The same secluded mountain valley.
The babbling stream gave the dragon a sense of peace. There was no waterfall, only moss-covered rocks. Tiny flying insects could be seen in the shafts of light spilling through gaps in the branches and leaves.
"So the Marriage Red Thread really is red. Fine material. Kind of interesting."
The red thread was not actually thread, but made from various rare Silk Threads wound together. Calling it a thin cord would have been more fitting. She opened her mouth and carefully bit down on it with her teeth, yet somehow failed to bite through it. Though it looked like only a small ball of red thread, it could be very long or very short. It was quite fun.
On the small scale, there was only this single red thread before her.
Yet this one red thread could pass through the river of fate. No matter how high the mountains, no matter how far the road, it crossed the Heavenly Barrier and bound two people together by an unseen thread. Other than certain special beings, no one could escape its design.
She grabbed the red thread and swung it around. Unfortunately, it could not be used for ring toss.
"Burp~ Could I knit a sweater with it?"
Then came all sorts of boring tests, such as tugging it with all her strength, using it as a jump rope, making it into a swing...
It was, after all, a legendary divine artifact handed down from ancient times. Yet it had fallen into the hands of someone who burned zithers to cook cranes. Fortunately, she had not stolen the Concentric Lock. Otherwise, it would surely have been hung on a courtyard gate to lock a brushwood door, left to weather wind, sun, and rain as an iron general