Dragonlord

Ep 110. As Long As They’re Dragonkin. (5)

When Serenis had made her offer, Eline hadn’t thought very far ahead.

If she were to become an honorary dragonkin, she could continue to look after Theolus and the others outside of the empire’s reach. She didn’t think the offer needed much contemplation to begin with.

But when the valley’s dragons began to arrive at the palace one by one, only then did the herbalist begin to realize what she’d agreed to.

“And pray tell, what are you? One of those high wizards, perhaps?”

“No, I’m…just a herbalist…”

“And yet you would claim that you can treat our kin.”

“…Yes…?”

“Hah.”

None of the arriving dragons took too kindly of a human girl standing before them. It didn’t help that Eline was an Akeian, and it REALLY didn’t help that she was holding a hatchling who clearly wasn’t her child.

With so many pressuring eyes glaring down on her, Eline was struggling to even stand on her feet.

Of course, Serenis was physically barring the others from reaching the struggling herbalist. But from the numerous resentful voices she was hearing, Eline could tell that the dragons weren’t being very receptive of the dragonlord, either.

“You called us here? As our ‘lord’?”

“Preposterous. The kin do not serve anyone. We will NOT bow our heads to some stranger.”

“And to think we’d accept a human as fellow kin…rubbish beyond measure. Step aside if you haven’t the courage to draw blood. There are plenty here eager for the task.”

As angered voices of her kin filled the throne room, Serenis let out a small sigh. Having reacted in the same manner herself, she couldn’t help but empathize with their eagerness to remove Eline from sight.

Finding kin they thought to have lost should’ve been a joyous occasion; failing that, they should’ve been questioning what had made them fly so far out of their nests. But after seeing what years of imprisonment had done to their brothers and sisters, the dragons instead found themselves blinded by anger – and being the only human present, Eline had become the sole receiver of the kin’s unified resentment.

“It would be wise to act while the emperor is not present.”

“Fate has presented us with another opportunity. What he took from us, we will take from his empire – wealth and people alike. And the girl will be its first. “

“Our seclusion is not a sign of weakness. It’s time humans are reminded of who we are!”

“…”

Raizel’s face began to contort while she listened to the dragons’ rallying. Her gaze sharpened to a glare, knuckles cracking in evident annoyance.

“…Why those old bastards…”

But before the youngling could intervene, a bellowing voice froze the dragons in place.

“SILENCE!!”

The clamoring voices immediately died down before the dragonlord’s order. And with the kin’s attention now fixed on her, Serenis began to speak.

“I understand your doubts. I understand your rage; I, too, was blinded myself not so long ago. But I implore you all – open your eyes, and see the truth for yourselves.”

Serenis gestured towards the dungeon behind her.

There, the dragons could see numerous others, absent from the rallying. Instead, those dragons were celebrating a century-old reunion amongst family they’d long thought to have lost.

But eventually, another dragon spoke out from the crowd.

“That’s no reason to spare the empire! Can you not see the dead amongst them?! Some are eviscerated beyond recognition! How can we expect the dead to rest if we won’t avenge their suffering?!”

In the ensuing silence, a lone voice scoffed at the complaint, letting out a demeaning chuckle.

“Yeah. Funny how the bodies didn’t rot, huh?”

The outspeaking dragon immediately shot a glare towards the rude voice that had cut in.

And Raizel glared back with an equally menacing look. The youngling crossed her arms, mockingly mimicking the other dragon’s expression.

“I sat around at home doing nothing for a hundred years, and I’m mad that a human took care of our kin. I wish their corpses were eaten by rats and flies instead.”

“…”

“Go on, kill her. Wasn’t that your whole idea? She’s right there.”

Not a single dragon dared to take the offer. Or even talk back, for that matter.

Serenis they weren’t so afraid of – despite the strange aura about her, they barely knew the dragonlord in the first place. But everyone here knew about Raizel’s nature – as well as what crossing the youngling had often resulted in.

As the other dragons’ gaze fell to the floor in a mix of reluctance and shame, the dragonlord let out a quiet sigh.

“I am not here to ask you to forgive the empire.”

“…”

A step.

“All I ask is that you ask yourselves: who it is that has truly wronged our kin.”

And another step.

Emerging from the rest, Bruton stopped before Serenis. The elder towered over her, stern expression on his face.

Slowly, the black dragon opened his mouth.

“And why should we? Simply because you’ve said so?”

The elder dragon shook his head, continuing to challenge the self-proclaimed dragonlord before him.

“You’ve claimed yourself the lord of dragons. However, the kin has never served a single rule – at least not in our lifetime.”

Numerous others nodded their head in silence.

It wasn’t just Bruton. The dragons could all feel something strangely different about the white-haired dragon standing before them: pressuring, and yet affectionate, almost like a strict parent. Many felt as if they were children once more.

But intuition alone was not sufficient. A dragon they’d never seen before were suddenly claiming to be their ruler – it wasn’t surprising that they’d find it difficult to accept.

And finally, Bruton voiced the thought in everyone’s head.

“If you are truly our lord…then show us. Allow us to believe you.”

Something.

Other than strength,

Other than authority,

Other than the heart they could no longer see,

Bruton firmly believed that Serenis would possess something – something wholly unexpected that could convince the kin of her identity as a dragonlord.

“…”

Unfortunately, the world doesn’t always go the way one believes it will.

‘Well, he asked for it this time, so…’

Pressing down her reluctance, Serenis’ lips parted once again.

“☐☐☐.”

“…Hm? What-“

“Kneel.”

“…!”

Bruton – as well as every single dragon standing behind him – immediately fell to their knees, just as before when a human boy had appeared at their valley. Even Theolus hopped out of Eline’s embrace to plop down onto the floor, knees touching the ground.

After clearing her throat, Serenis looked off to the far wall, her voice riddled with bits of guilt.

“Draconic speech. An authority of the dragonlord, and the inseverable bond that binds us as kin. I believe I’ve shown it once before…though I suppose that was rather insufficient.”

Silence filled the throne room as Serenis paused to look around. Only now were the dragons beginning to realize this odd dragon was, in fact, the same as the human boy they’d seen months prior.

“Unfortunately, I do not possess any other methods of proving myself as your lord. I always have been from the birth of our tribe. There has never been a need to prove myself.”

To the current dragonkin who knew nothing of her, the dragonlord’s authority through speech was a ridiculous display.

But even so, that alone could not prove her words true. With other first lords no longer of this world, none remained to attest to Serenis’ words – for all they knew, she could’ve been using some ridiculous magic to control them.

“…I do not expect you all to believe in my words. I’m well aware that my claims ring hollow in the present. Therefore…”

When Serenis snapped her fingers, the dragons immediately rose to their feet in unison. Following suit, they could feel themselves regaining control of their bodies as the dragonlord’s authority wore off.

And with an indifferent expression, their lord went on to propose a ridiculous solution to their doubts.

“…For once, I plan to take after what the other tribes have done in their king’s selection.”

For a majority of history, Serenis was the first and only lord of the dragonkin. Her first child had been unable to inherit her position, and her second had only inherited the title long after her death.

But unlike the dragons, there had been tribes whose king had changed countless times – facilitated by an extremely simple selection process.

“If any of you disagree to my rule, then you need but step forth and challenge me.”

“…?????????”

At first, Raizel questioned if she was hearing things.

But Serenis merely continued on, as if what she’d said was making perfect sense.

“It does not matter whether you are alone or not. The one to claim my heart shall become the next dragonlord. And rest assured that I will not be using my speech to control you.”

Even though they’d regained control of their bodies, not a single dragon spoke a word in the creeping silence.

Instead of spoken words, one dragon slowly turned their eyes.

And soon enough, the others caught wind of his gaze. The rest of the kin followed suit, turning to face the exact same direction.

And at the end of their gazes was the brood’s only remaining steel dragon.

“…The hell? What’re you all staring at?”

When the youngling’s annoyed voice broke the silence, only then did her kin begin to speak their honest thoughts, one after another.

“Well, we just…we thought you’d jump at something like this.”

“She always did go around picking fights with everything.”

“Wait, what if Raizel does become this lord-thing? Does that mean she gets that speech ability?”

“Haha…then that’d be our final day breathing this star’s air…”

In the flood of encouraging(?) insults, Raizel’s eyes twitched in seething anger.

“You all WANT me to step up? Fine then.”

The youngling then stormed off, approaching Serenis with furious steps. But after coming to a stop before the dragonlord, Raizel turned to face her kin instead, devilish menace coating her next sentence.

“From now on, if anyone dares to challenge Lord Serenis, I’ll throw you into a volcano.”

“…Wha?”

The kin stared at the youngling in bewilderment. The Raizel they knew would never have reacted like this; the Raizel they knew was supposed to jump at the opportunity to fight someone. It was quite literally their first time seeing the youngling defending anyone so explicitly.

And in response, Raizel glared back at the others one by one – especially the elders.

“’The kin doesn’t serve anyone?’ Let’s be honest, you’re all just saying that because you’re too proud to admit how useless you are. All of you did jack shit, both now and a hundred years ago.”

No one could say a single word in denial.

There was nothing to deny in the first place.

“Every damn day, you old bones were going on and on about how I’m ‘still too young to understand,’ how it’s ‘the tradition’ to live in seclusion. Did that even get you anywhere? Hell, you bunch were too afraid to even enter a little hole in the ground, you’d NEVER have found this place on your own. What, is leaving our family for dead a part of your tradition too?”

Finally, another elder burst in anger, retorting back at the youngling’s mocking words.

“You speak out of line, Raizel! The ancient seal has always been the kin’s forbidden grounds. To enter it was sacrilege against our predecessor’s will! And what do you know about what happened last century?! Do you know how hard we struggled to keep children like you alive during the empire’s invasion?! We-”

“Seriously? Struggled to keep me alive?”

The elder lost their voice. The youngling’s expression was, for a lack of words, horrifying.

“You all abandoned me and my parents, you left us for dead! You thought I didn’t know?”

“…How…did you…?”

The elder’s mouth soon closed back upon hearing the youngling’s unexpected response.

Even Bruton widened his eyes as he looked at Raizel: that wasn’t something she was supposed to know.

The youngling kicked her tongue, twisting her expression in disgust.

“Hah. Wow…at least the crow owned up to what he did. None of you were ever going to tell me, were you?”

“…”

“’Tradition’ my ass. Ancient seal? You all know what was in that pit now, don’t you? Bruton probably went around blabbing everything already.”

When her kin remained silent again, Raizel turned to face Serenis instead.

“Lord had to go find the kin FOR you. None of you did ANYTHING until she literally made you come here. And now you want her to prove herself to you? How ignorant can you get?”

No one had dared to.

Not a single dragon here had ever thought to step out of that valley.

They were raised that way. Their elders had told them as such: fearing a loss had always taken precedence over chasing a gain. And those children had become elders themselves that would then teach the same to their younger generation.

Even when the seal had turned out to be the second lord’s grave, the elders had chosen to turn a blind eye to Bruton’s words. They silenced the young and buried the subject, for admitting such things was equal to admitting to their ignorance.

But no one can turn away forever from such a blatant truth.

Rather, the longer they’d choose to look away, the worse things would become.

“…Raizel.”

After softly speaking the youngling’s name, Serenis reared the steel dragon back, stepping forth to speak to her silent brethren.

“In the distant past, demonkind sacrificed itself and felled the star’s tyrant…or rather, we believed that we had felled the star’s tyrant.”

But the only one who’d remained was Serenis herself.

“And yet, the tyrant’s fragments has since fallen into human hands. After altering the star to their liking, they’ve come to be revered as deities. To an extent, demonkind’s sacrifice…was in vain. As the last survivor of that era, I plan to conclude our kind’s conflict.”

A bittersweet smile curved her lips as Serenis put one hand over her chest.

“But this is a duty that falls solely upon my shoulders.”

Unfolding her arms, Serenis gestured towards the dragons listening before her.

“You yourselves are not the dragonkin of that era. You’ve no reason to be tied to the past, nor are you obligated to remember it – I will not demand such things of you. However, if you are to lead your lives, unfaithful to even the present…if your traditions have urged you to ignore the plight of your kin…then perhaps it’s time to reflect upon what you’ve all become.”

We can understand one another. We can share our blessings and burdens, joys and woes alike.

For we are kin, regardless of era.

The role of a king was bound to change across eras and circumstances. But at least in Serenis’ case, her role had never changed once.

‘An ideal king remembers such obvious truths…and they remind their subjects, time and again.’

A guiding figure that others could follow, trusting to not lead them astray.

For her, that was enough.