Chapter 19 – A Belated Fairytale Gift

Synopsis: Fairytales are all lies — but I want to write a fairytale

..·:*¨¨*.·:*¨♡¨*:·. 64 .·:*¨♡¨*:·.*¨¨*:·..

Ever since Fruys appeared, I felt restless and muddle-headed. I acquiescently allowed them to manipulate me through the motions of the ceremony, but all I could think about was how I could get to him. How could I attract his attention?

I couldn’t even make a single sound with my voice.

When the ceremony finished, I helplessly watched Fruys rise from his seat and make his bid of farewell to the chief of the gold dragon clan. Everyone present once again stood up to salute his departure, while the gold dragons prepared to escort me away to the so-called “bridal chamber”.

I stood there steadfastly, motionlessly, like my feet had grown roots into the ground, and blankly stared at Fruys’s rippling cape as he turned around to leave. Memories from everything that we experienced together flashed before my eyes — how an impoverished, bullied little lord encountered a dragon who was so haughty he refused to speak a word by the sea one day; how that same dragon abruptly dropped out of the sky in the midst of a desperate clash between armies; how he presumptuously took all the spoils of war and holed up in his own little treasury for three days; how he always charged forward at the very front during every single battle; how he foolishly carried the little lord who was crying from reading poems up into the sky; how he threw himself in front of the snow witch’s curse to protect the little lord…

That little lord gradually became the most powerful in the entire continent of Finanse, but then that dragon flapped his wings and flew back over the Sea of Death.

After that happened, everything in the world lost its color. Despite possessing an immense size of territory, I still felt as if I was living every day inside of a cage. I drifted in the turbulent and endless Sea of Death in a small boat after Andy’s betrayal and then dedicated all of my energy to learn any news I could when I joined the Adventurer’s Guild. I fell into King Andel’s plot, and was currently trapped by the gold dragon clan in a mess… but none of that was important. I had endured all of this until now solely because I wanted to meet a certain dragon again one day. I wanted to hug that dragon’s neck and tell him I missed him.

You see, being a lord is actually really boring. My brother already grew up, and the people of Finanse already live a happy life now… After saying so much, mhm, actually I wanted to ask…If it’s okay, this time, can I stay by your side?

In the dead of the night, I had rehearsed these lines countless times. However, I never expected that one day I might be too late to say it. I had gotten so close to him, but I didn’t have the opportunity to open my mouth.

I felt as if a fireball was burning my insides, while a frigid feeling slowly enveloped my entire heart. The nearby gold dragons exclaimed in surprise: “This human, how come he doesn’t move to the commands?”

As they reached out to forcefully drag me away, I closed my eyes and gently grasped my chest with my hands, then silently whispered a certain name.

Fruu.

After having gone through so much, there was no way I was willing to give up now.

A frigid feeling that ordinary people would not be able to bear slowly flooded my entire body until my teeth involuntarily began to chatter. The gold dragon clansmen who had grabbed me released their hold abruptly after feeling the sharp icy chill, and I continued to keep my teeth clenched — finally, the cold became so intense that a perfectly exquisite and stunningly armored ice dragon exploded out from my chest, roaring.

All the dragons present were stunned as they watched this absurdity. They were even more astonished by the ice dragon that appeared, and they began whispering amongst each other.

They said, that dragon looks just like the original form of His Majesty the Ice Emperor.

They said, it’s just a human, how is this possible?

The nearby dragons started to work together in an attempt to subdue me, but the ice dragon that had been materialized by the strength of Fruys’s dragon pearl stubbornly blocked the way in front of me and defended against one attack after another.

I saw that Yiweisibel finally stopped in his tracks, and he turned his body in my direction. His lips opened and closed slightly, and a faint light flashed through his eyes — ever since my ability to see returned, my vision had in fact improved a lot from what it used to be. It was far better than what was normal for ordinary people. Before, I hadn’t understood why, but right now I roughly discerned the reason — the world that I was seeing with these eyes right now, was probably the same kind of world that Fruys used to see.

Driven far beyond my physical capabilities by Fruys’s dragon pearl, my entire body was practically freezing but I still felt very warm on the inside. A strange yet familiar strength suddenly rose up from within — I spread out my arms, and fierce flames somehow burst out from my body, putting distance between me and the dragons that surrounded me. This blazing inferno that burned like a searing prison of fire, I could feel it. This was my innate power.

The dragons around me scattered one by one as they took to the skies, trying to escape from the raging flames, but there would be no saving the gold dragon clan’s territory which was quickly ablaze in a vast sea of fire. All of them tried to use ice-type magic to extinguish the fire, but they were unable to summon any ice.

“How is this possible…” They once again looked with incomparable shock at a particular ice dragon who was standing in front of me. “..This ability to suppress ice magic, it could only be His Majesty the Ice Emperor…”

Everyone’s gazes all turned to Fruys in an instant.

Almost like he didn’t notice, all he did was cautiously take large strides as he walked towards me.

Once the ice dragon touched its original owner, it instantly evaporated to steam and disappeared.

I watched as Fruys passed through the many layers of the flaming sea of fire and approached me step by step.

My flames didn’t hurt him.

It was because I would never want him to be hurt.

Just like how he used to charge at the very front of the battles in the past, I would always be afraid for him.

He stood with his eyes closed in front me as he slightly lowered his head to “look” at me. He extended a hand and touched my face, then quietly, almost as if he were afraid to confirm it, he said: “You…”

I lowered my head, unable to speak a single word. I could only shake my head repeatedly as I couldn’t stop the tears from falling.

I figured it wasn’t a big deal that I was crying right now. After all, I hadn’t read Haider’s poems in such a long time, so I was definitely just in need of a good venting session. It definitely wasn’t because I lacked a heroic quality or anything.

His voice abruptly turned harsh: “…What? Why can’t you speak? What happened to your voice?!”

He used his hands to stroke my throat, and soon after he seemed to sigh a breath of relief. Using his finger, he drew a small incantation on my Adam’s apple, and released the seal that the gold dragons had placed on me.

I felt my throat loosen as a billion words I wanted to say rushed up to the surface, but in the end when I lifted my head to look at Fruys’s face — extremely attractive, indeed but nonetheless unfamiliar, everything was blurted out as a single phrase: “Change back right now.”

And sure enough, Fruys immediately transformed into his dragon form.

Standing on my tiptoes, I tightly hugged his neck with tears dripping down my face. Only after what seemed like half a day of choking on my sobs did I ask with a stuffy voice: “What happened to your eyes?”

Fruys tenderly stroked my cheeks and the top of my head with his muzzle, while he quietly responded: “It’s not important. Isn’t this fine? From now on, I can be your wings, and you can be my eyes.”

Author’s notes:

Here’s the belated fairy tale present for International Children’s Day¹~

Don’t you all love me~?

Translator: toomutchayuzu
Editor: Agent Psyx o7
Translation Checker: blobber
Proofreader: Bunny

1. This chapter was originally published on June 2nd. International Children’s Day is June 1st. The literal raw title is “A belated Children’s Day gift” — but I felt like it would be better understood as a belated fairy tale gift.