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Chapter 204

When Vaje landed next to Dragon, the disproportionate difference in size between him and other dragons became very clear.

As a result of being trained by Dran, Ryoukichi, Bahamut and Alexander, Vaje herself is extremely strong amongst the Crimson Dragons, including both those of her generation and of older generations too.

However, this is only true among the Dragonkin whose flesh, spirits and souls have degenerated. When surrounded by True Dragons, who haven’t degenerated, even Ryoukichi and Kourin, not to mention Vaje, would be helplessly inferior.

Vaje is aware of this more than anyone else, and she was torn between wanting to desperately refuse to acknowledge this situation she was thrown into, and reprimanding herself for being rude to the revered top of her species, and it was wearing down her mental state.

Vaje’s mental state was under so much continuous torture, it was as if her nerves were being forcibly cut out of her body without any anesthesia, and then they were being thinly sliced by a broken and rusted blade, or as if heavy stones had been placed over her limbs to put continuous pressure on her bones and flesh.

Nothing would have made Vaje happier than to just roll her eyes back, spew out foam at the mouth, and just pass out, but she couldn’t do that. The tremendous pain and the great happiness that came from receiving this great honor, which all bombarded her like an awesome storm, showed no signs of becoming still.

As such, Vaje had no time to notice that her family, who had taken care of her and raised her with love all this time, were there, and looking at her in awe.

If Kourin, who understood the unintentional heartache that Dran had caused by standing at Vaje’s side, hadn’t helped her and just ordered her with a serious face to stand at Dragon-sama’s side, then Vaje would have would have raised strange sounds by now, and who knows what would have happened then.

While the gazes of the Dragonkin were focused on Dran, Bahamut and the others, Vergent and the other childhood friends and acquaintances of Vaje’s family were all looking at her. When Dran saw that Vaje was completely unresponsive to them, he could guess what she was thinking.

Dran looked sideways at Vaje’s face, which was tense with dignity, and he felt bad for making Vaje come to this place with him, which had placed a far heavier burden on her than he had expected.

And seeing Dran and Vaje like that, Bahamut also inwardly let out a small sigh.

Dran has known Vaje for longer than Bahamut has, so he knew that Vaje was actually a suitable mediator for the earth Dragonkin, so Bahamut hadn’t interfered with that decision, but now he was starting to regret not interfering.

Even before he had been reincarnated, Dran had always said that he wasn’t that noble of a being, but this idea itself was something that all the other Seven Original Dragons, the Divine Dragons, and the True Dragons, including Bahamut, would all disagree with.

However, Bahamut’s problem with Dran was that even though it’s good that he doesn’t think of himself as a noble being, it’s extremely difficult for others to think of him that way, and he needs to be more strongly aware of that fact.

He already understood that their Dragonkin brethren who lived on earth revered them, who had moved to the Dragon World. But Bahamut wanted him to put aside his own thoughts for now, and think about how the other side was feeling too.

It probably would have been better to introduce Vaje in a setting with less eyes on her, as one of the people who had taken care of him ever since his reincarnation.

It’s inevitable that Vaje will wither deeply that way, but it’s still a lighter burden than standing in front of a crowd while surrounded by an Ancient Celestial Dragon and Imperial Dragons.

It wasn’t just Dragon and Bahamut, but all the surrounding Dragon Gods began to feel sorry and guilty toward Vaje, and that was when Kourin’s introduction finally ended.

Next was Dragon’s turn, along with the rest of the dragons from the Dragon World, to speak directly to their Earth brethren.

Dran, who had found employment as the aide to a lord as a human, had needed to learn how to speak in situations like these, but here, it was more appropriate for Bahamut to be the one to speak, as the one who was recognized as a leader by everyone in the Dragon World.

The importance of this was equivalent to Mairahl or Keios descending to the earth and speaking to humans — and so Vergent and the others finally looked away from Vaje and turned their eyes toward Bahamut.

Their eyes were made to move by an absolute order, sent by instinct, not by reason.

As the ancestors of Kourin and Vaje and the others, they were Dragon Gods who were born from the tiny pieces of flesh and droplets of blood that were torn from the Founding Dragon’s body. And so that it wouldn’t be difficult for them to live on earth, with every passing generation, their descendants grew weaker, but Bahamut and Dran were made up of the Founding Dragon’s head and heart itself.

There was such an unfillable gap between them, no one would ever even think about comparing them.

「I shall introduce myself once again. I am Bahamut. I was born into this world as an Ancient Celestial Dragon, one of the Seven Original Dragons. My brethren, I am happy to finally reunite with you all in this land.

Just as the Fire Dragon Emperor Kourin explained earlier, my other fellow Seven Dragons, including Dragon here, have come from the Dragon World to meet you.

In the past, when we descended to this earth created by the gods, there was not yet any wall separating the earth from other worlds, and the gods and the Dragonkin could all wield their powers openly on earth.

Regretfully and tragically, many worlds were lost due to this, and the lives of those worlds’ inhabitants have also departed to the Underworld.

The reason why we created the Dragon World and migrated to the place where the Founding Dragon once existed, is because we did not want to repeat that tragedy again.

That is how the Dragonkin were divided between those of us who decided to move to the Dragon World, and your ancestors, who decided to stay on earth despite losing their powers, and now a long time has passed since then」

Bahamut waited for his words to reach his brethren, who were listening intently, and after a few moments passed, he continued to tell the story of their myth in a solemn voice.

Myth? Yes, this was a myth. The story of the creation of the Dragon World and of their distant ancestors who had chosen to remain on earth, told to them by a god, was a myth of legend for the Dragonkin on earth. How could the Dragonkin of earth not listen? How could they not take it seriously?

Vaje, who stood so still she looked like she had been stuffed alive, was temporarily freed from her daze by Bahamut’s voice, and she listened fearfully, as if making even a single sound would cause an outrage.

「Because we are oblivious to the flow of time, after we moved to the Dragon World, aside from when our brethren on earth were in danger, time continued to pass without us actively getting involved in your matters.

Just as they had already made the choice to split into a separate path, we chose to keep our former power intact.

We were concerned that if we interfered with your world too thoughtlessly, we might destroy it, but that changed when we received the advice of Dragon, who was reincarnated in this world.

We finally realized that due to the lack of interaction between us and all of you, a gap in our perceptions of each other was beginning to form. And although we are late, we decided to meet the descendants of our brethren once again.

My brethren who bow your heads in reverence to us, I understand that this will be difficult for you, so it brings me pain to have to say this, but we have come here because we wish you will stop lowering your heads to us」

The solemn tone that Bahamut had been using until then softened slightly, and changed into a bittersweet and troubled smile, which caused much bewilderment amongst Kourin and all the others who were listening.

What Bahamut had just said was equivalent to a god telling their followers that they need not have faith in them anymore.

From Bahamut and Dran’s point of view, these words came from a desire to reduce the excessive nervousness and reverence with which the dragons from the Dragon World were treated.

Since they were of the same species whose roots could both be tracked back to the Founding Dragon, they wanted to rebuild their standings to be as close to equals as possible.

For better or worse, the Dragonkin of the Dragon World tends to have a weaker sense of hierarchy than the Dragonkin of earth, and this can also be said for the other Seven Original Dragons besides Dran, such as Bahamut, Leviathan, Vritra, and the others.

The only ones who were surprised by Bahamut’s unexpected words were the dragons from earth. Dran, Kourin, and the others who had been told the story beforehand, didn’t show any sign of surprise, but seeing the bewilderment of their brethren made them realize the large size and thickness of the mental wall between them and the rest of the dragons on earth. They were now convinced that it would take a long time to reform that way of thinking from now on.