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.