"I never thought you could get nervous too."
Justin supported Tang's body and spoke slowly as Tang kept rubbing its smooth scales, patterned with fine, dark markings-the scales felt wonderful to the touch and helped ease some of his anxiety.
"I still remember your gaze when you first came to the nest. Expectation, delight, and a sense of pressure. As though you weren't an intruder surrounded by Giant Dragons, but a Dragon Slayer who could slaughter them at any moment."
"I'm human. Humans get nervous."
Tang rested at Justin's shoulder and neck as it continued flying forward.
"Have you heard that there are three moments in a person's life when they're most nervous?"
"I'm all ears."
"The first is when you're born. You enter this world as a newborn life, and everything before your eyes feels strange and frightening. It brings out your first cry at birth."
Justin deeply agreed. "That's fear of the unknown."
"The second is when you get married. You begin to realize that you no longer represent only yourself. You'll have a family of your own, and behind you will be a loved one you cherish. That brings heavy responsibilities to your life-the price of happiness."
Justin nodded. As a Giant Dragon, it might understand the word marriage, but understanding its weight was difficult. Still, it was now willing to try to appreciate Tang's feelings. "That's anxiety about the future."
"The third is when you kill someone. You truly end an existing life, and what that person carried might have been his own unique life, his memories, his family-you might simply grieve over the passing of a life like your own, or you might simply feel uneasy about the very fact that death came at your hands." Justin expressed its understanding. "For you and me, with