I woke up.
I felt like I'd had a strange dream.
Somehow, it was a happy dream.
It was a hazy dream, but I remembered it clearly.
It was a dream about my death.
I somehow knew that, after that, I never opened my eyes again.
And yet, it didn't feel bad.
"Hm?"
When I looked over, a girl had frozen in place, holding my hand.
A blue-haired girl. She wore her hair tied back in a single braid.
In her right hand was my left hand, and in her left hand, she clutched a bracelet.
Her expression was that of a frog pinned down by a snake.
"...I'm sorry."
She apologized out of the blue.
If you did something wrong, you apologized—that was the result of good upbringing.
"You wanted it that badly?"
"No... that's not it. I told Sis there was an amazing, cool hidden crest under Dad's bracelet."
"Oh?"
Of course, no such hidden crest existed.
I wasn't one of the chosen people, after all.
But when I looked closely, there was something beside her, on the side table.
A brush, lying there. It definitely hadn't been there before I went to sleep.
"You were going to write one, weren't you?"
"...I'm sorry."
The initiative to try to turn a lie into truth.
Should I praise that, or scold her?
No, I should scold her. Yeah.
A parent had a responsibility for her education. Mm-hm.
"Lala, you mustn't tell lies. Go apologize to your sister."
"Okay..."
I patted her on the head, and Lala trudged out of the room with a deflated look on her face.
As she left, I caught sight of a big white furball outside the door.
Leo had apparently been keeping watch.
I went to put on the bracelet, but my eyes happened to land on the brush.
I used it to draw the Migurd tribe's crest on my arm, then got out of bed.
"Ugh... my head hurts... drank too much."
Probably the aftermath of last night's party—I pressed a hand against my aching head.
--- About ten years had passed since the battle in the Begaritt Kingdom.
I turned thirty-four this year.
These ten years had been very peaceful.
In all that time, there had been no interference from the Human God.
Truly, it had stopped completely.
In recent years, there hadn't even been a whisper of the Human God's existence.
Of course, I hadn't let my guard down.
I remained vigilant, watching for when, where, and how the next attack might come, while continuing my preparations against Laplace just as before.
That said, without the Human God poking his nose in, things moved smoothly.
In the first five years, I had reached out to countries all around the world.
There were a few that refused, but by and large, every nation agreed.
So now, I was devoting my energy to research and instruction on chantless magic at the Magic University and in the Kingdom of
On top of that, I was visiting the military departments of various countries to teach them countermeasures against the strategies and tactics Laplace would likely employ.
At the same time, I was concealing the name "
I didn't know if
But she'd told me to spread her name around—just in case a friend from the original world happened to come looking for clues to find me—and so I did.
It had earned me quite a reputation, but well, that was fine.
For now, awareness was the priority, and if any humans came from other worlds, they'd surely understand the significance—or at least the convenience—of what I'd been doing under her name.
Recently, I'd been researching mana-recovery potions in an effort to restore
I had managed to create a potion that recovered mana, but for some reason, Orsted's mana wouldn't replenish.
Was it because of a fundamental difference between human and dragon species' mana, or was there some other reason?
I'd keep looking into it a bit longer, but I had a feeling this approach was a dead end.
The potion itself had become a massive hit product, so it wasn't a complete waste by any means.
There were still plenty of other things left to do.
I had no time to rest yet.
The children had grown up.
Lucy was seventeen.
Lala was fifteen, Ars was thirteen.
Zeke was eleven, I think?
They were all growing up beautifully.
After that, two more children had been born.
Lily
Christina Greyrat—my child with Eris.
Both girls.
Six children in total.
Quite the large family.
But they were all girls. The Greyrat bloodline might just be a matrilineal family.
When Lucy turned seven, we held a family meeting and laid out the broad strokes of their education.
That said, it was nothing extraordinary—enroll them in the Magic University at age seven, hold a coming-of-age celebration after graduation, then send them to the Kingdom of Asura's national university for three years.
It was my firm belief not to force anything on the children, but I also felt it was my duty to provide them with educational opportunities and a compass for the direction they should take.
Enrolling my children in Asura's national university had been a personal request from Ariel.
I owed Ariel a great debt.
If she'd come out with something like "Create a blood tie—give me one of them as my son-in-law!" I would have refused, but something as modest as letting her enroll my children? I couldn't say no to that.
I wanted to repay my debts, bit by bit.
Incidentally, Ariel had given birth after the battle in the Begaritt Kingdom.
The father held too much political power, so they never married.
On top of that, she apparently kept a large number of consorts in her harem.
Ariel currently had five children, four of whom nobody knew the father of. Luke had told me this with a pale face, clutching his head in dismay.
I'd questioned how it was possible that at least one of the five had a known father... but thinking about it now, that one known father might actually have been Luke.
Ariel was apparently scheming to pair up one of my children with one of her five.
Personally, I disliked being used as a pawn in political maneuvering, but if the children themselves came of age and agreed to it willingly, I'd accept that.
The children were still young, but year by year you could see them becoming adults.
Lucy in particular had already grown into a proper adult with sound judgment.
As for the adults, though—had we become more adult-like ourselves? Not exactly.
Honestly, I couldn't tell where I'd changed.
Just when I thought I'd improved one bad habit, another one popped up.
Things I'd fixed would deteriorate again.
I felt like I was just repeating the same mistakes while steadily getting older.
One thing I could tell: my face was aging year by year.
Lately, I'd started getting nasolabial folds.
Sylphie told me that kind of thing suited me, but seeing how young she still looked, I felt a little guilty.
Sylphie seemed to be aging gracefully.
But despite being the same age as me, her physical changes were remarkably slow.
She was supposed to be thirty-four this year like me, but she still looked like she was around twenty.
Her skin was supple and taut, and despite having borne two children, her hips were still slim.
And she was just as pleasant to cuddle as ever.
On the inside, though, she'd fully transitioned into motherhood—or should I say, she'd gotten quite a bit more naggy.
Roxy hadn't changed.
She looked the same, and her mannerisms were much the same.
Though saying that tended to make her angry, it was meant as a compliment.
She still guided me as my teacher whenever I did something foolish.
She still tripped over her own feet sometimes, but as they say, fall seven times, stand up eight. You've got to be willing to fail.
Eris was probably the one whose appearance had changed the most.
Like me, she'd aged steadily over the years.
But thanks to never missing a day of training, she looked much younger than me. Her skin age was probably still somewhere in her late twenties.
After having their second child, her sex drive had quieted down somewhat, though she still pounced on me from time to time.
The opposite of Sylphie, her personality hadn't changed all that much.
But since she'd started teaching the children swordsmanship, I felt her ferocity had mellowed. She'd grown more patient.
She still hit me without hesitation if I groped her hips or chest without warning, but that was only natural.
Lillia and
Both were still in good spirits, but Lillia, whose legs had always been weak, was starting to suffer from back pain and stiff shoulders.
Healing magic could fix it temporarily, but the symptoms would return after about a year.
A full cure seemed difficult.
Everyone else was aging well too.
They each had careers and families, running busily from one obligation to the next.
If any of them ran into trouble, they helped each other out.
Their partners were... each a somewhat complicated choice.
But they'd discussed everything thoroughly and reached an understanding, so there was nothing left for me to say about it.
"..."
Still, thirty-four, huh.
An age full of memories.
--- That afternoon, I visited a certain place.
A small hill on the outskirts of town, lined with round stone markers.
A cemetery.
"Thanks, as always."
I offered a brief word of thanks to the groundskeeper at the entrance and went inside.
In the ten years since I'd last been here regularly, more graves had been added.
People were born and died, but headstones rarely disappeared.
At other cemeteries, a grave might be demolished once all the family members were gone, but this was a noble cemetery—as long as a family line survived, its graves would remain.
And the Kingdom of
With that growth came more nobles, and with more nobles came more graves.
I stood before one particular stone.
That was what was carved into the round headstone.
Compared to when it was first erected, the stone had weathered considerably.
I used the cleaning supplies I'd brought to tidy up the area around it and polish the headstone.
Then I offered sake before the grave and pressed my palms together.
It had been a while since I came here.
Back in the day, I used to come all the time, reporting on this and that. Lately, though, my visits had become infrequent.
Even so, once a year, the whole family would come pay our respects...
Something about it, though. Maybe it was a matter of feelings.
The once-a-year visit had started to feel less like I was coming to see Paul and more like I was just going through the motions of a routine ceremony.
I lacked sufficient gratitude.
"Dad, everyone's doing well."
After opening with that, I went through a full update on our lives.
I did this every year too, but it was the thought that counted.
"I'm turning thirty-four this year."
Thirty-four.
The age at which I died in my previous life.
Before I knew it, I'd reached that age again.
But for some reason, it felt like it had taken me longer to get to thirty-four this time around than it had in my previous life.
Maybe because there was so much to do.
Or maybe because I'd been more active than in my previous life.
"But even though I'm turning thirty-four, I had a dream that I died at seventy-four."
What was that dream about?
Was it just an ordinary dream?
Or was it a vision of the future, shown to me by the Human God?
The Human God had been sealed away.
I'd been dying with a look of complete satisfaction on my face.
It was the exact moment Lala removed my bracelet, so the Human God could have intervened.
"If that dream was the real future, then..."
If the Human God had shown me that vision, then maybe it was proof of how far I'd come.
In the battle at the Begaritt Kingdom, we had won.
If that was truly the final battle, then the Human God had lost every means of defeating both me and Orsted.
And so, the Human God had given up.
After all, there had been no interference from the Human God for a full ten years now.
Nothing at all.
Sure, maybe he was still sneaking around in the shadows somewhere...
But just as Badigadi and Geese had said, there was truly no sign of him.
Sometimes I even forgot what I was fighting for.
"Does that mean I don't have to try so hard anymore?"
If the Human God had truly given up.
If my work was done.
I felt like I could cut my current workload in half and live a gentler life.
Maybe spend an entire day every three days or so making babies with my wife.
Teach the children all sorts of things...
I could live that kind of semi-retired life, and it would be fine.
"Just kidding."
I chuckled softly.
What a silly thought.
Even if the Human God had given up, so what?
It's not like I hated what I was doing.
It wasn't that life was hard right now.
Preparing for the next battle, for the victory that awaited Orsted—it was actually quite enjoyable.
Sure, there were tough times and painful moments, but nothing that made me want to run away.
There were things that needed doing, and things I still wanted to do, things I still wanted to try.
Besides, the Human God might just be using this as one last scheme—to make me let my guard down.
"Dad, I'm going to keep trying, same as always."
I'd keep doing what I'd always done.
That dream was just that—a dream.
A convenient fantasy born from my own wishes.
"Please keep watching over me."
I said my usual words and pressed my palms together once more.
"..."
As long as I existed, there was probably something like an afterlife.
That said, it wasn't guaranteed that Paul was in this particular cemetery.
He was surely out there somewhere, having a good time.
So coming here might not be all that meaningful an act.
But that was fine.
This was a ritual.
Starting today, I would throw myself into life once again.
The important thing was making that vow here, in front of Paul's headstone.
"Oh, and Geese, while I'm at it..."
I placed an offering before Geese's grave, right beside Paul's, and pressed my palms together.
I didn't know what Geese had been thinking.
But he hadn't genuinely wished for my ruin, either.
"I'll hear your grudges in forty years... though I might live longer than that, or die sooner."
I didn't mean to glorify Geese's death.
But after ten years, certain things faded.
And what remained in my memory, after all that fading, was his smile.
Geese was always grinning, rattling off jokes about bad omens and whatnot.
Remembering that grin now, all I could think was that they were good memories.
He hadn't killed anyone precious to me, and there was nothing I held against him.
I could at least visit his grave and pay my respects.
"Well, I'll come again. Next time, probably with the whole family."
With that, I stood up.
Just because I'd had a strange dream didn't mean I needed to change anything.
I'd keep doing what needed doing, and keep doing what I wanted to do.
With that thought, I turned my steps toward home, where my family was waiting.