Early Afternoon At The Dragon Embassy

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…

〜At the Dragon Embassy Courtyard〜

“Hmm, what a fine fragrance… As expected, tea leaves must be those cultivated in the Central Region…”

A marble building based around white.

A garden terrace where soft sunlight streamed in. Small birds chirped and frolicked.

However, the sunlight was scattered just right by the vine-like plants stretched across the gutters, so it was not dazzling.

It was when Bernal, the dragon’s butler, was enjoying tea time.

A floral fragrance softly appeared.

“Butler-sama, pardon me during your tea. I have a report. The battle between Tooyama Naruhito and the First Knight in the adventure city has just safely ended.”

“I see. The result?”

It was Faran, the head maid of the Dragon Embassy, a short-haired woman dressed in a chic maid uniform with long sleeves.

At her report, Bernal returned his teacup to its saucer and recrossed his legs. The red eye behind his newly made monocle narrowed slightly.

“…Hmm, how should I put this?”

Faran placed a hand on her chin and tilted her head. The white brim decorating her short black bob swayed.

“What is this? That is unlike you. Faran, you are not the sort to mince words. Say it.”

Still elegant. Bernal, a fine silver gentleman, swirled his teacup and smelled its fragrance.

His exchange with the Female Bishop had just ended, and his master, who for all that had somehow taken a liking to her, was also in a good mood.

She was probably leisurely bathing around now. Bernal was fully enjoying a fairly rare peaceful time at the Dragon Embassy—

“Y-yes. Um, Tooyama Naruhito was once driven close to death by a grave good. During that time, the Lizardonian teamed up with him released the power of his familiar and his race, became a lesser dragon form, and fought the Angel Church First Knight, Fourth Knight, and Seventh Knight. In this battle, the Fourth Knight suffered serious injuries. After that, while the Lizardonian and the knights were fighting, Tooyama Naruhito revived, and the Lizardonian, Tooyama Naruhito, and the knights began fighting again. Around that point, the Angel Church Female Bishop, who had been threat—no, hinted at by ojousama, and the saint calmed the scene down. Ah, the Female Bishop used the inherited sacrament, ‘Archbishop’s Order.’ Oh, and she did a vomit prostration.”

“Hmm, hmm………… Huh?”

Clink. Bernal set down his teacup with a faint sound.

“See? That’s the kind of reaction it gets, isn’t it? I was watching through the running dogs too, and I kept wanting to butt in over and over. Like, ‘No, that’s not how it works.’ Oh, and also, tsk, the running dogs started acting strange midway… It was exactly like when ojousama gets serious. The adventure city’s open-air market was almost turning into anotherworld.”

“Ah, my head hurts. …Wait, anotherworldization? Not being drawn into an otherworld through a grave good or sacrament?”

“Yes. It was more like erosion into the human world. But it stopped midway. It felt like the howl was blocked by mist? Hmm, what was it? The owner of the howl felt truly innocent and pure, while the mist felt calculating and impatient.”

“By the way, the wedge of that otherworld was?”

“Of course, the groom—no, the friend, Tooyama-sama.”

“…Let me confirm. Is there any chance of our friend undergoing dragonization?”

“Absolutely not. I don’t think he has talent in that direction. There are signs of soul-eating, but rather than being him personally, it’s more like, hmm, I don’t really know, but something inside him rather than him? Hmm, that is about as much as I can understand.”

“Hmm. Then fine. Even if the situation involved carelessness, our friend is an excellent hunter capable of taking one of ojousama’s lives. It is rather natural that he should have some slightly abnormal parts.”

“Still, how should I tell ojousama? If I tell her exactly as it is, she will get far too excited. But then again, lies do not work on ojousama as a dragon.”

Bernal groaned and pondered. Now what should he do? If it concerned Tooyama Naruhito, he should tell her, but conveying the contents exactly as they were—

“Hehe.”

Bernal was troubled, and an elegant smile moistened the terrace.

“Hmm? What is it?”

“No, I was just thinking that even that demon really becomes like a grandfather when it comes to ojousama.”

Faran smiled brightly. In terms of workplace hierarchy, Bernal was above her, but these two held somewhat special positions.

Both of them were among the few higher beings who could stand alongside “dragons.”

“Nonsense, Faran. Fearsome familiar of service. Have you not had quite a bit of your poison drained in the human world yourself?”

“Hehehe. I’m an offshoot, so it’s fine. My main body is friendly toward life, after all. Not enough to create familiar-possessed people like ‘evil deeds’ or ‘death,’ though. ‘Commerce and Contracts’ is apparently even looking a thousand years ahead, saying it found a successor, and the main body is with humans.”

“Hmph. Things do not go as one wishes. A demon and two familiars are all being dragged around by that young dragon.”

Bernal shrugged, but his face was bright. He looked up at the sky with eyes as though gazing at something warm and fluffy.

“Hehe, that child is special even among dragons, after all. A guardian dragon who can live in both the world of humans and the world of dragons. Watching her never gets boring, and she is worth serving. I wonder what ojousama will become from here.”

Faran was the same, never losing her cheerful smile. While letting a small bird perch on a long finger wrapped in a white glove, she giggled.

“Whether she lives as a dragon, a pillar of the world, or as a guardian dragon, protector of the human world, is it? Well, either way, this Bernal intends to accompany her until the end.”

“Hehe, me too. Besides, lately, or rather since yesterday, ojousama has been too cute not to support. When she is with Tooyama-sama, her dragon body keeps wagging its tail and making its horns glow.”

Faran could not hold back her laughter. Chirp, chirp, the small bird also seemed to be laughing.

“Hmm, that is a little, well. Complicated.”

“Mufufu, a grandfather whose granddaughter was taken away?”

“Nonsense, fool.”

Bernal let out a quiet sigh.

Well, the city was in quite a serious situation, but it was within expectations.

That man, Tooyama Naruhito.

That boy was that sort of being. As long as he lived, he would keep struggling to reach what he sought.

If a man like that headed into that city, where various powers were intermingled and various desires devoured each other, this was bound to happen.

—As his desires dictated.

Back then, even before a dragon and a demon, he had declared it boldly. If so, what was an adventure city to him? Bernal understood that he was a being certain to cause trouble.

But to think he would cause a commotion this quickly. Even Bernal’s eyes could not see through that.

“Come to think of it, where is the important ojousama? Normally, she should be bathing at this hour.”

Suddenly, Bernal asked Faran.

“Hmm, huh? She isn’t in the great bath. Hmm? She isn’t in her room either, or the kitchen. Huh? Not in the training ground either.”

Faran made a circle with her hands, peered through it, and tilted her head.

“…I am getting a bad feeling.”

Contrary to Bernal’s premonition, warm sunlight poured down brightly.

“E-excuse me. Butler-sama, Head Maid!”

Stuttering, another maid appeared on the terrace. Beads of sweat floated on her white skin, and she clutched something like paper in her hand.

“Oh my, Pal. What happened? It is time for you to clean ojousama’s bathroom, is it not?”

Faran spoke gently to the maid.

“U-um, w-well, that is…”

Though she stuttered, it was clear the maid was trying to convey something.

If he remembered correctly, she was a newcomer. She seemed unreliable and terribly flustered, but she was talent found by Faran, the familiar of service.

She likely had some kind of talent.

“It is fine. Calm down and speak.”

Bernal deliberately spoke gently.

The maid jumped like a small animal, but while taking deep breaths, she looked firmly at Bernal.

“Ah, y-yes! Um, while I was cleaning, this letter was left in the changing room.”

She spread it out and showed the two of them.

““………………??””

Bernal and Faran looked at each other, then read the paper, the note that had been left behind.

“I haven’t gotten a letter from Naruhito, and I’m starting to feel like I’m being left out. I feel like he’s getting friendly only with that dragon familiar Lizardonian while leaving me aside. I’m worried, so I’m going down into town too. I don’t want to get stolen away. Naruhito is a difficult one, so I’ll help him without getting caught. Don’t worry. I mastered the transformation formula Faran taught me. Well, that’s that.”

““…………Wow.””

The demon and the familiar froze at the same time and muttered at the same time.

A dragon was descending into the adventure city—

“By the way, when did you find this letter…?”

“Um, just now, but, well… the ink is completely dry, so I think some time has passed since the letter was written…”

““Wom……….””

She had already descended long ago.

“U-um!”

“Wh-what is it, Pal? F-Faran-san is a little short on composure right now…”

Faran collapsed unsteadily on the spot.

Chirp, chirp. Small birds began perching on and around Faran’s head as if worried.

“All right, let us calm down. Let us calm down and drink tea. Mm, delicious.”

Bernal gulped down the contents of the pot in one go.

Refreshing down the throat.

“B-Butler-sama, that is just hot water. U-um, well, a-actually, earlier, an eagle delivery from the Imperial Capital also brought a letter addressed to you, Butler-sama, the Head Maid, the Dragon Embassy, and Dragon Duke Alice Dral Flaretail…”

Timidly, she offered another letter. An envelope with blue sealing wax.

“The contents?”

The instant they heard the words “addressed to the Dragon Embassy” and “a letter to the Dragon Duke,” Bernal and Faran changed their atmosphere.

“Um, well. Is it all right?”

“It is fine. I have been given permission to open letters addressed to the Dragon Duke only when I am present. The sender? The Emperor?”

“N-no. The sender is, um, the Magic Academy. It is a letter from the Magic Academy’s headmaster, Lord Sinome…”

The Magic Academy.

A national-class power outside the Kingdom and Empire, paired against the Angel Church.

The headquarters of magicians, based on Putara, a flying island created through magical formulas.

The magicians in the Kingdom and Empire were also peculiar existences who all studied at that academy and rooted themselves there.

“Can you open it and read it aloud?”

Bernal’s voice was low. Due to a certain history, the Magic Academy and “dragons” did not get along.

A letter from that academy was certainly not a seasonal greeting.

“Y-yes. Ahem. …Huh?”

The maid carefully broke the sealing wax and opened the envelope.

When she saw the contents, she froze again.

“Pal?”

Even at Faran’s words, the maid did not react. Her eyes swam as they followed the text, and her mouth trembled.

“…Pal, give it to me.”

Bernal gently held out his hand.

“Y-yes, I-I’m sorry. I was just so surprised.”

He received it.

Written in beautiful letters, the text seemed to dance—

“Ta-da! A letter from little Sinome was a lie. Yoo-hoo, it’s me. I heard about the cute granddaughter of my dear friend. I want to see her face for the first time in a while, so I’m coming to visit the adventure city now. It would help if you undid the adventure city’s Anti-Dragon Disaster Defensive Barrier Formula. Ah, even if you do not, I will undo it myself, though.
P.S. I am also interested in the dragon slayer who killed Alice-chan once. I also plan to open a hobby magic-tool shop while I’m there, so handle that part for me, Bernal-kun.
From the ‘Dragon of Human Knowledge.’”

“Whoops…”

This time, Bernal too collapsed onto the ground.

The two higher beings collapsed under the sunlight and the sound of birdsong.

Chirp, chirp, chirp. A round little bird tilted its head and chirped softly.