by CHIROLU
Her response to Dale calling out her name in joy was a flow of tears.
“...?!”
As Dale panicked and fell to his knees, speechless, Latina shed even more teardrops. “L-Latina?!”
“L-Latina’s sorry... She’s sorry... She’s so sorry that she didn’t keep her promise...” said Latina, sobbing convulsively as she apologized. “Dale, are you mad because Latina was bad?”
“I’m not mad! Not at all! I was just worried!” Dale shook his head vigorously, but Latina only kept on talking, shaking her head in denial as well.
“It’s okay if you’re mad. Latina was bad, after all... B-But, Latina was scared. She was scared she wouldn’t make it back.”
The tears were now steadily overflowing from her big grey eyes. With the last bit of composure he had left, Dale realized that this was the first time he’d seen the young girl cry.
“Latina doesn’t wanna be alone again, Dale... It’s fine if you’re mad at Latina, but she wants to stay with you...”
Apparently, Latina had thought on this a lot after she’d made it back to the Dancing Ocelot. During that time, she must have remembered the helplessness and anxiety she’d felt when she was lost, leaving her awash in strong emotions. She felt she absolutely needed to apologize, but once she had, she was swept away by that feeling of unease... Or at least, that was what Dale guessed later on, after he calmed down.
For now, as he was a complete and utter wreck, all he could do was hug the sobbing Latina tight. At this point, the fact that she was already sobbing became her reason for crying more.
For a time, she couldn’t talk and just kept on weeping. As Latina continued to cry, Dale was only able to keep himself together because he knew that this would eventually end when she tired herself out. Dale held Latina in his arms as she became exhausted and nodded off, and the nearby customers shot him strained smiles.
This was the moment that a new drinking tale for the shop, which would later come to be called the “panic and wailing incident,” was born.
†
After that day, Latina began playing with the children from the eastern district.
The shop in the southern district faced out on the street, and it had a more wholesome feel to it than the other stores that served adventurers. But even so, it was no place for children to be playing. And yet, Dale started to see children in the area as of late, which he found odd. But when he heard the story from Kenneth, Rita, and Latina, he figured out what was happening.
The children from the eastern district had been coming to pick up Latina, who was unfamiliar with the town, playing with her, and then escorting her back when they were done. Apparently, the kids also knew that this part of the southern district wasn’t entirely safe, so they always came as a group.
It’s not as though Dale thought it’d be alright to keep Latina in the shop forever, and he had also been worried that she was only interacting with adults like himself. And in that way, these children from the eastern district were a godsend.
As a result, he casually remarked, “I’m glad you made some friends, Latina.”
Her response of, “What does ‘friends’ mean, Dale?” though, was something he hadn’t expected in the least.
“Huh? Um... did you not have any friends before, Latina?”
“...? Latina doesn’t really understand what ‘friends’ means. Chloe also said Latina was her friend, but Latina doesn’t get it.”
As Latina tilted her head in confusion, Dale let out a, “Hmm...”
Since Latina was carefree and he didn’t sense any sort of uneasy gloom from her, Dale figured that she wasn’t necessarily treated horribly back in her home village. And yet, she had a broken horn. And so she had become possibly the greatest possible sort of target for contempt amongst devils.
He had no clue if he was stepping on a landmine here or not.
“Um... Latina, did you not ever play with kids around your age before?”
“Playing together? Do you mean with family?”
“No, not family. Didn’t you ever play with kids from other houses?”
Latina tilted her head in confusion again.
“Latina... only ever had family and adults around.”
With that, Dale remembered that devils were a race with a long lifespan and a low birthrate. There wouldn’t be many kids around in the first place.
“Hmm... Friends refer to people other than your family who you can play and talk with. They’re usually around the same age as you.” He added the last part so she wouldn’t think of him, Rita, and Kenneth as her “friends.” “And out of those sorts of people, they’re the ones who come to like you.”
He couldn’t really say that was the way the world worked, but he wanted to raise this honest child while letting her think that. That’s what Dale thought.
“Chloe likes Latina?”
“I doubt anybody would want to become friends with someone they weren’t fond of.”
After thinking on Dale’s words for a while, Latina’s expression lit up.
“Latina likes Chloe, too. She’s glad Chloe called Latina her friend.”
“I see.”
Seeing the happy look on her face made Dale worry a little as he patted Latina’s head. He thought he should ask the meaning of what she said before, so he chose his words carefully and spoke.
“...What sort of people were you around before?”
“Latina doesn’t know. How should she put it?”
Having had this question, which he’d needed to steel himself to ask, answered with another question, Dale at last realized his mistake. Latina had fundamentally no words to use for explaining things.
“Um, about your family... Did you have any siblings?”
“Siblings?”
“Kids in your family who have the same parents. A boy would be your brother, while a girl would be your sister, and they can be older or younger than you. That’s what ‘siblings’ means.”
“Latina had an older brother and sister. But no younger ones,” Latina responded, having heard Dale’s explanation.
“What sort of people were the adults?”
“Don’t know. Latina didn’t meet other people much, and she didn’t talk to them. She was usually with her family,” answered Latina, getting a little depressed in the process. This seemed about the right place to stop. After all, these didn’t seem to be happy memories for her.
Having decided that, Dale was about to put an end to the discussion.
“That’s why Latina’s so happy now, because she gets to spend lots of time with Dale.” The words that she said, while seeming to somewhat embarrass her, landed a critical hit. The smile she gave Dale now wouldn’t lose out to even the one she made when eating her beloved sweets. “Latina likes Chloe, but she loves Dale lots and lots more.”
“I love you too, Latina! You really are cute!” Latina’s face truly looked happy as he said those words and suddenly hugged her.
If this were a plot to make me drop the matter, then that’d be an ominous premonition... But if it were an ugly, wicked woman who was trying to deceive me, it would be no problem!
Regardless of these ridiculous thoughts, Dale seemed to be truly blissful at this moment.
4: The Young Man Heads Out (a Full Account)
“Latina’s so cute that I just don’t want to go to work!”
“Are you still saying that, you moron?”
As Dale uttered his typical line with a terribly serious look on his face, Rita gave her normal, casual response back.
“I don’t waaaaaaanna! I won’t make it back tonight, and I don’t even know how many days I’ll be gone! How am I supposed to handle leaving Latina so I can go deal with those demonic old geezers?!”
He was slumped across the counter, and the sound of his fists pounding on it grew louder and louder. Needless to say, when he started stomping his feet as well, he looked just like a spoiled brat throwing a fit. That just went to show how stressful he found the situati
on.
“If it bugs you that much, then why don’t you take Latina with you to the capital?”
“Well y’see, if I let those bastards in the capital take care of Latina, who knows what could happen... I can’t imagine anything but trouble coming from that.”
Dale snapped back to his senses in an instant, then fell limp across the counter again.
“I get it... It’s for work, so I’ve gotta do it. And knowing that Latina’s waiting for me, that’ll motivate me more than ever. Plus, Latina seems to have made some friends, so that should help keep her distracted while she’s holding down the fort... So I get it, already!”
He clenched his fists tightly and his knuckles turned white, as if to show how deep the emotions driving the action were.
“But still, I just don’t wanna!”
Ah, he really was pathetic.
In response to Dale’s outpouring, Rita looked at him as if to say he was a hopeless case.
“If you get that there’s nothing you can do about it, then how about bringing Latina back a souvenir that you think she’ll like from the capital?”
As Dale turned to face Rita, he looked as if a light had gone off in his head.
“You have to worry about sizes when it comes to clothes, and it wouldn’t be long before she’d outgrow them, so don’t go with that. Oh right, she’s really fond of sweets, so how about taking a look at some famous shops in the capital?”
“Souvenirs... Souvenirs, huh...?”
Dale went to the capital for work so often that he hadn’t even considered the idea of buying souvenirs. The closest he got was when Kenneth occasionally asked him to pick up things that were hard to get in Kreuz while he was there.
Latina would be all smiles when she saw the latest popular sweets from the capital, and she’d definitely say, “Thank you!” in that cute voice of hers. Definitely. There was no doubt. She may even throw in an “I love you, Dale!” What should he do? She was just too cute! He may even be able to survive on that cuteness alone.
“I think I may be able to give it my all.”
“Yeah, right. Good for you,” said Rita, who had already returned to work and was no longer looking at him.
On the morning of the day that Dale was heading to the capital, Latina got up early to see him off. The morning sun hadn’t completely risen yet, and it was long before she would normally wake up.
“Don’t push yourself. How about just going back to sleep?” Dale told her, but she shook her head and crawled out of bed.
And yet, she was still pretty sleepy. It would be rather dangerous to let her try to go down the stairs like this, even more so considering their room was in the attic and reached via ladder.
Dale lifted her up with a strained smile.
Even though not too much time had passed since they first met, he could tell that she’d managed to regain a relieving amount of weight.
Latina was currently still half-asleep and kept nodding off, then forcing herself back awake.
“I’m sorry, Latina... You’re going to be holding down the fort for a bit. Do you think you can handle it?”
Feeling Dale’s palm on her back, her eyes shot open, and she responded with a serious look of determination on her face. “Latina will give it her all. She’ll be here with Rita and Kenneth. So please, come back.”
“Right, and I’ll bring a souvenir back with me. So take care, and watch the place for me.”
He gave her one last, firm hug and set her down. When they reached the entrance to the shop, Kenneth took charge of Latina.
“Take care of Latina, alright?”
“Yeah. And you be sure not to push yourself too hard.”
He’d never seen Dale respond with a smile like that before.
“Right, I’m off.”
“Dale, take care. Be careful on your work!”
While thoroughly savoring those words from Latina, Dale set off from the town of Kreuz.
...Right, I’ll give it my all.
†
The trip from Kreuz to Ausblick, the capital of the nation of Laband, was three days by horse or one week by carriage. The road was well-maintained, as it was an important route for the country and a great number of merchants and travelers came and went along it.
However, Dale was heading in the direction of the woods on the outskirts of town, rather than towards this grand highway.
In an open meadow outside of Kreuz, there was a large beast resting its wings—a flying dragon. Flying dragons were considered small for a subspecies of dragons, which were classified as magical beasts. In addition, they possessed the ability to fly, which other dragons did not have.
Even for a flying dragon, the specimen in this field was rather tiny, and from the scarlet equipment attached to its body, it was obvious even from a distance that it was in the service of the country of Laband.
By its side was a young man pacing back and forth, unable to calm his nerves. The man’s clothes were the same scarlet color the dragon was wearing. That uniform and his simple, jet-black armor identified him as a dragon knight, with the ability to control a flying dragon using the rare magical attribute of “Center.”
“Ugh, what should I do, Titi? He’s supposed to be really hard to deal with...” the man grumbled to his partner next to him.
The gentle-natured female dragon responded with a cry of “Coo?”
As the pair wasn’t cut out for combat, their main duty was transporting goods and people, and because flying dragons weren’t suited for traveling in the dark, they had spent the night waiting here for their passenger, who wanted to go to the capital.
“Apparently, he’s an adventurer who has a contract with the duke. I hear the knight I replaced offended him and got demoted to a frontier post... We finally got a high-paying job in the capital, but... Ugh, are we gonna be alright...?”
His current mission was to escort that adventurer to the capital.
Despite the adventurer’s young age, he’d already racked up some impressive achievements and possessed a great deal of influence, as he held the favor of the duke who served as the prime minister, the right-hand man of the King of Laband. Even though he was ultimately just an adventurer favored by the duke, if the knight upset him, the duke would hear about it right away. Normally, the nation’s leading authorities would pay no heed to the words of a mere adventurer, but apparently this adventurer was an exception.
Rumor had it that the previous dragon knight had made light of this adventurer because of how young he was, and that had earned the knight the wrath of his superiors. He’d been sent off to the frontier by order of the duke himself.
The duke had dispatched a flying dragon just for this man who lived in Kreuz, so it was abundantly clear how much he was favored.
“...! Titi, he’s here!”
Worrying for her master, the dragon gave a “Coo” to show that she understood.
A young man in a long black leather coat approached as the morning sun shone behind him. The dull, metallic sparkle coming from his left arm must have been his gauntlet-shaped magical device. He also wore a longsword at his waist, making him a perfect fit for the description that the dragon knight had been given.
This young adventurer was skilled enough that he could cut down even the knight’s partner, Titi, with a single swing of his sword. Even if Titi naturally wasn’t overly aggressive, she was still a dragon, so normal adventurers would have needed to come at her as a team.
“Under order of His Excellency, Duke Eldstedt, I have come here to meet you!”
“Right. I’m Dale Reki,” responded the young man to the knight’s low, quiet voice, perfectly relaxed as he looked over him and his partner. Feeling an aura he couldn’t hope to match coming off the adventurer, who looked even younger than he was, the dragon knight gulped.
“Please, come this way.”
After guiding him to the saddle on Titi’s back, the knight took the luggage the man had brought and tied it down securely. Though the sad
dle on a flying dragon was far, far higher up than it would be on a horse, the young man easily pulled himself up without losing his balance. As he fastened his belt to finish preparing for flight, it was clear that he was used to the process.
The dragon knight hurried to his own saddle and grasped the reins. These reins were made from a special material that could easily transmit his mana. By grasping them, the knight could give detailed instructions to his dragon, and they also conveyed the dragon’s thoughts back to him. It was a dragon knight’s most important and precious piece of equipment.
“Let’s go, Titi,” he said, delivering the short command with his mana. Following his instruction, the dragon spread out her wings, let out a peculiar cry of “Coo-loo-loo,” and gathered up the wind mana from the area. Using both the wind mana that enveloped her and the traits she possessed as a natural-born flier, the dragon lifted her giant frame off the ground with a single flap of her wings. With a second flap, she soared high into the heavens, and with a third, she began moving towards the capital.
At a flying dragon’s speed, the journey to the capital wouldn’t take more than half a day. That was one of the reasons those capable of serving as dragon knights were paid a high salary. Methods for flying through the air were extremely limited. It was impossible to accomplish with magic alone, and so it was a special privilege limited to those who were born to fly through the heavens.
As a result, it was considered a talent of particular military significance and was strictly regulated. When it came to flying dragons, the nation held a great deal of authority over things like breeding laws and the maintenance of specialized tools, such as their reins. There were no such things as privatized flying dragon rides. In order to fly a dragon, you had no choice but to act in service of the country.
Ugh, this is awkward...
Titi called out “Coo?” apparently worried about her rider, who wasn’t acting like himself. It was entirely calm on the back of the flying dragon, despite the whirl of wind mana whipping through the surrounding sky. It was like being in the eye of a hurricane.
And yet, the knight deplored that now. If there were at least a gentle breeze, then that would feel good on his sweat-drenched brow.
