“Then!”

Thinking it would be resolved more easily than expected, I looked at Spinel with sparkling eyes. But her expression had been less than favorable from the start. The reason became clear with her next words.

“The problem is, we don’t know where they are.”

“…What?”

“They’re a wanderer without a nest, so we don’t know where they are or what they’re doing.”

“This can’t be…”

The hope that had risen so high deflated. Leaning on the table like a deflated balloon, I sighed in disappointment. Spinel muttered to herself.

“Maybe Old Man Legias knows its whereabouts.”

“Legias?”

Seeing hope again, I quickly raised my head and looked at Spinel. She scratched her head with a troubled expression.

“Do you want to go?”

“Yes!”

There was no reason to refuse if there was even a glimmer of hope. Hearing my firm answer, Spinel nodded with a resigned expression.

***

We arrived above the active volcano and looked down at the magma spewing below. The intense heat and smoke made me frown.

“It’s down there.”

“Down… there?”

I asked, nervously looking at the bubbling lava.

I knew it wouldn’t be an ordinary place since it was where the red dragon lived, but surely it didn’t mean we had to go through that lava, right?

“It seems you’re scared now.”

“Well, if I go in there, I’ll obviously burn to death.”

It’s not as simple as going down in an elevator!

At my near-desperate shout, Spinel chuckled.

“Right, without dragon scales, it’s hard to withstand the heat.”

See? She knows it too.

“Don’t just laugh. There’s a way, right?”

When I urged her, she spread her large wings and transformed into a dragon. Her imposing presence, capable of creating a gust with a single flap, reminded me again that she was a dragon.

“How do I get in?”

Worried that my voice might not reach her massive size, I cupped my hands and shouted. Spinel’s large mouth opened wide.

Surely not, right?

“Wait a minute…”

I tried to resist with all my might, but it was a useless gesture before a dragon. I couldn’t even put up a proper struggle before being swallowed whole.

“If you were going to use this method, you should have told me so I could prepare myself!”

But there was no time to voice my complaints as my body tilted, and I hurriedly grabbed onto whatever I could. It was hard and sharp, probably Spinel’s tooth.

After falling for quite a while, I slowly regained my balance. Just as I was getting covered in saliva from being tossed around by her tongue, Spinel’s mouth finally opened. Without giving me a chance to speak, she spat me out like chewing gum.

“Ahhh!”

My body, launched into the air, landed on her back. I felt like my lifespan had shortened by ten years.

“Spinel, did I do something wrong?”

Spinel burst into laughter at my words.

Perhaps because I had been tossed around, I found it hard to get up due to dizziness. For a while, I lay on her back, looking up at the red sky.

“…Sky?”

Feeling puzzled at seeing the sky, which shouldn’t be visible, I sat up and took in the surrounding scenery.

The lava spewing from rocks spread endlessly, and numerous dragons could be seen around them. I marveled at the sight, which would be hard to see even once in a lifetime.

“Is this your hometown, Spinel?”

“Yes. It’s a tedious and boring place.”

Perhaps she had no fond memories here, as her dry tone conveyed no joy or longing for her hometown.

“Hold on tight.”

“What?”

As I dumbly asked again, I hurriedly grabbed onto the horns on Spinel’s back as her body descended rapidly.

Once again, my whole body shook from the rushing wind.

Had I known it would be this hard, I would have reconsidered coming here. With my body soaked in saliva and my stomach churning, I was filled with late regret.

“Did you have fun?”

She asked, looking at me after landing on the ground.

Fun? If I had fun twice, I’d probably die.

Spinel, who burst into laughter at my disheveled appearance, as if I’d been licked by a herd of cattle, snapped her fingers to clean the saliva off my clothes. With the smell gone, I felt a bit more alive.

“Is this Legias’ nest?”

I asked, looking at the entrance of a large rocky cave, and Spinel nodded.

“Stay close by my side. That old man has traps in his nest…”

“…What?”

I asked as I stepped ahead of Spinel into the cave, looking at the glowing red floor.

I mean, couldn’t you have told me that earlier?

***

After being engulfed in red light, I arrived in a small room. It was a room decorated with colorful cushions and blocks.

“Ha… Where is this now?”

As I glanced around the space that looked like a child’s room, something bumped into my feet.

“Huh?”

Looking down, I saw a small dragon the size of a puppy grabbing my ankle and looking up at me. It seemed to be a much younger individual compared to Spinel.

“Uh, hi?”

I awkwardly greeted the dragon holding my leg.

“Are you a human?”

The young dragon tilted its head and looked at me. It was as cute as a doll.

“Yes.”

I nodded, and the young dragon giggled as if it found something amusing.

“Why are you here?”

“I came to find a dragon named Legias. Do you know him?”

The child seemed uninterested in my answer to its question and shook its head side to side, following the tassels on my clothes. It acted just like a cat.

“Um…”

Lifting the young dragon that seemed uninterested in my words, I asked,

“I heard a dragon named Legias lives here. Do you know where?”

“Yes, I know.”

“Can you tell me where to go to meet him?”

“Will you play with me then?”

Well, I don’t have time to play with you. I need to reunite with Spinel.

“Play with me, human. Come on, let’s play!”

The child looked at me with sparkling red eyes. Its expectant gaze was somehow hard to ignore.

As I pondered what to do, I reluctantly nodded. There were many traps, so I didn’t want to move around recklessly.

“Alright. But you have to tell me afterward, okay?”

The child flapped its wings joyfully and flew into the air.

“What game do you want to play?”

“Let’s play hide and seek. Hide and seek.”

The room wasn’t very big, so there didn’t seem to be many places to hide. Thinking it wouldn’t take long to play hide and seek in such a place, I readily nodded.

“Then, you’re it, human. Count to ten and then come find me.”

“Okay, got it.”

I noted a few cushions where the young dragon might hide, then covered my eyes with my hand and turned around to count.

“…Eight, nine, ten! Here I come.”

Turning my head quickly, I glanced around the room. And then…

“Doors?”

Three doors, which hadn’t been there before, appeared around the small room. Sensing something was off, I looked around.

Contrary to my initial thought that there weren’t many places to hide, the young dragon was nowhere in sight.

“Where did I hide?”

With a giggling laugh, the child’s voice came from above my head.

“Did you hide behind a door?”

“Yes. Do you think you can find me?”

Well, if I open all the doors, I’ll find you in one of them. But why did you go to the trouble of creating doors just to hide?

When I was about to open the door in front of me without much thought, a cute but somehow chilling voice came.

“You only have one chance.”

“What?”

“There won’t be a second one.”

“……”

It was hard to just ignore those words. Of course, I could try opening the door anyway, but given the misfortune I’ve experienced so far, I had a strong feeling that I shouldn’t dismiss it.

It wasn’t simply a matter of finding the child or not. There seemed to be a more dangerous situation waiting.

“What happens if I get it wrong?”

I asked with a bright smile, and a lively voice came from above my head.

“Do you want to try?”

No.

It didn’t sound like a joke. In the end, it was a message to choose one and face whatever unknown danger might be there.

Considering this was a dragon’s nest, it was best to decide carefully.

“Um, what should I do if I can’t find you?”

“Then I won’t tell you the way out.”

Darn this little brat!

I sat down on the cushions and stared intently at the three doors. Whether I knocked or listened closely, the doors were just doors. There was no noticeable difference.

“How long are you going to stay still?”

“Wait a minute. I have to make a life-changing decision now.”

“But I’m bored.”

Then you could just tell me where you are! All you’re doing is speaking from above my head!

At the annoying urging voice, I finally stood up again and examined the area around the doors.

Hoping for some footprints, I searched the floor thoroughly, when suddenly, a familiar bug crawled down one side of the wall.

It was a mana sucker. Given that this was a dragon’s nest, it wasn’t unusual for a bug to appear.

“…But why is it moving?”

There couldn’t be a place with more abundant mana than here, so it couldn’t be moving because it was hungry.

Come to think of it, Spinel mentioned that while they like mana, they don’t approach her. That meant the bugs instinctively knew that dragons were dangerous.

I tapped the wall where the bug had crawled down. A hollow sound resonated clearly.

“Ha, this little brat.”

Once I understood the situation, I kicked the wall forcefully. Inside, the young dragon, with a surprised expression, was hiding.

“Hey.”

“Y-yes?”

I quickly lifted the flailing, chubby body and looked into its eyes.

“Did you dare trick me?”

“When did I trick you!”

“You said you were behind the door!”

“…I was behind the door.”

The red eyes rolled around evasively. Arguing with a child wasn’t something a respectable adult should do, so I suppressed my rising anger and asked.

“Then will you tell me now?”

“Tell you what?”

“You said you’d tell me where Legias is.”

“When did I say that?”

The kid pouted and pretended not to know.

As a respectable adult, I shouldn’t argue with a child…

“You little brat, can’t you just tell me quickly!”

“Aaah!”

“Tell me quickly!”

“It hurts, human, it hurts!”