Ep 60. Just Like Before. (4)
The moonlight faintly shohrough the gap of the wooden walls. The world was as dark and as silent as it possibly could be, and the room of the magicked lodge was nothing short of fortable.
Everyone should’ve been asleep by now – even the dragonlord who’d ehe lodge much ter than others for whatever reason.
“…”
But squirm and shuffle as he might, Patrick couldn’t fall asleep. Troubles were pguing his mind, and hat he could do much about.
Everything had been so chaotice his little brother’s entrance exam to the institute.
- ‘If you lived as another entity for a single week, could you bee it for the rest of your life?’
The mage snorted as he reflected on the dragonlord’s words.
Serenis was right; after living as Patrick Parma for decades, he couldn’t just ‘bee’ someone else over a single week. And to her, his little brother Zion had been that someone.
Weeks prior, Patrick had spent a number of days reviewing his little sibling’s memories, who was now supposedly a dragonlord – and every single word she spoke of her past indicated her extreme age. It was only natural that her identity as ‘Zion’ would be mostly drowned out.
‘I mean, it’s not like I wao believe him…or, her.’
In the past, Patrick had taught his little brother Zion almost every aspeagical theories during their time together. And, to his surprise, they’d found that most of the theories the enforcer had taught the little boy still remained within Serenis’ head. Zion’s memories were definitely inside her.
But his little sibling was no longer just ‘Zion.’ The dragonlord possessed his little brother’s memories, but also so much more – her own memories, her own affinity, and even her own former heart.
‘And now you go around finding trouble left and right. Flying to a forest across the try, looking for a literal god. Pft.’
Before they departed Partivine, Patrick hadn’t really been able to articute why he wanted his little sibling to stay enrolled. Despite reizing the time waste that it was for the dragonlord, or how the forests may pose no dao her at all, the mage had still wanted Serenis to stay at the safety of their home and attend school as normal. But as Patrick tio refle the matter, he was slowly beginning to realize why.
‘I just…’
Click.
“…Hm?”
The mage gowards the door. He could swear he heard a clig side just now.
‘Did the front door just open?’
As he listened carefully, he could hear someone’s footsteps shuffling at the doorway before a sed click. Silensued afterwards.
Patrick slowly rose from his bed, swishing his finger in the air as the tip lit up in bright blue to illumihe dark room. While he didn’t have a eter with him, he could pinly tell how te it was from looking through the window-like gap in his room.
“…”
The mage slid out of his bed, following after the person that had just left the lodge.
? ? ?
“…Hey. Why’re you up so te?”
Serenis turned her head slightly to spot Patrick, exiting the house after her.
“I could say the same to you. Is it not well past your sleeping hours?”
“I’ll live. I o stay up pretty often when I’m w on cases anyways. But you’re still a kid on the inside, aren’t you? You need sleep. Or you’ll stunt yrowth.”
Serenis softly smiled at the jest aurned her gaze towards the sky. Unlike indoors, the forest was brightly lit with tless stars. The moon was almost at its full.
Patrick walked up to the dragonlord’s side, also fixing his gaze upwards. The glimmering night sky seemed a lhter than what he remembered.
“Patrick.”
“Hm? What’s up?”
“Am I not different from the sibling you remember me to be?”
“…You are. A little too much, to be ho.”
Serenis dropped her gaze back as she faced the mage beside her.
“Then why is it that you still treat me as such?”
“…”
When Patrick’s gaze met the dragonlord’s, he couldn’t bring himself to make another joke. Her expression was inexplicably apprehensive; regretful, even. Something he’d only seen on his job whe people who deeply regretted their as. For they, too, knew what their as had doo others.
To be fair, there were times when Serenis had worn this expression – in fact, she wore this expression quite often. But Patrick had seen the dragonlord doing so in silence, brooding over events past his uanding. It was never in his direct presence.
“Because you’re still my little sibling. You’re family.”
That was the only answer Patrick had to give to the dragon beside him.
Serenis closed her eyes as she reflected on his words.
“…Patrick. Hide it as I might, right now I am unmistakably human. Even the smallest bde could pierce my skin, and the shallowest toxins could still ail me.”
“What’s with you all of a sudden? Don’t tell me you’re scared? In human standards, you’re a walking disaster. If any human’s going to live a ko the gut, it’s you.”
A small ughter escaped the dragonlord.
“Perhaps. But despite being a human…I still mourn the demonkin’s demise. The loss of my old home. I am a human who wishes for demonkind’s prosperity.”
“…You know, people don’t even think demo nowadays.”
“But if they did, could we exist in harmony? Or would we fight until one subjugates the other, just like the past?”
When the dragonlord’s pensive gaze fell towards him, Patrick likewise looked to his side to meet her gaze. And when he did, she’d add:
“If I were to live as a demonlord, would I still be your sibling?”
Even though Serenis had once facilitated the dragonkin’s coexisteh man, the people that resided within the kin’s were far and few pared to the rest of mankind. With the infamy of other tribes, demonkind itself had bee beings to avoid at all costs for most.
And, somehow, this had still persisted into the present; worse, in fact. With y to firm or deny their imagination, mankind were free to depict demons as ideal antagonists of their every tale. Even dragons weren’t free from this rule; for most people, they were entities to be feared a far away, lest they actally trample the lives of anyone who es near.
But to rebuild her old home, Serenis couldn’t tio live as Patrick’s little brother Zion. Given the choice, she’d doubtlessly choose to be Dragonlord Serenis without a moment’s hesitation – and someday, she’d have to make the choice. Surely.
“...Hm.”
Patrick squinted his eyes at the st remark. Something was b him about that statement, but it took a few seds for him to realize why.
“So you’re worried because you’re not totally human? If that’s what’s keeping you up, then you’ve got nothing to worry about. You’re fetting the most important thing.”
“…Am I?”
“Yeah. You do realize Ilias has been staying at the city with other people just fine, right?”
“…”
“Go be a dragon all you want, you’re still my family – and to Light, so is Ilias. Sure, people are a little careful around her because she’s a dragon, but it’s not like aually hates her. You grow horns and wings and what have you ht, you’re still my little brother too.”
“…Is that so?”
“Of course. If you didn’t do anything wrong, then you’re not in the wrong. Who cares if you’re a dragonlord or a student or both at once?”
Serenis couldn’t meet Patrick’s eyes anymore, but a faint smile curved her lips as she thought about what he’d said.
Fifteen years ractically a tiny span of time for the dragonlord. If anything, she should’ve been able to brush off Patrick as a passing straill. And she’d been thinking it as aability if she was to recim her former position as a dragonlord someday.
But clearly, one’s past or future bonds did not have to invalidate the bonds of the present.
Despite having said that there was no distin between Serenis and Zion herself on multiple occasions, the dragonlord had found herself struggling to choose one of the two – when it shouldn’t have been a worry in the first po doubt that it’d be the same for her supposed older brother.
Patrick was grinning at his old, little sibling. Just as he always would.
“So stop w and go get some sleep, kiddo. It’s te.”
“…Patrick, my actual age is-”
“Oh shush, I don’t wanna hear how old you ‘were.’”
The mage grinned back, petting the dragonlord on her head. She wasn’t the little boy he knew so well anymore, but Patrick found things no different.
Serenis was still his little sibling. And that was enough for him.
