TIRS 146

CHAPTER 146………………………………………………..

. First Snow After the Farewell

The two of them left the fortune-teller’s shop and walked down the street. The sky was dyed violet, and the vermilion lanterns shone all the brighter.

Each time a round lantern passed overhead, their shadows grew short, then long again.

“Orbis. There’s something I want to ask.”

“Go ahead.”

“The fortune-teller said that the gifts she received were from customers whose fortunes turned out well. So why did you give her a raw gemstone the moment you heard the result?”

What Orbis had handed the fortune-teller was an uncut ruby. It hadn’t been polished beautifully enough to be used as jewelry, but its clarity was remarkable—it would surely fetch a good price.

The fortune-teller hadn’t said anything particularly favorable. She had seemed genuinely perceptive, accurately seeing through Orbis’s nature, but her advice itself was nothing more than something anyone might say.

“I didn’t give it because of the fortune,” Orbis replied. “Like you, I wasn’t taking the divination seriously.”

“Then why?”

“Do you know when humans offer up something precious?”

He answered her question with another question. Ritania rolled her eyes slightly.

There were two cases in which humans offered something valuable.

One was courtship.

The other was prayer.

Orbis had once offered jewels to Ritania as an act of courtship. At the time it had only made her uncomfortable, but those countless gifts were undeniably expressions of his affection for her.

If he had courted her with gemstones, then the reason he had given a ruby to the fortune-teller was probably—

“Didn’t you say that if you were going to pray, it would be better to go to a temple?”

“Rumor is a religious nation. That’s why they consider divine dragons not gods, but merely a type of monster.”

If the god worshiped in Rumor truly existed, that god might listen to the prayers of humans—but it would never accept the prayers of a divine dragon.

So had he prayed instead to a fortune-teller who had been excommunicated from the faith?

Ritania felt she was beginning to understand Orbis’s twisted way of thinking.

She lifted her head and looked up at the sky.

The alley was so narrow that two people walking side by side nearly filled it, yet the sky visible beyond the rooftops was dizzyingly vast.

Perhaps, seen from that distant sky, people wandering through these maze-like streets would look pitiful and frustratingly small.

But the place where humans lived was this tangled ground below—not the boundless sky.

And so humans continued to wander, yet kept moving forward in search of answers.

“You’ve started thinking in very human ways, Orbis.”

“It’s because of you.”

“Haha. Is it because my name means ‘prayer’?”

Ritania Veriberbium. A true prayer.

Yet contrary to her name, Ritania had nothing she desperately wished for right now.

She had already decided to live in this world, and she had chosen to travel with Orbis to bring closure to their love.

She was no longer afraid of him, nor did she anxiously seek to escape from him.

It was truly strange.

Why was it that when she had wished so desperately, fate had always torn her hopes apart—yet now, when she had given up everything, the peace she longed for finally arrived?

“Orbis. I resented you, but I don’t wish for you to be unhappy.”

She hadn’t forgotten the wounds. Nor had she forgiven him.

But neither did she wish for him to give up on everything and live buried in the past.

“If the end of our love is unhappiness, that would be too sad.”

“…So that’s why you decided to remain friends.”

“Hmm. I’d actually forgotten about that.”

When Orbis had first suggested they were still friends, she had been taken aback. But now, she was glad for it.

It gave them a reason to walk the streets together, to exchange trivial conversation.

They could no longer grow closer—but they wouldn’t drift farther apart either.

“I think this is the perfect distance for us—close enough to protect each other without causing pain.”

Persuading the king of Rumor to eliminate the source of conflict wasn’t difficult. They feared the power of the divine dragon more than she had expected.

It wasn’t simply that Orbis was a divine dragon capable of causing disasters—they were afraid that if he demonstrated his power here, the authority they upheld in the name of religion would collapse.

A religious nation, yet in the end they’re just using religion as a tool to maintain power.

Ritania found their behavior contemptible, but she couldn’t point it out. She was the imperial princess of Veriberbium, not a citizen of Rumor.

Even if she exposed the truth under the pretense of righteousness, it would only be the people of Rumor who suffered. For a foreigner to interfere would be an overreach.

All we can do is wait for the people of Rumor to awaken on their own.

When they left the palace after the talks, white snowflakes began to fall from the sky.

“Oh? Orbis, this is…”

“It’s the first snow of the year.”

In Veriberbium, the first snow had probably fallen long ago, but since they had passed through the warm region of Sermo before arriving at the highlands of Rumor, it had taken longer for them to see it.

“You’re right. It’s the first snow…”

The snow fell quietly. Ritania watched in silence as white covered the red earth.

Though each flower-like crystal was too small to grasp, together they embroidered the vast land in white. Watching fragile snowflakes crumble at a touch as they piled atop rocks that seemed unbreakable even by hammers felt strangely miraculous.

“To reach the Duchy of Diphamo, we’d have to cross two mountains. If the snow piles up like this, we might get stranded.”

“Then shall we return to Veriberbium?”

Ritania opened her mouth and exhaled. White breath rose and dispersed in the air.

“No.”

“Then do you plan to alter the route and travel by boat along the river?”

“Not that either. I didn’t set a deadline, but if we dawdle too much, His Majesty will start breathing fire.”

“Humans cannot breathe fire.”

“Haha. You know what I mean.”

Ritania rubbed her cheeks, already red from the cold. White specks of snow clung to her soft brown hair, yet somehow not a single snowflake rested on Orbis’s head.

“Orbis. I’ll accept what you suggested before.”

“What are you referring to?”

He claimed to remember everything she said, yet seemed to have forgotten his own words.

Clicking her tongue softly, Ritania beckoned with her finger.

“You forgot? You said you’d let me fly through the sky on your back.”

“….”

When she had been learning to ride, Orbis had persistently suggested she ride him instead of a horse.

At the time she’d refused, but now, rather than struggling through snow-covered mountains or taking a long detour along the river, wouldn’t it be better to fly through the sky on a dragon?

“I’m a little worried about the altitude, but… you won’t drop me just because you can’t handle one human, right?”

“That’s not what I meant—”

“Why? Did you change your mind and decide not to let me ride?”

Orbis looked at her as though he had much to say, then let out a small sigh and shook his head.

“…No.”

“Wow, it’s so high!”

She had worried it would be freezing at such altitude, or that she’d be blown away by the wind—but it was unfounded.

Whether Orbis had cast some kind of protective magic or not, it was far less cold than standing on the plateau, and the wind wasn’t strong either.

Though there was no saddle or reins like a horse’s, the steel-like muscles beneath the thick scales of the massive dragon gave her more than enough stability.

Mounted on his dark-blue back, Ritania looked down at the ground. The vast red plateau and white palace looked tiny, like toys on a map.

Beyond the long river, snow-covered mountains stretched out in white. The world beneath the sky was beautiful—so much so that her earlier fear felt silly.

“It’s amazing… the clouds look just like waves.”

Her chest swelled even more than the time she had once gazed at nature while held in Orbis’s arms. Spellbound, Ritania stared down at the scenery.

“So this is the view you’ve always seen while flying.”

She gently stroked Orbis’s back. The enormous scales, too large to grasp in one hand, looked as though they could be torn off and used as a weapon.

“Ritania. I would prefer it if you didn’t touch that spot.”

“Ah!”

Perhaps because he was in dragon form, Orbis’s voice sounded almost like a direct transmission into her mind.

“I’m sorry. Did it hurt?”

“It’s just a place you’ve never touched before.”

“So even dragons feel pain when their scales are touched.”

“….”

Orbis didn’t answer. The scales covering his back flattened. Could he even control the angle of his scales? Ritania watched in fascination.

“But if we enter the Duchy of Diphamo like this, won’t it seem more like a threat?”

“It will make negotiations with the Grand Duke easier.”

“Hm. That’s true.”

Ritania leaned forward slightly against Orbis’s back.

As if understanding her intention, the dragon’s wings tilted, and his dark-blue body began a slow descent.