Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17: RYUU’S FRIENDS

Countless black balls appear in the sky in the grassy plain near the Royal Capital . The move was random, one by one they shot from the ground . The black ball was Ryuu’s dragon’s breath . The colour of the dragon and the breath was also black .

「Aah—, it’s getting pretty fast . 」

I was playing a mimic clay shooting with Ryuu . I prepared the target and Ryuu will aim at it .

When I praised him, he butted his head in delight .

「You’re already growing spoiled, huh? 」

It’s not that I dislike it, I lift Ryuu’s huge body and spin him around . The cat-like purring in his throat is really cute .

This is the story that I heard later in the day . Recently a dragon has been spotted spinning near the Royal Capital’s plain, while their roar shook the ground . The eyewitness reportedly nearly paralyzed with terror before running away .

There’s no mistake it was Ryuu, the eyewitnesses must’ve disliked animal . It’s like some people love dogs, and some are afraid of them .

Today I have a meeting with a dragon tamer . He agreed to meet, and I think Ryuu should have some friends .

Right now, there are three dragons familiar in the Balshine Kingdom . One of them is Ryuu, and the other two belong to the National Army .

Today I’m going to meet one of them . Usually, he was in a military establishment in the Royal Capital’s outskirts, considering the danger of their violent behaviour, the other day we were planning to meet at the grassy plain .

From my seat in Ryuu’s back, I can see our meeting place from the sky, they already arrived . There was a wingless dragon with earth attribute . Compared to Ryuu, he looks small .

A man in military uniform stands beside the dragon . He’s someone who hatched the dragon’s egg just like me .

「Ryuu, get off there . 」

As Ryuu began to descend, the dragon on the ground changed its appearance . The man tried to soothe the dragon that began to act violently, but it didn’t work . The dragon started to run, and by the time we landed, it had gone out of our sight .

When I jumped down from Ryuu, the flustered man approaches me .

「Are you Yumiela-san? It’s nice to meet you . 」

「I’m Yumiela Dolknes . This is Ryuu . 」

「My name is Roland . And the one who ran away is Gregory . 」

Roland was a middle-aged man with a gentle face . Since he hatched an earth attribute dragon, he must be an excellent wizard with earth attribute .

「What happened to Gregory? 」

I wonder if they are afraid of strangers or another dragon? Gregory-chan is so cute . They may feel embarrassed to appear in front of my handsome Ryuu .

「Apparently, Ryuu-kun… Are you okay? It seems they become scared of Ryuu-kun . 」

Can even a dragon get scared? I realize that I didn’t want anyone to look at my child like that .

「Did he ever gets afraid of other dragons? 」

「No, Gregory is a calm dragon, or how should I put this… He’s thick-headed? I haven’t seen anything like this before . 」

Roland-san scratched his head with a bitter smile . He worries about Gregory-kun, who was running away with great speed .

「Is it okay that we don’t follow him? 」

「Gregory can’t fly, and they are never going out alone . Will he able to return home… 」

Ryuu often goes out alone, but he will always return as soon as I called him, Gregory didn’t seem to be like that .

「Shall we ride Ryuu and looking for him? I don’t think he will run away anymore if Ryu doesn’t approach too closely . 」

「Thank you for your help . I’m sorry that this happened . I was hoping to deepen the friendship between the dragon tamers . 」

Roland joined her on Ryuu’s back, and their search for Gregory has begun .

After a short time flying following the direction where Gregory is running away, they found him . He didn’t notice Ryuu in the sky, and he still keeps running .

「It looks like he’s still running . When he stops, I want you to drop me off a little further away . 」

Then we must wait for Gregory to stop before we can approach, but it doesn’t seem that way .

「I see a village over there! 」

There are several small villages scattered in the Royal Capital’s outskirts . One of them was in Gregory’s travelling direction . At this rate, the village building would collapse, and the villagers will suffer the damage .

「That’s not good . Gregory, stop! 」

Roland shouts, but there’s no sign that Gregory heard him . Should I get down and guide it in another direction? No, there’s no point since there’s a village in that direction .

「I’ll get off here . Ryuu, drop off Roland-san a little farther away . 」

「Get off? How do you… Hey! What do you mean— 」

Despite his restraint, I jumped off from Ryuu . Adjusting my posture with magic jet to make sure I landed in between Gregory and the village .

As my speed steadily increased, the ground is coming closer . Just a moment before landing, I cast magic downward to compensate for the falling force . But it’s still not enough to kill the momentum of my landing, and the dust flew everywhere . At least there is no crater on where she lands .

Gregory, who was still in a state of fright, didn’t see his surroundings, he was rushing in my direction .

「Dark Bind . 」

Countless hands reached out from Gregory’s shadow, grabbing his body . He gradually became unable to move against the power of shadows .

It wasn’t long before Roland comes and calms Gregory .

「There, there . I know it’s scary, but Ryuu-kun isn’t here anymore . 」

Gregory gradually regains his composure but, in my heart, I was somewhat unhappy because it made it like my child was a bully .

When Gregory was no longer violent and calm, I removed the dark bind that restrains him .

「Thank you for helping . Gregory, who was supposed to protect the kingdom, almost hurt its citizens . But, please stop jumping off all of a sudden, it’s terrible for my heart . 」

「My pleasure . I don’t want Gregory-kun hurting other people . 」

Gregory was overall giving off the impression as a rugged and unrefined dragon with a gentle atmosphere .

「That’s true, though, he’s not good at fighting . He can’t fly, and he carries people and cargo in the military . 」

He is so modest; the speed and the amount of the cargo must be different from the normal carriage .

「What a good child . Too bad, it would have been nice if he could be friends with Ryuu . Um, can I pet Gregory? 」

「Aa, you can pet him . 」

When he permitted me to pet Gregory, I approached him slowly so as don’t startle him .

The moment I reached to pet him, he began to struggle and started running away .

「Hey, Gregory, what’s the matter now! Ryuu-kun isn’t here . 」

Roland-san chase and call after Gregory who keeps speeding without stopping .

「Gregory, stop! 」

I instinctively run up to him and grab his thick tail to prevent him from running away again .

When his movement suddenly stopped, he tried to roll his tail to escape from my hold, but neither his tail or body moved .

It took a while for Roland-san to calm Gregory again .

「Gregory-kun, what’s wrong? 」

「Aa—, maybe he’s afraid of Yumiela-san . If you don’t get too close… 」

I didn’t even consider the dragons would be scared . Well, wouldn’t it be scary if you’re restrained by someone who was falling in front of you?

That’s why Ryuu’s attempt at making friendships failed .

I’d like him to meet the other dragon, but the dragon is busy since he’s the only means of flying transportation for the National Army .

Later, according to the story I heard from Roland-san in the Royal Capital, the wind attribute dragon seems very nervous . It may be hopeless hoping him to get along with Ryuu, and they’re so much smaller than Ryuu .

「Hey, Patrick, do you know anyone who would be friends with Ryuu? 」

「I’m afraid to say that I don’t have any dragon’s acquaintance . 」

As usual, I told Patrick the whole story .

「It can be a person, as long as they can play with Ryuu . 」

「Well, I can’t do that . 」

Patrick turns down my offer to become Ryuu’s friend . He must be feeling uncomfortable being Ryuu’s friend .

「Isn’t it strange that your friends are your mother’s friends too? Oh, the idea that I become Patrick’s mother’s friend and stop being Patrick’s friend… 」

「Not like that . How about the dragon tamer that you met? He isn’t afraid of Ryuu, isn’t he? 」

Ahh, etto, what was his name again…

「Oh, Gregory-kun’s papa . Ryuu seems to think of him as a father, etto… He and Gregory-kun haven’t meet properly . 」

I totally forgot his name . He might have forgotten my name already . It’s enough to call us Ryuu-kun’s mama and Gregory-kun’s papa .

「Ryuu’s father? In that case, you are the mother… 」

Patrick burst into a panic, and I wanted to give him a peace of mind .

「It’s fine, you can be his father . Gregory-kun’s papa, etto… Is like Ryuu’s uncle? 」

We already shared the moment from the moment Ryuu was born . I think you can call yourself a father .

「I-I’m the father?! Then, you and I are like… No, I can’t think about Yumiela like that . 」

Patrick is losing his composure again . That’s a natural reaction when he was told that he becomes a father at the age of 16 .

「What’s that? 」

「It’s nothing! 」

I think it’s a good thing to have friends . I hope Ryuu can make friends soon .