Chapter 276 : The Dragon's Dream
Chapter 276: The Dragon's Dream
Dragons do not dream by nature.
For living beings, dreams are a process that fills the instability of the soul.
While sleeping, the body rests, the wounds inflicted upon the soul by the events experienced while awake are healed, and the soul grows stronger and larger.
But a Dragon's soul is complete from the moment of birth.
A soul as hard as diamond can never be wounded or broken under any circumstances.
As such, it has no room left to grow.
Therefore, the process of dreaming is unnecessary for them.
Occasionally, when exchanging consciousness with other immortal beings like themselves, they may use the medium of a "dream"...
But rather than calling that a "dream," it would be more accurate to call it a "divine revelation" or "telepathy."
However...
Today.
The Dragon, Dwyndrog, dreamed.
It consisted mainly of memories from when his human ego still remained.
His everyday life before he had transmigrated into this world.
The food he had eaten.
The emotions he had felt.
Subjectively, perhaps five minutes had passed.
It wasn't long before he realized he was dreaming and opened his eyes.
The moment he did...
He was overwhelmed by immense anger and humiliation over the fact that he had dreamed.
A dream.
A dream...
Like those dreamed by mortals.
Grrrrrr...
A beastly growl naturally escaped his throat.
That alone caused the ground to tremble slightly.
The growl was his own way of trying to quickly erase his humiliation.
If compared to a human...
It was no different from kicking away the blanket in embarrassment.
His body shuddered with shame for only a brief moment.
Then...
Cold reality forced itself into his vertically slit pupils.
A freezing floor.
Thick glass.
Beyond it...
Humans watched every one of his movements with fascinated eyes.
And the conversations they exchanged.
—He's awake.
—He woke up.
—What was that growl just now? A signal?
—Just a biological reaction?
—It felt like a human waking up from sleep.
—I hope it doesn't affect tomorrow's experiment.
—Which Essence Extraction Experiment are we on now?
—The 178th.
—I hope we finally succeed soon.
Ah...
Right.
It was because of them.
Those cursed humans.
They cut away his scales.
Pulled out his claws and fangs.
Peeled away his corneas.
Stabbed needles into his heart.
Operated machines in an attempt to extract his soul...
Acts so agonizing that if the victim had been human, they would have died dozens of times over...
Yet after inflicting them without hesitation...
They simply prepared for the next experiment because the results still weren't satisfactory.
As the experiments continued...
They slowly began producing results.
And tiny scratches also began appearing upon Dwyndrog's soul.
He knew his soul was now in a grotesquely distorted state.
After transmigrating...
His human soul had gradually reshaped itself until it perfectly suited his new body.
Like a vessel filling its container, it had expanded, becoming larger and sturdier.
But...
Even if you molded concrete until it resembled steel...
It could never match steel's strength.
Thus...
Even the experiments of insignificant humans...
Which originally shouldn't have affected him in the slightest...
Were slowly grinding away at his soul.
That was probably why he had dreamed just now.
The human part still remaining within him...
Unable to endure what they were doing...
Was desperately struggling.
He simply hadn't realized it.
【Aaron... Stingray...】
Dwyndrog muttered the name of the man who had reduced him to this state.
His voice overflowed with hatred.
Perhaps...
The fact that he was still being swept away by such human emotions...
Only proved that he had not yet become a complete Dragon.
That truth embarrassed him.
It was humiliating.
He wanted to run away from it.
But only for a moment.
Gradually...
Something inside him began to change.
It was probably because of the dream he had just experienced.
Like water seeping through a tiny crack before gradually widening it...
He could no longer suppress the emotions suddenly surging within him.
Those emotions...
Were longing.
I want to go back.
I want to go back.
I want to go back.
I want to go back.
I want to go back.
I want to go back.
I want to go back.
I want to go back.
I want to go back.
Anger.
Humiliation.
Nostalgia.
Sorrow.
Emotions that had long since disappeared...
No...
Emotions that should have disappeared...
Belatedly began shaking him from within.
The beauty he'd seen.
The scents he'd smelled.
The warmth he'd felt in his previous world.
All five senses gently enveloped him like a thin veil.
But they quickly vanished once more.
Leaving him alone...
Surrounded only by the foul stench of unbearable loneliness.
【Ah... I see...】
So that was why.
Inside the soul that had hardened into the shape of concrete...
These things still remained.
That was why...
He had wandered this city so aimlessly.
'I know what I must do now.'
Everything until now had been a lie.
He had merely continued doing what his former self had done.
Driven by nothing more than inertia.
Because he had never truly made "returning home" his own desire...
He had struggled falsely.
Fought falsely.
Been defeated falsely.
Raged falsely.
But not anymore.
'I want to go back.'
What would he do if he returned?
He didn't know.
But he wanted to return.
Regardless of what awaited him afterward.
'I want to go back.'
Dwyndrog carved those words into his own soul.
Then calmly began reorganizing his plans.
His targets were the Sky Dragon.
And Aaron Stingray.
Escape this place...
'...And kill them both!'
Futurized Prestige School.
This ridiculously difficult-to-pronounce elementary school was the one Evangeline attended after Maria had strongly recommended it.
—This is the one!
No, it has to be this one!
That was the first time I'd ever seen Maria argue with veins bulging in her neck.
I was genuinely grateful that she cared so much about educating a child who wasn't even her own...
But having lived in a country obsessed with education...
I honestly couldn't welcome it wholeheartedly.
Still...
Good things were good things.
Money wasn't exactly an issue.
And naturally, any parent(?) wanted to give their child the very best clothes, food, and education.
In the end...
I accepted Maria's recommendation.
And enrolled Evangeline in the most expensive private elementary school in the city.
I arrived at the school at around 11:30.
The aerial transportation network was better than I'd expected despite the distance from my office, allowing me to arrive much earlier than anticipated.
While the autonomous driving AI searched for a landing spot...
I looked down at the campus.
It was...
Utterly aristocratic.
Unlike the futuristic architecture of the Academy I visited every day...
This place looked like something where medieval European nobles would have studied.
Most of the buildings were constructed from stone.
Beautifully maintained gardens decorated every corner.
The entire place felt charming and elegant.
'...Did I attend this school too?'
I couldn't remember clearly.
But as I watched the little children attending outdoor classes in their uniforms...
The scenery stirred faint memories.
Those were probably fragments of Aaron's memories still lingering inside me.
The number of students was surprisingly small.
Judging by one class holding lessons outdoors...
There seemed to be fewer than ten students per class.
Even more remarkable...
Every single child belonged to the highest levels of society.
The daughter of the mayor's Chief Political Secretary.
The son of a senior executive at Militech.
Children like that.
'I wonder if Evangeline will adapt well.'
I'm hardly one to talk...
But the privileged class in this city always seemed a little twisted.
A child like Evangeline, whose appearance and speech naturally stood out...
Could easily become the target of spoiled brats who had inherited their parents' warped personalities.
Of course...
Evangeline wasn't the type to quietly endure one-sided bullying.
Which made things even more problematic.
'If she uses magic to fight back and reveals she's a witch...'
Since every child here belonged to the absolute upper class...
Even I might find myself unable to clean up the aftermath.
Fortunately...
Judging from Maria's reactions, nothing major seemed to have happened so far.
'I'll see for myself.'
The faculty had told me earlier that Evangeline's class was currently having an arts-and-crafts lesson.
Concealing my presence, I quietly made my way to the classroom.
Peeking only my head through the window...
I looked inside.
'There she is.'
Evangeline's brilliant golden hair stood out immediately even from a distance.
Unlike before, when she simply wandered into my office playroom every day...
Her long hair was now neatly tied back with a red headband.
There was no chance she'd styled it herself.
That was undoubtedly Maria's handiwork.
Around her...
Tiny children who barely reached my waist sat diligently at their desks, cutting colored paper with scissors.
It looked like they were making whatever they wanted out of paper.
Even though this was an elite school...
The lesson itself seemed surprisingly ordinary.
Then again...
Thinking about it...
Paper was actually quite rare in this city.
Not because paper itself was difficult to manufacture.
Rather...
Since virtually all work had become computerized, the paper industry had nearly disappeared altogether.
Very few places still produced it.
And if even ordinary document paper was that rare...
What about colored craft paper?
Those sheets were probably manufactured in tiny premium batches.
Thinking about how much value those little brats were happily cutting into pieces...
Really...
“Evangeline!”
Just then...
A voice suddenly caught my attention.
A group of boys came running over and surrounded Evangeline.
Their expressions were unusually serious.
Evangeline likewise looked at them with obvious displeasure.
“......What is it?”
Her sharp voice carried unmistakable caution.
One of the boys silently stepped closer.
Evangeline instinctively flinched, leaning backward as though preparing to flee.
A bad feeling.
I barely restrained the urge to rush into the classroom immediately.
Surely nothing would happen with the homeroom teacher present.
Then again...
That was exactly what worried me.
Depending on the individual...
Children could be astonishingly wicked and cunning.
Some instinctively knew exactly how to deceive adults.
'What if...'
What if...
They'd already mastered the art of bullying a girl their own age without the teacher noticing?
What if...
They were little devils who delighted in wounding fragile hearts while constantly dancing along the line between what was and wasn't considered abuse?
Without realizing it...
I clenched my fist.
Immediately activating my module.
If those little bastards showed even the slightest suspicious movement...
I intended to pull the threads instantly.
I had absolutely no intention of sparing them simply because they were children.
And then...
The boys stepped even closer—
“J-Just pick whichever one you like the most!”
Their faces turned bright red as they simultaneously presented the crafts they'd made to Evangeline.
There was a dinosaur.
A flower.
A bug.
A soccer ball.
And...
Several things so poorly made that I couldn't even identify what they were supposed to be.
Meanwhile...
Evangeline, who had suddenly become the recipient of all these gifts...
Looked sincerely disgusted.
Only then did I finally understand the entire situation.
A sigh escaped me before I even realized it.
“......Poor things.”
Completely oblivious to Evangeline's signals...
The boys immediately started arguing among themselves.
Whose craft had been made better.
Which one Evangeline would like most.
And so on.
“Why are you deciding that!?”
“Why are you decidin' thaaat~!?”
“Why are you copying me!?”
“Why are you copyin' meee~!?”
“Stop copying me!”
“Stop copyin' meee~!”
The childish argument, perfectly fitting their age...
Soon escalated into a full-blown fistfight.
One punched two.
Two punched three.
Friend and foe alike...
The boys grabbed each other's collars and hair while fighting wildly.
Some even took advantage of the chaos to sneak toward Evangeline while their rivals were distracted.
“Evangeline!
I made this one!
It's a flower!
Girls like flowers, right?
Here!
Take it!”
And Evangeline's response...
“......I truly have no need for it.”
Was more than enough to completely shatter the young boy's innocent heart.
In the end...
The boys' battle continued until the homeroom teacher finally stepped in to stop them.
Meanwhile...
Evangeline spent the rest of class chatting exclusively with the girls, looking as though she wanted absolutely nothing to do with the whole affair.
Watching the scene unfold...
I could only sigh once more.
“Poor things......”