemed to realize something on its own and nodded.

"I see. If I walk around in my true form, it may be inconvenient for both of us."

Soon it began gathering magic power into its body.

At the same time, Reinysius’s form gradually began to shrink.

After some time passed—

"...Shit."

Evan’s curse came from behind him.

A completely out-of-nowhere curse.

But Alon did not bother objecting.

Because he understood.

He understood exactly why Evan had let out such foul language.

"Isn’t that humanity’s enemy?"

A violent mutter, as if the whole thing were unfair.

Alon found himself nodding before he realized it.

Because the face Reinysius had after polymorphing into a human was, in truth, so absurdly handsome it could have slapped even that handsome elf across the face.

"Ahh—O heavens, why did heaven create me, and then also create Elivan and the golden dragon?"

"? That’s complete bullshit."

At Evan’s wail, Penia immediately went expressionless, then looked at the golden dragon with a strange little frown.

"...Honestly, I’m more offended because he’s too handsome."

For some reason, that made sense too.

"Ah."

By then, apparently having finished the polymorph, Reinysius spoke.

With a low voice unlike the one it had possessed as a dragon, Reinysius checked its voice several times, then said to Alon’s group, who were all staring at it with vacant expressions,

"This reaction really does not change even after a thousand years."

"Wow, what an unbelievably punchable asshole..."

Watching the handsome man shrug in a calm, matter-of-fact way, Penia muttered quietly.

Anyway, after that brief commotion, Alon left the great cavern together with Reinysius.

Two more months passed after that.

Once they had left the wasteland behind, the group stopped nowhere else and headed straight for Palantia.

And when Alon arrived in {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} Palantia—

"...Evan."

"Yes." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"What is that?"

At the sight that greeted them the moment they entered, he asked the question.

Likewise rendered speechless by the spectacle before him, Evan—

"Uh..."

—continued blankly for a moment before saying,

"...The Demon King’s castle...?"

That was all he could come up with.

A gigantic floating island hanging in the sky over Palantia.

There was no other expression that could describe it.

'...What happened in the last half year...?'

Confusion settled into the mind of Alon, who had finally returned home after so long.