In this world, there exists a kind of dragon that is born in the sky and lives nearly eternally—
The Aureole Dragon.
It is the most gentle and non-confrontational branch of the dragon species, yet it possesses an enormous size that contradicts its mild temperant.
Legends say that an Aureole Dragon that lives for more than ten thousand years can grow to a size that rivals entire mountain ranges.
—At first, Agusheed thought such tales were just stories.
It wasn't until he raised one himself three hundred years ago that he realized the legends were not exaggerated.
Using the flight magic unique to demons, Agusheed ascended thousands of ters into the night sky.
He gently landed on the shoulder of the Aureole Dragon, whose body was nearly half the size of the entire Imperial Capital.
He examined it carefully for a while.
When the Aureole Dragon's gaze turned toward him, Agusheed reached out his hand, not even as large as one of its scales, and patted its neck.
"Have you grown a bit more?"
Agusheed knew that the Aureole Dragon couldn't understand the language of demons or humans.
But asking that question daily had long since beco a habit.
As a long-lived species, his sense of ti was incredibly vague.
Only by watching the steady growth of the Aureole Dragon's body did he realize ti was passing.
From the ti when it was only a dozen ters long until now…
It had already been three hundred years…
Not bothering to dwell on the passage of ti, Agusheed walked toward the large castle at the center of the Aureole Dragon's back.
This castle had been built by Flam during their travels out of boredom.
Ever since she found out Agusheed was raising a young Aureole Dragon, she had frequently pestered him to bring her up to study it.
Over ti, this resting place gradually beca a full-fledged castle.
He walked into the grand hall, casually hung his coat on the rack,
And retrieved both Imperial Wine and Red Tea Leaves from the wine and tea cabinets.
Carrying these along with so tea sets, he made his way to the guest room.
Agusheed neatly arranged the tea set, then spoke to the opposite side of the table.
"Aren't you coming out?"
There was no response. No one appeared.
Agusheed opened the Imperial Wine, poured himself a glass, and spoke as if to himself:
"Are you hiding from Serie?"
"Relax. Up here on the Aureole Dragon, even Serie's magic detection can't reach this height."
Still, there was no reply.
Agusheed took a sip of the bitter, fiery Imperial Wine and continued:
"If you weren't planning to show yourself, you wouldn't have co here in the first place."
"Your Future Sight must have already known the outco from the start…"
"So why are you wasting ti with here?"
This ti, another voice finally responded to Agusheed's words.
"Because appearing right now is the best future."
As the voice faded, the form of the Demon King's close aide and one of the strongest high-ranking demons in existence—
Schlacht, the All-Knowing One—gradually appeared.
He then calmly sat down across from Agusheed.
"At this very mont, Serie is distracted talking with Archmage Flam, so this is the perfect ti for to appear before you."
"You haven't even faced her head-on before, and yet you seem to fear her more than I do."
"Serie is a Grand Archmage whom even His Majesty the Demon King is wary of. She's also one of the few beings whose future I struggle to observe."
Schlacht stretched out his hand and skillfully poured himself a cup of red tea.
"You're quite shaless."
"As fellow kin, do we really need to be polite?"
"Kin… haha… The only ones in demonkind who still bother with the concept of race are you and His Majesty the Demon King."
Schlacht didn't bother refuting him.
Agusheed also wasn't interested in further pleasantries:
"So, why are you here? Is there sothing in the future you saw that requires my help?"
"And if I said yes, would you help ?"
"I would tell you to get lost."
"So you already knew the answer, didn't you?"
Schlacht set his teacup down, folding his hands together.
"I saw that sothing very interesting would happen here, so I ca."
"That's all."
Schlacht looked straight into Agusheed's eyes.
"Or are you assuming I ca with so grand sche or conspiracy?"
"A conspiracy? Here? In front of ?"
Agusheed leaned back, gulped down his glass of wine in one go, and looked down at Schlacht with a sharp gaze.
"That's quite a bad joke, Schlacht."
"If you really had so sche, would you be sitting right in front of ?"
"At this distance, I would kill you in an instant."
Schlacht didn't refute.
Because as Agusheed said, his Slash Magic was practically impossible to counter at such close range.
Of course, Serie and His Majesty the Demon King were exceptions.
"Indeed, you're absolutely right. At this distance, I wouldn't be able to execute any plan or preparation."
"So, could you remove the sixteen hundred slashes you have aid at right now?"
Schlacht raised his hand and casually extended it in one direction.
Rip—
A thin cut appeared on his fingertip, then instantly healed.
"It's rather hard to relax during a conversation like this."
Agusheed didn't move.
"Tell why you're really here, and I'll remove the slashes."
"I thought I already told you…"
Bang—
The wine glass slamd heavily on the table, and Agusheed directly interrupted Schlacht:
"I don't want so vague crap like 'an interesting future' or so cryptic riddle."
"I want a clear answer."
"You, Schlacht, why did you risk the chance of being discovered by Serie just to co find in the Imperial Capital?"
Schlacht took a sip of tea unhurriedly, as if everything were unfolding exactly as he expected.
"Agusheed, what kind of future do you think I would find 'interesting'?"
"If you keep talking nonsense, I'll throw you off this dragon."
Agusheed's words made Schlacht pause for a mont.
"A hundred years without seeing you, and you've actually learned to make jokes."
Agusheed: (ー_ー)
"…"
"So impatient…"
"You can tolerate everything from that human, but you can't spare a bit of patience for your own kind?"
Agusheed squinted, and with a slight flick of his finger—
A thin line of blood appeared on Schlacht's cheek.
After listening to this riddler babble for so long, Agusheed was growing quite impatient.
"Alright, alright… No sense of humor at all."
"A future of coexistence—"
Schlacht finally answered:
"To be precise, it's the possibility of 'Human-Demon Coexistence' that I saw in you and that human. That's why I ca here."
At this point, Agusheed noticed that Schlacht suddenly stopped speaking.
And his expression shifted from a smile to one of utter seriousness.
It was as if the one sitting across from him was not Agusheed, but soone else entirely.
"The Hero of the South—"
In Schlacht's vision, Agusheed's figure began to overlap with another silhouette.
"Who gave you the idea that I wouldn't be able to predict your actions a thousand years from now?"
A flash of violet light passed through his eyes, and so sort of confusing magic blinked into existence and faded.
"My apologies, but I can't let you hear the content of this conversation…"
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