Chapter 408: Mountain air and daydream, departure
After wiping the flash sword clean, I carry it to my room and put it under my bed, just in case. Well, I don’t think any peddlers will come, and even if they did, I don’t think I’d be able to escape the pursuit of Maia and Laila. Then I go out to the terrace in front of the entrance and think about what I can do to pass the time until Neia revisits. I don’t want to leave the flash sword behind and get lost, so going to the hot springs again or going to the cat Geäst house or the bar to chill out is a no-no, right? I told her to come over at night. However since she’s Neia, I don’t think she’ll keep me waiting until midnight. No matter where I go, if I relax a little, it’s going to be night after dark, so I have no choice but to do some self-study on the crest engraving. ……When I was thinking, I saw a blue dragon suddenly appear a little further away from me.
“!?”
I’m a bit surprised, but if I look closely, it’s not Maia. From a distance, it is difficult to distinguish between the blue dragons, but Maia is a size smaller than adult dragons, so I manage to recognise her. If it was Maia, she would have to be in a hurry to transform on her own, as it is quite likely to be an emergency. It doesn’t mean to be a warning, but I don’t think Maia would fight in her dragon body without asking for my decision. But the fact that she wouldn’t is…….
“……Dragon flight?”
If it’s just going to see them off, there won’t be any crossings. I take off my cloak and aim at the dragon’s feet.
———————————————-
The dragon was Asti.
“Oh, my lord. Will you see me off?”
“Please say『Maia’s Master』. Or Andy-sama”
When I corrected her, 100-man commander Becker and General Kingfisher booed from inside the carriage.
“That bastard is telling her to call him 『sama』 by himself”
“He’s getting carried away. Hey, lowly man! You’re going to get hurt one of these days if you keep on acting like the dragon ladies are so polite!”
“That’s right! Tell them!”
……Hey Lantz. Aside from the two superiors, don’t even get involved. And Boyd is troubled despite such lax three people.
“I wonder if I can put all these tools on it……this carriage has a weak floor, so if it shakes a little, the floor will break and it will fall off”
Dianne, who had been thinking about it after hearing that, looked up after a few seconds.
“Asti. Laila does it a lot, but I wonder if you can use illusions to fix things around you and carry them around”
“Of course. Those tools, right?”
“Please”
Asti receives the tools piled up in front of Boyd with her huge hands and makes them disappear near her body. I think that’s handy every time.
“Thank you. ……I’d still like to strengthen this one as much as my usual carriage, though”
“It takes a lot of work……but even so, you guys have your hands full maintaining the fort”
“That’s true, but……can’t we ask the elven carpenters over here to help us?”
“I’ll telI Irina……they don’t fly around, so they might not really know what to do”
“Umm……”
Boyd snarls and bends over to get into the carriage.
“Maybe we should tell Maia or Laila to get an elf carpenter on board and give him a test flight”
“That’s right……it’s a bit problematic to let a misty dragon get comfortable with an elf at our suggestion”
The dragons of the Misty Palace would be more than happy to carry the elves and let them fly, if I gave the order, but I don’t like to mess with the distance between them and the elves too much. It would be 「Who the hell do you think you are」 to make waves in a relationship that has been built up over a long period of time. It’s better to do that within the limits of my responsibility.
“Then, may we take off?”
Chibi Asti, which floated in front of us, confirms this.
“Wait a minute, Lucia-san hasn’t arrived”
General Kingfisher says and stops the take-off.
“I told you the time, didn’t I, Kingfisher?”
“Of course I did, but the bell here is every two hours, so it’s a bit of a guess, really”
“Hmm. Should I go look for her……”
“No, let Maia bring her here”
Just as Dianne and I were about to start walking, Chibi Asti slipped in front of us and stopped it.
“The woman was in the middle of a conversation with a man who was looking for her. No need to worry”
“I see”
Come to think of it, Asti is a dragon too, so she had sensory power equal to or greater than Maia’s.
“It’s just that……it’s going to take a while”
“?”
“Apparently, she is coming here while shopping for souvenirs. The elven merchants have just come out of the forest and they’re looking around……”
“……?”
“Well, there’s no need to rush”
“……Civilian, you know. It can’t be helped”
A soldier would receive a lecture, but Lucia-san doesn’t have the obligation to say that strongly. No, well, I want her to match the actions of the whole group, but it’s like General Bird’s selfishness brought her here.
“Kingfisher. You’re the fastest. Bring her here as soon as possible”
“I, I understand”
General Kingfisher flew away, obeying Dianne’s frightened voice. ……I envy him for being able to fly so easily.
“But that’s the thing, isn’t it, 10-man Captain Smithson? When we go over there, what are you going to do with the gauntlet knights?”
Lantz pokes me to make small talk while we wait.
“……Isn’t it roughly what you imagined?”
I say that because it is troublesome to explain in detail. Then, Lantz hits the wall of the carriage with a bang and I’m surprised.
“That leeway is annoying!”
“What did you want me to answer?”
“What’s wrong with expecting you to make a few more lame-ass missteps that are typical of 10-man captain Smithson!”
“What do you mean with my typical lame-ass missteps!”
Don’t expect too much. Becker, who was listening to it while resting his chin in the carriage, sighed.
“Hey, you. Are you aware of it? The only people you’re messing with, even if it’s just the gauntlet knights, are all really dangerous, except for regular knight Naris”
“……Just in case”
“Not to mention Knight Chief Sharon of the royal family of Arcus. If you make a mistake in dealing with any of them, they’re just dangerous women, aren’t they? How can you pick up women so casually?”
“I didn’t pick up……any of them, guys”
“Bullshit, you’re going to tell me that they were coming to you on their own?”
“I know you won’t believe me, but that’s exactly what happened”
Moreover, unlike Fennel and the other elf girls, each of them has a separate mouth, which now that I think about it, is really a joke.
“100-man commander Becker. I sometimes think. The world is distorted, isn’t it?”
‘Yes, it is, right, regular soldier. I’m not as gnashing of teeth as you are, because I’m a pretty popular guy. I just think you’re reckless”
“You’re my enemy too!”
“Calm down, Lantz-san! I’m not the one who’s going to get you into trouble!”
“Fuck! Fuck! Why don’t I get a pretty elf girl who’ll let me fuck her at will?”
“That’s what you’re talking about!?”
Lantz will probably start rubbing his cock when he meets a naked girl. You’d have to be a real weirdo to be with him and Goto.
“……It’s easier with Boyd, you don’t have to join in the conversation”
Dianne nodded quietly, saying.
“I don’t want to join in either!”
“No, you can’t, associate soldier. You’re just the way you are”
“Yeah, yeah”
Before I knew it, Lantz and 100-man commander Becker were standing side by side and nodding to each other.
“You two are about to fight right now, aren’t you? Are you bullying me by any chance?”
……Add General Bird to the mix and I wonder if we can really make it to the fort, Boyd. After watching the newbies bully for a while, General Bird and Lucia-san arrived with a mountain of souvenirs on their backs.
“You’re taking that much with you!”
“Y, Yes, because this is the skull of a unicorn! I thought they were extinct……and elven textiles are very delicate and look at this 1/5th marble statue of the sacred beast Breakcore! I’ve never seen such an exquisite sculpture before, so I just had to……”
“……Yes. Th, That’s right”
I’m sorry, I probably shouldn’t be poking around so much.
“Clay-san, please don’t break it. I’ll cry if you break it”
“L, Leave it to me……with my two arms and two wings, I’ll make sure this treasure will never be broken……”
“Hey hey. It’s a lot, isn’t it……if it shakes, I’ll step on it, too”
“Becker, if you step on it, I’ll kill you! Kue!”
“It’s narrow, so it can’t be helped!”
“Boyd-san, I need this! Take care of it as best you can! Take care of it! This skull, it’s for academic purposes!”
“Hiee”
Lucia-san climbs into the carriage with the inside of the carriage in a state of fluster and confusion at once. She might be an amazing person to take the air at once in a plain dark face.
“……What should we do?”
“I want you to be as considerate as possible”
Dianne quietly requested so to Chibi Asti, who was troubled. Even if she’s considerate, we’re going to move over the mountains from now on. How quietly can you carry it? ……Well, I can’t help but worry.
So the dragon soars from the muddy snowfields south of the city and flies far away to Renfangas.
“Well. Next up is……speaking of which, Andy, isn’t today the day you’re supposed to be training Neia hard? I saw her walking around there earlier……did she maybe get away?”
“Ah, emm……well, I did it to the extent that one hand wasn’t enough, so I thought there was no need to panic. Neia herself was enthusiastic about it”
“I thought you wouldn’t let go until she was off your back”
“I wouldn’t do anything too rash with a virgin! Not too much!”
……It’s hard to say for sure. And.
“……But more importantly, Neia……I still can’t deny that she’s a bit, you know, mentally distorted. So……I feel like I need to get all the other female slaves to cooperate and take care of her as much as possible”
“Hmm?”
Dianne-san has a glint of interest in her eyes.
“Does it have something to do with the secret conversations you often have with Neia……?”
“……Well, somewhat”
Since I couldn’t reveal anything about the flash sword, I was somewhat muddy about my words.
I extract the parts that are not directly related to Neia’s flash sword, such as Neia’s mental instability, her social position and her duties and explain them to Dianne-san.
“……I see. Well, that’s the story you told me somewhat even in front of me. ……Is there such a backstory to that ruin-oriented heroic desire?”
“Yes”
“……Sure, maybe we need to change our mindset. Neia seems to know too little about the value of the future”
“……Right?”
“Okay, I’ll make some adjustments. Andy, you’re still going to have to hit Neia from the sex side”
“…………If you say it like that, I’m playing a delicate role”
“It’s important to be able to teach a woman how to be happy, isn’t it? There are limits to what words alone can do to encourage a change of heart”
Diane smiles and whispers with a shoulder clap.
“At least it was effective enough to tell you that much, right?”
“……I suppose”
The truth is, there’s a subtle compliment from the flash sword. No, let’s think about it the other way round. There’s no one else who can go further than that at the moment except me.
“I’ll pass the story on to the female slaves. You can put Neia in active contact with the other female slaves. Letting each of them share their perspectives might help to instill in Neia a sense of the future”
“Yes”
“And I want to show her how big the world is. I don’t have a lot of time, but I’ll do what I can. I will continue to support you if you save someone else’s life”
“Thank you……for your support”
Despite her manly words, Dianne encourages me with a gentle tone. I renew my determination. ……I have a lot of reassuring allies. There must be nothing I can’t do.