novelraw Chapter 39
Chapter 39
Chapter 39. Shall We Go Save the Hatchling?
“Haa… haa…”
Aria’s Draconic Tongue magic sent the mercenaries flying far away.
The villagers watched in awe as dozens of burly men soared into the sky and vanished into the distance.
Though the natives also knew how to use magic, their practices leaned more toward shamanistic rituals than true magic.
Their shamanism involved using magic to divine the future or communicate with ancestral spirits.
But Aria’s power was something entirely different—an absolute force unlike anything they’d ever seen.
Yet even more astonishing was the magic she’d just cast.
Had any seasoned mage witnessed the scene—where only the mercenaries were blasted away while the villagers remained untouched—they would have been utterly shocked.
After all, magic has neither eyes nor reason.
Yet Aria’s magic had precisely distinguished friend from foe before sending them flying.
“A… Aria?”
The villagers had suspected she wasn’t ordinary, but it was still hard to believe that this girl, barely ten years old, was a mage.
“Huh? Did you call me, Raela?”
To dragons—the race born of magic—this was only natural…
But to humans, it could only seem like terrifying, unnatural horror.
And the fact that such terrifying power came from an impossibly cute little girl made it all the more shocking.
Just then—
Clatter, clatter.
Dozens of heavily armored cavalry charged toward them, and fear filled the villagers’ faces.
Among the riders who soon halted before the villagers and Aria, a man wearing a monocle shouted loudly toward the crowd:
“Who’s the mage?!”
At his words, the villagers began inching backward nervously.
“Speak up already!”
Vallien pulled a long, golden metallic staff from midair and slammed it onto the ground.
The staff’s shaft was made of gleaming gold metal, and its tip was adorned with a large star-shaped ornament, making it anything but ordinary.
Swinging the massive staff furiously, Vallien roared in anger:
“Speak up already! Lightning Smash!”
As the monocle-wearing man cast his spell, Aria leapt forward and blocked the fierce lightning bolt with her tiny, fern-like hands.
The powerful lightning scattered harmlessly around her.
Vallien, realizing that this girl—who couldn’t be older than eight—was indeed the mage he sensed, felt something was deeply wrong.
“Such immense magic and casting speed at such a young age? Unbelievable.”
“This form of magic—I’ve never seen anything like it. Which school do you belong to?”
Since mages’ spells varied greatly depending on their school, Vallien asked out of curiosity—but Aria only looked at him with a puzzled expression.
“What’s a ‘school’?”
To dragons—creatures of magic—casting spells was as natural as breathing.
Thus, the concept of ‘schools’ simply didn’t exist for them. Of course Aria wouldn’t know, but Vallien’s face filled with suspicion.
“Is she hiding something?”
Vallien couldn’t believe someone with such overwhelming magic reserves wouldn’t know their own school. He glared at Aria and declared:
“No matter how hard you try to hide it, your school will be revealed soon enough!”
With that, Vallien swung his staff, launching a massive fireball straight at Aria. But the fireball dispersed into the air as if hitting an invisible wall.
“This is impossible.”
Even after witnessing it with his own eyes, Vallien couldn’t believe his attack had been nullified so effortlessly by such swift defensive magic.
The fact that this mere eight-year-old girl’s magic was faster than his own—a middle-aged mage—ignited a fierce jealousy within him.
“Hmph! Let’s see how long you can hold out!”
Vallien violently swung his staff again, unleashing a barrage of vividly colored magical spells toward Aria.
But as he watched his spells gradually weaken and vanish, anger began to boil inside him.
“Am I really losing… to a child who hasn’t even lived half—no, not even a quarter—of my life?”
Overwhelmed by unbearable humiliation, Vallien gritted his teeth and shouted to his soldiers:
“What are you waiting for?! Capture that slave already!”
At his command, the soldiers sprang into action—only for Aria to cry out desperately:
“No! Get away from here!”
Responding to her voice, magic surged forth, striking the soldiers with tremendous force and hurling them far away.
“What… what is this?!”
Vallien stared in horror as the supposedly mindless magic seemed to roar with fury, shaking the very earth beneath them.
It was as if the magic itself resonated with the girl’s rage, burning with intense, fiery energy.
“Could this be the legendary Draconic Tongue magic?”
Dragons—the living embodiments of magic.
Legends spoke of magic responding to their emotions, but Vallien had never seen such a thing in all his years as a mage.
“Could it be… that dragons, though long extinct, still live?”
He couldn’t be certain yet, but Aria’s magic was clearly on another level entirely—far beyond anything human or elven.
Unlike conventional magic built on complex formulas, this was primal magic itself, alive and moving of its own accord—a phenomenon beyond words.
“It’s as if she were a god.”
That was when Vallien resolved to capture the girl at all costs.
“Fine! I see you’re no ordinary child! Then…!”
Vallien raised his staff high into the air. The star-shaped ornaments at its tip detached and began circling above his head, floating midair.
“Try blocking this!”
As soon as Vallien finished speaking, the central body of the star ornament erupted with brilliant golden light.
Aria, seeing this vastly different and far more powerful spell, raised both hands to block it—but then—
Clang!
A sound like shattering glass rang out as Aria took the hit…
A violent explosion erupted, sending the girl tumbling across the ground.
And then—
Vallien saw the girl’s form transform into something covered in silvery scales.
“What is that?”
He stood transfixed, staring at the dazzling white scales that shimmered in the light, the long tail, the relatively short legs, and the still-youthful draconic face.
“Is that… a hatchling?”
The dragon, believed extinct, had reappeared in the human world.
***
Snow-covered plains.
“Master, are you sure this is the right place?”
I stared at the map, deep in thought.
“Should be close enough.”
Compared to the maps in the game, this world’s maps were far less accurate—especially in areas like this, far from major landmarks.
“Master, look—there’s a ruin over there.”
I turned toward the direction Leah pointed from above.
“Hm?”
“It looks like a village burned down.”
I nodded as Leah landed beside me.
“Yeah?”
That was very likely the village where the hatchling had been. We headed straight for it.
After walking a short while, charred remains came into view in the distance.
“Already looted, huh?”
I surveyed the dozens of blackened houses.
I’d suspected as much—but it seemed we’d arrived a bit too late.
We entered the village and began searching the area.
“Master, it doesn’t look like the attack happened long ago.”
“Probably not, right?”
Brushing snow off the charred timber, I examined the layer of snow atop it—about two centimeters thick.
Given how frequently it snowed here, such a thin layer meant the fire had occurred very recently.
“Maybe less than a day ago?”
Leah pressed a finger to her lips, looking thoughtful.
“But there are no bodies… Were they all captured?”
“Probably. They’re slave traders, after all. Leah, call Pipi for me.”
At my words, Leah put two fingers to her mouth and whistled.
Wheee! Wheee!
From the sky, a bird about the size of a pigeon descended—a blue-feathered Pipi, who’d grown a bit since we last saw it.
Leah spoke to it gently:
“Pipi, can you find a place nearby with lots of people?”
Pipi shook its head and gave me an annoyed look. I sighed.
“Leah?”
When I called her name, Leah walked over, patted Pipi’s head, and said softly:
“Please look for people nearby, just like Master asked.”
At Leah’s request, Pipi’s expression brightened. It shot me a quick glare—
Pip! Pee-pii!
—then flapped its wings and soared into the sky.
I really shouldn’t have left it to Leah, even if it seemed annoyed.
Honestly, though Pipi was technically a spirit beast, I’d handed its care over to Leah simply because I found it bothersome.
That’s probably why it rarely listens to me now. Watching it ignore my request, I sighed inwardly.
What’s the point of having a spirit beast if it won’t obey me?
In Destiny, pets nominally followed their owners—but somehow, Pipi seemed to regard Leah as its true master instead of me.
“Is he going through adolescence or something?”
But unlike me, Leah gazed up at Pipi circling in the sky with a puzzled look and murmured:
“Well, Pipi should find them soon anyway.”
As we waited for Pipi’s return, scanning the area—
“Hmm, Master—look! There’s a blast mark over there!”
Leah called out, having spotted something from the sky.
“Must’ve been the hatchling using magic.”
“But it looks kind of strange…”
I replied indifferently to Leah’s comment.
“What’s so strange about it?”
Anyway, it’s freezing cold.
Even bundled in a thick coat, my nose felt numb, and my hands were icy despite my gloves.
“Well… the ground’s deeply gouged.”
Of course the ground would be cratered if an explosion spell hit it—what was she even talking about?
“If an explosion spell hits the ground, of course it’ll leave a crater. What are you on about?”
I spoke dismissively, but Leah shook her head firmly.
“Oh, come on! That’s not what I meant! Let’s go look.”
She’d already landed and was now grabbing my hand, dragging me along.
“Seriously, what is it?”
“It’s not just a crater—it’s dug incredibly deep. And I’ve never seen a spell leave marks like this before.”
Following her pull, I arrived at the blast site and examined a narrow hole about 30 centimeters in diameter.
Instead of a typical explosion crater, it looked as if something had pierced straight through the earth. I nodded in realization.
“Oh—this must be New Continent magic.”
Judging by the diagonal trajectory that had cut cleanly through both snow and soil beneath, it appeared to be a beam-type spell.
Indeed, compared to conventional area-of-effect spells, this type was far more effective against shielded or magic-resistant units—making it quite valuable.
Since this was a new spell introduced in the ‘Dragon War’ DLC, it made sense that Leah wouldn’t recognize it.
“This is New Continent magic. You’ll probably get to learn it someday.”
“New Continent magic?”
Leah gently touched the small but seemingly bottomless sinkhole in the ground, murmuring to herself.
Just then—
Goo! Goo!
Pipi, who’d been circling above, landed on Leah’s shoulder.
“Oh? He found them.”
“Really? Then… shall we go save the hatchling?”
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