Dragonlord

Ep 88. What Is It That You Truly Desire? (2)

After spending another day in flight, Serenis’ party was able to arrive at Hilia by sunset. It was a small village to the northeastern edge of Astellion, and according to Aldrid, it was also the village that housed her son Rozerre: the deity of emotions.

…Or, was supposed to, anyways.

So far, Serenis’ encounters with divinities had taken place in seemingly unremarkable locations. The city that housed the deity of mana was just a typical city, and the forest that housed the deity of life was just a typical forest; she hadn’t even known that a deity resided in either location at first.

‘So what is it with this place, then?’

It was a small village: a typical, rural settlement surrounded by nature, with its people dependent on their agriculture to make through their winters.

At first, Serenis had even considered keeping herself disguised as a human again, lest she scare off the villagers with her appearance. But her worries soon proved to be pointless when the dragonlord realized just how odd Hilia’s villagers were. For example…

“Why, if you’ll excuse my lips, fair maiden!”

Yet another young man walked up to the dragonlord, bending down on one knee to kiss the back of her hand – and, just like the dozen times before, Raizel began audibly growling. It was mildly amusing at first to watch the steel dragon’s reactions, but after a dozen or so repetitions, this never-ending nonsense was beginning to tire everyone out.

And yet, the oblivious man raised his fascinated gaze, brash voice oozing with unfounded confidence.

“Please, will you bear my chi-“

“Off with you. And do not return.”

“Of course!”

The only saving grave in this maddening village was that when told to run off, the villagers do run off without a single complaint. As if nothing had happened at all.

Once the man disappeared from sight, Serenis turned to Aldrid with furrowed brows.

“Aldrid, is this normal in these parts?”

“…Probably…not?”

“…”

Normal to ask strangers to bear your children? Yeah, probably not.

‘Deity of emotions…is this their doing as well? Have they ridden the people of their inhibitions?’

First few encounters, they could pass it off as a strange occurrence. But at this point, even Aldrid had to admit that her son had probably done something. Something not exactly healthy at that.

“…I apologize for the trouble, my lord. I’m sure he didn’t mean ill. I…think he might’ve made the villagers a tad too courageous…”

“Whatever your son’s intent was, it seems he had no mind to fix the result.”

Meanwhile, Raizel’s scowl deepened further and further. She didn’t like humans approaching her to begin with, but humans approaching Serenis was much, much worse.

“Can I wipe out the village yet?”

“…That’s going too far, child.”

The strangeness of the villagers did come with a single positive, and that was the fact that they were extremely welcoming of their three visitors. Nobody seemed to mind the fact that one of them clearly weren’t human – it didn’t even seem like they were perceiving Serenis as a dragon, but rather an odd half of some sort. Nobody seemed to mind answering any questions they had either, including where to find this supposed deity of emotions.

‘Though, I’m curious why a deity would expose themselves as such…’

Iris had disguised herself as a human for decades, if not centuries. Aldrid had voluntarily removed herself from civilization. But this so-called deity of emotions had apparently gone about publicizing his whereabouts to every single villager.

And when the three finally arrived before the tavern Rozerre was supposedly at, Raizel’s expression immediately distorted into a heavy frown.

“…Lord, don’t you hear something weird from this place?”

“It is a human establishment. It’s bound to be loud.”

“No, I mean…like…”

“We’ll know once we enter, no?”

The first mistake Serenis made was not listening carefully to the surrounding noise. The second mistake was assuming establishments will function as normal in this oddity of a place.

When the dragonlord swung the doors open, the blatant obscenity came to sight.

Numerous men and women were drinking and cheering together, and a select few were using the tables as stages to perform performing all sorts of acts on top. And among those ‘acts,’ a few were acts that definitely shouldn’t have been out for public view.

…And following suit, Serenis closed the tavern doors. Without ever taking a single step inside.

“…Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to do away with just this one establishment.”

Before Raizel could make the dragonlord’s mutters reality, Aldrid took a step forward. The deity shook her head, letting out a heavy, motherly sigh.

“Stars above…excuse me for a moment.”

The deity of life briskly walked past her lord. She stepped into the madness of the inn without a moment of hesitation, closing the door behind her.

Serenis stared at the closed door with evident disgust, but even that soon faded away when Aldrid’s angered voice rang out from the interior.

“HAVE YOU ALL GONE MAD?!”

The world seemed to momentarily quiet down afterwards. A low rumbling noise followed, and the ground itself seemed to shake for a minute.

And soon after, the tavern doors were thrown open by an explosion of tree roots. Each were binding limb and torso of a small, lavishly dressed boy. Aldrid stomped out afterwards, furious gaze piercing the bound boy.

“Rozerre! Is this what you’ve been up to in my absence?! Have you lost your mind?!”

“But mother, they’re all adults…! It’s not like any kids are there, surely it doesn’t’-“

“YOU are a kid! You!”

“But I’m over a thousand years old?!”

“Shut it!”

Along with Aldrid’s yelling, the roots binding Rozerre in the air began to tighten even further, choking out what air he had.

“#&$)@%^…!!! Wait, wait, we can talk about this!”

“…”

“…”

Serenis and Raizel watched the spectacle unfold. There were several ways to interpret what was going on, but the most sensible explanation was a mother scolding her son.

In a mother’s eyes, their child is forever bound to be just that: a child. Surely, even a thousand years wouldn’t change that simple notion.

But then again, it didn’t exactly take a mother to see that this ‘Rozerre’ was a literal kid.

✧ ✧ ✧

“My apologies…I’m afraid I can’t apologize enough. I didn’t raise my son properly…”

“Mother, we’re deities. Who even are these people? If anything, they should-“

“Rozerre…PLEASE be quiet.”

“Fuaaahyne…”

Even though the tavern had been emptied of its performers and spectators, the sight filling Serenis’ eyes was no less ridiculous: a rebellious child deity was pursing his lips while sitting with crossed legs and arms, a mother deity at his side was apologetically bowing her head over and over again, and an annoyed steel dragon was scowling in evident distaste by her side.

‘Even a skilled clown would struggle to recreate this level of absurdity.’

After an exasperated sigh, the dragonlord began to speak – specifically towards Rozerre.

“I must ask…what exactly is it that you did to the villagers here?”

“It was just a jest. I merely made them do as they please.”

“A jest?...Whatever do you mean, ‘as they please’?”

“I simply encourage them to live as they want, honest and truthful. It’s better than living behind a million lies, isn’t it? How about it? Perhaps you could also…”

“ROZERRE!”

When Rozerre’s eyes began emitting a greenish glow, Aldrid briskly intervened, and…stabbed her fingers into her son’s eyes without any hesitation whatsoever.

“How dare you try to use your divinity? You’re before the lord of dragons. Behave yourself!”

“AAAACCKKK! Mother!! You can’t just stab my eyes like that!! I’ll go blind!”

“Have you forgotten, Rozerre? I am the deity of life. Making you a new pair of eyes isn’t much trouble at all.”

At Aldrid’s remark, Serenis narrowed her own eyes into a frown. Even though Aldrid’s words weren’t directed towards her, the fright of the comment almost felt as if her own eyes had been stabbed. The deity may as well have said ‘I’ll stab you as much as I want.’

After a minute of frantic rubbing, Rozerre looked towards the dragonlord with tear-filled eyes.

“Dragonlord this, dragonlord that…is this the dragonlord you’ve been preaching about all these years, mother? I thought they were dead?”

“I’ve reincarnated in a human’s body.”

“…What? That’s utter bullshi-“

When Aldrid raised her fingers again while beaming a warm smile towards her son, Rozerre hurriedly corrected his words.

“Uh, I mean, of course! Makes perfect sense! Your soul must be extremely resilient!”

“…”

“So…what brought you all here?”

Rozerre’s expression regained its seriousness. After turning towards Aldrid, he added in a worried voice:

“It must’ve been something important if you came all the way here, mother. If you came this far, then Felicir would also…”

“It’s alright, the village won’t be in any danger. Master Felicir’s passed away.”

“Huh?...The Reaper’s dead? Wait, how?”

When Aldrid gestured over to Serenis once more, the doubt in Rozerre’s eyes were finally replaced by a mix of awe…and bewilderment. After rapidly glancing between Aldrid and Serenis, he quietly muttered his next few words.

“…Is this some sort of an elaborate joke?”