(Aug 23)

It was the day of the Flame Witch’s Festival.

Yesterday was the city tournament, which was done a day before the actual festival, but despite today being a festival no one was celebrating due to the events of yesterday.

Many people had died.

No expected a wyvern to appear and wreak havoc.

Around half the city was destroyed with over a quarter of the population dead or heavily injured and crippled.

A lot of families lost loved ones.

The sky was bright, and ashes slowly fell from the sky, as a thick magic infused wind blew across the rubbles in the city.

Ironic because despite the day being such a beautiful day and the sky was mesmerizing with small glittering ashes falling but no one was paying attention to it.

The air and atmosphere were heavy, you could almost smell the death and despair in the air.

This reminded me of before… when the dragon appeared and destroyed the Azgard kingdom.

I felt sick in the stomach remembering that.

.

Yesterday after the wyvern was killed, William rushed to my side and helped heal me.

He was really mad and even shouted at me which surprised me, I had half-expected him to be a little prouder because I did injure the wyvern to such an extent but no, he was mad.

He told me I should have ran and hid but I told him I could not just let people die in front of me and run away like a coward.

His face seemed distorted and desperate, and in serious tone he told me:

“Your life is more valuable than a couple mere civilians. Value your life more.”

I froze when I heard that, and I exploded. I shouted back at William; this was the first time I got this mad at William.

What the hell man? Run away? Mere civilians? What are you saying?!?!?!

I couldn’t see his eyes, but I could feel his emotionless gaze on me.

In a deep voice he said:

“Why do you think I’ve been teaching you until now? Because you have dragon blood, that is the only reason. If you died, then everything I’ve done until now would be wasted.”

I was shocked.

Like bro, that’s not what you say to your friend.

I had believed that William was my friend and I still do… but…. Is this feeling one sided?

He continued to say that if I lived, I would get stronger and eventually save more people but if I died now then more people would die in the future.

It doesn’t matter if people die around me now, because eventually it will save more people in the grand scheme.

During that time my mind was clouded with anger, I punched William using my dragon claws and sent him flying back smashing into the side of a house.

I was surprised he didn’t die from that, but he stood up almost nearly unscathed.

“Keep in mind what I said, you will realize what I say is true.”

And then he left.

That bastard…

Wtf is wrong with you…

You just say what you say and leave? Why are you acting like you’re some kind of complex and deep person or something?

Plus you are stronger than me so why are you suddenly putting all this burden and responsibility on ME?

There are a ton of people who are stronger than me, so why me specifically? I just cannot seem to understand William.

It’s my life, I’m doing I want with it. I just wanted to help out…

.

Since then, me and William were on bad terms, my anger cooled by now, but I was still pissed off at William.

I had thought long and hard about what he had said to me.

Why do you think I’ve been teaching you until now? Because you have dragon blood, that is the only reason.

If what he meant what he said then that means he doesn’t really care about me; he only cares about the dragon powers that I have.

Then what about Briggs, is he not truly my friend either? Is he only my friend because I have ‘potential’ due to my dragon blood?

I started questioning myself and what I’ve done until now.

Imagine if your parents told you were adopted because they only wanted child support money, this was sort of how I felt.

While I was worrying alone in the courtyard watching the falling ashes and staring at the bright sky, Briggs had approached me and asked to have a little chat which I agreed to.

He popped open a beer bottle and gulped it down before letting out a massive burp.

It seemed Briggs was still Briggs. Goofy and easy going.

Kind of relieved me to see something hasn’t changed.

He slapped me on the back and told me that he had heard what happened with William and me.

“Don’t worry about him, he’s a real tsundere! He may not look like it but he is doing this so he can save people.”

I know. I know that everything Briggs says is true… but…

“It’s true that the only reason we’re training you is because you have dragon blood, A rankers like us don’t have that much free time people willy nilly.”

I kept quiet.

“But that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, soon, you’ll be one of us. By that, I mean an A ranker as well.”

I was silent but I did feel happy inside.

“I think… you’ve realized by now, but our city is in quite the situation… but not because of the wyvern…”

Huh?

I asked Briggs what he meant.

“We’re on the verge of war, an all-out war could break out at any moment. We kept this a secret from the public, but it’ll be revealed sooner or later.”

W-war…?

Wait a second.

Don’t tell me…?

“I don’t know if you realized by now, but the wyvern that attacked was probably planned and coordinated.”

!!!

Someone… planned a wyvern attack?

“If you’ve been paying attention lately, you’ll have realized that we’ve been recruiting a LOT of new soldiers.”

Indeed, I even mentioned in my journal that I thought it was strange how we were recruiting so many newbie soldiers despite being in peaceful times.

But that was quite a while ago...? I didn’t think much of it at that time.

“Things aren’t as peaceful as you may think it is. For a while now, we’ve been at tension with a neighboring fairy kingdom. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue due to our offensive force being so much more powerful than theirs but there’s a major issue.”

A… major issue?

Don’t tell me this guy is going to reveal some kind of plot twist or some sh*t?

“The kingdom we’re in conflict with is researching and creating artificial dragons. That’s why you are so important, you with dragon blood will act as our trump card against their dragons.”

And then it all clicked together.

Dragons.

Dragon blood.

William researching dragons and training me.

A sudden wyvern attack.

But there are a still a lot of loose ends that are still unexplained!

WHY DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS UNTIL NOW?? SOMETHING SO IMPORTANT???

“Our spies have confirmed a dragon was being made, it was incomplete, but they had successfully created experimental wyverns though. This wyvern was too coincidental and too perfectly timed to be an accident.

And if they finish making a dragon, we’ll be in big trouble. I do hope you can understand our position. We’ve been preparing by training soldiers and developing our trump card; you.”

I was baffled, and I tried to process the information I had just got shoved into my face.

For me, who was living relatively easily and peacefully until now, was suddenly thrusted into a political war which would soon change my life and the lives of all those involved in this soon-to-be war.