chapter 3

[Saus-? Saus?Just where has that rabbit gone.]

Im searching for my missing rabbit friend. He cant have gone too far, but the natural enemies of rabbits, wolves appear around here, so if I dont hurry he might be eaten.

I could try flying to search for him, but Saus is a very tiny rabbit. Additionally, the trees would make it even more difficult to see him. I dont have any choice but to search for him on the ground.

I searched the areas in the forest where Saus favorite gra.s.s grew, but all I found were other animals, and when they saw me, they all ran away scared.

Uuh, mommy is lonely. Oh Saus, please appear- Just where have you gone?

That was when I noticed something rustling in a nearby thicket.

[Saus?]

I thought it would be Saus, but the vibrations in the thicket were larger than usual. Is it a bear or something?Either way, when it sees me, it will probably flee.

When I strained my eyes, it emerged.

A wolf.

[Kyaa!!]

This wolf, what an effeminate scream.

How amusing. Its not a wolf from this area. The pelt is different. I dont know about other wolves, but the ones around here are gray.

But the pelt of the wolf in front of my eyes that was shaking with terror was, to a startling degree, pure white. The same white color that I am. It is as if the wolf accidentally bleached itself.

[Even if you eat m-me, I wont taste good!!?? I taste aawful!! About as good as a rotten kebo nut!!]

No, this is where you should run. Usually when animals see me, they run away as fast as they possibly can, yet this white wolf instead lies on the ground, groveling that it tastes awfully. Honestly, I dont know what I should do.

[I taste aawful! You will only upset your stomach-! Rau told me thattoo! That You seem like youd taste awful!! So please, I taste aawful-!!]

[Im not going to eat you though.]

[Thats right! Of course youre not going to eat me! After all, I taste awful!! Huh?]

[I dont have a habit of eating wolves. Because my diet consists of humans.]

In order to have see eye to eye with the panicking wolf, I bent my head down towards the earth. The wolf with a start went from a crawling state, jumping to its feet, retreating. Its a little pitiable afraid. Is this my fault? Is that so? Humans are one thing, but causing animals who I dont eat to be afraid is making me slightly sad. Though I like to think that if I only talk with them I can get on good terms with others like I am with Saus.

[You, youre not going to eat me?]

[Im not going to eat you.]

The wolf looked at me with a perplexed expression.

[B-, but Rau told me that dragons are ferocious, Rau told me that you eat anything ]

[I dont know who that Rau is, and I cant speak for other dragons, but at the very least I wont eat you.]

I wonder if she can relax with this, since I tried to say it as gently as possible. But Im a dragon. While my speech might be translated inside my head into j.a.panese, what actually comes out of my mouth is actually growls. That is to say, this is how it actually sounds:

[Kuun, kuun ]

[Grrrrgrr Gagrr]

Yup, like this its scary. I wonder if my discussions with Saus are always like this.

Ill try to growl with a high feeling in my voice from now on. It might become slightly better, who knows. Whilst shaking my head in puzzlement over my current situation, I hear Saus scream pitifully in the air.

[Vitooo!!!]

Saus jumped out from the thickets and ran and hid behind my forelimb, shaking and crying.

Before I could ask him whats the matter, a large black think appeared from the thicket. A large raven. And its one size bigger when compared to an usual raven.

[Stop running away!! Eh?]

The raven who plunged in got an astonished expression when it saw me. The raven landed on the ground and closed its wings, and this time it was the wolf who went crying for raven.

[R-, Rau! Where did you goo?!! I was so scared!!]

I thought the raven would get a bodyslam from the wolf, but it easily evaded. This raven is skilled.

[What? So you were here?]

[Th-, thats so cruel!! The one who told me to wait here was Rau! E-, Even though I waited her all forever, Rau never came back, and a d-, dragon suddenly appeared!

Argh, I told you I wouldnt eat you.

[I went to try catch a rabbit for you, so dont you dare complain. Even though you cant hunt by yourself.]

[Uuh Thats true, but ]

What did you say? You were going to eat Saus?! I wont allow it.

Saus was still scared, shaking curled up into a ball. In order to calm him, I gently (I recently figured out how to handle my strength) patted him with the top of my chin. Oh no, his kyun kyun purring is so cute.

The raven who witnessed that addressed me.

[Even so, you, the dragon over there. You seem to be different from other dragons Who are you?]

[Id rather ask who you are. Were you saying that you were going to eat my precious friend?]

[Friend? That rabbit?]

The raven and wolf watched me stunned, they seemed very surprised.

Is it wrong to have a friend? Saus is cute! Cuteness is justice.

But even if we competed here, probably nothing would come out of it.

[Im Vito, the dragon who lives in this mountain. Ive never seen you before, where did you come from?]

[Far from here, in the lands of the north.]

[You two travel together?]

[Anything wrong with that?]

Theres nothing wrong with it, but they who should be moving in packs and flocks are traveling together with someone of a different species is quite unusual. Were not traveling, but isnt it almost like Saus and I?

One of them is a pure white wolf, the other is a huge raven. Quite an odd combo, but for some reason they manage to stick together.

Could the reason that these two are traveling be that they did something they shouldnt have?

From one glance at them, I grasp something.

[It seems like you have some special circ.u.mstances.]

The raven kept silent. Its probably something that he doesnt like talking about.

[Ah, Im not going to ask you about it, so you dont have to tell me. I just thought it was an unusual combination, and having come from the north, you must have crossed that large river, right? I thought that you coming this far is great.]

I once looked at the shape of the continent from the top of the mountain, and between the middle part and the northern part of the continent, theres a huge river.

Theres a bridge over it, but that bridge was made by humans and is heavily guarded. For an animal to use that bridge would be foolish, and swimming over the river must have been terrible.

[A-, about that. Since Rau can fly, he carried me over the river.]

The suspiciously hesitant wolf chimed in. She still seems wary of me, or rather, afraid, but seeing me talk normally with the raven she seemed to gain a bit of courage. Yes, how pleasant.

That may be as it may, but she got carried huh. The raven is slightly larger than the wolf, true. With his size, to call him a small dragon wouldnt be an exaggeration.

But even with that it must have been terrible. Even if the wolf is slightly smaller, its still heavy.

[Whitey, dont say unnecessary things.]

[I-, Im so sorry.]

Apparently the wolf is named Whitey. Its a fitting name considering the wolfs looks, but since its so simple its kind of amusing.

The wolf somehow reminds me of a dog.

The raven is Rau, and the wolf whitey. Even for me with my bad memory, it feels like Ill be able to easily remember them.

[Vitooo]

I heard a fragile voice from below. With anxious eyes, he looked up at me, and sniffed.

Thats right. Rau was chasing Saus when he came here.

[Its okay now, Saus.]

Then I turned toward those two.

[Im sorry, but if youre looking for prey, Id ask you to look for something else. Since you two traveled together, you couldnt simply watch your precious friend getting eaten in front of yourselves without doing anything, right?]

[ What you are saying is true. But you as a dragon who preys on everything nearby here, for what reason do you shelter that rabbit?]

Do dragons have such a brutal reputation? From watching their att.i.tude I cant help but think so.

[T-, This dragon, said it didnt eat animals.]

Its true that I only eat humans, and when the wolf said that, Rau opened his eyes wide. I will hide the fact that Raus pure black eyes without any white in them are as round and cute as Saus in my heart.

[You say that you only eat humans? Are you perhaps an Earth Dragon?]

[Whats that?]

[One kind of dragon that the humans named.]

Rau seemed to think about something while grumbling.

I think Ive heard about Earth Dragons somewhere.

Im sure its in my human memories. Its one of the names I came across when I lived on earth. I dont really remember that well, but the earth floats in s.p.a.ce, and volcanoes throw up fire. Mountains can also be seen as the spine, the continent looked like a dragon with spread wings and someone began calling it Earth Dragon, is what I think I read in a book a long time ago.

At that time when reading it, I thought Oh, thats so dreamy. I didnt think this would happen though.

[You know that there are a great variety of dragons living in the continent, right?]

[I dont know their names though.]

[The ones who named the dragons are the humans. The term dragon is a general term describing all of you.]

In other words, its along the style of Family: Dragon; Genus: Earth Dragon. Are there so many different kinds of dragons?

[When you speak of dragons, its those who are covered in scales, who breathe fire and fly through sky, right?]

When I said that, Rau seemed astounded as he let out a huge sigh.

[You have me beat. To think there was an Earth Dragon that was so ignorant about the world.]

[Am I wrong?]

[For the dragons living in this continent, forget breathing fire, there are even those who cant fly. This is common knowledge. The most common dragon is the wyrm. The next most common is the type domesticated by humans, the fire drake. Wyverns can fly, but not for long periods, and basilisks cant even fly, aah, wyrms cant fly either. There are also those who live by eating corpses, who are named Nidhggr. Anyway, there are lots of different kinds of dragons, but the type among them that is the rarest, and additionally by the humans of a certain kingdom taking the t.i.tle legendary is the Earth Dragon.]

Indeed. Theyre all names I recall. This is probably also thanks to the conversion function in my brain. I see, since there were no dragons in that world, it defaulted to names from stories and legends. I dont know by what criterion though. Somehow its fresh.

[Compared to the usual dragons, the Earth Dragon is a somewhat odd existence. A dragon with scales, that can breathe fire and can fly through the sky, like you believed dragons to be.

Its rare enough to be called an endangered species, but its by no means under any threat. The reason being that even though their numbers are few, they have existed as they are now for thousands, no, for for tens of thousands of years. Ferocious and with an inclination for eating humans. Apparently they dont eat animals at all.]

I dont eat anything but humans. And I only need magical power to live. I dont know what other dragons live on, but apparently there are no other dragons who live solely on humans.

[And that is, me.]

[Who knows. Its what humans say so I dont know anything in detail. What I know is that several thousand years ago, a dragon with unimaginable power several times intervened in struggles between humanity, and that rumor even spread as far as us. I dont really have any interest in the doing of humans, though.]

It seems Rau got tired of talking, because he flapped his large wings and settled on a tree branch. Its probably easier for him to rest on a branch then on the ground.

[You sure know a lot.]

[Ive done much traveling.]

Hes been loitering near places where humans are. Rumours and general knowledge is acc.u.mulated whether he wants it or not, he replies while grooming his feathers.

[And you sure explained much to me.]

Thanks to that I began to gain some knowledge on dragons. When I frankly thanked him, he replied [Thatsnot why I told you.] So hes a tsundere. I understand.

[Rau is very kind!! If an animal is troubled, he cant let it be. He even brings me, who is bad at hunting, food.]

[Youre at fault for only eating fruits even though youre a carnivore.]

Whats with that incompetence.

[B-, but I feel sorry for them!]

[Thats why youre always made a fool of by the other wolves! Wolves who after they bring down prey in the end cry, apologize and then leave die out!]

Whats with that, how cute. Could it be that their travels are because Whitey got chased out of her pack? And then the busybody Rau said something like: [d.a.m.n, Ive got no choice, huh, Ill follow you.] Is that so? Oh no, my face is breaking out into a grin. These two are too much like a couple. How similar their fight is to a lovers quarrel.

[Vito.]

[Sorry, it was scary, wasnt it. But they dont seem to be bad animals. Thats why, will you forgive them?]

Watching the bewildered Saus nodding, causes my heart to beat in excitement.

However, no matter how long I waited, the lovers quarrel wouldnt end. A little is charming, but if it continues indefinitely then it will only cause the day to become depressing. I tried calling out to them several times, but it doesnt seem that they hear me. With no other options I move my large body between the two, forcefully ending the conversation. The two stared blankly at me who suddenly appeared between them, but my next words caused them to look even more puzzled.

[Are you hungry?]