Book 12 Chapter 16

Side Story Part 2, Episode 9

The Child Who Weaves Hearts (9)

The month-long return home (歸鄕) was boisterous from the very beginning.

At the entrance to Richland, in the central part of the Empire, the Ludwig family's ultra-luxury honor guard was already present.

[Welcome] Yonghyun Rain Ludwig [Honor]

The family guards were frantically waving banners that were undoubtedly specially made for this day.

"Ah, please."

Rain tightly closed his eyes.

There would also be the option of turning back right here. That seemed like the best choice.

Nene, on the other hand, seemed so delighted by the family guards that she looked ready to run to them at any moment.

No, Rain was holding her back, preventing her from running.

"They're strangers. Nene, they're bad guys disguised as people we know. Don't be fooled!"

Nene's eyes widened.

"Are they bad people? I'm scared!"

Miria delivered an iron fist to Rain's crown.

"What are you talking about? They came out like this for us, and you can't even say thank you. But what's going on here?"

Miria, who had been holding Elaham and putting him to sleep, asked in a puzzled tone. Rain also wanted to ask the same thing.

'What on earth is going on?'

Amidst that question, amidst the distinct black and red features of the Ludwig family, something stood out with its pure white color.

'That fellow…'

Before they left, he had sent mail through the post office to <Blaze Thousands of Miles> and the World Tree, asking them to gather at the mansion. Did he come as soon as he received it?

Isn't that too fast?

He hadn't sent mail to the other family members (fearing such a welcoming ceremony), as it was meant to be a surprise party, so there was no culprit other than that fellow.

'I'm grateful to Lady Yeriserica for sending him right away even though she's in training… but perhaps because he caused such a commotion, I feel a little uncomfortable!'

In fact, there was no reason to feel uncomfortable.

The moment he saw that pure white hair, all the emotions he had felt earlier melted away like snow.

Nene also seemed to feel the same, or perhaps an even greater, joy than Rain.

"Mirumir!"

Nene cried out affectionately, leaped out of Rain's arms, and ran.

In the past, Nene would forcibly hug Mir and spin him around in the air, but now their physical difference was reversed.

Nene still had the appearance of a child, but Mir had already, or rather, had started to take on the appearance of an adolescent.

Mysteriously, his branch-shaped horns had also grown much larger.

So, he easily subdued Nene.

By extending his arms and holding her shoulders, he prevented her from tightly hugging him. Mir said:

"To explain my name again for the 14,422nd time, adjusted to Nene's truly regrettable intelligence level, it is Mirngardia, and I emphasize that it is absolutely not Mirumir. Correction required."

Although he was calmly pushing away the rushing Nene, a faint smile was detectable on Mir's lips.

Had growth made his emotions a little more honest?

No, these two were always like this. They cherished and loved each other more than any other siblings in the world.

"Nene!"

The one who scooped up Nene instead was Skarji Ludwig. He was Rain's grandfather and a great-grandfather-like figure to Nene.

"Hahahaha, have you been well? The year I haven't seen you feels longer than my entire life."

As Skarji rubbed his beard, Nene laughed brightly in his arms.

Skarji especially doted on Nene among the dragons later known as the Three Spirit Dragons, likely because they had spent the longest time together at the mansion.

While Skarji was fussing over Nene… Rain's parents, his father and mother, approached with benevolent smiles.

"I'm truly sorry. I tried my best to stop Father, but it was no use."

Rain let out a hollow laugh at his father's words.

"Who could stop him? Even Father's grandfather couldn't stop him."

"Indeed, my grandfather said he couldn't stop him either."

While Rain and his father exchanged laughs, his mother approached Miria and looked at Elaham.

"You must have suffered a lot."

"Not at all, Mother. I pushed really hard, and he just whooshed out."

"Oh, you, it's okay to honestly say it's difficult if it is."

"Would you like to hold him once?"

Miria handed Elaham to his mother's arms.

"Yes, so you're Elaham. I'm Grandma, Grandma. Peek-a-boo."

As she rocked Elaham in her arms, several times more skillfully than Miria, Elaham babbled.

"Oooh, ah."

Then tears suddenly gushed from his mother's eyes. Rain asked urgently.

"Whoa, what's wrong now? Why are you crying?"

"Imagine Aki or Nene having a child. Then you'll understand how I feel right now."

He thought about it.

Would he be happy? No, he felt he wouldn't be happy at all.

He felt like he would immediately find that scoundrel and feed him Asura's Soul Mirror without any mercy whatsoever.

"You're having strange thoughts again, aren't you?"

As Miria frowned, Rain frantically shook his head.

'Damn it, in my previous life, she was crazier than me, but these days, she pretends to be normal at every turn.'

His mother exchanged glances with his father and said.

"Seeing this makes me think of Rain's baby days…"

"That can't be, as I was brilliant and intelligent even as a baby."

After wiping his hands several times with a handkerchief, his father lightly caressed Elaham's cheek and smiled with his eyes.

"Yes, he's different from Rain. Back then, Rain… didn't cry or even make a sound."

"Me?"

"Does he drink his milk well?"

As Miria nodded at his mother's question, his mother let out a sigh of relief. His father explained why.

"Rain, you didn't even take to the breast well. Even the doctors were dumbfounded. They said you had enough vitality… though it was hard for them to believe… it seemed you had no will to live, despite being a baby."

Ah, back then…

The sense of emptiness that surged through his soul…

Was he feeling the sorrow of being cut off from all connections 300 years ago, even from his fetal days…?

"So your mother sought out renowned priests and doctors across the country. Later, she even went to a witch. She nurtured you back to health by nourishing you through communion with spirits."

Perhaps… truly perhaps…

If he had met the Dean in a normal family, would it not have felt like this?

Just like the Dean, his mother had bestowed boundless love upon Rain.

"Mother, you must have suffered greatly. I apologize for causing you trouble since I was young."

Then his mother, who was stroking Elaham, shook her head.

"No, dear. Every part of that process was my joy. It wasn't really a hardship. Don't you know that well? Since you raised Aki that way."

The moment he heard those words, Rain's eyes trembled.

Come to think of it, had he ever once thought that accompanying Aki was a hardship?

Was there not only joy in that process? The joy he received while raising Aki was many times greater than the joy he had to give.

'They say you only understand a parent's heart after having a child…'

Did Dean Atlante feel the same way?

Since he had completely burdened her and was indebted to her, he had tried his whole life not to be a burden to her.

'But did she… feel similar joy and love?'

He wanted to sit down seriously and ask about those feelings, but now, asking would only be an unanswered echo, and his heart ached.

"Nene has a younger sibling!"

"Yes, I was just about to see him anyway."

"Mir, come quickly too!"

Nene took Skarji and Mir by the hand and pulled them in front of his mother.

His mother carefully placed Elaham in Skarji's arms, and Skarji's gaze and breath stiffened for a moment as he held his great-grandson.

Skarji then overtly looked back and forth between Nene and Elaham, and Rain worried that Nene might be hurt by it.

'Nene is ultimately a dragon; she can't overcome blood ties.'

However, Skarji returned Elaham to Miria, then grasped his brow and sighed.

"I'm sorry. He is a very beautiful child… and I am grateful to you… but since Nene is overwhelmingly beautiful, I feel no particular emotion. The first of anything is always what matters."

Rain clapped his hands cheerfully.

"Haha! Even I, his biological father, thought the same thing, so there's absolutely no need to apologize!"

If Miria had heard that, he would have been thoroughly beaten (never marry her), but fortunately, Miria was handing Elaham to Mir.

"Mir! You have to support his neck well! Yes, just like that… you have to hold him as if you're embracing something precious!"

Mir, guided by Nene, finally just stared blankly at Elaham in his arms, in silence.

As a lake-like stillness settled, a fresh breeze rustled Mir's pure white hair, his vestments, and his eyelashes.

Even that rustling was so quiet that his appearance seemed sacred.

So everyone held their breath unconsciously and just watched Mir.

A serene stillness.

Mir, who possessed such silence as his presence, truly seemed like the successor of the Water Dragon.

'Ah, how can something be so…'

At that moment, the knowledge of creation that Mir had learned under the Water Dragon Yeriserica was being meticulously reassembled in his mind.

'Is there such a small life…?'

Unable to feed itself…

Unable to move…

Unable to even relieve itself…

'Such a frail being exists… All life is born so utterly weak… This is the providence of creation…'

At that moment, Mirngardia.

He truly lamented the mortal existence that had to live and sustain itself in a blood-soaked world, born with such a fragile body.

Since they couldn't communicate, he couldn't understand the meaning of its whimpers, nor could he address its discomfort, making its situation seem even more distressed.

"It's warm."

Mir, emerging from his contemplation, raised an eyebrow, not understanding the meaning.

Then Nene smiled brightly and pointed at Elaham.

"Elaham feels that way! He says Mirumir's arms are warm."

Mirngardia looked at Elaham again.

"Is it warm?"

"Ah, oooh."

He hadn't done anything for it, yet it was happily babbling just because it felt warm?

Is this life?

Is this humanity, shaped by the creator gods in their own image?

'Warmth.'

In that moment, Mir made a decision.

To these poor and frail mortal children, he would gift the 'warmth' he had first felt in his childhood.

That was the dawn, the first morning shown by Yonghyun Rain Ludwig.

- What is most important for a leader is service. Not rule, but service. Remember this.

The Water Dragon Yeriserica, who was in the process of assimilating with the World Tree, always made Mirngardia reflect on that mindset.

- What is 'rule'?

Mir asked.

He wanted to clarify the concept Yeriserica was pointing out.

- Using the power one is naturally born with solely for one's own desires and greed is called 'rule.'

- Then what is 'service'?

- It is using the power gifted by the order of creation in accordance with the will of creation… making one's talent a lamp that shines even upon the lowest places in the world.

If so, what he had received must be intellect (知性).

If sharing that intellect was service, there would be no reason to hesitate.

'I must give the mortal children words (言).'

So that everyone…

can express sorrow…

can lament pain…

and can share joy…

'Such a language that anyone in the entire world can easily learn and freely use.'

That beautiful intention, in the distant future, led to the creation of the Wern language (語), called Eonmun (諺文).

The Wern language ended centuries of ignorance and barbarism, known as the illiteracy rate, and ushered in the dawn of knowledge.

Wern. This means 'dawn' in the language of the dragonkin, so it also came to be known by the nickname "Language of Dawn."