Volume 4 Chapter 18: Dragon-san and the Green Storm
「W-who is this……?」
I think that the words spoken by Mikoto upon seeing her sister turn into some unknown woman represented the collective state of everyone present in the room at the moment.
On the one hand, we were all impressed by the aura she was emanating, but on the other hand, we were too surprised to even wrap our heads around it.
「No, see, I told you. Speaking this language was a bad idea. What a surprise, most of the people here don’t seem to understand a word I say. Okay then, how about this? ‘Now you understand me’?」
The woman suddenly began to speak fluently in the Western language, to which Aru’s eyes widened in shock.
「You, you can speak the Western language?」
「Fufufu, that’s right, Dragon Kiddo. Unlike the rest of those guys, I didn’t forget to learn new stuff every day! Both my spoken and written languages are spot on!」
Said the woman who called Aru ‘Dragon Kiddo’, while spinning around and making the bottom of her clothes sway.
「Right, I think that some proper introductions are in order here. My name is ‘Air Helix Tenpolis Out Tempestare’. But this is kinda mouthful, so you can just call me Ten-san for short. Nice to meet you, the current dragons!」
「The current dragons?」
My confusion was immeasurable.
From her introduction it was clear. She was a dragon as well, one of my brethren.
Her golden eyes and the pattern of her magic waves were enough of a proof for me.
But it was the first time we meet.
Which was strange, since every dragon is connected to everyone else via the dragon network, so technically we all know each other.
And even if you don’t know someone’s name, you can recognize them by their magic wave signature.
「Hostile, you seem to know my identity. But, there’s no way that you can be the true ‘Time of Spiraling Storm’. So who are you? If you don’t answer right away, I shall deem you as an enemy and dispose of you.」
「Eh, wait a minute, Senpai!? What do you think you’re doing!?」
Shocked, I tried to stop Senpai from attacking and possibly destroying my house in the process, but before I could do that, Ten-san came forward.
「Ah, I see, I understand. I totally forgot that you might not remember me.」
Ten-san said that with a truly sad voice while slowly approaching Vaas-senpai.
「I’m truly sorry for that, but…… Could you leave us alone for a moment?」
「…… Judgement, restrain is in order.」
Suddenly, there was a huge surge of magic coming from Senpai.
Then, the wooden furniture around the room began to glow green and jumped at Ten-san all at once.
My house was full of protection barriers and concealment spells, so the commotion would never leak outside, but making someone else’s furniture attack someone was overdoing it!
However, Ten-san didn’t seemed to be nervous at all, only snapping her fingers.
「Boyo, do you really think you can hope to defeat me with something like this?」
As a result, the furniture that tried to attack her stopped moving and fell onto the ground.
Senpai wanted to act and cast another spell, but then Ten-san went right beside him and delivered a slight flick to his forehead. Senpai was pushed back and reverted back to his mini-dragon form.
「Senpai!?」
「It’s alright, it’s alright. I just put him to sleep for a little while so that he wouldn’t get in the way.」
The only thing we could do right now was to watch how Ten-san caught Vaas-senpai from falling to the ground and held him in her arms.
Mikoto’s face turned blue from the high concentration of magic in the air here, and Senjiro fell on his knees, unable to stand it anymore.
I couldn’t perceive her movements at all.
Moreover, Ten-san puts Senpai on the sofa in a gentle manner, seemingly not intending on harming him further.
I don’t know why Senpai decided to act in such a way, but because of the way in which Ten-san handed him, I couldn’t help it but to be on high alert all the time.
「Right then. So, you guys were saying that you wanted to go visit Towa, right?」
Ten-san asked in a casual manner, seemingly not realizing just how tense the atmosphere in the room was right now.
We all looked at each other to look for consensus on how to answer, and finally I nodded my head.
「Yes, that’s right, but…」
「It’s the ‘Eclipse’ that you want to know about, right?」
She threw that word so casually that it actually took me a good few seconds to understand what she said.
「How do you know about it!? And how do you know that we seek information about it?」
「Fufufu. Well you see, that’s actually a woman’s secret.」
Ten-san smiles brightly seeing all of us being at a loss, but truth be told, if she brought up the topic herself, we won’t have a better opportunity than this.
Bearing in mind what she did to Senpai a moment ago, I approached the subject carefully.
「Could you tell us all you know about the ‘Eclipse’? That is, if you do know something?」
「Hmm, let’s see……」
Ten-san seemed to be thinking about it for a moment, and with each passing second my bad feelings were only intensifying.
「It’s not that I don’t mind telling you, I really do, but it’s boring if it’s for free, you know? And I hope you didn’t forget? My work involves a whole lot of evil spirits.」
「…… What did you say?」
As soon as Ten-san said that, her golden eyes shone brightly and in the next second she just disappeared.
「Fueh!?」
We looked around, and suddenly we could hear Aru’s surprised voice right behind us.
There was Aru, surprised and scared as Ten-san were holding him in her arms and smiling mercilessly.
「What the hell do you think you’re doing!?」
「And what does it look like to you? An abduction. Now then, I guess I’ll be taking this kiddo with me and leave. If you want me to tell you about the ‘Eclipse’, then do your worst and try to take him back from me.」
Ten-san declared something as absurd as that, and we were all taken aback by it.
I don’t know why she would even want to do that, but the facts were that right now Aru was not with me, but with her.
Even if it was meant to be just a prank, for us it was nothing but serious business as of now.
This was so sudden that, in fact, I kind of lost my cool and let my emotions take the better of me.
「Let Aru go, you bitch!」
At the same time that I shouted and jumped forward, Nectar let out a roar and tried to blast Ten-san with his magic.
The plan was that Nectar was supposed to knock her out with his magic, while I was to grab Aru from Ten-san’s arms and get away with him.
We decided on that course of action without actually exchanging a single word.
We thought that if we manage to execute that flawlessly, we would be able to incapacitate Ten-san before she even had the time to react.
It all happens in less than a few seconds.
However,
「Too weak?」
Before I was able to actually reach Aru, he opened his mouth to say something, but disappeared yet again.
「Wha…… Nfuh!?」
「Kuh!?」
I could feel a sudden shock hitting my neck, and in the next second I fell to the ground with all the strength lost from my limbs.
It was Ten-san that touched our necks and sent some of her magic through our bodies, effectively disrupting the flow of magic in our bodies.
My consciousness remained, but the magic that was now flowing through my body was rendering me unable to move.
「Father!? Mother!?」
Hearing Aru’s scream, I knew that the very same thing happened to Nectar.
「Fuhahahahaha! It’s five thousand years too early for you to be able to catch me! But still, playing the role of the villain is so much fun!」
Trying to keep my emotions in check, I begin to rearrange my own magic, but still I wasn’t able to move right away.
However, with my vision swaying and blurry, I could see a grey shadow approaching Ten-san.
Senjiro thrusted his spear at Ten-san without any kind of hesitation or remorse.
Ten-san couldn’t help it but to deflect the spear with her hand, leaving Aru secured with only one hand.
But even so, when her hand clashed with his spear, the noise that resonates throughout the room was like of steel clashing against steel.
「God from our country! Why would you do something like that!?」
「Ooupsie! That was close, a little bit too close for comfort! But nice work, being able to reach me like that. However……」
「Cleanse, and purify!」
Mikoto’s voice fills the room, completely blocking the laughter that escapes Ten-san’s mouth. Soon after she was struck with a magical blow.
The spell managed to connect, but it didn’t do much damage to Ten-san, so it didn’t give us much time to recover.
「!!!」
At the same time Ten-san counterattacked, sending both Mikoto and Senjiro flying to the edges of the room.
「Big Brother Sen!」
Mikoto’s scream mix with the sound of both furniture and sundries breaking apart.
「You don’t need to worry, kiddo. Your parents are just a little bit shaken, and people from our country are tough, so they are fine as well. So please don’t do anything stupid, alright? Aru?」
As soon as she spoke his name, Aru was unable to move as well.
As I saw that, I could feel my body becoming increasingly hotter and hotter with rage beyond my control.
Even with waves of nausea and pain striking my body, I was doing my best to fix my magic and be able to move once more.
Just a little bit more!
「But still, being by yourself only sure feels lonely. There we go.」
「!?」
Then, Ten-san disappeared yet again, this time appearing right beside Mikoto and placing her hand on her.
「There we go, it’s been a while since you’ve last been home, so you might as well accompany us. Haa –! I knew it, this fluffiness is just the best!」
「Hyahn!」
Surprised beyond belief, Mikoto seemed to have lost all the power in her body once Ten-san lifted her tail, leaving her helpless in her arms.
What an incredible technique that was…… Wait, now’s not the time for that!
「Nfufu. Well then, I shall await you all back in Towa!」
While laughing happily and holding Aru and Mikoto in her arms, Ten-san created a magic circle right under her.
It was a teleportation circle.
It was probably connected to Towa, and once Aru get on the other side of it, locating him would be extremely difficult.
Wasn’t there anything I could to prevent him from being taken away!?
When I was about to give up, I saw the look on Aru’s face. He looked as if he was about to cry. That made all of my senses go completely blank.