C 70
Somehow, I felt like I shouldn't be there right now.
I took the potted plant and escaped. Lucilion smiled at me but didn't follow.
"I feel strange."
I thought shouting out because someone said I was going to die was a story from a novel or a drama.
"They wouldn't have cried even if I died."
They might have been glad to know that I had finally died.
"Mmm."
It was depressing to think that.
No, well, at least I have a new family, so why be depressed? I have to work hard to cultivate flowers and give them to Enosh.
"Ah, my head hurts."
Strangely, my head felt hot.
I need to rest a bit.
Feeling strange because my body was swaying here and there, I slipped into the room that I barely found.
"Is this the lounge...?"
I slowly closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I saw a soft, spacious sofa.
I placed the potted plant on the table and got on the sofa.
Let's sleep for a bit.
Normally, I would have made it home somehow, but now my eyelids were heavy, and I couldn't bear it.
It felt like my whole body was falling. My tail hung limply.
"The flower, I mustn't forget it..."
I couldn't even finish my thoughts, and my mind darkened in an instant.
* * *
The sound of her breathing echoed through the quiet and peaceful living room.
Tuduk.
With a small sound, as if cracking, the buds in the pots began to grow, gradually increasing in size.
The potted plant greedily swallowed the silver magic emanating from Eirin's body.
It was as if it had found a good meal and forcibly drew in Eirin's magical power.
The bud grew, making the stem grow in an instant, and soon it firmly established the stem and formed a bud.
It was an incredibly fast growth rate for a bud the size of a fingernail.
However, Eirin's body gradually shrank.
It seemed like the humanization was gradually crumbling, but soon, it completely changed into the appearance of a lizard.
Eirin's back, much larger than before, had two round humps protruding from it.
Eventually, the buds in the pots stopped absorbing mana as they fully blossomed.
The small lizard, breathing weakly, was almost buried in the clothes she was wearing.
Except for a very slight lump on her dress, only her tail stuck out.
While Eirin, who had turned into a lizard and stretched her limbs, tried to sleep uncomfortably, the door to the lounge opened.
"... Mistress."
It was Lucilion.
As if he already knew where Eirin was, the casually entering boy glanced at the familiar potted plant that had already bloomed.
Then, after looking at the scattered clothes, he found Eirin among them.
"... Yes, after all, my mistress is not an ordinary lizard."
As expected, Eirin was an ancient remnant that should have disappeared.
He neatly folded her clothes, put them in a bag he had brought from somewhere, and gently held the lizard in his arms.
"I don't know much about dragons."
It's embarrassing.
Their existence and information were lost a long time ago.
There was also a story that the dragons, who had been used countless times, disappeared so that their information would no longer remain in the world.
He placed the potted plant in Enosh's room in his hand. The two of them kept talking while hugging.
If Lillian saw it, she would immediately recognize what this potted plant was, so he didn't bother with an explanation.
After completing a series of tasks, Lucilion immediately moved to leave the imperial palace.
Eirin's body, which was gradually warming up, felt a bit different from usual.
For some reason, she couldn't shake the feeling of unease.
* * *
"Hey, sister. You really don't plan on waking up."
"Are you here again?"
"What about my big brother?"
The voice that pierced my ears was very familiar. The sunlight dazzled my eyes.
A voice that was familiar but not very longing.
"Why am I here?"
I could think for the first time. I felt like my consciousness had returned a little.
"What was that?"
What came to mind was only a fleeting memory.
"Ah...."
I thought I was sleeping at home.
No? Did I have an accident? It felt as if I had been hit by a large dump truck.
My head throbbed as I tried to think.
"It's just a habit."
A clear voice filled my ears with an unusually hoarse tone.
Apparently, I was doing something just a moment ago, but what was I doing?
Like being submerged in the depths of the sea, my whole body felt weak and damp.
The eyelids, which always weighed like hanging pendulums, began to move slowly for the first time.
"When will she really wake up?"
I broke my trembling eyelids and opened them with all my might, feeling a bit of pain from the sunlight, then closed them tightly again.
"...Oh?"
"Why again? You said that last time..."
"Hey, I think she just opened her eyes."
"What are you talking about? Last time, in the end..."
A loud noise hit my ears. I felt a bit annoyed.
I must have been sleeping comfortably in the sunlight, but now I felt like this sunlight was too strong.
"Sister, if you woke up, open your eyes."
I opened my eyes once more while my body shivered from the rough hand on my shoulder.
Just in time, someone drew the curtain. As the room darkened slightly, I slowly opened my eyes.
"……"
"Sister?"
I frowned for a moment at the young man who suddenly appeared in front of me. Unpleasant sensations overtook my entire body.
"Hey, our sister is surprised."
Suddenly, a hand pulled him from behind and withdrew.
"......"
Why am I here?
My stomach groaned at the touch. I felt like I might throw up in front of the accursed face before me.
"No..."
I felt like my breath stopped.
I shouldn't be here.
This is not my place.
"Sister, I'll call a doctor, so please wait..."
"Go away, go away! Go away!!"
I hurriedly pulled out the intravenous needle by force. Blood was spurting and dripping from the needle marks.
"This can't be."
I don't want to live; I don't want to live in a place like this.
"Hey, are you crazy? Why did you pull this out?"
"Sister!"
The second one, whose name I didn't even want to remember, grabbed my bloody hand and shouted at me.
"Don't touch my body and go, go! I want to go back... please... send me back."
I muttered while grabbing my hair. The strong smell of alcohol, which was so strong it made me dizzy, and the peculiar hospital smell were terrible.
"Where do you want me to send you back to?"
"Home..."
"You can leave the hospital soon. You can go back, so calm down, sister."
Why did you bring me back here?
I would have rather stayed there.
"I want to go home."
I felt like my eyes were about to burst into tears, but soon the tears began to fall.
"Sister, are you crying?"
They looked at me very surprised, but it didn't matter too much.
Seeing me cry, the two of them tried to calm me down with soft voices.
"Ah, since we can go home soon... Wait a minute, the doctor will be here soon."
"No, that's your home. It's not my home."
I said while clutching my head.
It was a space that had never been my home.
My heart was beating rapidly, as if something was out of place somewhere.
"What...?"
"I want to go back to my home, where my family is."
With my head down, I muttered incomprehensibly.
The uncut hair was disheveled, and the back of my hand had a large hole from which blood was flowing.
"What are you talking about? Sister, we're your family, aren't we? Where do you want to go back to?"
"If it's that separate room, you'll be able to go back soon..."
I laughed at the two boys' words.
"I'm not your family. I've never been your family. I was an uninvited guest."
If my life could have a title, it would probably be just that.
Because I could define my life with a single word, "uninvited guest."
"Dad..."
It was strange, as if I were out of my mind. Feeling like I had entered someone else's body, I mumbled dazedly.
"Dad..., where are you...?"
"Dad is at work now..."
I grabbed his collar as he tried to comfort me.
"Please disappear from my sight, I... You and your father and your mother are all terrible..."
"Eirin...."
I widened my eyes at the sound of a small voice from a distance.
"...Dad."
I quickly covered myself with the blanket and closed my eyes again.
If I don't fall asleep now, somehow I feel like I won't be able to go back.
"Sister!"
"I heard the patient woke up...!"
I tightly closed my eyes.
I want to sleep.
Please, please.
Let me sleep again.
"Hey, sister! Chao Miso!"
As if that wish had come true, her mind instantly fell into emptiness.
Cheolkkong-
There was a strange sound, as if the dream and reality were flipping again. As if the flow of gears was reversing.
However, it was an unsettling sound as if she had left a grace period that could return at any moment.
She floated in the darkness for quite some time as if she were trying to fix something that was inserted and broken.
While she swam comfortably in the air and swam back, at some point, she was invaded by the feeling that she had to open her eyes suddenly.
Her mind jumped as if she had bitten into a lemon. When she opened her eyes in surprise, what she saw was Erno Etham.
She blinked in front of Erno Etham's beautiful face.
His pupils opened slightly, as if he was surprised.
"Kwong..."
As she blinked, an unexpected and strange sound flowed.
She must have been sleeping on a soft cushion. When she slightly straightened her body, which had been sleeping in a fetal position, she felt more comfortable.
"I think I had a long dream..."
What did I dream about?
She couldn't remember at all. She let out a long yawn and looked around.
"Did you sleep well, Eirin?"
"Kyukku!"
Her voice was a bit thicker. She raised her front paw to greet, but somehow her front paw was too big.
"Big?"
Instead of a lizard, was she a king-sized lizard? Her palm felt like a piece of wood.
The scales, for some reason, were shinier than usual and felt a bit larger.
She got up on all fours.
Her view is much higher than she remembered. She jumped and sat, but even a sitting position was possible.
"...How can a lizard sit?"
If there was a program called "What the hell is this?!" in this world, she definitely would have been able to go there.
When she tilted her head, he let out a low laugh.
"I heard that kids sleep a lot during their growth phase, so I waited for quite a while."
"What?"
"Welcome back, daughter."
She smiled widely and jumped into his open arms, and he hugged her.
Flap.
"...Am I flying?"
How am I flying?
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