Fluffy Paradise Volume 6, page 20
That looks familiar…
Mama creates the same kind of mist when she’s very, very angry.
The mist grew thicker and darker and curled around the emperor’s sword. The sword appeared to grow in size as something translucent and shimmering affixed itself to the length of the blade.
When the emperor again swung his sword, each time it made contact with the ogre’s skin, the blade left behind white marks that stood out starkly against the ogre’s naturally gray skin tone.
When the blade touched the ogre’s skin in the same place for a second time, the discolored area fractured into pieces as if it were made of stone.
Is the sword freezing anything it touches? For such a durable body to crumble to pieces like this, the sword must be freezing him at a temperature equivalent to liquid nitrogen…
Eek, that’s terrifying to think about!
A moment later, the ogre fell to his knees.
The emperor touched his blade to the ogre’s neck and asked, “Do you accept me as your ruler?”
“…We recognize you as our master.”
So he really could speak all along!
“In that case, I, Celiunos Raux Linus, bestow upon you the name of ‘Dalgard.’”
A round blue mark appeared on the forehead of the ogre named Dalgard.
After taming Dalgard, the emperor proceeded to name the remaining ogres as well. Perhaps because they’d just watched him defeat the strongest among them, the rest of the ogres meekly accepted him as their master.
“This was a very nice present, indeed,” the emperor remarked to Will with a genuine smile that in no way resembled the terrifying smile he had during the battle.
“I’m glad you like it,” Will replied with an artificial smile.
Yikes, I’m getting goosebumps again, this time from Will…
“You just about scared the life out of poor Neema. If you insist on doing such reckless things, I’ll be forced to tell Mother,” Louis chided his older brother.
It did little to ease my fear when the emperor turned to me and apologized.
He doesn’t have to apologize to me! I don’t think he did anything wrong, I was just frightened.
“You’re not allowed to leave Wildwood, but other than that, you’re free to do as you like,” the emperor said to the ogres.
“Very well,” Dalgard acknowledged the order, then disappeared into the forest, taking the other ogres with him.
“Now that that’s taken care of, I’d like to invite you and the others to dine with us, Will. What do you say?”
“All of these people? Are you sure?”
“You can fly, can’t you?”
And so it was decided that we would skip returning to Earl Helios’s manor entirely and fly straight back to the imperial palace.
However, the unit leader of the emperor’s private guard flat-out refused to allow him to fly back unaccompanied, so we had to wait for the dragon corps to meet us.
While we were waiting, I took advantage of the chance to chat with Ghizel.
“Hey, Ghizel! How have you been?”
“Those guys have been using the promise of getting to see you to manipulate us into doing whatever they want.”
I don’t really understand what he means; he sounds seriously ticked off! What was Dan thinking?!
I quickly searched around for Dan and saw him standing near Sol. He stood still, not moving a single muscle, just staring up at the giant red dragon.
Is it just my imagination, or does it look like he’s gazing adoringly at Sol like he’s the most amazing thing he’s ever seen?
“Dan!” I shouted loudly, finally shaking him out of his stupor. “Ghizel and the others are very unhappy. What kind of orders did you give them?”
“…Huh? Wait, what?!” He seemed surprised, but I found it strange that Dan, who was normally so attentive to the smallest changes in the dragons’ moods, hadn’t noticed.
“What’s wrong? Is there something on your mind?” I asked.
“Oh, um, no… Nothing like that…” Dan prevaricated, glancing discretely over at Sol again.
“Why do you keep looking at Sol, then?”
“He’s just nervous because someone he idolizes so much is right here in front of him.” This answer came from an older man who I’d never met before.
“Someone he idolizes?” I asked.
“Pfft, this guy clawed his way up to the position of legion commander with nothing but his borderline-excessive love of dragons. So there’s no way he could act normal when a primordial dragon is so close that he could practically reach out and touch him.”
Oh, so that’s it. I suppose that’s true; Dan really does love dragons. So much so, in fact, that I’ve heard not only Lestin but also many other people tease him about it.
“By the way, who are you, mister?” I asked.
“Forgive me for the late introduction. I’m the Director of the Intelligence Department, Seerio Yugee,” the man said, executing the formal bow that the knighthood used when speaking to a member of the nobility.
“I am Dayland Osphe’s youngest daughter, Nefertima,” I introduced myself in return, choosing an appropriately respectful curtsy in light of his position of authority.
“Dan, everyone is planning to head back to the Imperial City, but I think you’d better placate Ghizel and the others first…”
“To the Imperial City?”
Dan was confused about why we were traveling to the Imperial City, so I explained that His Majesty, the emperor, had invited Will to dinner. When he heard this, for some reason, Dan’s shoulders sagged in dejection.
What exactly did he say to the dragons to get them to come here?
“Lady Nefertima, if you wouldn’t mind, could you please help Dan out? The dragons were complaining, so to get them to carry the ogres, he told them they could see you if they did.”
I thought so! I guess I’ll have to help him out, then.
“Come on, Dan. Let’s go!” I said, all but dragging Dan over to where Ghizel and the others were waiting.
The dragons let loose a barrage of complaints against Dan, but in the end, I calmed them down, and once that was out of the way, we used the wide-open field to play to our hearts’ content.
With seven of them and only one of me, I was a bit outnumbered, so I roped Shinki into playing with us, too.
For some reason, they were still into the strange game where Shinki dragged them around by their tails. Their bodies left trenches of overturned earth in the grassy field as they were dragged back and forth.
Just when the dragons’ moods had finally improved, the wyverns arrived, and for a tense moment, I thought they were going to go at each other tooth and nail. Thankfully, all it took was a single word from Sol to settle everyone down.
Way to go, Sol!
“Have a safe journey!” Earl Helios called out as she and Lutie saw off the small army of flying dragons that leapt into the sky one after another.
Louis and Theo were riding wyverns.
Karna, Paul, and the others were riding lindblooms. I’d given strict instructions to the lindblooms before we took off to make sure not to let them fall, so I was pretty sure they’d be okay.
As for Shinki, he was riding on Sol, carrying Seigo and Rikusei in his arms. He looked like he was carrying two little stuffed animals, which was adorable all on its own. Plus, the fact that they could be so easily mistaken for stuffed animals just went to show how cute Seigo and Rikusei were.
Inaho and Haku were riding on top of Sol’s head. Inaho and Sol had immediately hit it off, maybe because they were both fire-affiliated?
Gratia was with me, riding on Lars’s back. He’d missed Lars’s fluffy fur just as much as I had because he was enjoying it with his entire body.
I’m jealous! I wish I could sink into Lars’s fur until my body disappears, too! I bet it would make an amazing mattress…
Due to Sol’s striking appearance, a rumor began to spread like wildfire through all the countries…
“The primordial dragon of the north brought an army of dragons and razed the southern country to the ground.”
🐎🐅🐎
POV: Director of the Intelligence Department
“SEERIO! The beloved child is here!” Serafi excitedly flew in circles around me the moment she laid eyes on Lady Nefertima. “This is incredible! I never thought I would see the fire dragon, a blue pegasus, and Lars all in one place…”
It wasn’t just Serafi; all of the elemental spirits in the area were excited.
Not only was the beloved child here, but a veritable army of holy beasts accompanied her.
When we arrive in the imperial city there will be another blue pegasus and an earth tiger in the imperial palace, as well. I hope the elemental spirits don’t get too excited and accidentally cause minor natural disasters!
“Hey, Seerio… Let’s go talk to the beloved child!”
“Okay, fine. But you behave yourself, got it?”
Serafi and I made our way over to Lady Nefertima, who was speaking with a besotted-looking Dan.
Yeesh, is he still staring at the fire dragon?
I explained Dan’s situation to Lady Nefertima, and all was going well until it came time to introduce ourselves.
After that, Serafi began clinging to Lady Nefertima, repeatedly exclaiming how “Cuuuute!” she was. She wasn’t doing anything too bad, just patting Lady Nefertima’s hair and poking her cheeks, but she should’ve known the hell this would unleash…
Just as I’d feared, the other elemental spirits all began clinging to Lady Nefertima as well.
Gradually, I lost sight of the tiny noblewoman among the crowd of eager elemental spirits gathered around her. There were several intermediate-level elemental spirits and an uncountable number of low-level elemental spirits jostling to get close to her.
You have no idea how hard it was to keep from laughing at that moment.
His Highness, who could also see the elemental spirits, surprised me by laughing out loud, something I’d never heard him do before.
Following the young prince’s lead, His Imperial Majesty also began laughing.
If Lars hadn’t stepped in, the elemental spirits probably would’ve never let her go.
Side Story: Together Is Best!
I’M going to be completely honest: the flight back to the imperial city was freaking awesome!
I understood now why Karna said the Linus Empire is a beautiful country.
The scenery was breathtaking, especially when viewed from above.
There was a massive waterfall that looked remarkably similar to the Iguazu Falls. Due to the high elevation, the amount of water was relatively small, and it mostly dispersed into mist by the time it reached the ground at the bottom of the falls. That created a very beautiful perpetual rainbow.
We also passed over lakes of various colors, as well as several seemingly bottomless deep lakes. When I remarked that I wanted to swim in them, I was told that was inadvisable as the lakes were home to carnivorous fish. Maybe those were this world’s equivalent to piranhas?
There was also a massive field of flowers that I wished we could’ve landed in so I could see them up close.
These flowers, called saze, were a light pink that reminded me nostalgically of cherry blossoms. Saze were used to produce cooking oil, so in reality, they were probably more similar to safflowers than cherry blossoms.
The imperial family owned a retreat in the same province where the saze farm was, and the castle there was just as gorgeous as Azurite Palace.
At times like this, I wish they had cameras in this world!
I got so excited that Will scolded me for distracting Lars while he was flying, but I couldn’t help it. I definitely wanted to go sightseeing in the sky again sometime.
When we arrived in the imperial city, the wyverns landed in a large courtyard on the south side of the imperial palace. I was told that this courtyard, which contained nothing but bare grass, was intended for wyverns to land in during ceremonies and in case of emergencies.
We also had a spot designated for lindblooms to land at the royal palace in the Kingdom of Gaché when delivering emergency messages and so on, so this was fairly common in countries with winged dragons.
Once everyone had dismounted, the lieutenant of the Dragon Corps announced that they would be returning to the barracks, but for some reason, the wyverns seemed opposed to that plan.
I asked them what the problem was, and the wyverns said it would be unforgivably rude to leave without first paying their respects to Sol. However, because the lieutenant couldn’t understand what the wyverns were saying, he had no way of figuring out what they were so upset about.
In that case, I’ll lend him a hand!
“Sol, don’t go anywhere just yet, okay?!”
Sol responded to my request by not responding at all, simply lying down in the grass to wait.
I hurried over to the lieutenant and explained the wyverns’ wishes to him.
“They said they want to pay their respects to Sol, so please wait just a little longer.”
“They want to greet the fire dragon?”
I explained that the wyverns viewed primordial dragons as special beings. In the same way that holy beasts were revered by beastpeople, all the different species of dragons likewise revered primordial dragons.
To compare it to humans, it was more like the respect we felt for persons of authority, such as a king or emperor, rather than the worshipful light in which we viewed holy beasts.
When you put it that way, no one with any manners would dare to leave without first paying their respects to His Majesty.
Everyone who worked with dragons had a special fondness for them because once I explained the situation to the lieutenant, he immediately agreed to the dragons’ request.
“I’m sorry for not realizing on my own. Go on and pay your respects.”
The lieutenant gave a light pat to the closest wyvern’s flank and urged them to head over to speak to Sol. But before the wyvern made its way to speak with Sol, it first turned to me.
“Thank you, dragon’s maiden.”
“You’re welcome.”
I’ve gotten used to playing the role of a translator since the dragon knights are always struggling to communicate with the lindblooms and lindrakes without being able to understand their language. But it’s interesting to see the distinct difference in the wyverns’ serious personalities compared to the more playful lindblooms and lindrakes.
The lindblooms and lindrakes were free-willed and only really cared about having fun, whereas the wyverns were more focused on their work, making their mental age seem a bit higher.
As if to prove that point, the lindblooms were frolicking boisterously around in the grassy courtyard, playing just as they always did at home.
One of the lindblooms had even grabbed Shinki and was forcing him to play with them.
Go ahead and indulge them, Shinki!
As for the wyverns, they approached Sol and made a show of lowering their heads in deference to him.
Sol maintained his silence, merely flapping his wings once in acknowledgment.
I wasn’t quite sure what all that signified, but the wyverns seemed satisfied because afterward, they returned to where their riders were waiting and, this time, allowed themselves to be herded back to the barracks without a fuss.
“Now that that’s taken care of, shall we relax and enjoy a nice cup of tea?” the emperor suggested, effectively urging everyone to head inside. But I still wanted to play some more.
Maybe I can convince Will to leave Lars with me. He doesn’t need him for anything right now.
“Is it okay if I stay and play with Sol and the others a bit longer?” I asked hopefully.
“That’s fine.”
All right! The emperor gave his permission, so no one would dare try to stop me from playing as much as I want!
“Lars, you come too!”
Lars glanced at Will, confirming that was okay with him, then used his huge head to bump the small of my back gently as if saying, “All right, let’s go.”
With Lars urging me forward, I quickly turned and called out to Euche as well.
“Euche, come play with us!”
I’d been a bit worried he might refuse since it meant being around Sol, but in the end, he relented, apparently deciding that playing with me was more important than avoiding Sol.
Besides, even if I call it “playing together,” I’m sure Sol and Lars will just watch from the sidelines as usual.
Ultimately, Euche and the lindblooms ended up playing together. The sight of it was enough to make me aware of the age difference between them.
I feel like I’ve seen this game somewhere before…
Euche was producing balls of water, and the lindblooms were catching them in their mouths.
Oh, I’ve got it! It’s like when our family’s pet dog in my past life used to use his mouth to try and “catch” the spray of water from a water gun!
In any case, I was determined to get my revenge on the lot of them for misfiring and soaking me. I got Shinki to help me, and together we dumped an entire bucket’s worth of water on Euche and each of the lindblooms.
Well, technically, the elemental spirits produced the water at Shinki’s request…
We may have overdone it a bit, though, because before I knew it, the grassy clearing was flooded. It felt interesting to walk across the boggy grass, but once the lindblooms started rolling around in it, the lawn was ruined.
This isn’t good. I won’t be able to avoid a thorough scolding for this…
“The earth spirits say they can fix this easily,” Shinki said, relaying a message from the earth spirits nearby.
Thank you, earth spirits!
I eagerly took the earth spirits up on their offer and had them fix the ruined grass.
Just as they’d finished removing the last traces of our exuberant and slightly destructive playtime, Spica came to get me, saying it was time to change for dinner.
There was still one more thing I wanted to do, so I begged Sol not to leave yet.
“That’s fine with me; if the water holy beast doesn’t have a problem with it…”
It took a bit of convincing on my part, but I persuaded Euche to agree to allow Sol to stay.
Mama creates the same kind of mist when she’s very, very angry.
The mist grew thicker and darker and curled around the emperor’s sword. The sword appeared to grow in size as something translucent and shimmering affixed itself to the length of the blade.
When the emperor again swung his sword, each time it made contact with the ogre’s skin, the blade left behind white marks that stood out starkly against the ogre’s naturally gray skin tone.
When the blade touched the ogre’s skin in the same place for a second time, the discolored area fractured into pieces as if it were made of stone.
Is the sword freezing anything it touches? For such a durable body to crumble to pieces like this, the sword must be freezing him at a temperature equivalent to liquid nitrogen…
Eek, that’s terrifying to think about!
A moment later, the ogre fell to his knees.
The emperor touched his blade to the ogre’s neck and asked, “Do you accept me as your ruler?”
“…We recognize you as our master.”
So he really could speak all along!
“In that case, I, Celiunos Raux Linus, bestow upon you the name of ‘Dalgard.’”
A round blue mark appeared on the forehead of the ogre named Dalgard.
After taming Dalgard, the emperor proceeded to name the remaining ogres as well. Perhaps because they’d just watched him defeat the strongest among them, the rest of the ogres meekly accepted him as their master.
“This was a very nice present, indeed,” the emperor remarked to Will with a genuine smile that in no way resembled the terrifying smile he had during the battle.
“I’m glad you like it,” Will replied with an artificial smile.
Yikes, I’m getting goosebumps again, this time from Will…
“You just about scared the life out of poor Neema. If you insist on doing such reckless things, I’ll be forced to tell Mother,” Louis chided his older brother.
It did little to ease my fear when the emperor turned to me and apologized.
He doesn’t have to apologize to me! I don’t think he did anything wrong, I was just frightened.
“You’re not allowed to leave Wildwood, but other than that, you’re free to do as you like,” the emperor said to the ogres.
“Very well,” Dalgard acknowledged the order, then disappeared into the forest, taking the other ogres with him.
“Now that that’s taken care of, I’d like to invite you and the others to dine with us, Will. What do you say?”
“All of these people? Are you sure?”
“You can fly, can’t you?”
And so it was decided that we would skip returning to Earl Helios’s manor entirely and fly straight back to the imperial palace.
However, the unit leader of the emperor’s private guard flat-out refused to allow him to fly back unaccompanied, so we had to wait for the dragon corps to meet us.
While we were waiting, I took advantage of the chance to chat with Ghizel.
“Hey, Ghizel! How have you been?”
“Those guys have been using the promise of getting to see you to manipulate us into doing whatever they want.”
I don’t really understand what he means; he sounds seriously ticked off! What was Dan thinking?!
I quickly searched around for Dan and saw him standing near Sol. He stood still, not moving a single muscle, just staring up at the giant red dragon.
Is it just my imagination, or does it look like he’s gazing adoringly at Sol like he’s the most amazing thing he’s ever seen?
“Dan!” I shouted loudly, finally shaking him out of his stupor. “Ghizel and the others are very unhappy. What kind of orders did you give them?”
“…Huh? Wait, what?!” He seemed surprised, but I found it strange that Dan, who was normally so attentive to the smallest changes in the dragons’ moods, hadn’t noticed.
“What’s wrong? Is there something on your mind?” I asked.
“Oh, um, no… Nothing like that…” Dan prevaricated, glancing discretely over at Sol again.
“Why do you keep looking at Sol, then?”
“He’s just nervous because someone he idolizes so much is right here in front of him.” This answer came from an older man who I’d never met before.
“Someone he idolizes?” I asked.
“Pfft, this guy clawed his way up to the position of legion commander with nothing but his borderline-excessive love of dragons. So there’s no way he could act normal when a primordial dragon is so close that he could practically reach out and touch him.”
Oh, so that’s it. I suppose that’s true; Dan really does love dragons. So much so, in fact, that I’ve heard not only Lestin but also many other people tease him about it.
“By the way, who are you, mister?” I asked.
“Forgive me for the late introduction. I’m the Director of the Intelligence Department, Seerio Yugee,” the man said, executing the formal bow that the knighthood used when speaking to a member of the nobility.
“I am Dayland Osphe’s youngest daughter, Nefertima,” I introduced myself in return, choosing an appropriately respectful curtsy in light of his position of authority.
“Dan, everyone is planning to head back to the Imperial City, but I think you’d better placate Ghizel and the others first…”
“To the Imperial City?”
Dan was confused about why we were traveling to the Imperial City, so I explained that His Majesty, the emperor, had invited Will to dinner. When he heard this, for some reason, Dan’s shoulders sagged in dejection.
What exactly did he say to the dragons to get them to come here?
“Lady Nefertima, if you wouldn’t mind, could you please help Dan out? The dragons were complaining, so to get them to carry the ogres, he told them they could see you if they did.”
I thought so! I guess I’ll have to help him out, then.
“Come on, Dan. Let’s go!” I said, all but dragging Dan over to where Ghizel and the others were waiting.
The dragons let loose a barrage of complaints against Dan, but in the end, I calmed them down, and once that was out of the way, we used the wide-open field to play to our hearts’ content.
With seven of them and only one of me, I was a bit outnumbered, so I roped Shinki into playing with us, too.
For some reason, they were still into the strange game where Shinki dragged them around by their tails. Their bodies left trenches of overturned earth in the grassy field as they were dragged back and forth.
Just when the dragons’ moods had finally improved, the wyverns arrived, and for a tense moment, I thought they were going to go at each other tooth and nail. Thankfully, all it took was a single word from Sol to settle everyone down.
Way to go, Sol!
“Have a safe journey!” Earl Helios called out as she and Lutie saw off the small army of flying dragons that leapt into the sky one after another.
Louis and Theo were riding wyverns.
Karna, Paul, and the others were riding lindblooms. I’d given strict instructions to the lindblooms before we took off to make sure not to let them fall, so I was pretty sure they’d be okay.
As for Shinki, he was riding on Sol, carrying Seigo and Rikusei in his arms. He looked like he was carrying two little stuffed animals, which was adorable all on its own. Plus, the fact that they could be so easily mistaken for stuffed animals just went to show how cute Seigo and Rikusei were.
Inaho and Haku were riding on top of Sol’s head. Inaho and Sol had immediately hit it off, maybe because they were both fire-affiliated?
Gratia was with me, riding on Lars’s back. He’d missed Lars’s fluffy fur just as much as I had because he was enjoying it with his entire body.
I’m jealous! I wish I could sink into Lars’s fur until my body disappears, too! I bet it would make an amazing mattress…
Due to Sol’s striking appearance, a rumor began to spread like wildfire through all the countries…
“The primordial dragon of the north brought an army of dragons and razed the southern country to the ground.”
🐎🐅🐎
POV: Director of the Intelligence Department
“SEERIO! The beloved child is here!” Serafi excitedly flew in circles around me the moment she laid eyes on Lady Nefertima. “This is incredible! I never thought I would see the fire dragon, a blue pegasus, and Lars all in one place…”
It wasn’t just Serafi; all of the elemental spirits in the area were excited.
Not only was the beloved child here, but a veritable army of holy beasts accompanied her.
When we arrive in the imperial city there will be another blue pegasus and an earth tiger in the imperial palace, as well. I hope the elemental spirits don’t get too excited and accidentally cause minor natural disasters!
“Hey, Seerio… Let’s go talk to the beloved child!”
“Okay, fine. But you behave yourself, got it?”
Serafi and I made our way over to Lady Nefertima, who was speaking with a besotted-looking Dan.
Yeesh, is he still staring at the fire dragon?
I explained Dan’s situation to Lady Nefertima, and all was going well until it came time to introduce ourselves.
After that, Serafi began clinging to Lady Nefertima, repeatedly exclaiming how “Cuuuute!” she was. She wasn’t doing anything too bad, just patting Lady Nefertima’s hair and poking her cheeks, but she should’ve known the hell this would unleash…
Just as I’d feared, the other elemental spirits all began clinging to Lady Nefertima as well.
Gradually, I lost sight of the tiny noblewoman among the crowd of eager elemental spirits gathered around her. There were several intermediate-level elemental spirits and an uncountable number of low-level elemental spirits jostling to get close to her.
You have no idea how hard it was to keep from laughing at that moment.
His Highness, who could also see the elemental spirits, surprised me by laughing out loud, something I’d never heard him do before.
Following the young prince’s lead, His Imperial Majesty also began laughing.
If Lars hadn’t stepped in, the elemental spirits probably would’ve never let her go.
Side Story: Together Is Best!
I’M going to be completely honest: the flight back to the imperial city was freaking awesome!
I understood now why Karna said the Linus Empire is a beautiful country.
The scenery was breathtaking, especially when viewed from above.
There was a massive waterfall that looked remarkably similar to the Iguazu Falls. Due to the high elevation, the amount of water was relatively small, and it mostly dispersed into mist by the time it reached the ground at the bottom of the falls. That created a very beautiful perpetual rainbow.
We also passed over lakes of various colors, as well as several seemingly bottomless deep lakes. When I remarked that I wanted to swim in them, I was told that was inadvisable as the lakes were home to carnivorous fish. Maybe those were this world’s equivalent to piranhas?
There was also a massive field of flowers that I wished we could’ve landed in so I could see them up close.
These flowers, called saze, were a light pink that reminded me nostalgically of cherry blossoms. Saze were used to produce cooking oil, so in reality, they were probably more similar to safflowers than cherry blossoms.
The imperial family owned a retreat in the same province where the saze farm was, and the castle there was just as gorgeous as Azurite Palace.
At times like this, I wish they had cameras in this world!
I got so excited that Will scolded me for distracting Lars while he was flying, but I couldn’t help it. I definitely wanted to go sightseeing in the sky again sometime.
When we arrived in the imperial city, the wyverns landed in a large courtyard on the south side of the imperial palace. I was told that this courtyard, which contained nothing but bare grass, was intended for wyverns to land in during ceremonies and in case of emergencies.
We also had a spot designated for lindblooms to land at the royal palace in the Kingdom of Gaché when delivering emergency messages and so on, so this was fairly common in countries with winged dragons.
Once everyone had dismounted, the lieutenant of the Dragon Corps announced that they would be returning to the barracks, but for some reason, the wyverns seemed opposed to that plan.
I asked them what the problem was, and the wyverns said it would be unforgivably rude to leave without first paying their respects to Sol. However, because the lieutenant couldn’t understand what the wyverns were saying, he had no way of figuring out what they were so upset about.
In that case, I’ll lend him a hand!
“Sol, don’t go anywhere just yet, okay?!”
Sol responded to my request by not responding at all, simply lying down in the grass to wait.
I hurried over to the lieutenant and explained the wyverns’ wishes to him.
“They said they want to pay their respects to Sol, so please wait just a little longer.”
“They want to greet the fire dragon?”
I explained that the wyverns viewed primordial dragons as special beings. In the same way that holy beasts were revered by beastpeople, all the different species of dragons likewise revered primordial dragons.
To compare it to humans, it was more like the respect we felt for persons of authority, such as a king or emperor, rather than the worshipful light in which we viewed holy beasts.
When you put it that way, no one with any manners would dare to leave without first paying their respects to His Majesty.
Everyone who worked with dragons had a special fondness for them because once I explained the situation to the lieutenant, he immediately agreed to the dragons’ request.
“I’m sorry for not realizing on my own. Go on and pay your respects.”
The lieutenant gave a light pat to the closest wyvern’s flank and urged them to head over to speak to Sol. But before the wyvern made its way to speak with Sol, it first turned to me.
“Thank you, dragon’s maiden.”
“You’re welcome.”
I’ve gotten used to playing the role of a translator since the dragon knights are always struggling to communicate with the lindblooms and lindrakes without being able to understand their language. But it’s interesting to see the distinct difference in the wyverns’ serious personalities compared to the more playful lindblooms and lindrakes.
The lindblooms and lindrakes were free-willed and only really cared about having fun, whereas the wyverns were more focused on their work, making their mental age seem a bit higher.
As if to prove that point, the lindblooms were frolicking boisterously around in the grassy courtyard, playing just as they always did at home.
One of the lindblooms had even grabbed Shinki and was forcing him to play with them.
Go ahead and indulge them, Shinki!
As for the wyverns, they approached Sol and made a show of lowering their heads in deference to him.
Sol maintained his silence, merely flapping his wings once in acknowledgment.
I wasn’t quite sure what all that signified, but the wyverns seemed satisfied because afterward, they returned to where their riders were waiting and, this time, allowed themselves to be herded back to the barracks without a fuss.
“Now that that’s taken care of, shall we relax and enjoy a nice cup of tea?” the emperor suggested, effectively urging everyone to head inside. But I still wanted to play some more.
Maybe I can convince Will to leave Lars with me. He doesn’t need him for anything right now.
“Is it okay if I stay and play with Sol and the others a bit longer?” I asked hopefully.
“That’s fine.”
All right! The emperor gave his permission, so no one would dare try to stop me from playing as much as I want!
“Lars, you come too!”
Lars glanced at Will, confirming that was okay with him, then used his huge head to bump the small of my back gently as if saying, “All right, let’s go.”
With Lars urging me forward, I quickly turned and called out to Euche as well.
“Euche, come play with us!”
I’d been a bit worried he might refuse since it meant being around Sol, but in the end, he relented, apparently deciding that playing with me was more important than avoiding Sol.
Besides, even if I call it “playing together,” I’m sure Sol and Lars will just watch from the sidelines as usual.
Ultimately, Euche and the lindblooms ended up playing together. The sight of it was enough to make me aware of the age difference between them.
I feel like I’ve seen this game somewhere before…
Euche was producing balls of water, and the lindblooms were catching them in their mouths.
Oh, I’ve got it! It’s like when our family’s pet dog in my past life used to use his mouth to try and “catch” the spray of water from a water gun!
In any case, I was determined to get my revenge on the lot of them for misfiring and soaking me. I got Shinki to help me, and together we dumped an entire bucket’s worth of water on Euche and each of the lindblooms.
Well, technically, the elemental spirits produced the water at Shinki’s request…
We may have overdone it a bit, though, because before I knew it, the grassy clearing was flooded. It felt interesting to walk across the boggy grass, but once the lindblooms started rolling around in it, the lawn was ruined.
This isn’t good. I won’t be able to avoid a thorough scolding for this…
“The earth spirits say they can fix this easily,” Shinki said, relaying a message from the earth spirits nearby.
Thank you, earth spirits!
I eagerly took the earth spirits up on their offer and had them fix the ruined grass.
Just as they’d finished removing the last traces of our exuberant and slightly destructive playtime, Spica came to get me, saying it was time to change for dinner.
There was still one more thing I wanted to do, so I begged Sol not to leave yet.
“That’s fine with me; if the water holy beast doesn’t have a problem with it…”
It took a bit of convincing on my part, but I persuaded Euche to agree to allow Sol to stay.
