Shadow of the Dragon King?

　The audience hall, Mimis's report caught me off guard.
　Unlike usual, it was very important, and Mimis was ready to report the details from the beginning.

'Goodbye. I have been informed by the kingdom that we must not provoke them.
What's with the dragon king's shadow?
In short, a dragon monster. They're incredibly powerful - yet they never lash out unless provoked.
Yeah.
But it is also said that one anger can easily destroy a nation of men. And for that reason, I am ordered by the Emperor not to meddle in his affairs.
Okay, I won't stimulate you.

　I nodded.
　It's a lot of noise, but if you want me to leave it alone, I will.
　Just leave it alone as ordered. It's not such an easy order to give.

　But...

You can't be sure that there's no chance that the kingdom will order you to take them out?

　I was skeptical after what had happened so far, and I checked with Mimis.
　Even this act of confirmation could be a flag, but I still couldn't help but confirm it.

　Mimis, without any hesitation at all, put it bluntly and clearly.

'Impossible. The untouchable gods have no clue. For the last two hundred years, the world, not just the kingdom, has taken the same stance in the shadow of the Dragon King. If we get out of hand, we could become the enemy of the world.
Okay.

　I'm relieved to hear that.

　I'm relieved and continue with my duties. But I only listened to what he had to say.
　The rest of the day was uneventful; in fact, the office ended earlier than usual.

　I watch the vassals leave the audience hall in droves and think.

　Since it ended earlier than usual, I should go somewhere else for fun today.
　It's been a while since I've been to Ortizia's place.
　It's about time for me to say "please for the rest of my life, Hermes-chan".

　Okay, I'll do that.

　The moment I tried to stand up and put my hand on the armrest of the chair.

　Crack.

　The ornate armrest snaps off with a crash.

"Yeah?

　I stare at it, holding onto the broken railing. Part of it is shattered.
　Was this chair so rickety?

　...No, no!　And then I remembered something, and a shard of wood from the shattered part jumped into my nose.
　Result.

"--Heck!

　Boom!

　With a single sneeze, the audience hall was half blown away.

''d*mn!　You're out of control again!

　While the vassals and soldiers were shouting and creeping around to see what was going on, the first thing I thought about was leaving.

　　　　　☆

　A few dozen miles from Pindos, atop an empty rocky mountain.
　I was sitting there alone.

　There was nothing and no one around.

　No people, no animals, no plants, no nothing.
　I took refuge in a place where I didn't have to deal with that kind of collateral damage (...).

　It's that time of year again.
　Every few years, there comes a time when we lose control of our powers completely.
　Out of control isn't an analogy, it's literally out of control.

　The output of the force becomes fixed at a completely constant amount.

　After experiencing this a few times now, I've found that this lasts roughly five days.

　On the first day, you're made to do 100% of everything with 100% power.
　For example--.

　Dohhhh!

　It's been so long since I've been able to save, and the moment I stuck my tongue out to moisten my lips.
　The shockwave from the friction between my tongue and my lips caused a shockwave that caused the mountain to explode in a big way.

　I couldn't control it.
　On the first day, the power output was at 100% no matter what I did, then it would go down by 20% each day, and then I would have to endure it for five days before I could get the power back under control.

　During that time, especially the first three days or so, the only thing you can do is hold your breath.
　Don't move, don't sleep, and don't do anything.

　When I was a kid, the first day I couldn't do anything, I fell asleep in my sleep and just tossed and turned and blew a mountain off my back.

　I literally can't control it, I can't do anything.
　Even now, just breathing through my nose is a gust of wind.
　Anyway, for the first three days I'm going to sit still, that's all I can do.

　I lingered on the mountain.
　I didn't drink or eat, and tried not to sleep.
　Anyway, I just stayed put.

　It was pretty hard to just sit still, but after all this time, I'd picked a rocky mountain with nothing going on, so nothing happened.

　I've hidden in the woods before.
　Then a small animal gathered around me, which didn't move, and a flapping bird dropped a feather that tickled my nose, and I once blew the front half of the forest away with a sneeze.

　No caves either, no dusty enclosed spaces or anything like that.

　So I came to these open and empty rocky mountains.

　The first day, nothing happened.
　The second day, the sky was so cloudy it looked like it was going to rain, but we managed to stay out of it.
　On the third day, a stomach bug started to grow a bit too much. Every time it went off, there was a thunderous roar around it, but since it was at 60% belly worm, it was only a firecracker noise.
　Nothing happened on the fourth day; once it got down to 40%, I had just enough time to reconfigure my legs.

　My mind started to relax, a slime appeared and attacked me halfway through, but it disappeared the moment it touched me.
　The monster seems to react to the uncontrollable and leaking power.

　In the meantime, the last day arrived without incident.
　I was down to 20% of my full strength, albeit uncontrollably, so I was able to stand up and stretch out.

　I stepped through the ground when I stood up and made a little pitfall-ish mess, but it's cute considering what I've been through.

　If you can get through one more day, if you can get through today, tomorrow, everyday life will start all over again--.

''Ah.........''

　I stood up and stretched, which caused my eyes to meet his.
　Beneath the rocky mountain, a huge body that looked like a small mountain in its own right.

　A dragon with a black body, but with a red light flickering from beneath its skin.
　My eyes met with it.

　And beyond it, I saw a human.
　It was a band of soldiers, less than 300 strong-- an entire company, maybe.
　From what I saw, they seemed to be following the dragon from afar.

　Are they being defeated?　No, but then again, the soldiers don't feel any fighting spirit.
　It's like they're in a wait-and-see mode.

　It's a curious scene--

I--

　I remembered.
　The story Mimis had told me just before the outburst of power began.

　The Dragon King's Shadow.

　You don't want to provoke him, don't mess with him.

　Those soldiers are protecting it.
　From the humans... the Dragon King's Shadow.
　You're not going to be able to get away with it.
　That's why we're here.

''Goooooooooh!

　The Dragon King's shadow roared up to the heavens.
　I'm not sure if it's a good idea, but it's not.

　I'm not going to be able to get a good look at it.

　I'm sure you'll be able to find out more about it.
　I'm not going to be able to get a good idea of what I'm talking about.

'd*mn!　You see me as a threat!

　Like yesterday's slime, it reacted to my power - it was stimulated and attacked me.

　d*mn, if it were normal, nothing would be wrong with me!
　I could do something like "get rid of the signs," but I can't do that now. I can't control it.

　In the meantime, the dragon was right in front of me.
　Bloodshot eyes, angry expression.
　It opened its huge mouth and bit me.

　I didn't even have time to think about it, my body reacted on its own.
　Strong, it's not someone I can go easy on, I have to fight back.

　I grabbed the fangs of its biting mouth and caught it - tearing it apart.
　He tore the dragon's jaw up and down.

　Immediately afterwards, the soldiers caught up with him.
　There was no time to destroy the evidence.

　Me, tearing the dragon apart, covered in blood.
　The three hundred soldiers looked at it and poofed.

''The Dragon King's shadow ... is that a lie?

　A man who looked like the leader of the group murmured.
　d*mn, I knew it was the dragon king's shadow.

　Can't you still do something about it?

　.........is that possible?

　I'm sure that even if we can fool these guys, if they trace their power back to us, they'll eventually find out.
　If a shadow of the Dragon King is defeated, we can definitely find out, and Aegina will reach me in an instant.

　d*mn it!　One more day and it would have been uneventful.