The day after we parted with Galeom, Kyel and I were spotted and picked up by the dragon riders that were dispatched to search for us. Riding double over Dragonbone Ridge was surprisingly terrifying. A normal dragon would be bedridden after carrying just one rider on the return trip. It wasn’t hard to imagine what would happen with the additional weight of another adult man.
I probably would have been calmer if I were in control. Having my life depend on someone else’s abilities was far scarier than facing an army of orcs. But as the one being saved, I couldn’t just tell them to hand me the reins.
When we arrived at the grand dragon house, Rigel ran over to us at full speed, getting down on his knees.
“Hero! I heard you braved great dangers to save our dragon brethren. As captain of the dragon riders, I offer you my utmost gratitude.”
“I lost the valuable dragon you lent me. I’m sorry.”
“Our fellow riders are more important than dragons. Please don’t think about it.” Rigel bowed his head and stood. Then, he suddenly turned to Kyel and hammered his fist into his face.
Kyel, who was barely managing to stand with a crutch, was helpless. However, he unsteadily stood back at attention.
“I heard Oifel’s report.” Rigel glared at him. “Not only did you lose a dragon due to your thoughtless actions, but you exposed the hero to danger. Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
“No, I do not.”
“We will have an inquiry another day. Lie low until then.”
Rigel pointed at the tunnel of the grand dragon house, and Kyel tottered in that direction along with two other dragon riders.
The old man was angrier than I expected. Perhaps I’d done something wrong. I didn’t know what I’d do if Kyel were relieved of his position. I had plenty more work I wanted him to do.
“Rigel, I braved the danger to save him precisely because I see potential in him,” I said. “Please don’t be too harsh.”
For a moment, he looked surprised, but that stern captain’s expression quickly returned to his face. “I appreciate the consideration,” he said. “However, as a member of the dragon riders, he needs to learn his lesson. Even if the hero expresses support for him, I can’t appear to give my grandson special treatment. The resulting rumors would be a serious problem for him.”
“My apologies. I shouldn’t interfere.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Now, then, I’m sure you’re tired, Hero,” Rigel said. “I have a room and a meal ready for you.”
Rigel called an attendant and ordered him to show me the way. We had only gone a few steps when he called me back.
“Hero.”
“What is it?”
“Thank you. You brought back my only grandson.”
He fell to both knees and covered his face. Not as the captain of the dragon riders but as a grandfather whose grandson was saved, he once again offered his gratitude with sobs in his voice.
“Please, think nothing of it,” I said. “I have high hopes for his abilities. I did it for my own reasons.”
“Understood! I will definitely retrain him to be a splendid rider who exceeds your expectations!”
The look on his face could only belong to a grandfather. You should have shown him that face, I wanted to say. But I decided I wasn’t going to stick my nose where it didn’t belong. If Kyel wasn’t going to be abandoned, there was nothing else I needed to say. My efforts had not been wasted.
I helped Rigel to his feet and let the attendant lead me away. After gulping down a hot meal, I threw myself onto a warm straw mattress. The fatigue reminded me I was alive, and in some strange way, it felt like I had set out just that morning.
Sortie, spotting, cannons, explosions, rescue, falling, dogs, shields, dust, flash, dust, horn.
With the events of the previous day circling around in my head, I was asleep before I knew it.
✦ ✦ ✦
It had been a while since I last had that nightmare. My nightmares were all the same. They were about returning from my first world.
“Where did you run off to?!”
No one believed me when I told them I’d saved another world. Of course they didn’t. They called me a liar. Only my mother was different. Only my mother believed in me.
My wise mother, however, could tell the difference between believing in her dear son and believing what he had to say.
She held my hand on the way to the hospital.
“His memories have been disrupted by intense stress.”
“As long as it doesn’t affect his ability to function, there is no need to hospitalize him. If you’re still worried… Sure. We’ll continue his counseling and see where that goes.”
She held my hand on the way back home.
But if I denied my memories, I would have nothing left.
I would be nothing.