Part 1
“Whaa—”
Suddenly the scenery changed, and my bottom collided with the ground.
My eyes were flooded with light, and as I tried to look around, I noticed I was no longer in the dark and dreary cavern—as I look around, there is only tall grass for as far as I can see, and only a hint of mountains in the distant horizon.
Fear still permeated my consciousness, but I noticed the sun had changed positions—it should have been early noon, but the sun was only hours from the horizon now.
I don’t recognize these plains.
Where—
«So you’re still alive, huh?»
The voice seemed to come from nowhere, yet everywhere, as I jolted up to my feet—which were still wobbly—and I spun around, as if “feeling” the voice coming from there!
“Who’s there—Woah!” I was about ready to question the owner of the voice, only to see a blue-scaled dragon there before me! I reached for my hip, only to grasp at air—where’s my sword!?
«Hey hey, calm down, will ya?»
“You, you can talk?” My eyes widen in shock, as I step back, but trip onto my but once more. Perfect—I’m unarmed, and in the presence of a dragon blessed by the Hero Summoning. When it comes to magic, my only merit is the large mana capacity I was gifted with, however my actual talent in magic is minimal, and at best only good for support and defense.
I cannot kill a dragon with my level of magic—
«Hmmm, so you humans don’t know anything about the curse on the other dragons of this world, huh?» What’s that?
“C-curse? What curse?”
«Well, it doesn’t matter too much, but… What do you know about the curse that makes the dragons of this world nothing but animals?»
I’ve never heard of such a curse. What he’s saying stuns me for a moment. The dragon god was the only known dragon to have ever spoken—so the legends go. He went be several names and appearances, but when the first Hero appeared, he slayed the dragon god, and that’s when all the legends of talking dragons ended.
If this dragon’s words are to be believed—
«Doesn’t seem you know anything» He interrupted my thoughts, and gave a sigh. «Whatever. I don’t really care who’s curse it is. Just curious.»
The more I hear this dragon’s voice, the more childish is begins to sound. The words he speaks are foreign, and when I try to sound them out feel like gibberish, but their meaning is conveyed and completely unambiguous.
This, is this the so called thought-speech that the Fae tribes use?
I’ve heard that Dragons can propel their thoughts and intentions towards an enemy, often to scare them into inaction. Could that also be used to communicate in such a way?
“You, who are you?” I finally ask, looking up at the dragon who has yet to shown any interest in killing me—much less fighting.
«Don’t you know? I’m the dragon your kingdom summoned,» he answered in annoyance. Even his ”voice seemed full to be filled with sarcasm and even mockery. He seemed to particularly strain the word “dragon”.
“I understand that much,” I controlled my voice, not wanting to become this creature’s meal. Perhaps he intended to let me go if I behave? “But even a powerful dragon shouldn’t have been able to use Holy fire—and blue flames?! Are all dragons from your world like this?”
He seemed to stare at me a moment, before he burst into laughter.
«HAhaha, That’s great—you actually believe those words,» But of course the laughter seemed forced—he certainly found it humorous, but by the “thoughts” he gave out, the laughter was for emphasis.
“What do you mean?”
«Let’s see…» The dragon calmed down, and then laid his body on the field, right beside me. Remembering where we were, I thought to ask the dragon what happened.
«You believe that you summoned a Dragon from another world, correct?»
“Isn’t that common sense?” I said tilting my head. After all, here he was. He mentioned “the dragons of this world”, so he was clearly not from “this world”. Then—
«And if I told you that dragons don’t exist in my world?»
“I would call that a complete lie; after all, here you are.” But at that reply, the dragon merely snorted, as if he heard something ridiculous.
«What do you even know about that summoning magic shit, that you used to bring me here?» Before I could answer, he continued, «Up until a month ago, I was a perfectly normal human boy, you know?»
…
I… was not sure how to respond to that. That shouldn’t be possible. So we unknowingly transformed a human into a dragon—?
If the world were to know of this—
“S-sorry—” I pause, before pushing myself up-right! “No, why am I apologizing?! You! You attacked us—humans—you attacked and killed humans! Aren’t you one too?!”
«Ah, you’re right, you’re right. I did, didn’t I?»
“Don’t say it like it’s someone else’s problem!”
«But, what would have happened otherwise?» He tells me, without even bothering to get up. Still, I gather my magic at my hands, and prepare myself to attack.
«If I were to just go with you guys, you would have just had me attack some army of humans, while you had your general ride on my back. I do feel a little bad about killing people, but you would have done the same thing in my position.»
I can’t argue back that logic—but that still leaves him my enemy. As I move my hands to send a blade of wind at him—
…
Suddenly I’m on my knees—
Chest hurts—
Heart… crushing feeling—
«Ah? You were actually about to attack me huh?»
“Wh-what did you do?”
«You haven’t noticed huh? You’ve been talking about the Hero Summoning for a while now. Even if you didn’t reveal any information, you still confirmed your part in it, and the fact it happened.»
Ah! He’s right. But then, why didn’t the “contract binding” stop me from talking earlier? It should have killed me by now!
“Th-then…?”
«Since the moment I took you out of my “storage”, I had analyzed, and rewrote the conditions to your curse.» He can do that?! «I was practicing, you see. Your curse isn’t as tricky as the ones on the dragons, and actually pretty straight-forward. Though, I don’t think I’ll be able to remake it—but modifying or breaking it isn’t too hard.»
“What did you do?” I finally ask, as the pain in my chest is alleviated.
And as if he was an innocent child telling his parents about how he broke the family heirloom—
«I just rewrote it so you can’t attack me is all.»
My shoulders slumped, and I couldn’t help but sigh, letting out the accumulated fatigue since now.
Part 2
In the cavern, I had taken a notice to her.
There was something like the curse the dragons had on them, planted on her. But it was different. Much simpler—what’s more, it didn’t use her own mana and consciousness to resist my own mana.
But I didn’t have time to play with this new toy. So I just pulled her into my storage and moved on. I did find it funny that she pissed herself though.
The others inside the cavern were disoriented and shocked. It was a good idea to blow up the entrance like that, and create a shock wave. I was already aware that people were inside, thanks to the fact that their magic bags were very conspicuous to me.
The space magic they used was similar to my own storage—similar, but different. I didn’t know how different though.
Still, I collected all the bags, and tossed them into my pocket-dimension.
On a whim, I decided to collect all the eggs that were up above, but I really didn’t know what to do with them.
Well, “curse breaking practice” would be a good use for them, huh?
But what do I do with them after that?
Ah, whatever.
So after collecting my precious, I promptly got out of there. On the way out, I went ahead and shot a few fireballs at the cliffside. Just to keep them busy.
I flew east for quite a while, until I decided to land. I could see a human village not too far off, but I was far enough that they shouldn’t even notice me.
When I landed, I decided to take out the pile of gold, and then emptied out the bags. It seems that the bags had a size limit based on the opening of the bags themselves.
Funny.
Well anyways, I didn’t much need the bags, and they sort of made it hard for me to use my storage magic. Seems like you can’t have a pocket-dimension inside a pocket dimension, or something?
Anyways, then I remembered the girl.
What was I going to do with her?
She was rather pretty—despite the armor, she had a nice face, and her black hair was cut short. From the “age” of her mana, I judged she should be about 16 or so. I remember that by that age, a lot of cultures already considered a person an adult. But it also seems this world is fine with sending girls into wars huh? Different worlds, different cultures I guess.
That said—I can’t just rape her or something; that would definitely make me the bad guy. Ah, wait, I already kidnapped her, which already makes me the bad guy, right?
No no, she’s a prisoner of war—!
Kinda.
Meh, I guess I’ll ask her the various questions I had in mind.
…
…
Hmmm, this girl doesn’t give me that “high and mighty princess” vibe—she’s pretty peeved about killing her friends though.
After being told that she couldn’t even hope to attack me, she seemingly gave up, and let out a disappointed sigh.
«Anyways, I wanted to ask you about some other stuff.,»
“Hmph,” She huffed, and turned the other way.
… «If you don’t answer, I could always just blow up the village nearby,» it was a bluff of course. It probably showed through the thoughts I projected, but I doubted she would notice if this was her first time having a conversation like this.
As proof of that, I noticed her flinch slightly, before turning to face me with a scowl. “What do you want?!”
«Strictly speaking, I want to hit that,» I say jokingly.
“Hit.. wah…!?” She looked confused as if pondering the literal meaning of my words, before the “figurative meaning” sunk into her mind. He face turned to shock, anger, and perhaps a hint of embarrassment, as she backed up away from me, “H-hey! No way—! Y-you are not touching me like that!”
I gave her a light chuckle as I stood up, and she seemed to quickly back away further—I never knew someone could back up that fast while on the ground like that. The movement reminded me of crabs.
«Relax, it was a joke.» … «Mostly,» I add on, before intentionally transmitting a “fantasy” towards her.
This of course is rewarded by a rather amusing expression, that was more embarrassment than anything else…
...I might just keep her.
“You deviant!” She shouted at me, thrusting a finger at me, as if there were anyone else for her to be talking about. Well, I wouldn’t call myself a deviant—no, no I probably am that, aren’t I?
Maybe I should have imagined myself as a human in that fantasy I just shot her with? Is it weird I’m already seeing myself as a dragon, no matter what scenario I imagine up? Even in the one dream I had about home, I was a Dragon, and there didn’t seem to be anything weird about that.
Is there anything weird about that?
Ah, my mind is wandering again.
And this girl’s expression seems to be turning into one of fear—ah, she probably thinks I’m actually gonna mount her like in the vision. She may have only seen it for an instant, but she probably saw it in every detail I imagined it in.
«Anyways—So tell me about the magic in this world?» I finally decided to ask, after teasing her a bit.
She was a bit surprised by that, and took a moment to make sure I wasn’t trying to lower her guard. After narrowing her eyes at me for a moment, she let out a long sigh, as if to tell me I was hopeless.
“What? Don’t you already know enough magic? You used some very high level fire magic just a moment ago!” She seemed mad at my question for some reason. Hmm?
«Well, I’ve been able to learn pretty fast thanks to the fact I can see and observe magic pretty well. But I don’t know a thing about this world, you know?» Actually, I had a pretty good idea about how magic worked. Mostly. My instincts are innately aware of the nature of most magic used, but I wanted to see what the perspective of the humans of this world was.
It was a “what shape is the world?” type of question, I guess?
“Is that so…” She seemed to ponder whether or not to answer my question for a moment, before standing up. Seems she didn’t like looking so far up at me, while on the ground. “Well, Magic as far as my master has taught me is divided into 6 forms. Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Life, and Divine.” Life? Divine? “The first 4 are self-explanatory—they’re the 4 forms which all humans are allowed to control with magic. Some are blessed with a the power to use some forms of Life magic, but otherwise, the only ways to use magic outside of the 4 is through Magic Formations.”
«Magic Formations? And what’s Life magic, exactly?» Hmm? Her wording feels off. Well, this is probably just how the people of this world understand magic, hmm?
“Well… Healing magic is a form of Life magic we humans are allowed to use,”—there goes that “allowed” term again—”However the Contract binding—which you manipulated—is also considered a form of Life magic.”
Eh? But the similarities are so… Superficial. I saw a bit of healing magic used before—there’s no similarity between the “contract binding” and the healing magic I saw. I may not have gotten a good look at it, but still.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
“As for Magic Formations, those are drawn patterns we use to call on magic we cannot use otherwise. The contract binding, again, is called using this method.” Hmm, I see.
“And?”
«Your understanding of magic is quite narrow, isn’t it?» I couldn’t help but let those thoughts leak out… Oops. I made her angry.
“Then why did you ask!?”
«Morbid curiosity,» I stated as she spun around, and began to walk away,
«Ah, one more thing. What shape is the—»
“Fuck off!” She shouted over her shoulder.
Wow.
…
I didn’t know she could curse.
…
I also didn’t know I liked that kind of girl.
Part 3
Stupid, stupid, stupid dragon. I’ll have him killed! I swear it!
I don’t know where I am, but the next town I get to, I’ll make my way back to the capital, and have this blasted dragon captured an enslaved!
I don’t even care anymore that he’s actually a human inside!
In fact, that makes it worst!
Damn condescending pervert—!
Now, where am I?
Dammit, that dragon is still following me.
“What do you want?” I glared back at him, and he seemed to find that amusing—I didn’t notice before, but he’s been projecting these subtle thoughts quite frequently. At least it’s a decent substitute for facial expressions, seeing how I can’t read this guy otherwise.
«Ah, I was wondering if you could get me a map of the world. There’s a village nearby you can buy it from.»
I clicked my tongue as I turned to him, “And why should I do that?”
«Because I can’t?» He said in a “isn’t it obvious?” sort of tone.
“And how is that my problem?” I ask, while turning back the other way, and continuing to walk.
«Because you’re going the wrong way, and I won’t tell you where the village is otherwise?» and then he added, «And if I do go, I’ll likely be attacked by the villagers, and it’s not like I’m going to just take it, you know?»
… This guy—”Fine! Show me where the damn village is. I’ll get you your map.”
I, Korinna Xifos, proud knight of Sailos Kingdom, am running errands for a Dragon, of all things.
Part 4
When she returned, it looked like she was furious.
“You! How far did you fly from the mountain range?!”
Yep, she’s pissed.
«A few hours,» I said nonchalantly.
“Fuck,” She shouted, as if pissed after confirming her fears. So she knows where we are huh? Good.
She threw the map she had in her hand at me, and groaned outloud, before falling the the ground.
“That explains why it’s so late already,” She muttered to herself.
Hmm? Wait, «How long did it feel like to you?»
“Hmph… I don’t even remember a thing, between you appearing, and ending up here in this plain,” she said. “I thought those mountains over there were the same ones from before, but… They’re not. You fucking took me to another country… dammit!”
She had actually gotten a couple maps. I went ahead and unrolled them, looking at them carefully.
This looks familiar…
Hey, isn’t this a map of Europe and Asia—?
…
«Hey hey hey, What’s with this map?!» I cried out.
“What? You disappointed or something?” She asked with her spirit crushed.
«This, are you sure this is a map of this world?»
“Hmm?” She sat up, before looking down at the map. “Yep, this is a map of Ethorn, alright.”
«Ethorn is…?»
“It’s the name of the continent, duh,” She said as she rolled her eyes. This girl, I forgot she’s not that old, is she? Actually—I never got her name, did I?
I’ll ask later.
«Hmm, shouldn’t there be another continent, south of here?» I pointed my claw around the area that Africa should start.
“There is, but that region is mostly unexplored, and left out of most maps, because we don’t recognize any countries formed there.
Is that so? Is this mentality simply because of the geological rift between them?
«So where are we?»
“Here,” She pointed to a point on the map with a sour expression.
If I remember right…
That should be…
Who am I kidding?
I grew up in America; I don’t even remember where my Capital is.
“We were here, just before then,” She points a bit west of there. Actually, I do remember what country is there; Greece.
I crossed a sea to get to where I am, so the locations match up. I used magic to speed myself up, so crossing that amount of water shouldn’t have been too difficult in that time.
Anyways, the country we were in seems rather large compared to other countries I see outlines on the map.
But it’s not the largest country either. There’s another country that takes up a large chunk of Europe. Actually, I can see some borders even within that country, that are still marked as being one.
«What’s up with this country»
Her expression noticeably soured. “That is the Republic,” She hissed. “They’re a pretty large nation, however it’s also composed of smaller satellite nations. Most of them are Demi-human and Demon nations though.”
«Demi-humans and Demons?»
She looked up at me, before she seemed to remember I wasn’t familiar with this world’s terminology. “Demi-humans are creatures that look human mostly, but aren’t. The Beast tribes, Fae tribes, and Elven tribes are the most populace of demi-humans. Demons on the other hand are monstrous creatures—it’s believed that they are merely monsters who gained an ego of their own. A dragon like yourself would probably mistaken as a Demon.”
That was a pretty straightforward way of answering.
Demi-Humans = Would tap.
Demons = Probably wouldn’t tap.
I wanted to ask why she hated them, but she probably doesn’t have any other reason beyond xenophobia.
«So the name of the country we were in was Sailos Kingdom?»
“That’s correct,” … “You can read this map?”
«Huh? Oh, yeah?» It wasn’t in any language I should know, but I recognized the writing, and could understand the meaning of the words. I could even speak it.
“I see. That’s right, the Hero Summoning,” She said, leaving the rest unsaid.
«And the country we’re in now is Tenay,»
“That’s right! Your dumbass nearly got me killed!” She suddenly said with a shout. “Do you know what happens to a Sailos Knight in this country?! And you had me go get a map from them—!” She groaned out loud in discontent, before continuing. “I had to ditch my armor in the woods, and went back for it after. If they saw my armor, I would have been lynched! I had to enter the village in almost nothing by my undergarments and rags, because it was better than the alternative!”
«I didn’t tell you to strip down though?» I said, «Though if I knew you were going to, I probably would have followed to watch.»
I ignored her (clearly annoyed) response, as I begin to ponder the meaning of what I just learned.
So, is it like that? This world is basically a parallel version of Earth, but with magic?
Something came to mind—the multiverse theory mentioned infinite universes, where an Earth like mine exists, but each with a slight difference.
Just build up all those “slight differences”, and I guess you end up with Dragons and Magic?
…
Why am I thinking about this?
It’s not like I care too much—ah wait.
«You mentioned I was brought here by the What-Summoning?»
“Hero Summoning—not that you’re much of a hero,”
«So you’ve summoned other before me?»
She looked at me with a raised eyebrow, and folded her arms. “Of course. Ever since the Great Mage lent us use of the Hero Summoning, we have used its power to bring forth Heroes of great power, to aid our Great Kingdom—”
«You kidnapped people to fight your wars,» I gave her the most blunt answer I possibly could.
“It is by our right!” She shot back. “Ethorn’s will allotted us the power to advance our nation, so we took it!”
«Ethorn?» The name of the continent?
“The name of the Great Mage—Also worshiped by many as the Heavenly God. Creator of the Hero Summoning, and he who aided the first Hero in destroying the Dragon God.”
That guy’s got quite the titles. Great Mage huh? How many years did he go a virgin?
Ah no, he’s a cultist, so he probably had a lot of action, huh?
But that last part—«”Dragon God”?» I parrot the term in curiosity.
“As the legends go, with the exception of you—” She points at me to emphasis her words—”There is only one known Dragon to have ever spoken, and his power brought all dragons into accordance with his goals. It’s believed he was a timeless Demon. Ethorn gifted the first hero the power to destroy the Dragon God, which brought about—”
«Bullshit.»
…
Hmm? I expected her to say something in return, but…
«Tell me about this dragon god fellow?» I decided to ask. It already sounded fishy. So I wanted to match what this girl believed, and what I’ve already investigated.
She gave a deep sigh, and shook her head as if contemplating her circumstances. “Like I said. According to the legends, he was a Dragon who took on various forms and names. He ruled over and led all the Dragons, and waged war on all other nations at the time. Ethorn gifted Sailos Kingdom the power to resist him, which brought forth the first Hero. That hero was then gifted the power to kill the Dragon God.
“But that thing you said before. A curse on Dragons, was it?”
«That’s right. Going by your current explanation, my guess is that the gift Ethorn gave the Hero was a curse to make Dragons into nothing more than beasts»
“How would that even be possible?” She asked with a frown. But I didn’t know that myself.
«I’ve looked at every dragon from the camp before, and they all have the same bindings on their minds. Each of them is identical, and is amazingly powerful. It uses the Dragon’s own will to keep it locked in place,» I explained.
“... Could something like that be used on Humans?”
The answer is a “maybe, but probably not”, considering the curse uses the will of the dragon to maintain itself, so it would probably be less effective on things with lower awareness to magic…
Not that I’ll tell her that.
«Who knows? Anyways, I just brought you along as a guinea pig for the curse thing. I’m gonna take a nap. If you want to go, go. Not like you can cause me harm.»
I went ahead and stored the maps into my storage—Ah that’s right, Turkey.
In the old world this region should be called they, right?
Well whatever…
What to do…
Guess tomorrow I’ll see about that curse removal stuff.
Maybe…
That Republic this girl mentioned sounds like it’d be fine. She said I count as a demon right? And they accept demons—
Eh, I’ll just continue dicking around. Getting involved with some country is too much of a hassle.
Part 5
Dammit. What do I do now? I can’t cross into Sailos like this. No matter how I look at it; either Sailos will suspect me of being an enemy spy, or Tenay will have me killed on the way there.
There’s a chance I can convince Sailos otherwise, but it’s likely they’ve already marked me down as deceased.
In the end I’m stuck with this fool.
I’ve already purchased some clothes to wear, and replaced most of what I urinated on, but I can’t leave the armor behind—I still feel that I’ll be getting into more fights from here on.
I should have bought a blanket though… now that he mentions sleep, I can’t help but notice the overwhelming fatigue I had accumulated.
This pervert—he won’t force himself on me, will he?
No, he would have done so already by now.
Then, I decide to store away my armor into my magic bag, and try to flatten out the tall grass. I consider going back to the village nearby, but they probably already think I’m a suspicious person.
I don’t have much choice than to sleep outside in this wilderness. I’ve already gotten accustomed to sleeping out during long journeys, but these circumstances are much more different—in addition to the usual stress, there’s even dragon just a few meters away.
Dammit, I’m worrying too much.
I should be glad I was even allowed to live.
But what shall I do now?
----------------------------------------
Author Notes:
Everything after Part 3 was going to be another chapter, but I decided to just fuse the two into one. (which made it the longest chapter so far)
This chapter is mostly an exposition chapter.
Jason has gotten accustomed to living in another world, but unlike most Summoned Heroes, he skipped the "Introduction to the World" step, so he's doing that now.
Also, I mentioned the Knight's name in this chapter, but neither of the two have exchanged names...
Also, I'm going to be rethinking the direction of this story. I'm not quite sure where to go with this. I can think of various plots, and even have a rough idea for the ending, but I haven't mentally organized anything sequentially, or what comes in between.
I also feel that this last chapter was sloppy compared to previous chapters. But I may be over-thinking it.