I was walking down an entirely white hallway.
The walls were made entirely of marble.
If you ignored the labyrinth-like, nonsensical structure, it had the perfect appearance of a temple.
Although it was absurdly inconvenient and thus incapable of functioning as a proper temple, at least its appearance was quite convincing.
To think that humans managed to build something like this. They must have gone through a lot of trouble.
But still…
“Gyaho…”
…I didn’t want to walk for this long.
Originally, I just intended to run there quickly and return.
The direction where the round snake was located was even noisier than the room where I had woken up.
But… maybe because I was drained from realizing that the human I thought was a palanquin bearer was actually just a janitor, my strength started to fade.
Or maybe I just hadn’t gotten enough rest.
Honestly, that seems like the real reason.
When I get back, I should take another nap while hugging Kang Hana.
To be honest, this time, my rest period was way too short. It was barely even a day or two.
I’m not exaggerating—it felt like I had just blinked, and suddenly, my break was over, with someone telling me to get up already.
What frustrated me even more was that there was no human around to listen to my perfectly reasonable complaints.
Normally, if I even so much as declared that I wanted to say something, the priests would have gathered all the people to listen.
Wait.
Now that I think about it, something is strange.
I tried to recall if I had even seen any of my priests since waking up this time.
I counted the priests I had encountered.
Kang Hana, Giselle-senpai, Emily Harper.
Just three.
Wait, why does that human’s name include ‘senpai’?
What kind of ridiculous naming standards do they have these days? Tsk, tsk.
The suspicious man in the gray coat I saw on the first day, and the guy in the black vest, probably weren’t priests, so I excluded them.
There were a fair number of humans dressed in what looked like priestly robes, but none of them even showed their faces to me.
Even though it had been about fifteen days since I woke up.
By human standards, that’s quite a long time.
It varied each time, but in the deepest parts of my lake, there were always at least six priests—usually a double-digit number.
It seems that even the priests who were supposed to take care of me were busy with other duties.
For example…
“……Wait, why is there a mirror here…
Guhh, Gyaaaaah!!”
Maybe managing those chaotic creatures with unrestrained facial features.
Ugh.
I just don’t get it.
Seriously, why did they bring something like that into the temple?
If it were a guard dog, I’d understand, but they haven’t even properly tamed it.
If the High Priest were here, he would have definitely scolded them.
‘The essence of a temple is the god it serves! How dare you waste your attention on trivial matters!’
That’s what he would have said.
Awoooooooo!
“…… Security team! Security team!”
Hmm.
I’m getting bored.
Should I watch them while I walk?
When humans drive, they turn on the radio so they don’t doze off.
Who said that?
Ah, it was a memory from a human inside my head.
Since I feel like dozing off, I should provide myself with some entertainment.
“Shooting! Shoot it down!”
Tatang! Tatatatatatang!
“……Gyaaaaah!!”
Wow. They’re really into it.
It’s so realistic that someone might mistake it for an actual emergency.
It would be nice to have something to eat while watching this…
I closed my eyes for a moment and focused on the smell.
For a second, I felt so drowsy I almost collapsed, but then the sharp artificial scents pierced my nose, snapping me back to attention.
Hmm… Over there.
Amidst all the disgusting smells, from inside a metal and glass box next to me, I could unmistakably smell something sweet.
I opened my eyes and walked up to the box.
How do I get it out?
I grabbed it from the side and shook it.
The contents rattled violently, but nothing actually came out of the box.
Hmm…
It’s not even a big door or anything.
Maybe I should just break it?
The High Priest said metal is easy to reprocess anyway.
As for glass…
My apologies, but right now, I have no patience left due to my severe lack of rest.
I shattered the glass and picked out the ones that were still intact.
A metal cylinder.
The sweet scent was definitely coming from inside this. How do I eat it?
I tried biting into it.
It tasted like iron.
Ptooey!
I spat it out.
What the hell?
Who wraps food in metal?
Is this some kind of new magic?
Like, by eating food clad in armor, I’ll be imbued with the spirit of steel and become invincible in battle?!
“…Gyak.”
I gave up trying to peel it with my hands.
Nothing about this was satisfying.
So, I stiffened my wing feathers and neatly sliced off the top of the cylinder.
Wow.
A strong sweet aroma filled the air.
It smelled artificial, but not bad.
Nom nom nom.
Sucking on the sweet liquid, I started walking down the hallway again.
Now that my mouth isn’t bored anymore…
Let’s check out the action again.
“……Huh.
Which idiot put up unblessed iron bars?!”
“No! It’s escaping!!”
Shouldn’t this be over by now?
No matter how weak and goofy that dog-like thing looks, if they let it go for too long, it’ll become dangerous.
Could it be… they’re just playing around?
The situation looked serious.
Just as I was wondering about the sudden change in atmosphere—
“…… Aaaagh! My leg! My leg!!”
“…… You bastard!!”
Gasp.
What the hell?
They actually got hurt?
Are you telling me that even as priests, they can’t subdue one ugly dog?
That thing looked ridiculously weak.
It was so weak-looking that even the weakest apprentice priest could have turned it into a star in my lake within a minute.
Shouldn’t they have just grabbed it barehanded and whoosh, bam bam bam, and locked it back up in no time?
Now that I think about it… something’s really off.
I had just been watching absentmindedly because I was tired, but…
Why are the priests in white robes just standing there watching, while the janitors in black vests are the ones fighting?
Are they seriously putting the weak ones at the front?
What kind of cowardly priest does that…?!
How incompetent is the current High Priest that he’s trained his priests this poorly?
I kind of want to see his face now.
At first, I thought Giselle-senpai or Kang Hana might be the High Priest since they were the first ones I saw when I woke up.
But they’re too messed up to be candidates.
Hmm…
No matter how you look at it, that dog wasn’t particularly remarkable, even for one with such wild facial features.
They should be able to catch it soon… right?
Still, I had a bad feeling about this, so I quickened my pace.
And then, just as expected, things went to hell.
“… Damn it, if only we had silver bullets…”
Kwah!
-Chomp. Crunch, crunch.
The moment the dog escaped through the bars, all the janitors became stars in the lake.
The priest who had been standing behind them with his arms crossed—when it was finally his turn—didn’t even throw a single punch before he got devoured, following the janitors to their fate.
Good grief.
I thought he was just a piece of trash using the weak as shields, but turns out, he was weak himself.
Why are the standards for believers so low these days…?
Don’t tell me…
Don’t tell me that Kang Hana wasn’t actually the world’s biggest idiot, but rather that she was just an accurate representation of the current human average?
That would be truly horrifying.
There were too many strange things happening.
Last time I spread my presence outward, there had been quite a few humans in this place…
But the whole time I had been walking here, I hadn’t encountered a single one.
WEEEE OOOO! WEEEE OOOO!
That sound—something I hadn’t heard when I left the room I woke up in—had been blaring loudly for a while now.
Hmm.
At this point, a certain possibility came to mind…
No way.
“Containment failure of mid-level hostile anomalous phenomenon. Evacuate immediately.”
“… Shit! Code Blue, Code Bl—”
“… It’s too late, there’s nowhere to hide…”
Surely not.
Surely my own believers wouldn’t be cowering somewhere out of fear of that dog.
Surely it’s not that there isn’t a single capable person among them who can discipline a mere dog.
Surely they’re not all just huddling together, waiting for someone to come save them.
That would be far too pathetic.
“……”
“……”
“… Run! Alex!!”
Huff, huff…!
I used to think “surely not” was a phrase that only applied to humans… but apparently, even dragons are getting caught up in it now.
Good grief.
“Gyaho…”
If, by some absurd chance, there really wasn’t a single human capable of putting that wild-faced dog back into its cage…
Then we had a serious problem.
A problem for the humans, sure. But also a problem for me.
Because in that place…
There weren’t just humans.
Damn it.
Wild-faced creatures tend to go berserk whenever they encounter each other.
Of all places, why did that dog have to end up near the round snake?
Of course, the dog still looked incredibly weak.
So weak that even a priest-in-training—who was weaker than the weakest apprentice priest—would probably win after about five minutes of fighting for their life.
But the problem was…
The round snake was even weaker.
It’s like comparing 0.00000001 to 0.000000001—they seem almost identical at first glance, but one is actually ten times bigger than the other.
I was certain.
The moment the round snake met that dog, it would become a star in the lake.
I couldn’t let that happen.
Not only would it be ridiculous to come all this way just to leave empty-handed, but more importantly…
It’s my ancestor.
Right now, the round snake was the only one I could communicate with through two-way thoughts.
I didn’t want it to die so meaninglessly.
Round snake.
I’m coming now.
So just stay put.
I sent it a warning to make sure it didn’t do anything reckless.
…Confirmed.
Thankfully, it was obedient.
Drip, drip.
I stretched, cracking my back, and felt slightly more refreshed.
Alright.
Let’s get moving.
Weak humans, and my cute round snake—
This dragon god is coming to save you!
“Gyaho!”
Here I go!
“Mm, mm. Yeah, it’s me, E. I got your call.”
“I opened the entrance to the Dragon God’s containment chamber for you, but… are you sure you’re okay?That presence… Unless it’s in the original containment chamber, there’s no way to hide it. Code Black? Yeah, I canceled the containment breach alert before it could go off.”
“So that means I did a good job, right? I just have to sit back and watch? Seriously? Even those pain-in-the-ass guys obsessed with retrieval and reassignment won’t show up?”
“Hmm… I don’t really get what you mean, but… I got it.”
The conversation was too complicated.
But still, if losing that newbie researcher would make ■ mad, then…
“Mm, thanks as always. Yeah! I hope things go well between us for a long time. Take care. Love you~”
Beep, beep.
As the call ended, the director’s office of Research Facility 4 was left completely empty.