Chapter 60 - My Mother Yule (1/2)

In the end, for those kids my worries were just none of my business.

Still, for me, it was so frustrating that I lost sight of myself.

I was looking up at the moon from the top of the roof.

Is it a half-moon today?

Certainly, the day I gave birth to Ai was also a halfmoon.

Three hundred years ago, when the previous Dragon King of the Sky, Nerke died, the family had a consensus that the strongest of us, I, should succeed him.

Honestly, I still feel a heavy burden even now.

I have never had a nest and wandered around to various places relying on the few relatives I had.

I would have never thought that different worlds would collide.

The civilization level at that time was laughable compared to now, there were primitive beastmen and some clever demons.

I traveled around the world while observing various races, various organizations, and various countries from the shadows.

I went to the Earth Dragon’s Forest and the Sea Dragon’s Island.

2,000 years old is still very young for dragons, in human terms it would be around late twenties.

I still wanted to keep playing, and didn’t want to take over the Sky Dragon King position.

However, there were no dragons stronger than me and younger than me, so I couldn’t do anything to refuse it, and became the Dragon King of the Sky.

It was terrible.

The Dragon King is a mediator.

The sky that I loved sometimes changed completely and devastated the earth.

Gouging the ground with winds, scattering rain, and burning forests with lightning.

It was my duty, as a Dragon King, to fix the distorted parts while humoring such a whimsical sky.

Starting from that point on, I didn’t have any time to rest.

From the west to the east, from the north to the south.

I traveled busily every day alone while pacifying the sky.

That’s when I gave birth to Ai.

I probably wished for some sort of support.

I built a nest in a convenient place and bid farewell to my lonely days.

When the egg-laying season began, my power declined and I was afraid to endure alone.

Even though I had laid eggs several times before, but the pain from that time is still unforgettable.

It felt like my body was being torn apart.

I cried and screamed when I found out that there was life in the egg, I embraced the egg and fell asleep.

Soon after, I met Ai.

Big round eyes and squishy cheeks.

A pampered child who easily succumbed to loneliness.

She would cry and laugh at a flip of a switch.

A beautiful light was cast into my world.

It was enjoyable to be together.

It was calming to sleep together.

It brought me a smile to play together.

That was when I remembered Alissa.

Alissa, who was younger than me, before one knew it, was nowhere to be seen.

I remembered that the adults were clamoring with scary faces.

Since I was still a child, nobody told me what happened to Alissa.

Since I was worried, I hugged the small Ai and visited Alissa’s mother, Sati.

Sati and Alissa lived on the top of a snowy mountain where other living things did not approach.

I was speechless after I saw her.

A little Alissa who always laughed and followed behind me in my memory.

A bright, tomboyish, and a little selfish, but a very lovable child.

That Alissa had a cold expression like she was a sculpture in front of me, it was painful to look at.

Sati explained to me, who was perplexed.

Being captured by beastmen and demon merchants.

Since then, Alissa has stopped laughing and getting angry.

If Sati doesn’t open her mouth, she doesn’t even eat.

The body of the dragon was a treasure that non-dragons coveted.

It was said that it gave one long life.

Or you’ll receive matchless power.

There are many people who believe in that idle gossip and aim for dragons.

But most dragons won’t lose, so those guys won’t be able to get their hands on us, that’s what I thought up until then.

Sati told me in a self-ridiculing tone.

『Yuriel, if that child is really important, you have to make sure to protect her, alright?』

I couldn’t do anything but nod.

Since then, I sometimes have nightmares.

The instance I take my eyes off her, Ai who was playing disappears, and her cry could be heard from a distance.

That kind of dream.

After waking up, I frantically looked for Ai and only became relived after I saw her.

It continued for a long time even after Ai grew up.

I became overprotective.

I have seen other races for a long time, so I know that some of them are kind.

But I’ve also seen enough evil with my own eyes.

It was horrible and unbearable.

There was a time where I was made to think how could anyone do such a cruel thing.

Ai is my jewel.

Shining brightly, and beautiful.

I decided to raise a strong child before she became independent.

At any rate, the other races coveted dragons.

I thought that we were more likely to deal with those attacked with knowing than those who attacked without knowing.

We went to various places starting from the nest.

Wealthy countries, poor countries, secluded villages, and extinct races.

I taught Ai how to fight while showing her these things.

Ai was not suitable for straightforward battles.

She was a cowardly crybaby, and instantly behaved like a spoiled child.

It was cute, and it was also my fault that I wasn’t strict on her.

Nevertheless, it was about 10 years after the solitary age set by the sky dragons that she grew up to be able to fight by herself.

I gave her the name Aoinoun, an ancient Goddess’s name.

The Goddess of the moon.

The title “Soukyuu” seems to mean blue sky in this country.

A beautiful pale moon floating in the clear blue sky.

With that kind of image, “Soukyuu” Aoinoun Dragoline became independent.

Ai was crying and making a racket about not wanting to part, I was the same.

But to live strong, you have to stand alone.

If the dragons gather, there will be a fight for the dragons.

I left my memorable nest.

It was also related to the world collision.

There were scars everywhere in the sky, and I don’t know how many hundreds of years it will take to cure all of them.

I am the Dragon King of the Sky.

The guardian of the sky.

Even though I was away from Ai, I have never forgotten about her, not even for a second.

Even if I was busy or my mind and body were exhausted, I never suffered as long as I thought about Ai.

Because I was proud of protecting the world where that child lives.

I found out that Ai gave birth when I was working to eliminate a distorted storm in a place called the Grand Canyon.

The wind flowing from the distant sky blessed me.

I thought it was impossible.

I thought it was too early.

Dragon spawning and birth are very rare.

I realized there were too many things that I didn’t teach her yet.

I finished my work in a rush and return to Japan.

When I wanted to take the shortest route, I was obstructed by the distortion of the sky, and could only use the route that humans use.

When I returned to the nest after finishing a very tired air travel while fixing the distortion that I happened to see, while avoiding being discovered, Ai was nowhere to be found.

But I knew she was nearby.

No matter where Ai was hiding, I had always been able to sense it right away.

When I left the nest to go meet her, the rat sage was there.