I walked on and on, breathing hard. I wasn’t even sure if I was moving forward. I got the feeling I was lost again. It was far easier to walk here than in that primeval forest, but wherever I went my surroundings looked the same. I began to feel driven into a mental corner, like I was expending needless energy.
“Huff… Huff… Where am I?”
Did this castle even exist?
“May I help you?”
Again, I suddenly heard a voice.
Colorful seashells had been stacked on the beach. From their shadow, a peculiar creature resembling a cross between a pretty girl and a sea anemone was peering out at me.
“Uh…”
Her small face poked out from a soft-looking pink body. On the opposite side were four fingers whose tips were adorned with nail art. Before I could ask my question, the mermaid said perceptively, “You’re looking for the castle, aren’t you? Don’t tell anyone else!”
“Wait!” I called after her, but I was too late. I was surrounded by pure white clouds. “Oh! Where am I?”
Since everything was white, I didn’t even know which way was up. I was worse than lost. A horrible anxiety overcame me.
“I can’t see a thing! Ugh…”
Would I simply disappear? I started panicking.
“How silly. You got tricked,” a voice said.
“Huh?!” I whipped my head around. “…Oh!”
A creature was floating in the sea of clouds.
It was the angel AS. It flapped its soft white wings.
“You’ll never find it at this rate.”
“You…know about the castle?”
“Don’t worry about that. Play with me instead.”
The clouds gradually cleared to reveal a vista of mountains. A narrow path climbed a sunny slope into the distance.
“Follow me up this path,” the angel AS said, twirling invitingly into the distance.
“Hey, wait!!”
I hurried after. Far above the mountains, beyond the towering clouds, an enormous form lurked. I stared at it. The clouds continued to clear. Between them, I could see what looked like a building. What is that?
Its bizarre form was covered in strange markings.
“…The castle!!”
Could this really be the Dragon’s castle, like Hiro had told me? I placed my hand on the huge door, still unsure.
Crrreak…
It opened just a crack. The angel AS slipped through.
Should I follow?
I can’t say I didn’t hesitate. But I’d set out to find the castle, and I’d gone through a lot to get this far. I summoned my courage and pushed the door all the way open.
Crrrrreak…
“Hello? Is anyone here?” I called.
The place seemed abandoned. I squinted into the darkness, and slowly, my eyes adjusted. My heels clicked across a marble floor inlaid with a lattice pattern. A sweeping staircase rose from the center of the high-ceilinged entrance hall, like you’d see in a medieval castle.
“Wow…” I couldn’t help gasping as I stared up at it.
But as I looked closer, I noticed bizarre forms carved into the ceiling and thick, sturdy pillars. It wasn’t a classic medieval castle after all. Here and there, I spotted what looked like digital noise. Maybe the castle had been abandoned when its data got corrupted.
“Hurry,” the angel AS said from the top of the stairs. I ran after it.
Somewhere nearby, I heard girls whispering.
“Why is she here?”
“We tried to stop her…”
It was the mermaids who had sent me in the wrong direction. They were hiding behind a column on the balcony. I was sure of it.
As I walked down a long hallway, I heard whispers again. They were behind a scary-looking statue.
“What should we do?”
“Master will be furious…”
I kept walking, pretending not to hear.
I followed the angel AS into a courtyard. In the center was a squared-off pillar, like an obelisk, but halfway up it broke into spinning pixelated cubes. More corrupted data. But my eyes were drawn by something else.
Roses.
Roses blooming wildly in these digital ruins.
“…They’re beautiful.”
They were just like real roses. White, red, pink, crimson, even black. I pulled back my hood and walked up to them. Their unmistakable sweet fragrance filled my nostrils.
“I grew them,” the angel AS said, as if it couldn’t resist boasting. “My secret roses…”
“Secret?” I echoed, taking one in my hand. “What kind of secret?”
In place of an answer, I heard a monster’s roar behind me.
I looked around in surprise. The Dragon emerged from the shadow of a pillar.
“What are you doing here?!”
“Oh…!”
I was too shocked to move. With an irritated scowl, the Dragon circled around and stepped between me and the roses.
“Why did you enter without permission?!”
“I… It brought me here—”
“Leave!!” the Dragon shouted without letting me finish.
“But—”
“Leave!!” he said again, then vanished from the courtyard.
I stood rooted to the spot, my knees shaking. Finally, I shook my head, forcing myself back to my senses.
“…Wait!” I called, chasing the Dragon down the long hallway. “I came here because I wanted to ask you something!”
The Dragon was wearing tattered old clothes. Still, his countless wounds were marked in the same places they had been the day he wore the red cape. It seemed the data for the wounds was displayed even when he changed clothes.
“Who are you? Who…?”
But the Dragon kept striding forward until he emerged into a large room.
“Answer me!” I called. Suddenly, he turned and screamed at me, a terrifying look in his eyes.
“Get out, or I will rip you to pieces!!”
His voice echoed across the crumbling ballroom. I trembled in fear that he really would rip me apart with those sharp teeth. Still, I gathered my courage and stared him dead in the eye, determined not to lose this battle, at least in spirit.
“Hnnn…”
Just then, I heard what sounded like a whining puppy. It was the angel AS.
It drifted toward us like a falling autumn leaf, then flew away as if blown by the wind.
“Where are you going…?” the Dragon asked worriedly, chasing after the angel. His voice was unrecognizable from the one he’d used with me a moment before. I didn’t know what to think.
The angel only whimpered in response.
“Wait,” the Dragon called.
The ballroom had twelve round gates in a circle, each with a distinctive mark drawn above it. Still whimpering, the angel left through a gate with a spiral mark. The Dragon followed. I followed the Dragon.
I craned my neck up as we climbed a cracked spiral staircase. It was pixelated in several places where the data was corrupted. At the very top was a balcony. Part of the exterior wall’s data was visible, as if the building had been abandoned halfway through construction. The angel AS floated outside the balcony, sniffling.
“Wait…,” the Dragon said, leaning so far over the balcony I thought he might fall. He cupped the angel AS gently between his hands, then carefully brought it toward him so as not to hurt it. When he opened his hands, the angel’s chest was blinking like a heartbeat.
“Trouble…? Are we in trouble…?” the angel asked in a barely audible voice.
“No, it’s fine… Everything is fine,” the Dragon answered, his voice tender. I glimpsed a sensitive thoughtfulness completely opposite from his fearsome appearance. I stared at him from behind.
Before I knew what I was doing, I asked, “Which is it?”
“……?”
The Dragon looked back at me with sharp, questioning eyes.
“Which one is the real you?” I asked directly.
“……”
Without answering, he walked away. I ran after him as he strode briskly down the hallway.
“Wait!” I called.
He turned a corner, opened a large door, and entered a room.
“Stop!!”
Just before I reached the door, he slammed it with a bang.
“……”
I rested my hand on it, at a loss.
I was thinking about the Dragon. Who was he, really?