REFDL 140
* * *
And then came the next delivery day.
Kyaaaa!
Woof woof!
Kyaa!
“……”
Kaelus coldly stared at the tiny Kremlis screaming as if he were about to be crushed to death under a yellow furball.
[Save the dragon! Kael! Kael! Why are you just standing there……!]
“Haa.”
He dropped to one knee, and shoved a hand under the belly of the dog, which was panting and wagging its tail.
He pulled Yuram out.
Pop!
Covered in fur, Yuram snorted in anger. He called the dog an ungrateful beast as he pounded Kaelus’s forearm and vented his frustration.
Kaelus quietly handed him a piece of jerky.
The dog whined and drooled at the sight.
[……]
Yuram couldn’t bring himself to be petty over food, so he held out a piece of jerky as big as his own body to the dog. Charles stuffed Yuram’s entire upper body into his mouth.
“……Ah.”
……Kyaaaah!
The story of how the terrifying dragon, and the dog, who simply loved dragons, became friends is a tale for a little later.
***
Thud thud thud thud!
“Lord Yuram! Stop!”
I halted.
[Why?]
“What do you mean, why?! You have to take your medicine to get better quickly!”
I frowned in annoyance.
Let me make a bold statement. Kaelus really did not look like the type to be this fussy.
Just because I sneezed a few times at dawn, he dragged in a dragon healer, a human healer…
Even now, he had gone to fetch Nitan, who left for an event at the Academy.
I mean, it was enough that a healer checked me out. Why drag Nitan, a non-expert, into this?
More importantly.
I’m perfectly fine!
My body felt a bit warmer than usual, and I was a little sluggish and dizzy. But I could still run around just fine!
Grab!
[Oh.]
“……Why is the patient wandering around the hallway?”
…He got here faster than I expected.
Kaelus gave me a disapproving look. Out of habit, I folded my front and back paws together.
I looked at him with big, round eyes, but it didn’t work on Kaelus, who’d already built up an immunity to it.
Tsk.
He handed me over to Nitan, who’d been kidnapped during an outside engagement. Nitan looked like he had a lot he wanted to say, but… he managed to hold back.
As I mechanically answered Nitan’s soulless questions about where it hurt, Rotol, who had rushed over late, suddenly butted in.
“Yuram! I heard you’re sick!”
“Sister. Calm down. You shouldn’t just go up to a sick person… I mean, a sick dragon like that. What if you spread germs or something?”
“…Are you saying I’m a germ right now?”
“……Haa.”
Erdion let out a sigh. He didn’t even try to hide his exasperation.
Just as Rotol leaped toward Erdion, Mirim snatched her up as if he’d been waiting for that moment.
“Ah! Let go! Just because he’s gotten a bit smarter, he thinks he can treat his big sister like this…!”
“Ro-Rotol, you have to hold back. Act like a big sister and hold back……”
“No way! I’m going to punish him like a big sister should!”
“……I wonder when you’ll ever grow up.”
“What did you say?!”
He was the Crown Prince now, yet she treated him just like she would a neighborhood kid, that was just so typical of Rotol…
“What are you lot doing in front of a patient? If you keep causing a commotion, I’ll make sure you never set foot in the mansion again.”
Kaelus, now on edge, growled. The three fell silent.
Kaelus looked at the blond boy, who was growing to resemble Tortan more and more.
“Your Highness Erdion.”
“……Yes. Your Grace.”
“Is His Majesty aware that Your Highness is visiting here?”
Erdion did not answer. That meant Tortan did not know. As he realized the meaning behind Kaelus’s question, Erdion sighed and made a promise.
“I’ll stop by on my way back.”
Only then did the duke nod, seemingly satisfied.
After that, Rotol insisted on having dinner with us, Kaelus refused using my condition as an excuse, I protested that I was fine only to eventually collapse, feverish and weak, and… the duke’s household was turned upside down.
And so on.
Anyway, those were still peaceful days.
***
A few days later.
Rotol and Mirim visited the duke’s mansion once again.
Odan wasn’t there. Apparently, since entering the imperial palace, he’d been confined… no, he was spending private time with the Emperor.
Yuram said seriously.
[Isn’t that level of doting a sickness…?]
“……I think so too, but let’s not say it out loud.”
Rotol said that. Mirim looked as if he were about to faint. Yuram nodded coolly.
“Anyway, a few days ago, you were sick and couldn’t speak properly…”
After saying that, Rotol quietly slipped her arm through Mirim’s. Yuram’s eyes widened.
“We got engaged.”
[……?!]
“We decided to get engaged as soon as we graduate and move in together right away.”
[……?!!]
A short while after hearing that bombshell.
When Yuram came to his senses, he found himself in a stylish tuxedo that didn’t quite fit his petite frame, with a wreath on his head.
It was the engagement ceremony.
Kya?!
Ding. Dong.
A huge bell rang. It wasn’t a real bell; it was a bell ringing inside Yuram’s head.
Completely flustered, Yuram sat like a statue throughout the engagement ceremony, and when it went in to present the rings to the couple, he stuck out his front and back legs on the same side.
He wasn’t a dragon; he was a pure chameleon.
People laughed because they thought it was cute, and Rotol was very pleased.
After the graduation and engagement, Kaelus formally designated Mirim as his heir and made the announcement.
However, since Mirim’s biological father was still alive in the Forest Village, out of respect for him, he was not officially adopted into the family.
It was an unprecedented and radical move.
However, since he had been secretly spreading the news beforehand, and since it was an internal family matter, there was less backlash than expected.
…To be precise, it would be more accurate to say that no one dared to voice opposition in Kaelus’s presence.
Family matters fall under the purview of the head of the household, Kaelus. As long as there were no elders or senior figures in the Irelion family, no one could voice dissent regarding his decisions.
The interesting thing was that the person he had originally chosen as the duke’s heir was Rotol.
But the moment she received the offer, Rotol recoiled with a reaction bordering on an allergic one… and so Mirim, who had been completely swayed by the line, “A man should at least bring a dukedom as a dowry,” ended up taking over the family.
In other words, Mirim was no longer just Mirim, but “Young Master Mirim Irelion.”
Rotol laughed so hard she clutched her stomach, then patted Mirim on the back, saying it suited him.
It was clearly a joke, no matter how you looked at it.
Mirim’s eyes clouded over briefly, but he recovered quickly. The way his eyes sparkled as he looked at the reception room where he and Rotol were sitting…
Yuram could pretty much guess what he was thinking.
‘…It’s all pointless, Mirim.’
Once you start going through all the duke’s paperwork, you won’t even have time for dates.
But he couldn’t say that.
Once that workaholic retired (half by his own choice, half by force) he would finally be able to latch onto him and take his sweet time with him!
‘…I’m sorry for being such a trashy adult, Mirim…!’
And not long after that.
Rotol and Young Master Irelion joined the Dragon Knights together.
Apparently, thanks to their owners spending so much time together and the dragons frequently interacting, the two dragons even exchanged vessels.
Their dragons were a Lloyd and a Pensilta; though they were of different species, since each had laid their own eggs, no one really objected. Odan was actually pleased because he now had new research material.
‘This is definitely nice.’
Even if anyone had complained, Kaelus would have handled it himself.
After gathering his thoughts, Yuram lay on the bed and looked at the face of his lover, who had his eyes closed.
Dark gray.
Unstained and unchanging, as steadfast as a rock. It was the color he loved most. Yuram traced his face with his fingertips and called out to him.
“……Kael.”
“Hmm.”
“Do you want to do that kind of thing too, Kael?”
“That kind of thing?”
“An engagement… or a wedding.”
Kaelus opened his eyes. His dark gray eyes, looking different now, gazed at hum with a hint of curiosity.
“Do you want to?”
Huh?
“Uh… no. I’ve never really thought about it.”
“Then you can start thinking about it now.”
He said it in a matter-of-fact tone.
“I’ll go along with whatever you decide. Do as you please.”
Within those words flowed emotions already complete, ones that would never overflow, no matter how much was added, and would never be lacking.
Yuram saw that wholeness.
Suddenly, he recalled the words Kaelus had spoken when they set out to find the Star of Foolish Wishes.
There was no wish to make. His wish has already been granted.
Yuram realized.
He was Kaelus’s wish.
“……I don’t think I need to do it.”
Yuram pressed his lips against his mouth.
“Just… I think now is enough.”
“Yes.”
And so, the little dragon’s wish was granted as well.
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