Sea of the Wind, Shore of the Maze, Chapter 7

and that frightens me a little..."
    "I appreciate your concern for me, but it is not necessary to be too kind to me."
    Taiki calmly gathered up the courage to look back at Gyousou and said, "...I really don't know how to  explain it."
    "You can say anything. Do not worry about me."
    "I...I've always considered my personality to be weak. The nyosen often tell me that I lack ambition,  that I should have more confidence in myself. I don't know why I'm like this."
    Gyousou looked at Taiki with a deep silence.
    "Sir Gyousou, you're not the same way. You're full of self-confidence. Truthfully, I'm not sure if I  would describe it as ambitious, but I think the sense that you give people is that you are driven,  especially...when that determination sometimes rises up very intensely. --Do you understand what I'm  talking about?"
    Gyousou nodded.
    "So that's why I get a little scared. It's a little bit different than envy."
    Taiki looked at the fire next to Keito.
    "Fire...is warm and bright, but at the same time, it's strong and scary, right? So that's why I'm afraid...  I think that's probably how I feel about you."
    Even Taiki himself didn't understand why he felt this fear.
    "But I'm not down on myself because of this. I don't think it's because of any sort of violence that I  feel scared. It doesn't feel quite the same. And it isn't like the fear I feel when I see blood. That feels different  too..."
    No matter how he said it, he just couldn't find a way to express what it was that he was feeling. The  more he thought about it, the more flustered Taiki would get, and suddenly, he felt like crying.
    "It's not quite an unpleasant feeling. A big fire is frightening, but it's also beautiful and amazing.
    That's what I've been trying to say. I feel like you're very great, but at the same time, I'm a little scared of  you."
    He put his hands to his face.
    "There's no need to cry."
    "I'm sorry..."

    "It's my fault for asking such a strange question."
    "Not at all..."
    Gyousou laughed warmly and gently stroked Taiki's hair. "You are a good child."
    "No... That's..."
    "You are both honest and kind. I believe Tai Kingdom will definitely get better."
    "Do you really think so?"
    Gyousou nodded. He hugged Taiki's shoulders with the arm he was using to stroke Taiki's head as he  looked into the fire.
    Afterwards, neither of them said anything. Previously leaning on Keito, Taiki shifted toward  Gyousou's body and sunk into the silence.

Chapter 9
    "Sir Gyousou!"
    Taiki saw the ashes from a torch flying around and its light growing closer to where he was sitting. It  was Risai returning on Hien's back. A sliver of a white light had just begun revealing itself in the sky to the  east.
    "Sir Gyousou, I've discovered a suspicious cavern."
    "Oh?" Gyousou stood up.
    "It's near a swamp not too far from here. I saw tracks coming out of it, but I didn't know if they were  those of a sugu or not."
    "Is it its lair?"
    "Perhaps."
    "We should go take a look."
    Risai lifted Taiki onto Hien as she climbed on as well, and Gyousou mounted Keito.
    - - - - -
    The cavern was an opening in the crags at the edge of a swamp where a mixture of murky water and  mud had accumulated. The stretch of land between the swamp and the cave was overgrown with weeds in  such a way that it was as if there was a path through it.
    Hien and Keito tried to get closer to the cavern. By means of the light from the torches, they saw  tracks leading into the cave.
    Gyousou stopped Keito. Comparing the prints that Keito had just made, he discovered that the tracks  looked like they were left by a creature bigger than a sugu.
    "It may not be a sugu... But then, what is it?"
    Risai got off of Hien and looked into the mouth of the cave.
    An arrangement of giant rocks formed the cave opening, which was about as tall as Risai. They  called it a cavern, but it could also be described as a big crevice forming a tunnel underneath a mass of  connected crags.
    Not too far in, the tunnel turned, so the deepest part of the cave could not be seen.
    "I'd gone into it a little bit before to survey it. It looks like it goes very deep. Should we go inside?"
    "Perhaps we might run into a dragon."
    "That reminds me. The Dragon Palace is at the bottom of the Yellow Sea."
    Gyousou investigated the inside of the cave once again.
    "Anyway, that's what they say..."

    "This cavern looks a bit too small to be one that went all the way to the bottom of the Yellow Sea."
    "...Well then,