Chapter 4: The Naden That Naden Never Knew(1)

MISTERLP

It was the morning after Naden and Souma had encountered one

another.

In a place not far from the cave, light shone down through the branches

of the trees, illuminating a small stream and a person washing themselves

there. Maybe because they didn't need to worry about the eyes of others in

the forest, they wore no more than their underwear, soaking in the river

and pouring water over their body.

Today was another clear day in the Star Dragon Mountain Range with

its everlasting spring.

In fact, rain never fell in the middle of the day here. This might have

been the result of Mother Dragon exercising her power. A fixed amount of

rain fell at a set time each day in Dracul. That was why, even though the

skies were clear every day, the abundant nature on the plateau was able to

maintain itself.

Because it was a warm day like this, the clear water of the river, which

was cool, but not too cool, felt soothing. The half-naked person sat down

on a rock, wiping their face with a cloth that had been left there for that

purpose.

"Wh-What do you think you're doing?!" Naden exclaimed.

Naden, who had still only been half-awake, was suddenly shocked into

full awareness.

"Oh, hey, Naden. You're up?"

"Don't face this way, you pervert!"

It had been Souma bathing in the river. His body, which, thanks

perhaps to his personal trainer, Owen, had no excess fat on it, was

exposed.

Unable to take any more of it, Naden looked away. "Wh-What are you

getting naked here for?!"

"I'm still wearing my underwear, you know?"

"That's not the problem here!"

"Well, since I'm imposing on your hospitality, I thought it would be

rude if I was too dirty, so I was washing myself..."

"Still... You can't show yourself in front of a young maiden like that..."

With her head still turned away, Naden stole a few glances out of the

corner of her eye. Even though dragons, as a race, could be somewhat

ambiguous when it came to sex, seeing a member of the opposite sex was

unusual, and she couldn't help herself but look.

Without a care for Naden's innocent reaction to him, Souma began

dressing himself and asked her, "Come to think of it, when you and

Madam Tiamat are in your ryuu or dragon forms, you're so huge. But

when you change into human forms you're already wearing clothes, huh?

There's no sign of them tearing when you grow in size, either. Could it be

that those clothes are a part of your body, or something like that?"

When Souma asked her about that which had been bothering him,

Naden answered with a blank look on her face. "Erm... Yeah. We're

transforming our scales, so that would be one way of putting it. We can't

do anything about the color, but we can change the design, and even have

them disappear entirely if we feel like it. Also, if we wash our bodies in

dragon form, we can wash our human bodies and clothes at the same

time."

"Hm... Sounds convenient, but does it hurt if your clothes get torn, or

something like that?"

"Do you feel pain when you cut your hair or nails, Kazuma?"

"Oh, I get it now."

Basically, dragons didn't have nerves running through their scales. In

fact, their scales might be something like a carapace they could freely

control, covering their bodies and protecting their innards.

"Hm? So, that basically means, even when a dragon is dressed up,

they're still naked..." Souma murmured.

"Don't say another word!"

Crack, crack.

With a little crackling sound, Naden's hair stood on end. There were

blue streaks of lightning running from hair to hair. Naden's angry mode

made Souma panic a little.

"Electricity?! Whoa, hold on! I'm all wet here, you know?!"

Bzzt!

Just as Souma got away from the stream, the electric shock Naden

unleashed struck the surface of the water. The poor fish that got caught in

the discharge floated to the surface.

Souma was dumbfounded by what he'd just witnessed, but he

immediately threw on the rest of his clothes and beat a hasty retreat. He

couldn't take an electric shock while his body was wet.

Naden chased after him, shouting, "Hold it!"

Even as he felt terror at the crackling sound of electricity that was

chasing after him, the calm part of Souma's mind was already coming up

with practical applications for Naden's ability.

A ryuu that controls electricity?! The Star Dragon Mountain Range

even has those? If we had electricity, there would be all sorts of things we

could do with it. Wouldn't having Naden give our research into electricity

a real boost?

Whenever he met someone with a special talent, the first thing Souma

did was think of effective applications for their gift. It was an occupational

hazard of being a king.

"Hold it, Kazuma, don't run away!"

Can I get her to come to the kingdom, with no need for a contract or

partnership to be involved...?

That was what Souma wondered, even as Naden chased him around.

◇ ◇ ◇

By the will of Madam Tiamat, I was now being taken care of in

Naden's cave.

That was because there were still another five days until the Contract

Ceremony I had been asked to take part in occurred, and she had suggested

Naden's cave as a place for me to stay. It turned out that, despite how

grand the Crystal Castle was, it had little in the way of entertainment, and I

would most likely just end up being bored if I stayed there.

Naden, on the other hand, had been gathering written materials from

the world below, and had quite a few unusual items in her room. That, and

it was probably most convenient for me to stay in a room meant for a

human-sized occupant.

Though that's all starting to feel like excuses now... I noted.

Madam Tiamat seemed intent on Naden and me getting to know one

another.

When our meeting concluded, and she was about to teleport me to

where Naden was so she could look after me, Madam Tiamat looked at

me, her eyes full of sincerity, and said, "Please, teach that girl for me.

About the her she doesn't know."

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"You should already know the way. Please, offer her guidance."

When she said that, Madam Tiamat had the look of a mother worried

for her own child. Just as I was about to ask her why she had that look on

her face, the scenery changed, and I was met with a black ryuu shouting,

You stupid suuuuuuuun! in psychic speech.

After that, a formal messenger from Madam Tiamat came to Naden's

home, and Naden was appointed as my caretaker for the time that I would

be staying here. Naden looked like she thought it was a pain, but she

couldn't defy an order from Madam Tiamat, so she reluctantly acquiesced.

I'd been here ever since, staying in Naden's cave, drinking tea, and

reading the materials she gathered from the lower world... Which was to

say, romance novels that had been written in the nations of mankind.

Across from me was Naden, lying in bed and watching a simple

receiver. A ryuu was watching the Jewel Voice Broadcast... She apparently

picked it up at a flea market in the Empire, and giving it a little shock had

gotten it working again. What, was it like an old TV, which would start

working again if you hit it?

Naden glanced over at me and asked, "Is it any fun for a man to read

romance novels aimed at women?"

"More than you might think. It shows you what the various women of

the world hold up as their ideals."

When I'd heard they were romance novels, I expected them to be

messy dramas of love and hate, like a daytime soap opera, but they were

light and fluffy like a novelization of a shoujo manga.

From a quick glance through, most of them were tales of chivalry.

There would be a knight who swore his loyalty to a beautiful lady, and he

would perform meritorious acts in service of that love... That was how a

lot of them went. There were also Cinderella stories, where a simple

village girl would help a young lord or prince who had left the palace in

disguise, he would fall in love with her, and they would ultimately be wed.

The plots could largely be divided into these two patterns.

"Is this the sort of thing you dream about?" I asked playfully.

"...Well," Naden said, turning her head to the side in thought, "I'd like

to let a cool knight ride me as we fly through the sky together."

"Ahh, if you're a ryuu or dragon, that's the sort of reading you end up

with, huh..."

For a normal girl it would be, "I want to ride on a horse with a cool

guy," but for the dragon races, it was apparently, "I want to be the horse,

and let the knight ride on my back."

When you interacted with different cultures and races, it was

interesting to see those little differences in interpretation.

"So, what are you watching over there, Naden?" I asked.

I'd heard lively noises coming from the simple receiver Naden was

holding, so I was curious. She said she'd found it in the Empire, so was it a

singing program from there?

"Hm? It's a music program from the Gran Chaos Empire. You want to

watch it with me, Kazuma?"

"Oh! Yeah, you bet I do." I was interested in seeing what sort of music

program the Empire was making.

Naden sat next to me, putting the simple receiver in a place where we

could both see it. To prevent news from leaking, it wasn't possible to view

broadcasts recorded with any jewels other than the ones used for broadcast

meetings when you were in another country. During our post-war

negotiations with the Principality and Empire, when Jeanne, Empress

Maria's little sister and general, had seen our country's broadcasts, she

said she'd like to imitate them back in the Empire. I wondered what kind

of programs they were making.

While thinking that, I took a sip of tea, looked at the simple receiver,

and...

"Hello there, everyone! This is Maria."

"Bwuh?!"

"Whoa, Kazuma?!"

I spewed the tea I'd been trying to drink everywhere. On screen,

wearing an idol-style frilly dress, was the Empress Maria of the Gran

Chaos Empire herself.