Gardenia’s Heart

As the pleasant sunlight rose over the horizon, a silver-haired girl wore an exasperated expression on her cold face.

“I know you’re upset about having to get out of bed early. I’d also rather go say good morning to my daughter and have breakfast with her, but... how long do you plan to stay curled up like that?” The tired sigh left the woman’s lips as she spoke to none other than a trembling bunny-eared girl crouched against the outer wall of the palace in a fetal position.

With both arms wrapped around her knees and her pink eyes slightly teary, Selene held a small book in one hand and her stardust brush in the other.

“How could I not be, Rival!? My three wives are pregnant, and I’m heading to the land of dragons!”

“We made sure to inform Abelia this time, and she said it’s fine for you to come along. If anything happens, we’ll be alerted and return right away,” Lily said, rolling her mismatched eyes.

(Lily wants me to hold her again?)

Suddenly, a voice echoed inside the girl’s mind.

“It’s alright.” With a soft laugh and a gentle pat on the tentacle around her waist to keep her wife from getting any ideas, Lily approached the twin-tailed girl and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Aside from Elarielle, you’re the only one among us who actually has experience in that region, Selene. We’d really like you to come, but we won’t force you if you don’t want to.”

Feeling the warmth of that hand on her shoulder, Selene couldn’t help but let her pink eyes waver for a moment.

“Damn it... when you put it like that, how could I refuse?” Shaking her head several times, the girl leapt from the ground, twirling her stardust brush between her fingers. “The land of dragons isn’t a place just anyone can enter. I’ll be able to paint so many unique landscapes—there’s no reason not to go.”

Watching the energetic bunny-eared woman once again, Lily smiled softly. With her bright red dress gleaming under the morning sun, Selene walked toward the luggage being lifted by the purple tentacles extending from Lily’s back.

“Why bring such heavy bags? Wouldn’t it be easier to just retrieve them later with teleportation? Don’t think I’ve forgotten the time you all used my house as a storage room.”

Selene remembered waking up in the middle of the night countless times, her sensitive ears picking up the sounds of random rooms in her house receiving deliveries of various items like weapons and potions. Because of that, she couldn’t understand why the girls were carrying those items instead of simply fetching them later through the portals.

“As we’ll be standing before people highly skilled in magic, it wouldn’t be wise to reveal Lady Gardenia’s teleportation spell. A trump card should remain hidden.”

Finally arriving at the palace gardens, Thelira spoke in a calm tone. At her side, an orange sphere orbited her body. Approaching Lily with a faintly exasperated look, Thelira handed several large bags to one of the tentacles.

“These are the last ones. Looks like Sis stayed up all night packing medicine for emergencies. I found her passed out from exhaustion again.”

Hearing the elf’s words, Selene paused for a moment, realizing she had a point. Shifting her gaze to the map she had been given earlier—but had completely ignored until now in her state of despair—she raised an eyebrow. “By the way, is there really a beacon route around here?”

“Just as humans have a beacon route to approach Finis from outside the forest, the elves have their own trade route. It avoids the dense forest zones and ravines, using the mountain ranges to reach the peak. It’s even possible to transport entire carriages along it, if done carefully.” Letting out a weary sigh, Thelira turned toward her fairy. With a nod, Vesca fluttered closer, and a dark green corset and cloak, along with an orange scarf, shimmered into place over Thelira’s body. “If the meeting weren’t the day after tomorrow, I could’ve prepared more things as gifts.”

“Wait—the day after tomorrow!?” Selene couldn’t help shouting as she jumped to her feet, staring at the elf in disbelief. “So that’s why you woke me up in such a rush!? Why are we leaving so last minute!?”

“It took us by surprise too,” Thelira said, adjusting the orange scarf around her neck and the bow on her back. “The message arrived yesterday afternoon. We immediately replied, thinking the date must’ve been a mistake—but the dragon messenger we contacted through the communication artifact linked to Athamas told us the message had actually been sent over two months ago.”

“Was there some malfunction in the artifact that caused the message to get stuck?” Lily asked, watching as Nia’s purple tentacles finished securing all the luggage.

“I can’t say for sure... Sis had the artifact sent for analysis right away.” Letting out another tired sigh, Thelira went on. “If the mistake really was on our end, missing the meeting because of it will be seen as an offense—or even disrespect—by the other races. Foreign relations are such a headache.”

While Lily and Thelira spoke with calm composure, Selene stared at them in disbelief.

“Wait! Why are you both so calm!? Even if we run at full speed, there’s no way we’ll make it in time! Going around the outer canyon takes at least a month on foot for a mage! Even through the mountain ridges, it would still take weeks!”

Exchanging puzzled glances, the two women looked at the bunny-eared girl and spoke in unison:

“But we’re not going on foot.”

---

The icy mist battered against the barrier surrounding them, keeping the cold wind at bay. Yet, with her pink eyes wide open, Selene couldn’t stop screaming.

“Since when do you have wings!?”

Clutching the purple tentacle holding her in place with all her strength, Selene shouted at the top of her lungs toward the silver-haired girl, whose back projected wings made of black thunder.

“Since Nia ate the leviathan… wait, did I never show you this before?”

Tilting her head as she realized she had indeed never been in a situation where Selene could have seen her wings, Lily refocused on her surroundings.

Leaving the barrier of the World Tree behind and heading east, the sunlight had once again vanished. After several hours of flight over a flat landscape, they finally entered a wooded zone.

“This side of the region looks much thornier and drier. The mist really does ruin the vegetation,” Lily commented, climbing higher for safety as the terrain below turned increasingly mountainous. The forest beneath her vanished into the fog as she gained altitude.

(In this case, it’s not just the mist, Lily. The mountain at the center of this region is so tall it blocks nearly all the moisture coming from the ocean, leaving only dry air on this side.)

Nia’s cheerful voice echoed in Lily’s mind, clearly delighted to be explaining the topic to her beloved. Her tentacles adjusted the coordinates of the next beacon they were to follow on the mana compass they carried.

“Lady Gardenia is right,” Thelira remarked, her innate ability allowing her to hear Nia’s voice even from within Lily’s body.

Having been carried by the metamorph’s purple tentacles on several previous occasions, Thelira had long grown used to this method of travel.

As they flew comfortably, her emerald eyes glanced at the various pieces of luggage trailing behind them, suspended by Nia’s tentacles, before turning toward the thin layer of jungle barely visible through the mist.

“Because of this terrain, there’s hardly any rainfall on this side of the mountain. If not for the World Tree protecting the forest and enriching the soil with nutrients, it would be impossible for us to have such a lush environment to live in,” Thelira said with a relieved sigh.

In Anthus, even amid the mist, Lily had always been able to see the silhouette of the Stardust Spring mountain on the horizon. But here, even narrowing her eyes as much as she could and focusing dark mana, she could barely see anything ahead. Without the mana compass pointing toward the beacons, she would’ve easily lost her way.

“Selene, why are you still so restless?” With a glance from her heterochromatic eyes, Lily noticed Selene shaking energetically once more.

“I-I never imagined I’d actually go inside this place!” Clutching the purple tentacle as if her life depended on it, Selene spoke in a panic, her eyes staring down at the fog below in sheer terror. “The Valley of Dawn is said to have almost zero survival rate even for two-star mages!”

Though Nia’s barrier shielded her from the wind, Selene kept shaking her head so wildly that her twintails fluttered uncontrollably.

“None of the monsters here travel in packs. They’re vicious, solitary beasts that attack anything in sight for the sheer pleasure of it—whether that’s another monster or not.”

Even though she couldn’t see the forest below due to the altitude, Selene couldn’t stop herself from looking down, as if something might leap up to snatch her at any moment.

“When I joined that expedition to the demonic continent, I slept with one eye open every night! Even though we only skirted around this place from the outside, I could feel the bloodlust coming toward me!” Placing both hands on her head, Selene spoke as her voice trembled. “I still have nightmares about the screams of the monsters that live here. I swore to myself I’d never come near this place again!”

Seeing the girl—who, despite her fear, had once faced a leviathan head-on—trembling like that made Lily wonder what kind of creature could possibly live in that forest.

“Please calm down, Lady Selene. We’re just taking a shortcut, but we’ll remain flying at a safe distance above the forest for the entire trip,” Thelira said, trying to reassure the rabbit-eared girl.

Despite Selene’s nervousness, the journey went smoothly. Beacon after beacon, the girls followed the mana compass through the skies.

“Hm?” As they continued without anything new happening, Lily found it strange when, even though she was flying at the same steady pace, she suddenly felt her body speeding up.

Her puzzled exclamation was heard by the elf, who glanced around thoughtfully before confirming her theory. “It seems we’ve reached the floating rivers.”

As if countless white, translucent streams formed and intertwined across the sky, currents of air resembling pulsing veins appeared within the mist.

(Lily, I know these too! Even though the air here is dry, the dense concentration of mana in this region affects the wind currents, creating these high-altitude pathways!)

Like leaves carried away by a river’s flow, the girls were swept forward by the howling wind.

“How fascinating—my wings are barely moving, and yet we’ve already traveled hundreds of meters.”

Thanks to Nia’s barrier and the stability of her black wings, there was no danger of the cutting winds harming them.

“Is something wrong, Thelira?” Enjoying the pleasant sensation of the breeze propelling their bodies, Lily noticed the elf’s uneasy expression as she scanned their surroundings with suspicion.

“A type of monster known as the Gale Eagle usually flies above these floating rivers,” Thelira explained, “but even though we’re this high up in the clouds, not a single one has come to attack us.” Concentrating mana in her eyes once again, she tried to spot anything unusual in the misty sky.

“Maybe they’re just avoiding us? I mean, Nia and Akasha are here,” Lily said, feeling the staff at her waist shift slightly as a tentacle gently poked her cheek.

Though she herself wasn’t a typical mage, Lily knew she could never emit an aura as overwhelming as her wife and her fairy companion, whose presence alone was enough to drive away other creatures.

“I wouldn’t rule that out... it’s just that I’ve heard this particular species is bold enough to attack anything, no matter the difference in strength. So it’s strange we haven’t seen any—!”

She never finished her sentence.

The air grew heavy. Thick.

As if the pressure of the world itself had abruptly shifted.

As though the very atmosphere were bending under the weight of something immense.

They all felt it at once.

A sudden, unnatural silence.

Every nerve, every fiber of their beings went on full alert. Their skin prickled, their senses sharpened to the limit.

And then—they saw it.

A silhouette emerged on the misty horizon.

It wasn’t the mountain.

Because it moved.

A living shadow that devoured the faintest light around it as its form came into view.

It was vast.

Indigo scales covered its entire body.

Its four legs were weapons, claws capable of tearing apart any landscape in their path, reshaping maps at its will.

Its neck was adorned with white-golden fur, a mantle of nobility that declared its divine status.

Four platinum wings rose and fell behind its back, scattering a faint bluish glow through the air. They were so majestic they seemed woven from the sky itself. Each powerful flap displaced enough wind to sweep away an entire village.

Its tail was so immense that one could not see its beginning and end at the same time.

It possessed two sharp, black reptilian eyes that seemed to read the very core of those it gazed upon. From its forehead extended a long horn of crescent-shaped crystals, like a crown above its head.

Many would call it a dragon.

Many would call it a god.

With a thunderous burst, its four platinum wings beat once more, and the colossal creature shot toward the girls.

The world turned gray.

Twisting her body midair, Lily darted aside to avoid the creature’s charge. Black thunder streaked across the frozen sky as she struggled to gain distance.

“Why is a dragon attacking us!?” she shouted, unable to hide her shock the moment color returned to the world. Lily swiftly drew her stardust blades.

With its target suddenly vanishing, the enormous dragon beat its wings in fury, countless tornadoes forming in the sky with sublime precision.

“See, Rival? A dragon is completely different from a leviathan!” Trying to calm her trembling nerves with humor, Selene gripped the tentacles even tighter, preparing her stardust brush.

Raising its indigo-scaled neck, the dragon chest swelled like a volcano about to erupt—and then, it roared.

Like a landscape finding its voice, the deep roar thundered across the heavens, powerful enough to scatter the very tornadoes surrounding it.

The piercing sound, louder than anything they had ever heard, slammed against the barrier encasing them, the intense vibrations making the sphere tremble violently.

“Lord Dragon, we are from the elven delegation! We are not your enemies!”

Even with the immense difference in size and the deafening noise, Thelira shouted as loud as she could. Yet, despite her plea, the dragon lunged toward them again.

One massive paw rose—five claws sharper and larger than the trunk of a great tree descending upon the girls.

(It’s heavy!)

Even the metamorph couldn’t hide her shock as the attack connected. The mana released by the dragon was so dense it made the very air suffocating.

Despite dodging tornadoes with precise movements of her wings, Lily couldn’t create distance from the dragon without stopping time. After another assault, the creature tried to pierce the barrier.

“Thelira, what do we do!? We can’t keep taking these attacks forever!” Lily shouted, spinning her stardust blades.

Although Nia’s barrier perfectly shielded them, each strike of the dragon’s claws felt like a massive building collapsing on top of them. If they kept defending without counterattacking, their dark mana would eventually run dry. They had to fight back—or escape.

“Lord Dragon, please listen to us!”

Despite calling out again and again, even channeling mana to amplify her voice, the dragon continued its relentless assault.

The elf couldn’t understand why they were being attacked. Dragons and elves were allies. Even if the dragon mistook them for intruders at first, such aggression shouldn’t continue once it confirmed they meant no harm. Her mind raced, trying to decide what to do.

(Extending the defensive barrier over such a wide area is too dangerous. I’ll have to shrink it around us—to make sure it won’t break, no matter what.)

Deciding on the best course of action to maintain their defenses, Nia dropped the luggage and prepared to fight, her tentacles spreading as she shrank the barrier to cover only the girls.

Seeing her beloved ready to battle, Lily realized she had to act as well. Even if it could cause political trouble, they were the ones who had attacked first.

Gripping the handles of her blades tightly, Lily spread mana through her entire body. Time froze, and her wings sliced through the air at incredible speed. Within the few seconds she had, the girl darted above the dragon’s head.

Her black sword gleamed—she was just about to strike the creature’s scales when two screams stopped her in her tracks.

“Aaaaaaah!”

“Eeeeeeek!”

More than anyone, there was no mistaking those voices.

“Rose!?”

“Cherry!?”

Turning their heads in panic, Lily and Thelira looked toward the place they had been just moments earlier.

Falling out from the dropped luggage, two small girls clung to each other, caught in one of the floating air currents. Their tiny bodies were being swept away at high speed.

What were they even doing there? How had they ended up here?

None of that mattered.

Lily and Nia reacted at the same time.

A portal that resembled a starry night sky opened in the air as Lily tried once more to stop time, enduring the backlash’s pain. Both reached out desperately to save the girls.

But in that brief instant of distraction, they forgot who stood before them.

A colossal claw tore through the air, striking the barrier. The sheer force of the impact hurled them back, pushing the women even farther from their target.

From that distant vantage, within a fraction of a second, they saw the two little girls lose their balance within the floating rivers—the wind currents flinging them away faster than anyone could react.

And then, plummeting thousands of meters toward the forest below, the two small figures vanished from sight.