< 160. The Dream of a Sinner (3) >
The more he thought about it, the more plausible the idea seemed.
'There are creatures that, while not as aggressively attacking as the Carbites, exhibit similar tendencies.'
A prime example was the Todd. It's a typical problem arising from dragon breeding. They are instinctively drawn to the rich vitality of these livestock.
Todds are more troublesome to handle. When threatened, they would hide in lakes. Unlike Carbites, which can be frozen whole by digging into the ground, you can't just boil or freeze an entire lake to catch Todds. Doing so would harm other creatures as well. As a result, catching them required diving in and killing them one by one, which is such a tedious task that many simply gave up.
'Therefore, it would be better to ensure that no one but us can drink it.'
Of course, it should be especially harmful to the Carbites. They are the most annoying pests.
'Wait a minute.'
His thoughts kept flowing.
'What about between these creatures?'
While it was unthinkable on his ranch, there were often reports of dragons managed by other ranchers showing aggression toward one another. In the worst cases, dragons would devour other dragons. The terror of discovering empty cages with only scales, skin, and bones left behind was almost indescribable.
Of course, this was due to the extreme negligence and mismanagement of the ranchers.
He wondered if this idea could be a way to prevent such incidents. If they didn't receive separate feed or if it were neglected, the dragons wouldn't desire to prey on other dragons.
'They would likely be drawn to it for unknown reasons. Especially dragon hearts... Eating them can significantly extend lifespan. It's fascinating how instincts work. How do they know without being taught?'
However, making dragon blood act as poison to other dragons was extremely difficult. It was akin to carrying poison within one's own body. Any mistake could potentially collapse the immune system.
So he quickly changed his mind.
'No, this needs to target their minds.'
The problem was that he couldn't manage all the dragons on every farm with the same thoroughness and complex command structure as his own. In other words, he couldn't completely control the minds of all dragons in the world.
Thus, he needed a much more intuitive keyword to realize his idea.
'Love?'
What if dragons could be imprinted with the notion that they must never consume each other because they love each other?
'No, that wouldn't be enough.'
It was a plan for a situation where controlling the emotions of livestock 100% was impossible.
Dragons loving all dragons all the time was impossible. They also hated and fought among themselves. Few people would understand how fierce the romantic dramas between these beasts could be. If a dragon showed hunger towards another dragon it didn't love, it would be no different from the current situation.
A different concept was needed.
A reason why dragons should not eat other dragons.
Whether another dragon is liked or disliked, loved or hated. An unconditionally prohibitive reason. A reason why they should not hunt and consume a healthy dragon just because they desire its heart.
"...!"
At that moment, something came to mind.
He mulled it over, considering if it were truly possible.
It seemed dubious.
'With their intelligence, it might be too abstract a concept for them to grasp.'
It appeared to be a problem that required more contemplation. He turned to look at Adkiel. The creature, who had been rubbing its back against the stone floor in boredom, noticed his gaze and quickly came over. It was almost like a ghost in such moments. Instead of scratching it as desired, he asked,
"Adkiel, is it possible? Can you instill in yourselves the notion that you are so precious and noble that you must never eat each other?"
Could it be imprinted as an inherent moral code from birth?
Adkiel tilted its head. It seemed genuinely confused this time. Dragons appeared to be struggling through a maze of complex words and eventually gave up with a snort. A gust of wind blasted across his face, and his hair was blown into a web on his forehead. As he peeled the strands from his face with his fingers, he smiled.
"I must have said something unnecessary. Well then, let's start over. We need to find the lost dragon."
Feeling the touch below his chin, Adkiel purred contentedly.
Dotes hurried to his superior's office.
"Sir, have you seen the urgent dispatch from the committee headquarters?"
"I'm reading it now."
The Princess of Endelion kept her gaze fixed on one spot without looking at her subordinate. The summary of the urgent instructions from the headquarters was to block all terminals on Earth, except for one location—New York.
There was a reason for sparing only the largest of Earth's transit terminals.
"This is an unprecedented large-scale deployment in the history of this dimension!"
Dotes' voice was trembling. His feathers shivered.
"It seems they're trying to quickly locate and eliminate the escaped convict... Asif-666."
The princess recalled the expression of the foreign tax evasion investigator she had met yesterday. When she heard that all the operatives in the two locations had either died or gone missing, he had looked as if his soul had left him. She didn't know what happened after he rushed out of the office.
Regardless of what happened in between, the headquarters decided to deploy a large number of soldiers and equipment via the New York terminal.
To capture him.
'He must not be captured, but if he is, I hope he won't be executed.'
She rejected Dotes' speculation. But instead of providing a kind explanation, she gave an order.
"The support request from the headquarters has also arrived. Prepare everything they need."
She almost added that there was no need to help excessively, but refrained as it seemed too transparent.
In reality, managing prisoners and capturing escapees was not her job. The reason she hadn't had official contact with her ex-husband was that she had no direct dealings with prisoners. Given their relationship, caution was necessary.
After Dotes left, she made a gesture similar to a faint sigh of frustration. She then fixed her gaze on the air.
Pat! Papap!
The footage collected by the committee's artifacts, which monitored the planet in secret, unfolded. Unlike decades ago, various races and intelligences now lived on the star.
People were visible. Was he hiding in one of those many cities? Or in an uninhabited wilderness?
Or had he perhaps already escaped to another dimension in ways beyond imagination?
Del felt a surge of anxiety and worry. She felt a deep sense of responsibility for the situation going awry. If she had noticed the headquarters' movements earlier and given a warning... would the outcome have been different?
Had there been any meaning to her coming this far in the first place?
Plagued by self-doubt, Del stared at the screen. Despite knowing it was a pointless and meaningless task, she couldn't stop. She focused her observational gaze on the humans. Passersby in the streets. People sitting in offices, stores, or homes. Among them, she isolated only the humans.
Even amidst regret and sorrow, she felt a slightly different kind of discomfort. When she saw mammals... especially humans, the emotion she felt was faded compared to the past but not entirely gone.
'Where... is he now?'
Recalling him from her memories and engraving countless scenes and expressions into her mind.
She pondered over Minjun's whereabouts.
And repeated,
"Someone like you hasn't existed since then."
She remembered the moment she first met Minjun, who went by the name Cain at that time.
Del felt disgusted with the human body that bound her own soul, yet she felt no such reaction when seeing him. Back then and now, Del could not see souls. Nevertheless, the moment she saw Minjun, she felt as if a bright flash was emanating from him.
The Princess of Endelion thought. That moment was like a miracle.
Being conceived in Endelion and holding the soul of Endelion... It was a mysterious moment that made her overcome the limitations of her kind.
Minjun made her transcend her limits.
'Wherever you are... I hope you are safe.'
With a prayer, she closed her eyes for a moment.
Searching for the lost dragon.
It was a phrase he often saw on posters during his childhood when living in the city's facilities.
At that time, the lifespans of dragons were much shorter than they are now. The dragon farms had not yet developed on a large scale. But even then, dragons were very important livestock and food. He used to grumble about the inadequacy of raising dragons at home.
Now, he could understand how desperately they must have searched for dragons back then. He had never searched for a single dragon for this long. With the much lower technological level back then, it was likely that many efforts were in vain for days or even weeks.
'But I'll find it by the end of today.'
Muttering to himself as he walked.
"..."
He gradually slowed his pace.
"No, is it here?!"
He muttered under his breath.
"Could it have come all the way here?"
A sense of foreboding crept over him. That feeling quickly turned into reality.
Halt!
He finally stopped.
"The barrier..."
Damn it, damn it!
The rising self-reproach.
Even when he first saw the traces leading to his master's grave, he hadn't been too worried. He had put up a barrier there himself and had judged that the dragon would not be able to cross that wall.
He had tried to ignore the anxiety that curled up in a corner of his mind. He had desperately tried to shake off that thought.
In fact, he had never come near this place since laying his master to rest. In other words, he had never maintained the barrier.
And the result was now before his eyes.
"It's torn."
The barrier had been damaged enough for a dragon to pass through.
He sighed deeply. This was the result of consciously avoiding and neglecting the grave.
Since something had happened, he had to repair the barrier. No, first he needed to go inside. And he had to capture the dragon before it went to truly dangerous places or touched something...
"..."
At the same time, he realized another very significant problem.
He didn't want to go inside.
While he was standing there in a daze,
"Grrr?"
Adkiel nudged him from behind in a remarkable manner.
Thud! Thud!
The clever dragon had realized that the area beyond was one it had never set foot in since birth. The Gold Dragon couldn't hide its excitement and dashed forward. It leapt into the hole in the barrier.
Then it turned around and barked at its master.
"Grrr! Grr!"
It urged him.
Asking what he was doing there, to hurry up.
To explore the other side quickly.
A faint smile spread across his lips. He decided not to hesitate any longer.
'Even within the barrier, the grave is double-sealed. It's unlikely it has reached there.'
Of course, there was also the possibility that the second barrier had been breached, but...
He decided not to fixate on the worst-case scenario.
Shaking off his lengthy agony, he finally took a step forward.
And with reluctance, he walked into the barrier.
"...Shall we take a short rest here?"
"Grrr?"
Adkiel blinked in puzzlement.
His resolution did not last long. The direction of the dragon's traces was consistent and only got closer to the grave.
He was still not mentally prepared. So he took a momentary excuse to stop.
"Tired, are we?"
"...Grrr?"
Adkiel did not agree with his master's statement but decided to pretend to agree.
The dragon sat next to the magical hearth his master had set up and stared intently at his face. Ignoring the gaze, the master was lost in deep, unrecognizable thoughts.
Adkiel hadn't forgotten that it had already eaten today's rations. But when going for such a long walk and taking a break in between, the master wouldn't be too strict. Today was an exceptional case. So it was reasonable to request a bit more rations as a special case.
"Grrr?"
The dragon walked over and rested its front paw on its master's right knee.
But there was no response. Adkiel felt confused. 'Why is he like this today?'
This wasn't like him. Just as he was considering if it would be okay to whine once more in protest...
"Oh, sorry. I forgot."
He took out the food bowl from thin air and made Adkiel the happiest dragon on this planet, then lay down on the grass.
The dark sky he gazed at was a sea of stars.
Among them, the particularly bright sources were not planets but satellites. He knew they were part of the security system prepared by the administration for his sake.
He considered asking them to find the dragon's whereabouts, but soon erased that option from his mind.
He had already instructed the government to never disturb the peaceful life of the residents unless he spoke first. As a result, they had been anxiously waiting for a long time. If he initiated the conversation, they would throw a celebration and hold onto the conversation for as long as possible, just to get one more word from him and hear his voice a little longer.
Just imagining it was exhausting.
Moreover, aside from the damaged small part, the barrier was intact, so the inside would not be visible from the outside.
He counted the stars in silence. Suddenly, he recalled something his master had said. Today, he found himself reminiscing about his master more often than usual.
When I was young, our tribe believed that when people died, they became stars in the sky.
Even when he was young, countless of his kin had died, and it must have been even worse when his master was young. It might have been a time when average lifespans were considered. A period where there were enough deaths to calculate an average.
His master had been the person who lived the longest among those born in that era.
Yet even his master could not avoid death.
He recalled their first meeting.
It must be nice to be you.
The heir to the most respected position among dragon handlers.
He didn't understand why he was chosen from among the children in the facility at the time. Then his master asked.
What do you think is the most important virtue for raising dragons?
Recalling the instructors at the facility, he had answered like this.
'You must be able to make the dragons obey your commands well.'
How should you make them obey your commands?
'You need to make the dragons fear and respect you.'
That method is correct, but the best thing is... to make the dragons like you. So that they will voluntarily follow your commands without immediate punishment or beating, and feel profound happiness in following your words.
His master had said with a voice full of resonance.
I see that quality in you. You are a child who will be loved beyond the limits of your kind.
The master who had affirmed that was no longer in this world.
He questioned himself.
Will his kin ever transcend the bounds of death?
Will they ever... achieve perfect immortality?
Recalling his master, he felt a subtle sadness once more. Calm and subtle...
Subtle...
"Damn it!"
No, that sadness was neither faint nor calm.
He felt the limits of the self-hypnosis he had maintained for a long time.
And he felt a wave-like surge of sorrow. It felt like he was suffocating in longing that gnawed at his insides. An uncontrollable emotion swept and clawed at his heart.
'The master lived long enough.'
Was it really enough?
'He's already dead. There's no going back.'
Could it really not be reversed?
He remembered the time after his master's death, the time when he lived in a daze. He remembered half of it and did not remember the other half.
He sincerely wished. For his master to come back. So that one day he could join the perfect immortality system that would be completed.
'It's all in the past.'
Trying to shake off his lingering regrets, he looked at the stars.
And in the midst of profound sadness, he mourned the memory of her.
< 160. The Dream of the Sinner (3) > End