Around noon, the market in the northern part of Danting City buzzed with activity, drawing together vendors of every kind.
Aino had brought Alaya here to pass the time. Lately, Aino’s days had settled into a predictable rhythm: she emerged from her room near midday, waited for Alaya to finish lunch, and then the two ventured into the forest together.
In the forest, they kept to the edges, never straying too deep. From time to time, when they stumbled across aggressive magical creatures, Aino would use them as targets to experiment with different attack techniques.
Alaya couldn’t make sense of this idle lifestyle. Aino was undeniably powerful and had lived for an unknown number of years, yet she acted like a fledgling adventurer, testing her abilities on lowly beasts.
What was she playing at?
The previous evening, Aino had impulsively suggested visiting the market for some amusement. She had no specific purpose in mind—just a desire to wander aimlessly, born from having nothing better to do.
As Alaya took in the lively market and the clamor of the crowded streets, a strange sense of detachment washed over her, as though she were peering into another world.
It had been a long time since she’d known such a carefree existence.
Back when she was a sorceress, her life had been a whirlwind of battling nobles, delving into forbidden magic, evading aristocratic pursuers, and steering clear of her erratic peers.
After her capture, the goblin nest had been a lightless abyss of torment.
Now, it seemed she had no obligations at all. This tranquil life felt unexpectedly soothing.
Yet, the world still teemed with accursed nobles, brimming with darkness and injustice…
Should she cast aside this newfound peace and, despite her magic being stripped away, set out once more on a path of vengeance?
Would that be sheer folly, merely courting more pain?
Lost in these musings, Alaya noticed a commotion ahead. A throng of people had gathered, their noise unusually loud. They stood in rows, apparently watching some spectacle, their cheers and laughter ringing out without pause.
The scene stirred a familiar unease in Alaya, and she had no desire to draw closer. But Aino, without a word, took her hand and gently pulled her forward.
As they neared, snippets of shouted words reached their ears—“bitch,” “wooden frame”—crude and jarring.
“Here it comes, here it comes! This wooden-framed bitch is about to spray, haha!”
“Hahaha, four fountains lined up—who wants to buy them for their garden?”
The crack of whips punctuated the air, mingled with the faint, anguished moans of women.
It was a slave market for subhumans. Chained like dogs before the stalls, they were paraded for all to see. Some inventive vendors even forced a few subhuman women to perform “fountain shows” to lure in customers.
The pitiful state of these women thrilled the onlookers, who shouted with glee. Younger spectators giggled and roughhoused, occasionally stepping forward to prod or pinch the subhumans’ bodies.
Alaya had witnessed such scenes before.
These vile wretches, unfit to be called human… Rage surged within her, and she longed to unleash a spell that would obliterate the jeering mob.
But now, she lacked both the power and the liberty to act.
Almost instinctively, Alaya glanced at Aino, curious to gauge her response.
The black-haired girl observed the grotesque display in silence, her expression unreadable, her eyes serene.
“Let’s go, Alaya. No point in letting this spoil our day.” Aino tugged lightly at Alaya’s hand and turned to leave. Alaya cast a reluctant glance back at the women, but in the end, she said nothing, pressing her lips together as she followed.
They wandered in silence for a while before Alaya murmured, “When I still had my magic, I’d usually wipe out everyone involved in scenes like that.”
“…”
“See? That’s why you ended up the way you did.”
“What?” Aino’s utterly unexpected reply ignited a blaze of anger in Alaya, hotter even than what she’d felt moments before.
“So, you’re saying that by standing up for others, killing those repulsive nobles, those bullies, thugs, and thieves—that I was wrong?” Alaya nearly laughed from the sheer fury of it, her anger laced with bitterness and a pang of grievance.
“You weren’t wrong. And maybe they weren’t either.”
…Another baffling remark. Alaya found herself at a loss for words.
“What about the people you saved? How are they now? Are they better off?”
“And you, so nobly stepping in to help—if you hadn’t crossed paths with me…”
“The world is vast, Alaya. What you’ve seen, what you can’t stomach, is just a sliver of it all. Either devote yourself to this cause on a grand scale, or don’t throw away your peace—and that of those around you—for fleeting satisfaction.”
“That’s my take,” Aino said as they walked.
Alaya fell silent, though she didn’t agree. “What if it were your family or friends tortured to death by people like that? Would you still do nothing? My family… those animals—I could never let them live. I’d rather suffer and struggle to see them dead!”
Without missing a beat, Aino replied, “If you or Aunt Molly were among those women, I’d kill every last one of them without a second thought, no matter how strong they were.”
“But they’re not. I don’t know those people—who they are, what they’ve done.”
“If I killed them and moved on, I’d see the same thing somewhere else.”
“Alaya, I act only from my heart. If someone I cared about was there, I’d step in without hesitation. But I don’t see it as my purpose to uphold justice or my duty to intervene in every situation like that.”
“You might not get it. Just chalk it up to the difference between me, a monster, and you humans.”
They continued walking, and Aino spoke at length.
In truth, voicing her thoughts so openly, without hidden motives, was a rare thing for her.
Perhaps the last time she’d bared her heart was as a teenager, chatting with her mother. But her mother had always treated her like a child, responding with rote encouragement or advice straight out of parenting manuals, never truly connecting as one soul to another.
Speaking so freely with Alaya felt… refreshing.
In the end, all her explanations about her outlook and her refusal to stop the slave market spectacle boiled down to one thing.
She lacked the strength.
Danting City was a mere speck in the human realm, a backwater with no true masters. Here, she could act as she pleased.
But across the broader expanse of humanity, there were many who could best her. If rumors spread of a dragon attacking human cities, it might draw formidable hunters to her doorstep.
If she possessed the might to stride unopposed through the world, why would she need to hold back? In a moment like that, she could strike down the wrongdoers with a single blow, and who would dare challenge her?
Dragons, as legendary beings, stood apart from humans and even most monsters. Their lifespans stretched effortlessly into millennia, shaping their singular nature.
A human might attain the power of a five-hundred-year-old dragon by age twenty—a feat no other species could match.
But humans rarely lived beyond two or three hundred years, even at their most exceptional.
Dragons, though, could endure for thousands.
As a young black dragon, Aino’s growth couldn’t rival the rapid leaps of humans. She couldn’t retreat for a fortnight and emerge transformed, as humans might.
She could only persist, living on and on.
Her strength and magic would swell with time, slowly amassing until she became a living calamity in this world.
And so, she neither could nor wished to meddle in matters as Alaya once did. “If you walk by the river often, your shoes will get wet.” Sooner or later, she’d court disaster.
Unless it was a rare case—where one must act, even at the cost of everything.
The way of the dragon is the path of immortality.
—
