A single dragon is flying through the sky in broad daylight.
The dragon is called a red dragon, since its entire body is dyed red and is ranked as intermediate within the dragon race.
The figure of a red dragon cutting through the wind, is known as a symbol of despair on the human continent.
That’s because encountering this dragon is directly linked to death.
There were two figures on the back of that dreadful being, such an occurrence is usually unimaginable.
Among the two, one of them has their entire body clad in armor, which is dyed in the same red hue as that of the dragon’s body.
Going by its appearance, it’s such a heavy-looking armor that it makes others think that just walking properly after getting off the dragon would be quite a heavy toll.
The other person has their hands around the red full-armored person's waist. It’s a young, redheaded man who tries to not be shaken off.
He is wearing a simple robe, well known as sorcerer equipment, but the robe that should be affected by the considerably strong winds doesn’t flutter as much as expected.
It’s owed to the dragon itself having deployed a defensive barrier so as to protect the riders mounted on its back.
Thanks to this, the riders can mount the dragon’s back without minding the wind pressure, however if they were to fly at the dragon’s speed without this, the riders wouldn't even be able to breath.
“Drkun! Hurry!”
The red, fully armored person raises their voice.
In reality there’s no need for them to raise their voice though.
A mental connection exists between the rider and the dragon, and as such each one can communicate their intentions by simply thinking about it in their head.
However, apparently the rider still hasn’t gotten used to it yet and thus they end up putting it into words either way.
“I won’t listen to any complaints! Hurry up!”
The rider slaps the body of the dragon with their palm, which was equipped with a tekkou.
No matter how much a dragon might be hit with a human's strength, it won’t feel even the slightest pain from it. But the dragon comprehended that their rider is in quite a hurry.
Is it something you have to be that flustered about? The dragon is puzzled.
The information carried by the riders could certainly be called urgent, the dragon assessed, but once he considers the receiver of said message, he can’t do anything about feeling that it'll be regarded as a trivial piece of information by them.
After all that person is…, at the moment he thought of that, the dragon slightly trembled.
The terror he felt the time he encountered that person for the first time left a very deep wound in the dragon’s heart, which has lasted till this day.
The dragon believed that he would die in the instant their eyes met.
Certainly, I sensed a staggeringly high power approaching our habitat and as such it’s not like I couldn’t understand my comrades’ frantic feeling of wanting to escape.
Though it was slightly saddening that they left me, who is the weakest within the flock, behind as a sacrifice.
Even so, before I met that person I still had my pride as dragon.
Despite the fact that I'm probably the weakest in our flock and no matter how powerful the being that’s about to arrive might be, I still had my pride as someone belonging to the lower ranks of dragons, those who are called avatars of despair and death.
In that case, I cannot afford to simply get killed.
Even if the conclusion might be my own death, I at least had the resolve to take that being down with me.
But, the moment that person was closeby, that readiness, which I harbored until then, completely shattered and vanished.
My head as dragon was filled with nothing more than the words 「What the hell is this?」.
It might be best to describe it as feeling as if I had just been stabbed right above my heart by a blade.
A presence of thick mana that seems to be covering the whole vicinity.
Within that, there was a presence of a cold, honed blade that doesn’t seem to forgive even the slightest touch.
The dragon realized it right away.
Ah, I will die in an instant if I resist even a bit.
There’s no other method to survive besides unconditional surrender.
At this moment, the dragon discarded its very useless pride without a hint of hesitation.
The events after that are just as Renya and the others had witnessed. But even as the dragon thinks back upon it, he believes that his decisions at that time were the correctest he had made in his life and that it was not a mistake.
After giving them, who made him form a contract as servant of a human, a lift back to the city, his comrades looked at him, who returned to their habitat, as if seeing something unbelievable and asked him,
“You, why are you still alive?”
Sooner or later, I will definitely hit you guys with all my power… once I mastered my power, Drkun swore in his heart.
Even though that’s yet another story. Drkun can’t imagine the sight of that person losing their way just because of the information possessed by Liaris, who is more or less his master, the lower being that is currently kicking up a fuss by squealing around atop his back.
It can’t be helped that he feels like all that awaits them is an uninterested “Oh, really?” accompanied by a somewhat scornful laughter.
However, if he doesn’t act in accordance with the intention of his master’s order as much as possible, he doesn’t know what will happen with the contract, which had been carved into his magic stone, which was located inside his head, by that dreadful demon.
“Liaris, don’t be too unreasonable. We won’t be able to endure falling from such a height.”
The red-headed man, who is clinging to the red full-armor, said as if rebuking her.
It’s the magician secretely called 「Flambeau」 by Drkun because of his ruffled, red hair, on top of his thin body and the plain robe he is always wearing.
Though there was no way for Drkun to know what kind of punishment he would go through if said person learned of their nickname.
What Drkun knows about this man is that, while his work as adventurer is suspended, he's currently working as a teacher in a school, that he’s of noble degree and that he’s the lover of his master Liaris. He's also aware of the extremely good relationship between this man and Liaris.
Those two are already a sweet couple to such a degree that it’s quite possible for honey to flow out of their mouths like a waterfall.
Drkun has absolutely no interest in the sexual intercourse of humans, but it's reached a point where he wonders whether he can somehow cut off the thought waves that greatly leak from Liaris every night.
Since it’s his master's private life, Drkun can’t reveal that information anywhere either, but if he’s asked, the amount of information he possesses about the two’s sex life is already at a level where he can easily write a book with just the stories about that stuff and their pillow talks.
Just where in this frail body of theirs do humans store the stamina to go at it that often every night? Humans are truly strange animals, aren’t they? He wonders.
“What are you thinking about, Drkun?” (Liaris)
The hand hitting his body has turned from a palm into a fist.
There’s basically absolutely no thoughts been leaked to Liaris from Drkun’s side.
This is because Drkun excels at thought manipulation in comparison to Liaris, but even so, as he was in the middle of thinking, it seems that he has transmitted fragments at the level of making her think It looks like he’s thinking about unnecessary things, doesn’t it?
Since there's by no reason to answer her honestly, Drkun pondered what he should answer and said,
“Renysan can likely handle it one way or the other, but isn’t that person together with 100 soldiers right now!? Those are just normal people!” (Liaris)
Isn’t that like saying that Renya isn’t normal? Drkun wonders, but since it feels like the definition of normal will crumble if you call that a normal person, I guess it’s fine, he also assesses.
Az, who gently touched his body, says with a calm tone,
“Renya has that sort of air about him, but he’s still a human. I think that situations, which take one by surprise, and unpredictable incidents always exist. I believe that the information we hold can thwart those possibilities to some extent. That’s why it’s necessary to hurry.” (Az)
I see, if you put it like this, I can understand as well, Drkun agreed.
Certainly, no matter how much great power a being might possess, albeit rare, being destroyed by an unforeseen attack isn't something unheard of.
Liaris changes her hand into the shape of a sword-hand and chops the dragon's back, who faces his master with a slightly bitter feeling of even though it would have been best if you could have explained it in such an easy to understand way.
Of course it’s not like Liaris’ punches will pierce or penetrate Drkun’s scales, but he somehow has the feeling that she has gotten very mad.
While we are at it, since several dozen scales are still weak as they've just grown out, I’d like her to avoid treating them too roughly, Drkun ends up thinking.
The reason why they had to be replaced by newly grown ones is because they were torn off by the person they are currently looking for.
“You still haven’t found them?” (Liaris)
“Judging by the number of days, I think they are already on their way back, but… at this speed… No matter how much the other party might be a group of 100 people, the possibility of overlooking them…” (Az)
“Drkun! Fly slower!” (Liaris)
She’s not a bad master.
I was forced into the contract against my will, but since she doesn't cause me any stomach aches due to discontent related stress, she's an acceptable master.
Drkun evaluates Liaris highly, but the fact that she occasionally gave overly silly commands was her sole flaw.
The worst of them is the order to try my hardest not to kill the opponents when releasing my breath, Drkun thinks dejectedly.
By the way, there’s no way for them to fall off just because he's flying slowly, but Drun isn't in a mood of wanting to do so, as it's a very tiring type of flying. So, he simply disagreed by giving the possibility of them falling down as a reason.
“How to say it, can’t you find them by their smell or something like that?” (Liaris)
The people on his back are apparently searching by sight, but Drkun searches by presences.
Drkun had the conceit of there being no way for him to miss Renya’s existence, which exudes such a powerful presence.
There’s only one road going from the city of Kukrika to the Miasma Forest.
As long as Renya’s group doesn’t choose to act as something as ambiguous as some heroes and thus takes a large detour from the road by going through places that haven't been developed on purpose, they should definitely enter Drkun’s search range at some point.
“It’s at the point where I want to quickly find and join up with them. … Even under normal circumstances it’s easy for a dragon to cause an uproar.” (Az)
Drkun wanted to insist that it’s not his fault, but since it’s pointless even if he does, he stays silent.
As a matter of fact, just as Az said, the figure of a dragon flying above the road continued to cause somewhat of an uproar among the travellers using said road.
The information that there’s a dragoon in the city of Kukrika has widely spread on the human continent, but it’s not like the travellers can judge whether the dragon currently soaring above their heads is that dragoon or a stray that appeared after losing its way from its habitat.
Once they see the people riding atop the dragon, they might understand at once that it’s the dragoon, but it’s probably a difficult angle in order to see people riding on its back if you look up to the dragon from below. Moreover, the dragon’s fast flight speed also makes seeing the riders more difficult.
“Then hurry up and find them!” (Liaris)
When he asked her through thought whether she wanted to go back home swiftly to make out with Az-san, Liaris's movements, who had chopped Drkun’s body until then with her sword-hand, stopped.
Az, who is clinging to her back, has a puzzled expression wondering what happened.
Since the telepathic connection is an exclusive connection between the dragon and Liaris, there’s no worry that a conversation through thoughts will be heard by Az.
“Liaris? What’s wrong?” (Az)
“Hyaa!? … I-It’s nothing!” (Liaris)
Liaris body jumped alongside a funny yell once Az whispers by bringing his lips loser close to her ear, so as to make it easier for her to hear him.
Just when Drkun was broadly grinning while thinking I’m pretty sure within her helmet she has a red face that doesn't lose to her armor's color, a large response finally popped up in his sense.
(Drkun)
“Alright. Do a nose dive!” (Liaris)
Or is it fine to have her experience something like dying once, since it is my master’s order after all? Drkun pondered, but there’s no need to pointlessly worsen our master-servant relationship, he changes his mind.
Thinking about such things, a gathering of rice-grain-like small people enters Drkun’s field of vision.
It’s very likely a gathering of the soldiers that have been taken along by Renya. Even though the travellers, who were passed by Drkun on the road, started to run at full power or became unable to stand, the group that slowly advances along the road heads towards the city at a constant pace without their ranks breaking up.
I would also be troubled if they were excessively scared of me, but, as member of a race that tentatively enters the category of being strong, to not get any reaction is something slightly sad.
Even at the time when they were transported to the forest by dragons, which had to be called out from quite distant places as just the ones living nearby were insufficient, the soldiers had reactions originating from curiosity, completely unrelated to fear or confusion.
If their leader is that person, I guess even the subordinates will get tainted with that, while thinking something that will cause dozens of his scales to once again be torn off should Renya hear that, Drkun lightly flapped his wings once and slowly lowered his altitude towards the group he found.