“Naro!”
Ray jumped up from his seat and shouted. Seeing his face full of delight, anger surged up strangely.
“You, you… why…”
While walking toward Ray, Naro’s legs gave out and he ended up sitting down on the floor. After running around the plaza frantically since morning and then rushing here without rest, it was only natural that his legs would give out.
“…Ah.”
When his knees hit the wooden floor, Naro frowned at the pain that washed over him.
“Let me see. Are you okay?”
At that moment, Ray, who had been sitting in the corner, ran to Naro in one breath and supported him.
“Why did you fall? Does it hurt a lot?”
“…”
“Naro, why aren’t you saying anything? Does it hurt a lot?”
Naro squeezed his eyes shut tight to hold back the tears that were about to fall.
“Why are you here?”
“Hm?”
“You left the house without saying anything, so I was shocked and searched everywhere for you, but then I hear you’re here out of nowhere.”
“Naro, wait, that’s…”
“I looked for you! I kept looking!”
Naro’s voice, as if bursting with indignation, spread throughout the interior of the library.
“Ray, I thought you were angry at me and l-left me… *hic*…”
“Why are you crying, Naro? I’m sorry.”
In the end, the tears he’d been holding back leaked out. Ray looked at them with displeasure, then soon lowered his head and licked Naro’s cheek with his tongue, as if trying to wipe away the tears.
“Your eyes will swell. Don’t cry, Naro.”
“…Ray, I’m sorry. For getting so angry yesterday. So don’t leave without saying anything.”
“No, I…”
Even as Ray licked Naro’s tears and hugged him tightly, his eyes rolled around. Just then, someone suddenly flung open the library door and entered.
“Ray, here are the basic language books too… Hm? Isn’t that Naro?”
“Garnet Ahjussi?”
Garnet, who had entered, was holding an armful of books.
“Wait, why are you crying? Is something wrong?”
Garnet hurriedly ran to Naro and checked his condition. Naro’s eyes fell on the books he had set down on the floor.
Most of them were basic vocabulary books for learning the language used in the Empire, and there were also books explaining basic etiquette and ways of living. In addition, there were guidebooks of sorts that introduced the Empire’s overall culture.
“Why these…”
“Ah, these? Ray asked me to, so I got them directly from the Academy.”
Naro’s gaze naturally turned to Ray.
“I don’t know how humans live. That’s why I made Naro angry yesterday.”
“So you came here to learn this?”
“That human said to come find him if I needed anything yesterday, so I asked him.”
Now all the puzzle pieces were finally coming together. Yesterday, Naro had told Ray that asking for and telling names while greeting was the most basic etiquette. Ray didn’t understand that and got angry about why Naro carelessly told Garnet his name.
Then the fight escalated. So Naro thought Ray had gotten angry and left him, left this village, but that wasn’t it.
Ray had moved since early morning to understand and resolve why Naro was angry. Going to Garnet’s house and asking him directly was all because of what Naro had said at that time.
“I happened to have nothing to do today, so it worked out well. Since Ray lived in another country for a long time, it seems he doesn’t know much about the Empire’s language or culture. I was going to help him study while I’m at it.”
When Garnet laughed, “Hehe,” the tension strangely drained away. It felt like all the tension he’d been holding in his body was released at once.
“And I didn’t even know…”
Naro let out a sigh of relief. But at the same time, he felt a bit embarrassed thinking about how he’d caused such a commotion alone.
“Naro.”
“Mm?”
“I have no intention of leaving you, so don’t worry.”
“Right. If not his only cousin’s house, where would Ray live alone in this vast Empire? Now, wait here and I’ll go get the rest of the books.”
Garnet went back outside the library with a somehow very excited face.
“I didn’t know.”
“Yeah.”
“That you were thinking that way… I woke up this morning and you weren’t there, so I was shocked. But then the front door was fixed and the pharmacy was all organized, so I was even more worried.”
He thought his heart would sink, wondering if Ray had done all those things as a final parting gift and left.
“Naro wakes up early every morning because of the pharmacy. I wanted Naro to sleep a little more in the morning. Of course, my strength isn’t fully there, so I couldn’t fix everything completely. I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s enough. But still, you should have at least told me you were going out. I was surprised.”
Ray swept away the moisture still lingering around Naro’s eyes with his lips.
“I didn’t think I needed to tell you.”
Ray kissed Naro’s eyes several times, wiping away the tears. Now that he’d regained his senses and learned the full situation, his reason returned, and Naro, somehow embarrassed by his earlier behavior, pulled back.
“I-I’m fine now.”
“I’m happy Naro came looking for me.”
Ray licked up Naro’s chin thoroughly with his tongue.
“Ugh, Ray, that tickles.”
“Seeing Naro raise his voice was new too.”
“That’s embarrassing, so please forget it…”
“Why? Even when you yell, Naro’s voice is pretty.”
When Ray tried to lick Naro’s earlobe this time, Naro jumped up in surprise.
“Oh, but you’re going to study?”
“Yeah. At first I wanted to learn how humans live, but that human man told me to read the books first. But there are squiggly characters I don’t know written in them, so it’s difficult.”
Well, Ray was a dragon, and even though he could transform into human form, he had only recently hatched from an egg. No matter how excellent a dragon’s intelligence might be, reading books would have been impossible unless he learned and acquired the Empire’s language.
“I see.”
Naro fully understood that feeling. When he first dimensionally traveled to this world, language didn’t work and he was in a complete panic and depressed for a while.
Then he came to his senses and studied somehow, and now he could converse fluently enough to be seen as an Empire citizen by anyone, and had no trouble writing either.
“Ray.”
“Yeah.”
Ray, who had stood behind Naro as he got up and wandered around looking at the library, stared down at his round crown.
“If it’s okay, should I teach you? The Empire language, I mean.”
“Naro will?”
“Yeah. Ah, of course if you want to learn from Garnet Ahjussi, you can do that too.”
“I like Naro.”
Naro turned around in surprise.
“I like it much more when Naro teaches me. I don’t care about other humans.”
Naro stared blankly at the sparkling green eyes, then soon nodded.
“Okay. Then let’s take the books home.”
“Mm, but that human said he’d come back here.”
At the suggestion to go home, Ray looked at the door. It was because Garnet said he’d bring more books and hadn’t returned yet. The more books with information, the better. Besides, Naro thought well of that human man called Garnet. So he was going to wait until he came, but at the feeling of his sleeve being tugged, he lowered his gaze.
“Let’s go home, okay?”
Naro grasped Ray’s sleeve with a weak touch and pulled it. From that small action, he felt an inexplicable anxiety.
“Ah, sorry! Now that I think about it, I should tell Garnet Ahjussi before we go.”
When Ray just stared without saying anything, Naro seemed to regain his senses and jumped in surprise, quickly letting go. Ray hadn’t even said he wouldn’t go home, so he didn’t know why he was so anxious that he pestered Ray.
In the first place, Ray’s act of leaving the house had its own reasons, and the thought that he had left him had already been revealed as an unfounded misunderstanding, hadn’t it?
“Th-then do you want to look at the books more? I’ll go help Ahjussi.”
Ray stared down at Naro, who was flustered for no reason, then picked up several thick books with one hand. And with his remaining hand, he supported Naro’s bottom and held him in his arms.
“R-Ray!”
“Let’s go home.”
“…”
Naro’s eyes wavered. Ray added no further words and simply said “Let’s go home” once before trudging out of the library.
“I can walk.”
“You hurt your knee.”
Although it hurt from falling, it wasn’t to the point where he couldn’t walk. But Naro didn’t particularly ask to be put down. Perhaps because the warmth he felt from Ray was comfortable.
They ran into Garnet on the way out. Since it was quite an embarrassing position, he made an excuse that he hurt his leg and had no choice but to receive his cousin’s support.
Fortunately, Garnet only smiled warmly, saying the cousins got along so well. With his farewell behind them, the two headed home pressed close together.
However, as soon as they arrived home, another unexpected thing happened. Ray, who had been walking and talking just fine in human form, suddenly returned to his baby dragon form.
