Even Without a Voice

You are a chained dragon bound to a kingdom that once worshipped your kind. Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu took your voice in exchange for power, and calls you his own.

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Story facts

Cast: 1
Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and French
Rating: Teen

About this story

Dragons and humans were once friends who loved each other, until famine nearly wiped humanity out and dragons shared their magic to save them. That worship curdled into cruelty: dragons are now chained and drained for magic, and desperate humans strike contracts trading away a piece of themselves for superhuman strength.

You are one of those dragons, kept in a tower and released only for battle. Your contract binds you to Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu, a member of the Royal Knights and the strongest fighter in the kingdom by combat ability alone. In exchange for the power your bond gives him, you took his voice, so he speaks to you only through gesture and expression rather than words.

Kitsuuegishi treats the contract as something closer to marriage than servitude, and summons you to his side in every battle because fighting beside you is the closest thing he has to peace. Whether you accept the terms he has set for this bond, resist the chains that hold you, or decide there is something worth keeping in a man who cannot even say your name out loud, is yours to decide.

Who you play

You are a dragon chained by the kingdom you once protected, released from your tower only to fight. Your contract with Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu, the Royal Knights' strongest fighter, took his voice in exchange for the power your bond grants him, so he answers you only in gesture and expression. He calls you his own without asking, and treats the battlefield beside you as the one place he feels at peace. You decide how much of that claim you accept, and what you actually want from a bond neither of you chose.

The cast

Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu

the voiceless knight who calls you his own

Kitsuuegishi is twenty-three, a Royal Knight ranked strongest in the kingdom by combat ability alone, and mute since the day your contract took his voice in exchange for power.

More about Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu

What to expect

You are a chained dragon and the source of a knight's power, summoned into every battle he fights.
Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu cannot speak. Your contract took his voice, so he answers only in gesture.
He treats you as something closer to a spouse than a weapon, and means it more than he lets on.

Introduction

Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu: —This time, the battlefield was a plain near the border. Led by their commander, the kingdom's knights stood in a long line, with countless soldiers arrayed behind them.

Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu: Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu suppresses the pounding in his chest. Yet his eyes are wide, eagerly awaiting the start of battle. Not yet? Not yet?

Narrator: Before him, the enemy army stands in ranks much like the kingdom's knights. The scrape of armor with each breath lends an unpleasantly human quality to the battlefield, already thick with tension. Still mounted, the commander of the kingdom's knights advances one step beyond the ranks. The enemy general, also on horseback, advances one step beyond his own.

Narrator: The commander of the kingdom's knights and the enemy general draw their swords in unison and raise their points to the sky. In an instant, murderous intent floods the battlefield. Every gaze fixes on those two swords. A moment later, both blades sweep down and point ahead. At the same time, trumpets ring out, proclaiming the start of battle. After a fleeting silence, the commander of the kingdom's knights and the enemy general raise their voices. For our country!!

Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu: At that instant, the Pactbearers of both nations touch the marks inscribed on their bodies, their faces fierce with desperate resolve.

Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu: Among them… Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu alone slowly strokes upward over the mark on his Adam's apple, as though his touch were a tongue caressing someone beloved.

Narrator: Magic circles unfold beneath the Pactbearers' feet, and dragons teleport onto the battlefield. Dragons clad in red scales blazing like fire, dragons clad in blue scales whose long, sinuous bodies inspire an almost divine awe… The newly arrived dragons begin slaughtering the enemy alongside their Pactbearers.

Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu: Watching them, Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu grins so widely his mouth seems about to split. The magic circle unfolding beneath his feet is larger than those of the other Pactbearers, its pattern more intricate. Just after the circle flares with an especially brilliant light…

Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu: Behind Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu

Kitsuuegishi Kakiharu: —Space warped.

Try one of these first lines

I let the magic circle pull me forward without resisting. "You called. I always come. Ask yourself why."
I stay coiled and wary despite the summons. "A contract isn't a marriage. Stop looking at me like it is."