by Aneko Yusagi
Well, I guess it was the villagers that had done the actual raising. There was a girl named Wyndia who I’d tried to nickname “valley girl,” but she’d rejected the idea. She was the one who had taken responsibility for raising the dragon.
Anyway, Gaelion quickly grew to be a good-sized dragon, but then the problems started. He wanted me to play with him, so he started knocking on my door and running off. After scolding him for his mischief, I started making an effort to spend more time playing with him.
But while we were spending time together, the little rascal got the bright idea of eating the dragon core I’d previously used in my armor. The core had been made by combining the dragon zombie core—which we got after fighting the corpse of a dragon Ren had slain—with a demon dragon core from the other world we went to. Gaelion began acting violently as soon as he swallowed the core, ultimately losing control and running away. He fled to the mountain where the dragon zombie had lived before being slain. So we headed that way to try to save our Gaelion.
That was all well and good, but then it turned out that the demon dragon core we’d gotten in the other world had seized control of Gaelion. The Demon Dragon that Kizuna — one of the four holy heroes from that other world — defeated had re-manifested itself using Gaelion’s body. Filo had eaten part of the dragon zombie core too, and that allowed the dragon to steal her experience points. Even worse, she ended up being trapped in the dragon’s body.
Gaelion managed to regain control while we were fighting the Demon Dragon. He escaped from the dragon’s restraints along with Filo, which weakened the Demon Dragon and allowed us to defeat it. Now the original Gaelion — the dragon who raised Wyndia as his own child and who Ren once defeated — coexists with our baby Gaelion inside of his body. Both of their minds reside in the single body now, in other words.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Umm, Gaelion says he’ll let you ride him,” Wyndia replied.
She interpreted for Gaelion, who she was now raising. Wyndia was a demi-human girl with dog-like ears. She had been raised by a dragon and was fond of monsters, so she helped look after the monsters in the village.
“Are you going with them, Wyndia?!” Ren asked.
He ran over to Wyndia with a worried look on his face.
“If Gaelion is going, then of course I am,” she replied.
“If . . . if you go . . .” he stammered.
Wyndia gave Ren a swift kick to the shin. Of course, with Ren’s stat boosts it didn’t seem to have much of an effect.
“Stop trying to act like my guardian!” she shouted.
Ultimately, Ren had killed Wyndia’s father. He was trying to own up to that fact, but it just ended up annoying Wyndia. Regardless, he hadn’t given up and was still searching for a way to make amends.
“Gyao! Gyao!”
Gaelion didn’t like Ren, most likely because of the adult Gaelion inside of him. There was no way he would let Ren ride him. In other words, Gaelion wasn’t going to let Ren come even if he wanted to.
“So? What are you going to do, Shield Hero?” Wyndia asked.
I thought for a moment.
“I guess it’s our only choice without Filo around, although I’m pretty sure we do have another filolial,” I said.
I looked over toward the barn —or monster stable I should have said, I guess. I could see a light-purple filolial looking over at us with a dejected look on its face. That was Filo Underling #1. Generally speaking, filolials couldn’t fly. From a transportation standpoint, that put Gaelion on top at the moment. Actually, competing with Gaelion, who could fly, might have been the whole reason Filo had gone out to level.
“I ——— ”
Another hand went up. This time it was a certain stuffed doll.
“My master has something to say,” the doll said.
“What is it?” I asked.
I looked over at S’yne, who was the stuffed familiar’s master.
S’yne wasn’t from this world or even Kizuna’s world. She was a vassal weapon holder from another world that had apparently been destroyed by the waves. Our first encounter had been as opponents in a fight in Zeltoble’s underground coliseum tournament. She was going by the ring name Murder Pierrot at the time. A lot happened after that, and now she was living here in my territory.
I wasn’t really sure what her true objective was, but her own enemies had invaded this world and were trying to kill the four holy heroes here. She seemed to want to defeat those enemies and protect the holy heroes.
Since the world she’d originally lived in had been destroyed, the translation function of her vassal weapon was damaged. Her speech was always cutting out, so I could never understand what she was saying. By using a stuffed doll as a familiar and having the doll interpret for her, she’d finally found a way to communicate her thoughts to us.
Back when we were trying to take Ren into protective custody, some new enemies showed up. They had a ridiculous ability that allowed them to resurrect even if we somehow managed to kill them. S’yne helped us finally defeat those enemies once and for all. It turned out she’d been searching for a way to do that for a long time.
“My master says that she might be able to transport you to a point along the way. She would like to see a map.”
“Umm, sure.”
I showed S’yne my world map.
“Let’s see. She says she placed a teleportation marking pin on some cargo on a Zeltoble trading ship, so she should be able to transport you part of the way.”
“Oh yeah? That would help.”
S’yne had a skill that allowed her to teleport to the location of anything she attached one of her marking pins to. She could also keep tabs on the pin’s immediate surroundings. She’d rushed to my aid before when I was in trouble, thanks to a pin she’d stuck on my armor.
All things considered, even with Filo’s speed, getting to Siltvelt would take time. The teleportation skills that Ren, Itsuki, and I could use required us to go to a place and save the location before we could teleport back there. Raphtalia had the katana vassal weapon from that other world, but it only had a portal skill that teleported to dragon hourglasses. Those were facilities that notified the people of coming waves. The hourglasses were also used to perform class-up ceremonies, which allowed people and monsters to surpass the initial level cap. On top of that, Raphtalia couldn’t use her teleport unless she’d already been to a dragon hourglass.
But all S’yne had to do was stick one of her marking pins on something and she would be able to teleport to that thing’s location, even if the thing moved. It sure was a convenient skill.
“Alright, so we’ll have S’yne teleport us. In that case, Raphtalia, Sadeena, Gaelion, and Wyndia should do fine,” I said.
“Ahem!”
Oh, dammit. Now she was raising her hand. What a headache. Thoroughly annoyed, I turned my gaze to the girl with her hand held high in the air — Atla.
“Yes, Atla?”
She was a hakuko, which was a race of demi-humans considered to be one of the most powerful among them. Their level caps were higher too. She was a slave that had initially been part of a package deal when I purchased her older brother, Fohl, in Zeltoble. Lately I was starting to think she might actually be stronger than her brother.
I mean, when I first saw her she was a sickly little girl that looked like she might die at any moment. She had an incurable disease that had weakened her and rendered her unable to even walk. But when I gave her some medicine, she began to recover rapidly. And now she’d turned into a slave who was too energetic for her own good.
“I would like to accompany you,” she said.
“What are you thinking, Atla?!” Fohl shouted.
That was the big brother whose reputation was on the decline. Fohl had been leveling up recently, and that had been accompanied by a growth spurt. He was getting rather tall.
“Brother, as Mr. Naofumi’s retainers, we must be prepared to serve by his side at all times. Th
at should go without saying,” she replied.
“But!”
“Brother, are you not aware of our performance, or lack thereof, recently?”
“Ugh . . .”
Actually, it was undeniable that Atla was a prodigy. Ren, Itsuki, and I were all eagerly trying to learn a martial art called the Hengen Muso style, but Atla understood its very essence without even studying. It was thanks to her that we were able to defeat the Demon Dragon recently. Hidden inside of that little body was the potential to rival even an awakened Rishia.
In fact, Atla’s growth had probably been the most remarkable of all the village slaves. Sadeena had just been crazy strong from the start. But Atla just had to watch Rishia fight —well, actually Atla couldn’t see. But just by sensing Rishia’s movements, she was able to reproduce them. Her level still wasn’t very reassuring, but I had no complaints about her ability to fight.
On the contrary, it felt like Fohl was the one who hadn’t really done anything of note.
“I could take you two with us, but you’re hakuko, right?” I said.
The hakuko race of demi-humans was basically royalty in Siltvelt. Long, long ago, Siltvelt had been ruled by a hakuko, but that hakuko started a war, which Siltvelt lost. The hakuko were blamed for that defeat and the race fell into disrepute.
“Brother, we should have some influence in Siltvelt, right? This is our chance to be useful as retainers. That’s our duty. Come, Brother, it’s time to make good use of your connections.”
Atla latched on to Fohl’s arm and entreated him in a manner that almost looked as if she were trying to seduce him. To put it bluntly, Atla was always prepared to do whatever it took to win. When her brother started protesting, she had no qualms about shutting him up with an unexpected sharp jab. She’d been born into a noble warrior family, supposedly, but I would have thought it was a clan of barbarians.
“Ugh . . . It’s not that I don’t have connections, but that was all a long time ago. I don’t know if they’ll be of any help,” he replied.
“Hmm . . .”
So even if their family had fallen into ruin, he might still have some connections we could use.
“S’yne, how far can you take us?” I asked.
“The marking pin that she attached to the cargo seems to be near this port here,” the stuffed doll familiar replied, pointing at the map.
The familiar had been modeled after Keel’s therianthrope form. Keel was a slave at the village who could use a therianthrope form that resembled a Siberian husky. I’d skip the details for now.
The familiar had pointed at a port town near Shieldfreeden. I guess we’d ride Gaelion from there. Or was there a reason to stop by Shieldfreeden too? That would probably just cause even more trouble.
“Sadeena,” I said.
“Yes?”
“What about Shieldfreeden?”
“Shieldfreeden has a relatively short history. They don’t trade with Q’ten Lo. There’s no reason for us to go there. Well, they do have boats that go to Siltvelt, but that’s all I can think of.”
A carriage or boat that went directly to Siltvelt from the port town would make things easier.
“Alright, you two can come. But I’ll be bringing you back to the village at night with my portal,” I told Atla.
“Of course,” she replied.
“Alright, then let’s head out. You’re up, S’yne.”
S’yne nodded. She invited us all to a party and then gripped her weapon and began whispering something. And then whish! We were teleported away pretty much like when I used my portal.
Chapter One: Advance Payment
“This is . . .”
I looked at our surroundings. We seemed to be in a port storehouse. There was a large wooden crate nearby. The marking pin must have been attached to the crate.
“Yeah, that’s definitely a convenient skill. If we had to, we could just attach a pin to Gaelion and send him ahead. That might even be more — ”
I paused mid-sentence when I noticed S’yne peering at her weapon strangely.
“That ——— pretty ——— ”
“She says that was pretty dangerous,” the Keel-like stuffed doll replied.
“What was?” I asked.
“My master says that using her weapon in its weakened state to transport multiple people at once is dangerous. If something went wrong and the teleport failed, it’s hard to say what would happen.”
S’yne was using a vassal weapon that belonged to a world that had been destroyed. Its translation functionality was already failing. The weapon’s other powers were also slowly dwindling away, bit by bit.
“So we just barely made it and another attempt would be dangerous, in other words,” I said.
“Correct. Your idea could work, but it would be a gamble. Would you still like to try?” the doll asked.
“And I’m guessing it would still be dangerous even with less people,” I replied.
S’yne nodded.
“So much for that. Us heroes will be on portal duty for the rest of the trip then,” I said.
Some kind of teleport mishap was not something I could risk at the moment. I’d just be happy with the fact that we’d managed to take this much of a shortcut.
S’yne bowed her head apologetically. I ruffled her hair a bit as a sign that she shouldn’t worry about it. She jerked her head back up quickly and seemed to be blushing slightly.
“Did that bother you?” I asked her.
She shook her head and then smiled really big. I guess that meant she didn’t mind me ruffling her hair, but why was she smiling? I thought she was supposed to be the cool, unaffected type. That smile was out of character. Or was this one of those things where the girl falls in love with the hero when he rubs her on the head? Surely not.
“My master says that she will come running should anything happen, regardless.”
“Thanks. But last time she was asleep and didn’t even notice. Let’s try to avoid that.”
“She says it won’t happen again.”
Just as I finished settling things with S’yne, Atla’s ears began twitching and her tail flicked back and forth a couple times.
“Hm? I sense the arrival of a new enemy,” she said.
“Huh? Where?” I asked.
We were in a port storehouse, after all. It was possible a security guard had mistaken us for thieves or something. I wondered if we should try running. I had a feeling that would be difficult with our numbers.
“Nowhere. It’s just a hunch,” she replied.
“Don’t say misleading things like that!” I snapped.
“You’re being overly cautious, Atla,” said Raphtalia.
“Whatever. Let’s go,” I said.
We all climbed on Gaelion’s back and thus began our journey.
Judging by our progress, riding Gaelion was quicker than traveling by boat or carriage. I guess that was only natural, considering we were flying.
“Kwa . . .”
“Gaelion says we’re heavy. He says we’ll need to travel with less people if we want him to fly for extended periods of time,” said Wyndia.
She was complaining on Gaelion’s behalf. I turned around and counted how many people were riding him. There was me, Raphtalia, Sadeena, Wyndia, S’yne, Atla, and Fohl. Yeah, that did seem like too many people to be riding him, to be honest. Gaelion could transform into a rather large dragon, so we’d all climbed on like it was only natural. But I could definitely see how seven people might be a bit heavy, especially if we wanted to prioritize traveling fast.
“Kwaaaaa . . .”
It was clearly no small effort for Gaelion to continue flying. I could sense him concentrating his magic power into his wings as he flapped them. That reminded me. Rat mentioned that it was difficult for dragons to sustain flight over long periods of time. I looked back at the others again.
“Maybe it should just be me and Wyndia while traveling. I’m already going to be bringing the others to us using my po
rtal, after all,” I said.
“That might be a good idea. All of this swaying is starting to make me sick,” Raphtalia replied.
She didn’t look so good. Now that I thought about it, even riding in Filo’s carriage had made her sick in the beginning. Maybe motion sickness was a weakness of hers.
Then Fohl made a retching sound. Him too? I’d never experienced motion sickness myself, so I couldn’t really claim to understand. It sure didn’t seem fun, though.
“Brother, you and Raphtalia lack discipline,” said Atla.
She seemed completely unfazed. If anyone, it should have been her that got sick easily. Her recovery really had been a little bit too successful.
“Wha ——— ?”
S’yne didn’t seem to be particularly bothered.
“Oh my!” Sadeena squealed playfully.
“Sadeena, you better not go transforming into your therianthrope form here,” I said.
If she changed into her big, fat killer whale therianthrope form while we were flying, Gaelion was likely to run out of strength and fall out of the sky.
“Kw-kwa . . .”
“He says he needs to rest,” said Wyndia.
“I guess we’ll just have to take a break,” I replied.
I wasn’t too excited about taking a break since we were in a hurry, but I could understand. We touched down in a meadow to let Gaelion rest.
“It’s not often that you get to experience traveling by flight. This is fun,” Sadeena said.
“It’s going to take more than fun to solve our problems,” I retorted.
After a few moments, a faint rumbling sound came from Gaelion’s direction.
“Kwaaaa . . .”
“Gaelion says he’s hungry.”
“He just ate!” I shouted.
I’d fed him plenty just before we left. What did she mean he was hungry already?!
“I’m sure he used up a lot of magic power flying with seven people on his back. It only makes sense that he would be exhausted and get hungry, don’t you think?” Sadeena suggested.
“I guess that does make sense,” I said.
