But soon she became young again, and grew old again. Adelheid climbed the mountain ceaselessly, wherever her body reached.
'Then who will pay for your life?'
A tree branch hit her arm, and the edge of a sharp rock scraped her leg.
She had fallen several times, and her arms and legs were covered in wounds. Her strength was completely depleted, and the breath she inhaled and exhaled seemed to taste of raw blood.
'Hmm. It's because I haven't been doing anything. I'm bored. Adele, come here.'
Time repeatedly struck Adelheid, then withered away, struck again, and withered away.
She continued to grow old and collapsed, unable to control her body. Then she got up again.
She repeated that for dozens of years. Her old and frail body screamed.
However, the dragon was not seen anywhere on the mountain.
Neither Werner, the Dragon of the Curtain; nor Reginus, the Dragon of the Morning; nor Agalé, the Dragon of the Ancestors; nor Calecresaol, the Dragon of Time, who guarded Henburg. None of the dragons that appeared in the legends were to be seen.
Adelheid became impatient. She had already repeated more than thirty lives, and at most, there were only four or five left.
'As I please? Haha, my wife is truly a stingy woman.'
The summit of the mountain was visible across the rugged rocks.
Adelheid firmly secured the rope binding the sword behind her back and wrapped a cloth around her scraped hands.
'Adelheid, I'm in a really bad mood today.'
She climbed the mountain again and again. She was out of breath right up to her chin.
Adelheid was so exhausted that it was a miracle she had made it this far.
Not only was her body like a paper doll to begin with, but the recurring aging process slowed her pace even further. However, she did not give up.
'Adele, my wife, come here. Right now.'
As the years repeated themselves, Adelheid felt something inside her breaking.
It was like an end. And when she began to grow old again, she instinctively knew. That this was the end.
However, she did not give up. Gradually, her whole body felt heavy, and the strength drained from her limbs. But she didn't give up.
She could barely breathe, and her vision went blurry. But she did not give up.
One knee buckled suddenly, and she collapsed to her knees. But she did not give up. She did not give up. She did not give up.
Adelheid gripped a branch with trembling hands. And finally, she stepped onto the rock at the summit.
At the summit, Adelheid saw a dragon.
'The dragon was asleep.'
Dominic said that. That he killed a sleeping dragon, took out its heart, and smashed it. Ruminating on those words, Adelheid thought of herself as stupid.
Humans cannot speak of the Mountain of Time from outside the mountain. It was neither will nor deception, but some absolute power.
But why did she think Dominic had told the absolute truth?
He cannot tell the truth. So, Dominic had told her what was as close to the truth as possible in his own way.
There was no dragon living on the mountaintop. What Adelheid saw was not the dragon with long, yellow eyes like those in books, nor a dragon with huge wings spread, nor a dragon tearing apart beasts with sharp teeth.
What she saw was a sleeping dragon. A dragon asleep forever.
Werner, the dragon of the curtain; Reginus, the dragon of the morning; Agalé, the dragon of the progenitor; Callesius, the dragon of the nine heavens; and Calecresaol, the dragon of the times who guarded Henburg—they were all asleep forever.
There were many differing opinions on why the dragons suddenly disappeared into the Mountain of Time a thousand years ago.
However, no one thought that the dragon that had existed since the beginning of time had died.
This is because that blessing still exists.
The dragons' time had stopped at the moment of their death.
However, Adelheid's time flowed. It flowed without stopping. She slumped down, spitting up blood.
It was painful, as if sharpened needles were mixed in with every breath.
She forced her eyelids open and crawled on her knees. I can't die here, here. We're almost there. We really are almost there.
The heart of a dragon.
Her legs were scraped all over the floor. Her neck, which was already hard to hold up, kept snapping violently toward the ground. Eventually, her head dropped.
She was no longer getting younger. Adelheid groaned as she lay face down on the ground.
"Ugh, hmph... Why...!"
A scream that could not become a sound lingered below her throat.
Instead of screaming, Adelheid scratched and clutched the ground with her hands. However, even that soon stopped as she ran out of strength. A long sob escaped her lips.
Why here. Why here of all places. There is a dragon right in front of me.
The Dragon's Heart is here. If only I could destroy that, this dreadful curse would end! Me! Finally!
"Why..."
The mountain of time was such a place. To make time flow, to stop the passage of time, to show the passage of time, to turn back the passage of time... to take away the passage of time.
Adelheid thought of death.
Adelheid thought of death.
Adelheid thought of death.
“Adelheid!”
Adelheid thought about life.
***
About Dominic
The gate was opened by the King's authority.
It felt as though every life was coming to an end. Dominic had never felt such desperation, not even on a battlefield where life and death hung in the balance.
Reason is 'disorganized, and patience is similar.'
Dominic could not dare to define what this emotion was, which could not be clearly explained even by reason, in the language he knew.
However, what is clear is that Adelheid should not have been let go like that.
Whether she died or lived, whatever it may be, there were things he had to say in this life.
He didn't know exactly what purpose or which words to combine to form a sentence. He just had to. That he absolutely had to.
As soon as he arrived in the north, he rode his horse like a madman. Anxiety completely tore at my heart and gnawed at it.
In the past, when Dominic went to hunt dragons, he had made a smooth journey through the Mountain of Time, except for minor obstacles. So he thought it would be fine.
He thought Adelheid would be able to do it, too. After all, she had been blessed by the Dragon of Time, who never dies.
He couldn't bear how foolish he was.
'Not everyone in the world is like me. Other people's lives are not my lives, and other people's worlds are not my worlds.'
Even though she had heard Adelheid's world, in the end, he had merely 'heard' it.
Dominic felt a sense of helplessness he had never felt before.
Putting aside that regret, he focused on what was in front of me first.
The terrain was so rugged from the entrance that horses could not be brought in.
Dominic put down all his armor, weapons, and the heavy things he was carrying, and ran with only a sword and a dagger. His throat was parched.
The mountain of time had changed from what he knew. The beasts that used to be there were nowhere to be seen, and the trees, denser than before, made it impossible to even guess the difference between day and darkness.
It was the mountain I had seen back then, yet it was not the mountain of that time. He felt as though something were tangled up. He had a strange sensation, as if he were walking backward in time.
And there, Dominic saw a 'person'.
The Mountain of Time was such a place. Making time flow, making time stop, showing time, turning time back... showing time.
The voice of a young girl. Dazzling blonde hair. Sparkling blue eyes. Rosy cheeks, as if gorged on love. Deep dimples formed at both ends of a bright smile. A clear laugh spread through the air.
The child grew up to become a young woman. She was holding onto a woman in armor with a face blurred with tears.
'Sister, don't go.'
Leaving that desperate plea behind, the woman left. Shortly afterwards, knights stormed in. Where she was dragged out, there was the corpse of a woman in armor.
Dominic saw 'people'. He saw people dying. He saw people living. Dying, living, dying, living...
'I'll do anything. Please save me, please save me, please, I'll do anything...'
Adelheid, who had killed the King, spoke to Dominic with a face that looked like it was about to collapse.
'I won't die. Go back to that time. To the moment right after my brother died.'
Dominic finally understood those words more completely. He looked at Adelheid's death again and again.
He saw countless pain, fear, and distrust. He saw that indescribable suffering, confusion, and desperation.
With every repetition of death, she became more desperate. More subservient. A pale, terrified face was etched painfully into her eyes.
And after all those deaths, Adelheid arrived at Mont Palace alive for the first time.
'Your Majesty, what is this?
'It is medicine that causes infertility. Take it consistently. Right in front of me.'
'Infertility...?'
'My dear, I do not like it when something I cherish takes a sincere heart toward someone other than myself. Whatever that may be.'
The surrounding crumbled and was rebuilt.
'Your Majesty, by any chance... do you have separate orders for the ladies-in-waiting?'
'Oh, why?'
'Because they ignored me.'
'Haha, Adele, I'm here for you.'
'...Please come more often, my King. I feel lonely.'
Dominic kept running. ‘What is seen’ merely appears and then oxidizes.
What was life and the world to Adelheid was merely 'what was visible' to Dominic. Therefore, he could not bring himself to dare or act rashly. He could not bear to look at Adelheid's life.
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