#176

“Guardian!”

As soon as the child saw the Dragon, he leaped up and shook his clothes, saying,

“Cullen is going to give me a name! And he’s going to take me to the valley!”

The Dragon looked down at the excited child who reported everything. A thin furrow appeared on his broad forehead. His face clearly showed displeasure.

“I told you not to bother Cullen, Gold.”

“I’m not Gold!”

The child, truly hating the name, denied it forcefully. At the mention of Gold, the child, already starting to whimper, said tearfully to Cullen,

“Please give me a name quickly!”

Unable to bear it any longer, the child’s eyes welled up with tears. His emotional nature, so much more pronounced than other Young Dragons, seemed to fluster the Dragon slightly.

With wavering eyes, the Dragon looked at Cullen. Seeing his expression, Cullen calmly reviewed his past actions.

“First, it would be best if you held the child.”

The Dragon hesitated but obediently picked up the Young Dragon as Cullen instructed. The sniffling child, not entirely disliking the Dragon, reached out and hugged him. The Dragon, holding the child awkwardly, asked Cullen,

“What do we do next?”

“We have no choice but to give him a name.”

At the word “name,” the Young Dragon stopped crying. Cullen quietly looked around. Honestly, nothing had come to mind while walking. His lack of talent for naming was not a lie. The Dragon before him was the only exception.

His eyes, calmly scanning the forest, stopped at the cats the Young Dragon had rescued. Cullen decided without much thought. He inwardly expected the child to reject this name.

“How about Cat?”

Objectively speaking, it was a rough name, no better than Gold. However, at Cullen’s words, the child’s eyes widened. The Dragon, on the other hand, wore a subtle expression.

“Cat?”

“Yes. If you don’t like it, we can continue looking for something else.”

“Cat!”

The child exclaimed loudly, looking at the cats, and smiled brightly with tear-filled eyes.

“Cat is good! I want my name to be Cat from now on!”

“…Are you really going to make that your new name?”

“Yes!”

“It’s a language no different from Gold.”

“Cats are cute!”

Seemingly very excited, the child tried to get down from the Dragon’s embrace, flapping his wings. As the Dragon set the child down, the child, no… Cat, circled Cullen, saying,

“Thank you! Guardian, can I brag when we get back? It’s a much prettier name than Black and White’s!”

“…Do so.”

The Dragon still had a strange expression, but he didn’t scold Cullen for giving a bad name. Cullen found it unexpected, as he had anticipated such words.

As soon as he received permission, the child flew and ran, repeating the path they had taken, returning ahead of them. Watching the disappearing back, which he couldn’t catch, Cullen asked. He felt uneasy about letting the young child go alone.

“Should I follow him?”

The Dragon shook his head firmly. He said in a tone that indicated there was no need to follow,

“Let him be. There were no strangers on the way here. Even beastly creatures wouldn’t be able to deal with this child. Though he looks like a child, the power of a Dragon is already inherent.”

“Understood.”

As he said that, silence descended. Birds hidden in the trees sang in various tones. The scent of earth-filled wind gently blew and subsided repeatedly. It was similar to when he woke up in the morning. It was calm and peaceful.

The moment of being at peace, doing nothing, felt unfamiliar, so Cullen broke the silence first.

“Please tell me what I should do.”

At Cullen’s words, the Dragon’s eyebrows slightly drooped.

“You don’t have to do anything.”

He said in a softer voice than he had used with the Young Dragon. As if addressing someone he needed to protect.

“But didn’t you save me with a purpose?”

At the word “purpose,” the Dragon’s eyelashes fluttered slightly. The gentle expression quickly became shadowed. Clenching and unclenching his fist, he cautiously approached Cullen.

“I did not save you to make you do anything. I simply wanted you by my side.”

“But…”

Didn’t he say he found me disgusting?

When Cullen asked him about it, he denied it and said he had been mistaken. But Cullen still couldn’t know the truth.

Which of the two contradictory statements, uttered by a being incapable of lying, was true? Or, at this point, did it even matter? It was meaningless now, regardless of how he felt about me. There was no need to care about such things. He didn’t know why he was pondering it.

After a brief silence, Cullen changed what he was about to say. It seemed better to do something else than to continue an unnecessary conversation.

“I have never been still like this. I need something to do.”

“You have never rested. You have only been alive for two days. It is time to rest.”

The Dragon spoke of rest.

“I don’t know what resting is.”

“That is…”

The Dragon also paused at that. He seemed to be searching for an answer. But the answer didn’t come quickly.

Cullen recalled that the Dragon had also been confined to the palace for a long time. And after being freed, he had begun to restore this place. Lasano had said so.

Perhaps the Dragon, like himself, didn’t know how to be still?

Cullen thought of something else. Thanks to the loud meowing of the cats ringing in his ears, the conversation with Cat came to mind.

It would be good to get something for the children, who seemed to have never left this place before. Moreover, if he and Lasano were to stay here, they would need provisions. For now, they had subsisted on nearby berries and roots, but they lacked sufficient calories.

“How did you obtain the clothes?”

So he asked what he had been curious about. At Cullen’s words, the Dragon tilted his head and reached into the pocket of his robe.

“I exchanged what I had. Your ancestors…”

As he spoke, the Dragon flinched and changed his wording.

“There was something left from what I had received over time.”

And now that I think about it, the Dragon Robe had more storage space than it appeared. I remembered the time he took out a compass from his robe, and it made sense.

Cullen calmly examined what he offered. There was a small, brightly shimmering Rose Crystal. A beautiful red crystal, considered top-grade among gems, it was a material often used in crowns or the accessories of high-ranking nobles. By rough estimation, that small piece alone would be worth over 50 Luna.

“You… traded this for clothes?”

It seemed unlikely he had exchanged the crystal for Luna to buy clothes. The Dragon nodded.

“Yes.”

His guess was correct. Looking down at the gem, Cullen made a decision. It would be best for him to go to the village and trade it himself.

“Could you give me the gem? If a village has reappeared nearby, I will go and procure what is needed. I will pay you back later.”

“You’re going alone?”

The Dragon’s expression hardened. Cullen nodded.

“Yes.”

“Didn’t I tell you? I won’t leave you alone again. If you really want to go to the village, I will go with you.”

“I don’t want to trouble you. I am already indebted to you—”

“I won’t hear another word. I have no intention of letting you go alone into danger.”

Unless it involved fighting a Non-human entity, Cullen didn’t need the Dragon’s help. However, since he currently had no weapons, considering that, bringing the Dragon along to the village wasn’t a bad idea. It was also rational.

“Understood.”

As Cullen agreed, the Dragon’s hardened face relaxed slightly. The Dragon slowly approached Cullen’s side. Then, he began to walk carefully. Glancing at his bare feet matching their stride, Cullen began to follow him.

Soon, the presence of people could be felt, and a mountain path made by humans appeared.

The restored mountain range had a slightly different terrain than before. In Cullen’s memory, there was a village in a basin shape at the southern end. The place where his family met their deaths.

However, Kiyen was heading towards the mid-slope of the eastern mountain, which had been an open field in the past.

“If people are this far up, they might have come higher.”

As he walked, Cullen measured the distance between the huts where the Young Dragons lived and this spot. It was only a two-hour walk, so he figured curious humans must have loitered nearby.

“If you don’t want to die, you won’t come back here.”

The Dragon spoke coldly. Cullen wondered what he had done but didn’t ask. He felt he shouldn’t engage the Dragon in unnecessary conversation too often.

As they descended following the traces, Cullen heard a small voice.

“Help me…!”

It was a woman’s voice. The frightened tone sounded about Cullen’s age. Looking around, Cullen soon found the source.

“Someone seems to be in trouble.”

At Cullen’s words, the Dragon looked at him and asked.

“Do you want to help?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

That was the common sense Cullen knew. However, the Dragon shook his head.

“No, not all humans think like you. You said you don’t feel emotions, but… in the sense that you consider such things, you might be feeling something. Weren’t you always like this in the past, too?”

The Dragon whispered as if he hoped Cullen’s words were wrong. Just as he was about to think more about what he said, the woman’s scream grew louder.

“Please help me…! My ankle seems broken. Is anyone there…? Please help me!”

The choked cries became too desperate to ignore. Cullen turned and headed that way. The Dragon watched Cullen’s actions and followed behind him.

After walking for a few minutes, they saw a woman who had fallen into the bushes. Judging by her hair tied with cloth, a rough fabric apron, and brown trousers and top, she seemed to be from the village. Startled by the sudden appearance of Cullen and the Dragon, she flinched and crawled backward.

Whether she had fallen while climbing the mountain, the woman was covered in dirt and disheveled. There were scrapes all over her body. Her ankle was significantly swollen.

“What happened?”

Cullen asked calmly, and the woman stared at his face. As she gazed blankly at Cullen, a blush suddenly spread across her cheeks. Blushing, she quickly lowered her gaze.

“I, I was picking wild berries… and got greedy for a slightly higher spot. Then I fell…”

“Is the village nearby?”

To Cullen’s question, she hesitated but met his eyes. Her cheeks were redder than before.

“Yes. It’s about a 30-minute walk. It’s downhill, so I can’t possibly get up by myself, and not many people come this far… Aren’t you from around here? Are you adventurers?”

The woman said that and then looked at the Dragon standing behind Cullen. She didn’t blush as she had when looking at Cullen, but her expression was one of great surprise and enchantment.

“Oh my, what a beautiful person. Are you two companions?”

Before the Dragon could reply, Cullen vaguely affirmed. It was more efficient to carry the woman down than to engage in unnecessary conversation.

“Yes. We were on our way to the village, so we will take you there. Please guide us.”

“Thank you! Thank you so much. You’re my saviors!”

The woman exclaimed with delight. Cullen nodded impassively and approached her to pick her up. However, the Dragon firmly grasped Cullen’s arm.

“I will do it.”