Chapter 3: The Narrowing Distance Between the Two(3)

MISTERLP

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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, (dragon)¹

and (dragon)¹, 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 dragon.

"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 dragon.

"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-WhWh-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.

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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.

1: well, what really had was dragon in chinese and japanese, however webnovel doesn't allow different languages (even though it's just one word) so i translated it and put it in quotes