I suddenly found myself staring out the window. Perhaps I was listening for the cry of some winged beast from the far reaches beyond. But the heavens remained silent, and the only one wailing beneath them was a certain cute blind girl.

“Anyway, I like how it feels. Well? It’s pretty, right?”

“Yeah. It’s pretty.”

“At least try to sound like you mean it.”

“It’s pretty. Really pretty.”

Perhaps dissatisfied with my indifferent response, Haru scowled deeply. But then she whipped her head around and reached toward Saya.

“Since we’re at it, it’d be nice to get a new eyepatch too. Saya, do they have anything like that here?”

“They don’t have anything like that… or should I draw eyes on it?”

“What?”

“Hold on a second.”

Saya, who had been looking around the shop, picked up a pen from the table as if struck by a brilliant idea. Then she began scribbling furiously all over Haru’s eyepatch.

“Uh… wait. What are you doing? Is it okay to just draw on it like that?”

“Lope, want to draw the other side?”

“Sure.”

“Wait, is this really okay? Is nobody going to stop this?”

Perhaps resenting being treated like a toy, Haru waved her hands in resistance. But whether she liked it or not, we persisted and drew in two pupils. And the result was, naturally, catastrophic.

“Hmm…”

“Mm-hm.”

“…The sound of you forcing back laughter is more annoying, so why don’t you just laugh?”

“Sorry, Haru. It still came out pretty decent, though.”

“Please shut up.”

Haru let out a crude remark for the first time in a while, and Saya turned red to the tips of her ears as she fought to contain her laughter. Then she poked my side, seeking agreement.

“Isn’t it cute? Isn’t it, Lope?”

“Sure is.”

“…Even someone else’s kid is this cute. Right?”

“Huh? Yeah…”

The last words were spoken so quietly that only I could hear them. I nodded without understanding what she meant. Meanwhile, Saya’s gaze traced meaningfully over my body.

I wanted to ask what she meant by that, but it was time to go. I took a deep breath, etching this brief moment of peace into my heart, then picked up the backpack and weapons I had set on the floor.

“Then let’s get moving. We’ll check for food on the way toward the government hall.”

“I really hope there’s cake this time.”

“Yeah. That would be nice.”

For the first time, I found myself agreeing with Haru’s nonsense. It seemed I had been influenced by her more than I realized. As we headed back out the door together, warm earth greeted us. The moment Haru stepped on it, she voiced her complaint.

“Ugh. Come to think of it, I need to get new shoes too. Maybe it’s because the ground is like this, but my shoelaces keep coming undone.”

“Want help, Haru?”

“No, Saya. I can do this much even without seeing.”

Haru shook her head and began tying her laces with practiced hands. Watching her, I pressed my foot against the earthen ground for no particular reason.

“…”

No matter how I thought about it, the ground was excessively soft. I couldn’t know what phenomenon this might lead to, but at the very least, it was certainly a bad omen.

Walking toward the government hall, we checked several grocery stores, but unfortunately, there was no clear harvest. It seemed expecting the same kind of luck we’d had with the clothing store twice was asking too much.

Meanwhile, Ms. Rebecca sat on the steps of the government hall, wearing a noticeably heavier backpack. She raised her hand awkwardly when she saw us.

“I picked up some bandages and disinfectants, just in case. How did things go on your end?”

“We got some clothes, but no food. We’ll need to keep looking, though.”

“I see.”

She started to say something, then closed her mouth. I couldn’t find words either, just scratched my head. Then I shook my head and pulled out a neatly folded coat I had been carrying.

“And this is for you, Ms. Rebecca. I didn’t know your size, so I just grabbed an outer layer. Is that alright?”

“For me?”

“Yes. It’s only going to get colder.”

“That’s…”

Ms. Rebecca couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence. Her demeanor suggested this was something she hadn’t expected at all. But then she offered a faint smile and accepted the coat I held out.

“Thank you, Lope.”

“Then let’s get moving. Where to?”

“This way. Follow me.”

She walked along the road with noticeably lighter steps. And this time, I walked beside her. After all, we couldn’t keep up this atmosphere until we reached the harbor.

Of course, this alone couldn’t solve everything. The air between us was still awkward, and the problems remained. Our footsteps, sinking deeper into the ground with each step, seemed to mirror the situation between Ms. Rebecca and me.

“Ugh. These shoelaces, seriously.”

“…”

“Hmm…”

As the silence stretched on, Haru tried somehow to break the tension, but it was of little use. Eventually even Haru fell quiet, and an ominous stillness crept over us. And that was by no means a good sign.

At this rate, there was no telling where our squelching footsteps would lead.

“…Lope.”

“Yes.”

It was Ms. Rebecca who finally spoke first. She hesitated for a long while before speaking in a careful voice.

“Earlier, I thought I heard horses neighing somewhere. If we look, there might be a few.”

“That’s lucky. We could cut down the time to reach the harbor.”

“Can you ride a horse?”

“I learned at the Academy as part of a field exercise.”

“I see. That’s good.”

The conversation that had barely begun ended all too quickly. That wasn’t the conversation she wanted to have in the first place. And until she brought it up, this moment of silence couldn’t end.

And so, Ms. Rebecca spoke once more with effort.

“Lope. About what happened before…”

“Which incident do you mean?”

“I mean what happened on the train that time.”

“You mean when you shoved Erika.”

I stripped away the euphemism and dragged out the bare truth. I didn’t bother looking at Ms. Rebecca’s expression, but it had surely darkened from before.

All the while, our feet kept sinking deeper. I could feel the heat rising from beneath the ground growing more intense. Within that viscous sensation, Ms. Rebecca’s heavy voice reached me.

“Yes. That incident.”

“It wasn’t an accident, was it?”

“Lope.”

“If it wasn’t, then please tell me it wasn’t. Because if so, I should be the one apologizing. If it was truly the result of chance, then it was just a tragically unlucky accident. Nobody should have to carry guilt over something like that.”

“…”

“Is that how it is, Ms. Rebecca?”

“No. It isn’t.”

“Then what does that mean?”

“I…”

The answer she had kept hidden behind her blind eyes lingered in her mouth for a long time. But since everyone already knew the truth, there was no longer any point in hiding it. And so, not by sincerity but by the force of fate, her lips parted.

“I did it on purpose.”

“I see.”

And I nodded calmly. I hadn’t drawn out her answer expecting some twist. I had simply wanted to hear it. That alone was the worth of this conversation.

But Ms. Rebecca was in a position where she had to add something. And so, uncharacteristically, she dragged the story out.

“The reason is probably what you think it is. I don’t want to ask you to understand. I don’t have the right. I just couldn’t deny it anymore. Even someone like me…”

“Ms. Rebecca. You can stop.”

“Lope…”

“There’s only one thing I want to ask.”

Only then did I look at Ms. Rebecca’s face. My mentor, who had always been upright and cold as a machine. But now her face was distorted into a mess by the heat haze rising from beneath the ground. Overlaid with illusion, my idol blurred away like that.

There was only one answer I needed to extract from her now.

“If. If by some one-in-a-million chance, the exact same situation were to arise again…”

“…”

“Can you promise me you wouldn’t do the same thing again?”

“That’s…”

…

At that moment, Ms. Rebecca and I stopped in our tracks simultaneously. Both our feet sank into the earthen ground at the same time. The heat had now crept up to our ankles, spreading an unpleasant warmth throughout our bodies.

Meanwhile, a cold wind blowing in from the west tangled my sweat-soaked bangs. Now that I was conscious of it, my entire body was drenched in sweat. Ms. Rebecca, too, was wiping the sweat from her forehead with her cool metal prosthetic hand.

She stared at the surrounding landscape for a long while. Then she brought up something other than an answer to my question.

“The ground is excessively soft.”

“…It is.”

And I had no choice but to agree. No matter how I thought about it, the ground was excessively soft. This wasn’t simply frozen ground thawed by heat. It was clearly on a different level from what I had felt in the village earlier.

Only then did I lift my head and take in the surrounding landscape. Without realizing it, we had walked quite far from the village and were crossing a vast wilderness. No matter where I turned my gaze, all that met the edge of my vision was the distant horizon and the noticeably shrunken buildings.

When I moved my foot again, the soft mound of earth came cascading down with a dry rustle. The sensation underfoot felt less like packed dirt and more like a sandy beach. But the ground turning to sand was an absurd notion, so how should I put it…

It felt as though someone had flipped the ground upside down.

…

And strangely enough, that assumption carried an eerie sense of reality.

A conversation from before suddenly came to mind. Where did the Hatchlings come from? There had been two possibilities presented then. Either they had been sleeping in this earth since ages past, or they were born from the eggs of the dragons that had recently attacked.

But thinking about it now, there was no reason to divide it so dichotomously. What if it were both? The eggs that had been sleeping in this earth since ages past. And the eggs that the dragons had scattered. What if both kinds were in the ground.

Come to think of it, they said the dragon that had come then was unusually small.

“…”

A series of events suddenly surfaced in my mind. One of the dragons flying toward this land had broken away from the pack and arrived at the continent first. It was the smallest and weakest of the group, so it would have needed to secure a spot first to lay its eggs safely.

That was why it had rushed ahead, laying eggs across the continent and breathing fire to create an environment where its young could hatch easily. It may have been driven off by humans, but it had surely achieved its purpose.

But there was one thing it had overlooked. There were already eggs laid by some dragon on this continent. After their mother died, they had failed to find the right time to hatch and had simply grown cold in the earth.

They should have died like that, but unfortunately, they were strong. Like plant seeds waiting for the right season to sprout, they had been roused by another dragon’s efforts, quite by chance. And the first to break free from its egg savored the moment of liberation it had finally been granted.

And the rest, the eggs laid by that small dragon, were now…

“…!”

Only then did I realize that the assumption I had formed this morning was wrong. The reason not a single Hatchling had been seen during the train ride. It was never because they couldn’t catch up to us.

It was…

“…They hadn’t hatched yet.”

Not mature enough. Unable to find the right time to hatch. The eggs that had still been sleeping in the ground.

Perhaps we had been running right over those eggs.

Waking them from their long slumber with the thunderous roar of the train.

When that thought crossed my mind, I looked back.

Ms. Rebecca was standing right beside me, so there was no need to check. Saya was always glued to my side, so even less reason. But Haru. That damn troublemaker wasn’t visible at a glance.

“Haru!”

“What? I’m right here.”

I turned my head urgently toward the voice, and thankfully, Haru raised her head from not far away. She was sitting on the ground, tying her shoelaces that had come undone again. Seven steps at most. That was all the distance between us, but I moved my feet urgently.

And at that moment, the ground exploded.

The moment Haru stood up, a mound of earth erupted and blocked our view. The ground’s reach, arrogantly soaring to the edge of the sky, obscured the sun. As I clenched my teeth and looked up, the debris mixed within caught my eye.

It was the pure white eggshell fragment I had once seen in the field. Back then it had been dried and brittle in the cold winter air, but now it was coated in viscous slime. The moment I registered that fact, I urgently called her name.

“Ms. Rebecca!”

“Damn it…!”

“Kieeeeeeeeeeg!!!”

As she responded, the creature’s cry erupted simultaneously. The moment it broke free from its egg, it howled ferociously, as if asserting dominion over this land.

And that became a signal, beginning to shake the slumbering earth entirely.

“Lope!!!”

“…!!!”

With a massive tremor, earth began erupting everywhere. Though the density wasn’t particularly high, considering the size of the creatures about to awaken, it was cramped enough. Pure white eggshell fragments scattering through the air. And the sound of birth ringing out. If their mother had seen it, it would have been a moment of pure rapture.

The only drawback was the lack of prey for them to eat, but our presence offset that shortcoming to some degree. It might not be enough for all of them, but it would be sufficient for at least one to enjoy the pleasure of its first meal.

The moment I realized our situation, I screamed with everything I had.

“Haru! Run!”