Another day, another business.
No world hopping. No reassessing what he knew from games or anime and finding it intact. No ninjas bursting through doors, no sudden violence, no metaphysical discomfort crawling up his spine.
It was just Ludwig, the restaurant, and the rhythm. Ingredients turning into food, food moving from counter to table, orders placed, received, and fulfilled.
Running a restaurant was just like that. The patron wouldn't care about what happened yesterday as long as the sign on the door said it was open.
Ludwig stood behind the counter with americano in hand and eyes on the hall.
As expected from lunch time, those who enter Checkpoint came just to eat. That too, quickly. They order, they eat, and they leave. Only some stay long enough and dare to slip one tankard of ale into their system.
Once he finished sweeping through the hall with his eyes, he looked at the patrons sitting in the bar seats. The first group his eyes landed on was the group of the restaurant's four weakest patrons. A family that for some reason sent into the future where mother earth reclaimed its territory from humans which disappeared.
Today marked the family second visit to the Checkpoint. And Ludwig welcomed it.
They had arrived early. One hour before lunch started, yet they were still here. Aoki sat upright, hands folded on the bar, eyes moving more than his head. Tsumugi leaned forward, curiosity tempered by restraint. Momo swung her legs absentmindedly, gaze drifting between the counter and the room. Rin stayed close to her sister, small fingers wrapped around the edge of the stool like it might disappear.
Beside them—though 'beside' was not really the right words—were two cats and a dragon.
Cale's cats occupied the left end of the bar with total confidence, faces buried in a shared milk bowl. They were not fighting, but neither was yielding. Their tails flicked in precise irritation whenever one drank faster than the other.
Above them, perched on the separator as if it had always been designed for that purpose, was the self-proclaimed Great Dragon, Raon Miru.
"I always think this is good spot." Raon announced, wings tucked in tight, chin raised. "High. Can see everything."
VIlera paused mid-step with a tray in her hands and glanced up. "You can't own the separator."
Raon looked down at her. "I am sitting on it."
"That's not how—"
"It is now."
Ludwig chuckled at the conversation between the two. One was a child with dragon power while the other one was the uncompromising manager of his restaurant. This kind of thing was Vilera's weak point. After all, the little dragon couldn't be treated by logic and rule alone.
Ludwig caught a movement in the corner of his eyes at that moment.
"Uh…" Aoki let out a sound, eyes darting from Raon to Ludwig. "That's a dragon, right?"
Another movement was caught by his eyes. But unlike before, his body moved.
Raon was the one who moved in the corner of his eyes. The dragon straightened, wings flaring half an inch in indignation, chest puffing as if the question itself had been an insult. His tail twitched once, sharp and irritated.
"I am not a dragon." Raon declared. "I am the Great—"
Ludwig's arms closed around him before the sentence could finish as he sighed.
Raon made a small, offended sound as Ludwig locked him against his chest, one hand bracing the dragon's back, the other covering just enough space to keep wings from flaring again.
"Restaurant rules…" Ludwig said calmly. "No declarations or there will be no puddings."
Raon struggled for exactly half a second, then froze.
"…This is unfair." He muttered.
At his answer Ludwig just chuckled before patting the head of the little dragon.
In the meantime, the cats did not even look up.
Aoki stared.
Not wide-eyed panic nor disbelief. It was the look of a man who had spent his life teaching students how living systems worked and had just discovered the syllabus was missing several chapters.
"Is it, he? She? yours?" Aoki repeated, more slowly this time.
Ludwig looked at Aoki while his hand still moved.
"He." Ludwig answered. "His name is Raon Miru, our restaurant's Great Dragon at the very least. And no… He's not mine."
Ludwig felt Raon perking up at the mention of a great dragon. From how his breath became harder for a moment, it seemed like he was being smug about it even though Ludwig just said that because there's only one dragon in the restaurant currently.
Aoki's mouth fell open at his answer. As someone who talked like a professor from their very first meeting, it's easy to see that he had come to a conclusion.
Unfortunately…
"So they are like us? They walked to this restaurant from their world alone?"
His result is wrong.
"No, no, not like that." Ludwig chuckled. "They are indeed the first customer from their world, but they're not alone. They have a human with them."
Ludwig angled his body slightly to the cat. "Raon and the cats often came here during lunch. Most of the time because their master is doing something boring according to Raon. They will be here until they decide to leave or wait until their master comes."
Raon nodded his head. While the cats were just sprawling in the bar now that their milk bowl had run dry.
"Yes, that Weak Human is scamming people again! I'm bored, so I came here!" Raon declared.
"It's really interesting…" Aoki murmured. "Not human, not humanoid, but can talk…"
Ludwig laughed as he heard those whispers while his hand stayed on Raon's head, fingers absently scratching the scales between his horns. "For your information, almost all dragons I know can talk. Else, they'd be called wyverns or dragonkin rather than dragons."
Aoki blinked slowly. "So… vocal ability is the defining trait? Parrots can 'talk' on Earth. Or at least mimic speech. That doesn't make them a new taxonomic group."
Raon made an indignant sound. "I'm not a vegetable!"
Ludwig let out a laugh at Raon's protest. "Parrot is not a carrot. Parrot is a bird, a colorful bird."
"Huh?" Raon let out a sound. "I'm not a bird! I'm a great dragon!"
"Yes, yes. You are a great dragon who hoarded puddings and food rather than gold." Ludwig chuckled.
"Hey!" Raon wriggled with quite a power in protest. "I have gold, Joybringer! Just look at my pouch! I even paid for the meals last night!"
Ludwig chuckled again before scratching Raon's head harder to soothe him. "Fine, fine. Mighty Raon has gold and puddings. How blessed you are…"
Raon puffed, satisfied with the words.
Of course, Ludwig said just to soothe him. He knew just how much Raon had in that little pouch of his. Even though it was a spatial pouch, seeing through it was as easy as breathing for Ludwig.
Aoki's grip on his coffee cup tightened. "Let me rephrase that. When you say 'can talk,' do you mean language? Syntax, abstraction, self-awareness, the whole cognitive package?"
"Yes." Ludwig said. "If a creature looks like a dragon but its mind is closer to an animal's, at least in my world they will not call them a 'true dragon.' They call it wyvern, drake, dragonkin. Something in that direction."
Aoki stared at Raon like he was a walking exam question. "So the line is cognitive, not anatomical."
"Mostly." Ludwig agreed. "Imagine Earth. We have primates there, yes? Many are clever, social, and can use tools. But only humans build civilizations, tell stories, argue about philosophy. If you had to name one 'apex thinking species' there, it'd be humans."
Aoki nodded slowly. "Homo sapiens. Yes."
"In my world at the very least," Ludwig continued, "dragons are to lizards and reptilian monsters what humans are to other primates. Almost the same body, similar, but completely different level of mind."
Raon puffed his chest at that, as much as Ludwig's arm allowed. "Exactly. I am no wyvern!"
"Indeed you're not." Ludwig chuckled.
Aoki's mouth twitched, but the biologist in him refused to let go. "But that's… terminology. On Earth, we don't rename a chimpanzee 'almost-human' just because it is intelligent. We put them in the same broader group, but different genus and species based on their traits. Is there an actual… taxonomic system for this in your world? Or is it all folk naming?"
"Well in Ortus…" Ludwig said with a half amused tone. "Scholars with too much time and parchment love classifications. Mages, especially. They draw trees and circles and come up with long words. But if you strip it down, their practical rule is simpler:"
He raised a finger.
"One: Does it have a draconic core, a kind of magical heart, that grows with age instead of burning out?"
Aoki opened his mouth, then closed it again. "…Magical heart."
"Think of it as a second organ system." Ludwig offered. "On Earth, we have nervous system and circulatory system. In a world with mana, many creatures also have a mana system. In dragons, that system is… disproportionate. Oversized. It shapes the rest of the body and mind. Their magic doesn't just sit on top of their biology; it is a major part of it."
Aoki's eyes sharpened. "So in earth's terms, they have an additional fundamental physiology layer."
"Correct. Rule number Two: Does that core support full sapience? Memory over centuries, complex abstract thought, stable personality?"
"Centuries…" Aoki repeated faintly.
"And three." Ludwig added, "Does the creature have the instinct and capacity for language and long-term culture? Not just learning a few words, but creating stories, laws, grudges, philosophies. If all three are true, most people call it a dragon, regardless of exact number of limbs or horn shape."
Aoki's fingers tapped once against his cup. "So wyverns and dragonkin fail which part?"
"Various." Ludwig said. "Wyverns usually fail the middle two."
He shifted his hold on Raon and turned slightly, as if arranging examples in his mind.
"A wyvern in many worlds has some draconic traits. A weaker core, breath weapon, and strong body. But the mind is more like a clever predatory bird. It can learn patterns, maybe understand simple commands, but it does not build language. It does not sit down and discuss ethics."
"They make good mounts, though." Vilera muttered as she passed by with a tray. "If you don't mind the smell."
Aoki's head snapped toward her. "Mounts?"
"Indeed." Ludwig nodded. "Quick flyer, agile, and quite durable. Though, they are hard to domesticated,"
"As for dragonkin," Ludwig continued, "that word covers all the in-betweens. Creatures with some traits of dragons—scales, breath, small cores—but not the full set. Some walk on four legs with wings, some are serpents, some are almost humanoid. A few may even be as smart as a bright dog or a young child. But unless they cross that line into independent culture and long-term abstract thought, most people won't call them dragons."
Aoki frowned. "That sounds… speciesist."
"It is." Ludwig said without apology. "But terms grow out of how people meet things. Most common folk never talk to a dragonkin long enough to care if it has opinions on art."
"Make sense." Aoki nodded.
Aoki leaned forward now, teacher-mode fully engaged. "You keep saying 'My world.' Did dragons differ from world to world? And if it's the case, what's the difference?"
Ludwig shrugged at his question. "To be honest, I don't know. Raon is the only dragon I met aside from the dragons in my world. Moreover, he's still small, so I can't really make a comparison."
"But, where does he sit in that… spectrum in your opinion?"
"High." Ludwig said without hesitation. "Old dragons are a walking natural disasters. Raon is young by their standards. But even now, if you insisted on thinking in earth's terms, you would be standing next to something like a sapient tyrannosaurus with built-in artillery, immortality potential, and a very strong opinion on desserts."
Aoki's hand froze halfway to his cup.
Raon brightened. "Yes! Fear me!"
"…And yet." Aoki said slowly, "You pick him up like a misbehaving cat."
"Because," Ludwig said, amused, "for all that, he is also just a child. Mind, power, and biology don't always age at the same speed. That's another difference: dragons grow into what they are. A wyvern is more or less itself once it reaches its adult size. A dragon's core and mind keep deepening."
"So juvenile dragons can be… contained by pudding," Aoki summarized weakly.
"Positive reinforcement." Ludwig said. "Very universal principle."
Aoki managed a small, helpless laugh. "My training as a biology teacher did not prepare me for this."
"It gave you the right questions, though." Ludwig countered. "That's enough."
Aoki sighed before opening his mouth again. "If the cats also talked, I would be damned."
Ludwig laughed, but not letting it out. After all, yes, those cats were not normal cats. They just choose silence even after all this time.
Though, once they decided to talk, Ludwig knew that this restaurant would be so much more chaotic than before.
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