Home/The Reincarnated Hero Is Melancholic/ch13

Chapter 13

At his uncharacteristically hesitant question, I couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Ahaha!"

"…Roel."

"If you want to be friends with me again, you'd need to shrink by about four or five more years!"

As I held my stomach and giggled, I heard a low sigh.

Along with it, his magic stirred once more.

"…You're too small."

A voice now closer to adolescence murmured slowly.

Wiping the tears from my eyes, I looked up to see Isid with furrowed brows. His build now seemed similar to Werner's.

"This should be enough to look at you without discomfort. Anyway, help me up."

Still carrying remnants of laughter, I reached out my hand. Isid strode over and took it.

His hand, completely enveloping mine, felt quite different from the one I knew so well. The bones and knuckles didn't protrude, and the skin was a bit softer. Still, it was larger than mine.

"Ah…!"

As I put weight on the light pulling force and stood up, I lost my balance and wobbled just as I was about to straighten fully. The headache I'd forgotten had struck again.

Thanks to Isid quickly supporting my waist, I didn't end up on the ground.

"What's wrong?"

I slumped against Isid and murmured.

"Headache from the spirit power…"

"…Spirit power?"

He echoed the word with puzzlement, then let out a short "Ah" as if understanding, and immediately opened his magical energy.

Isid's magic slowly seeped into my body.

I didn't resist; instead, I accepted it comfortably. Because it was familiar.

His magic—so rough and fierce that even other dragonkind shied away from it—concealed its thorns and gently infused vitality throughout my body. The pounding headache that had felt like it might split my skull gradually subsided.

"I'm alive…"

I murmured, letting my limp body lean against Isid, and a light sigh brushed my ear.

"You overdid it."

"Well… maybe a little?"

Even as I said it, I glanced at him warily, and Isid furrowed his brow.

"Why push yourself with that tiny body? If something goes wrong now, it'll hurt incomparably more than before."

Hmm, even shrunk, that expression is the same. Thinking that, I felt a little wronged by the scolding.

It was true I'd overdone it, but I'd had no choice.

"Whose fault do you think that was…"

I grumbled and shot Isid a sharp glance.

"Who told you to hole up in a mountain like this? You said you wanted to burn this whole place down, remember? Do you know how shocked I was when the trace I'd been searching for years turned up here?"

"…"

"And earlier, you were showing signs of a rampage! Your face was pale, your eyes were dark. I don't need to see inside to know your insides were a mess. How could I just stand by after seeing that?"

As I spoke, my emotions grew heated, and by the end, I was almost shouting.

This was probably the first time I'd ever raised my voice like this.

"…"

I glared at Isid, who blinked in surprise, then bit my lip and spun around. The image of him from earlier had stirred up my anger again.

"Really, you have no idea how shocked I was…"

Just then, Isid chuckled lowly and rested his forehead against my shoulder. He seemed to be hugging me lightly from behind, and because he'd shrunk to my eye level, it didn't feel as strained as before.

"Sorry."

His low apology was full of intent to soothe me.

"…"

I considered pushing him away—my heart still ached—but I didn't. No matter what, I didn't actually want to push Isid away.

I let out a deep sigh and spoke.

"Anyway, I'll be careful too, so you take care of yourself. I may have a tiny body, but you don't even have an excuse."

"Yeah."

"You saw earlier, right? Right now, using that power once leaves me all wobbly. So you need to manage your health properly."

As I chattered on out of habit, a faint laugh caught in my ear.

Turning my head, I saw that even in his smaller form, his deep eyes still carried a rich satisfaction and amusement.

"Why are you laughing?"

I asked with a pout, and the answer came right away.

"Because I'm happy."

"…About what?"

What's there to suddenly be happy about…?

Tilting my head in puzzlement, Isid smiled, the corners of his mouth lifting.

"Happy to hear your nagging. I heard it every day, and when I stopped hearing it for a while, I felt so empty."

My fingertips twitched slightly. His words struck my heart deeply, and at the same time, I felt sorry for him. The sincerity that seeped through his words—calling that long, long time "a while"…

I hesitated for a moment, then deliberately let out an exaggerated sigh and shook my head.

"Back then, you wouldn't even pretend to listen when I said things like that."

"I was young back then."

"Calling yourself young…"

Well, by dragon standards, he was young, wasn't he?

Caught between dragon and human standards, I must have made a strange face, because Isid chuckled.

"What does the past matter? I'll listen well from now on."

"Will you really listen?"

"Yeah."

"…You're good at answering, at least."

"You told me to answer well."

The retort that was about to spring out—"When did I ever—" got swallowed up by a sudden memory.

A long time ago, not long after I'd met Isid, I had indeed said that to him. Back then, we weren't as close as we are now…

Somehow, my palms felt itchy.

After that, we sat on a suitable rock.

I felt a little guilty about sneaking out while my family was asleep, but I'd already confirmed they were all down for the night—a brief moment of leisure should be fine.

"…So that's how it happened. Honestly, I still don't know how it came about, but it's not like worrying will give me answers."

After giving a concise summary of my time since reincarnation, I remembered one more thing I hadn't mentioned and smiled.

At the sound of my laughter, Isid looked at me, and I giggled as I spoke.

"Hey, do you know where my family lives?"

"…Your family."

"Yeah. My family is the Valentine ducal house. My father is the Duke of Valentine."

I whispered it like a secret, and Isid paused. The dark look I'd glimpsed a moment ago was gone—must have been my imagination.

"Valentine, meaning…"

Isid murmured slowly. Then he made a peculiar expression.

"Jin?"

At the name Isid uttered with some reluctance, I burst out laughing. I wondered if my own expression had looked like that when I first learned my surname was Valentine.

"…Really?"

Isid asked again, seeming to have guessed from my laughter. Only then did I calm down a bit and nod.

"Yeah, really. It turns out I'm Jin's descendant."

"What kind of twisted family tree is this…"

But his muttering made me laugh again.

I'd first learned that phrase—"twisted family tree"—from Kyle. Back then, the imperial family's genealogy really was a mess.

Just then, Isid studied my face intently.

"Why?"

"…Just checking."

I didn't need to ask what he was checking.

"I don't look anything like Jin, do I? Humans have such short breeding cycles."

After just a few generations, any resemblance nearly disappears—let alone after five hundred years. There was no way I'd have any trace of Jin in my face.

I laughed in disbelief as I said it, but Isid stubbornly scrutinized my face before finally letting it go.

Then he muttered something to himself.

"…Guess it's fortunate you're not that bastard's descendant."

"That bastard?"

"Never mind."

He didn't seem to mean it when he said "never mind"… But since he said it wasn't anything, I didn't press further.

Then I carefully opened my mouth.

"…How have you been all this time?"

At my question, Isid paused.

I pressed down on my oddly heavy chest and asked softly.

"Did you keep sleeping? Waiting for the cycle to come?"

Isid looked at me quietly, then slowly nodded.

I'd more or less expected that, given how I couldn't find any trace of him no matter how hard I searched—but actually confirming it wasn't pleasant. Because I knew Isid's tendencies.

Dragonkind, whose lifespans stretched into the millennia—nearly eternal from a human perspective—were inherently prone to long slumbers. Some dragons slept for hundreds of years at a time. Sleep was the most convenient way to pass the tedious hours.

But Isid wasn't like that. At least, not when I knew him.

"You used to hate sleeping…"

I murmured, feeling dejected, and Isid let out a faint, wind-like laugh.

"I was young back then."

"…By that logic, you're still young now."

My unconsciously petulant remark was met with a low chuckle. Isid tapped the back of my hand lightly.

"Who's the one who's not even ten yet, calling me young?"

"That's not what I meant!"

His voice carried a hint of playfulness, and I flared up instantly. As if I wasn't already unhappy enough with this childish body!

"Tch. You know what I meant."

"Sorry."

At my outburst, Isid laughed out loud and ruffled my hair.

It was a familiar gesture, but it somehow felt like he was treating me like a child—or was that my imagination?

"Anyway."

As I shot him a glare, Isid's face took on a strange expression.

It seemed somehow lonely, somehow sad…

"…It was just… a little boring, I guess."

I stared blankly at his face, which stuck in my eyes so strangely, and bit my lip at those words, scattered like a breath.

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