Epilogue 1: A Dance With You(1)

MISTERLP

"This is awful..." I muttered.

On our way back down to the ground, I could see the state Dracul was

left in. It was pretty bad.

The stream that was near Naden's cave had become swollen and

muddied, and rivers everywhere overflowed, flooding the plains.

Dracul's climate had always been controlled by Madam Tiamat, and it

looked like she never considered drainage. Given how strong the dragons

were, it was doubtful that any of them had died due to the flooding, but the

brown, muddied rivers had ruined the once-beautiful scenery.

"Do you think Liscia and the others are all right?" I asked.

"I'm worried, but if anything comes up, I'm sure Ruby will fly back up

here," Naden said.

"I'm sure the dragons can fly now, after all," Aisha agreed. "No news

is good news."

With Naden and Aisha saying that to cheer me up, we headed for

Crystal Castle where Liscia and the others were waiting. Though the level

of the lake surrounding Crystal Castle had risen, and it covered a wider

area, there was no sign of any change to the castle itself. It might have

been designed like a floating island.

We set down on the ground while I was still feeling relieved to see that,

and Liscia and the others rushed over to us immediately.

"Souma!" Liscia immediately hugged me. "Thank goodness... you're

all right..."

"I'm glad to see you're okay, too." I returned Liscia's embrace, and

stroked the hair on the back of her head. I was really glad to see her all

right.

Once we had held each other for a while, Liscia let go and, with a

slightly angry look on her face, said, "Geez, you had me worried, you

know? There were flashes up in the clouds, and then explosions. If Halbert

and Ruby hadn't gone up there, I was about ready to put a propeller on the

gondola and head up there myself, okay?"

Launching the gondola?! That would have been way too reckless.

"I-I'm sorry to make you worry," I said. "So please, don't do anything

so dangerous."

"Look who's talking!" Liscia pulled on my cheek.

She... kind of had a point.

Still, she'd have come after me herself... huh. I thought Liscia had been

acting more like the soon-to-be first primary queen, but you could still see

bits of her tomboyish side at times like this. Well, that was who Liscia

was, and I loved her for it.

Then Liscia abandoned me, and turned to Aisha and Naden. "I'm glad

you two are safe, too."

"Of course we are! I got Souma there unharmed, just like I was

supposed to," Naden bragged, puffing up her not-so-ample bosom with

pride.

Aisha, who was much better endowed, let hers fall with a sigh of relief.

"All I did was cut down bombs, but it's good to see things turned out all

right."

While watching the three of them, I turned to Carla, who had walked

over, and asked her a question. "Was there any damage down here on the

surface?"

"No. Thanks to Sir Halbert warning us of the danger, the dragons were

able to intercept the falling objects, so there was no notable damage.

Liscia, Madam Kaede, and I were using magic enchanted bows to intercept

the things, too. But..." Carla averted her eyes. It looked there was

something she was having trouble telling me.

"Did something happen?"

"No... But something is about to, I'm sure." When she said that, she

glanced behind her.

Following her line of sight, I found Kaede with her arms crossed and an

imposing smile, and Hal kneeling in front of her. Ruby was behind him

acting flustered.

Huh? What? It looked like he was in trouble.

"Hal, do you understand what you did?" Kaede said, looking down at

Hal without dropping her smile. "You rode on the back of an unmarried

dragon, you know? You know what that means, right?"

"No, um... I-I had no idea! Not that they only let those they were going

to take as their husbands on their backs, or that not letting other men ride

them was a mark of chastity!" Hal desperately explained himself, sweating

bullets.

Ooh, now that he mentioned it, Naden said something like that. Could

Hal have ridden Ruby without knowing anything? That was like stealing a

kiss from an unmarried woman, or something along those lines. I wasn't

wrong when I thought he was in trouble.

"For reference, what happens if he rode her without knowing in

advance?" I asked Naden, who had a troubled look on her face and

scratched her cheek.

"Hm... If he forms a contract with her, there's no problem, but if she

tries to form a contract with someone else while he's still alive, she'll be

seen as "easy" or a tramp. If she can't form a contract with Halbert, Ruby

might not be able to form a contract for another eighty years."

Even if all they were doing was letting people ride on their backs, the

dragons apparently had a very strict sense of chastity.

Kaede shrugged in disbelief. "Even if you didn't know about it before,

if you listened to His Majesty and Madam Naden when they were talking,

you would have known this, you know?"

"No, I do think I messed up here! But, Kaede, back then... you never

stopped me from riding her!"

"Because it was a crisis," she snapped. "Knowing you, I had my doubts

that you were aware of what you were doing, but given the situation, I

decided to accept it, you know. Yes, even though we just got engaged the

other day."

"Ulp..."

Oh, Hal and Kaede were engaged, huh? Congratulations. Well, they

were childhood friends, after all, and I expected it to happen eventually, so

I wasn't surprised, but... if that was the case, this couldn't have happened

at a worse time.

Kaede sighed, and her shoulders slumped. "And what? You didn't

know? What about Ruby, who you took for a ride? She can't attend the

Contract Ceremony anymore. If you don't take responsibility, she'll be

alone for as long as you're alive, you know! Are you planning to waste

decades of a girl's life?"

"U-Um... Kaede," Ruby ventured. "I was ready to accept that when I..."

"You shut up, Ruby!"

"Y-Yes, ma'am..." Ruby hastily stepped aside.

"To think she could shut down Ruby with one shout..." Naden chose a

weird thing to be impressed by.

Normally Kaede was the hesitant type, but when it was time to stand

her ground, nothing could frighten her. Like when Hal tried to go join

Georg. That it usually involved Hal was a sign of how deep her love for

him was.

At this point, Carla whispered in my ear, "Um, Master, is it okay for us

not to stop them?"

"Do you think anything I say is going to be persuasive?" I murmured

back. "Even if there were circumstances involved, I'm trying to form a

contract with Naden when I already have four fiancées."

"...I suppose you have a point there." Carla scooted away from me.

Yeah... that was about the reaction I should have expected.

Raising a finger next to her temple, Kaede declared, "It looks like I

have no choice, you know. Please, do right by her."

"You're okay with that, Kaede?" Halbert asked weakly.

"I'll let it slide this time. I need to think about what's best for the

House of Magna from here on. If all I'm considering is how to grow the

House of Magna, forming a contract with a dragon like Ruby isn't a bad

thing. If you're a dragon knight, you'll be viewed with deference by

enemy and ally alike, and that should be helpful to you when you go to

war. I can accept it as a benefit to my house."

"Kaede..."

"But this is the last time I want to see you picking up other wives

because you went with the flow!"

"Uh, right... I'll take that to heart."

"Th-Thank you so much, Kaede." Ruby bowed her head to Kaede in

relief.

Hal seemed like he couldn't raise his head out of deference to her. It

looked like Kaede managed to show her forbearance as the head wife,

while placing herself above Hal and Ruby. Now Hal would never be able

to talk back to her about domestic affairs. Just like me.

Now that I thought of it, Grandpa once said, "The secret to a happy

household is to be clever about how you end up under your wife's thumb."

Even my grandma, who was always smiling, had given my grandpa hell

when he misbehaved when they were younger.

Were Liscia and the others going to get like that eventually...? I felt like

I'd seen signs of it.

"You're thinking something rude, aren't you?" Liscia asked, giving me

a cold look. She was apparently on to me.

"Oh, no... I was just thinking we should ask Madam Tiamat to sort out

the matter with Ruby... or something like that," I said hastily. "Yeah."

"Hm..." Liscia looked at me with her usual dubiousness.

Uh, time to change the topic.

"Oh, right. Where'd the other dragons go? Carla was saying they were

intercepting things from the ground."

"Hm? Oh, that's right. The dragon priestesses left a message for you."

Liscia clapped her hands as if she just remembered.

"A message?"

"'Please, come to the great hall,' they said. It sounds like Madam

Tiamat is waiting for you there."

"I see... Well, shall we go then?"

Madam Tiamat was waiting... huh. I had a mountain of questions, but

how many of them would she answer?

We entered Crystal Castle and headed for the great hall.

"Huh?!"

En route, when we entered the corridor to the great hall, there were

dragons in human form lined up along both sides of the corridor. When we

approached, the dragons all took a knee and bowed their heads. They were

like peasants welcoming a daimyo's procession.

"Wh-What?! What's going on?!" Naden exclaimed.

"All the dragons have gathered to bow to someone..." Ruby whispered.

When they saw that scene, Naden and Ruby voiced their surprise and

awe. It was a familiar scene for Liscia, Aisha, and me, since we lived in a

castle, but it was a bizarre sight for the rest of the group. I was scared to

realize I'd gotten used to this at some point.

While I was thinking about that, a dragon priestess appeared from

between the kneeling dragons. She bowed before us.

"Lady Tiamat awaits you in the great hall. Would King Souma,

Princess Liscia, and their vassals please follow me?"

With that said, the dragon priestess walked down the corridor lined

with kneeling dragons. Following her lead, we reached the great hall

where, just as when I first arrived in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, the

mountainous silver dragon that was Madam Tiamat was waiting.

The members of the group who were seeing her for the first time

gulped in unison.

"Whoa, she's huge... Ow!" Halbert yelped.

"You have to be quiet, you know, Hal," Kaede hissed as she stepped on

Hal's foot.

Then Madam Tiamat lowered her long thick neck.

When they saw that, Naden and Ruby's eyes bugged out.

"No way, Lady Tiamat is bowing!" Naden yelped.

"Wh-What a great honor!" Ruby cried.

Oh, so that was her bowing her head. She was so big that I couldn't tell.

If Madam Tiamat, who the dragons of the Star Dragon Mountain Range

looked up to as a mother, and the practitioners of Mother Dragon worship

saw as a god, was bowing her head in our direction, yeah, I could see why

they'd be shocked. Madam Tiamat slowly lifted her head and began

speaking in a quiet tone.

"First, King Souma of the United Kingdom of Elfrieden and Amidonia,

as representative of those who live in the Star Dragon Mountain Range,

and as the mother of all dragons, let me give you my greatest thanks for

your efforts to resolve the crisis facing Dracul." Madam Tiamat bowed her

head again. "Furthermore, allow me to also thank those who accompanied

you for their efforts. Naden, Ruby, you did well, too."

"Y-Yes, ma'am!"

"You're too kind!"

Naden and Ruby had taken a knee and were bowing their heads.

I took a step forward, and spoke as a representative of the group.

"Please, raise your head. I can't imagine this was a problem that affected

your country alone. Once the thing in that cloud causing the storm finished

destroying Dracul, there was no telling where it would head next. It might

have harmed my own country, too. It was only natural that I should

cooperate."

Then, after pausing to take a breath, I cut to the heart of the matter.

"I'd say that's enough for our pleasantries as the heads of two states,

Madam Tiamat. I have a lot I want to ask you."

Tiamat, who raised her head, nodded as if in agreement. "I know.

However, there is not much I am able to say."

"That's fine. You only have to tell me what you can, so please

explain."

"...Okay."

With that, Madam Tiamat was engulfed in light, and she took the form

of a woman wearing a silver robe, just like last time. I closed my eyes due

to the brightness, and when I opened them, a large round table and enough

chairs for everyone present had appeared.