Broken Possessors of Infinite Regression Academy

I was the first to assess the situation and stood up. The chairman hastily covered her chest with her hand and twisted her waist to conceal her private parts. It was a futile effort, as her hands could only barely cover her nipples.

“‘Hey, get out for now! I’ll call you later!'”

Next, Brynhild and Aria, who had regained their composure, pushed me out of the room. I went out quietly, thinking that if I didn’t leave, the situation would only get worse.

“‘You can come in now.'”

It didn’t take long for Brynhild to open the door and call me in. When I returned to the room, I saw the chairman wearing a slightly different attire than usual.

The upper garment was a waistcoat-style shirt, but it exposed part of her back and sides. The front buttons were also slightly loose, making it look like they might burst open.

Aria and Brynhild were standing next to her, looking dumbfounded. Aria was staring blankly at her lower body, muttering something, while Brynhild was touching her own chest in a daze.

“‘What?'”

“‘Uh, no… it’s just…'”, Brynhild whispered in my ear.

“I helped her get dressed and saw it right in front of me, but one side was bigger than the combined size of our two heads…”

Although there was no subject, it was clear what she meant. I thought it was surprising, but I couldn’t understand the female mind, so I just let it go.

“‘I’m sorry. I wasn’t in my right mind and had a momentary lapse. And thank you for treating my injuries. I will repay this kindness in the name of Erestika.'”

The chairman, whose face had turned bright red, apologized and expressed gratitude, her shoulders sagging.

“‘I still haven’t granted your previous wish, but… I owe you my life again, and I don’t know how to repay this kindness.'”

“‘Then you can use both wishes here. Tell me who you mistook me for, calling me ‘child’, and what you were doing that got you so badly hurt.'”

The previous wish was more like a promise to give me something I wanted, but I didn’t have any desires at the moment.

“‘It’s…'”, the chairman struggled to answer, looking like she was hiding something. I quickly took a step back.

“‘If it’s difficult to answer, that’s okay. I’ll think of something else. You don’t have to force yourself to speak.'”

“‘No, it’s not that. I’ve done it twice, and now I must tell you. It’s just that it requires mental preparation… and I don’t need to make it a wish. I realized it while getting dressed, and it’s a crucial time, so it’s natural to be curious.'”

The chairman’s hands, which had been searching for a place to go, clasped each other in front of her lower abdomen, her fingers digging deep into the gaps between them. The chairman, who had been hesitant, slowly opened her mouth.

“‘The ‘child’ I mentioned… is exactly what it means, a term of endearment for my child.'”

“What?”

“Did you have a child, Chairman…?”

Brynhild and Aria’s eyes widened in surprise. I was also surprised. Who would have thought that the chairman was a parent?

“It’s not a child I gave birth to,” the chairman said, shaking her head.

“It was a human child.”

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“In the days when Meligor was called the Dragon of Darkness, it didn’t particularly hate humans or think of them as enemies. Sometimes, when the Demon King gave orders to burn the human world, Meligor would just lazily follow the orders and return to its lair, doing nothing more. It was because Meligor was in the demon realm that it sided with the demons. That was the entirety of Meligor’s principles of action. It didn’t have the enthusiasm to actively move or hate anything, so it just lived a life of idleness.

Meligor thought that such days would continue forever.

But then, it discovered a human child who had been swept away by a fire. On that day, Meligor had received orders from the Demon King and was about to return to its lair after burning the outskirts of the human world. With its exceptional dragon senses, it detected a crying child from far away.

The child was next to a woman who had been attacked by a demon and was dying. Despite her own life being in danger, the woman tried to comfort the child. However, her injuries were severe, and she soon died, leaving the child alone and crying.

Meligor, who had been watching the scene from start to finish, took the abandoned child to its lair for some reason. It didn’t know why itself. Perhaps it was because it was tired of its idle days, or perhaps it was because it had a sense of picking up abandoned animals like humans.

But one thing was clear: Meligor had decided to raise the child.

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Meligor returned to the lair with a human child, who was but a fraction of her own size compared to the dragon’s massive form. The first thing she did was to polymorph into the image of a human woman, piecing together the memory of what a female human would look like. Although she knew very little about humans, she understood that raising a human child in the form of a dragon was not an option.

“Teach me how humans raise their young,” Meligor demanded of Astaroth, the closest she had to a companion among the demons, albeit a reluctant one.

“Why are you asking me? You deal with them the most out of all of us. So, does that mean you don’t want to teach me?” Astaroth retorted.

“Fine! Fine! Just don’t breathe your fiery breath in the castle!”

And so, Meligor acquired the necessary knowledge about human child-rearing from a somewhat coerced Astaroth. She fed the baby by magically synthesizing milk and holding her finger to the child’s mouth.

“Mama!”

Meligor felt a peculiar sensation in the pit of her being when, after a moment (in dragon terms), the baby called her “Mama” for the first time. It was then that her curiosity turned into a genuine commitment to raise this human child.

“Mama! Look! It’s a flower!”

“It’s very pretty. It resembles you, my child.”

“Hehe, it resembles you too, Mama! Here, take it!”

“Thank you, my dear. I truly appreciate it.”

To Meligor, only moments had passed, but the human child grew and flourished. In the human world, the child would have grown up to break many a heart with her looks, but neither Meligor, in her dragon form, nor the child, raised by a dragon, paid much attention to physical appearances.

What mattered to them was the bond they shared.

“Your name is Eres, and I’ve decided that my name will be Eres-tika, which means ‘Eres’s mother’!”

“How interesting. Does this word ‘mother’ in the human language hold the meaning of ‘Mama’?”

“No! I just made it up!”

Unbeknownst to herself, Meligor had gradually spent more time in human form than in her dragon form. Eventually, she left the lair, which had become too large for her now-human size, and built a house suited to her current stature. The more time she spent away from the lair, the more accustomed she became to her human form, even adjusting her perception of time to match that of humans.

And so, twenty human years passed—a brief moment in a dragon’s life but a lifetime for a human. It was then that Meligor received an extraordinary gift.

“What is this, my child?”

“It’s a gift for you, Mama. We decided that the day we met would be my birthday. Thank you for raising me, Mama.”

“My dear…”

It was a gray hair tie, crafted stitch by stitch from materials she had gathered herself, roaming the mountains and fields alone. Meligor smiled and hugged her daughter tightly.

Eres laughed, despite complaining that her chest was being crushed.

“The Demon King’s command has arrived. I’ll be back soon, so stay put and be good.”

“Yes, Mama. Please go.”

Not long after receiving the hair tie, Meligor received the Demon King’s command—as always, to go and burn the human world. She surrounded her house with all sorts of protective dragon incantations before setting off.

Upon her return, having only burned a few trees along the border, Meligor discovered that the protective incantations she had cast on her house had been broken.

“My child…?”

Her dragon senses detected a pungent, bloody scent, filling her with dread.

“My baby! Are you alright?! My baby!”

Meligor flung the door open and was met with a horrific sight: her house was covered in blood, and in the middle lay her daughter, being devoured.

“You’re back sooner than I expected.”

The human, or rather, the dragon in human form, turned slowly and spoke. It was Mahbat, the Explosion Dragon.

Unconcerned by Meligor’s trembling and obvious distress, Mahbat casually continued to eat Eres’s remains, making crunching sounds as he chewed.

“Hmm, it’s not that special.”

He then discarded what he was eating, and the human head hit the wall with a splat. Despite the brief moment, Meligor clearly saw the painful expression frozen on her daughter’s face.

“What… What is the meaning of this…?”

“I was curious about the taste of a human raised by a dragon. Turns out it’s nothing special. Tsk, what a waste of time.”

Having finished his meal, Mahbat began to shift back to his true form. Seeing Meligor’s expression, he scoffed condescendingly.

“Why that look, Meligor? It’s just a human you picked up. Go get yourself a new one, or if that’s too much trouble, I can catch another for you.”

That was the last straw. Meligor’s anger exploded, and she returned to her true dragon form, fighting Mahbat for seven days and nights. It was only when the Demon King herself intervened that the battle was finally stopped.

However, the power gap between them was clear. While Meligor was half-dead, Mahbat had only a few wounds. Had the Demon King not shown up, Meligor would surely have perished.

“You weakling, if you feel wronged, why don’t you fight and win against him yourself?”

Having heard the full story, the Demon King coldly mocked Meligor.

“Had Astaroth not shown up, you would’ve died by Mahbat’s hands. If you can’t even avenge the one you raised yourself, why come to me with your pathetic pleas? Just quietly get a new one, as he suggested.”

The Demon King left after those words, and the other legion commanders followed suit, mocking Meligor for her stupidity. Astaroth, in particular, took great pleasure in taunting her.

Despite having the power to decide Meligor’s life or death, Mahbat chose not to kill her, deeming her unworthy of his time.

Meligor remained kneeling in the same spot for a whole month. Then, on that day, she left the demon world and ventured into the human realm. The Demon King, as always, did not stop her, for his own reasons.

“I wish to propose a deal, Emperor of Humans.”

The first place Meligor went to in the human world was to the one they called the Emperor. Hearing that she was a dragon, the Emperor was initially shocked, but he quickly regained his composure and agreed to the deal.

And so, the foundation of Bellium Academy was decided.

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In “…Why do you think this Academy was established with the assumption of fighting against demons? It’s because our interests, those of humans, and mine, aligned.”

Brynhild was stunned by the shocking revelation, while Aria covered her mouth and tears streamed down her face. I, too, with my subdued eyes, thought about Mahbat.

I, too, had someone I failed to protect.