The Adventure of a Boy with the Mind of a Middle-Aged Man

"Hm?"

Suddenly, a voice reverberated within my head. I scanned my surroundings but didn\'t see anything other than the burnt lands via the fiery flames a short while ago.

"I thank you for releasing my soul."

I tried focusing my vision and saw a blue speck floating just in front of me.

Release, huh. That means---.

"So you\'re that undead blue dragon?"

"Yeah, that\'s me. It\'s pitiful, but I was defeated by that flame monster and turned into an undead."

"I see. My condolences."

Most things hit by that attack would have probably been burned to a crisp without offering any resistance. He was just unlucky.

"No. That body was reaching its limit, so it was about time it was destroyed."

"Oh, That\'s quite the subjective statement."

An ancient dragon. I\'m really interested in how they function.

"That\'s also wrong. We are not very attached to life or death. In fact, as long as we have our soul, we could create another body given a couple dozen years."

"So you\'re eternally immortal. That\'s sounds too good to be true."

"That\'s not quite right either. If we\'re turned into an undead and our soul bound, the strong our soul is, the worse it gets. This incident has drilled that into me."

"I see. So, if you have no business, then I\'m going to go back. I\'m quite tired, you see."

I was seriously on my last legs. I had casted the grand spells,【Crimson Meteors】and【Birdcage】after all---I was out of gas, so to speak. I wanted to refrain from any useless banter. If he wanted to go to heaven then just go.

"Then let me ask you one thing."

"What?"

"What are you trying to accomplish with that much power?"

"I\'m trying to open truth\'s door of knowledge."

"......"

The blue dragon was speechless at my prompt response.

"......Are you saying that despite understanding the weight of your words?"

"I probably understand more than you."

Magic opens up new windows into the unknown, but those windows are merely vague outlines. And the other side of those seemingly close yet far windows might even lead to destruction. Even still, it\'s infinitely better than stagnating. The other side contains knowledge that would tingle my unknowing soul, after all.

And I---.

"......I see. That sounds interesting."

Ever since, that voice never came again. He probably ascended to heaven or something. Honestly, I couldn\'t care less about what had happened to the ancient dragon.

Now, there was no reason to stay here any longer. I\'d like for my participation in this battle to be kept as much of a secret as possible. It would be much more convenient to keep myself hidden while I conducted my schemes, after all. More precisely, I\'d be under the appearance of keeping myself hidden.

I casted【Wind Manipulation】and floated into the air, gliding over the castle gates all the way to my room in Straheim\'s Sagami Co. before diving into my bed.

"Just like always, it\'s an old bed." I thought. "This goes on the checklist too......"

And with that idiotic thought, I crashed.

After a familiarly unfulfilled sleep, I opened my eyes to see my maid, clutching me in her sleep like I was a hug pillow. On top of that, Drahachi was snoring while attached to my stomach.

I\'m not a hug pillow. Well, they were a child and a dragon; it was useless to try to persuade them.

"And you are?" I asked the beautiful woman who was reclining on the chair while curiously observing me.

"Me? Guess."

Really? My head was pounding like I had a hangover, and I really didn\'t want to use my brain at the moment.

"A pervert?" I guessed.

"Look here......"

She kept her usual smile, but a vein bulged on her forehead.

"Hm. That\'s what people in society call those who regularly enter another\'s room without their permission. Forgive me."

"The cat\'s already out of the bag!"

"You could say that."

I had just recently heard her clear voice, and there was her blue hair to boot. I had noticed mid-sentence."

"What an inconsiderate guy," she huffed.

"So? How did you get that body?"

"Trade secret."

"Hey!!"

I was already at my worst condition, and I wanted at least a smooth conversation.

"I mean, you\'ll definitely get angry if I tell you."

She crossed her arms and fidgeted, averting her eyes away.

I have a terrible feeling about this.

"What did you do?"

"Well, it\'s water under the bridge, so it\'s fine, right. And I swear I\'m not the sort that\'ll trouble you. (Although I\'m not sure about now)"

No trouble, huh. If so, then it\'s a trivial matter.

Besides, this headache made me not want to think too hard. Let\'s go back to sleep.

I shut my eyes once again and began drifting off to sleep.

"I am Sylphid. You can call me Sylphi. I think we\'ll be together for a while, so nice to meet you."

How unlucky.