The Foreigner on the Periphery

When word spread that Leo—a dragon widely known as an attention-seeker—had deviated from his usual route, none of his kin paid it much mind. In fact, very few dragons even knew about it.

The heart of Hong Kong was divided by a narrow, kilometer-wide strait, with the Kowloon Peninsula to the north and Hong Kong Island to the south. The dragon usually haunted Hong Kong Island. When he changed course and headed north, the others assumed it was just a whim. He was already a dragon who defied their common sense, so trying to guess his motives was pointless.

Callieter, in particular, offered this assessment.

"Does he want to put on a different kind of show today?"

She let out a faint sigh.

"Does he really want to draw attention during such chaotic times? Craving the gaze and praise of races other than dragons... it just cements my belief that he is suffering from some form of deformity."

Unbeknownst to her, that last remark had already been relayed to Minjun once before through Rod.

However, the nuance she conveyed now felt different from what Minjun had understood back then. The mockery and disdain toward Leo were faint; instead, her voice carried a deep, lingering bitterness.

Callieter asked a question.

It was neither a rhetorical question nor a mutter to herself.

Jenkinson, listening by her side, answered.

"An unsolved riddle. One that neither our ancestors nor their ancestors could figure out."

She dismissed the subordinate who had delivered the news and sank into thought for a moment before speaking.

"Riddles are meant to be solved, and problems resolved. It is strange that no one is actively trying to fix this phenomenon."

"Isn't that also part of our culture, handed down since ancient times? The maxim that even dragons shouldn't recklessly toy with noble dragon blood. The notion that dragon blood is not an object of study. Here on Earth, it isn't strictly forbidden by the Dragonic Code, but many other dimensions would punish it."

Jenkinson reflected on the past. The reason Jang Tae-jun had chosen Earth out of all the peripheral dimensions was likely because the Dragon Race's regulations governing dragon blood were less strict here than elsewhere.

The man had probably assumed that even if he were caught experimenting with the blood, he could smooth things over.

Even so, he would have been doomed the moment anyone discovered he was researching a virus meant to infect every dragon.

"But at this rate, the problem will never be solved, will it?"

"Before we even talk about a solution, many consider merely discovering the problem to be an issue in itself."

It sounded like a play on words, but Jenkinson was telling the truth.

"The high rate of deformities is probably a genetic issue. To fix it, wouldn't we have to tamper with dragon DNA? I can picture countless Ancient Dragons turning pale with disgust just at the mention of the possibility. They would roar that a dragon could never be subjected to modification. That we are already perfect, beautiful, and noble creatures just as we are."

But even just analyzing the DNA without altering it was a problem.

What if someone researched the genetics, screened out only the dragons who had zero chance of giving birth to deformed offspring, and made that information public?

It would distort their choices regarding conception and childbirth.

That was unacceptable. Dragons were not livestock. They were beings who should not be born through such selective breeding.

"Dragons are perfect?"

Callieter shot back at his words.

"That is a claim one can only make after burying all the deformed ones in the dark. The ones who forced those with flaws and shortcomings to stay hidden are the ones saying that. If you can't see them, it feels like they don't exist."

Jenkinson caught a strange undercurrent in her words.

He also remembered that Callieter's own child had been treated as a Hatchling for an unusually long time, even by dragon standards. Because it was a Hatchling, no one but its blood relatives had ever seen it.

"I spoke out of turn. Let's return to the main topic."

Ever since declaring her support for Jenkinson, Callieter had been helping him with surprising enthusiasm.

Today's meeting was meant to formulate a strategy for the upcoming election.

Right at the moment the two dragons changed the subject—

"Chairman Jenkinson!"

"Lady Callieter!"

Blair and Callieter's retainer rushed into the room at the same time.

They brought another piece of news about the dragon named Leo.

"What?!"

At that very moment, the other dragons besides those two were receiving similar news and reacting with equal shock.

It was because of the route Leo had revealed when he completely crossed the narrow sea between the Kowloon Peninsula and Hong Kong Island.

Unlike before, there was now barely a single dragon who hadn't heard about Leo's movements. It had become a piece of information so critical that the majority of the Dragon Race's subordinates had scrambled to report it.

Leo was heading straight for the Kai Tak Dimension Jump Terminal.

"Why in the world is he going there?"

They agonized over it, but no one made a move right away.

"Isn't the Hong Kong Terminal a facility fully owned by the Committee?"

"The airport right next to it belongs to the lord of this city. Raymond has surely already received a report on this."

Furthermore, Leo was Raymond's son. Taking that fact into account, the dragons refrained from intervening and merely kept a close watch on the situation.

Right up until the moment Leo ordered the evacuation of everyone inside the Terminal.

   *

=I will say this one more time. Everyone, get out of the Terminal! If you don't want to die!=

Leo's telepathic waves pierced the minds of everyone present.

The Lightning Dragon, draped in blazing lightning as he crossed the sea, had started issuing the command even before reaching the Terminal.

It was the middle of the night, and there were no Jump Ships entering Hong Kong from other worlds today, nor any leaving. With no passengers, most of the staff had already gone home. The building was dark, leaving only the security personnel on the Terminal grounds.

The facility and grounds were owned by the Committee, but the entity contracted to operate it was an Earth company, and the workers were humans from Earth. They had no intention of fighting a dragon who was screaming in fury and urging them to flee. Defeating a dragon in combat was nowhere to be found in their job description. Nor were they loyal enough to their employers to lay down their lives.

Consequently, every last security guard fled.

Crackle! Bzzzt!

Zzzzap!

Sparks flew between his deer-like horns, and the lightning that erupted from them raced across his scales, growing in ferocity. The lightning enshrouding him gradually thickened, flashing with intense brilliance.

The dragon looked down. Because he had warned them in advance, the Terminal was completely empty by the time he arrived.

In all his life, Leo had never fought anyone with all his might. As a Hatchling, he naturally had no such opportunities, and even after reaching adulthood, he only interacted with a very small number of dragons. Even during typical dragon disagreements—usually over the ownership of treasures or violently insisting they were right—he was the type to yield. He found the combative, desire-fueled temperaments of other dragons unpleasant.

So today, for the first time in his life, Leo unleashed his lightning with everything he had.

KABOOM!

The result was astonishing, even to him.

A waterfall of blue light cascaded from the sky above the Kai Tak Dimension Jump Terminal.

The citizens of Hong Kong had never seen bolts of lightning so thick.

"Aaaagh!"

"...My god!"

The lightning continuously, relentlessly hammered the Terminal grounds.

The Committee had set up anti-terrorism wards, but they were preparations for realistic threats. A dragon, however, was always an unrealistic threat. That held true even for the Committee, which boasted about having muzzled the dragons with money after the war.

The artificial island began to violently shake.

Explosions chained together as the buildings and the ground splintered and collapsed. The terrifying heat accompanying the lightning spawned a firestorm that swept across the earth.

Feeling a simultaneous mix of euphoria and disgust at what he had done, Leo poured down more lightning. It was a spectacle hard to believe was the work of a dragon his age. If a non-dragon race had seen it up close, the blinding flash would have incinerated their eyes. Though, of course, their bodies would have been fried long before they lost their sight.

CRACK!

BOOM! RUMBLE!

The ferocious light scattered outward from the Terminal.

It was the moment the Dragon Lord's temporary grave was exposed to the most brilliant spotlight imaginable.

Everyone was horrified by Leo's actions: the evacuating Terminal workers, the airport staff working right next door, the other dragons remaining in Hong Kong, the ordinary citizens, Minjun, and Kentius.

But there were some who felt a terror far more dreadful than all of their collective shock combined.

At that very moment, it was the pilots flying flight KE681, along with the flight attendants and passengers on board.

   *

"Out of control! Out of control!"

The captain tried to maintain his composure, but his call-outs were already bordering on screams.

The aircraft was thrashing wildly from side to side like a tiny boat on violently crashing waves. Its altitude was plummeting rapidly, and its trajectory was dangerously unstable.

The plane was currently crashing.

Every instrument panel was dead. The signs had been there since the control tower ordered KE681, which was preparing to land, to turn back. The captain had argued to proceed with the landing, but the tower was obstinate.

And then, a mountain of lightning rained down on the Terminal right next to the airport.

"Damn it! Gear up! Gear...!"

In an instant, the instrument panels froze, and the control systems stopped responding properly. The equipment might have been affected by that lightning strike. Or perhaps the Mana Crystals, which had replaced aviation fuel decades ago, had experienced severe interference from the colossal external Magic, cutting off the transmission of power.

Whatever the truth was, the captain was no longer curious about the reason.

The plane's trajectory had completely slipped from his control.

"We're down! We're down!"

The control tower gave no reply. The communication systems were broken, too.

"...!"

The captain gritted his teeth in grim determination. The plane had been right in the middle of preparing for a sharp turn when the lightning struck. Due to the sudden accident, the change in direction was left incomplete. As a result, the plane was not hurtling toward the runway or the sea, but plunging directly into the heart of downtown Hong Kong.

It felt like a fire was raging in his head. The captain knew he had to avoid the worst-case scenario at all costs. The crash was already inevitable. If so, he had to at least minimize the loss of life.

He desperately clung to the stubbornly unresponsive yoke. He strained with all his might to steer the crashing plane toward the ocean.

But things refused to go his way.

The captain's body was drenched in sweat. The first officer also wore an expression desperately trying to maintain his composure, but his hands were trembling fiercely. Through the cockpit door, the screams of the passengers rang out. The cabin pitched violently, and his vision shuddered non-stop. Beyond the dizzyingly spinning windshield, the city center came into view, holding countless lights like an inverted starry sky.

"No, it's no use!"

It was the moment the captain sensed the end.

"...!"

Something changed.

It was such a sudden change that neither the captain nor the first officer noticed it at first.

The ceaseless screams of the passengers beyond the door died down. A sense of unreality flooded the minds of everyone aboard the plane.

"...What is this?"

An incomprehensible scene was unfolding outside the window.

The movement of every object visible below had stopped. The cityscape that had been rushing up to meet them halted its expansion, remaining fixed at a constant distance.

"What is going on?"

The aircraft had stopped mid-air.

Considering the speed at which the plane had been plummeting, this was a phenomenon that should have only been possible after a long, drawn-out deceleration. Stopping dead in the air like it had been 'caught' should have caused the fuselage to shatter to pieces from the immense rebound force.

The captain frantically inspected the outside. He whipped his head around, securing a visual of their surroundings with his own eyes.

Just then, the first officer sitting beside him spotted something.

"Captain?!"

The captain turned his head and saw the exact same thing.

He locked eyes with someone.

"...Ah?"

It was a massive eye embedded right in the center of a bronze-colored island.

A moment later, the captain realized that what he thought was an island was actually the body of some creature. Long tentacles stretching from it reached all the way to the rear of the plane, out of sight.

What kind of situation was the plane in right now? It was easy to exercise his imagination.

And at that moment, the citizens of Hong Kong were witnessing with their own two eyes the very spectacle the captain could only guess at through his imagination.

They had already seen her a few days prior. It was just that they never imagined they would reunite with her like this.

The colossal tentacled creature that blotted out the sky had extended one relatively thin strand to wrap around the falling airplane.

No one wondered why the airliner hadn't shattered, or how such an enormous creature could suddenly appear in the empty sky.

They were simply awestruck.

=What in the...=

Most of them were also unaware.

Unaware of the fact that the giant eye set in the center of the mass of tentacles was blazing with immense fury.

=What is the meaning of this?!=

The furious telepathic waves of the tentacled creature echoed across the heavens.

The Princess of Endelion glared down at the center of Hong Kong, where consecutive catastrophes had nearly unfolded within the span of a few days. Then, she gently set down the plane she had snatched before it could crash, placing it at the airport. From the citizens' perspective, it looked as though a sideways skyscraper was moving with springy elasticity as it swept across the sky.

During that process, the Princess briefly fell into a reminiscence entirely unsuited to the situation. A memory from the past, when she had perceived a spaceship full of evacuating humans as a 'bug' and nearly shot it down. It had been right around the time she first began her life as a prisoner. It seemed that meager span of just over a hundred years had definitely changed a part of her. Despite returning to her true body, Del had reflexively reached out with a tentacle to save the airliner instead of using her telekinesis. It meant the situation had felt that urgent.

Shaking off the thought, the tentacled creature glared at the dragon once more with tremendous rage. The Terminal was a mess, but the most important Jump Ship guidance system remained perfectly intact. That specific area was protected by a ward impossible to destroy unless a swarm of Ancient Dragons attacked it en masse.

However, everything else outside of that building was...

=The crime of destroying the Committee's private property demands an appropriate punishment...!=

Before she could even finish her sentence, Leo spoke up.

The tentacle monster and the dragon locked eyes.

In that instant, Del thought that this young dragon looked extremely exhausted. She also got the feeling that something akin to madness was swimming in those eyes.

The dragon declared.

"I am turning myself in."

   *

"Is he... completely out of his mind?"

At that moment, Minjun was watching the scene unfold, absolutely flabbergasted.

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