Incidentally, Gremory was raising a clamor going, “Wooo, nice love power! What’ll you do, Archdemon!? It’s time to show me your true potential...! Ah, I’ve got a nosebleed.”
After worrying about it for a while, Zagan gave up on explaining.
“Listen, you’re about to have someone else’s mana poured into you. Are you really fine with that?” Zagan asked.
“I don’t really get it... but it’s fine if it’s you,” Foll replied. She was willing to force a growth spurt to gain power, so it was wrong of him to even ask such a thing.
Then, as a parent, there’s no way I can back off now... Zagan was the youngest sorcerer in history to become an Archdemon, which came about as a result of his great mental fortitude. That was why he found his answer even while faltering. And then, placing a hand on Foll’s shoulder, he addressed her quietly.
“Well then, Foll. You may close your eyes.”
“O-Okay...”
She was obviously nervous. Her body stiffened as she shut her eyes tightly. And then, Zagan brought his face to hers.
“Uh, is he really going to do it? Wait, this kind of development is far too sudden. Love power is something that should accumulate over time. It needs to be more graceful and dignified! But even if I don’t like it, seeing my liege about to commit a sin for love is enthralling... Aaaaaah, I want to stop him... No, I want to watch over him! Ugh, what do I do!?”
Gremory was probably trying to keep it to herself, but she was being way too loud.
Kimaris has low blood pressure and is no good in the mornings, huh...? In that moment, Zagan came to realize just how much that sorcerer had been helping him.
Even Foll looked to be making an irritated face, so Zagan obstructed all sound around them. He created a barrier to isolate those inside it from those outside. It had no defensive properties whatsoever, but even if lightning struck outside, they would be unable to hear it.
As the surroundings suddenly fell silent, Foll’s body shook with a start. And in order to put his daughter at ease, Zagan put his lips to her forehead.
“Huh...?” Foll mumbled, opening her eyes in surprise.
In short, I just have to create a path for the mana! A kiss was required, so this was Zagan’s answer to that difficult problem. Since he only needed to come in contact with her to send her mana, this much was enough.
“A kiss on the forehead... supplies mana?” Foll asked as she touched her forehead in confusion.
“Well, yeah.”
“...I didn’t know that.”
Even though it was on the forehead, it really did seem to be embarrassing for her. Foll’s cheeks had turned slightly red.
Should I have properly explained it after all? Zagan wasn’t confident he could regain her trust if that made her hate him. He was worrying himself sick over that dilemma when Foll spoke in such a quiet voice that it felt like it would vanish at any moment.
“Oh, that’s not bad...”
“I-I see...”
Why had things gotten that awkward? Zagan continued to worry about the status of his relationship with his daughter when he realized the usually noisy granny was far too quiet.
Oh yeah, I put up a soundproof barrier... After taking down the barrier, Zagan and Foll were left speechless.
“THAT! WAS! WOOOOOONDERFUL! Phew... I see. For a little girl, a kiss on the forehead is truly the best approach. You’re as masterful as ever, my liege. Ahhh, I’m going to die from an overdose of all this love power!”
Gremory looked to have turned white like a sheet and was about to drown in a pool of blood from her nosebleed.
“Zagan... Gremory’s...”
“Don’t look,” Zagan said as he blocked his daughter’s line of sight with his body.
“Keeheehee, I really thought that was going to kill me, but it looks like the preparations are complete,” Gremory said as she got back up to her feet unsteadily.
“Is mana really being supplied here?” Foll asked while shaking her head as if she didn’t believe it at all.
“Mm. Lady Foll, if you use sorcery now, you can pull mana from my liege’s inexhaustible supply using that path he just created. Though it was simplified, it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Your mana is being amplified. Give it a try,” Zagan said as he nodded along to Gremory’s words.
“...Okay!” Foll exclaimed as she nodded with vigor. Then, she stood in the center of the magic circle. After verifying that, Gremory began clearly chanting, and before anyone knew it, her figure had changed from that of an old woman to that of a beautiful young one. It was her in her prime, and the fact that it was necessary showed how powerful this sorcery was.
“[Time is the ring which circles from the moon to the sun. The spiral which stretches out toward the flow from high to low. That which governs over the beginning to the end. Thus, what binds the change from the sun to the moon, from low to high, and from the end to the beginning, shall also be time itself.]”
Her spell was similar to a Celestian chant, perhaps because she was once the pupil of Orias. And while Zagan was instinctively drawn in by that, he was assaulted by a sense of exhaustion from having his power suddenly pulled out of his body. Foll required more mana, and it was flowing out of Zagan’s body at a rapid rate.
“Sigil of the Archdemon, lend me your power!” Zagan proclaimed as he held his right hand aloft. Suffocating mana swelled up in the area in an instant, and his sense of exhaustion dissipated.
Dragons have a rather terrifying capacity after all... Zagan believed the mana supply from the Sigil of the Archdemon was something that far surpassed the reach of man, but this situation made him realize there was a race that could easily consume it. Before long, a change began to show in Foll. Her arms and legs began stretching out, her hair spread out into the air, and her flat body began swelling. In other words, she was changing from a child into a woman.
Is it working? Zagan wondered. And at that exact moment...
“Ugh...” Zagan groaned as his vision distorted.
“Zagan!?” Foll yelled as she rushed over and supported him by the shoulder.
It’s dangerous to interrupt such a delicate ritual... They were even pouring in mana from the Sigil of the Archdemon. If things went south, it could run rampant and destroy the entire castle... No, even Kianoides wouldn’t be safe in the worst case scenario. That was why Gremory didn’t stop chanting. She surely understood the situation and wished to avoid any danger. Her chant accelerated, hurrying the ritual on to its conclusion.
Foll looked anxious, but went back over to the middle of the magic circle. Her figure had already grown to about the same size as Nephy.
Hold on, isn’t she getting a little too big here...? It was likely because he was crouching down, but Foll was now big enough that he had to look up at her. However, the one who looked even more bewildered than Zagan... was Foll.
“Zagan, you’re...”
Before she could finish speaking, the magic circle shattered, leaving behind a dazzling light. It seemed the ritual was finished. There appeared to be a considerable burden on Gremory as well, as she was gasping for breath after her chant stopped.
Foll’s body had grown large enough that her usual native dress couldn’t remain intact. In human terms, she looked to be in the latter half of her teens. The same age or older than Zagan, basically.
“Ow...”
Children’s clothing was far too small for her body now. The portions around her now striking breasts were especially unable to endure it, as a button shot off it and into Zagan’s forehead. It seemed the ritual was a success for the time being.
“Zagan...” Foll tried to rush over to Zagan again, but...
“Ah!”
She wasn’t yet used to her large body, and tripped on the way.
“Look ou— Huh?” Zagan leaped up to try and catch Foll, but for some reason his body didn’t move as he wished. His daughter’s body was far heavier than he imagined it was as it leaned down on him. He some
how made it in time, but the two of them ended up falling over together.
And since her breasts dropped down right over his face, he felt awfully hot... No, he didn’t have the time to let his focus shift over to that. The suffocating pressure they were putting on him was a more pressing issue. Somehow, they were crushing him.
“MmmMmmMmm!”
“A-Are you alright, Zagan?” Foll asked in a shaky voice. She was trying to do something to improve the situation, but she couldn’t move her body very well and was only capable of squirming about.
“Calm down. You’re not used to the sensation yet. If you panic, it’ll just get harder to move,” Gremory said as she instructed Foll on how to control her new body. Having gotten her breathing back in order, she worked to free Zagan from the jaws of death. However, when she did, Gremory’s face stiffened up completely in shock.
“Wh-What the hell is this!? Zagan... Wait, are you even Zagan?”
“What do you mean?” Zagan asked as he cocked his head to the side. And as he said that, he noticed that his voice was strange. It was usually far more low pitched than this, so the change surprised him.
And honestly, it wasn’t just his voice. His clothes had become slack and felt just about ready to fall off. The reason he was unable to catch Foll was because he ended up stepping on the hems of his robe.
Thoroughly confused, Zagan looked down at his hands... only to find that his boorish hands were now small and pudgy.
Hey, what’s going on here...? Zagan timidly touched his own face. It was all springy, and didn’t feel much like his own face at all. And to make matters worse, Foll and Gremory looked completely dumbfounded, like they weren’t sure they were even actually speaking to Zagan, and that really hurt him.
However, what stung most was that Zagan, who prided himself as a sorcerer with superhuman physical abilities, was unable to catch a girl in her teens. He could easily lift up Foll when she took on her dragon form, so how was that even possible?
Looking around his surroundings in exasperation, Zagan spotted a jug of water in the corner of the lab.
What the hell happened here... And, as he peered into the jug in an attempt to get some answers, all the color drained from his face.
Unfortunately for him, the reflection in the water showed a young child who looked an awful lot like Zagan.
Chapter II: My Cute Daughter Grew Bigger and I Shrunk. What Now?
“It has been a long time, young man.”
So he said as he looked down at the tiny old man standing beneath his eyes. No, the old man wasn’t really all that small. It was just that he was far too large. He was large enough to easily step over this old man, which clearly made him larger than any human being. This was a thought that passed his mind while his consciousness was in a haze. This was a dream. And in this dream, he had become someone else.
A faint smile could be spotted through the gap in the old man’s hood.
“I’m sure all humans look like children from your perspective, but it’s odd being called a young man at my age. You also dislike being called a giant lizard, right?”
And he raised a hearty laughter in response to the old man’s cynicism.
“Hahaha, you are the only one who dares to speak to me in such a frivolous manner... Come now, there’s no need to take offense over such a trivial jest.”
The old man let out a small sigh in response to his delighted attitude.
“And you’re about the only one who can still make me sigh... In any case, it’s been about a thousand years since then, huh?”
The old man’s words pricked at his heart. He felt lonely, and the only one who could possibly understand that feeling was this old man. However, he simply narrowed his eyes.
“Speaking of a thousand years, I found a girl who closely resembles ‘her’ the other day,” the old man said as if remembering something.
“Hm... Could she be... a high elf?”
“Yeah. Seems to be a case of atavism. Still, this girl has splendid white hair nonetheless. Over the past thousand years, ‘she’ was the only one who could compare to such a level of purity. Our young ones seem to want to know more about her, so I ended up sheltering her.”
Listening to the old man, he closed his eyes, reveling in nostalgia. What came to mind was the image of a human boy, a man, and a lone girl. It was an extremely old memory, so their faces and clothing were all a blur. It wasn’t clear exactly what they were to him, but they stayed in his heart to the point where simply thinking of them made him happy. That was why he didn’t laugh at the old man’s actions, but instead nodded pleasantly.
“I would like to meet her at least once. I did not get a chance to exchange words with that one a thousand years ago.”
“It’d be nice if you could. It seems that she needs saving. However, I’m unfortunately not very well suited to such a thing.”
“Such troublesome matters.”
“Is it not you dragons who guide mankind?”
He let out a groan upon hearing the old man’s reply. And then, after a short pause, he quietly raised his face.
“If I possessed such power, then this would never have happened.”
He and the old man looked off into the distance where the world began distorting. That which should not exist was trying to manifest in the world. And seeing that sight, the old man formed a faint smile once more.
“You can surely guide them. That’s why Solomon, ‘she,’ and I were all happy. That’s precisely why we despaired, and thus struggled against them,” the old man said, his voice laden with gratitude. Then, he asked, “Now that I think of it, you had a daughter yourself, right? Is she in good health?”
“She is but a chick who has just learned how to walk. However, she will one day be the last dragon in this world. It makes me think I may have done something cruel.”
“The last dragon...” the old man muttered before continuing in an affectionate tone, “I would also like to meet that child.”
“Then so shall it be. Meeting you would be a good opportunity for her to learn of the world,” the dragon said as he silently looked up and stared at the distortion before them. Then, he spoke glumly, stating “Azazel is broken, and we have not even half the Sacred Swords here. The only Sigil of the Archdemon we possess is the one on your hand. It shall not go like a thousand years ago.” And despite all that, he smiled as he said, “But, ‘tis a good day to die.”
The old man opened his mouth in surprise, then returned a laugh.
“Until we meet again, Wise Dragon Orobas.”
“I look forward to meeting that high elf who closely resembles her, Archdemon Marchosias.”
This was a scene from a little before Zagan and Nephy first met. It was a lost memory that none in the world knew of.
◇
“What is the meaning of this, I wonder?” Nephy asked. Her voice was usually a quiet one, and yet now it had a sharp ring to it like thunder. At a glance, there didn’t seem to be even a hint of anger on Nephy’s face. Compared to her usual expressionless self, one could even say she was smiling. And yet, Foll and Gremory, who were made to kneel before her, were both cowering.
“...Sorry.”
“Y-You’ve got it all wrong, Lady Nephy. I had nothing but the best inten... Yes, I’m very sorry...”
They were currently in the throne room. Nephy went out to look for Zagan and the others when they didn’t show up for breakfast, and after discovering Zagan in his child-like state, she began interrogating the two culprits, Gremory and Foll. She was currently seated atop Zagan’s throne in his stead, looking down on the two of them with a cold smile... However, the ground at her feet had suddenly become covered in moss. It seemed Nephy’s mysticism activated when she got all worked up. There was no need to even ask now, since it was clear she was in a bad mood.
I haven’t seen Nephy this angry in a long time... Right after Zagan and Nephy had just met, they were attacked by Angelic Knights and Zagan was wounded in the battle. That was t
he first time Nephy used mysticism in front of him. This wasn’t quite as severe as that time, but her anger was still palpable.
Honestly, I really didn’t want her to see me like this... Zagan’s worst nightmare had come true. There were things about his past that he didn’t want her to know because he loved her. He hadn’t exactly lived an honest life back then, so having such a vivid reminder of his past shoved in her face pained him.
Foll was no longer able to wear her usual native dress, so she was borrowing clothes from Gremory. Unfortunately, they were a bit too provocative, since they were the clothes Gremory wore when she returned to her prime. Looking at her, it was clear that Foll was an eighteen-year-old woman. Zagan, on the other hand, didn’t even look ten. It seemed their ages had been swapped. Or at least, their physical ages, anyway, since it was hard to compare a dragon’s lifespan to a human’s.
Incidentally, Gremory fully understood that she couldn’t try to trick Nephy by taking on the form of an old woman or a little girl and was seriously facing her in her prime form, but her face was drenched in sweat. Between Foll and Gremory, it seemed that Gremory would be the first to completely break down if this kept up, so Zagan cleared out his throat with a cough.
“Um, Nephy...? It’s not like Gremory was just fooling around, okay? This is also my fault, since I didn’t control the Sigil of the Archdemon properly, so don’t be too mad...” Zagan implored her for mercy on their behalf. Though, even he hesitated to cut into the conversation initially. And, as he tried to mediate in a weak-willed fashion, Nephy tightly embraced him.
“But for Master Zagan to become so adora... so small like this...”
“What were you about to say just now? Actually, can you let me down already?” Zagan asked. Even he was reduced to complaining in such a situation. That was because Nephy was hugging him like a stuffed doll and wouldn’t let go. Zagan had initially thought of hiding. However, when he was caught in this unsightly form by the person he most wanted to hide it from, he froze up on the spot. Eventually, he came to... and it ended up like this.
An Archdemon's Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride: Volume 6 Page 5
