How To Tame an Academy Dragon

89. Love Like a Flame

“That grandpa isn’t at the top.”

“Just by looking at it, it’s natural for that grandfather to be there.”

After Sistar left, we quietly followed the old man and stopped in front of the entrance to the mountain.

The old man went up the mountain road, but he was so fast that he had long since disappeared from sight.

“How did the old man climb this mountain path?”

“Do you understand me? Evil!”

Doha hit my back all of a sudden.

“Why hit me!”

“Show some sincerity! Seriously!”

Doha, who had lost his temper by stamping his feet for no reason, glanced at me and began to climb up the stairs with a stomp.

Really?

“Hey, let’s go together!”

Calling her ferociously ahead of her, her doha chases her swiftly.

The mountain road had the feeling of being touched by human hands.

There are traces of grass not growing as people often come and go, and trees that block the passageway have been cut down.

However, it was difficult for something bigger than a person to come and go. Only a few pedestrians could barely get around on the mountain road.

Dense trees and steeper terrain than the academy’s training grounds I was taken to before.

It is almost doubtful whether there is a great man who can climb and descend this mountain only when he has nothing to do.

“So you’re going to stay silent all day?”

“Oh!”

Doha answered in a gruff voice. I just asked if you didn’t talk, and the answer is that you’re kind or stupid.

“What did you just say?”

“Talk to yourself!”

“Looks like you did it to me.”

As soon as I babble, Doha stops and turns around.

In the midst of her, her hair was flying, and she looked down at me and was dazzlingly pretty, so I smiled unconsciously.

“I will die.”

Apart from feeling her beautiful appreciation for her, I don’t think I’m in a good mood either.

Do-ha, who gave a cold curse, turns around and goes up the mountain path again.

“Did you really do that to me?!”

“Oh!”

***

Maybe it was because he walked hard in pursuit of Doha, who climbed the mountain trail with ferocious momentum.

I was able to meet a fork in the road that split into both sides.

I was looking at the sign posted between the crossroads of Doha, and as I approached her, what was written on the sign was what the road was heading to.

The trail on the left is a hiking trail to the summit. The road on the right is straight, with a lower slope than the road on the left.

The sign said there was a cliff at the end of the road to the right, and a short introductory text about the name and origin of the cliff.

“Dragon Bluff? That’s a grand name.”

The Dragon’s Cliff. An outrageous naming not befitting a splendid resort island.

“The red dragon Horcos, who sealed the Great Demon King Arculpuris under the island, turned himself into a megalith to keep the seal for the time of immortality.”

Below was followed by a story that the megalith of Horcos, which had been weathered for many years, had become a cliff.

“Hey…Horcos?”

Doha put her hand on her hip and reacted as if she knew something.

“Is this a dragon you know?”

“An ancient dragon that is no different from the ancestor of red dragons. There was a story saying that if you spread your wings, night will come to the world.”

Isn’t that a disaster level? No. It’s not a disaster, it’s like the end of the world.

“For humans, it feels like a hero in a legend.”

“Really?”

Dragons also read traditional fairy tales when they were young. So, is Siris-san reading a fairy tale with a voice like that of a celestial fairy?

“I’m a bit envious.”

“…I don’t know what it is, can I hit it?”

“No. Let’s go soon.”

Avoid Doha’s suspicious eyes and head to Dragon Bluff.

After walking along the road for some time, I can feel the densely packed trees gradually shrinking.

I feel like I can feel the salty wind from the sea, and the sunlight hidden by the trees is getting clearer.

Doha, who was trying to find out my true feelings, is becoming less talkative as the dragon bluff approaches.

Perhaps he is trying to be careful because if he makes a louder noise, the old man might catch him again.

Anyway, I thought it was fortunate that Doha was less talkative in my situation, because the bright light suddenly came in and my vision brightened.

As I shaded the bright sunlight with my hand, I saw a precariously built log cabin at the end of a cliff.

It was old and rugged to say that it was built for a superb view, and it was obvious that it was built with great care and sturdiness to say it was shabby.

“Oh my God…”

“Wow…”

What surprised us was neither the log cabin built on the edge of the cliff nor the wonder of the cliff view.

It was flowers and flowers that were planted with no space to step on.

The cliffs were filled with colorful and colorful flowers that made me wonder if all the flowers blooming in the world were brought and planted.

“What is all this?”

Doha crouches down and carefully caresses the petals in full bloom with her fingertips.

They are unknown names, but each one is pretty and fragrant.

“Sister-san would have known.”

Or did the old man plant the flowers he received from Sistar here one by one?

If an old man who has lived on this island for an unknown amount of time has planted flowers here all his life, then this landscape is not very incomprehensible.

Doha, who was looking at the flowers, gets up from his knees and looks around.

I just stand in a daze, mesmerized by the beautiful scenery. Then Doha found something and grabbed my shoulder and shook it.

“Huh? Hey hey! Look over there!”

The direction her finger pointed was the brightly shining horizon in the distance.

The sea seen from a dizzying height is calm and peaceful.

A landscape with absolutely nothing to worry about. For me, I can’t imagine any other scenery other than this one.

“Something’s wrong.”

I didn’t understand why Doha was making a fuss about her, so when I asked again, she slapped me on the shoulder as if Doha was frustrated.

“You fool! The storm has stopped!”

“What stops?”

“Boom. Wind. Woo.!”

Has the storm stopped? Why does he keep saying weird things? Of course there will be storms…

“Huh? Uh uh!”

Hey!

I totally forgot why we flew all the way here.

Surprisingly, as Doha pointed out, the raging storm that had gathered over the horizon had disappeared.

“You really stopped?”

“Do you notice now…”

“It could be.”

Responding roughly to Doha’s criticism, I remembered the storm that isolated the island.

If the storm that has been bothering me for months has disappeared, is the problem gone now?

Oddly enough, my intuition is telling me that there’s a corner somewhere in the picture for such an optimistic future.

“You think you’re done?”

I wonder if I’m the only one who feels that way, so I ask Doha next to me.

Doha tilted his head several times before opening his mouth.

“Hmm. I hope so.”

“It would be nice.”

“Wouldn’t it end with my wish?”

As expected, Doha has the same thoughts as me.

The storm disappeared far away and the people of the island lived happily and peacefully again~ Happy ending~

“It can’t be.”

If everything in the world went smoothly, you wouldn’t have to suffer.

“Then go over there and meet the old man…”

Before I can finish my words, my heart feels like it’s about to explode.

It’s a joke. He fell to his knees at the terrifying pressure pressing down on his body without even uttering such a scream.

“Hey! Hey! What’s wrong, man!”

I feel Doha’s startled voice and her arms supporting me.

A feeling of fear runs through my body before I even think about what happened to my body.

A sense of helplessness and hopelessness that neither Dragon Lord Alves, nor Doha Prius, nor the Emperor of the Empire, nor the Hero of the Reversal, nor the Great Sage of the Century have ever felt.

They started to tighten every single strand of my muscle.

“Trespassing on private property and illegal.”

A voice from behind. I forcibly turn my trembling body.

“Stay still!”

When I forcefully move my body, Doha’s angry voice cuts off.

You don’t even have to see Doha’s face. It’s later than me, but it’s in a similar state as me.

Because I started to feel a strong vibration in her arms that were supporting me.

“Is there a reason the bold young people sought this old man?”

It’s a voice I already know.

Somehow I managed to turn around, and I finally met the eyes of the old man, who was looking down at us with a straight back and a solemn posture.

The pleasant and grumpy old man who suffered from dementia and bullied the villagers was gone, and a majestic old man who was more dignified and charismatic than the emperor was standing in front of him.

Roaring red eyes stare at me.

In just a few seconds, the vision of flames hotter than hell engulfing me passes by.

Even if the old man blows on me, a guy like me will turn into a handful of ashes and disappear.

“Okay, I was wrong! Forgive me! This, this guy did nothing wrong!”

Doha begs his hand and asks for forgiveness from the old man.

Why are you making excuses? You didn’t do anything wrong If it’s wrong, I guess I did it.

But what did I do wrong?

I encounter the old man’s red eyes.

“Oh.”

It’s a sin that I dared set foot on this island. It just makes me feel that way.

The old man’s precious island has been defiled by my stepping on it.

The moment I realized my sin, the pressure that weighed on my body was relieved a little.

Because my movement became more comfortable than before, I put my head on the ground.

I thought I had hit it too hard, and the ground rang with a thump.

“I’m sorry. I also feel that the sin of daring to set foot here cannot be washed away.”

The tongue moves arbitrarily before it goes through filtering in the head.

“Please spare me. I don’t care if you kill or burn me, but she’s not at fault. Please be lenient.”

“Hey! What are you talking about to yourself! I’m the one who brought you, but I’m wrong!”

“No! I was wrong!”

Doha grabbed me by the shoulders and tried to force me up, but I gritted my teeth and endured.

“I am!”

“I am!”

Soon, the flower garden on the cliff was filled with the words of apology that Doha and I shouted in relay.

“Stop it.”

At the old man’s words, he shuts his mouth tight.

“Do you know who I am?”

An old man asking if I know my identity.

Rising up to answer his words, I removed the doha halfway hanging from my body.

I think I know, but when I say it with my own mouth, it doesn’t open as if it’s been glued.

Do I dare to ask for your name?

I looked at her, wondering if Doha would answer for her, but she kept her head down meekly as Doha fell on her knees like her wronged child.

“I have brought fire to this world, so that the darkness will recede and the sun will shine.”

At the moment I thought about what could be good. Doha, who was lowering her head, began to recite a prayer-like phrase.

“Our ancestor, Horkos, brighter than the sun.”

Doha, who succeeded in reciting the last verse, also raised her upper body.

Doha looking up at the old man… Horcos with an ecstatic expression.

Following her gaze, I looked at Horcos and found not a bright red flame, but a brilliant golden light from the sun.

Horkos smiled faintly.

“Yes, I am the flame of the world. I am the Horkos of the Light Flame.”

Horcos introduced himself and stretched out his two hands to me and Doha.

“Although I’ll have time to enjoy a cup of tea or a extinguishing fire that leaves nothing but ashes.”

Horcos nodded to Doha and me once.