The Beginning Of It All
すべての始まり
The moment I realized that that point in time was destiny,
a long, long time had passed.
—The White Magus, Ai
"Nina, have you ever seen a human?"
"What's a human?"
The girl I'd saved from the Armored Bear, Nina, tilted her head upon hearing my sudden question.
Her response was reasonable enough. I'd pronounced the word in Japanese, the rest of my question being in whatever language she uses.
It's been a few months since I met Nina. Since then, it's somehow gotten to the point that we stay together, we've even become able to communicate with each other easily enough.
It appears that not only are dragons far stronger than humans, they're also much faster learners.
As my hardware changed, so did my software, allowing me to become able to speak her language at a frightening speed.
"They look similar to you, but their ears are short and round... and they likely live in houses made out of wood or stone."
The feeling of wanting to see humans has been building within me ever since the day I met Nina. Living as a dragon isn't that bad, but I just can't throw my humanity away.
"I know what you're talking about... maybe?"
Which is why I all but floated into the sky when Nina said that.
"Could you show me where?"
She nodded when I asked her the question, so I had her get on my back and flapped my wings.
＊ ＊ ＊
"Over there. Those are what you were talking about, right?"
I looked over to where Nina pointed and was surprised.
"Those are... the humans?"
"They look like me, have round ears, and live in a stone den. Are those them?"
Twitching her prided pointy ears, Nina thrust her flat chest out.
Well, she's not wrong.
"... Setting aside whether or not they look like you, are there any humans that live like you?"
"It's not like I know much about them, but the way they live is roughly the same as me."
So that's it... well, alright.
I looked back toward the scene Nina pointed out to me.
What I saw from the small hill we were on top of was a cave that opened up on the side of a mountain.
There were a few men carrying spears exiting from the cave, so it looked like they were about to go hunting. Each of their spears were made out of a long stick with a stone fastened to the end it. Both them and the group of women seeing them off were wearing nothing but beast fur. There were probably only several dozen people living there at most. The group of primitive humans were barely numerous enough to be called a settlement, let alone a village.
"What the..."
Magic existed, dragons soared through the skies, fairies lived, and mysteries suffused the world.
