I accidentally blurted out my thoughts when Hestia responded and tilted her head in curiosity. I told her it was nothing, then stroked my chin as I began to think.
Why did they tell me to go and save Cory? No, why was it only Cory in the first place? When I had been shifted to another dimension that one time, it had definitely been to prevent the future from taking place.
Then were all of the dreams I had dreamt of in the past all in the same reasoning? I couldn't even remember when I had begun dreaming of my past life, but I had continued to have related dreams in the future. Thanks to my dreams, I was able to be alert and knowledgeable in the present. …Even if none of my actions really fit the original plotline very much.
Then that meant that the black dragon had been interfering in my life through my dreams since I was a child. Then that meant that the reason why I had entered this world was because of the black dragon, Noirelle…..
I thought carefully about it as I walked. Hestia began to worry about how quiet I had become. I was a bit confused. All of the things that I had guessed or assumed were becoming more and more factual by the day.
If I wanted to check everything for sure, that meant I had to climb up to the highest point of the mountain.
It would be nice for Hestia to go with me too, but the top of the mountain was cluttered with high-level monsters. It was a bit dangerous for me to take Hestia, who only knew how to protect herself with face slapping, hair pulling, and other innocuous methods of self-protection.
I really, truly wanted to take Hestia with me too, but I didn't know what kind of existence the dragon was or what they were thinking so I was willing to take her when I felt that the coast was clear.
I walked along the middle and lower parts of the mountain and made sure to tire out Hestia.
I suddenly remembered a tiny cave that I had found while subjugating before, so I headed over there.
Hestia frowned as she saw where I had taken her.
Hestia had probably, definitely, imagined a giant lair-like cave with a sleeping dragon inside. The sight in front of her showed only a tiny cave, only as high and deep as a single arm.
"Here, Hestia. I brought you where you asked–is this a dragon lair?"
"Mmmm….."
I shoved my face into the tiny cave and said in an exaggerated tone. There were a few spiderwebs in the tiny, meaningless little cave. That was it. A bunch of tiny bugs were squirming in those webs. That was all.
Hestia walked closer to the cave. I shoved my face away from the cave and gave her some space to look. She lowered her waist to put her face as well before shoving her entire face in to see.
The cave was short and narrow, so she ended up getting stuck. Hestia turned around and left the cave, then breathed out deeply. She was scared of what could have been in it.
Hestia had been excited about the dragon lair, but was now seemingly tired. She reminded me of a deflated balloon.
"I guess it's not it…."
I felt guilty as I stared at a despondent Hestia. She fiddled with her pink hair before looking anxious.
"Maybe it's not that easy to find a dragon lair?"
I couldn't get myself to look at her disappointed eyes, so I just focused on the small cave as I spoke.
Hestia rolled her eyes thoughtfully before nodding in agreement.
Hestia sat on the grass after crawling out of the cave, then stretched her arms out wide and laid down. She laid down on the stiff grassy floor and stared at the star-filled sky above. She closed her eyes.
I was a bit surprised at how Hestia suddenly flopped onto the ground, but I laid down right next to her. Hestia's neck must've felt stiff–she took one of my arms and used it as a pillow.
"Do you have anything you want to do when you meet the dragon?"
Hestia closed her eyes as I brushed her head before slowly opening her eyes.
"Just, not really. I heard that they died yearning for the destruction of our empire after their family was murdered and their powers were stolen away. Even if I don't have the right, I'm just incredibly sorry to the dragon and I just wanted to apologize."
I didn't know what to say at that.
Hestia acted as if she was daring and bold and thoughtless at times, but she was incredibly deep. …or maybe she was righteous?
What if she was stomped on by the dragon? Hestia shrugged when I asked her. She promised to ensure that I wouldn't be killed, but I didn't really trust that too much.
I was tired and feeling lazy, so I couldn't help but think a lot about how she tried to solve everything as hard as she could. I felt bad for wanting to just coast through my life with money and stability. It was just a passing thought.
I kept my mouth shut for a while before speaking again.
"Are you only going to apologize?"
Hestia shook her head after a long silence.
"Yeah. But there's actually another reason why I began to do research about the black dragon. I felt like my family and my teachers and my acquaintances couldn't support me and help me, so I wondered if the black dragon could help me and change something in my life. Even if it killed me."
Hestia said calmly. Then, she turned her head towards me and smiled.
"Well, I have you now, so I don't care for any of it though! If I'm with you, I have hope that I can achieve anything in the future–dragon or not!"
Hestia then gave me a tight hug as she smiled. I felt conflicted as I stared at the amount of trust that Hestia had placed on me. It felt like it was higher up than Mt. Everest. I was about to raise my hand to scratch my cheek, but just ended up scratching Hestia's cheek instead because it was closer.
Then, our conversation slowly ebbed away.
Hestia's quietly chattering voice was soon drowned out by the wind, and my blinks were coming in slower and slower.
The air was comfortable and peaceful. I think I had fallen asleep. I wondered if Hestia had also fallen asleep like me, but I was too sleepy to check.
What woke me up from my sleep wasn't Hestia's or my voice, but two other voices and a light that lit up the area.
"Oh, that surprised me."
The person who shone their light briefly at us seemed surprised as they spoke loudly.
"What is it? A corpse? A ghost? You go and check."
"Hylli you coward."
"I'm like this because you told me all of the ghost stories related to the graveyard yesterday night!"
Listening closer, the voices were familiar. One voice was incredibly husky while another had a pleasantly low tone.
I was blearily blinking away my sleep when I saw a familiar face with blond hair. I could also see someone with black hair.
"Wait, is that Shushu?"
"What, are you serious?!"
I was just blankly staring into the air when they began to yell. I was surprised to see the sheer shock in their faces.
"Shuraina! Shushu! Wake up! Isn't there a way for us to check her state? Damn, was she attacked by monsters or something?!"
"…..First let's get her back on school grounds."
I wondered who was being so loud, but it was Hylli and Cory. Cory looked rushed as he tried to carry me in a hug when I properly woke up.
I yawned wide as I scratched my neck.
"...what. It's so noisy….."
He had pulled me in a hug, so Cory's face was right in front of mine. I could see Cory's neat but fierce looking features. He tilted his head in confusion as he watched me yawn sleepily, so I tilted my head with him.
"What were you doing?"
"I think I fell asleep while I was talking with Hestia."
Just then, Hestia's snore rang through the silence.
Cory looked between me and Hestia with a disgruntled expression. Hylli had the same expression on his face.
Cory looked at me hatefully before bonking his forehead on mine.
"If you sleep out in the open like this, your chin's going to get twisted."
I just slowly nodded, still sleepy, and then twisted his chin.
As soon as Cory and Hylli saw that Hestia and I were okay, they stopped frowning. I helped expedite the process by poking at Cory's furrowed brows. Cory laughed at my actions and grabbed my finger and asked what I was doing, shaking it playfully.
Hylli went to wake Hestia as Cory woke me up. Hestia sleepily yanked at Hylli's hair to prevent him from waking her up.
I stepped away from Cory's arms to head over to Hestia. When I put her sleeping form on my back, she quietly let go of Hylli's hair and stayed on my back.
Cory and Hylli both stared at Hestia with strange expressions on their faces. Hylli muttered that Hestia's act was on par with Swan's, and Cory just let out a noise of awe.
"Anyway, how did you guys know we were here?"
I became curious as we began to head back to school, so I asked Cory.
We had mentioned taking Cory and Hylli with us when we went to visit the dragon, but we didn't call him.
When I tilted my head in confusion, Cory smiled as if surprised.
"You used black magic to leave us a message to come here. You said that you were going to leave Hestia with us and leave for a while, so we were surprised to see you sleeping there with Hestia."
I didn't have enough magic, let alone black magic, to use it to do something as menial as leaving a message. And I was going to leave Hestia alone? I couldn't understand it, so I frowned.
"What? I never did some….."
I was about to say that I'd never done something like that.
[You must have a lot of questions. Come up.]
I suddenly heard a voice in my head.
[Leave Hestia behind and come here.]
The voice rang again.