“Huh? Ray, why…”
Then he suddenly started running toward the house. Without even giving Naro a chance to say anything. Naro’s hair flew about in all directions at the tremendous speed. It went without saying, but it was truly a speed incomparable to humans.
Arriving home like that, Ray set Naro down on the bed. Since he urged him to hurry up and lie down, Naro had no choice but to lie on the bed. Ray immediately pulled the blanket up to carefully cover Naro up to his neck, then entered the bathroom.
Just as Naro was about to get up, wondering what on earth this was about, Ray came back out.
“No. Naro, lie down quickly.”
In Ray’s hands were a bowl filled with water and a dry cloth. Ray sat in front of the bed, set the bowl down on the nightstand, and soaked the cloth in water. The sound of water splashing was cheerful. Ray wrung out the wet cloth once and then placed it on Naro’s head.
“I’m asking just in case, but what are you doing?”
“Naro has fever. Your face is red.”
You’re sick? Who? Naro was mulling over Ray’s incomprehensible words alone when he let out a low “ah.” Come to think of it, Ray had grabbed his face earlier to examine it and said it was red. But that wasn’t because he was sick—his body temperature had risen because he was flustered by what Ray said.
“I read that humans’ faces turn red when they have a fever.”
“In a medical book?”
“Right.”
So Ray had simply seen his red face and thought he had a fever. The serious way he looked at Naro’s face, and the way he quickly picked Naro up and rushed home—it was all because he was worried.
Knowing the inside story somehow made him laugh. When Naro giggled softly, Ray’s face became even more serious.
“Naro, this isn’t something to laugh about, so why are you laughing? Are you really in a lot of pain?”
Ray flustered about, not knowing what to do. Naro stared intently at Ray like that. Seeing him trying to take care of him thinking he was sick warmed a corner of his heart. Though it wasn’t the case now, thinking that Ray would do this for him when he really did catch a cold and get sick later made him feel good.
At the same time, as he stared at Ray, he recalled what he’d heard from Jerian about the Dragon Tribe at the library.
“Ray, you said you don’t have any memories up until now.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you not want to find your memories by any chance?”
Naro thought about it. What if he was dropped somewhere unfamiliar having lost all his memories up until now? He’d surely be engulfed in tremendous anxiety. Wouldn’t he struggle desperately to somehow find his lost memories? But Ray didn’t show such signs, so he suddenly became curious.
Ray thought about it quite seriously. The expression as he looked into space thinking for a moment was more serious than usual.
“Everything that happens in this world is inevitable.”
Ray said in a low voice.
“Huh?”
“I think my memories disappeared because they had to. Conversely, if a moment comes when I need my memories, they’ll surface again. So I don’t particularly want to forcibly search for them now.”
When you looked at times like this, Ray was quite mature. It didn’t seem like words just to act strong, but like he truly thought that way.
“But what’s that talk about inevitability? Did you read that in a book too?”
Ray shook his head.
“It just came to mind.”
“Is it something someone told you again?”
“It could be.”
Ray shrugged as if he didn’t care either way.
“Then could that be Ray’s comrade?”
“Comrade?”
Ray tilted his head while kneading Naro’s hand. He interlaced their fingers and also placed it on top of his own hair.
To summarize the facts learned through Jerian earlier, it was like this: Originally humans and the Dragon Tribe lived in this world, and the two races didn’t get along well.
In the end, they ignored each other as if the other didn’t exist, and one day 25 years ago from now, a dragon attacked human territory and war broke out. In that crisis, a knight defeated the dragon and the Empire regained peace.
If so, the protagonist of the original work Naro had read would be that knight, and probably that attacking dragon would be the commonly appearing villain or antagonist and mastermind in the story.
Either way, the Dragon Tribe who had at least settled and lived in the Empire during that period were almost annihilated. However, Jerian said that was just a hypothesis and they probably weren’t extinct. And Naro was convinced by looking at Ray that his words had credibility.
If not a single dragon remained and they all died, the existence of Ray before his eyes couldn’t be explained. Then there really might be dragons somewhere who, like Ray, still remained and were living.
“Ray is a dragon.”
“Yeah, I’m a dragon. Even without memories, I know that more certainly than anyone.”
“Then couldn’t there be other dragons like Ray living somewhere else?”
Ray shook his head as if he didn’t know and stared intently at Naro. It seemed even Ray didn’t know whether his own kind really remained or where they were. Of course, since he had no previous memories.
Actually, that wasn’t what Naro wanted to say to Ray. There was something else he wanted to ask. But he was afraid Ray might answer yes to that question, so it wasn’t easy to open his mouth rashly.
“Naro?”
Ray, noticing Naro’s expression had become complicated, gripped his hand tightly with concern.
“If dragons like you are living somewhere, if it’s certain that you have comrades, wouldn’t Ray want to go to his comrades?”
Naro didn’t know what Ray would answer to this question. But when you thought about it, Ray hadn’t been long since hatching from his egg and still didn’t know well how wide this world was. Right now he liked the simple daily life spent together with him, but someday later, after experiencing many things, wouldn’t he realize this wasn’t the life he pursued?
Ray was a dragon, and if he knew his own kind were living somewhere, he might think differently than before.
The reason Naro hesitated with that question was because he was afraid Ray would say “I think so.” Of course, if Ray really wanted to find his comrades, he wanted to help him as much as possible. If Ray wanted a life living with his own kind rather than a life together with humans, and if that was for Ray’s sake, he should let him go.
But indeed there was a difference between what the head knew and what the heart felt. Though his head thought he should follow whatever Ray wanted, Naro wished Ray wouldn’t leave but would stay here together with him. He became a little afraid of Ray leaving.
“Does Naro want me to leave to find my comrades?”
Naro’s lips moved and his head shot up. Ray faced his eyes straightforwardly with an expressionless face.
“I… want to let you do as you wish, Ray.”
“Okay, then I’ll be here. What I want is to keep living together with Naro.”
Naro paused. The calmly spoken voice melted away the anxiety piled up in his heart at once. At least for now, Ray was by his side. So there was no need to be anxious anymore.
“Naro, hurry up and sleep. If you talk too much when you’re sick, you’ll lack stamina.”
Right now Naro had the cloth Ray had moistened against his forehead. Only then did Naro, realizing again that Ray was greatly mistaken, fall into contemplation about how to explain this.
“Ray, but I’m not particularly sick.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t have a fever either. I’m fine.”
“You’re not sick? But your face was red earlier.”
“Ah, that… I was just hot for a moment. People’s faces turn red when they have a fever, but it’s not only because of that.”
Naro smiled awkwardly and put down the wet cloth on his forehead, slowly getting up from the bed.
“Humans are really complicated.”
Ray stroked his chin and shook his head. But even while doing so, he hugged Naro, saying it was fortunate he wasn’t sick.
* * *
Naro’s medicine shop was closed today. Until properly establishing himself, Naro had worked continuously without days off. However, thinking about it, he’d come into this world and finally obtained a healthy body, but working too hard would be no different from harming his health, so now he rested at least once every two weeks.
The best privilege of a day off was being able to sleep in. Since there was no need to wake up early and prepare, on days like this he could sleep to his heart’s content.
Naro was hugging the baby dragon, immersed in sweet sleeping-in. Just then, someone suddenly knocked on Naro’s door.
At the knocking sound, Naro sluggishly got up from bed. Ray was still traveling in dreamland. When he returned to baby dragon form, once he fell into deep sleep he wouldn’t wake up for quite a while.
“Who is it?”
Naro covered Ray with the blanket so he wouldn’t wake, then slowly opened the door. Most customers knew the medicine shop was closed today, so who could it be? Was it Garnet?
“Hyung!”
“Naro oppa!”
But what he saw as soon as he opened the door were village children. Nepi and Paul, and Ron’s family twins Rumi and Ruen, greeted Naro loudly.
