Knowing that, Pai sighed all the more at her disappointing friend. “Sigh... I don’t know which is worse: this, or when you had your head full of dreams, reading too many romance novels.”

With the past suddenly brought up, Naden coughed in surprise. “I-I was just reading books! It’s not like I was only reading romance novels, okay?”

“You were obsessed with them. Saying things like, ‘I’d put love before duty!’”

“I read ordinary adventure stories, too!”

“Dragons don’t usually read human books to begin with...”

The reason for that was simple. Since the only country that had diplomatic relations with the Star Dragon Mountain Range was the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom, not many products from the nations of mankind made it here. If one wanted to acquire products from the nations of mankind, one had to go to those nations directly, leaving the Star Dragon Mountain Range. Most dragons were not interested enough in the world outside, or in products from the nations of mankind, to do so. Those like Naden, who used every opportunity she could find to go outside and come back with foreign products, were a rarity.

“Wait, where did you get that receiver anyway?” Pai asked, startled.

“Hmm? I found it at a flea market in the empire. It was broken, basically a piece of junk, but when I gave it a little zap, it started showing things. Hee hee! It was a great find.”

As she said that, Naden’s black, lizard-like tail slithered toward the simple receiver. When it got there, there was a clicking sound, and the image on the receiver vanished.

Naden could store electricity in her body. By releasing that stored electricity, though Naden didn’t understand the principle behind how it worked herself, she was able to turn the simple receiver on and off. There were definitely other creatures that could store electricity in their bodies, but Naden was probably the only one who could control it so skillfully.

Watching her do that, Pai shrugged in exasperation. “You’re skilled in the strangest of ways, you know that, Naden?”

“Hey, I was lucky enough to have an electrified body. I’m not going to let that go to waste.”

“I know, but is that really something a dragon should be doing...?”

In Dracul with its everlasting spring, the dragons who had yet to form a contract lived their lives as they pleased. They did things like fly around in dragon form, play in the water, and go hunting.

There were times when the dragon priestesses who served under Tiamat would teach them about dragon traditions, the outside world, and reading, writing, and arithmetic; but other than that, they could each use their time to do whatever they liked.

Among all those dragons living in that old-fashioned way, Naden was probably the only one who could use tools from the outside world so skillfully.

Pai asked her with some exasperation, “Are you really a dragon?”

“...I wish I knew that myself,” Naden said, her gaze returning to the screen.

Pai got a look on her face that said, “Oops, I screwed up.” That subject was probably painful for Naden.

“Um, uh... So, this music program thing? What is it?” Pai asked, trying to change the subject.

“They broadcast cute girls in cute outfits singing and dancing for the people to see,” Naden said. “It’s fun just watching it. Though, from what I hear, the ones who are the real creators and masters of broadcast program production aren’t the people of the Empire, they’re the people of the Elfrieden Kingdom. It’s a shame I don’t get them on this simple receiver.”

“The Elfrieden Kingdom? You mean that country where they summoned a hero, and he became their king?” Pai asked, surprised. When she heard the name “Elfrieden,” the image that came to mind was a very traditional, or, to put it less kindly, old-fashioned kingdom.

Naden waggled a finger at Pai and tut-tutted her. “You can forget everything you think you know about Elfrieden. Oh, wait, they’re the Kingdom of Friedonia now, aren’t they? I don’t have all the details, with my information coming from the Empire, but it sounds like they’ve been growing in power really fast under the new king’s program of reforms.”

Naden picked up the simple receiver with her tail and played with it.

“I think the way he took the Jewel Voice Broadcast, something the royal family had only used to make one-sided announcements of things that were already decided, and used it to create something fun like these broadcast programs shows incredible foresight. Unlike this country, which never changes, the Kingdom of Friedonia is pressing further and further ahead. I’d like to meet this hero king of theirs myself. Maybe I’ll land in Friedonia next time I go out.”

Pai stomped her feet in indignation. “Good grief! What are you thinking?! It’s almost time for the Contract Ceremony, you know? There’s no way you’ll be allowed to do that at an important time like this, when our futures are going to be decided!”

“That doesn’t... really matter,” Naden said. “I’m sure no knight would ever choose me. I mean, I can’t fly, and I can’t breathe fire, after all.”

“...”

Naden’s eyes filled with resignation.

There was nothing Pai could say in response.

Though she, Naden Delal, was a dragon of the Star Dragon Mountain Range, she had no wings with which to fly through the skies, and she could not breathe fire. Her appearance was very different from the other dragons, too.

That was why the other dragons called her a worm (saying she was long, thin, and not much else) behind her back. That was part of the reason why Naden tended to hide away in the cave. Pai was one of Naden’s few friends, but there was nothing she could do for her about this.

“Erm...” Pai said, thinking frantically. “B-But you can shoot lightning, Naden!”

“...What good is that? No knight will choose me as a partner. If they did, they’d be the only knight who couldn’t fly, you know?” Naden averted her eyes.

The dragon knights of Nothung were famed across the continent.

These knights, who rode atop the already tough and powerful dragons, would soar through the skies, tearing through enemy lines and burning everything away with dragon fire. Though they were a small country, the dragon knights had been responsible for making the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom capable of fighting on even terms with the Empire, even if it was only on the defensive. There could be no place for the flightless, fireless Naden in their ranks.

“You’ve got it good, Pai,” Naden sighed. “A pretty white dragon like you... I’m sure you’ll have your pick of the litter.”

“...I’m sensing some hostility in those words.”

In the ceremony held to form contracts with the dragon knights, the knight would first choose a dragon to become his mount, and then the dragon would decide whether to accept or not. That meant a dragon who received multiple offers would have her pick of them. Naden was probably thinking that Pai was sure to have that.

“Maybe I should just leave the country?” Naden asked, moping. “I could probably pass myself off as a sea serpent.”

From what Pai had heard, the race known as the sea serpents and Naden in her human form looked quite similar. As for what made them different, the antlers on Naden’s head were bigger, and sea serpents lacked the ability to transform like true dragons, but there were few enough of them that no one would notice unless she said something about it.

Pai groaned in exasperation. “If you take a defeatist attitude, you’ll become a defeatist at heart!”

“But...”

“Besides, didn’t Lady Tiamat give you a prophecy? It’s going to be fine.”

The dragons who would attend the Contract Ceremony in any given year were chosen by Tiamat. The will of the individual and how old they were didn’t come into it. Those dragons who were chosen would receive an oracle from Mother Dragon at the beginning of that year. Naden had been one of them.

“Eventually, one who knows your value will appear. That is when you will leave the nest.”

That was definitely what Tiamat had said to Naden, who had all but given up on her future. Tiamat said it with the gentle eyes of a mother. Naden couldn’t imagine that Tiamat had been lying to her. However, at the same time, she couldn’t see that prophecy coming true.

“That’s... got to be something Tiamat said to console me,” Naden said at last. “Even I don’t know what my value is. What is a complete stranger supposed to see in me?”

“But, from what I hear, Lady Tiamat has never had a prediction fail to come true.”

“Fine, I’ll be the very first failure. Hurray for me.”

Pai groaned. “You’re such a defeatist.”

“Pai, if you keep making that groaning noise, you’re going to develop black spots like a cow, you know?”

“Moo! Moo! Moo!” Pai exclaimed.

While watching Pai get angry out of the corner of her eye, Naden sighed. If there really is some value to my existence, and someone could find it for me... how wonderful would that be? If a miracle like that happened, and they take me away from this boring place where it’s always spring and nothing exciting ever happens... Well, it’s just not possible, is it?

Naden forced that earnest wish of hers deep into the recesses of her heart.

When Naden came back to her senses, she knelt down, putting a hand over her breast and bowing her head. “...Naden Delal. Here at your behest.”

Naden was feigning calmness, but her heart was pounding. She couldn’t help but worry about why Mother Dragon might be upset with her.

Is it my skipping practice for the Contract Ceremony? Is it my fighting with the other dragons? Or... is it my having brought a simple receiver made in the Gran Chaos Empire back here? Oh, what am I going to do if she tells me to get rid of it...?

“Raise your head, Naden.”

Naden heard that peaceful voice come from above her head. It had a depth that sounded like three people speaking at the same time, as if it were echoing inside the listener’s own heart.

When she raised her head like the voice told her to, those sapphire eyes were staring right at Naden’s face. In that tense atmosphere, Naden thought she could feel the sweat running down her back.

“Um... Er...”

Naden tried to say something, but her tongue just wouldn’t move right.

Tiamat didn’t seem angry with her. If anything, it was a soft look on her face.

She’s not going to get mad at me? Then why did I get called here? Why is Lady Tiamat looking at me with such gentle eyes?

Those questions sprang to mind one after another, throwing Naden’s heart into disarray. “Um... Lady Tiamat...?”

When she managed to force just those words out, Tiamat began speaking softly.

“The furiously moving gear approaches the gear that has come to a stop.”

“...Huh?” Naden had no idea what had just been said to her. Gears? What was she even talking about?

Without any concern for Naden’s confusion, Tiamat continued. “Eventually, the two gears will mesh. The stopped gear will be forced to move, and the gear that spins furiously as if driven by something will slow its pace. However, that is nothing to be sad about. It merely means that they will spin at the same pace.”

“U-Um... I have no idea what you’re talking about...?”

It was too abstract for Naden to make sense of. Had she been called here to hear this? The furiously spinning gear... The stopped gear... The meshing of the two...?

“Naden.”

“Y-Yes!”

With Tiamat’s eyes fixed straight on her, Naden stood up straight.

“Be prepared. It will soon begin to move.”

Prepared? Begin to move? What would, exactly...?

“Um... Lady Tiamat... just what is going to start moving?” Naden ventured.

Tiamat took on the face of an angel delivering a revelation, or a mother watching over her child, and told her:

“Your time.”

“But what about you? Will there be a knight who would choose you? You, who have no wings, don’t breathe fire, and can’t fly? Even if there is, what will he do? Is he going to ride you? Watching the rest of the dragon knights fly through the sky while he fights on a dragon that’s little better than a horse? Ahaha, what an idiot. He won’t be moving up in the world, that’s for sure!”

Bzzt!

Ruby jumped backward as that sound suddenly came from Naden.

Naden’s hair began to stand on end, and her body was wreathed in pale blue electrical discharge. Her voluminous hair spread out, wriggling in the air like tentacles.

Naden turned to Ruby, pointing a finger at her as she said, “Shut your filthy mouth. If you don’t, I’ll paralyze you.”

“Hmph! Do it, if you can.”

In the next moment, a blue bolt of electricity shot forth from Naden’s fingertip. However, by the time it reached its target, Ruby was no longer there, and the trunk of the tree that had been behind her was singed instead.

Naden looked up into the sky and howled, “Tch! Get down here, you dirty coward!”

There were three dragons, red, green, and blue, hanging in the air; it was none other than Ruby and her flunkies. The three flapped their membranous, wyvern-like wings as they looked down at Naden.

“What’s the matter? Weren’t you going to paralyze us?” In her red dragon form, Ruby seemed to have become even more spiteful. “Oh, right. Even if you can control electric shocks, you can’t hit us if you can’t fly.”

“Shut up!” Naden yelled.

“Who would ever choose you?”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!”

“You had better participate in the ceremony. Don’t run away. Though I’m sure no one will choose you, it would be good to see you put in your place.”

“Ngh!” Naden cried.

Naden ran away, turning her back on Ruby and the other two.

Damn it... Damn it...

She didn’t want to let them see her tears of sadness and frustration. If she cried, it would only let them bask in their sense of superiority. Not a chance.

Though I’m sure no one will choose you.

As Ruby’s words echoed in her ears, she imagined the other dragons mocking her at the Contract Ceremony.

Pai and Lady Tiamat told her to participate, but she wouldn’t let anyone make a laughingstock of her!

Who... Who would go to the stupid Contract Ceremony?!

Naden vanished into the forest.

◇　◇　◇

Having adjusted to flying at high speeds, I spoke to the dragon priestess as we got closer to the Star Dragon Mountain Range.

“So, I wanted to ask a question.”

“What might that be?” she asked.

“This Dracul place, where the dragons live—it’s on top of those mountains, right?”

“Yes. That is correct.”

“I’m still fine now, but if you carry me up there, am I going to be all right when it comes to air and whatnot? I’d rather not suffer from altitude sickness.”

This was the Star Dragon Mountain Range, a series of mountains the size of Mt. Fuji. The Dracul Plateau itself was kept in a state of perpetual spring by Mother Dragon’s magic, and the air there was no different from the air at ground level, but what about the route there?

If I was going to be going through an experience equivalent to suddenly being chucked to the top of Mt. Fuji, that would be hazardous to my health.

The dragon priestess shook her head. “You need not fear. Once we enter the Star Dragon Mountain Range, Lady Tiamat’s magical power will directly transport you the rest of the way to Crystal Castle in Dracul.”

...So there you had it. Basically, it was going to be another teleportation like I had experienced earlier.

“In that case, couldn’t she have just transported me to that castle or wherever to begin with?”

“Lady Tiamat can only exercise her fullest power within the Star Dragon Mountain Range. In other lands, her abilities are greatly restricted. When you get to be as far away as that village, she can only teleport you short distances.”

...Could a few kilometers really be called a short distance?

Well, it seemed she couldn’t suddenly send dragons anywhere on the continent, at least, so that was a bit of a relief. I didn’t even have an inkling of any intentions to oppose her, but it was still unsettling to have her unilaterally hold the power of life and death over me. Though, well, I could certainly tell that Mother Dragon was on an entirely different level from other creatures.

While I was thinking that, the dragon priestess picked up speed. “We will soon enter the Star Dragon Mountain Range. Please, brace yourself for transportation.”

“Brace myself? How am I supposed to do that?”

“Don’t be surprised if the scenery around you suddenly changes.”

“Oh, so that’s what you meant...”

The dragon priestess’s speed slowed, and when she had almost come to a stop...

◆

...the scenery changed. We had just been in midair, but now the floor was beneath my feet.

The dragon priestess set me down, and I was finally able to get my feet back on terra firma.

I looked around, wondering where I might be. It was bright, so I could see well, but it was an incredibly vast space I’d found myself in. There was a white wall in front of my eyes, but when I turned to look behind me, the wall on the opposite side was a long ways off. This place might be larger than a domed stadium.

When I looked up to the ceiling, still thinking about that, I gulped again. It’s not a wall?!

What I found myself looking up at was a giant dragon’s head. Right now, I was at the breast of a massive dragon that was sitting like the sphinx. That head... It was the same dragon I had seen in my dream.

Did that mean this supermassive dragon was Mother Dragon? I’d thought she was big when I saw her in my dreams, but because it’d been a dream, her size had been kind of hazy. When I saw her up close and personal like this, she seemed even bigger than I’d assumed in my dream.

I heard a voice from above. “You’ve done well. Let us have some time alone.”

The dragon who had carried me this far said, “Understood.”

She bowed her head, and was then erased. Mother Dragon probably teleported her away.

While I was still dumbstruck, Mother Dragon addressed me in a gentle (though psychic) voice. “Now then, I think it would be much too haughty of me to remain in this form when before the master of a nation.”

With that said, her body began to shine and then shrink down. When the brilliant light subsided, I beheld a woman who was roughly the same height as me. Her face was covered by a veil, so I couldn’t tell her age or appearance, but the woman was wearing a shining, silver robe-like garment, and had a well-balanced figure. As with the arms of the Venus de Milo, not being able to see her face made me imagine it to be incredibly beautiful.

“Is that... your human form?” I was awestruck, but somehow managed to get those words out.

She chuckled. “Is this my human form, you ask? That’s an apt name for it.” The woman lifted the hem of her robe and bowed. “I am pleased to meet you in person like this. Greetings, King Souma of Elfrieden and Amidonia. I am Tiamat, the one responsible for the Star Dragon Mountain Range.”

“It’s an honor to meet you, Madam Mother Dragon.” I returned her bow. “I am King Souma of Friedonia.”

Mother Dragon chuckled. “That name is something others just started calling me of their own accord. Please, call me Tiamat.”

“As you wish, Madam Tiamat. Um... sorry about my appearance.”

Much too late, I realized I was still in that Kitakaze Kozou-style traveler’s outfit. I felt bad standing in front of the divine figure I saw before me in this state. I had no time to change clothes, after all. But when I said that, Madam Tiamat shook her head.

“No, you look like that because I called you here so suddenly. If anyone should apologize, it is me. For a start... let’s sit down.”

A table made of glass and two matching chairs suddenly appeared between us. Teleportation sure was a convenient ability. If I had that, I could instantly find the documents I was looking for when working, so I really wanted it...

I was thinking like a total slave to my job.

Once we sat down, Madam Tiamat began by bowing her head deeply. “First, allow me to apologize for bringing you here so forcibly.”

“I will accept that apology,” I said. “But could I ask you to explain your reasons? I was already on my way here with my companions when you did so.”

“I will tell you, of course. But first...”

Suddenly, a tea set appeared before my eyes. The teacup sitting in front of me was already filled with a warm serving of black tea.

“Let’s have tea. Do you take sugar or milk?”

“No, straight is fine.”

It was time for me to stop being surprised by every little thing. She was worshiped as a god, after all.

I took a sip of tea to calm my nerves. I was more of a coffee person, honestly, but... it had a good fragrance. Tiamat drank her tea, then took a breath before opening her mouth to speak.

“Now, as for what led me to force you to come here, that is because there is an urgent situation that threatens the Star Dragon Mountain Range. In order to resolve it, I need your.... no, the powers of all of you. That is why I’ve summoned you here, well aware that I may cause offense.”

She had some sort of situation on her hands? And what did she mean about the powers of all of us? As far as I could tell, I was the only one here.

“What exactly is this urgent situation you speak of?” I asked.

“A storm is approaching the Star Dragon Mountain Range,” Madam Tiamat said with a mysterious tone in her voice.

A storm? Wasn’t Dracul a plateau at an altitude equivalent to the peak of Mt. Fuji? Wouldn’t they hear the thunder coming from below up here? But thinking about it a bit longer, I remembered the peak of Mt. Fuji could get still storms. They say cumulonimbus clouds can go all the way up to the stratosphere, after all. No, but before that...

“Even our country can’t do anything about natural phenomena,” I said.

“Of course, this isn’t a ‘natural phenomenon.’”

“...Is it a metaphor of some sort?”

“Yes, that’s right. I expressed an impending threat as a storm. In order to deal with this storm, we will need your power, Sir Souma, and that of one other. In order to bind the two of you together, I needed you to come to the Star Dragon Mountain Range on your own.”

Madam Tiamat spoke in a quiet voice, almost like she was composing poetry.

“There is little time. If we waited for you to come together with your entourage, there was the risk that the situation would get out of hand. However, even if we explained the situation, there is no way the vassals of a king would allow him to go to another country alone. Because of that, we resorted to somewhat more forceful methods. I once again apologize. I’m sorry for what we put you through.”

Madam Tiamat offered a sincere bow.

I had the mother dragon who was revered as a god bowing her head to me. What would Liscia and the others say if they heard about this?

That aside, she said she spirited me away because there was “little time,” but she was being awfully vague as to the reason why.

“You’ve apologized enough,” I said. “Could I trouble you for a more concrete explanation about this storm, or whatever it is?”

“The storm will definitely come. I cannot touch the storm directly. However, my children cannot handle it themselves. Except... for one of them. The storm will be a miserable calamity. We need you, who will be the key to dealing with it, and that girl who will carry you. It is a miracle that the calamity and the means of resolving it have encountered one another in this time frame, but looking at the eternal flow of time as a whole, it may have been an inevitability.”

I was silent. I really didn’t get it.

I scratched the back of my neck. “I do think this roundabout way of discussing things is fitting for a god, but...”

“If you find it unpleasant, I apologize once more. However, this is the most ‘guidance’ I can hand down.”

“Guidance...” I muttered.

“I am a being who exists to raise and watch over those who live on this continent of Landia. I can offer advice that guides things in a better direction, but I have not been given the authority to intervene directly in individual matters.”

“If you haven’t been given the authority, does that mean there’s someone who exists at a higher level than you?!” I exclaimed.

Mother Dragon was held up as the highest god by the practitioners of Mother Dragon worship. If there was a being in a position to give her authority, wouldn’t that make that being the actual highest god? If the practitioners of Mother Dragon worship heard this (setting aside the issue of whether they’d even believe it), it could cause incredible chaos...

While I was staring, dumbfounded, Madam Tiamat silently shook her head.

“There once was. But they are no more.”

“R-Really?”

Was this like saying God is dead? I couldn’t make a decision based on the information available to me, but Madam Tiamat gave me a slightly sad smile.

“Yes. However, the limitations placed upon me live on. That is how I was born, and so I must continue to abide by those limitations. Even knowing my own children will be exposed to the storm, I myself can do nothing about it.”

“So you called me here because of that storm?” I hedged.

“That is correct.”

“I think, as far as humans go, I’m one of the weaker ones in this world, though.”

“Martial prowess has nothing to do with it,” she said. “Your very existence is the key.”

“Does that have something to do with how I was summoned as a hero?”

“Yes. However, I am unable to tell you precisely how.”

“I dunno...” I scratched my head.

Going purely off the information provided to me, this didn’t seem like something I could make a decision on easily. However, seeing how sincere Madam Tiamat was, I could be absolutely sure that the situation was pressing, at the very least.

Argh. If I had Hakuya and his oratory skills here, I might have been able to extract as much information from Madam Tiamat as was possible within her limitations; and if I had any one of Liscia, Aisha, Juna, and Roroa with me, I could have consulted them on what to do.

Speaking of Liscia and the others...

“Madam Tiamat,” I said. “I’d like you to answer just one thing for me.”

“What might that be? I hope it’s something I’m not restricted from telling you.”

“It’s a yes or no question.” I finished my tea and calmed myself, then sat up, looked Madam Tiamat straight in the eye, and asked her, “Is this storm, or whatever it is, something that would harm me, or those who are going to become my family?”

If I couldn’t know all the details anyway, I at least wanted to make sure of the one thing that was most important to me.

Madam Tiamat’s response: “Yes.”

That more or less decided my answer for me.

◇　◇　◇

Naden was running through the forest.

She ran straight down the game trails, trying not to think about anything. That was because if, while thinking, she considered her situation for even a moment, she felt like she would be crushed under the weight of her sadness.

As she ran, Naden’s body transformed. She became four-legged; her body thickened and grew longer; and she sprouted deer-like antlers, a long tail, and two whip-like whiskers. She had taken on her dragon form.

She twisted her gigantic body around, slithering between the trees like a snake. There were, of course, no wings on her back.

Does having wings make you so great?! She asked herself the same question she had so many times before in her life. Is it so wrong not to have wings? Geez... I don’t even know anymore! What do you want me to do?! There’s nothing I can do!

At some point, tears had begun to fall from her red eyes. They wouldn’t stop.

Enough! I don’t care anymore!

She kept running, and eventually came out of the woods.

She’d come to a rocky place. It was a sheer cliff, and the far edge of the area that Tiamat’s magic kept in a state of everlasting spring. This was the edge of Dracul. The setting sun had dyed the sea of clouds that spread out below her red.

The scenery here truly was fit to be called breathtaking. However, Naden didn’t have the presence of mind to take it in right now.

She leaned out over the cliff, stretching out her long neck and shouting as loudly as she could in thought-speak: “You stupid suuuuuuuun!”

She added out loud, “Rooooooooooooooar!”

Ooooooooooooooooar...

Ooooooooar...

Ooooar...

Screaming out in psychic speech while roaring at the same time, her roar echoed as it vanished away to somewhere beyond the clouds.

Naden stood there, glaring into the sun.

“Th-That ryuu’s going through adolescence.” A voice that was lacking in tension came from behind Naden.

“Wha?!”

When the surprised Naden turned back, there was a young man in unfamiliar garb, standing there and looking at her like he’d seen something unbelievable. The young man wearing a traveler’s cloak over top of his shirt, and a conical straw hat was scratching his cheek as he looked at her, unsure what to do.

“I know from Madam Tiamat and the dragon priestess that it’s possible to talk with them, but when I see a ryuu girl shouting something out of an adolescent drama... I just don’t know how to react,” he added.

Naden’s eyes went wide. What is a human doing here? And in that strange outfit... He’s not a knight from the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom, is he?

While she got information from the Empire through her simple receiver, Naden knew nearly nothing about the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago, so she didn’t know the young man’s outfit was from there.

Continuing to stare at Naden, the young man opened his mouth and said, “Still, I’d heard the Star Dragon Mountain Range was a nation of dragons.... But I never imagined there would be a ryuu here, too. I feel like I understand this world less and less.”

A “ryuu”... That was what the young man had called Naden. “Ryuu” was another word for dragon. Naden opened her eyes wide.

“A ryuu, huh...” she said coldly, thinking he might have meant it sarcastically. “I don’t have wings, you know.”

But the young man tilted his head to the side. “Huh? That’s obvious, isn’t it? Ryuus don’t have wings.”

“Huh? What are you talking about? Ryuus are supposed to have wings, aren’t they?”

“Huh? If you’re talking about a ryuu with wings, there’s the ouryuu, also called the yinglong, but aren’t they supposed to be kind of a unique case?”

“Huh?” Naden asked.

“Huh?”

It seemed there was some inconsistency in their understanding.

“Hold on,” Naden said, “When you say ryuu... you mean a dragon, right?”

“A dragon? ...Oh, I see. So that’s it.”

The young man clapped his hands together, as if something suddenly made sense to him. Then, picking up a branch, he drew two characters, 龍 and 竜, on the ground.

“In the world I came from, we had the Oriental dragon, also called a ryuu or long, and the Western dragon, two similar but dissimilar creatures.”

“Your world? Similar but dissimilar...?”

While Naden still had a question mark over her head, the young man drew a circle around 竜.

“In my world, Western-style dragons were given this character, which is read as ‘ryuu.’ They’re creatures that are like giant horned lizards, but with wings.”

“Giant lizards, but with wings... That’s about right.” Naden thought it was an apt description.

It felt good hearing the other dragons, who always called her a worm, get called big lizards. It was refreshing.

“Hm? Then what about this other ryuu?” Naden added, pointing to 龍.

“They’re creatures said to have the head of a camel, the eyes of a rabbit, the ears of a cow, the antlers of a deer, the neck of a snake, the belly of a sea snake, the legs of a tiger, the talons of an eagle, and one hundred and seven koi-like scales covering their body.”

That was way more bizarre than some big lizard. What kind of mystery creature was that?

“From what you’re saying, they sound like total chimeras,” Naden said.

“No, no... I’m talking about you here.”

“...”

Me?!

That made sense. The long body, covered in scales, the front and hind legs with sharp claws, and the deer-like antlers... If you were to try describing Naden’s body using animals, it might turn out that way. She didn’t know what kind of creature a camel was, but did she really resemble one?

“I’m a... ryuu...” she said slowly.

“In my country, when you hear the word ryuu, the image that first comes to mind looks a lot like you,” he explained. “That’s probably the effect of a certain famous manga and anime, though.”

“Manga? Anime?”

“Never mind, that was just me talking to myself. Don’t worry about it. By the way...”

The young man suddenly slumped to the ground. He was holding his stomach for some reason.

“W-Wait, what’s wrong?! Does your stomach hurt?!” Naden exclaimed.

“No, um... I’m hungry... I was dragged off before breakfast, and now that I think about it, I haven’t eaten all day.”

“So you’re just hungry!” Naden cried, exasperated.

Bzzt! That numbing feeling came again.

In her ryuu form, she could tell. Her cheeks felt a little numb, but what really reacted were her two long, whip-like whiskers. These whiskers were Naden’s most sensitive sensory organs, and the slightest breeze across them was enough to tell her what the weather would be like for the next week.

My whiskers... Were they responding to him?

Naden returned to human form and stood in front of the hunched over young man. His face was turned downward, so she couldn’t see his expression. She reached out to touch his face softly. Her hand was close enough that she couldn’t tell if she was touching him yet or not, when...

“That’s a rather cute form you’ve changed into,” the young man looked up and said when he saw Naden in her young girl form.

Naden turned bright red at being called cute. “Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wha?! M-Me?!”

“Huh? You’re the only one here, aren’t you?”

“B-But, I’m so plain... and small.”

“Really? I think you’ve got good material to work with. If you dressed a little better, I think you might look good on screen, you know? If you were good at singing, too, I’d almost want to recruit you as a lorelei,” the young man said with a little laugh.

Though there were some unfamiliar terms, like “on screen” and “lorelei,” Naden’s head instantly boiled over when she realized she was being complimented on her appearance.

While Naden was still pressing her hands against her flushed cheeks, the young man hesitantly asked, “By the way...”

“Wh-What?”

“Do you have anything to eat?” A weak growling came from the young man’s stomach.

...

“...Pft.” Naden burst out laughing. “Ahahahahaha! What the heck...? Hahaha!”

It was a hearty guffaw. Where had all that sadness from before gone?

“You’re so weird.” She laughed heartily.

Then Naden transformed back into her ryuu form and picked up the young man by the scruff of his neck, like a mother cat might carry her kitten.

◇　◇　◇

Chomp... Munch, munch...

“Maybe try eating a little slower?” the ryuu girl said in exasperation, seeing me wolf down my food.

I was in the cave the ryuu girl brought me to, tearing into a hunk of meat. This den of hers looked like no more than a cave from the outside, but inside there was a bed, bookshelves lined with romance novels, and a carpet. It looked like a girl’s room.

She had served me some sort of salted, cooked meat along with fruit. Normally, this big of a hunk of meat would have been intimidating, but I was so famished that it looked like a feast to me. I felt like how Aisha acted any time there was food in front of her. I tore into it wildly.

“Mmm,” I said appreciatively. “I dunno what kind of meat this is, but it’s good!”

“Oh, geez, don’t talk with your mouth full,” the girl on the opposite end of the table said, resting her cheeks on her palms. “You were that hungry?”

“Yeah. I’m really grateful to you. By the way, what kind of meat is this?”

“It’s from a big deer I hunted in the mountains.”

“Venison, huh? ...Wait, you hunted it?”

“That’s how most dragons get their food, you know? We fly around the Star Dragon Mountain Range, hunting animals and gathering fruit to eat. That’s how we grow into strong dragons.”

“You’re living a much wilder life than your room would suggest...”

While I was eating, she explained that dragons became strongly attached to their families once they were wed to a knight, but in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, they each lived on their own. There were no stores in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, and they hunted and gathered to feed themselves each day.

Also, dragons didn’t gather in large groups, so they were doing well if they had one, maybe two friends. It was said that they had adopted this mentality because the majority of dragons married and left for the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom, so they did this to avoid having lingering regrets about leaving their homeland.

While listening to all this, I finished my meat and fruits and clapped my hands. “...Phew. That was a feast.”

“It wasn’t that much of a feast, though,” the ryuu said.

“That’s just a thing you say after a meal in my country. Oh, that reminds me. You treated me to a meal, but I haven’t gotten your name yet, have I? It slipped my mind.” I sat up straight, and bowed deeply to the girl across from me. “Thank you for helping me. I’m... Kazuma Souya.”

I hesitated for a moment, but opted to use my fake name. If I told her I was the King of Friedonia, explaining that seemed like a hassle. Madam Tiamat’s explanation had been too abstract, meaning I didn’t really have a good grasp of the situation, so this was good enough for now. I didn’t want to trouble someone who helped me if I didn’t have to.

“I was invited by Madam Tiamat and came here from the Kingdom of Friedonia,” I added.

“Oh, how polite of you.” Hooked into it by my own bow, the young girl bobbed her head, too. “I’m Naden Delal.”

“Huh? Dendera?”

“Naden Delal! Don’t shorten it in a weird way!”

“Dendera the ryuu... Denderaryuu...”

What was it? I was suddenly reminded of that children’s song.

“Denderaryuuba detekurubatten, denderarenken detekonken?” I asked.

“What’s that weird spell-like incantation?” she exclaimed.

“Oh, it’s a children’s song from my country.”

“Denderaryuuba” was a children’s song from rural Kyushu. By the way, there was no dragon called a denderaryuu in it. “Denderaryuuba” meant “if I wanted to go out” in that region’s dialect. That line of the song meant: “If I wanted to go out, I could, but I can’t go out, so I won’t.” Or so I’d heard. Was it about being a shut-in?

“Well, anyway, nice to meet you, Dendera,” I said.

“Na-de-n! Don’t call me Dendera!” Naden got all huffy about it.

I reflected that she was a cute girl whose expression changed a lot.

That was how I went to the Star Dragon Mountain Range and met Dendera... er, sorry... how I met Naden Delal.

“Now, I’d like you all to hear my song.”

With that, Maria began dancing lightly as she sang in a clear voice.

Though her singing and dancing might come up short when compared to our Prima Lorelei, Juna, Maria had a greater charisma that drew people to her.

...And, wait, wasn’t Maria getting really into this? She looked like she might start sparkling at any moment.

Um... What exactly was I looking at here?

Calm down, me. In everything, there’s a cause and effect.

From what Hakuya had told me, the most popular program in the Empire was the one that followed what Maria did during the day. Like on The Imperial Family Album. Her sister, Jeanne had been complaining, “How did it turn out like this?”

Maybe this had been the flow of things:

1. The Empire begins producing programs where loreleis sing.

2. The most popular program was one detailing the life of Madam Maria.

3. If we make Madam Maria into a lorelei, won’t viewership numbers shoot through the roof?

4. A singing, dancing empress is born! ← Where we were now.

...Well, that had probably been it, more or less. It seemed the Empire was going through a process of trial and error to find ways of entertaining their people. This one felt like an error.

Well, the program itself was fun, so I watched Maria with Naden for a while, but...

“Oh, no, there’re more of them now...”

I heard a girl’s voice coming from behind us.

When I turned back to look, there was a girl in a white one-piece dress looking at us in exasperation. The girl had goat-like horns on her head, and a white tail protruding from her rear end. Was this girl a dragon, too?

When the girl looked at me, she let out a sigh. “I thought it sounded lively in here... Naden, you finally started bringing home men, too? Make sure you take him back to wherever you found him.”

...What was I, an abandoned dog? It made me imagine myself in a cardboard box labeled, “I’m an abandoned provisional king. Please, take me home.” It made for one surreal image.

Meanwhile, Naden, who had been accused of dragging home men, pouted. “Don’t make me sound so bad! He’s a guest!”

“A guest?”

“That’s right! Lady Tiamat ordered me to be his caretaker.”

“His caretaker, huh... It looks to me like you two are just fooling around together, though?”

“Urgh...”

The girl was right, so Naden had nothing she could say to that. I’d been given food, and she was looking after me, but she hadn’t really done anything else as my caretaker. I’d been more or less left to my own devices.

The white girl pointed at me. “I’m Pai Long, Naden’s friend. Who are you?”

“Kazuma Souya from the Kingdom of Friedonia.”

I smiled and shook Pai’s hand. When I did, she tilted her head to the side.

“The Kingdom of Friedonia? That’s that country to the east that Naden was talking about before, isn’t it? We don’t have relations with them... What are you doing here, Kazuma?”

“Ahh, well, I was invited here by Madam Tiamat for some reason.”

“By Lady Tiamat?” At this point, Pai had a look on her face like she just realized something, and she turned to Naden. “Hey, Naden, don’t you think Lady Tiamat might be planning to have this guy take part in the Contract Ceremony?”

“Huh? Kazuma, take part in the Contract Ceremony?” Naden asked with her eyes wide. “Kazuma’s not one of the knights of Nothung, you know? Can he even take part?”

“Have you forgotten? It hasn’t happened at all recently, but they say Lady Tiamat sometimes invites those who are likely to become heroes of their time, allowing them to form independent contracts with a dragon. Like the first King of Elfrieden did.”

“A hero of our time, huh...” Naden glanced in my direction. That look on her face... She didn’t believe it one bit. “I dunno, he doesn’t look that impressive to me.”

“That’s harsh, even if it is true,” I said.

“Didn’t Lady Tiamat tell you anything, Kazuma?” Pai asked, but I shrugged my shoulders, neither confirming nor denying.

It was true, Madam Tiamat had suggested she’d like for me to participate in the Contract Ceremony. However, I hesitated to tell that to these two. If they found I would be taking part, the next question would obviously be who exactly I was. Having them find out I was the king of a nation would be a bit of a headache.

“I’m not at liberty to say. If you want to know, ask Madam Tiamat.”

“Ahaha!” Pai laughed. “It’s not that easy to get to talk with her, though. Oh, I know!” Pai clapped her hands “Naden, you’re in charge of looking after Kazuma, right? It’s not something that comes up often, so why not show him around the Star Dragon Mountain Range?”

“Oh! I’d be interested in that,” I said. “Could I trouble you to?”

“Uh...” Naden openly acted like it would be a real pain. “The Star Dragon Mountain Range is pretty big, you know? Wouldn’t that be kind of hard for Kazuma, having to walk?”

“You can carry him on your back,” Pai said.

“Pai, a dragon only lets her partner ride on her back. You’re well aware of that, right?”

“Where’s the harm? Why not get him to contract with you?”

“I have the right to choose, too,” Naden shot back. “This boring kind of guy isn’t my type. I like strong guys who everyone can respect.”

“...You’ve been getting pretty sharp-tongued toward me for a while now, haven’t you?” I complained. It was like a knife being thrust into my heart... Then I realized something. “Hey, is letting someone other than your partner ride on your back seen as being unchaste somehow?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, where is your back, Naden?”

“Huh?”

Naden wasn’t a Western-style dragon, she was an Oriental-style ryuu. Her body was basically a cylinder going from the back of her head to her tail. While she did bulge out a bit around where her front and rear legs were, she didn’t have a clearly defined back like a western-style dragon did.

“Like, if I rode right behind your head, that wouldn’t be your back, it’d be the nape of your neck, right?” I asked. “How about there? There’s no rule against someone other than your partner riding on your neck, now is there?”

“...”

Naden had no counter to that, so it was decided we would be going out.

Forests full of fresh growth covered more than half of Dracul. Normally, these forests were neither too dark or too bright, and due to the lack of wind, there was no rustling of branches. They were quiet forests that were not too damp or humid.

Now, a black ryuu was threading quickly between the gaps in those forests’ trees. It was Naden in her ryuu form, of course. I was currently riding on her head.

Partly because of where I was sitting, I felt like the protagonist of this anime I’d watched a long time ago. While holding her two deer-like antlers as if they were the handles of a motorcycle, I held on for dear life and tried not to get shaken off.

We were clearly out of place in the quiet forest.

“Naden... Hold on, aren’t you going a bit fast...?” I asked nervously.

“You’re getting a free ride, so no complaining.”

I’d spoken up because I was scared by the branches whipping by over the top of my head, but Naden didn’t seem to be about to slow her pace. With the shape of Naden’s body, it was like being on a roller coaster, but it was only possible to enjoy those because you had a safety bar. Well, not that I had been one for riding scream machines to begin with...

“Come to think of it, Naden, what were you saying to Pai before we went out?” I asked.

Before we left the cave, they had talked about something in hushed voices. They glanced furtively in my direction, so I wondered what was up, but she turned her head to look away.

“N-Nothing!” Then, with her head still turned away from me, Naden seemed to be muttering something. “Darn it, Pai... Who needs your, ‘If you work hard to sell yourself now, maybe Kazuma will pick you at the Contract Ceremony’? Don’t be such a busybody.”

“Huh? Sorry,” I said. “Your voice was so quiet, I couldn’t make out what you were saying.”

“I told you, it’s nothing!”

We continued going back and forth like that while moving through the forest. Then... a few minutes later...

When we got out of the forest, I jumped down from Naden’s head into a grassy meadow.

Normally, it would have been vast enough to call it a great plain, but it didn’t feel that way when I looked at it. That was because, in the center of that great plain, there was a single massive tree, its roots crisscrossing the grassy field, with its branches spread out as if to cover the whole of the meadow. Thanks to this massive tree, I didn’t get the sense that I was standing on a great plain at all.

Looking up from below, the tree rose up into the sky like a towering castle. However, its leaves were golden, and they seemed almost blinding in the way they shone in the sunlight.

I let out a sigh of admiration despite myself. “Its... pretty amazing, huh.”

“Sure is,” Naden, who had at some point returned to human form, said, puffing out her chest proudly. “This is one of the famous sites of the Star Dragon Mountain Range, the Great Tree of Ladon.”

“Radon? The atom? Or the Giant Monster of the Sky?” I asked.

“What are you talking about? It’s Ladon, the name of the dragon they say protected this tree long, long ago.”

“Hm...”

There had been a dragon called Ladon, huh? According to Naden, there was a legend that said there was a golden dragon named Ladon who lived in the branches of this tree long ago, and it was that dragon’s influence that caused the leaves to take on their golden hue.

Come to think of it, there was a dragon that guarded gold in Greek mythology, too...

Was it golden fleece and golden apples that one had been protecting? The way the leaves bunched together, it didn’t look entirely unlike golden fleece. Though it was so massive, it was more like a golden cloud instead.

“It’s like something out of the world of legend,” I murmured.

“Heh heh! It’s pretty amazing, huh?” Naden nodded in seeming satisfaction, then looked up to the tree. “This great tree has never died, never dropped its leaves, and has stood here since time immemorial. It’s like a symbol of how the Star Dragon Mountain Range is eternal and indestructible.”

“Eternal and indestructible...”

“It’s the embodiment of the dragons’ pride. You won’t find another tree this beautiful in all the world,” Naden said with confidence.

There probably wasn’t a single person out there who could fail to recognize this tree’s beauty. That was just how beautiful, elegant, and impressive this tree was. If it had been standing here forever, I could understand why the dragons would be proud of it. But...

“Calling it number one might be a bit much,” I said.

“Huh?” My reaction made Naden’s eyes go wide.

“I’ll grant you that it’s an incredible sight, but I like plum and cherry blossoms, too.”

“Plum? Cherry?”

“They were trees in my country that had beautiful flowers. Plums would blossom while bearing the weight of the snow, and cherry trees would bloom to their fullest and then fall. They each had their own appeal, and they were quite beautiful.”

“But the flowers fall, right? They only blossom for a short time. The Great Tree of Ladon will never dry up,” Naden insisted.

I smiled wryly and stretched my arms wide. “Having things that stick around for a long time is important, of course. Like natural scenery, traditions, cultural heritage, and so on. But, in my country, there was an equal, or perhaps even greater, appreciation for things that move on.”

I crouched down and plucked one of the cottony, dandelion-like flowers that were growing all over the place. When I gave it a shake, the seeds were carried off by the wind. The everlasting spring of Dracul helped to lend the scene a peaceful, airy quality. I smiled to Naden.

“Don’t you think this is pretty in its own way?”

“But no matter how pretty it is, it’s over in an instant, isn’t it?” Naden protested.

“That’s what lets us look forward to the next one, don’t you think?” I sat down in the grass, then lay on my back. “Doesn’t the fact that you can’t just see it anytime you want make it all the more valuable? Even if it does end, you can wait eagerly for the day when it will come around again.”

“...I don’t really get it.”

Hm... The dragons were a long lived race, so maybe mono no aware, the Japanese appreciation for the impermanence of things, was a little hard for them to understand.

“It’s a difference of values, you see,” I said. “There’s more than one way of looking at things. It’s the same with dragons, isn’t it? To the Mother Dragon worshipers, dragons are sacred creatures. To the knights of Nothung, you’re their partners and comrades in arms. To the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria, you’re not much different from monsters. In my former country, a ryuu like you would have been worshiped as a god that controls the weather.”

“Me... a god?” Naden was taken aback for a moment, but then she burst out laughing. “Pft... Ahahahahaha!”

Naden clutched her sides as she chuckled. While I was looking at her, wondering what I said that was so funny, Naden gave me a jolly smile while wiping the corners of her eyes.

“Ahaha... It’s all so silly. To think, they mock me by calling me a worm here, but in your country I’d become a god. So this is what you meant by a difference in values, huh.”

Once she had a good, hearty laugh, Naden put on a blank expression and said in a mumble, “Would they be okay... with a dragon that can’t fly?”

...Huh? She couldn’t fly?

“Huh? You can’t fly, Naden?” I asked.

“How could I? I don’t have any wings.”

“No, no, it’s perfectly natural that a ryuu wouldn’t have wings.”

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

We looked at one another. What? There was something not meshing in our conversation...

“No, no, I have no wings, so it’s obvious I can’t fly.”

“Is there some connection between a ryuu having no wings and one not being able to fly?” I asked.

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

There was something weird. Like there was some inconsistency in our understanding.

“Kazuma, just what are you—”

Naden was in the middle of saying something when it happened. With a great gust of wind, three dragons, red, blue, and green, descended from the skies to land in front of us.

◇　◇　◇

The three dragons that landed in front of us were red, blue, and green. They were Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerada.

Honestly... Why did I have to run into them now, of all times?

Once the three of them had taken human form, they came to stare me down at close range.

“I heard you’d picked up a human, so I came to see... Is this him?” Ruby asked.

I said nothing.

Ruby’s glance shifted to Kazuma. “Weird clothes. You’re not from Nothung?”

“...Yeah. I’m Kazuma Souya, here from Friedonia.”

Kazuma, who was a bit nonplussed at the hostile atmosphere between us, gave a cursory self-introduction.

I clicked my tongue a little. “You don’t need to give these people your name.”

“I can hear you, Naden,” Ruby snapped.

“I said it for you to hear, you nasty piece of work.”

“Who are you calling nasty? You’re just a measly worm.”

It was a touch-and-go situation. Fire spewed from her mouth and electricity sparked from my hair. Kazuma, who still didn’t understand the situation, was standing there and scratching his head.

“Uh... Do you two not get along, maybe?”

“If you thought this looks like we get along, I’d have to doubt your eyesight. The red one’s Ruby, the blue is Sapphire, and the green is Emerada. They like to call me a ‘flightless failure’ and a ‘worm,’ among other things, and they’re always picking fights with me.”

“Flightless... huh.” Kazuma crossed his arms and seemed to be thinking deeply about something.

...What had he been getting at before?

Whatever it was, I turned back to Ruby and her flunkies to tell them, “You came to see Kazuma, right? Well, how about you go home now?”

“I don’t think I appreciate your condescending tone,” Ruby sneered. “My business isn’t with you.”

With that, Ruby walked right past me to stand in front of Kazuma.

“I’ve heard... that you were invited here by Lady Tiamat, were you?”

“Hm? Yeah.” Kazuma, who appeared to be deep in thought, responded as if he’d just noticed her.

“That means you will be participating in the Contract Ceremony, yes?”

“...Well, apparently it does mean that. Not that I think I’m worthy to.”

“If Lady Tiamat saw fit to invite you, it means you’re worthy.”

I gulped. Ruby, who mocked me as a worm, was recognizing Kazuma. Could it be that Ruby was about to make a pass at Kazuma?

If Lady Tiamat had called him here, even if he didn’t look like much, he still might be a person worthy of respect. During the Contract Ceremony, it was usually the knight who proposed. However, if a dragon took a fancy to one of the knights, they could also introduce themselves to encourage the knight to choose them.

At the Contract Ceremony... would Kazuma end up dancing with one of the dragons?

...I don’t think I’d like that.

What I imagined brought a pain to my modest chest. When I thought that the person who’d told me I was a ryuu might go on to form a contract with a dragon, my heart ached. Even though I had no intention of participating in the ceremony myself.

While I was in agony thinking about that, Ruby was closing in on Kazuma. “Hey, come stay with me at my house.”

My head shot up in shock. When I looked, Ruby had extended her hand to Kazuma.

“You fascinate me. I would love to learn more about you.”

“About me?” Kazuma repeated.

“Yes. You must be special for Lady Tiamat to have recognized you. If you live up to my expectations, I might even deign to form a contract with you.”

A dragon knight’s riding contract... Ruby couldn’t have fallen in love with Kazuma at first sight, could she?

With a glance to me, Ruby added, “I am a far superior dragon than that shut-in. Unlike Naden, I can fly, and I can breathe fire, too. I could show you every corner of the Star Dragon Mountain Range from up in the sky.”

“Urgh...” It frustrated me to no end that I couldn’t refute what Ruby was saying.

True enough, Ruby was a red dragon, the kind that was popular with the knights. It was said that red would intimidate the enemy, so it was easier for the rider to earn military accolades. On top of that, she had the big wings I lacked, and she could breathe fire, as would be expected of any dragon. When I looked to see how Kazuma was reacting to her being so forward with him... he had a bit of a troubled smile on his face.

“Yeah, well, I’m glad you have such a high opinion of me and all...”

I gasped. Kazuma’s words sent electricity coursing through my body, and my hair stood on end.

Hearing him give a positive response to Ruby, my chest filled with rage... and sadness. I didn’t want to hear those words from the person who told me I was a ryuu. It made me want to cry so badly. Maybe I would let loose an electric strike on Ruby and the others, then go on a real rampage.

“But...” Kazuma shook his head and said, “Is being able to fly and breathe fire all that valuable?”

...Huh?

“Huh? What are you saying?” Ruby demanded.

Everyone’s eyes focused on Kazuma. Kazuma scratched at his head as he replied, “Uh, well... I’m from a country without much contact with dragons, so forgive me for my ignorance here. Like you were saying before, is being able to fly and breathe fire what makes a dragon valuable?”

“Of course it is,” Ruby shot back. “While a dragon is their knight’s partner, they’re also their comrade in arms. What is sought after, more than anything, are wings that will carry them high and fast across the battlefield, and flames with which to incinerate their foes.”

“I see. Appearance doesn’t come into it, then. Well, it seems that there are a lot of beautiful people among the dragon race, after all.” Kazuma nodded at Ruby’s answer. “And you girls can all fly and breathe fire, right?”

“That’s right. Except for that worm over there, that is.”

“...I see.” Then, with a serious look on his face, Kazuma looked Ruby in the eye and asked her, “Then, tell me, what is it that makes you, personally, valuable?”

Ruby and the others’ value? Wasn’t it their ability to breathe fire and fly?

“Huh? What are you saying?” Ruby asked. She didn’t seem satisfied with that answer.

Kazuma shook his head. “It’s a given that dragons can breathe fire and that they can fly, isn’t it? Well, in that case, it’s nothing special that you can. It’s an ability that every dragon comes equipped with, and that means it’s not a special reason why I ought to choose you, right?”

When he said it that way, Ruby and the others’ jaws dropped, and they stared blankly at him. I probably had a similar look on my own face.

Kazuma continued on, paying no heed to any of us. “If other dragons can do it, too, then it doesn’t serve as a reason why I should go to the trouble of picking you, specifically. It’s valuable having something universal like that, but it’s nothing special. If you all start on the same basis, won’t the stronger or the more beautiful dragons win? Being the same as everyone else isn’t even a point in your favor.”

I couldn’t believe it. “Kazuma... You...”

Kazuma’s criticism was so on point that I started to doubt if he really had no familiarity with this country’s traditions. The fact of the matter was, the Contract Ceremony was an intense competition between the dragons. Since whether or not they were chosen by someone there would more or less determine the rest of their lives, that was only natural.

While we were busy reacting with surprise, Kazuma let out a sigh. “A standardized basis of evaluation, the rejection of those with individuality... I thought I’d experienced this atmosphere somewhere before, but it’s basically the same as the exam wars. Man, I had a tough time two years ago...” Kazuma murmured with a far off look in his eyes.

...Eggzam Wars? What were those? Was it a series of wars that had happened in some other country? But why was he talking about them now?

“W-Well, it’s better than not being chosen at all!” Ruby, who had come back to her senses, said with her face twitching. “Who would choose Naden, who can’t do the things that everyone else can?!”

She pointed accusingly at me.

Kazuma instantly responded, “It’s true, as a dragon, Naden lacks universality. But what she does have is individuality.”

“I-Individuality?”

“Something that makes her different from others. When evaluating the value of things, the simplest standard is ‘a thing there’s only one of in the whole world.’ If there’s only one of something, even if it’s just a child’s toy, or the lid to a jar, it only makes sense it would hold value, right? That’s equally true of people. I... No, the king of my country goes out of his way to collect those sorts of people with specific strengths.”

The king of his country... Did he mean Friedonia’s hero king?

“And you’re saying... Naden has that value?” Ruby asked, looking stunned.

“Here in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, is there any dragon other than Naden who can create lightning? She can do a thing that no one else can. That, in and of itself, is valuable. But, really, do you actually understand what’s happening here?”

“Wh-What...?”

“The reason you’re always picking fights with Naden,” Kazuma said. “It’s because you envy her for her individuality, isn’t it?”

“Wha...” Ruby seemed dumbstruck by what Kazuma had pointed out.

Huh? W-Was that really it?

With the truth being shoved in our faces, I didn’t know how to react, and neither did Sapphire or Emerada, who were standing back.

While Ruby’s mouth kept flapping open and closed, Kazuma continued to speak.

“I’d say the other dragons who hold ill will toward Naden probably do so for the same basic reason. From the perspective of those dragons, who are struggling inside a standardized system of evaluation, the existence of someone like Naden, who flouts that standard entirely to go her own way, is an object of resentment and jealousy, and thus they just can’t accept her, right? During the exam wars, if there’s one student in the preparatory class who says, ‘I’m gonna take over the family business’... well, yeah, they’re gonna stick out. Obviously, they’ll have troubles in their lives that those around them don’t, but for those who have been placed in a competitive situation, they don’t have the composure to stop and consider that.”

Kazuma seemed to be the only one satisfied with his explanation. I’d lost him somewhere along the way, too, and he was making no sense, but the one thing I did get was that he was saying I was special.

I stared at Kazuma’s back. Maybe it was because we’d been born in different countries, but in these past few days, I’d been forced quite a number of times to realize that Kazuma and I saw things differently.

However, Kazuma was offering me a new set of values, most especially one where I wasn’t worthless. My chest grew hot, and I felt like I might cry for a different reason than before.

“Eventually, one who knows your value will appear.”

Lady Tiamat’s prophecy had been true. That person was in front of me now.

“Hmph, that doesn’t change the fact that a flightless dragon is of no use!” Ruby declared, seeming to have regained her footing.

A flightless dragon; those words would have greatly disturbed me before. However... strangely enough, they didn’t bother me in the least now. That was because Kazuma had told me I was a ryuu, that I had individuality.

With a mystified look on his face, Kazuma tilted his head to the side. “This has been bothering me all along, but who decided Naden can’t fly?”

“Huh? It should be obvious that this wingless worm can’t fly.”

“I mean, why would a ryuu need wings to fly?”

“Whaa?”

“Huh?”

...I felt like I had heard this exchange somewhere not so long ago.

Having gotten sick of the atmosphere here, I tugged Kazuma, who seemed to have a question mark floating over his head, away by the collar gently. “That’s enough... Let’s go.”

“Hm? What’s wrong, Naden? Your cheeks look awfully red.”

“Y-You’re imagining it! Come on, I was in the middle of showing you around the Star Dragon Mountain Range, remember?”

“Oh, now that you mention it, you were.”

Leaving behind the dumbfounded Ruby and the others, we turned around and went back the way we’d come.

“Naden, you better be at the Contract Ceremony!” Ruby shouted after me. “Don’t you dare run away!” She seemed to have come back to her senses.

My response was to turn back, pull down my eyelid, and stick out my tongue at her.

“So, where to next? You’ve seen Crystal Castle already, right?” I asked.

Once we’d gotten away from Ruby and the others, I had Kazuma ride me again so I could show him around the Star Dragon Mountain Range. It didn’t even feel like a hassle anymore. In fact, I even found myself wanting to keep going on like this, and to see all sorts of things with him. Not just in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, but in the world outside, too.

“I was teleported when I came in and when I left,” Kazuma said. “I’d like to see its rumored beauty from the outside, but... before that, there’s one place I’d like you to take me,” Kazuma added with a thoughtful look on his face.

“There’s somewhere you want to go?”

“Madam Tiamat said I already knew the way. If she meant what I think... it’s worth trying it, I’d say,” Kazuma said with a confident look on his face.

Ten minutes later, after racing along in my ryuu form...

“Was this place really okaaaaay?!” I shouted.

“Yeaaaaah, it’ll do fiiiiine!” he called back.

Rumble, rumble, rumble...

We were both shouting. Thanks to the endless rumbling, we couldn’t hear each other if we didn’t.

The source of the rumbling sound in front of us, with its spray of water that resulted in constant rainbows during the day, was the Great Waterfall. It was a curtain of water several dozen meters high, and several hundred meters wide, creating a mist that spread out far into the distance. Even among the many sights of the Star Dragon Mountain Range, which tended to be large in scale, this and the Great Tree of Ladon were in a class of their own.

Unable to remain quiet in the presence of such a sight, Kazuma shouted out, “Ohh, the scenery’s beautifuuuuul, just beautifuuuuul!”

“Huh? Whaaaaat? I couldn’t hear youuuu!”

“I said it’s beautifuuuuul! Alsoooo, there’s something I want you to tryyyyy!”

“I dunnoooo! Soooo, what is it you want me to tryyyyy?!”

“Ohhhh, I remember noooow!”

It looks too noisy, so I think that’s enough drawn out vowels from here on.

Kazuma started stripping his clothes off. It came out of nowhere, so I turned my back to him and cried, “Wh-Whoa?! Why are you suddenly stripping?!”

“To get in the water, of course.”

“Whaa?! Why?!”

“Come on, you get in, too, Naden.”

“Again, why?!”

Kazuma took off just his top, leaving his loose-fitting pants on as he started doing some light exercises, then got in the water. I tried dipping just the tips of my feet in, too. The water was being kept at the perfect temperature, neither too cool nor too warm. It felt good... But, before that.

“If we’re going to swim, there are calmer places to do it, like the lake, you know?” I said.

“It needs to be a place like this. Hurry on in, Naden.”

“Are you telling me to get naked?”

I hugged my body tightly. The idea of making my clothes disappear and getting in the water in front of Kazuma... It was so embarrassing, I thought I might die.

While I was acting shy, Kazuma laughed wryly and said, “No, no, you can do it in your dragon form, okay?”

“Oh... Th-That’s right, huh.” I blushed at having jumped to conclusions.

While I was still like that, Kazuma beckoned for me to come in. “You’re a ryuu, so you should be good at swimming, shouldn’t you?”

“I don’t know about it being because I’m a ryuu, but... I’m confident in my ability to, yes. But why is this coming up so suddenly?”

“There’s a little thing I want to try out. Okay, Naden. Let’s go to the bottom of the falls.”

At Kazuma’s urging, I turned into my ryuu form and plunged into the water with a great splash. There was a big wave that lifted Kazuma up and down. I asked the drifting Kazuma, “Why the bottom of the falls? Do you want me to train that way, or something?”

I’d heard that sort of training method existed in the world below. Was it that they tried to focus their mind while being struck by the falls? However, even if I went beneath the Great Waterfall, which would probably break a normal human’s bones if they tried to train under it, with the increased mass and defensive power of my ryuu form, it probably wouldn’t feel like much more than a massage.

“It’d probably help with stiff shoulders,” I commented at last.

“You don’t have anything that’d give you stiff... Okay, I was wrong. Please, no lightning.”

“Geez!” When I raised the hairs on my back in my ryuu form, showing some electrical sparks, Kazuma put his hands up. “If you don’t want to get shocked, you can just avoid saying things that’ll make me angry.”

“Nah... When I’m with you, I remember my female friends from back in my homeland,” Kazuma said, shyly scratching his cheek. “That’s why I end up making the sort of jokes I would’ve made back there.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah. The women in this world are all living their lives restrained by something, be it large or small. It could be a famous family, the need to produce an heir... For those of high enough birth, it could even be their hometowns or country. Those restraints also offer them protection, though. But, Naden, you don’t have anything like that, do you? You’re strong because you’re a ryuu, and if you set your mind to it, you could even live alone. Freely. In all of this continent, you’re probably the closest to the women from my homeland.”

I didn’t really get what Kazuma was saying. But...

“Even I... get lonely when I’m all by myself,” I said.

The word came out naturally: Lonely. I was more surprised than anyone that I’d said it. I never really... thought that way before. I’ve been happy not to be involved with any dragon other than Pai, because it was less hassle that way. Yet despite that... I’d just said I was lonely.

“Well, of course,” Kazuma replied with a smile. “Even if you can live on your own, it really is lonely being all by yourself.”

When I heard those words, I came to understand that I was no longer the me I had been up until now.

“The stopped gear will be forced to move.”

This was what Tiamat had been talking about.

By being with Kazuma, I learned the sense of security that came from being with someone who accepted you. I learned of the loneliness that came with being all by yourself. Now that I knew those things... I couldn’t go back to being alone.

I didn’t want to go back.

I didn’t want to go back... so I had to move forward.

“Naden?” he asked.

“I-It’s nothing!”

Whew... It was a good thing I was in my black ryuu form. If I’d been in human form, Kazuma would have definitely noticed my face was bright red. Not good. I needed to get my mind on something else.

“So, uh... Oh! Right. Why are we going the bottom of the waterfall?”

“Huh? Oh. There was a thing I remembered. For now, let’s just head next to the waterfall.”

With Kazuma urging me onward, we went up to the mist-filled waterfall basin. That was when Kazuma pointed to the top of the falls and said, “Naden, can you swim up these falls?”

“Swim, inside these falls? They’re roaring pretty loudly, you know?”

“Well, yes, it is a waterfall.”

“But why?”

“There’s this saying in my homeland, ‘By climbing a waterfall, a ryuu ascends to the heavens.’”

“Ascends to the heavens?! Really?!”

Could I gain the ability to fly from climbing a waterfall?

He whispered, “Though the saying is actually that a carp that climbs a waterfall will become a dragon...”

“Huh? Did you say something? I couldn’t hear you over the roaring of the falls.”

“It was nothing. You’ve got to be willing to give anything a try. Let’s do it.”

I looked up the waterfall. “Um... I think fighting this current might break some bones...”

“You can’t do it?”

“I don’t think I can’t.”

“Oh, also, Naden, close your eyes when you’re in the water.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Trust me, just try it.”

With that said, Kazuma waved to me, as if saying, “Have a nice trip.”

“Why are you acting like this is all someone else’s problem?” I shot back.

“More like someryuu else’s problem, am I right?” he joked.

“If I do this and nothing changes, you are so getting shocked!”

Having mentally prepared myself, I moved in and out of the water repeatedly, like the sea serpents depicted in paintings. I left my body sticking out of the surface of the water in a half-doughnut shape as I charged toward the center of the Great Waterfall. When I entered the waterfall, this time I twisted my body horizontally, climbing further and further up.

“Naden, close your eyes when you’re in the water.”

Kazuma’s words from earlier came back to me.

Oh, be quiet! I just have to close them, right? Fine!

Shutting my eyes, I swam against the flow of the waterfall.

Urkh, it’s pretty scary swimming with my eyes closed...

In total darkness, I kept swimming, sensing only the water on my skin, and the sound of the falls which had been dampened somewhat underwater. My sense of which direction was up or down was growing gradually more iffy. Was I swimming upward like I was supposed to? Or were the walls already behind me, and I was swimming horizontally now?

It was probably only a few dozen seconds of actual time, but it felt like several dozen times longer than that to me. Then...

Ah!

The pressure on my body suddenly disappeared.

It was like being thrown out into space. Despite that... I was still swimming. It was like I had lost my sense of touch along with my sight. I was swimming, but I didn’t feel the water.

What was this sensation? I was uneasy, but it felt pleasant somehow.

“Hold on, how long do I need to keep my eyes closed for... Huh?”

When I opened my eyes, looking down to complain to Kazuma, the ground was far below me.

The waterfall had ended long ago. Yet I was still swimming.

I was “swimming” in the sky. I could feel the air currents clearly.

By making my body float on them, I could swim through the sky. I was in the sky that I’d only been able to look up to before, looking down at the Star Dragon Mountain Range, the land, this world.

To think the world was this beautiful...

The tears started to flow naturally from my ryuu eyes. When the tears dried, I was awkwardly swimming in the sky, and I descended to where Kazuma was staring at me with his mouth agape.

“Kazuma... I... I could fly.”

“Uh, yeah...” he said. “Though that was more like swimming than flying. The legends of my homeland said that a ryuu would climb to the heavens through wind, clouds, lightning, and rain, traveling through the sky as if they were swimming at the bottom of the sea.”

“Traveling through the sky like swimming...”

“Though I didn’t expect this to go as well as it did.” Kazuma scratched his cheek, smiling wryly.

“Huh? You weren’t confident I could fly if I climbed the waterfall, then?”

“I gave it fifty-fifty odds. I mean, if you stop to think about it, even dragons and wyverns manage to fly. Even if they do have wings, they’re not built for flying the way birds are. In order for them to get those massive bodies flying, there has to be some element of magic involved. That being the case, I figured, since you’re a ryuu, having or not having wings wouldn’t affect your ability to fly. I thought maybe you just didn’t know the way to do it. That, and Madam Tiamat said something that suggested I would know how you could fly. About the only thing that came to mind when I thought of ways for a ryuu to fly was the waterfall climbing in the legends from my homeland. That was why I had you test it.”

It seemed Kazuma had been thinking of something when he’d suggested it. So Lady Tiamat said something like that to him... That pretty much guaranteed he was the person who would find the value in me that even I couldn’t.

Does that mean... Kazuma is the one I’ve been waiting so long for?

We returned to the shore, and I asked Kazuma as he was putting the clothes that he left there back on, “Hey, Kazuma. Tell me... If I hadn’t been able to fly like this, what did you plan on doing?”

Kazuma considered my question for a little while, then honestly confessed, “If it came to that, I would have apologized. ‘Sorry, it didn’t work out,’ is what I’d have said.”

“Wait, that’s all?”

“That’s all. Even if you couldn’t fly, your value wouldn’t change. I don’t know what the dragon knights value, but going by the value system of my country, I desperately want your ability to control electricity. If no one chooses you at the Contract Ceremony, please, come to my country. You’ll be welcome there.”

I was silent.

“Come to my country,” he said without the slightest embarrassment.

It felt like there was no place for me in the Star Dragon Mountain Range. But Kazuma said he wanted me. I felt like I could swim through the sky again in glee.

But, well... the way he said “If no one chooses you” ticked me off. So I decided to distract myself from that.

“Whoa, whoa, Naden?” I snatched Kazuma up by the collar, and forced him to ride on my back.

“Whoa?!”

Then, with a breath, I launched into the sky. In an instant, the ground was far away, and a panicking Kazuma clung to my back screaming,

“Naden, I’m falling! I’m falling!”

“You won’t fall,” I told the flustered Kazuma in an exasperated tone. “I have you on my back, after all.”

“Huh...? ...Now that you mention it, we went up on a nearly vertical path, but I didn’t fall off.”

“It’s a dragon’s power. We protect the humans that ride on our backs so they won’t fall off. It means the knights can ride without holding on, and they’re protected from the wind and cold. Notice how it’s not cold, even though we’re up in the air.”

“Now that you mention... I see. Little wonder dragon knights are so strong.” Kazuma sounded impressed.

I giggled. “I know, right? I wasn’t sure a ryuu like me would be able to use it, but...”

“Huh? If you couldn’t, wouldn’t I have fallen to my death?”

“I felt like I could manage it, and even if you fell, I just had to catch you.”

“You know, I’d prefer not to suddenly go bungee jumping without the cord...”

“Ahahaha. Consider it payback for earlier.”

“For the waterfall climbing?”

“For saying, ‘If no one chooses you.’ ...Hey, Kazuma?” I worked up my courage and asked Kazuma. “You’re going to participate in the Contract Ceremony, aren’t you? Won’t you choose me?”

When I asked that, Kazuma’s mouth shut tight. To form a contract meant to take me as his spouse. In other words, I was proposing to him. The reason he didn’t immediately respond was because he was giving it some serious thought, I was sure. Eventually, he slowly opened his mouth.

“I was just invited by Madam Tiamat. I’m not from the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom.”

“I know.”

“Even if you make a contract with me, I can’t become a dragon knight.”

“I’m not like other dragons, either.”

“Besides, I haven’t told you anything about myself. Not even my real name.”

“Huh?! Kazuma Souya was a fake name?!”

“And I already have four fiancées back in my country.”

“Four?!”

O-Oh... But, well, even the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom allowed polygamy. If the dragon was a partner who accompanied the dragon knight to the battle field, the knight needed another partner to stay and watch the home front, too. That was why I didn’t have any problem with the fact that he had other fiancées in and of itself, but having four of them wasn’t something he could do without being in very high standing. It was completely different from taking on a concubine after already having married his official wife.

“Kazuma... Just who are you?” I demanded.

“That, I can’t say just yet.” Kazuma managed to force those words out. “I’m not able to decide about the contract by myself, either.”

Was I... just rejected? My heart sank as I thought that, but then...

“So, would you come back to my country with me?” Kazuma asked. “You can go pretty fast in this ryuu form, I’ll bet. I’d like to go back to the Kingdom of Friedonia for a bit, and ask everyone else for their opinions on the matter. That way, if we end up returning to the Star Dragon Mountain Range, we’ll be here well before it’s time for the Contract Ceremony. Would that... be a problem for you?”

Kazuma sounded apologetic. I shook my head and told him, “...No. That’s fine with me.”

If it meant there was some possibility that Kazuma would form a contract with me, I’d fly to the Kingdom, the Empire, or anywhere else he wanted. I had the power to do that now.

“So, where do I head to?” I asked.

With a look of relief on his face, Kazuma responded. “Okay, to Parnam, the capital of the Kingdom of Friedonia, please.”

“Roger that.”

And with that, I swam off into the eastern sky.

...Yeah, I needed to say it in my head one more time...

Someone, explain this situation to me!

What in the world was going on here? I had the candidate to become Friedonia’s first primary queen washing my hair for some reason.

I turned to Lady Liscia and hesitantly asked, “Um, Lady Liscia? If I may ask, why exactly are you washing me...?”

“Because your hair was a mess, that’s why. You’ve got good material to work with, so you should pay better attention to your appearance... Well, not that I was one to talk, until recently, at least.”

“I-I see...”

Pai said something similar before, hadn’t she?

Then Liscia grinned. “Also, you can just call me Liscia.”

“I couldn’t. You’re going to be the queen of this country in the future, aren’t you?”

“You came here to become one, too, didn’t you? Souma seems to be charmed by how normal you are, so I’d be happy if you would treat me like you would a friend. Okay, close your eyes now.”

“Ah...!”

I closed my eyes when she said that, and then she poured a bucket of hot water over my head. The soap suds that were stuck to my head were washed away, and my hair clung tightly to my skin. I shook my head vigorously.

When she saw me do that, Lady Liscia... Liscia gave me a wonderful smile.

“You’re like Tomoe when you do that.”

“Tomoe?”

“My adopted little sister. She’s an eleven-year-old mystic wolf girl, and she’s just the cutest.”

“Really? I might want to meet her, then...”

“If you marry Souma, she’ll be like your little sister, too. Be nice to her.”

While talking about things like that, we got into the tub. It was a large, round tub, and three women could have fit into it easily. While I was still feeling tense, I sunk myself into the water.

“Just so you know, this bath is exclusively for members of the king’s family,” Liscia, who was soaking in the water across from me, explained. “I often bathe here with Aisha, Juna, Roroa, and Tomoe.”

“Family... D-Does Souma come in here with you, too, sometimes?” My heart raced at the thought.

Liscia shook her head with a wry laugh. “Souma says, ‘We’re lucky enough to have a nice big tub in the castle, so I’d rather use that one,’ so he’s always going to the bathing area used by the castle guards. He plans his trips there around when there won’t be many people there.”

“I-I see...”

“Did you want to get in this tub with Souma, Naden?” Liscia teased.

“No! I think I’d still be a little... embarrassed...” Burble, burble.

Wait, what did I mean, “still”?! Hold on! I know I was the one who said it, but that was way too embarrassing!

I sank my face half way into the water. Liscia watched me with a smile.

“Naden... You wanted to form a dragon knight contract with Souma, right? That basically means you want to be his wife...”

“...Yeah.”

“What made you decide you wanted to marry Souma?”

Liscia was looking me straight in the eye. The look on her face was a gentle one, but she wouldn’t look away, and was trying to thoroughly evaluate what kind of person I was. Even if I gave her a nice-sounding answer to get into her good graces, she’d see through me in no time.

That’s why I straightened my back and answered with my honest feelings.

“Because... Souma showed me the me I had never known!” I decided to stand up in the tub, and hit her with exactly how I felt. “He taught me that I was a type of dragon called a ryuu. He taught me how to fly. He taught me what I always wanted to know, about what sort of being I am. That’s why I want to be with Souma, the one who understands me! I want to be the dragon Souma rides!”

“I heard all of that in Souma’s explanation,” Liscia said quietly. “But can you say with certainty that those feelings are your own? Madam Tiamat was the one who sent Souma to your side, wasn’t she?”

She’d hit upon a sore point. But... if I backed down here, what kind of woman would I be?

I brought my hand to my chest, then looked straight back into her eyes. “You’re right, Madam Tiamat may have arranged for Souma and me to meet. But, I can say without a doubt, my desire to be with Souma is entirely my own.”

Liscia’s eyes went wide when she heard my once-in-a-lifetime confession.

I turned the question on Liscia. “Or what... Are you going to tell me that a love that starts out prearranged by someone else isn’t real love?”

I felt a little sad as I said it.

Liscia leaned forward hard, sinking the upper half of her body into the water with a splash. She stayed like that, with nothing more than bubbles rising to the surface. Was it about ten seconds that she stayed under? I got worried, so I called out to her.

“U-Um... Liscia?”

“Bwah!”

With a loud splash, Liscia came back up. Wh-What was that?! I sat back down in the tub, and Liscia shook the water from her hair, scratching at her cheek awkwardly.

“Sorry. Your confession there made me feel a little embarrassed myself.”

“Wha?! What are you saying, Liscia?!”

“Like I said, sorry. But you had the perfect comeback there. Is a love that starts out prearranged by someone else not real love? If you put it that way, mine was the same, and I don’t think any of the others could argue with you, either. I mean, all of our meetings were arranged in some way.”

Liscia smiled as if indulging in fond memories.

“My betrothal to Souma was something my parents just went and did without consulting me. When my father, the former king, abdicated in favor of Souma, he announced our betrothal as a way of cementing Souma’s legitimacy. It was so sudden that, at the time, I got really upset and stormed into my father’s room.”

“R-Really?”

I was surprised to learn Souma and Liscia’s relationship had started that way. Especially after seeing how deeply they trusted one another.

“It’s not just me. She’s not here right now, but the candidate to become second primary queen, Aisha, came to make a direct appeal to Souma so that he’d do something for her homeland. Juna, the one with the blue hair, was a spy sent by the current commander-in-chief of the National Defense Force, Excel, to judge whether Souma was fit to be king. Roroa, the one who talks in merchant slang, was formerly the princess of a hostile country, you know? She decided to marry Souma to force him to look after her people, who were impoverished and suffering from food scarcity.”

I was speechless. If everything she’d just said was true, not one of Souma’s fiancées had met and fallen in love with him under ordinary circumstances. No, I’d been reading romance novels, so I knew that the restrictions placed on people by their families could get involved in their love lives. And the view that dragons took on love, with their marriage to a knight practically already decided, wasn’t much better... But still!

“And... none of you are dissatisfied?” I asked hesitantly.

Liscia grinned. “You were the one who said a love prearranged by someone else can still be real love, Naden. I think that no matter what brought us together, what’s really important is the time you spend together after that.”

Liscia moved over next to me. Right now, she and I were sitting so close our shoulders were almost touching.

With a gleeful look in her eye, Liscia said, “To tell you the truth, I was a little worried.”

“Worried?”

“We’ve all overcome a lot of things together with Souma. Like getting this country back on its feet, the war with Amidonia, and the negotiations that came after. It was coming through all of that together that’s forged the tight bond we have between us. We’re like a family.”

Family...

Liscia continued to speak. “That’s why I was concerned... about whether you’d join us in that, and whether you could get used to that family atmosphere. Souma places great importance on how much we feel like a family. That’s because we’re the family that Souma finally found after his sole remaining relatives in his original world, his grandmother and grandfather, passed away.”

I couldn’t say a word. I’d been thinking of my own feelings first, but Liscia had been thinking about Souma and their family. I could see why Souma trusted her.

This is... the kind of resolve it takes to be the first primary queen, I realized.

In a show of concern for me, who had lost the ability to speak, Liscia continued in a peaceful tone. “If it seemed like you wouldn’t be able to fit in to this atmosphere, I intended to oppose your contract. If you couldn’t become a member of the family, I don’t think that Souma or I, or even you yourself, Naden, would be happy with that. I wanted to see for myself whether you could or not, and that’s why I arranged for us to be alone together.”

Liscia turned and looked me straight in the eyes.

“So, Naden, do you think you can fit in? Do you think you can think, not just of Souma, but the rest of us as family, too? If you can... we’ll welcome you.”

I looked at my own feelings. I didn’t have Liscia’s resolve yet. But... that was only true for now.

“I don’t really understand this ‘family’ stuff,” I admitted. “We dragons will protect the blood relatives of our contractors to the death, but we aren’t really a race with a strong concept of family.”

“I see...”

“Still, that’s all the more reason why I know the loneliness of solitude. I’m a ryuu, and was even more isolated compared to the other dragons, so I understand how gratifying it is to have friends, the glee of finding someone who understands you, and Souma’s desire to have someone at his side. So...” I stood up, turned to Liscia, and bowed my head to her. “Please, make me a member of your family.”

While my eyes were shut tight, and I was waiting for Liscia’s response, something touched my hands, which were resting on my lap. I opened my eyes to find that Liscia had taken my hand. Then, hand in hand with me, Liscia stood up, too, turning to me with a grin.

“Naden Delal, as the candidate to be Souma’s first primary queen, I welcome you. Thank you for coming to this country, coming to be with Souma.”

“Liscia...”

“Hee hee! The way we are now, you’d think it was the two of us who were getting married.”

“Ahaha, you might be right.”

We were holding hands, bare naked. What was with this arrangement?

“Oh, but you have to get permission from Aisha, who isn’t here now, okay?” Liscia added.

“Urkh... I-I’ll try my best.”

“Well, if Souma asks her, I’m sure Aisha will be okay with it.” With that said, “Mmm...” Liscia stretched herself wide. “Now, I’m feeling a little lightheaded, so maybe it’s time we got out.”

“Sure.”

“Oh, right, Naden. If you’ll come to my room, there was something I wanted you to help me with.”

“Something you want me to help you with?”

What could that mean?

Liscia had a mischievous smile on her face.

◇　◇　◇

“Phew...”

It was the next day. I was in the governmental affairs office, looking through the pile of papers Hakuya had handed me, saying, “Since you’re here anyway, please look through these important documents.” But... I was super sleepy.

Roroa and Juna put me through the wringer last night, asking me all sorts of questions about what had happened with Naden, so I was a little sleep deprived. But, well, maybe it was best to do what I could now.

It had been decided that Naden and I would return to the Star Dragon Mountain Range within the day.

I already reported back to Liscia and the others about Naden, and what Madam Tiamat had been saying about the storm bothered me, too. The plan was to pick up Aisha and the rest on our way there.

While I was working, there was a knock at the door and Liscia and Naden came in.

Seeing how Naden looked when she entered the room, I let out an impressed “Wow...”

When she noticed me staring at her, Naden glared back at me, blushing, and said, “Wh-What...?”

“Nah, I was just thinking you look real pretty now.”

“P-Pretty?!”

I thought Naden had good material to work with, but she had been unconcerned with her appearance, and her hair had been full of kinks, so it was hard to be sure of her full potential. But now that Naden was wearing her straight, long, smooth, black hair down, she had a neat and tidy beauty, like a yamato nadeshiko, the hypothetical ideal Japanese woman. It seemed she’d gone for a bath with Liscia after what had happened, so Liscia must have given her a good washing then.

“Yeah, I think you’re real cute.”

“Aww... Um... Thanks.” Naden managed to force out just that much as a reply. The way she was acting was so innocent and cute, too.

...Yeah, Naden looked fine. Naden did.

Pressing my fingers against my temples, I looked at the other one, who was an actual problem.

“Liscia... What do you think you’re doing dressed like that?”

“This doesn’t look good on me?” Liscia turned around slowly, giving me a good look at her outfit.

“If you’re asking how that looks on you, of course you look amazing in it! But what I’m asking is why you’re wearing that sort of outfit.”

Right now, Liscia was wearing a chest plate, among other things, over the top of a shirt and pants. It was what you might call the adventurer look. In that getup, she wouldn’t have looked out of place in Juno and Dece’s party. Behind her, I could see what looked like luggage.

No matter how I looked at her, she was ready to travel. She was blatantly planning to tag along with me.

“...Liscia, I asked you to stay behind in the castle, didn’t I?”

“‘We can’t have the top guy and his number two both away for that long.’ That was your reasoning, right? I heard from Naden that you made it from the Star Dragon Mountain Range to here in about two hours, right? If we can come right back in the event of an emergency, there’s no reason I should have to hold down the fort, now is there?”

“That... might be true, yes...”

“Ahhhhh!” Roroa entered the room and shouted out loud when she saw how Liscia was dressed. “Big Sis Cia, that’s no fair! You’re clearly plannin’ to go with him!”

“I can’t condone you trying to steal a march on the rest of us, Lady Liscia.” Juna was the next to raise a complaint.

Liscia put her hands together, as if pleading for forgiveness. “Someone needs to persuade Aisha, so let me go. Naden says she’ll make trips back and forth between our destination and here, so the two of you can come later, okay?”

“Hrmph... Well, if that’s how ya say it is,” Roroa said grudgingly.

“We’ll just have to accept it...” Juna murmured.

The two of them accepted it?! Huh? She was really coming with me?

“Okay, Souma. Let’s go to the Star Dragon Mountain Range and lay our claim to Naden!”

“...”

Having gained the permission of the other two, Liscia said that to me with a broad grin.

Was this really okay? While I was still holding my head in my hands, Naden patted me on the shoulder to comfort me.

The next day...

“Now then, Your Majesty! Let’s head off to the Star Dragon Mountain Range!”

Aisha’s face was beaming as she declared that, full of energy, so Liscia and Naden gave me a knowing look.

Remembering our conversation from the day before, I felt embarrassed.

I was silent.

“So, how are you going to make up for it? There’s stuff in this world you can’t make up for, sure. But if you can, you’ll want to do that, so you can puff your chest out with pride, right?”

Make up for it, and puff my chest out with pride...

“Make it up to the person I wronged, you mean?” I asked.

“No. To yourself.”

Make up for what I did wrong. So that I can approach myself with pride. I didn’t know why, but for some reason, I found myself easily accepting this young man’s words. Then...

“What are you acting so important for, Hal?” a fox-eyed girl asked.

“Wha, Kaede?! Where’s the harm? I’m just showing some compassion here!”

“Hmm...”

The fox-eared girl looked at him coldly, and the red haired young man began desperately trying to explain himself. He looked a little cool until just now, but his panic ruined it.

Sometimes he was cool, and sometimes he was goofy... He was interesting to watch. And besides...

“You’ll want to do that, so you can puff your chest out with pride, right?”

“To yourself.”

I felt like this young man’s words had given me direction. I got my aching body up.

“Ah! Hey, are you sure you should be getting up?” the young man asked.

“If it hurts, you can stay lying down, you know?” the fox-eared girl said.

True, my body hurt all over, but... If I just lay here, I wouldn’t be able to puff up my chest with pride for my own sake. So I turned to the red-haired young man, the one the fox-eared girl had called Hal. I turned to Hal and bowed my head deeply as I said, “I’d like to ask you a favor.”

◇　◇　◇

Now then, with the dragons put firmly on notice about Naden, it was time to think about the actual issue of what we were going to do with the storm.

In deference to the thoroughly beaten dragons, we left the great hall, which was filled with the sort of atmosphere you’d expect at a wake, and relocated to a smaller room.

From what Naden said, this was like a waiting room for those who would be having an audience with Madam Tiamat. In that room, I addressed my companions.

“Naden and I saw something in that storm.”

“Saw something?” Liscia asked.

I nodded. “I got just a glimpse of a black thing through a gap in the clouds.”

“You’re sure you didn’t imagine it, right?”

“We heard a voice, too, so I’m confident. I only really picked up fragments of words, like ‘you’ and ‘destroy,’ though. You heard it, too, right, Naden?”

“I did hear it, yes, but I wasn’t able to make it out that clearly.” Naden crossed her arms and groaned in thought. “That, and I don’t think it was in our language. Like, I could tell they were saying something, but I had no idea what it was?”

“Hm? Master could hear it, but Madam Naden couldn’t?” Carla asked in surprise, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

“...May I interject for a moment?” Kaede, who had kept quiet up until now, raised her hand.

With her perception, Kaede worked as a staff officer for Ludwin, who was seen as the future commander-in-chief of the National Defense Force. In our current situation, without Hakuya around, she was a reliable thinker.

“If I recall, you aren’t from this world, right, sire?” she asked.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, that’s right.”

“In your world, they must have used a different language than what we speak in this one. In spite of that, you understand our language, and we understand yours because of a strange power.”

That was right. To be more precise, Liscia and the others heard the Japanese I was speaking as Japanese, but they could apparently understand it. The reverse was also true. For instance, if I sang in Japanese, Liscia and the others would understand the lyrics, but if Juna then perfectly imitated my singing, Liscia and everyone else would have no idea what the lyrics meant.

Come to think of it... I can read and write in this world’s language, can’t I?

Mysteriously, I was able to recognize the writing system used in this world. I could write and read it.

On the other hand, if I were to show Liscia something in Japanese writing, she would have no idea how to read it. So that meant the translation ability only worked on my side. Thanks to that, I was able to do my paperwork, but... could there be some meaning behind why the translation worked differently for spoken word and text?

While I was wondering about that, Kaede asked Naden, “Madam Naden, you and your fellow dragons are able to speak directly to our conscious minds, right?”

“Yeah. We call it speaking into the heart, or psychic speech, though.”

“That’s where I’ve had a thought,” Kaede said. “I think His Majesty’s ability could be similar.”

That made sense. Telepathy, huh? It wasn’t directly working on the sense of hearing, it was working on the part of the brain that processed information. Maybe Tomoe’s ability to talk with animals and demons worked similarly.

But why had this topic suddenly come up...? Oh, right.

“It’s possible that the reason I could make out what it was saying, and Naden couldn’t, was that one of us had a power like that working for us, and the other didn’t, you mean.”

“Yes. I can’t help but suspect that.”

“Well, does that mean that whoever’s in that cloud was using the language from the world Souma came from?” Liscia asked.

Oh, yeah. That was a possibility, wasn’t it?

But Kaede firmly shook her head at the suggestion. “I don’t think so.”

“How can you be so sure?” Liscia asked.

“It would be faster to put this to the test. Sire, I know this may be a bit of a bother, but can you teach me how you greet each other in the morning in the language of the world you came from? Slowly, please.”

When she said that to me, I broke it down for her syllable by syllable. “O-ha-yo-u.”

“Ohayou, is it?” Kaede asked. “Ohayou, princess.”

Liscia looked surprised and her eyes opened wide. “Weird! They both sound like ‘Ohayou,’ but I understand it means ‘Good morning’ when Souma says it, and when I hear it from Kaede, it sounds like an unfamiliar language.”

“I-Is that how it is?” I asked.

Kaede nodded. “Yes. I think this is proof that the one in the cloud wasn’t speaking in the language of the world you came from. If they were using the language of your country, Naden would have heard them pronounce the words ‘you’ and ‘destroy,’ even if she didn’t understand them.”

Even if she hadn’t heard them as words, she’d have heard them being pronounced... huh.

Kaede brought a hand to her mouth and spoke as if thinking aloud. “His Majesty understood the one in the cloud, but Naden didn’t. And it’s hard to think it was the language of the world His Majesty came from. That would lead to the conclusion that the one in the cloud was speaking a language that isn’t the common language of this continent, and isn’t the language of the world His Majesty came from.”

What was that? Did that mean the person in the cloud wasn’t from this world, or from my world, but from some other world entirely? If there was someone like that out there, we’d really have no way of knowing how to deal with them.

...Wait, huh?

No, that’s not it, I thought. They don’t need to have come from another world. We already have them. Here, on this continent, there are already people using a completely different language.

“Demons...”

When I said that word, everyone gulped.

The mysterious races, different from monsters, said to live deep within the Demon Lord’s Domain. The only known case of dialogue with them had been a short exchange between Tomoe and a kobold. It was something that only worked because of Tomoe’s special ability, so that was to be expected.

It wouldn’t be strange at all for them to have their own language system, completely separate from the common language of this continent and the languages of the world I’d come from. Also, if the demons were able to speak, my mysterious translation ability might allow me to hear it. Just like how, in the middle of the storm, I was the only one who’d been able to make out what was said.

My ability wouldn’t let me hear what animals were saying like Tomoe’s did, but maybe it would allow me to talk to demons?

“...Do you think that could be why Madam Tiamat called me the ‘key’?” I asked.

“I think that’s likely it.” Kaede nodded.

Holding her head in her hands, Liscia said, “Suppose for a moment... that really is a demon in the clouds...”

“Suppose it is?” I asked.

“I don’t want you to go, Souma.” Liscia said, looking me straight in the eye. “It’s too dangerous. If anything were to happen to you, our country... I would...”

Aisha was the next to speak up. “That’s right! I’ll go in His Majesty’s place, and I’ll cut that evil thing down!”

I was sure they were both worried for my safety. I knew how weak I was, so I would normally avoid this kind of danger. But this one time, I felt like there was no way around it.

“If this could be solved with martial prowess, Madam Tiamat wouldn’t have bothered to call me here. There are plenty of folks out there who are stronger than me, after all. Since that’s not it, Madam Tiamat must think this incident should be resolved through dialogue.”

“But...” Aisha complained.

“I think this is a valuable opportunity. Our country has the good fortune to be far from the Demon Lord’s Domain. If we miss this chance, though, there’s no telling when our next opportunity to hold dialogue with a demon will come. We should gather what information we can, while we’re able to do it.”

“Souma...” Still looking worried, Liscia put a hand on my shoulder.

“Of course, I intend to keep myself as safe as possible,” I assured her. “We have the equipment we brought from the kingdom, too. I’ll also have Aisha come to escort me. I want everyone else to wait on the ground. Naden, I want you to let Aisha ride on your back, too. Is that going to be okay?”

I heard that dragons only let their partners ride on their backs, after all.

Naden thought about it for a while. “Hmm, I don’t like it, but... Aisha is my partner’s partner, so I guess we can treat her as being like my partner, too? Just remember that she won’t receive my protection, so she better be tied down tightly, okay?”

Carla crossed her arms and groaned. “‘The partner of my partner is my partner,’ is it? It seems I can’t accompany you, then. I can’t fly in these winds, either. I did want to do something to help...”

“There’s no helping it, given the situation,” I said. “Aisha, sorry to make you do this, but protect me.”

“I am already the one who protects you, your kochiji!” Aisha said, thumping her chest with pride.

Liscia took her hand. “Aisha, look after Souma for me.”

“Lady Liscia... Yes! Please, leave it to me!” Aisha put her other hand on top of Liscia’s.

Now then... For now, that was about it, right? Everyone had their roles assigned... Wait, huh? I looked around at my comrades and noticed something.

“Huh? Where did Hal go?”

“Huh? Now that you mention it... he’s not here.” Liscia looked around restlessly. There were only six people in this room: Liscia, Aisha, Naden, Carla, Kaede, and me. Where did Hal go off to?

“About that...” Kaede said, seeming to not want to say any more. “He has some preparations to make, you know? So he’s sitting this meeting out.”

“Preparations?” I asked.

“Well, um... Think of it as insurance, in case something happens.” Kaede said in a way that implied some deeper meaning.

Maybe Kaede was getting something ready in case an unexpected situation were to arise. Kaede had great foresight, so if she was preparing something to help us, that was reassuring.

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up, you know... (Is Hal going to be okay...? He understood what her proposal meant when he accepted it, right?)”

“Hm? Your voice got quiet at the end there,” I said.

“...No, it’s nothing, you know.” Kaede said, hurriedly shaking her head.

I didn’t really get it, but... Well, whatever.

“Anyway, everyone, I’m counting on you,” I said.

“So, why exactly are you wearing that thing, Souma?” Liscia asked, staring at me with distaste, while we were preparing to go into the cloud.

I was dressed up in a roly-poly kigurumi costume. In its hands was a naginata; over its shoulder a string of prayer beads; over its face a silk covering from under which peeked two adorable acorn-like eyes. It was one of the Little Musashibo (Large) dolls that I hadn’t worn myself since the time I drank with Juno and her party. This Little Musashibo was one of the pieces of equipment I’d brought with us from the kingdom, just in case.

“I told you I intend to keep myself as safe as possible, didn’t I?” I opened up the head portion wide and turned to face Liscia.

The one I wore before was the type you enter from a hole in the back, but on this one, the head opened upward like the lid of a rice cooker. It was markedly easier to put on and take off than the previous ones. I was working on even more simple upgrades to it even now.

“Even if it looks like this, I spent more money than I should have to make it out of good materials, so it’s sturdier than your average piece of armor, you know? It’s highly bladeproof, bulletproof, cold-resistant, heat-resistant, and acid-resistant. You can fight dungeon monsters in this thing. My Living Poltergeists works on it, too, so it’s easy to move around in.”

“Still... Sigh, I feel stupid for worrying.” Liscia was holding her head.

Wow, we hadn’t done this in a while. When we first met, I felt like Liscia was always being dragged around by whatever I was doing, and she was constantly holding her head.

Well... she had company now...

“Something is wrong,” Naden muttered when she saw me in my kigurumi equipment. “I dreamed of having a knight ride on my back, so why do I have to let this mysterious creature (?) fly with me...?” She held her head.

“No, no, I don’t want to hear that from an actual mysterious creature like a ryuu.”

“I’m going to fly with you wearing that thing?! Isn’t it a little too silly?!”

“...”

Dendera, dendera, a ryuu flies through the sea of clouds. On its back is a deeply satisfied Little Musashibo.

...Yeah. Just imagining that, I felt the sense of mysterious fantasy running wild.

“W-Well, this is an emergency,” I said. “Just bear with me, please.”

“Urgh... Fine, I get it.”

“Aisha, are you ready, too?” I called.

“Any time you are!” With her usual greatsword over her shoulder, Aisha gave me a firm nod.

Because we would be going through wind and rain, Aisha was wearing a rain-repelling cape that covered her whole body over the top of her usual light equipment.

Now then, with our preparations ready, it was time to go. To meet whoever was in those thick clouds.

And so, the ryuu flew into the storm. On her back rode a dark elf in a raincoat, and a roly-poly mystery creature (?).

The wind roared by our ears.

Naden pushed forward as if it was no big deal, but the wind and beating against our bodies was as strong as ever.

“Aisha, are you okay?!” I called.

“Just fine! The shaking isn’t as bad up here as it was in the gondola!”

Unlike with me, Naden’s protection didn’t cover Aisha, so she was experiencing the full effects of the wind, rain, and gravity. That was why I had Aisha sitting in front of me, tied down with rope, just like Little Musashibo. Though, with the way Little Musashibo was built, it did look a bit like she was strapped into a first class seat.

“Still, do you suppose we can find whoever it is out there in this storm?” Aisha asked, protecting her face from the rain with her arms. “The rain is making the visibility terrible.”

True enough, searching for anything in this rain was going to be hard.

...Actually, now that I was already wearing it, I realized this kigurumi suit left me with a really narrow field of vision. You might be thinking this should have been obvious, but because my ability, Living Poltergeists, let me look at things with an overhead view, it never bothered me before. However, in this storm, I couldn’t get the overhead view to work properly.

I mean, yes, I could see, but it was like looking at the static on an old TV with bad reception. I hadn’t noticed it before because I never tried moving things around inside a storm, but did my ability have other weaknesses like this?

With no other choice, I snapped open Little Musashibo’s head. There was a sudden, powerful gust of wind in my face, but if I couldn’t use my ability, I was going to have to rely on my own eyes. Like Aisha said, visibility was still poor, but there might not be any need to search to begin with.

“If they’re the one causing this storm, they’re sure to be in the center of it, Naden,” I said.

“I know. We’ll be at the center of the storm soon.”

Then, all of a sudden, the sound of wind and rain lessened. Had the storm weakened?

The feeling of raindrops striking my face was gone now. The wind was still strong, but the lack of rain made things much easier on me. Still, we were surrounded by clouds here.

Nah, if we were inside a cloud, it would feel like we were enveloped in fog. If I could tell there were clouds surrounding us, that meant that this spot was the one place without any clouds.

“This is...”

“Sire! Look up!” Aisha called.

At Aisha’s urging, I looked up, and there...

“What is that thing...?”

There was a huge, gray mass floating there. It was more or less a cube, with around ten meters to each side. Naden, in her current ryuu form, was around forty meters long, so it was questionable whether it would be possible for her to wrap herself around it once. That massive cube was ignoring gravity and floating there.

“Is that what you saw, sire?”

“...I’m not sure. I could only see its shadow.”

“But that’s definitely the thing that’s at the center of this current!” Naden said, glaring at the cube.

That was... what caused the storm? Kaede’s reasoning was that it was a demon, but was that thing even alive? Whether I judged it by the standards of this world, or the standards of my former one, that thing was bizarre. Then...

“Why.... you... not... answer...”

I heard that voice again. It sounded broken up, and was hard to make out, but it was high, like a woman’s voice, only something felt off about it. Was it coming from that cube?

“Aisha, Naden, did you understand that language?” I asked. “It was saying something about an answer.”

“Was it, sire? I couldn’t hear a thing.”

“I could tell it was saying something, but that’s it...”

Like we expected, they couldn’t understand the words they were hearing. I repeated the words I heard for their benefit.

“Tiama... you destroy... my children... so why...”

“Let’s see... ‘Tiama, you destroy, my children, so why,’” I translated.

“Why will you not des... I have no... left...”

“‘Why will you not des, I have no, left.’”

Naden and Aisha both groaned.

“Tiama... That’s Lady Tiamat, right?” Naden asked. “It’s gotta be.”

“It certainly does sound like they have something to say to Madam Tiamat,” Aisha said.

I agreed with the two of them. Did Madam Tiamat know something about this cube? Come to think of it, hadn’t Madam Tiamat predicted this storm?

Could it be... this object was in contact with Tiamat before? While I was thinking that, the quality of the voice suddenly changed.

“Even after... still you... don’t resp...”

“‘Even after, still you, don’t resp’... huh.”

The voice I was hearing was level, with no intonation. But, from the choice of words, I sensed something like anger. The full picture of things wasn’t clear, but it felt like it was criticizing her harshly.

“I feel like I get it, but I don’t,” said Aisha, twisting her head to the side. “I wish it would come out and say it more clearly.”

Naden was thinking, too. “‘You’ is... probably Lady Tiamat, right? Does that mean...”

“Hold on! They’re still saying something.” I cut Naden off, and listened.

“In that case...”

“‘In that case,’” I repeated.

“I... will destroy... your children’s world.”

“Wha?!”

“Whoa, Souma?! What’d they say?!” Naden shouted, but I couldn’t put it into words immediately.

I will destroy your children’s world?

If Naden was right, and the “you” here was Madam Tiamat, then her children were Naden and the dragons, and the world they lived in was Dracul. Did that voice intend to destroy it? It was a clear warning of destructive intent.

Is this... not something we can resolve with dialogue...?

“I... destroy. So that you... destroy me...”

“Wha?!”

I will destroy. So that you will destroy me. That was what it sounded like to me.

Destroying, in order to be destroyed? The owner of this voice didn’t want to destroy Dracul, it was trying to get Madam Tiamat to destroy them by doing so. They were mad because Madam Tiamat refused to do it? In other words, this storm was being produced by the owner of the voice’s desire to be annihilated.

“Souma!” Naden called, snapping me back to my senses.

“Ah!”

“Get it together! You’re the only one here who understands what that thing says, you know?!”

“Sorry. It seems like that thing is trying to destroy Dracul because it wants Madam Tiamat to destroy it.”

“Huh? It’s the one who wants to be destroyed, but it’s destroying someone else’s land? I admit I don’t understand the desire to be destroyed, but aren’t its objective and method somewhat disjointed?” Aisha looked perplexed.

Even I didn’t understand the reason.

“Well, whatever the case, that thing’s come all the way to Dracul looking to be destroyed. But Madam Tiamat seems to have refused, maybe for a good reason. That’s apparently why that thing caused the storm. It seems to think that if it puts Madam Tiamat’s children... that is to say, the dragons... in peril, Madam Tiamat will be forced to destroy it.”

“That’s a lot of ‘seem’s’ and ‘apparently’s’, don’t you think?”

“Hey, it’s not like I can help it. I’m working with fragmentary information.”

Madam Tiamat knew all the details, probably, but, like Hakuya said before, she told me she lacked the “authority” to tell me about it, so that was the end of that.

Could the reason Madam Tiamat chose not to destroy that thing have to do with this “authority” business, as well?

“I... destroy. So... you... will destroy...”

The voice repeated those words again. Then around twenty small spherical objects flew out of the upper half of the gray cube. Well, I called them small, but they were only small relative to the cube. In terms of size, they were probably a meter in diameter. Those spheres didn’t float, and were pulled downward by gravity.

Seeing that, Naden asked in a panicked voice, “Hey, Souma, are those...?”

“Yeah. They look like bad news to me, too.”

Countless mystery spheres had appeared after it talked about destruction. I had a bad feeling about this.

“Naden! Can you shoot them down without getting closer?!” I called.

“I’ll do it!”

Roaaaaaaaaaaaar!

Naden roared, unleashing an electric strike on the things that had flown out. The electric strike branched out as it went forward, piercing through the scattered spheres. Then...

Boom!

The moment the electricity struck them, those spheres let out a brilliant blue and white flash, and swelled up to become balls of light. Following the light, we heard a rumbling sound, and the wind pressure that slammed into us after that told us all too clearly how incredible the explosion was.

I knew it... Those black spheres were something like bombs!

Aisha turned back to me, as if she just remembered something. “This is bad, sire! Liscia and the others are down there!”

“I know. Naden, I’m counting on you! Shoot them down, no matter what!”

“That was the plan all along!”

While swimming through the sky, Naden unleashed electric shock after electric shock, shooting down the falling objects one after another. But there were just too many.

“Madam Naden! I will assist you!” Aisha undid the ropes fixing her in place, and stood up. “Sire, hold me in place, please!”

“L-Like this?!” I pulled my upper torso out of the Little Musashibo doll, and wrapped my arms around Aisha’s hips. At the same time, I controlled the Little Musashibo doll, having it hold Aisha’s ankles to keep her in place. Aisha, who was now riding on Naden’s back in a standing position, readied her usual greatsword.

“Now then, sire, keep your head down, please!”

“S-Sure.”

“Here I go... Hahhhhhh!” With a loud cry of exertion, Aisha swung her greatsword.

The blast of wind I had seen before while watching her training with Liscia flew forth, splitting one of the falling objects in two. Then a sideways swing; a diagonal slash from the left; a diagonal slash from the right. With each swing of Aisha’s greatsword, a sharp blast of wind would fly forth, cutting down one of the falling objects.

Aisha was always a bit of a disappointment in her daily life, but on the battlefield she was reliable, and the most powerful warrior in the kingdom.

With Naden and Aisha going to work, the spherical objects dropped by the cube were either blown up or cut in two. However, it kept dropping them, one after another.

“This is endless...” Aisha groaned.

“But if we don’t shoot them down, they’ll cause damage below,” Naden said.

“We cannot advance, and we cannot retreat. We’ll be whittled down to nothing like this.”

Aisha was probably right. Damn! If only we could get in touch with the ground, we could warn them of the danger and have them evacuate. I should have brought a Factory Arm to serve as a relay... Well, whining about the things I didn’t have wasn’t going to help.

“Oh, geez. What can we do?” I looked up at the cube, wracking my brains.

Then it happened.

“Heyyyyyy...”

I heard a voice coming from somewhere. It was unlike the voice I had been hearing up until now. This time, it was a man’s voice.

“Heyyyyy! Soumaaaaa!”

This voice was coming... from below?!

When I leaned over Naden’s side to look down, I saw a red dragon driving toward us at an incredible speed. Her wings were folded, and she was in an almost arrow-like shape. Hold on, wasn’t she flying awfully fast for not beating her wings?

Furthermore, Halbert was on her back, holding on for dear life.

“Hal?!” I shouted.

“Ruby?!” Naden cried out at the same time.

Ruby shot past us with Halbert riding on her back. The two of them continued to ascend vertically like that, but eventually they lost inertia, and started falling upside down. Her wings weren’t spread... Oh, that was it! Because if she spread them, they’d be affected by the winds, huh!

“Naden!” I called.

“I know!”

Naden got underneath the falling Ruby and caught her. From there, she wrapped her body around Ruby and fixed her in place. Ruby sounded relieved when she said, “This method of flying’s... not easy on the heart.”

“Ruby, how did you...?”

“Save the chitchat for later! We can’t let those things reach the ground, right?!”

With those words, Ruby inhaled deeply, and set loose the flamethrower known as a dragon’s breath. The flames stretched out like a blowtorch, frying the objects and making them explode.

When she saw that, Naden spun her body around flinging electrical shocks in all directions. With that, Ruby’s breath went around like the hands of a clock, setting off the falling objects across an even wider area.

The area around us was filled with brilliant flames, electricity, and explosions. It irritated my eyes.

By triggering all of them to explode at once, it had given us some leeway until the next set were dropped.

“So, how are you here, Ruby?” Naden asked Ruby, who was breathing a little raggedly, when things settled down. Now that she mentioned it, hadn’t we talked about how a winged dragon couldn’t fly in these wild air currents?

“I had this person here cooperate with me... and did some crazy things to fly up here...” Ruby said while trying to catch her breath. Stretching out her long neck, she used her snout to point to her back.

By “this person here,” did she mean Hal?

“Hal, just what on Earth did you do...?” I asked, feeling thoroughly exhausted.

Hal pointed behind him. “Souma... You brought this, didn’t you? We used it... to fly right here.”

What Hal was pointing at as he said that was the Maxwellian Propulsion Device affixed to the back of his saddle, the Little Susumu Mark V Light.

My eyes went wide.

So this was what Kaede was talking about!

◇　◇　◇

Earlier...

“I’d like to ask you a favor.” I sat my aching body up, corrected my posture, and then bowed my head to the red-haired young man.

When I did, Hal exchanged glances with the fox-eared girl... Kaede, was it? “I’m not sure this is the time to suddenly be asking for favors...”

“First, I’d like to hear what that favor is, you know,” said Kaede. “Is there something you’d like to ask Hal for?”

“I don’t care what it is. Just give me something I can do!” I said pleadingly. I bowed my head again deeply. “I don’t want to rely on Naden to fix this situation! If I leave the fate of Dracul to Naden, while I do nothing... I won’t be able to have pride in myself anymore.”

I couldn’t fly in this storm. Even so, if I let Naden do all the work, I wouldn’t be living up to the reputation of the dragons of the Star Dragon Mountain Range.

That wasn’t all. If I made Naden take all the risks, and then something happened to her, I’d never be able to forgive myself.

“You’re that king, Souma’s, vassals, aren’t you? There’s nothing we can do, but since you two have come from outside the Star Dragon Mountain Range, I thought you might have some way of doing it.”

“I dunno...” said Halbert.

“I don’t care how dangerous it is. I want you to let me do something, too.” My feelings were tearing me up inside.

Hal scratched his head with a troubled look on his face. “Hmm, I don’t have any idea how to fly when the skies are so bad that even a dragon can’t fly. Kaede’s magic manipulates gravity, but even with that, she can only make things float off the ground a little. Right?”

“Yeah. I don’t think earth magic is going to be able to do anything here,” Kaede nodded.

Was it like I feared? Was there nothing I could do?

When despair was beginning to set in, Kaede suddenly said, “But it’s not like we don’t have any way at all, you know.”

“Y-You have something?!”

“It’s dangerous, but... if your wings are going to catch the wind, you can just not open them, you know.”

Not open my wings? She was telling me to fly without flapping my wings? That was... something only Naden could do.

Hal also had a dubious look on his face. “No, no, how is a winged dragon supposed to fly without her wings?”

However, Kaede just looked at him with exasperation. “Have you forgotten, Hal? The thing we have in the gondola.”

“In the gondola? Let’s see, there’s that weird kigurumi thing that Souma uses, and... Oh, that! The propeller, that Little Susumu whatchamacallit!”

Propeller? I had no idea what they were talking about, but they seemed to think it would work.

Kaede pointed at my back and said, “Dragons and wyverns are different sizes, yes, but their overall shape is similar. If we put the Little Susumu Mark V Light on her back, like we do for the wyvern cavalry, then fire it up to full power, even with her wings folded, I think she could climb straight up from the ground.”

“I get your reasoning, but... isn’t that dangerous?” Hal asked dubiously. “She can only rise straight up, right?”

Kaede nodded, affirming his concerns. “Of course. There’s no way to change direction. It’s only able to go up. Besides, we haven’t tested it in storm conditions, so I don’t know if what I was just saying is actually possible.” Kaede looked concerned. “However, as things stand, if she wants to do something, this is about the only way...”

“I don’t mind,” I said firmly. “I’m well aware of the danger. Let me do it.”

“Ruby...”

“Aw, geez! Looks like I’ve got no other choice!” Hal scratched his head, a grin on his face. “I’m the one who got you fired up to do this. I’ll have to go with you.”

Halbert’s proposal made Kaede’s eyes go wide. “Hal... you do understand what you’re saying means, don’t you?”

“That I’ll be in danger? Yeah, I’m ready for that. Besides, the dragon wearing the propeller can’t control it. She needs someone to ride her and steer it, right?”

“That’s not my only concern... Oh, geez, there’s no other choice, is there?” Kaede muttered. “Fine. I’ll find a good way to tell His Majesty.”

Kaede shrugged her shoulders in resigned exasperation as she approved the idea.

“Thank you. Hal, Kaede.”

I bowed my head to the two of them again. I couldn’t have been more grateful.

Here and now, an impromptu red dragon knight was born.

◇　◇　◇

While Naden and Aisha continued intercepting the falling objects, I gave Hal and Ruby a quick rundown of the situation.

This cube was causing the storm, the objects it was dropping were bombs, and it would be dangerous to let them fall to the surface. I didn’t mention that the thing was apparently trying to destroy Dracul so that it would be destroyed itself. I had no proof, and I didn’t want to take the time to explain it.

When they heard my explanation, Hal and Ruby nodded in unison.

“Got it,” Hal said. “We’ll handle contacting the ground.”

“The other dragons can fight from down on the ground, too.” Ruby stretched her neck, bringing her face closer to Naden’s. “So, Naden, don’t worry about things down below. Head straight for that thing.”

“Can I trust you to handle this?” Naden asked.

“Your job is to carry Souma, right? As a dragon of the Star Dragon Mountain Range, I may not be able to clear the way for you, but I’ll at least cover your back.”

“...Okay.”

Naden uncoiled herself and released Ruby. The moment they were set free, Hal and Ruby let gravity take its course and fell straight down.

I shouted after them, “Hal! Take care of Liscia and the others!”

“Count on it! You do your thing, too!”

The opposite of the way they came, Hal and Ruby fell headlong to the surface. Even as they were falling, Hal threw the spear he was holding and took down one of the falling objects. It looked like his dratrooper training had paid off. Red-haired Halbert, riding on a red dragon, and throwing a spear... huh.

“They’re doing the whole dragon knight thing properly, huh...”

“You can say that again,” said Naden. “Meanwhile, we’re all weird.”

“Now, now, sire,” Aisha said. “They’re them, and we’re us. Why can’t we just leave it at that?”

““Pfft!”” When Aisha summed it up like that, Naden and I cracked up laughing. When she dismissed it in such a carefree way, even if Dracul was in danger, it felt like it wasn’t a big deal.

Yeah, I was starting to feel like we could do something about this.

“Haha... Now then, let’s leave the falling objects to those on the ground, and go take a look at that cube ourselves,” I said.

“Yeah. Let’s go, Souma, Aisha.”

“Okay!” Aisha cried.

With a burst of acceleration, Naden began to climb.

◇　◇　◇

When Halbert and Ruby returned to the ground, the dragons had all gathered in front of Crystal Castle. They could see Kaede, Liscia, and Carla standing at the feet of those huge creatures, so Halbert and Ruby landed next to them.

“Hal, how were things up in the sky?” Kaede asked.

Halbert pointed upward and said, “There was this weird blocky guy up there. Souma and the others are heading to make contact. More importantly, though, there’re going to be bomb-like things dropping. We’ve gotta intercept them.”

“You’re talking about intercepting them, but with all this rain, flames are going to be only half as powerful,” Carla, who also used fire magic, pointed out.

The flames that dragons could spew were powerful, but they would probably be weakened and blown away in all this wind and rain.

Liscia nodded bitterly. “My ice isn’t something I can shoot into the sky, either.”

“There is a way, you know,” Kaede said, then crouched down and ran her hand over the ground. “You’ll have to forgive a little change in the topography, though.”

With that, the ground began to swell up, and masses of rock and sand about a meter across rolled around all over the place. Kaede used her earth-type magic. Even at a glance, there had to be around a hundred of those masses. It must have taken a considerable amount of magical power.

As might be expected, Kaede stumbled, having overexerted herself, and Liscia hurried to catch her.

“A-Are you okay?”

“Sorry. I overdid it a little.”

With Liscia supporting her, Kaede explained the strategy to everyone.

“I want the dragons to throw these masses of dirt at the falling objects. With a dragon’s strength, you should be able to throw them fairly high. As for everyone else, I’d like you to use bows enchanted with magic. The priority is to protect Crystal Castle and the dragon eggs lying dormant beneath it. Even if you have to ignore the others, please prioritize intercepting any objects falling toward Crystal Castle.”

“Got it... You heard her, everyone!” Liscia helped Kaede to stand, then shouted to her companions and the dragons. Because she was the princess of a nation, she naturally ended up giving commands here. “We’re going to support Naden and Souma from here!”

“““Yeahhhh!”””

“““Roaaaaaaaaaaar!”””

Her companions let out a war cry, and the dragons all roared at once.

“Ruby, we’re going back to intercept them in the sky,” Halbert said.

“Yes. Let’s go, Hal.”

Halbert and Ruby flew back up with the Little Susumu Mark V Light.

Everyone was trying their hardest to do what they could right now. While watching that scene unfold, Liscia nocked an arrow.

We’re going to do what we can to protect this place.

As she drew back on the bowstring, Liscia thought of Souma and the others up in the sky.

So, everyone... Make sure you come home all right.

Letting it carry those feelings, Liscia loosed her arrow into the sky thick with clouds.

◇　◇　◇

“Whoa,” Aisha said suddenly.

“Are you okay, Aisha?” I asked with concern.

“Y-Yes!”

When we rose, we forgot that Aisha had undone the ropes that had been keeping her in place. I caught her when she lost her balance, and tied the rope around me to fix us in position. Even as I was doing that, Naden continued to evade the falling objects and approach the cube. Outside of scattering bombs, the cube didn’t do anything to intercept us, and we were easily able to come up alongside it.

Is this cube... ignoring us?

Did that mean its only target, or the only thing that interested it, was Madam Tiamat? Or did it have an absolute confidence that no one but Madam Tiamat could destroy it? Whatever the case, we’d gotten close enough that we could have hopped over to it, so we were able to observe the cube up close.

It was, as I suspected, a cube with ten meters to a side.

The surface that looked gray from a distance was made from layers of a glossy stone like cut obsidian, and there were elevated geometrical patterns on it. It was clearly artificial, but some parts were covered in moss. Other parts were hard to tell whether they were old or new. There was no sign of any sort of propeller or jet engine; it was really floating.

Hm... I heard a voice, so I was expecting a creature, or a vehicle of some type...

No matter how I looked at it, this was just a cube. Not a vehicle, or anything like that.

Still, there was no way an ordinary cube, with no means of propulsion, would be floating high up in the sky. Maybe, unlike its simple exterior, the inside of this thing was really complex.

I don’t know if this was proof of that, but the upper front side had countless holes in it, and they were spewing out those bomb-like objects. The image of it spitting out bombs at regular intervals was very systematic, and mechanical.

If that was the case, then maybe this was an example of what Genia called overtechnology, like the Jewel Voice Broadcast jewels, or the Lunalith which was said to be in the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria.

“Looking at the surface... I don’t think it’s impossible to cut it,” Aisha said. “Do you mind if I try?”

“...Can you aim for a corner? If it breaks and falls, there’s no telling what effect that could have, after all.”

“Yes, sir... Hah!”

Aisha swung her greatsword, firing off that sharp blast of wind. The blast of wind landed a square blow on the corner of the cube... Or it should have. However, the cube showed no sign of change.

Aisha lowered her greatsword and groaned. “Hrm... This surface is much harder than steel.”

Did that mean she could have cut through steel?

Aisha pulled out a knife from her pocket and threw it at the cube. The knife flew straight at it, then there was a strange high-pitched noise, and it fell.

“Look. There isn’t even a tiny scratch on the surface.”

“Does that mean it’s super hard?”

“No, it didn’t sound like it made contact. It looked like it was deflected just before it touched the surface, too.”

“Hmm... Does it have a force field of some sort up?”

“Forsfild? What’s that?” Aisha asked, looking confused.

“It’s a scientific sort of barrier. Even in my old world, they only existed in fiction.”

It was a sci-fi sort of ability, but I felt like it might be possible with overscience, which went beyond the realm of human understanding.

I had an idea for something we could try.

“Naden, could you hit it with an electric shock?” I asked.

“Okay, but... are you sure you want me to go at full power?”

“Yeah. Give it everything you’ve got.”

“Okay, then... Hah!”

Zap, crackle!

Naden’s mane stood on end as she unleashed an electric shock into the cube.

Purple lightning tore through the air, and just as it was about to impact the cube, another indescribable sound, much louder than the one before, echoed through the area. It was like someone magnified the sound of nails on a chalkboard, then ran it through a filter. It was a noise that grated on the ears like that.

However, even though the noise was loud enough to be pain-inducing, there was no change in the cube. How tough was that thing...?

I scratched my head. “Physical attacks, magic, and electricity, all ineffective, huh? It says it wants to be destroyed, but the thing’s way too tough.”

“Isn’t that why it wants Lady Tiamat to break it?” asked Naden.

“Yeah, that’s probably it...”

While wracking my brain over what to do, I heard that voice again.

“I will destroy. So that you will destroy me.”

I heard it clearly. The voice was too high to be male, which made it seem to be female, but there was something off about it. Now that I heard it clearly, something caught my attention about it.

This voice...

I’d heard it somewhere before. For some reason, that was the sense I got. But where?

I tried searching my memories, but the cube wasn’t going to give me time.

Tiamat... if this is not enough to make you destroy me...

There was a sound from the bottom of the cube.

“Naden, head down!” I called.

“You got it!”

We moved down, and the bottom face opened up like a box. Something shaped like a telephoto camera lens grew straight out of the bottom.

This telephoto-lens-like thing... I had a real bad feeling about it.

“I really will destroy everything of yours.”

The lens sticking out of the bottom began to emit light. It was a pale light at first, but it gradually grew brighter.

This scene... I’d seen something like it in an old-ish sci-fi movie. The bottom of the massive saucer from space opened up, it gradually filled with more and more light... and then the light flooded out and blew away the buildings and cities beneath it.

Wait, Liscia and the others were under this thing!

“Aisha, Naden, attack that part on the bottom!” I cried.

“O-Okay!”

“Roger that! Hahhhhh!”

Aisha launched a blast of wind from her sword, and Naden fired off an electrical attack. However, despite the loud noises, the telephoto-lens-like thing was unaffected, and it continued to gather light.

At this point, I could only imagine a future where that light was fired down at the ground.

“Stooooop!” I screamed, despite myself, as loud as I possibly could.

“S-Sire?” said Aisha.

“Souma?” faltered Naden.

I kept shouting at the cube. “If you want to get busted, then go fall somewhere, or sink into the ocean, and break on your own! Don’t get other people... don’t get my family caught up in your self-destructive urges, you dummy!”

“Com... lang... detected... abling functions.”

With that, the light suddenly stopped gathering, and the telephoto-lens-like thing sticking out of the bottom gradually lost its shine. Eventually it vanished completely, and the cube tucked that lens back inside itself. Had it... stopped?

Looking at it carefully, the cube stopped dropping those objects, too.

“Do you suppose it’s stopped?” Aisha asked.

“Did what Souma say stop it?”

Aisha and Naden were both perplexed. Like Naden was saying, the timing with which it happened suggested it listened to my shouting. Maybe my words got through to it? Come to think of it...

“Sup... lang... detected... abling functions.”

That was definitely what the cube said. There had been noise interrupting it, so I couldn’t pick up everything it said, but was “disabling functions” what it said?

If so, the first half, “Sup, lang, detected,” interested me. “Detected” seemed pretty straightforward, but “sup, lang” meant... Huh?!

This cube stopped because I shouted. If this cube detected my words, and disabled its functions as a result, then this “sup, lang” was in reference to what I said.

In other words...

“Supported language...”

“Supported language detected. Disabling functions.”

Had that been what the cube said?

A supported language... the language I was speaking... Japanese?!

Had this cube shut down because I used Japanese?

Was Japanese the key...? No, it was saying “supported language,” so it might support languages other than Japanese, too. Thinking more broadly, had the cube shut down because I used one of the languages of Earth, or because I used a language from a different world?

When I reached that conclusion, the shards of various memories inside me started to connect.

The reason Madam Tiamat called me the key and invited me to the Star Dragon Mountain Range. Was it not because I was a hero, but because I was Japanese, or I was from Earth, or from another world?

The language I used... I didn’t know whether it was because it was Japanese, because it was a language of Earth, or because it was a language from another world, but Madam Tiamat must have known it would be the key to stopping that cube.

“It could be that Madam Tiamat is familiar with your world to some degree,” Hakuya said. “If Madam Tiamat was certain that you’d know about ryuus, that means she must have known that the world you came from had a concept of what a ryuu is.”

“Madam Tiamat... knew about the world I came from?” I murmured.

I had this conversation with Hakuya just a few days ago.

We inferred that Madam Tiamat might know something about my world. I was becoming convinced of that now. Madam Tiamat, the cube, and the world I came from.

If there was some link between them, did that mean this world and that world were connected in some way, too? In other words...

This world, which I thought was another world, might not actually be another world.

Oh, geez... I just don’t know anymore.

I had a lot of different speculations flying around in my head, but none of them were any more than speculation.

Even if I wanted to make a judgment on it, I lacked the information to.

There was just one thing I knew about this world, and it was that I still knew nothing about it. Just as my mind reached an extreme state of confusion...

“I see... That’s why Tiamat...”

The cube started saying something again.

“The fam... are still... not... lost...”

Its voice was cutting out. It was hard to make out what it was saying like that, but it didn’t seem angry, or sad. It sounded lonely, but almost like it was praying for something.

“...iliar one... I have... request...”

“The fam... iliar one? Oh, familiar ones? But what is this request?” I asked the cube.

Perhaps because it understood me, the cube began to explain.

“Please... familiar one... before your li... to an end... beg you... ease... give my children peace... days...”

Damn! We were finally holding a conversation, but there was too much being lost in the middle. It seemed like the cube was speaking fluently, but the static was so bad that I couldn’t figure out what it was saying.

“I can’t hear you when you talk too long!” I called. “Tell me what you want, as briefly as possible!”

The cube answered in one breath.

“Go north.”

Go north, huh?

With that, the cube vanished.

“I-It disappeared...” I murmured.

It didn’t fly away, or anything like that. It just vanished in an instant. Most likely, it used a teleportation technique, like Madam Tiamat.

When the cube vanished, the storm that had been raging so hard turned into a simple mass of clouds that eventually spread out and dissipated. Before I knew it, we were left beneath a sky with the sun going down. The clear air and the red of the setting sun sparkled to an almost blinding degree.

“It feels like we dreamed the whole thing,” Aisha said in a daze. It was the kind of abrupt change that would do that to you.

“But it wasn’t a dream, right, Souma?” said Naden. “What did that blocky thing say at the end?”

I answered her, in as much of a daze as Aisha. “...Go north. That’s what it sounded like.”

“North? By north, that has to mean...”

“The Demon Lord’s Domain... I guess?”

I felt like I had gained a lot of information from this incident. However, it created more questions than it solved. About my world, about me, about the connection between the world I came from and this one...

The only thing I could say with any clarity was that none of the answers were going to be coming anytime soon.

“Whatever the case, the storm’s passed...” I said. “Let’s head back to the others.”

Naden nodded. “Yeah. I’m feeling really exhausted.”

The situation was more or less resolved, but we didn’t feel fully satisfied as we returned to the ground.

“What a fancy dance partner I have...” I murmured.

“Hm? Did you say something?”

“No, nothing. I was just thinking how lucky I am.”

While we were dancing, I looked over to see Hal and Ruby. Hal must not have been used to this sort of thing, because his moves were a little awkward, but Ruby was doing a good job of leading him.

“You can actually dance, Souma,” Naden said to me. “I thought you’d be bad at this sort of thing.”

“I was, but I worked desperately to learn how to get better. I was being called to a lot of social functions, after all.”

“Ahaha! You’ve got it rough, huh.”

“Yeah, kinda. For all the practice you skipped, you’re doing pretty well yourself, Naden.”

“I-I only started skipping recently. I was practicing like I was supposed to before.”

I looked fondly at Naden as she made excuses, when...

“Naden.” Madam Tiamat’s voice suddenly came into my head.

“Lady Tiamat?” It seemed Naden could hear the voice, too.

Oh, yeah. She’d been calling Naden, so of course she could.

While we continued dancing, Madam Tiamat’s gentle voice echoed in our heads. “Naden. There’s something I have to apologize to you for.”

“Huh? Apologize?”

“When you were troubled by the fact you looked different from other dragons, I was unable to tell you, ‘You are a ryuu.’ That you were born in this era meant that one who knew your value would appear. I hid your nature so as to not get in the way of that meeting, and for that I apologize.”

“Don’t!”

While still dancing, Naden turned just her face toward Madam Tiamat. The music was already past the midway point, and was rising. Our emotions rose along with the melody.

Naden shouted, with tears in her eyes, “You were always there to encourage me, Lady Tiamat! ‘Eventually, one who knows your value will appear,’ you said! When I heard it, I only half believed it... No, I hardly believed it at all... But I really did meet Souma!”

Big teardrops rolled down Naden’s face.

“So... I’m grateful. Thanks... ‘Mom.’”

It felt like Madam Tiamat smiled when she heard Naden’s words of gratitude. “Take care, my beloved daughter.”

The music was close to ending. I held Naden, whose face was messy with tears, close.

“Naden, I know I’m not the most reliable guy, but let’s work together from now on.”

Naden sobbed. “Yes. Yes!”

Here, today, Naden and I formed a contract as partners.

Midword

Thank you for buying volume six of Realist Hero. This is Dojyomaru, and I feel that, while there are far more dragon-inspired mechs, a lot of ryuu-inspired mechs, like Denshi Seijuu Doru and Ryuseiou, are cool, too.

I have a lot I want to say this time, so I got three pages to do so. I’ll be explaining things that include spoilers for this volume, so I recommend not reading this section until you’ve finished the main story.

With this volume, the fifth fiancée, Naden the black ryuu, has finally joined Souma’s family.

While she was the only ryuu living among dragons, Naden is an ordinary girl, with a personality a lot like those in the world Souma came from. I wanted to bring out the feeling that she was a girl in love with love, and I think she came out feeling very much like a young maiden. I hope she’ll be well loved.

Also, this volume showed the connection between the world Souma came from and Liscia and the others’ world. In short, it hinted that this might not be another world. If so, then what are magic, different races, demons, and monsters to this world? I’d like to gradually reveal that as the story progresses. It’s as strange a story as ever, huh.

Normally, if you start with a world of sword and sorcery, you build your story on top of that platform; but in this story, we’ll be discussing why it became a world of sword and sorcery in the first place. That may sound pedantic, but I think it’s what gives this story its “individuality.”

I talked about individuality and universality in the main story, as well. Souma likened it to the exam wars, but I feel it applies most strongly to the creation of literature. If what you make is too bizarre, no one is going to accept it or pay it any attention. However, when it comes to material that is easily accepted by everyone, formulas and templates have already been established, and you’ll be buried in similar works.

While working with subject matter that will be accepted by a large number of people, even though it may be not accessible to everyone, I want to find some way to inject myself and differentiate it from other works. It’s that gap that writers (though maybe not just writers) struggle through repeated trial and error to find.

If there’s one more thing I have to say, it’s about the manga adaptation by Satoshi Ueda being released at the same time as this volume. Every time I see the rough draft of a chapter, I’m overwhelmed by the quality of the art. He’s done a good job summarizing things I explained at length in the novel. I have to give him credit, and say that if you want to review past events, you should go read the manga adaptation.

Thank you, Mr. Ueda. Please keep working with this novel.

Now, as for the continuation of this story... you can read it. I’ve put everything after the Star Dragon Mountain Range arc on Pixiv. You can read about four volumes ahead there. I questioned whether it was okay to announce this, but my editor said, “Sure, why not? It works as advertising,” and didn’t think it was a big deal.

For those of you who are interested, search on Pixiv using the keyword どぜう丸. You’ll know you’ve found it by the Little Musashibo icon. But the Pixiv version is split up into a lot of small parts, so for those who want to read things all in one go, I recommend waiting for the published volumes.

In my case, I do a lot of rewriting and additions for the published volumes, so it would be good if you could keep buying them, too.

Let me say this definitively: Whatever the web novel version says, what’s in the published volumes is “canon.”

I’ve gone on for a while now, so let me wrap this up.

I give my thanks to Fuyuyuki for always providing such wonderful character designs, to Satoshi Ueda for the excellent manga adaptation, to my editor, the designers, the proofreaders, and everyone who now holds this book in their hands.

This has been Dojyomaru.

This midword will be followed by three short stories about what those left behind in the kingdom got up to during this volume. I considered fitting them in where they go chronologically, but decided it was better to read straight through the main story, so that’s why the book is organized this way.

In terms of timeline, Side Story 1 happens just before Souma and Naden make their short trip back; Side Story 2 happens while Souma, Liscia, and the rest have gone to confront the storm; and Side Story 3 happens when everything is over, and they’ve gotten back to the kingdom. There’s a second epilogue after them to lead into the next volume.

To be completely honest, Side Story 3 actually takes place right after Epilogue 2.

I hope you will read all the way to the end.

Epilogue 2: On To Yet Another Country

Having formed our contracts with Naden and Ruby in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, we returned to the kingdom.

Like I’d told Tomoe, the castle was still being swamped with marriage proposals, so I planned to continue my trip abroad. Though, we had some items like the Little Susumu Mark V and Little Musashibo which were bulky and ill-suited to our trip, so we came back to drop them off.

When Naden, the black ryuu, and Ruby, the red dragon, set down in Parnam Castle, the castle guards started panicking. Even if they already knew about Naden, they hardly could have anticipated that Ruby would be joining us, too...

Come to think of it, I had totally forgotten to report that.

Regardless, I dismounted from Naden and headed over to the gondola Ruby had been carrying. Naden carried the gondola on the way there, but she was going to be my queen. If she carried it and Hal’s wife arrived empty-handed, it would have reflected poorly on Ruby, so we decided Ruby would carry it.

“Ruby,” Naden said. “You carried it without any shaking, I hope?”

“Shove off, Naden. I carried it just fine.”

Naden and Ruby started bickering the moment they changed back into human form.

There was supposed to be a hierarchical relationship between them now, as the wives of a king and one of his retainers, but it seemed like neither of them cared, and they were having a good time sniping at each other. This sort of relationship must have been easier for them.

Then the door to the gondola opened and Liscia came out. “Urgh...”

“Liscia?!” I exclaimed.

The moment she got onto the ground, Liscia stumbled, so I hurried to catch her. With Liscia in my arms, I looked at her to find she was looking pale, and covering her mouth.

“A-Are you okay?! What’s wrong?!”

“Sorry... I’m a little unsteady on my feet... Is it motion sickness?”

Motion sickness from the gondola... Was that it? Seeing Liscia like that, Naden blamed Ruby.

“You said you didn’t let it shake!” Naden yelled.

“I-I don’t think it did, okay?!”

“Calm down, please,” said Aisha, disembarking. “I don’t think it shook that much.”

Liscia laughed weakly, and added, “I don’t think it’s Ruby’s fault,” to cover for her. “I think the fatigue from the long trip finally got to me. I must have failed to manage my health properly.”

“Are you really okay?” I asked.

“Yeah... But I’m going on ahead to rest in my room. Carla, would you come with me?”

“O-Okay. You can lean on me.”

“Should I come with you, too?” I asked.

“You have to give Hakuya a report on what happened, don’t you, Souma? You need to make living arrangements for Naden and Ruby, too. I’ll be fine, so go do your job.”

Urkh... When she said it like that, there was nothing I could say back to her.

In the end, all I could do was watch as Liscia left for her room, leaning on Carla’s shoulder for support. If I acted too worried, she would probably get mad, so I decided to focus on what needed to get done for now.

“Now that we have everyone gathered together...”

By the time I returned to the governmental affairs office, discussed with Haakuya the events that had transpired, took care of the various procedures that had to be handled for Naden and Ruby, and sent out an order to the research institute regarding an investigation into overscience relics, the date had changed. Now that the work was all handled, I summoned the members of my traveling entourage once more.

In the room were the six who returned with us: Aisha, Naden, Carla, Halbert, Kaede, and Ruby; plus three more, Hakuya, Juna, and Roroa, who had been holding down the fort. Liscia still wasn’t feeling well, so she was in her room resting.

“Is it still a good idea for me to be away from the castle?” I asked with a glance to Hakuya.

He nodded in confirmation. “Yes... The number of marriage proposals coming to the castle still hasn’t dropped off.”

That figures. The situation in the Star Dragon Mountain Range went by so quickly that it took fewer days than I’d been expecting, after all. No, with all that happened, I should be happy it had been resolved so quickly.

“...Well, that being the case, I think I’ll go on a diplomatic mission to another country. Liscia’s health worries me, but she herself told me to go.”

I was actually thinking of staying in the castle until Liscia fully recovered, but she said, “I don’t want my poor health to stop you from taking this important opportunity to visit other countries.” She strongly stressed that “Contact with other cultures will help to fuel you. So I want you to go and see the world.”

If she was going to say it like that, I had no choice but to go.

“Tomoe is waiting at that village, so I want to set out tomorrow,” I said. “Now, as for our next destination... I think I’d like to go to the Republic of Turgis.”

The Republic of Turgis was a land of frigid cold in the southernmost reaches of the continent. It was an inaccessible country, covered in snow and ice during the winter, and the skies there were disrupted by warm air currents, making it so wyverns couldn’t fly. They had a national policy of northward expansionism, and they recently showed signs of making a move north during the war with the Principality of Amidonia, hadn’t they?

I looked to each of my companions and then said, “I don’t really understand the moves that country is making. It’s a country I don’t understand very well in general, so I’d like to see what things are like there for myself. Whether we’re going to have hostile or cordial relations with them in the future, I think knowing more about that country will let me make more appropriate decisions.”

The battle with the Principality of Amidonia happened because they had already firmed up their will to oppose us, so there was no room for me to investigate their domestic situation. It could also be said that that was why Roroa had gotten the drop on me in the end. In order to prevent that from happening next time, I wanted to thoroughly investigate things in advance.

“Th-The Republic of Turgis?” Naden asked.

“...That’s not exactly a place I care to go,” Ruby added.

Both of them wore unpleasant looks on their faces.

I knew wyverns hated cold places, but it looked like that went for ryuus and dragons, too.

It was mid-May, and the Kingdom had already warmed up. Apparently in the Republic however, the temperature had only risen to around ten degrees Celsius. That climate would be harsh on Naden and Ruby.

“It’s a cold land, after all. I don’t think I’ll be of much use as a bodyguard, either,” said Carla, who, as dragonewt, also had trouble dealing with the cold.

If she wore thick clothes, she could come, but she apparently wanted to say that if that slowed her down, that made bringing her as a bodyguard pointless.

Not being able to bring those three would be a huge cut to our overall firepower, but they couldn’t help it if their races made them ill-suited to the task at hand. If they forced themselves to do things they couldn’t reasonably be expected to, and they ruined their health as a result, it would trouble me. I’d have to give up on them this time.

“Naden, Ruby, Carla: please stay in the kingdom,” I said. “I’ll have Liscia rest and recover this time, too. Aisha, Hal, and Kaede, I’d like the three of you to continue on as my bodyguards. We’ll bring Tomoe and Inugami, too.”

“Leave it to me.” Aisha pounded a fist against her chest.

““Y-Yes, sir.”” Hal and Kaede saluted.

“Also... Roroa.”

“Hm? Me?” Roroa had a blank look on her face.

“I’d like you to come along, too. I want you to look into goods we could trade with the republic. You own a company, so I’m sure you’re familiar with trade goods.”

Roroa’s face burst into a beaming smile. “Oh! You don’t mind me comin’ with you? Yippee! Mweheheh, just you leave it to me, darlin’. I’ll find ya some nice trade goods.” She wrapped herself around my arm.

While patting her on the head, I turned to Juna next. “If I’m bringing Roroa, that leaves me less than confident in the amount of firepower we have on hand. So, Juna...”

“Yes?”

“Juna, I’d like you to come, too. Can you work that into your schedule?”

As the Prima Lorelei, Juna was the face of the Jewel Voice Broadcast. She was the host of the educational program, and she needed to appear on the singing program, too. That was why there were no openings in her schedule, and the question was really, Is it possible for you to adjust your schedule?

Juna gave me a broad smile. “Hee hee. It’s fine. Or more like I’ll make it so it’s fine,” she said definitively, bringing a hand to her chest and bowing. “If I have Komari and Siena cover for me on the educational program, it should be no trouble. The younger loreleis are growing up, and I think they should be fine without me for a little while.”

“They will? That helps.”

“No, just like Roroa, I want to travel with you, sire.” Juna gave me a teasing wink. Yeah, she was very charming.

For now, the members of the group were chosen.

“Hakuya, could I get you to try putting in a request for talks with the Republic of Turgis?” I asked. “I basically intend to go incognito, but I may need to request a meeting on the spot. Set things up for me, would you?”

“Understood.” Hakuya bowed and accepted the task.

Okay, that was everything more or less ready.

“Well then, everyone,” I said. “shall we be on our way?”

And so we left for the frozen country of the south: the Republic of Turgis.

Bonus Short Stories

Tomoe, Holding Down the Fort

It happened at around the time that Souma and the others were in the Star Dragon Mountain Range confronting the storm.

Tomoe, who had been left behind in a town bordering the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State because it was too dangerous to bring her along, was looking towards the Star Dragon Mountain Range in the northwest and praying everyone would be okay.

“Big Brother. Big Sister,” she prayed. “Everyone... Please, come back safely.”

Inugami, who had been entrusted with the task of guarding her, was concerned. “Little Sister...”

Today, ever since a large black cloud had been sighted over the Star Dragon Mountain Range, Tomoe had been looking out her window towards the Star Dragon Mountain Range and praying for everyone’s safety. Praying was the only thing she could do, so she was doing it with all her heart.

Unable to bear the sight any long, Inugami tried to cheer her up.

“It’s okay. His Majesty and the princess have Madam Aisha, Officer Halbert, and young Miss Carla, the foremost fighters of our kingdom, with them. If you add Madam Naden, the dragon, on top of that, no matter what might happen, I’m sure those fighters will be able to protect the two of them.”

Inugami said that to encourage her, but Tomoe looked down.

“I understand that. I do, but... I worry. I think Aisha would lay down her life for Big Brother, but that makes me worry she’ll get hurt...”

Inugami fell silent.

Because Souma had gone and made all of his bodyguards people they were close to, Tomoe must be worrying about what would happen if any of them were to suffer a life-threatening injury. It was easier to imagine the worst when it involved someone you knew, after all.

It would be easy to tell her things are okay... but even if it would be easy to say, without any basis for saying it, it wouldn’t be enough to reassure her. It would be better to redirect her attention.

Inugami placed a hand on Tomoe’s shoulder. “It’s not good for your health to worry so much. Rather than imagine an unpleasant future, why not talk about what you’ll be doing after this? You can talk with me.”

“What I’ll be doing after this...?” Tomoe asked, looking up.

Tomoe had taken an interest, so Inugami continued in a bright tone of voice. “Yes. His Majesty said his trips abroad would continue. He said quite clearly that he would be bringing you along, too. What do you think the next country you’ll visit is?”

“You mean somewhere other than the Star Dragon Mountain Range, right?”

Tomoe started trying to predict the next country. A good sign.

“We have good relations with the Empire, and they’re too far away, right? So it’ll be one of the neighboring countries...”

“Well, what neighbors does the Kingdom of Friedonia have?”

“We have five. The Union of Eastern Nations, the Republic of Turgis, the Mercenary State Zem, the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State, and the Nine-Headed Dragon Union across the sea.”

Thanks to taking lessons from Hakuya, Tomoe was now able to rattle those names off so smoothly that it was hard to think of her as a child.

“Which of those seem like places you wouldn’t go to?” Inugami asked.

“I think with the trouble involved in crossing the sea, and with the dispute over fishing rights, it probably won’t be the Nine-Headed Dragon Union. It’s in the opposite direction of the city we’re staying in, too. Other than that, the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State just tried to make Big Brother into their holy king the other day, so I don’t think he’d want to go there.”

“I have to concur,” Inugami nodded. “In addition, the Union of Eastern Nations is a collection of small to medium sized states, and the negotiations for His Majesty to visit each of them individually would be difficult. Also, many of the requests for marriage that have been flooding the castle are coming from those countries, so he would likely hesitate to visit them.”

“In that case... will it be the Republic of Turgis or the Mercenary State Zem?” Tomoe guessed.

Although there had been issues with the eternally neutral Zem during the war with Amidonia, they weren’t openly hostile. As for the Republic, it wasn’t entirely clear whether they were hostile or not.

Tomoe asked, “Do you know about Zem and the republic, Mr. Inugami?”

“Because the republic is a closed off country, I know that their five major races control the country through a council, but... that’s about it. However, when it comes to Zem, I have heard things from the mercenaries.”

Though it had been terminated after Souma had been entrusted with the throne, the Elfrieden Kingdom had previously had a mercenary contract with Zem. That was why Zemish mercenaries had been in the kingdom.

“It seems that they are a meritocracy... or rather, it seems might makes right there.”

“M-Might does?” Tomoe stammered.

“Yes. It seems that even the right to rule can be claimed by martial prowess. Once every year, the country comes together to hold a big martial arts tournament, and they do everything possible to grant one wish to the winner. If the winner wishes to be king, they will be given the right to challenge the current king, and if they should emerge victorious, they become king themselves. That is why Zem’s king is always the most powerful warrior in the country.”

“Um, does that work for the country? Having someone be king just because they’re strong...”

“The bureaucracy that handles internal affairs is independent of the king, so it is probably all right. The king takes responsibility for military matters, so even if the king’s talents are entirely martial in nature, they should be able to manage as a king. It seems the citizens find it reassuring, too. Because they claim neutrality, their country won’t attack other countries, and if they are attacked themselves, they’ll have the strongest possible king to defend them. It’s a sort of charisma, I suppose.”

“Wow... There sure are a lot of ways to run a country.” Tomoe let out an impressed sigh and smiled. “There are so many different countries in the world. Could this be what my teacher” (Hakuya) “meant when he said to broaden my horizons?”

“Perhaps.”

“I want to learn more about all the other countries. By learning more, I think I can learn to love this country that Big Brother and the others rule even more.”

“Heh... I will accompany you anywhere you wish, Little Sister.”

With that, Inugami patted Tomoe on the head, and...

“Ah! Pardon me!”

He hurriedly drew back his hand. Seeing Tomoe so enthused, he had patted her head despite himself, but that was clearly not proper for him to be doing to the adopted sister of his liege.

Tomoe had a blank look on her face, but she quickly shook her head when she saw Inugami bowing to her. “Oh, no! Don’t worry about it! I didn’t mind!”

“But...”

“Um... It kind of reminded me of Dad. It brought back fond memories.”

Tomoe’s father had passed away soon after her little brother was born. That must be why Inugami, who was of a similar race, reminded her of him.

Tomoe took Inugami’s hand. “So... I want you to keep teaching me, praising me, and patting me on the head.”

“Little Sister... understood.”

When Tomoe asked for that with upturned eyes, Inugami couldn’t deny her.

Incidentally, Inugami wasn’t the only member of the Black Cats present, and his compatriots would continue to bring up the indescribable expression he made at his point over drinks for a good long time.

Naden and the Royal Capital

My name is Naden Delal.

I am a black ryuu from the Star Dragon Mountain Range, and just the other day, I formed a dragon knight contract with King Souma of Friedonia, and then came to this country to become his bride.

Mind you, even if it is a dragon knight contract, Souma’s a king, and I’m a ryuu, so we’re kind of an exception to the norm.

Now, the night we returned to Parnam Castle, Souma called me into the governmental affairs office.

“Hey, Naden, they gave you an education on how to act like a proper lady in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, right?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Lady Tiamat taught me everything I’d need to know so that I would be ready to become a knight’s wife.”

“Judging from how well you dance, the level of education in the Star Dragon Mountain Range seems to be high. I don’t think you need any new lessons on how to become a queen.”

According to Souma, unlike a primary queen, a secondary queen gave up the right of her children to inherit the throne in exchange for not being restrained by all the strict rules of etiquette. If she always supported the primary queens in public, and maintained a certain base level of etiquette, that was apparently enough.

Because a woman could become a secondary queen regardless of her social status, and because, as long as she reported she was going, she could head out to the castle town with relative freedom, many women aspired to become secondary queens.

Souma scratched his cheek as he said, “Well, even if you’ll be a secondary queen, you’re still royalty, so normally you’d need a guard when you went outside, but... I doubt there’s going to be much that poses a risk to a ryuu. If you take on ryuu form, no one can lay a hand on you, and if it really gets risky, you can fly away.”

“I think you’re right, but... what are you trying to get at?” I wasn’t sure why he was being so roundabout about this.

Souma smiled wryly and told me, “I’ll be heading to the Republic of Turgis soon, but you can’t come with us because it’s so cold there, right, Naden? So, while I’m gone, your schedule’s going to be empty.”

He was right—ryuus, dragons, and dragonewts didn’t stand up well to the cold. If I insisted against my better judgment on accompanying him to a land of freezing cold like Turgis, it might ruin my health and cause trouble for Souma. That was why I couldn’t accompany Souma on his trip to the Republic of Turgis. It frustrated me to not be able to help.

“Don’t make that face.” Souma rose from his chair and patted me on the head. “I have a request for you. Something only you can handle. Once we come back from the republic, I want to have a meeting with you about it.”

“Souma...”

“That’s why, well, I wanted to say it would be good for you to look around the capital to your heart’s content until then. The security inside the capital is solid, after all. I like the way you’re free and uninhibited. I don’t want to tie you down to the castle.” Souma smiled. “So you can go around the castle town freely. That’s what I wanted to tell you.”

“Souma... Um, thanks.”

Souma was thinking about my needs. I was grateful for that.

“Ha ha...” he chuckled. “Oh, also, take care of Liscia for me, too.”

“Yeah, she was looking a bit under the weather.”

She’d said it was exhaustion catching up with her, but I was a little worried.

“Roger that. I’ll look after Liscia.” I pounded my chest with one hand as I promised him that.

“Though, even if he tells me I can come and go freely...”

Some days after Souma and the others had left for the Republic of Turgis, I went down to the castle town.

As for Liscia, who’d been feeling unwell, she might not have made a full recovery yet, but she’d stabilized. She had no fever, and had an appetite. But, to stay on the safe side, she would be taking it easy and letting her body relax for a while. There would be a good doctor coming to see her tomorrow, so there was nothing for me to do.

That being the case, I’d come down to the castle town, but I had no idea what to do. It was an unfamiliar land to me, after all. I could see the castle from anywhere in town, so there was no risk of me getting lost, but where was I going to go? While I was thinking that...

“Hm?”

Suddenly, I felt a tug on my skirt, and when I looked down there was a little girl who only came up to my waist, crying and clinging to the hem of my skirt.

“Huh, who are you? No, what’s wrong?”

“I came here... with my friend, but... I dunno the way back...” the little girl told me through her sobs.

Yikes, she was lost, huh?

I crouched down to get on the same level as her, patting the girl on the head. “Erm... You came with your friend, right? Where were you going?”

“The... the plaza... with the fountain...”

A plaza with a fountain, huh. I remembered seeing that from the air. Maybe, rather than hand her over to the guards, it’d be faster for me to take her there myself. I picked the little girl up in my arms.

“Huh?”

“It’s okay. I’ll take you there.”

I jumped, kicked off of a wall, and landed on one of the orange roofs. Even in my human form, I could do this much. I headed along the roofs towards the fountain plaza.

“Y-You’re so fast...” The little girl I was carrying blinked in surprise. “But being carried like this... is a little scary. Can you give me a piggyback ride instead...?”

“No can do.”

“Why not?”

“Because the only one I let ride on my back is my husband,” I said teasingly.

The little girl gave me a blank look.

Once I saw the girl to the fountain plaza where her friend was, I ended up playing with them, too, and I was covered in mud by the time I got back to the castle.

When she heard about it, I was summoned by Liscia, who gave me an earful.

“Naden... you played around too much,” she scolded.

“Yeah...”

It had been maybe fifteen minutes since I’d been made to sit in front of the bed Liscia was sitting in.

“Take more care about the way people see you, even if you’re a secondary queen, show some understanding of your position, and, really, should a woman be going and getting covered in mud like that to begin with...?” It seemed to me, from the lecture I’d gotten, that she was plenty healthy.

“Naden,” Liscia said and looked straight at me.

W-Was I in for more? I tensed myself, expecting that, but Liscia put on a smile.

“Have you taken a liking to this country?”

I smiled and gave her a firm answer. “Yup!”

Poncho Becomes a Governor

It happened just before Souma departed for the Star Dragon Mountain Range.

On this day, Souma summoned the Kingdom of Friedonia’s Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Poncho, to the governmental affairs office.

When Poncho entered the room, Souma was seated in his chair, and for some reason the head maid Serina was standing in the corner of the room.

The presence of Serina, who stood there with a composed look on her face, seemed to catch his attention, but Poncho first addressed the provisional king.

“I-I have come at your behest, yes.”

“It’s good to have you here,” Souma answered. “I have a job for you.”

“A job, is it?”

Souma unfurled a map of the country on top of the desk. “You know we built the new city, Venetinova, as a key point for the distribution of goods, right? In consideration of the city’s importance, I decided that, instead of a magistrate, I would create a new ‘governor’ post and have that person manage the city. I plan to entrust it to Weist, who distinguished himself during the war, but it seems he’s preoccupied with the procedures for changing his domain. That’s why, for the time being, I need someone else to serve as the governor in his place. I want you to do the job, Poncho.”

“Me, manage such an important city?!”

“It’s because it’s an important city. That, and also because the city has taken in a large number of former refugees as citizens. If I made the mistake of leaving it to a prideful noble, there’s the risk they would cause unneeded friction. I want someone with a mild personality, and one who has ample support from the populace.”

“B-But... I lack the experience...” Poncho looked uncertain.

But Souma smiled wryly and gave him his seal of approval. “It should be fine. I’ve asked Serina to serve as your assistant. Besides, Komain, who was formerly the assistant leader of the refugees, is in Venetinova, too. You know her, right?”

“Y-Yes... Yes. We met a number of times while I was distributing food support...”

Komain was the young woman who had been the assistant leader of the refugee camp, and she was the one who’d brought together the former refugees who’d chosen to cast aside their homelands to become citizens of the kingdom. Her personality was never timid, even when dealing with men, and that made her popular. With her help, the citizens would easily accept Poncho.

“You can consult with the two of them while you work,” Souma said. “I’m counting on you.”

Now that the provisional king had told him that, Poncho was unable to say he didn’t want to do it. “Y-Yes. I understand. I’ll be counting on your support, too, Madam Serina.”

“If it is my master’s order, it would seem I have no choice,” Serina said with a composed look on her face, then bowed. “I will support you to the best of my abilities.”

The fact of the matter was, when Souma had told Serina, “I want you to go to Venetinova as Poncho’s assistant,” she had accepted immediately. It seemed she didn’t want to be unable to eat Poncho’s food while he was away from the castle. Knowing that fact, all Souma could do was smile wryly.

“Well, do your best. Oh, also, I think all the marriage proposals that have been coming to the castle for you will start to go to that city, so good luck sorting through all of those.”

“C-Come again?” The sudden mention of marriage proposals made Poncho’s eyes go wide and his voice to sound funny. “Th-There’ve been proposals for me?”

“Yeah. So, you know one of the reasons for my trip abroad is to provide an excuse to decline all the requests to meet young women with an eye to marriage that have been swamping the castle, right? Well, we’ve had a number of the same sort of requests for you. For the sake of the castle, I’d like to have you go elsewhere, too.”

“Th-Then, the reason I was chosen to be magistrate of Venetinova was also...”

“That’s part of it, too. I’ve given you Serina as an assistant, so do your best.”

Having been told that, all Poncho could do was stand there, as if in a daze.

Some days later, in the office in the governor’s mansion in Venetinova...

“Now then, I’ll make a roster of the refugees who’ve joined us,” said Komain.

“Please do that, yes.”

Poncho watched as the girl who had formerly been the assistant leader of the refugees left the room, papers in hand. This was the last thing he had needed to give his approval for as governor today.

“Your government duties for the day are finished, but there are still things that need doing,” his assistant, Serina, said.

Poncho, who understood what Serina meant, hesitantly asked, “...So, how many will there be today? Yes?”

“Five people. A relatively low number,” Serina said plainly, causing Poncho’s shoulders to slump.

Whenever his duties were finished, it was time to meet prospective marriage candidates. The daughters of nobles and powerful merchants who wanted to marry him were apparently already standing by in the waiting room. It was a regular work day, so he was getting off with just five, but on his days off, he was swamped with so many applicants that they had to form a line.

That was Poncho, the man revered as Lord Ishizuka the God of Food, for you. He was so popular that he couldn’t rest even on his days off. If he would just marry one of them already, things might settle down a little, but unfortunately, even with all these offers coming in, not one came to fruition.

“I’m sorry to put you through this too, Madam Serina,” he said.

“This is an order from my master, so don’t let it bother you.”

Serina accompanied Poncho to all of these marriage meetings. That was because Souma had asked her to keep a close eye on him and make sure Poncho didn’t fall for a woman or a House that had ulterior motives.

Serina had a cool look on her face as she spoke, and Poncho acted very obliged to her.

“I’m truly grateful to you, Madam Serina, yes.”

“Talk is cheap.” Serina turned away, then glanced sideways at Poncho. “I’d like to see you show your sincerity.”

“I understand, yes.” With a wry smile, Poncho pulled a certain something out of his desk drawer. When he placed that long, black thing on his desk, Serina looked at it intently.

“Is this... seaweed, perhaps?”

“This is a seaside city, after all. I managed to acquire some good quality kombu. Tonight I’ll use the broth from this and eggs to make the dish called ‘chawanmushi’ that His Majesty taught me, yes.”

“Chawanmushi... What sort of dish might that be?” Her tone was level, but there was a sparkle in Serina’s eyes, and it was clear she was intrigued.

“It’s soft like pudding, but it has a taste as deep as the sea, I’m told.”

“Ooh... Let’s get these meetings out of the way quickly, Sir Poncho.”

Serina took Poncho’s arm with an entranced look on her face. With Serina, whose head was no doubt full of chawanmushi, rushing him, Poncho left the office with a strained smile.

Incidentally, with Serina getting worked up, the bar was about to be raised for Poncho’s meetings with prospective partners, but... that is a story for another time.

(To be continued in volume 7.)

Juna and Roroa Demand Answers

This happened the night that I temporarily returned from the Star Dragon Mountain Range to the Kingdom of Friedonia to consult with the others on whether to form a dragon knight contract, which was essentially an engagement, with Naden.

When I introduced Naden to Liscia, Juna, and Roroa, the ones who had remained in the kingdom, Liscia took Naden away (for some reason, she said they’d be taking a bath together), and I found myself being pulled away, with Roroa and Juna each holding one arm, and dragged to Roroa’s room.

Roroa’s room was filled with lots of girlish little things.

They sat me down in a chair in that room, and Roroa sat down across from me at a small table. Juna wore a broad smile as she stood at Roroa’s side.

Wh-What was this...? The way things were set up, was this an interrogation room or something?

“Com on now, darlin’. Out with it.” Roroa folded her hands together in front of her mouth as she said that.

“O-Out with... what exactly?” I asked hesitantly.

“I’ve gotta mean everythin’ about Naden, obviously. It’s only been about half a month since ya left for the Star Dragon Mountain Range, y’know. What’s got her so fond of ya in such a short time?”

“That had caught my attention, too. Oh, have some tea,” Juna said, proffering a cup of black tea that she had prepared at some point. “I sensed she had a strong desire to be married to you. You two only met just recently, didn’t you? Just what was it that made that time so rich?”

“Rich? I was just doing normal stuff, really...”

““Tell us more.””

“O-Okay...”

The two pressed me, so I gave up and told them about Naden.

About how Naden had been the only ryuu in the land of dragons, and she had seemed isolated because she’d looked different from those around her.

How I’d happened to know what ryuus were, and when I’d told Naden that she was one, she had looked like a great weight was lifted from her shoulders.

How we’d watched an Imperial-made Jewel Voice Broadcast in her room, read romance novels, and lazed around.

How I’d stepped in when a red dragon called Ruby had been picking a fight with her.

How I had been able to teach her to fly...

And so on, and so forth. They asked questions and picked over every little detail of the time I’d spent with her.

Having heard all I had to say, Roroa’s cheeks were bright red. “What’s with that lovely meetin’? Darlin’, you’re basically a prince on a white horse.”

“I wasn’t riding on any white horse, though,” I said. “I had a dragon carry me to the Star Dragon Mountain Range in her mouth.”

“Who cares if ya were actually ridin’ one! Ya appeared before a young gal in distress and fixed her problems right quick. That’s more than any girl can ask for!”

Wait, was Roroa really the one to say it’d been a contrived meeting? But it was true that it felt like we were dancing in the palm of Mother Dragon’s hand.

“I agree with Roroa.”

Even you, Juna?

“Hearing your story, I felt like I could understand how you became a special person to Naden. I would say you’re already a person she can’t do without. That must by why she so strongly wants to be together with you.”

“Everythin’ was dramatic, down to the way you met.” Roroa was nodding in agreement.

But no. “If we’re just talking about how we met, wasn’t the way I met both of you plenty dramatic?” I asked. “Juna, you were a spy sent by Excel, and Roroa, you came to me with your country in tow, right? Heck, you even came wrapped in a carpet, and surprised me with a dun-da-da-dun.”

“I directed that myself. I’m jealous of Nadie, who got a dramatic meetin’ without havin’ to do anythin’ other than be herself.”

“That’s right,” Juna said. “Meeting you as a spy leaves a bad impression, too...”

Roroa got up from her chair and turned to look away from me, while Juna looked a little dejected. Their individual reactions... felt really cute, somehow.

I rose from my chair and hugged both of them together. “Without the two of you, I’m sure I wouldn’t be here doing any of this. Juna, you brought me my ties to Excel. Roroa, you soothed the hearts of the people of the principality. Of course, the same thing goes for my meetings with Liscia and Aisha. No matter how we met, if any one of you had been missing, I couldn’t have built a present as good as the one we have now.”

“Sire...”

“Darlin’...”

I gave Roroa and Juna a big smile. “It’s thanks to all of you that I’m somehow managing to get by as king. I’m grateful.”

“Hee hee! You’re too kind,” Juna giggled.

“Ha ha ha! If ya wanna say that, I’m certainly not gonna complain.”

The two of them smiled. While I was feeling relieved...

“But still, darlin’. I’m thinkin’ you oughta show some more appreciation,” Roroa went and said.

Huh? Show it?

Roroa grabbed my arm and started swinging it around. “So, with that bein’ the case, Darlin’s sleepin’ in my bed today.”

“Ro-Roroa?!” Juna’s eyes went wide.

“How does that follow?!” I exclaimed.

“I can’t have you go layin’ a hand on me yet ’cause of the whole succession issue, but if ya keep your hands to yourself, it oughta be fine, right? I’ve heard ya already slept next to Bid Sister Cia and Big Sister Ai, so why don’tcha sleep with me and Juna, too?”

“Oh, if that’s all... I’ll go get the pillows.” Juna, seemingly satisfied with that explanation, left the room.

Huh? This was already decided?

“Ha ha ha! I’m gonna be dreamin’ sweet dreams tonight,” Roroa snickered.

“...Okay, I get it,” I said.

And so, that day, the three of us slept together.

Roroa was more clingy than necessary, and Juna’s wonderful scent made me feel a little lightheaded, but I felt tired from moving, so I quickly fell asleep.

As for what I dreamed... that’s embarrassing, so I’d rather not say.

Ruby Goes to Hal’s Family Home

I’m Ruby, a dragon who formed a dragon knight contract with Halbert, an officer of the Kingdom of Friedonia.

It’s unusual for a dragon of the Star Dragon Mountain Range to marry into any country other than the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom, but when it came to being an exception, that black girl who’d married the king had me beat.

Now, as for today, I had come to Hal’s family home, the House of Magna, but...

“You big idiot!” a man shouted.

“Gwah!”

The moment the door to the mansion opened, Hal was suddenly sent flying. In front of me, fist outstretched, there was a dapper old man who looked a lot like Hal. The old man had a red beard, and his macho body made him look like an experienced warrior.

“Owww, what do you think you’re doing, out of nowhere, Dad?” Hal cried, rubbing his cheek.

Did this mean the elderly gentleman was Hal’s father?

Hal’s father... whose name I was later told was Glaive... pointed his clenched fist towards Hal as he said, “I’ve heard the reports. About everything you did in the Star Dragon Mountain Range. I’ll recognize it was a time of crisis, and even that you were vital to solving the problem there. That said, don’t you feel bad for what you did to Kaede? You two were engaged to be married! The same goes for this girl, too. Your thoughtless actions decided her future for her!”

“Guh...”

Hal got unsteadily to his feet, but he must have had something on his mind, because he didn’t say anything in return. This was terrible, seeing Hal chastised for forming a contract with me.

“Stop this! I’m the one who was wrong!” I hurriedly interposed myself between them. “I imposed on them because I wanted to be able to do something. Hal and Kaede simply accepted that! So, please, punish me instead!”

When I appealed to him like that, Glaive blinked. It was as if he was surprised by something he hadn’t expected to happen.

Huh? Why was that his reaction? Wasn’t he upset about us forming a contract?

There was an awkward silence, and then...

“Okay, okay. You come over here.”

There was a sudden pull on my arm, moving me out from between the two of them. When I turned back, there was a lady with a gentle look on her face. The lady let go of my arm, then placed her index finger on my lips.

“No getting in their way. That’s how those two communicate as father and son.”

“C-Communicate?” I stuttered. “Like that?”

It looked to me like Hal got punched, though!

The lady placed a hand on her cheek and made a troubled smile. “Oh, men are such idiots. When he heard his son had become the first dragon knight in this country since the first hero king, he was happy, saying, ‘That idiot’s a dragon knight, huh!’”

“That’s what he says when he’s happy?!”

“But if he were only to act happy, that wouldn’t be fair to Kaede, who Hal had just gotten engaged to, or to the people of the House of Foxia, now would it? The situation being what it was, Kaede and the House of Foxia won’t blame Hal for what he did. That’s why he’s getting angry on their behalf.”

“Wh-What an awkward father and son...” I said in exasperation, and the lady giggled.

“They’re going to be your family now. By the way, I’m Hal’s mother Elba.”

“Y-You’re his mother?!”

“Oh, my, how lovely. Your red hair looks just like my husband’s and Hal’s, so it will be like having a real daughter,” Lady Elba said with a nonchalant smile. It was relieving to see that she seemed like a very warm person.

Meanwhile, now that Lady Elba had spilled his true feelings for all to hear, Sir Glaive turned red with embarrassment.

“You lucky man!” Glaive exclaimed, beating his son.

“Gwah...! Wait, I’m not going to accept getting punched for that, you jerk!”

Oh, this time Hal was hitting back.

“Ngh... Kaede wasn’t enough for you, so you went and seduced a nice girl like this, too!”

“Urgh... I didn’t seduce anyone!”

The red-haired father and son started a slugging match. On a closer look, they both seemed full of life, so Lady Elba must have been right, and this was just how the Magnas communicated.

By the way, their communication ended with a victory for Sir Glaive. That was because Hal, who probably did feel a little guilty, couldn’t help but pull his punches. While dragging the bloodied Hal behind him, Sir Glaive said to Lady Elba, “Sorry, we’re going to go apologize to the House of Foxia.”

She giggled. “Come back soon.”

Glaive set off in high spirits, dragging Hal with him, and Lady Elba watched them go with a gentle smile on her face. When I asked her about it, I was told Hal had disrespected the king once before and received that sort of punishment before being dragged to the castle to apologize. Was this how apologies were done in the House of Magna?

...Was I going to be able to make it in this house?

While I was worrying about that...

“I told this to Kaede, too, but the most important thing in married life is ‘getting used to it,’ okay?” said Lady Elba.

“...I’ll take that to heart, Mother Elba.”

All I could do was nod.

Some days later, Hal and Kaede accompanied the king south to the Republic of Turgis.

However, I ended up staying behind and watching the home front at the House of Magna. Dragons and ryuus were weak against the cold, and I would just be in the way if I accompanied the to the frigid lands of the republic.

And so, for the time being, I was enjoying the first family I had ever had.

“What do you think, Father Glaive?” I asked, giving him a shoulder rub.

“U-Ungh... Not bad.”

Glaive had a gruff face, and he could be curt, but his ears were turning red, so I could easily tell he felt embarrassed. I’d thought he was a dapper old man, but he had a pretty cute side to him, too.

“Ruby, dear, I’m going to be getting dinner ready,” said Lady Elba. “Could you help?”

“Yes, Mother Elba!”

And I cheerily went over to the kitchen.

The What-If Known as Discarded Setting Elements

*Note: This story has nothing to do with the main story. Sorry.

“...There sure are a lot of them,” Liscia said. “Far more than predicted.”

“That’s just how serious the principality is.”

As Liscia and I stood on the walls of Altomura, we could see the advancing forces of the Principality of Amidonia coming our way. The 30,000 soldiers of the principality’s army, which had moved into Elfrieden to take advantage of discord between the three dukes and me, were advancing from the south towards the fertile grain-producing region of Altomura.

We had only just put down the three dukes, and our main force, the Forbidden Army, was in the middle of absorbing the Army in the Carmine Duchy and being reorganized as the National Defense Force. The newly reorganized National Defense Force wouldn’t be coming here, and would instead launch a counter-invasion to the north and take the capital of the principality, Van.

That was why Altomura had only the local garrison of five hundred soldiers and a force of two thousand marines under the command of Admiral Excel of the Navy. We had to stop the principality’s force of 30,000 with only 2,500 soldiers, and to buy time until the main force could begin their counter-invasion.

“It’s going to be a hard battle,” Liscia said.

“We knew that. That’s why we brought that thing, isn’t it?”

We turned around to look at the shining, metallic silver of a massive mechanical dragon. Created by the pride of our kingdom, the overscientist Genia Maxwell, this was Mechadra. It was a weapon with armor that was impervious to cannons, and it had a built in Type-10 which deflected magic attacks, but no functions that would make it move. It had been a white elephant, with no purpose but to maybe act as a giant scarecrow. However, my ability, Living Poltergeists, was able to move it.

“Your Majesty, things are ready on my end,” Aisha called.

“The marines are ready to go anytime,” Juna added.

The greatest warrior in the kingdom, Aisha, and the songstress who was also the commander of the marines, Juna, came along. They both reported in like that. If we sent Mechadra out, it was guaranteed to sow confusion in the principality’s ranks. In that time, Aisha and the marines would sally from the back gate, then make a big loop around to cut off the enemy’s supply lines from the rear.

I nodded to the two of them. “Okay. Well, let’s get started.”

““Yes, sir!””

Watching Aisha and Juna run off, I tried to get into Mechadra’s “cockpit.” That was when it happened. Suddenly...

“Souma!” Liscia shouted my name and got me to stop.

I turned back to look, and Liscia threw herself at me and hugged me.

“L-Liscia?”

After I caught her, stumbling slightly, Liscia said in a strained voice, “Um, listen... I’m sorry. For getting you caught in a battle like this.”

There were tears in her eyes. Her moistened eyes were bleary with the guilt of having torn me from my homeland, but still having made me fight on behalf of this country. She must have had it eating at her all this time.

I didn’t want Liscia to look at me like that, so I put a hand on top of her head. “Don’t make that face. I’m the king now, and there are things I must do.”

Liscia kept acting worried. “But if anything were to happen to you... I... Eek!”

I hugged her tight. As I embraced her body, which despite all her strength was quite delicate, I gently patted the back of her head.

“It’s okay. Mechadra and I won’t lose.”

“Souma...”

“So, wait for me. I’ll send them packing, and then I’ll come right back to your side.”

“...Right!”

I released Liscia and got in the cockpit. Then, as I sat in my seat, I pressed my hands to the sides of the cockpit, transferring one of my consciousnesses into Mechadra.

In the next instant, Mechadra began to move like it had a will of its own, and let out a mechanical roar.

Okay... Let’s go, Mechadra.

“This is Souma Kazuya in Mechadra, launching.”

◇　◇　◇

“...Wait, huh?”

When I opened my eyes, I was in the governmental affairs office in Parnam.

In front of me was a mountain of paperwork to look through. Yep... the usual.

It looked like I’d dozed off while doing paperwork. I felt like I’d been watching a pretty realistic dream for a rather long time, but... I couldn’t remember the details.

Well, that’s just how dreams are.

When I stretched, Liscia, who had been doing paperwork with me, looked over at me with a mystified look on her face.

“Are you okay? If you’re tired, you should rest, you know?”

Liscia was showing concern for my well-being, but I told her with a forced smile, “No, it’s nothing. I just dozed off and had a weird dream.”

Explanation: This is what the story looks like if all limiters have been removed, and Souma’s abilities, Mechadra’s functions, and the reactions of surrounding countries to both are addressed. In the early stages of writing Realist Hero, I considered letting Souma really let loose with his abilities, but it seemed more difficult to set this work apart from others that way, and it also seemed contrary to what the readers wanted, so I scrapped the idea.

Liscia in Recovery

I am Liscia Elfrieden. The candidate to become Souma’s First Primary Queen.

With the matter of the Star Dragon Mountain Range sorted, we had all come back to the kingdom yesterday, but I must have been exhausted from all the moving around I’d done, because my health gave out. The symptoms were the dizziness and the lethargy I had felt affecting my whole body as I was disembarking from the gondola. Also, my appetite was a little weaker than usual.

Because it was probably just a cold, I was resting and recuperating in my own bed. There were always people rushing around the castle, but today was quiet. I was sure they must have been trying not to make too much noise around this room because I wasn’t feeling well.

“It feels like... time’s stopped,” I murmured.

Ever since Souma arrived, the days had gone by blindingly fast, so it might have been a while since I’d felt so relaxed. Souma always had some sort of work, and since I had started helping him, it had been quite a while since I’d had time where I didn’t have to do anything. It was good to be able to relax, but...

“...But I’m bored.”

I always joined the castle guards in their training with Aisha when I had spare time, but I couldn’t do that in my condition. Well, I considered reading a book, but all I had in this room were manuals on military tactics and strategy. If I read these now, I was sure to lose my lunch. It hurt to admit it myself, but I sure had a bland room. The only girly thing in this room was a doll Souma had made as part of his hobby, so I felt pretty pathetic. (Souma had way too much girl power.)

While I was sitting there with nothing to do, there was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” I called out, and Roroa came in with Aisha, who was carrying some large, covered object.

“Heya, Big Sister Cia, how’s your health holdin’ up?”

“Pardon us... Oof.” Aisha laid her large parcel down on the floor.

I blinked. “My health is stabilizing, but... what is that thing?”

Roroa laughed mischievously.

“I figured you’d be gettin’ bored, so we went and borrowed this from Darlin’. Right, Big Sister Ai?”

“Yep. Ta-dah.”

Aisha pulled back the cover to reveal a simple Jewel Voice Broadcast receiver. When Roroa pressed the switch on it, they were right in the middle of a singing program.

“Went and had one of the royal family’s units adjusted to receive public broadcasts,” Roroa said with a smugly confident look. “This oughta help kill some boredom while ya can’t go out, don’tcha think?”

“Is it okay for me to use it? We don’t have that many simple receivers...”

“We’ve received permission from His Highness. There were no plans to use it in the immediate future, so he said it’s fine,” Aisha explained.

If they’d gotten permission, it was probably fine, I guess?

“Thanks, Roroa, Aisha.”

“Ha ha ha!” Roroa laughed. “Don’t you worry about it.”

“Get well soon,” Aisha added.

They were concerned that staying to long might be a burden on me, so the two of them left the room quickly. Having been left by myself, I absentmindedly watched a music program. Usually I was on the production side of these things, so I hadn’t relaxed and watched it this way before, but... it was surprisingly good.

While I was thinking that, there was another knock at the door.

“Come in,” I called out, and this time Juna and Naden came in.

“Pardon us,” said Juna.

“We’re coming in.”

The two of them, it seemed, had armfuls of books. They lugged them in and left them at my bedside. From the look of the covers and titles, it looked like they were adventure and romance novels.

“What’s with these books?” I asked.

“They’re mine, brought here from the Star Dragon Mountain Range,” Naden said, puffing up her chest with pride.

Juna smiled wryly and added, “We heard from Lady Roroa that you were feeling bored, so Naden brought her books to lend you.”

“Because I heard you had nothing but military books. These books are all great.”

It seemed Juna and Naden, like Roroa and Aisha before them, had come with something to help assuage my boredom. I smiled and thanked them.

“Thanks, Juna, Naden.”

“Please, take good care of yourself,” Juna told me.

“If you need anything, just call us,” Naden added.

The two of them left the room. I waved to them as they reluctantly closed the door behind themselves, holding one of the books they brought tight to my chest. I was really grateful for everyone’s kindness.

“Ngh...” I murmured.

It looked like, at some point, I had fallen asleep holding Naden’s book.

By the time I woke up, the sun was already down. But it was still bright inside the room. That was because the lanterns were lit. Probably one of the maids had done that for me while I was asleep.

When I sat up, there was a knock at the door.

“How are you? Liscia.”

The one who came in after that knock was Souma. In his hands he held a tray with a small pot on it. Carla was behind him, too, carrying a soup dish and more.

“I heard you had no appetite, but I thought you should at least eat something,” Souma told me. “I imposed on the kitchen staff to have this made.”

With that said, Souma lifted the lid on the pot to show me what was inside.

“Ta-dah. Grandma’s special recipe for sick days, ‘Tamatama Udon.’”

“Tamatama Udon?”

“You simmer onions in the broth until they’re soft, then add in udon noodles, like the ones Poncho made for me. Once it’s boiled to the point it’s soft and easy to digest, you drop in an egg. There’s ginger in it, too, so it’ll warm you up, and it’s highly nutritious.”

The steam wafted off of the soup broth before my eyes. I still didn’t have much of an appetite, but it seemed I was hungry. It made me want to eat really badly.

“Thanks, I’ll have some,” I said.

“Only as much as you can handle, okay? I’m sure Aisha will eat the leftovers.”

“Hee hee! Maybe I’ll eat it all and make Aisha sad... Yep, this is good.”

Souma and Carla smiled as they watched me eat the udon. I could feel everyone’s kindness...

It’s a secret, but I thought, You know, this isn’t so bad, every once in a while.

But I couldn’t have everyone worrying about me forever. Souma and the rest would be heading off for the Republic, but it sounded like Hilde the doctor would be coming soon. I’d need her to give me a thorough examination.

The Former King and Queen are Enjoying the Slow Life

The Kingdom of Friedonia had a domain in the mountains that was under the direct control of the royal family.

It was the former domain of the previous king, Albert, from his days as a nobleman, and now it served as the place of retirement for the former royal couple.

It was pastoral, and the people there worked the fields and dairy barns by day, and then, though they only had sound, they enjoyed the Jewel Voice Broadcast’s music and other programs while drinking at night. It was a relaxed lifestyle. This was the sticks, but the people were peaceful and it was a surprisingly easy area to live in.

“La, la, la,” Albert sang.

In that tranquil place, at Albert’s manor, the former king was currently pruning the trees in his garden while singing to himself. Though Albert was remembered by the people as a good man and a mediocre king, there was actually one talent in which he excelled: horticulture.

Albert was especially good at making beautiful flowers bloom and neatly trimming the branches of the trees. This was because, in his days as an impoverished noble, he had done the gardening for the manor himself. Because it had partly been a hobby for him, his skill at it had quickly increased. The truth was, even after he’d married Elisha and joined the royal family, he had still occasionally helped maintain the castle’s inner gardens.

In particular, Albert was skilled at pruning the trees so that their branches took on the shape of animals (topiary). The leaves and branches he was pruning now were going to look like a swan cleaning its wings. There were still some minute details for him to work on, but it was already high enough quality work that it felt like it had a sense of motion to it. Then...

“Al, would you take a break and join me for tea?” his wife called.

The former queen, Elisha, was on the terrace adjoining the gardens, a maid standing at her side with tea already prepared.

Albert wiped the sweat from his brow and smiled at her. “Ohh, Elisha. I’ll be right there.”

And so, the two quietly enjoyed afternoon tea on the terrace. The afternoon went by slowly around them. Elisha enjoyed looking at the gardens as she sipped her tea.

“The number of flowers and animals has certainly increased. It’s like we’re living in a storybook.”

“A-Ahahaha... Maybe I got carried away and made too many after our son-in-law praised me for them,” Albert said with an embarrassed laugh.

Albert’s horticultural skills were wonderful, and the current provisional king, Souma, viewed them with deference. Because of that, Souma paid for Albert’s gardening expenses out of his own pocket money. He’d built a greenhouse in the garden, and whenever he came across unusual flowers, he would send them to Albert to see if they could be cultivated in this country. Because of that, the current garden was filled with flowers and animal-shaped trees of all colors.

When she saw how bashful Albert was, Elisha giggled. “Oh, what’s the harm? This garden is very popular, after all.”

There was a sudden pattering of footsteps. It looked like the children from the nearby village had come to play.

“Kiiiing! Queeeen! Hello.”

“““Hello!”””

The children greeted them with flawless smiles.

“Hey, hey, queen,” one of the children said. “Can we explore the garden again?”

“Hee hee! You can.”

Having gotten her approval, the children cried out, “Yay!” throwing their hands up in the air and running off toward the garden.

This garden, overflowing with its many-colored flowers and animal-shaped trees, was an alluring place for children to explore, and they often came here to play. Albert and Elisha didn’t really mind this, but the children’s parents, who were aware of their status, were very humble about it, and they always sent fresh vegetables as a token of appreciation for letting their children play.

“It does me good to see them so energetic, but we’re not king and queen, or anything else for that matter, anymore,” Albert said, feeling troubled as he touched his mustache.

“Oh, what’s the harm?” Elisha said. “Let them call us what they want.”

“I understand that, but it makes me feel like I’m doing a disservice to our son-in-law and Liscia, who work so hard in the castle.”

“Hee hee! Those kids wouldn’t mind it at all.” Having said that, Elisha watched the children frolicking in the garden. “To think we can spend our days in peace like this... I never imagined it.”

“Indeed. The first half of our lives was especially difficult, after all.”

The two of them had supported one another in order to make it through the succession war that had followed the death of the king before Albert. At the time, the two of them probably could never have imagined that a peaceful life like this would come.

Smiling, Elisha placed her hand on top of Albert’s. “But that’s why I’m glad I chose you. Because the me of this world chose you, we’re able to live out our days in peace like this.”

“Elisha... It was your power that made it possible for me to entrust the throne to our son-in-law. Thanks to that, I’m able to take it easy and muddle around in the garden, and to spend time with the people I love.”

“I love you, Al.”

“I love you, too, Elisha.”

The maid could only smile wryly as he watched this well-aged couple giving off a lovey dovey aura.

Then another maid came up to the two of them and handed a letter to Albert. “Master Albert, a letter from Liscia addressed to the two of you.”

“Hmm. From Liscia? Is she doing well?”

Accepting the letter, the two of them looked through it. And then...

“Oh, dear,” said Albert.

“Oh, me. Oh, my,” said Elisha.

Its contents made the two of them smile in satisfaction.