"Pardon?"
"I said, what exactly did you just say?"
“Uh, well... um...”
Though the die had been cast, my uneasiness hadn't diminished in the slightest.
It was just a simple question, and yet it felt like I couldn't breathe due to his suffocating aura.
I didn't even want to imagine what might happen if that man - no, that dragon – were to truly direct his wrath at .
"... Aha."
As I hesitated for a mont, lost in my thoughts, the old man's lips curled into a smile, and he whispered in a friendly tone.
"Could it be... you were joking with ?”
"I asked what kind of dragon you are, and you answered human― was it a polymorph pun?”[1]
For a mont, I was utterly dumbfounded. What in the world was this man – no, this dragon – talking about?
-
"Hahaha... A millennium-old joke, is it? That's quite clever of you, I'm impressed."
"I wasn't joking..."
"Co now, don't push it too far."
Muttering under my breath, I felt the atmosphere grow even chillier, and the old man glanced at reproachfully before speaking again.
"Are you seriously trying to claim that you're an actual human?"
"... Yes."
"Haha, surely that's impossible. Enough joking around.”
I tried to nod again, watching his reactions carefully, but the old man had already dismissed entirely, launching into his own narrative.
"I have much to do, what with preparing to take over the world, and here I am indulging in jokes with you. Ridiculous."
“It's not joking; it's the world that's joking with ...”
"Even under less-than-ideal circumstances, I went out of my way to prepare that dimwitted fool tied up next to my daughter for this mont.”
I wanted to shove the truth into his thick skull right then and there, but sensing that he was about to explain sothing crucial, I held my tongue.
I also made a conscious effort to ignore the professor, who had been staring at with a dazed, almost foolish look the entire ti.
"Did you know? That idiot may be foolish, but she has a rather unique ability."
"I-I... I'm not an idiot..."
"The fool can summon beings from dinsions beyond ours. Higher-dinsional entities far above this world."
Ignoring Lovecraft's indignant muttering, the old man smirked faintly as he continued.
"And that, you see, is the very power I've been searching for over the past several millennia.”
"... I see."
"Indeed. The curse I cast upon the entire world, sacrificing half of my strength, was all in pursuit of that power."
"Wait, you were behind the curse, sir? Is that really true?"
Unwilling to let such a bombshell statent pass without comnt, I interrupted, and the old man, wearing an unnervingly kind smile, responded.
"Feel free to call father-in-law."
"... Ah, um. Yes."
"Go on."
"... Father-in-law."
Only then did the old man, satisfied, break into a beaming smile and continue speaking.
"Of course, it wasn't an easy task. My power was halved, and in the end, I even allowed so pesky little ambush to catch off guard."
“... Th-Then, am I also affected by the curse?"
"But does it even matter now? In the end, I've successfully resurrected myself, and by chance, I've also discovered the perfect vessel for wielding the power of the outer dinsions!"
Lovecraft, bound beside the professor, began to mutter in a daze, her expression utterly vacant. But the old man, his eyes gleaming with a chilling light, showed no sign of paying the little girl any attention.
"You said all dragons were annihilated, didn't you? Well then, it's only a matter of ti.”
"If the power of the outer dinsions combines with ours... do you not think it would be more than sufficient to take this world into our grasp?"
His argunt made a certain kind of sense, yes.
Though, there was one thing I found rather questionable.
"That's certainly true, but... isn't that a bit excessive just to take control of just one puny little world?"
“WAHAHAHAHA! My daughter certainly picked the right son-in-law, didn't she?"
When I cautiously prodded at him, the old man suddenly burst into laughter and made that declaration.
"Indeed, just this world... no, just this dinsion alone would be insufficient."
"Then, surely you don't an...?"
"I didn't halve my powers to curse the entire world for no reason, you see.’
The words that followed were enough to leave everyone in the office utterly speechless.
"I have no intention of being satisfied with rely seizing this dinsion.”
"T-Then..."
"We must advance to more worlds, to more dinsions, must we not?"
It seed the ultimate goal of the being before , however absurd it may have sounded, was dinsional conquest.
"That... sounds a little difficult to pull off...”
“Listen here, son-in-law. Across all dinsions, finding soone who can wield outer-dinsional power without severe penalties is an extrely rare phenonon."
"And how do you know that?"
I asked, my tone growing increasingly sceptical, but the old man simply responded with only a chilling smile.
"A being like , living for thousands, even tens of thousands of years, naturally attains divinity."
"Peeking into other dinsions is hardly a challenge anymore."
Good God. What kind of being was I even standing before?
What kind of being is he? A glitch, a bug in the system, one so rare it's almost impossible to find across all dinsions.
If left unchecked, everything he's said will co to pass- it's only a matter of ti.
You have to stop him, no matter what.
As cold sweat dripped down my face, ssage after ssage popped up before , written in the most serious font I'd ever seen from the system.
Since I risked the collapse of dinsions to bring you back here, you could at least do this much for us, couldn't you?
Right. The reason this being was able to resurrect himself was because I, who had filled in all the narrative gaps and disappeared, returned to this world.
Had I not returned, this anomalous existence would never have made his way back to London.
And even if he did, it would have been in a distant, far-off future.
So, it was my responsibility to deal with this.
But how?
"Excuse , I have a question."
As I desperately racked my brain, fiddling with the final trump card I'd received from Miss Mycrony, Charlotte's voice suddenly
rang out beside .
"Why would soone with such grand ambitions desire children and grandchildren?”
..?"
The old man's expression briefly shifted to one of confusion as he glanced around, searching for the source of the question.
"Ah, my apologies. I did not notice you there."
When he finally spotted Charlotte standing next to , he let out a soft chuckle and replied.
"But you cannot fault here. Tell , do you take much notice of mosquitoes and flies that can be swatted away with a single hand?"
"Do pardon for the comparison.”
Though he spoke without any overt malice, the sheer weight of his presence was enough to make my legs feel weak.
"Ah, and I have delayed my answer, haven't I?"
"Uung?"
"Ung?"
"Well, because they are simply adorable, aren't they?"
It was hard to reconcile the sight of such an overwhelming being poking the cheeks of what seed to be my presud children
with his fingers, smiling as if he were their doting grandfather.
"And there aren't many who can fully withstand the superior power inherited from , surpassing that of any other race."
“”Kyaah~””
"Most of them lack the capacity and end up dying as infants.”
As the old man tickled the sides of the giggling children, he glanced at Professor Moriarty, who had been staring at in stunned silence this entire ti and muttered softly.
"My dearest Jane was the first child in my lifeti who didn't die..."
. Then, she must have been an incredibly precious daughter to you?”
"Indeed. Though she did stab my weakened heart... But isn't it natural for children to threaten their parents' lives at least once
during adolescence? Ha-ha..."
His response made genuinely curious about what kind of societal structure dragons operated under.
"Oh my, but what should we do?"
Charlotte's voice suddenly broke through the tension, her tone laced with a teasing laugh as it echoed through the office.
"For such children, it's unfortunate that they now have the inferior blood of humans mixed in, from your perspective."
"What do you an by that?"
The old man's expression stiffened with displeasure as he asked, and I knew it was ti to clarify the truth once again.
“Uh, well... I an... I've been saying this all along, haven't I?”
"You..."
"I am human."
And then, there was silence, deep and unnerving.
"... Jokes are only amusing when done in moderation, child.”
Amidst the suffocating stillness, the old man, who had been staring at with a dumbfounded expression, finally muttered, his
face turning cold for the first ti.
"Don't you think you're starting to cross the line here, hmmm?"
His voice alone was enough to make my heart, along with every organ in my body, feel as though they were freezing over, sending
shivers through .
"Then why don't you verify it for yourself?"
Yet, despite the terror gripping , I clenched my teeth and forced the words out.
"Haa..."
The old man let out a weary sigh at my defiance, his eyes flashing with a dangerous gleam.
But just monts later, his eyes widened in shock as he stared at .
- Creeeak...!
Then, suddenly, he shot up from his seat.
-Step, step...
As he approached , his face pale as a ghost, I tried desperately to maintain a calm expression, even as cold sweat poured down
my face in streams.
But when he finally stood right before , gazing down with a dark, piercing stare, I couldn't hold onto my composure any longer.
"You..."
How much ti passed as he lood in front of , I couldn't tell.
"What the hell are you?”
The old man's enraged voice broke the tension, reverberating through the office once more.
"You don't sll enough like a human to truly be one, and yet, if you're not human, sothing about you doesn't add up.”
"If this is so kind of polymorph trick, let it end here. I'll grant you a final shred of patience for my daughter's sake...”
His interrogation supercharged with his murderous aura made feel as though I might faint on the spot, but I had no choice but to press on.
"Ah, well, the thing is... I used to be a devil, you see."
"What?"
"And, well, I was also a True Vampire once.”
One mont of hesitation. That was all I needed.
"And now, having lost all my powers, I'm now completely human.”
If I could create even the smallest opening in this monstrous being's defences...
"So those children... essentially..."
Then I'd be willing to bet my entire life on it.
“... Yes, they are hybrids of a demon, vampire, human, and dragon.”
"Heh."
Gathering every ounce of courage I had, I delivered the final line with as much conviction as I could muster, fully aware of how his eyes seed to turn blank white at my words.
And then, the most suffocating, nerve-wracking silence I had ever experienced settled over the room.
“Uh, uh, uh...”
In that suffocating atmosphere, no one could keep track of ti.
“Uh, uh, uh, uh...”
The old man's trembling hands rose shakily, and from his lips ca a low, strained groan.
"Uuuuuuugh..."
Then, Jas Moriarty grabbed the back of his neck, his eyes unfocused, as he began to stagger around the office.
"Now's our chance!!!"
And that mont, that brief opening, was the last opportunity we had to claim victory.
Miss Mycrony's hastily prepared sealing scroll... I pray to all Gods out there, please, make it work.
-Fzztzzzzz...
It was ti to see which face of the die would land upright.
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