"Huff..."
Duanmu Huai sat in the corner of the noisy tavern and sighed.
Several days had passed since he returned through the Warp Space passage to the world where Norn and the others lived. Of course, compared to the mess the Mechanicus Cult had made back then, thousands of years had passed in this world. The original three countries—the Country of Heroes, the Country of Magical Tools, and the Country of Protection—had long since vanished into the river of history.
Even the country that Freyja and Norn, the two princesses, had created by unifying the three countries afterward had fallen apart and been utterly destroyed many years ago.
That was only natural. The world's great movements followed a pattern: long division led to unity, and long unity led to division. Princess Norn had indeed been very clever, but that did not mean her successors were equally intelligent.
Even so, this world could hardly be called normal.
According to the information Duanmu Huai had gathered over the past few days, a threat known as dragons had appeared in this world once again.
At first, Duanmu Huai had thought they were like the Demon Race of this world back then, some kind of creation manufactured by the Mechanicus Cult. But after meeting them in person, he discovered that rather than creations, they resembled the demons he had encountered before.
That was right. When he first heard about dragons, Duanmu Huai had imagined giant lizards with wings that breathed fire. Most dragons did indeed look like that, but compared to true dragons, their biological traits were somewhat lacking—for example, they feared silverware and sunlight. A silver sword could kill them, or dragging them beneath the sun would make them burn on their own.
The first time he saw one, Duanmu Huai had been