Chapter 23

"You know I've sent all those people back home, right?"

"What? Really?!"

It was such an unexpected statement that Nain jumped up from his seat without even thinking to lower his voice. Only then did he realize his voice had been too loud and shut his mouth tightly.

"Are you interested now?"

"...!"

Nain nodded earnestly. Of course he was. The center had never given him a definite answer about returning home. They always evaded with words like "wait."

Nain asked, unable to hide his urgency.

"Then can I go back too?"

"Well, if luck follows."

Even just this answer was enough. This was the first time he'd received a positive response. Was this really such a simple matter that could be asserted so easily? Nain's heart raced as he hurriedly asked.

"H-how? From what I heard, that gate doesn't open just because anyone wants it to."

"Calm down. And before that, didn't I ask a question first?"

...A question? What question had he asked?

Perhaps because he was too excited about being able to return, he couldn't remember the previous conversation. Ash explained gently to such a Nain.

"I'm curious about how you've lived so far. That's something you can tell even people you're not very close with. I even appealed that I could be helpful to Nain... Are you feeling more inclined to open up now?"

His words somehow sounded a bit sarcastic.

Nain decided to ignore the ominous feeling that didn't make sense anyway. After all, it was a story he'd told other people, and as the man said, that kind of information wouldn't matter much to share. He had wondered why he was asking for such information, but it seemed to be for determining the destination.

Nain cautiously began to tell his story.

"My dimension has a total of four continents based on Trasid, the center of the world. And it's a dimension where there's one dragon protecting each continent's territory. Do you know of such a place?"

"Dragons?"

Ash frowned and asked back. ...Oops. Nain's eyes widened. If there was one thing he'd learned during his stay here, it was that this place didn't have such auspicious and great creatures as dragons. Everyone just laughed at him, asking if the dragon was really the dragon he knew.

At first he was a bit disheartened, but what could he do when they said there weren't any? Nain continued speaking.

"It's the same dragon you know. In other words, they're also called transcendent beings."

"..."

"And among them, I'm from the Blanche Empire located in Ranosian on the Eastern Continent. The only dragon currently awake in modern times protects my country on the Eastern Continent."

When dragon talk came up again, Ash looked a bit confused. Dragon... Seeing him mutter that word in his mouth, it was obvious.

"...Let's say they exist."

"Dragons really do exist. I'm friends with one."

He tried to defend himself, but Ash didn't seem to believe him at all. Ash replied with a calm face.

"Good for you that you're friends. But it's so natural that I just thought of it... How did you manage the language? You couldn't possibly use the same language there as here."

"..."

Nain nodded silently. Then Ash continued.

"I've never been able to communicate with dimension wanderers even once. Especially when sending those things back to their original dimensions, we have to be alone together... It really drove me crazy. I'm trying to send them home but I don't know what they're so dissatisfied about—screaming all day, getting angry, crying. Why do they do that? ...Oh, I don't know what they're saying but I could understand the curses."

I know ten different curses from other worlds. Ash muttered with an amused face.

'I can't exactly congratulate him on this...'

Having nothing to say, Nain shut his mouth with a troubled expression.

What should he make up? To someone who didn't believe in dragons' existence, saying it was also a dragon's authority would obviously just invite more mockery.

From experience, even when Nain spoke honestly, there had never been a single person who immediately accepted it with "Wow! So that's how it was." These were people who subtly suspected that even the talk about dragons existing and magic being real were lies.

Nain fiddled with his ringed hand under the desk and spoke very briefly so Ash could understand.

"It's ancient magic."

"Does such a thing really exist?"

He asked back with a surprised face. He knew it would be like this. It was almost amusing how it didn't deviate from his expectations at all. This man too seemed to find both dragons and magic unfamiliar.

"Can you show me?"

"That's difficult. I'm not a mage..."

"You're communicating right now. You said the secret was magic?"

"Yes, well... It's similar."

It would be long and complicated to explain in detail. Nain muttered indifferently while hiding his annoyed expression. Hearing a snickering sound from beside him, Nain looked up. Ash was smiling slyly.

"Ah, sorry. Someone you don't know well is being too bothersome, right?"

"..."

He had made Nain embarrassed with just one sentence. Honestly, it was true that he had found it a bit bothersome. But if the other person could feel it, then he had shown a rude attitude. Nain cleared his throat and shook his head.

"It's an artifact."

"An artifact?"

"Simply put, it's like a magical tool. Even non-mages can use such things. Because magic is engraved in them... Oh, wait. This is similar too."

Nain rummaged around his seat and found a fountain pen to show him. The automatic fountain pen was a magical tool that operated with artificial magic stones that had semi-permanent magic engraved in them, rather than requiring a mage to infuse magical power, so even non-mage Nain could use it without difficulty.

"Watch carefully."

When Nain wrote any character on paper with the fountain pen held vertically and let go, the fountain pen began to neatly repeat the writing Nain had written, aligned with the lines. A scratching sound repeated regularly. Ash showed interest and asked.

"It's the first time I've seen these characters. What did you write?"

"My name."

Nain Elrowin. That's what was written. Ash followed the strokes of the characters with his gaze and moved his finger as if tracing the letters.

"Who gave you your name? Yourself?"

While wondering why he was curious about that, Nain faithfully answered the question.

"I heard my name was given by a dragon."

"What does it mean?"

"Meaning? ...I don't know the meaning, but I heard it's the name of a star that has now disappeared."

"A star."

"I think I was born on the day that star set."

What had lived its life and disappeared would be reborn. Souls went round and round. Cheche believed that stars also had souls. Nain had inherited the soul of an asteroid as his name.

"It's a good name."

Ash made polite conversation. It was the first time in his life he'd been complimented on having a good name.

"Can I look at that for a moment? It's fascinating."

"Go ahead."

Nain handed the stopped fountain pen to Ash. Ash rolled the fountain pen a few times on his hand, then gripped it properly and tried drawing lines on paper.

"My name was given by some kid and a local patrol officer when I was young."

He began telling a story no one had asked for. But to avoid having him say something like "Someone you don't know well is being too bothersome, right?" again, he had to at least pretend to listen well. Nain nodded.

"It got that name because my eye color was exactly like burnt ash."

"Ash... you mean?"

"What do you think?"

Ash opened his eyes straight and tilted his face slightly as if telling him to look closely. He could see even without going that far.

"By the way, the dog that person raised was named Alexander Johnston the Third."

"Alexander what?"

"Johnston. ...Alexander was the name, Johnston was that person's surname, and the dog was three years old at the time. So it was 'the Third,' which really isn't funny at all."

"..."

It was also the first time in his life he'd been flustered by a dog's name.

"Nain. Why do you have that expression?"

"Ah, it's a bit unique..."

"It is unique. Other people cursed saying my name and the dog's name should have been switched, that it was insincere."

"..."

"But I liked this name, so I kept quiet. 'Ash' was a name made for me. In the end, a name only needs to please the person who uses it, doesn't it?"

Ash looked up and stared intently at Nain before asking.

"What do you think?"

What did he think? Why was he asking him that?

Nain had no particular thoughts about other people's names. Of course, compared to the dog's name that patrol officer had supposedly given, it did seem a bit much, but the meaning contained in the name Ash suited the man who resembled achromatic colors very well. So he didn't particularly think it was an insincere name either.

Nain hesitated for a moment before speaking.