I rush to heal Graham’s wounds, but he stops me.
“It’s nothing, I’ll just put some spit on it and…”
“You say that but…”
“Sorry for worrying you, but I got something like pride.”
Ancient dragons have high self-healing powers, so I guess this really will heal soon, but still…
Graham is top class when it comes to power, so what could’ve beaten him like this?”
“Did you fight Gyes again?”
“Ah! If I did, I would’ve beaten him back…!”
Judging by his reaction as he grimaces with pain, it wasn’t Gyes.
“Sorry bro, but I wanted to talk about this…”
He sits up, and starts talking about what happened.
I heard about this before, but ancient dragons are strict about their old customs.
There are some extremists about their relationship with demon gods, who reject Sakuya.
The ones that are always around have settled into a ‘good enough friends to fight’ sort of relationship, but that’s not the case with the older ones.
“But aren’t the young ones the ones who fight demon gods?”
Didn’t the older generation say that’s how they gain the power of their ancestors?
I feel like Elga once said that if divine beast people and demon gods went at it, things wouldn’t end well, so they only fought seriously about once every hundred years…
“Well, most of the young people accept them after what happened recently but… The problem is my old man.”
“Your father?”
“Yes. Or I guess his generation. They always went at it hard with demon gods.”
That was part of the reason why their relationship was so bad even with the current generation, but it’s somewhat good now that I’ve gotten involved.
They fight, but it’s more like an extension of having fun.
But the older generation is different.
“They insist I can’t marry a demon god girl.”
“Ones of an even older generation?”
“Older than my father’s. They never leave their homes except for meetings. They’re powerful, but apparently they don’t feel like using that power.”
So the ones who are actually in charge are the parents of Graham’s generation.
And since they don’t accept being friendly with demon gods, they don’t accept his relationship with Sakuya.
“So you want advice on how to deal with that?”
“No, I have an idea about that. With ancient dragons, the strongest calls the shots. I could settle this by beating my old man. But…”
“Is he really strong?”
“Yeah… I couldn’t make a dent in him.”
He says with a frustrated expression.
Their parents have been fighting on this island for hundreds of years. Maybe thousands.
There’s no doubt that they’re the strong ones who survived fighting against people like Wil and Suzaku, and the great spirits.
Graham, Gyes, and the others learned the names of their ancestors relatively recently, so it makes sense that there’s a big power gap between them and the older generation…
“So bro, you’re the strongest on this island, so train me!”
“…I can’t.”
Graham looks troubled, like he didn’t expect me to say no.
But then he looks apologetic and scratches his face.
“Yeah… You have your own life to live. Sorry…”
“Ah, hold on! You’re misunderstanding, but I will help you!”
“You said you can’t.”
“I can’t train you. I’m not a pro at fighting or anything.”
I misspoke.
I never learned about fighting in my previous life, and it’s the same here. I just let my tough strong body do the talking, so I’m not that different from a wild monster.
I’m sure Graham and Gyes know a lot more about training than me.
“That’s why I can’t train you… But I think I can help.”
“Do you have any ideas?”
“Yes. The best option is to ask someone who can.”
I smile, and Graham’s face twitches.
“What’s with that face?”
“I… have a bad feeling about this…”
I’m not going to do anything weird.
Thanks for the treat.