Ep 79. Live. (2)
Karas spared an apologetic glance towards the elderly archmage.
Otoka was busily waving about his wooden staff, summoning heaps of wood and stone that seemed to carve and polish themselves before melding into the broken walls and floors. The elder audibly groaned every once a while and tapped his back, though whether that was from genuine pain or pure habit remained a mystery.
“…I apologize for the trouble, Mr. Lairaff.”
“No work will get itself done.”
Ever since the Reaper incident, the Magic Institute had been nothing short of haunted; while a number of agents from the enforcement sector came to collect the numerous bodies that were littered in its grounds, nobody dared to approach the school thereafter. Resultantly, the buildings had been left abandoned in their broken, bloody mess.
Of course, once the rest of the city’s repairs were finished, there would eventually come a time when personnel would reluctantly be tasked with clearing the building – but that would at least take weeks, if not months. And it hadn’t sat right for Karas to leave the building in such a state for so long.
At first, the professor had taken it upon himself to at least clean the institute’s interiors of blood and rubbles; it wasn’t like he had any skills in construction. But when Aldrid tasked Otoka to help him out in the endeavor, it soon became apparent that the archmage’s mastery in magic rivalled the efficiency of having dozens of workers working simultaneously.
With Karas to inform the archmage of the institute’s proper design, the building had begun to rapidly regain its former appearance. Now at the morning of their one-week mark, the two were almost finished with restoring entire facility.
With a tap of his wooden staff on the ground, Otoka summoned a handful of sand that began to crystallize into a glass window. The archmage spoke while his spell began to take form.
“…Karas.”
“Yes?”
“Professor Karas…haha. Indeed, it has a nice ring to it.”
Karas quizzically tilted his head. He soon realized that the archmage wasn’t speaking to him, but instead muttering to themselves.
“…Mr. Lairaff?”
“It’s much better than your previous name.”
When the glass window finally finished its formation, the elderly mage turned to face the professor’s curious gaze. He carefully rubbed his beard, nodding his head in quiet reminiscence.
“Yes, yes…I remember now. Forgive me, my memory has been growing worse by day. It takes a while to remember such old memories. Had I recognized you sooner, I wouldn’t have dared to ask petty chores.”
Karas mused at the archmage’s sudden recognition. With literal dragons and deities previously occupying his attention, it was understandable that the archmage had glanced over a mere institute professor.
However, that unfortunately no longer seemed to be the case. Though scattered and haphazard, Otoka’s muttering did make sense when pieced together – which wasn’t a good sign.
But Karas remained expressionless, faking a tone of indifference in his answer.
“I’m afraid I’m not sure what you mean by such. I don’t believe we’ve met before.”
“That we haven’t. But how could I not know? Your name once echoed throughout the continent.”
“…My name is Karas.”
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“It is. But was it always?”
“…”
An uncomfortable silence ensued. The archmage only grinned back, letting out a soft chuckle.
“Times have truly changed, haven’t they? How did you come to be a professor in a human city, I wonder? How did the infamous dominator come to be a dragonkin’s aid?”
“…I’m afraid there isn’t much to tell.”
“Har har…I suppose I am in no position to question. I only hope that you’ve found your salvation.”
After another series of chuckles, the archmage quietly moved his steps down the hallway.
“Feel free to take your leave. This old mage can handle the remaining work.”
“…”
Karas briskly turned around, walking away in the opposite direction.
‘Have I found my salvation?’
Considering the life he’d lived before becoming a professor, it wouldn’t have been odd to find himself in a much worse position. If his current life wasn’t salvation, then Karas felt that it was at least something close.
‘…Isn’t that right, Raizel?’
✧ ✧ ✧
Creak!
“Tch.”
Raizel wore her usual scowl as she stormed out of the Mage Association. Morning sun greeted the steel dragon as she made her way through the rows of tents in the courtyard – which had long become a shelter for those who’d lost their homes and families to the Reaper’s onslaught.
Admittedly, Raizel scowled in annoyance quite often. But it had been growing steadily worse the past few days.
Why? Well…
“Miss Raizel! Miss Raizel!”
A little boy ran over to the steel dragon with his limping, bandaged leg. Though a doctor had told him to lie still for a while longer, he’d long forgotten such warnings the moment Raizel showed face.
“What.”
“Did you know, did you know? The person that saved us from the meteor wasn’t Deity Felicis, it was actually a dragonlord! Papa told me yesterday!”
“I know, kid. I’m a dragon. That’s my lord you’re talking about.”
As soon as Raizel affirmed the little boy’s words out loud, listeners from various tents began murmuring amongst themselves.
“Even a dragon is vouching? Then the rumors about the dragonlord were true!”
“I told you so! Aldrid herself said the very same when she was treating my wounds.”
“But isn’t the lord of dragons still a demonlord? Why would a demon king save humans like us? I thought they were heartless monstrosities.”
“You dimwit, we’ve never even seen a demonlord before. Have you even read anything about them beside your son’s bedtime stories? Obviously the crap about demons was wrong all along!”
“Aye, there’s some truth to that. You lot should’ve seen that Ilias lass at the tavern, girl's just a typical drunkard…I can’t imagine her king being some bloodthirsty warmonger.”
“Not only that, as I recall, there was one time where…”
A dragon’s hearing is quite sensitive. Raizel was known especially well for having keen senses among her kin – enough to hear all that low chatter regarding Serenis and the kin.
Eventually, the steel dragon turned her head to snap at the talking men.
“Keep talking shit about us and I’ll bury you all.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
When things quieted down around her, the steel dragon finally began to drag herself towards the ruined districts of the city.
“Tsk…what am I even doing here…”
Steel dragon Raizel: a youngling known among her elders as the problem child that never listens to others, and one of the few dragons who could list wielding violence as a hobby. There had never really been any repercussion for her unruly behavior; ever since she’d fully grown, no one could truly punish her for anything.
But recently, a new weakness had been budding anew within the dragonkin’s problem child.
- ‘You want me to do human chores AGAIN? Forget it. Even for you, I am so not doing it.’
- ‘I see. That’s too bad then.’
- ‘…Wait, that’s it?’
- ‘What more would there be? Rest, child.’
- ‘Huh? Uh…I mean…’
- ‘It’s alright. I’ll ask Ilias.’
- ‘Ilias? Why Ilias??’
- ‘I alone won’t be sufficient, and you and Ilias are the only ones I could ask this of. But since it seems that you’ll be preoccupied, I’ve not much other choice.’
- ‘…Fine, I’ll do it, I’ll do it! Don’t go asking her, I’ll do it!’
Raizel knew all too well that Ilias would gladly do their lord’s favor – especially if it was helping Partivine’s civilians. The steel dragon could very well have let Serenis enlist the red dragon for help instead.
‘But then I look bad in comparison, damnit.’
Strangely enough, the steel dragon didn’t want to get on her lord’s bad side – even if it meant humiliating herself by helping humans with their meager chores.
And so, she was out in the ruined districts once again, clearing up the rubbles and participating in bringing new construction materials to the scene. Truth be told, all of it was cakewalk given Raizel’s strength – not to mention the lack of danger given her steel affinity.
The first few days had been majorly comprised of retrieving people out of the fallen buildings. With the dragon using her affinity to prevent the wreckages from further collapse, everyone had been thus far retrieved without suffering a single additional scratch.
“…”
Of course, not every person she brought out of the rubbles were alive. Otherwise, they would’ve been rescued, not retrieved.
Indeed, most had been corpses.
‘…Should check on her again sometime.’
On the first day, Light had begged the steel dragon to clear the rubbles of her house; Ilias couldn’t do it as safely as Raizel could. But unfortunately, the request had only led to undesirable revelations.
For some, it’d been a whole week; for some, it’d only been a single week.
A single week, since their loved ones were found as bloodied corpses.