Riddle me this, how do you put a goddess and an undead inside the same carriage without them murdering each other?
The answer is simple, you can't. That's why I need more people to go with us. The other people in this case is Taylor and his party who will be tagging along with us in another carriage with Chris. Also, to make sure that Chris would never know that Wiz is an undead, we would bring a very, very powerful dark magic device that just stinks of the hell.
Oh and to make sure we do not arise any suspicion, we decided to switch out Dust and Lynn with Darkness and Yunyun. This way I can also take my time to do my own assessment on Dust. See if he kept up with his promise a few days ago.
So there I was, sitting between Wiz and Megumin. In front of me sat Lynn and Dust, the latter holding a cage with a baby red dragon inside of it. At the back of the carriage, sat Aqua, sitting on one of the more softer luggage.
"Ne, Kazuma, let's switch out in the next stop!" the goddess whined. "My butt started to hurt, this carriage is going through a rocky terrain…"
"Sure, sure," I waved my hand dismissively. Then I turned towards Lynn and Dust. The two of them reminded me of Aqua and I in our earlier days. Lynn has that alert look of suspicion on her face, glancing at Dust every now and then. Dust on the other looked like he's trying too hard to behave himself.
"So, what do you think about that dragon Dust?" I asked the dragon knight.
Dust raised an eyebrow and raised the cage a little. "This is a baby red dragon, they're usually quite tame when they're young. I'm assuming the merchant who has this dragon is meaning to sell her because attachment is important in this age," he explained.
"Hee? Really now?" I turned towards Megumin who is staring at me with stars in her eyes. "What? You already have the evil god as your pet right?"
We turned towards the evil god who's currently sleeping on Wiz's lap. It's one of the telling signs that Chomsuke isn't a normal cat, not many animals are comfortable to be that close with an undead. Though, Wiz really appreciate the gesture and simply stroked the cat in her lap.
"W-well, Chomsuke is cuter but…" the girl bit her lip. "You don't have a pet don't you? A hero of Axel like you should definitely own a dragon!" she then turned towards Aqua. "Ne, Aqua, we should get ourselves a pet dragon, don't you think?"
Aqua turned towards us. "Pet dragon?" she then looked at the caged dragon sitting on Dust's lap. "I dunno, it looks cute I guess…"
Dust narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "Senpai, a dragon is not a creature you can treat as a pet, they are prideful creatures that must be treated as equal," he explained.
"So, how should I treat her?"
"Well, you can treat her as your companion," Dust handed me the dragon cage. "Here, why don't you hold her, make her get to know you."
I took the cage out of his hands and found that the dragon is still looking at Dust. "Say, Dust, can you teach me some of your dragon taming skill?"
Dust narrowed his eyes. "I'm not sure… I don't even know how I do that. Dragon just likes me I guess?" he asked.
I looked at the dragon on my lap and tried to use my passive charm skill on it. Both Megumin and Lynn suddenly had their eyes glued on me so I stopped immediately. The latter blushed a little and quickly averted her gaze.
"Oi, Aqua, can you cast Abnormal Status Protection on everyone here?"
Aqua turned towards me and pointed her hand and did her spell on everyone here. Then I turned back on the dragon and turn on my charm skill. Just like before, it didn't work, the dragon just stared mutely towards Dust.
But then, I started tweaking the magic circle, just a slight tweak every now and then, to see its reaction. Some had the dragon yapping angrily at me, some had the dragon suddenly feeling sleepy, some had the dragon trying to break the cage.
"Se-senpai, what are you doing?"
"Trying to replicate your power," I told him. "Don't worry, it's all about trial and error,"
After a minute of tweaking the spell, I finally found the pattern I want. The dragon looked at me like how it stared at Dust and his gaze followed me. "I think I got it," I told Dust.
Lynn and Dust just stared at the dragon with wide eyes. The former then broke into a grin and nudged on Dust's ribs.
"Oi, Dust, Satou Kazuma just stole your dragon taming power,"
"Yes shut up,"
"Made you eat your own words eh?"
"Can we not talk about our conversation last night?"
"What was it that you say? I think it was: 'I'm a Dragon Knight, my power is all about dragons! If I had my white dragon with me, he'll probably start running away screaming for his harem," Lynn said with a mocking voice.
"Ah! This is so unfair! Senpai why are you so powerful! This is cheating!"
I simply laughed at their banter and let the dragon sniff my finger like how cat would. I'm assuming that my dragon charm skill only works better than him because of the difference in levels. If I was weaker than Dust, I don't think this dragon would pay any attention to me.
"So, Megumin, what should we name this dragon?" I asked the Crimson Demon.
Megumin was about to say something but Aqua beat her to it. "What are you thinking Kazuma!? No! I am not letting her name that dragon," she stood up from her position and walked towards me. "If I may suggest, we should name it Queen Elizabeth! The Future Ruler of All Dragons!!!"
Dust chocked on his saliva and started coughing. "I-I'm sorry?"
"Queen Elizabeth! You can call her Emperor Liza if you want. She is destined to be the Future Ruler of All Dragon!" her form glows a little. "I declare it, in the name of the Goddess Aqua! Thou shalt be the Future Ruler of All Dragons!!! Sacred Fate Blessing!"
It's easy to forget that Aqua is literally a goddess and now I have to pay the price. Ever since the Paradox incident, she's been relearning her Archpriest, Bard, and Goddess power. One of them, is to bless heroes like what she did to Kyoya and other reincarnated people.
So now, judging by the choirs of angels and the tidal wave of holy light that almost killed Wiz in the process, I can safely say that her declaration isn't just a rambling. That was literally the Will of a Goddess, the same move Paradox used on me to turn me into who I am.
Soon enough, the light dies down. On the outside, there doesn't seem to be anything different with Emperor Lize. But one check on her magical power tells me that she's much, much more powerful than before.
"Uhh, miss Wiz, are you okay?" Lynn asked suddenly in a panicky voice. "Se-sensei! Something's wrong with Wiz, she's fading! Sensei!"
I quickly poured in my vitality on Wiz as the girl lies motionless with a smile on her face.
"Ahh… I can see Verdia san waving at me at the other side of a large river…" the Lich whispered. "Good afternoon Verdia san…"
Well then, looks like this Dragon is going to be the Future Ruler of Dragons for real. I turned towards Dust who's staring at the dragon in curiosity.
"So, how long does it take for a dragon to mature?"
"A hundred years or so, but…" Dust leaned forward. "I'm not sure… What exactly did Aqua sama did to her was… I mean, what was that? I've never seen anything like that before!"
I hand over the dragon to Megumin who's starting to get a bit curious of the dragon. She put the cage on her lap and tried to make it pay attention to her. But the dragon kept staring at me instead.
Hmm… Maybe this dragon is more intelligent than it looks?
"Hi Emperor Liz, my name's Satou Kazuma, your…" I wanted to say companion but felt like it doesn't feel right. Should I treat it like a daughter? Ahh, that sounds so embarrassing, especially with Megumin standing beside. But… I mean… I'm supposed to treat her as an equal right? "Father Figure?"
Megumin started chuckling to herself. "Kazuma first child is a dragon," she said.
"You know that makes you the mother right?" her laughing stopped and her cheeks reddens a little. "Emperor Liz, this right here, is your mother. Her name is Megumin, she looks really young but she actually has quite a mature taste such as…"
"Stop teaching Liz weird stuff!" Megumin said covering the dragon's eyes. "Liz, don't pay attention to your perverted father,"
I don't think you should worry about decency when it comes to dragon, I mean, it's not really a human right? Is it?
"Dust, do dragons have human-like intelligence?"
Dust nodded a little. "Some dragons can be even smarter than most humans. Though it usually depends on its magical environment," he explained.
"What do you mean?"
"Most dragon who lives and grow alongside humans can be smarter than wild dragons," he explained. "Most of their stats depends on what kind of magic and environment they are subjected to and what kind of dragon they are."
I turned towards Aqua before looking back at the Dragon. It seems Megumin caught on to the implication and her eyes widened in horror. "N-no! Kazuma quick!" she ripped the cage open and put a hand on Liz's body..
I did the same thing and we all poured in our magic and vitality at her. All in hopes to save the dragon from the stupidity of our resident goddess. The dragon glows a little as we did so and she started purring. But we didn't stop until…
"Ahh… I'm out…" Megumin muttered in slight exhaustion. She embraced Liz into a hug kinda like how she did with Chomsuke. Then she slowly stroked her head while humming to herself. "Well I mean, it's okay if she's just a little bit slow, right?"
"Yeah, I mean it's still a baby, we just have to keep it as far away from Aqua as possible."
"Good call,"
The goddess in question didn't take too kindly to our decision. "Oi, what are you talking about? Queen Elizabeth is my champion now! You can't keep her away from me!"
We decided to ignore her and just focus on showering Liz with the love and affection that she deserves. Oh and magic too.
It didn't take long for us to completely ran out of mana. We closed our eyes and simply let ourselves drift off into the realm of sleep.