The 5000-year-old Herbivorous Dragon

Walking on our journey with Rēko on my back was, of course, by land route.

I must not get ahead of myself— Having just departed on our journey and receiving such a lesson, I convinced Rēko to steadily make our way to our destination.

「After going through all the effort, we should journey to many places, rather than just flying there in one go, we should leisurely walk around and your experiences will widen.」

「Anywhere I am in this world, I can just use my clairvoyance to see whatever I wish.」

「Now now, don’t say such things. Being able to directly see them, won’t you feel more moved?」

While saying so, I stopped and lightly caught my breath.

As I turned to the front, as far as my eyes could see, was a wasteland of sand and stone.

「Well… this area is a bit dreary though.」

A long time back when I was first domesticated by humans, most of the world was still land that was untouched and undeveloped. Although now, adventurers have steadily explored the land and marked it into their maps. Despite saying so, that doesn’t mean that the hands of humans reached every corner of the map.

The first and biggest reason for that are the magic beasts.

When attempting to develop new land, the attacks from magic beasts are the biggest interference. If you had just slightly become negligent in sorting out your defensive preparations, all the settlers would be wiped out in no time.

Due to the high risk of developing there were many areas that were untouched, other than areas that were suited for humans to live— Is what I heard from Sheina.

「How do I put it, so that’s the reason that hardly anything has changed after a few thousand years.」

Of course, the streets of Perudona were much more refined than when I was young.

However, I think that the human condition at its core hasn’t really changed all that much.

They could have developed much more if it weren’t for the magic beast’s interference.

「Lord Evil Dragon, what do you mean by hardly anything has changed?」

「You see, I just thought that the world hasn’t changed much from when I was young.」

「As I thought, it was Lord Evil Dragon that destroyed the old humanity and reset civilization. It was quite effective, right?」

「Just what kind of goal can I achieve by doing such a thing?」

「A mere kin such as I could not speak of Lord Evil Dragons great will…」

「Don’t just give me frightening accomplishments without even setting a motive.」

Of course, without even saying, this was all false accusations.

There are no civilizations that could be reset by a lizard like myself.

—However.

「Now that you mention it, I will maybe become a real Evil Dragon…」

Whispering to myself so that Rēko couldn’t hear.

Right now the enormous amount of the Evil Dragon’s magic power was causing Rēko to become a kin. Although I had no idea how to seal off this power — namely the Saintess’s proposal, to “return the magic power to its original owner” - in other words, a way to return it to myself — is currently the most plausible method.

If I could manage to do that then I would become like Rēko, holding terrifying power like a real Evil Dragon. free𝚠𝚎𝚋𝒏𝚘ѵ𝐞l.𝑐oｍ

「Well, even if that happens, it’s fine if I don’t use it. Ah but, if I was able to fly high, then I can eat the fruits straight off the tree, so it’s hard to throw it away… That would be the only reason to release my power. It’s the reward for the me who tried his best」

「Lord Evil Dragon, you seem to be very happy. Did you imagine the Demon King’s death throes?」

「Yeah, that’s right, the Demon King’s… Demon King?」

As I came back to earth with a “Ha!”, I swallowed my breath.

That’s right. I was in a good mood recently and forgot but the Demon King is a threat to humanity. In the first place, the reason I had to say goodbye to my cave life was due to that reason.

And the only one who could confront the Demon King was — “Evil Dragon” Revendia.

In other words, after finally moving Rēkos powers, humanity’s fate will rest on my two shoulders. Abruptly, my stomach started to hurt.

「Ah, you see Rēko, before, didn’t you try to find the Demon King with your clairvoyance?」

「Yes, unfortunately I couldn’t locate him though.」

「You truly couldn’t find him right? Isn’t there the possibility that the Demon King doesn’t really exist?」

It seems that even Sousou, a Demon King Commander, hasn’t met directly with him.

Just like how they mistook me for an Evil Dragon, the Demon King Army was built around the name of the Demon King’s name only.

「Though I felt the presence of an immense amount of magic power…, I apologize. I can’t confirm this with only my power.」

「Ahh, don’t mind it. I just wanted to say it.」

It’s probably too optimistic to think that there is actually no Demon King.

For now, we presume that the Demon King exists and I think about the things I must do if I became a real Evil Dragon.

In place of Rēko, I would have to defeat the Demon King…

「Lord Evil Dragon? You’re shaking, what’s happened?」

「I, I was just thinking about my fight with the Demon King. It wasn’t that I was afraid okay? I was shaking in excitement.」

「So it was like that, you couldn’t wait for the final battle. As expected of the Lord Evil Dragon. How reliable.」

Not good, even if I had evil dragon power, with the mentality of a lizard, I had no chances of victory.

Right now with Rēko taking the lead, we would have a much higher chance of victory if attacked.

「…Well, yeah. We can talk about the details after we find a steady route.」

Perhaps I could just give the evil dragon powers to Ariante or someone.

If that’s the case, then everything would be solved. Rēko and I can go back to our peaceful everyday lives. Rēko would protest but I’ll take the time to convince her.

And just like that, I slew the problems the future me had to deal with.

As we continued on our journey, my nose picked up a certain smell.

It was a slightly fishy smell but at the same time, a refreshing smell. To me, it was an extremely nostalgic smell.

「Rēko, can you tell with your nose if the smell around here has changed?」

「Yes. From the south, I can smell something weird carried over by the wind, is this it?」

As I thought, Rēko has never smelt such a smell before.

I answered her as an upperclassmen of life to Rēko with confidence.

「It’s the smell of the sea. It seems like we’re getting close to the harbour.」

To go to the country spoken by Sheina, we would have to cross the sea.

To Rēko, it would be her first time and to me, it would be after a few hundred years.

The sea was almost upon us.