Dragon-san Wants a Friend

Volume 4 Chapter 31: What Dragon-san Decided On

After Kyle managed to master the Towa language, we brought him and Ligurila up to speed on what we were doing and how to infiltrate Taisha.

Listening to the story, Kyle bowed down to Mikado-san and said with an apologetic tone.

「It looks like this stupid Nectar of mine has caused you great deal of trouble……」

「It’s no big deal. Anyways, that’s the whole story. Building the gate is of the highest priority for the time being, so we can get inside of Taisha. I’m counting on you lot in that regard.」

The fact that Nectar made Towa magicians pretty much useless in this case was making Mikado-san’s expression darken slightly, but since both Nectar and Kyle were here we were sure to pull this off.

Then, Ligurila and Kyle turned towards me and said:

「We came here to aid Lava in her rescue mission. Not for your sake or your people.」

「Yeah. But, if it serves to help us in getting the kids back, we shall listen.」

「That’s fine with me. There’s nothing I can do to order you around or convince you to our cause. But if are doin this for your friend’s sake, I know I can trust you with this.」

Mikado-san responded with a smile, and then he proposed that the more detailed talks shall be conducted tomorrow.

「You must be tired after coming such a long way. You should turn in for the night.」

Then, just before he left, he turned to Senjiro.

「Senjiro, I see that you didn’t seal the deal with your woman yet. It’s best if you do so quickly.」

「Excuse me, but that’s none of your concern!」

「Oh, but it may very well be. We don’t know if we are going to come back in one piece from this! This is a serious matter here! So it’s best to do things while you still can.」

After that short exchange with Senjiro, Mikado-san disappeared into the teleportation circle created by Karura-san.

As I let out a sigh of relief and laid back on the tatami mats, Kyle felt genuinely confused about what just happened.

「Is there something going on between those two?」

「Nah, that’s not it. They are deeply indebted to one another, and because of that he feels as though he must do everything he can to support this cause.」

「…… Are you sure?」

Kyle scratches his neck, seemingly impressed.

「About what?」

「This man is a true ruler and a shrewd politician. I think that he won’t hesitate to use people in order to achieve his goals, and he may be hiding things even from his allays. Are you absolutely sure we can trust him?」

I understood why Kyle was so suspicious of Mikado-san. He’s been involved with politicians since long ago, and he knew just how cunning and treacherous they could be.

So I think about it again.

「Yes, I think we can trust him.」

I can see it in Kyle’s eyes that he was still not convinced, that he wanted to know my reasons for trusting him. And so I told him my honest opinion on Mikado-san.

「I think that there is no lie in the fact that he wants to protect his people with all of his might. Otherwise, I don’t think he would spend so much time thinking how to save Taisha’s Shrine Maidens from their fate.」

The passion that I could feel from him when he was telling us that was by no means a lie.

That is the reason for my trust in him.

「His expression was the same as yours when you wanted to save the magicians of Ballow. That is why I think we can trust him.」

「You, you think so?」

Kyle looked to the side towards Nectar, wanting to know his opinion. However, Nectar only nodded his head, confirming my words.

His reason to act was exactly the same as Kyle’s a hundred years ago.

「It is also true that I think that he’s still hiding things from us, but aren’t we treating him in the exact same way? He’s doing that to protect his people, and we do that in order to protect Aru and Mikoto.」

「…… I get it already. I shall trust him for now as well. After all, Mikoto is my contractor.」

Even though Kyle still had an uncomfortable look on his face, at least he agreed with us.

It seems that Kyle managed to bond with Mikoto quite a bit during that hot springs trip of ours.

It wasn’t a relationship in any normal meaning of the word that Kyle was aware of, but rather it was this unconscious bond of mutual trust and the desire to help one another.

So, maybe Kyle is going learn a thing or two during our stay here.

「With that, the fact that we still keep secrets from one another must mean that we know something interesting.」

「It’s nothing, really.」

Oh well, it’s a good thing to watch out to not be fooled, however, we also needed to avoid reviling too much about us. It might cause unneeded problems down the road.

While the three of us were busy with our conversation, Ligurila moved closer to Senjiro, glaring at him.

「Say, Senjiro? What was that all about when the old man was leaving?」

「What part specifically?」

「The one about sealing the deal and obtaining power from that. What up with that?」

Even though he seemed stunned by Liigurila’s sudden question, under the pressure of her purple eyes Senjiro had no other choice but to spill the beans.

「Oh, that. It one of the martial arts that the Guardians use to strengthen their physical abilities. This technique incorporates one’s own magical power and converts in into boost of physical prowess. But there is another layer of depth to it, and that is to incorporate the magic from one’s surroundings and claiming it for your own. It is a sort of the ultimate secret of the Guardians.」

So by removing one’s limiters and converting magical power into raw strength it was possible for normal humans to achieve the strength equal to demons? Interesting.

So, that must be the true nature of the technique utilized by Mikado-san during our first meeting. Now Karura-san’s words ‘I am going to die!’ made much more sense.

「But in order to do that you need to adapt the magic from your surroundings to your own body, and to achieve that ,a certain concentration of magic is needed.」

「In other words, while in Ballow you weren’t able to tap into your true power?」

Ligurila squinted her eyes while Senjiro shook his head to that statement.

「Even if I was able to do that, I would still be no match for Ligurila-dono.」

「But you weren’t using that technique at all, right?」

Pressured by Ligurila’s burning gaze, Senjiro remains silent with his head hung low.

「…… That’s right.」

Hearing that, Ligurila took Senjiro by the arm and started to walk towards the door.

「Ligurila-dono, where are you going!?」

「I took sudden interest in the clothes that Lava is wearing. So I want to go into the city and investigate the clothing culture you have here. And since I don’t know my way around these parts, you shall be my guide.」

「Aren’t you just jealous!?」

「Oh, now you’ve done it! I’m going to buy a whole lot, and you’re going to pay for every single item!」

Mikado-san gave us a pretty generous salary for all of our work thus far, but since there weren’t any opportunities to spend it, it just sort of kept on piling up.

「Ah, that’s right, Lava. If there was anything you needed from me, feel free to just let me know, okay?」

Said Ligurila before she left, dragging Senjiro together with her. At that moment, she seemed to be in an awfully good mood.

When they left the room, the rest of us were just kind of standing there, looking at each other and wondering what the hell did just happen?

The evening sky was already growing dark.

「Right. Since it’s already so late, want to grab something to eat?」

I make a suggestion, and both Kyle and Nectar nodded enthusiastically.

*********

The summer days are usually hot, but evenings are quite cool. So the streets were more crowded during the night than during daytime.

Because of that the food industry was really coming to life during nighttime, with restaurants and mobile stalls advertising their menus, the sweet and mouth-watering aromas hanging in the air.

First of all, we went to a second hand clothing store to look for some clothes for Kyle, in hopes of helping him to somehow blend in with the crowd.

…… I hope this will make it somewhat easier for him.

Next, we went to the nearby restaurant to have something to eat and drink.

「These chopsticks, please give me a break……」

「Oh please, Kyle. You just give up way too easily.」

Seeing that Kyle ultimately gave up on the idea of eating rice with chopsticks, I gave him a fork taken out of the interdimensional storage, while Nectar looks at him with compassion, understanding his pain all too well.

Nectar in the beginning was doing his best to master the way of the chopsticks, but after many failed attempts he also gave up on the idea.

Now being able to savor his food again, Kyle dug in the steaming white rice seasoned with soy sauce. It was a cuisine that was completely different form Ballow, so I was afraid that it might not be to his liking, but fortunately that was not the case.

On a side note, most of the side dishes were also Japanese food!!

Incidentally, there was some Chinese food in here as well, like gyouza and stir-fried rice, but the most common thing was Japanese food, like rice and miso soup.

As I ate the deliciously familiar food, my heart danced with joy. It feels like ages since I was last able to eat the food like that!

Truly, I was so glad that I was a dragon right now. Otherwise I might have gotten obese with all of that delicious food I was stuffing my face with right now.

However, Nectar was initially reluctant towards the side dishes, but after tasting them he instantly fell in love with them, especially miso.

It was a white miso soup with vegetables –– mostly thinly sliced eggplant, diced potatoes and green onions. There was also grilled fish, and pickles. Nectar was also looking at me mysteriously while eating.

「I knew it, you are so good with using chopsticks, Lava.」

Ah, I was surprised by that as well. Even though it was something completely natural for me in my previous life, I didn’t expect that I would still remember how to use them here.

「It also looks like you are not especially picky when it comes to your food.」

「Yeah, I guess you’re right.」

It’s all thanks to my pervious life, but I wonder if it was that hard for the two of them to get used to it?

Now that I think about it, I never even told Nectar that I was in fact reincarnated into this world.

There was no special reason behind that, only that I never really felt like it was something important to mention, especially with all those times when Nectar was asking me about different things related to magic with his eyes shining brightly.

Will there ever come a day when Nectar’s infinite curiosity is going to be satisfied?

「For the time being, delicious food is justice! Master, can I have another drink, please!?」

Maybe there will come a day when I will need to tell that to somebody, but for the time being I decided to keep things as they were.