🐎 🐎 🐎
ON the day before our trip, I was reading in the library as usual when the emperor himself came in person to speak with me. He said it was to prepare me for our journey to the elemental palace, but I thought it would’ve been more appropriate for him to summon me to his office rather than humbling himself by coming to me. But when I tried saying that, the emperor just laughed and said that he’d spent so much time holed up in his office that he thought he might go mad if he didn’t get a change of scenery soon.
Heh, he has that in common with his younger brother Louis.
The first thing he told me was that only those who were bonded with a holy beast could enter the elemental forest. That confirmed my supposition that we would be traveling alone.
I can still bring Shinki, but how are we going to travel?
“Sache will join us so you and Shinki can ride together on her back.”
Oh, Sache’s coming too? Come to think of it, shouldn’t we ask Sol to come for something like this?
“Should I ask Sol to come?” I asked.
“I’ve already asked the elemental spirits to convey an invitation to the fire dragon, but he responded that there’s no need for his presence if Euche and I will be accompanying you.”
Whaaat?! Sol, that’s so cold! Would it kill you to come along for moral support?!
Seeing me stewing in indignation at Sol’s callousness, the emperor spoke up in his defense. “I believe he made this decision out of consideration for Euche and Sache’s feelings, not wanting to make them uncomfortable by repeatedly intruding on their territory. It’s also evidence of how much he trusts us.”
“How so?”
“For a holy beast to be able to entrust their bonded partner to another holy beast’s care, they first need to carefully consider their partner’s situation and determine that they trust the people around them. We have sworn that we will do nothing to violate this enormous trust the fire dragon has placed in us.”
I see. So Sol was actually being considerate? As usual, he couldn’t just be honest with his feelings and come out and say that, could he?!
“The fire dragon understands very well that primordial dragons, unlike other holy beasts, have massive bodies and incredible powers, so it’s impossible for them to always be by their bonded partner’s side.”
“Oh…”
Come to think of it, all of the other holy beasts I knew—blue pegasi, sky tigers, and earth tigers—almost never left their bonded partner’s side. Sol was the only one who wasn’t always hanging around close to me.
“Are all other types of holy beasts small enough to always stay with their bonded partner?”
Thanks to the books I’d read in the library, I’d learned of several additional types of holy beasts I’d never seen in real life. For water holy beasts, the only two types that had been confirmed were blue pegasi and ice monkeys. What was particularly interesting was that there was also an “opposite” for ice monkeys—fire monkeys.
This makes me want to complain to God for a variety of reasons! Did he make it this way simply because he was feeling lazy, or—and this seems more likely—did he get carried away with delusions of grandeur and think it would be super cool to create everything in opposing pairs?
Because they were opposites, whenever a sky tiger was born, an earth tiger would also be born, and when an ice monkey was born, a fire monkey would also be born.
I can just picture God grinning like a kid with his fingers in the cookie jar while coming up with this arrangement!
“All of the holy beasts known to exist on the continent of Larshia are small enough to stay with their bonded partners.”
Even Lars, who was significantly larger than any tiger on Earth, could live in the royal palace. And the imperial palace in the Linus Empire had been specifically designed to accommodate holy beasts.
It’s a little sad that primordial dragons are the only ones who can’t be with their bonded partners all the time. Maybe that’s why primordial dragons give their partner a dragon orb, so they can communicate via telepathy?
“I wonder if Sol is lonely…”
I asked the emperor, and he said that since the beginning of modern history, there was no mention of Sol ever bonding with anyone before. Although, that said, roughly 2000 years were still unaccounted for before the beginning of modern history. Everything before that belonged to a different linguistic family, so even if documents from that long ago could be found, no one could read them. And without computers, it would take an ungodly amount of time to decrypt those dead languages. Among the elves and the other species with long lifespans, some individuals made it their life’s work to research the ancient texts, but as of yet, no one had made any significant breakthroughs.
“According to Euche, just having the bond brings a holy beast great joy, but in the end, nothing can compare to being with their partner.”
Based on the way Euche was always begging for Celiunos’s attention, I figured that if he, as a holy beast, was saying that, then it must be true.
Even if Sol can feel our bond through the dragon orb, being together in person is still better! All right, I’m going to make a point of speaking with Sol more often!
Just as I decided that, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
This is the mister-emotionally-constipated Sol we’re talking about! Even if I contact him telepathically on a regular basis, who’s to say he’ll bother responding in a meaningful way?!
“Oh, we’ve also been instructed to bring along the monsters you’ve named.”