Chapter 7: The Storm(2)

MISTERLP

Something was wrong. Besides, this voice... Something about it

bothered me. It was too high to be male, but if it was a woman's voice,

something felt off about it...

"If that's sti... not... nough..."

I heard it again. This voice... Was it coming from above?

Looking upward, I glimpsed, if only faintly, a black shadow through a

gap in the clouds. With the clouds in the way, I only had a hazy view, but

that shadow looked big for how far away it must have been. It may be

fairly massive.

"I... ll... destroy... to have..."

Destroy what?!

Destroy. I'd heard that dangerous sounding word very clearly.

That black shadow was hidden by the clouds. Naden must have gotten

out of them, because I could see the rain-drenched plateau of Dracul

spread out beneath us. The static-like sound of the rain grated on my ears.

While being lashed by the rain, I looked up to the clouds we only just

left. From outside Dracul they looked pure white, but from directly below

they felt dark and heavy.

That voice I heard, speaking what I recognized as language... There

was no questioning it.

Something was in those clouds.

In the rain, we landed in front of Crystal Castle.

Though it must have been beautiful in the light, when it was gloomy

like this, the castle looked dull.

As Naden began to take human form, I jumped down off her back and

rushed to the gondola. When I opened the door, wondering if Liscia and

the others were all right, Liscia, Aisha, and Kaede crawled out, their faces

pale. Hal and Carla followed. They all looked fine.

I rushed over to them. "A-Are you okay?"

Liscia and Aisha both leaned against me.

"Blech... Souma, you're too reckless," Liscia mumbled.

"The wind shook us so much, I feel sick... Blech."

"Oh... Er... Sorry."

I rubbed their backs to comfort them as they vomited. Kaede had Hal

and Carla looking after her.

Unlike those three, Hal and Carla seemed right as rain.

"You two are fine?" I asked.

"I was in the Air Force, and I flew on wyverns often," said Carla.

"It beats getting dropped out of the air," said Hal.

Carla's Air Force experience and Hal's dratooper training must have

gotten them used to this sort of thing.

It bothered me that Hal seemed to be staring off into the distance, but...

Anyway, it was probably better to get inside somewhere with a roof, rather

than keep getting pounded by the rain.

"Hal and Carla, tie the gondola down so that it doesn't get blown

away!" I called. "Everyone else, we're going inside! Naden, you lead the

way!"

"Roger that!"

We went inside Crystal Castle. Once Liscia and the others calmed

down, and Hal and Carla came back, I asked Naden, "I want to meet with

Madam Tiamat. Where do I go to do that?"

"The great hall, I think. When there's a crisis in Dracul, the dragons

have been told to gather in Crystal Castle's great hall."

"Okay," I said. "Then let's head there."

We decided to have Naden lead us to this great hall. It only took an

instant when Madam Tiamat teleported me, but moving around in this

ridiculously huge castle was a real hassle. We were all running, but it was

taking a while to reach our destination.

When we reached the great hall after five minutes of running, there

were two surprises waiting for us. One was that hall was so massive that

"great" simply wasn't enough of a word for it. The other was that, upon

closer inspection, the great hall was actually the space I had been

teleported into when I first came to the Star Dragon Mountain Range. It

seemed that the great hall was the place where I met the mountainous

Madam Tiamat.

When we entered the great hall, there were about a hundred people in

the center. They were all sprouting horns and tails, so they were probably

dragons in human form.

From what Naden told me, there were only about three hundred people

(dragons?) living in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, at most.

Even considering their massive size, that was an incredibly low

population density for a country.

Because that three hundred number also included young dragons and

priestesses in the service of Madam Tiamat, that meant the hundred or so

here comprised all of the grown dragons that could actually move around.

The moment we entered the great hall, we sensed something menacing

in the air. In a space that could have fit tens of thousands of humans, the

dragons were all gathered together in one compact area for some reason.

It sounded noisy, and no one took any notice of the people who just

entered the room. It looked like Madam Tiamat wasn't here anymore, so

what could have happened?

Whatever it was, we approached the group. When we did...

"Naden!" A girl in a white one-piece jumped out of the group. That

was... Naden's friend... Pai, was it?

Naden caught her friend, who hugged her tight. "Pai! Thank goodness.

You're safe."

Naden had a relieved look on her face, but the desperation on Pai's was

undiminished.

"Naden, where have you been?! I was worried!"

"Oh, sorry. I was making a little trip to Souma's country..."

"Souma's country? Who?"

Oh! Right, I only ever told Pai my alias, huh. It looked like Naden

realized that, too.

"Maybe you'll understand if I call it Kazuma's country. The Kingdom

of Friedonia."

"Friedonia?! That far?! How...?"

"Ahaha, it's a long story, but..."

"Wait, we don't have time for this!"

Naden tried to explain the story so far, but Pai immediately cut her off.

Pai had a serious look on her face as she clung on to the dissatisfied

Naden.

"Please, Naden! Stop everyone! At this rate, Ruby's going to..."

Ruby? Ruby was... the red dragon who kept picking fights with Naden,

right?

Pai explained the current situation for us.

Here, the story turns back a bit.

It turns out that mysterious cloud suddenly appeared in the skies above

Dracul this morning.

Even though the skies had been clear up until then, that cloud suddenly

appeared and brought violent wind and rain to Dracul. The heavy rainfall

made the lakes overflow, and knocked down the trees.

In response, the dragons gathered in Crystal Castle.

The wind and rain seemed only to be affecting Dracul, so I would have

thought they would just evacuate somewhere else, but there was a reason

why they couldn't.

It was because the dragons' eggs were beneath Crystal Castle.

I already heard that when a dragon who formed a contract with a knight

laid an egg, it was left in the care of the Star Dragon Mountain Range.

Apparently the simple passage of time wasn't enough to make them hatch.

They were left in a place called the Cradle Room beneath Crystal

Castle, and waited there for their time of awakening. That time would

come only when they would be able to meet the one they were destined to

form a contract with. There were cases when an egg went unhatched for

close to a century, and that was one reason why they couldn't be raised by

their parents.

Because the eggs couldn't be removed from the Cradle Room, the

dragons had to defend this Crystal Castle, no matter what.

That was what led the dragons to investigate this bizarre cloud, but the

winged dragons were buffeted by the strong winds, and none of them were

able to reach the clouds.

In response to this situation, the dragons turned to Madam Tiamat for

guidance.

Madam Tiamat answered, "A wingless dragon could fly through this

wind and rain." Further, she added, "That one already holds the key. Until

they return, I will protect my children, the eggs that await their time of

awakening."

Then she took the dragon priestesses with her and went down to the

Cradle Room.

The dragons left behind had gone into an uproar. It was terrifying that

they were told there was nothing they could do to remedy the situation.

They considered what the wingless dragon might be, and quickly thought

of Naden Delal. It was well known that Naden was a unique individual

who had no wings.

However, when they were about to go call Naden, Pai told them to

stop. She told them that no one had been in the cave Naden used as her den

for the last few days.

When they'd gone to check, Naden really wasn't in her cave.

Naturally. Naden had gone to the Kingdom of Friedonia with me, and

this morning, we'd been in the village near the border where Aisha and the

others were waiting.

And so, the dragons were astonished. Naden, who Madam Tiamat had

assured them could resolve this situation, was absent.

"At first, there were some voices of discontent, saying, 'Where did she

go off to at a time like this?'" Pai explained. "But because she wasn't here,

it didn't really matter. Eventually, the question changed to, 'Why isn't

Naden in Dracul?' From there, it occurred to them it was because of their

own feelings towards Naden. Their hearts had mocked her for being a

wingless dragon, a worm. 'Maybe she got tired of being called a worm,

and that's why she left the Star Dragon Mountain Range?' they started to

think. And then they turned on Ruby and her friends."

Everyone knew Ruby often messed with Naden, and it often led to

fights between them. So the dragons all condemned Ruby and her friends.

That was the cause of the current commotion.

Pai clung to Naden and said, "Ruby's the emotional sort who doesn't

think things through well enough, and she's prideful, so she said she'd take

responsibility for Sapphire and Emerada's actions, as well. I was mad

about all the things she'd said before, too, but seeing everyone gang up on

her like this... I just feel so bad for her..."

"Don't give me this," Naden said in a pained voice.

When I looked over at her, Naden's hair was sparking with electricity

as it stood on end. It was like a visualization of Naden's anger and

indignation.

Naden left the sobbing Pai to me, then headed for where the dragons

were gathered, her face a mask of anger.

"They're all so selfish!"

"Naden..." a dragon gasped.

For a moment, I thought I should stop her. Naden wasn't the one being

crucified right now. If anything, she became the key person to resolving

this situation, so she was going to get a certain degree of respect in the Star

Dragon Mountain Range. There was no reason for her to pick a fight with

the dragons here and worsen her position. But... I didn't want to see Naden

make a clever decision like that.

So I told her, "You should do what you want. Even if the dragons don't

like it, your place is in the Kingdom of Friedonia... in our home now."

"You said you want to be part of the family, Naden," Liscia confirmed.

"Then there's only one place for you to come back to."

"The family always comes back to the warm place they call home, after

all," Aisha added, with a charming wink.

"Souma, Liscia, Aisha..."

"So go give them what for, Naden!" I cried.

"Roger that!"

Naden wiped the corners of her eyes, then took on her ryuu form,

opened her mouth wide, and roared as loud as she could.

Roaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!

Naden's roar was so loud it shook the great hall, causing all eyes to

gather on her. Then, as all the dragons watched, Naden flew up into the air.

"No way... Naden's flying..." Pai covered her gaping mouth with her

hands. The other dragons looked like they couldn't believe what they were

seeing, either.

Naden's body coiled elegantly in front of their eyes.

As Pai looked up in dumb shock, she shed a single tear. "I see... That's

why Lady Tiamat... Good for you, Naden..."

Having said that, Pai wiped her eyes and smiled as she cried. She must

have been concerned for her all this time. Naden had a good friend.

When Naden occupied the space above all the dragons, she cried out,

"Enoooooooooooooough!"

Crackle, crackle!

She brought down lightning where the dragons were standing. There

were screams here and there, and dragons fell one after another.

...Was she holding back at all? That was a nasty sound... I smelled

something burning, too. W-Well, these were dragons. Maybe they'd be

fine with a shock like this... Or so I thought, but the strained look on Pai's

face told me that, even by dragon standards, she'd overdone it. Naden

must have felt just that unable to hold back.

The commotion came to a halt, and Naden landed in the center of the

gathering, where no one was left standing, in her human form. Then Naden

looked down at something lying at her feet.