Chapter 129 - Earth Dragon

-POV of the Earth Dragon who was mistaken for a lizard-

The magic power that pervades in my entire body has doubled along with the growth of the world tree.

Considering my prime, it is still low but thinking that it should have been depleted a while ago, it was close to a miracle.

Perhaps it’s because my body is approaching my original appearance.

-0-

After all, it feels great to fly using wings.

I’m not very good at flying but watching the forest change from the sky is superb.

I can feel the magical power of the world tree spreading through the forest with my whole body.

It seems like the power of evil eye has diminished considerably.

This is all thanks to his lordship, isn’t it?

-0-

When I got down to the square where I live, I found the kings of the forest.

One was called Boss-san now and the other one was the Fenrir king, Koa.

「Didn’t you fly a little too long?」

Perhaps I did.

Since my magical power decreased, maintaining my body has always been my top priority and not flying.

Although I float from time to time.

However, that’s completely different from flying.

「What are you planning with that figure of yours?」

Both Boss-san and Koa laughed after hearing my question.

Strange.

In the past, it was normal for the kings of the forest to immediately fight against each other as soon as they met.

I don’t remember the reason for battles though.

-0-

I look at the 2 kings in front of me.

The size of their body is much different from how they look in my memory.

Fenrir was a species that ran through the sky. Its body now is much smaller and has long silver hair.

Chuarenier is a species that runs through the forest using its hellfire and it is only half as big as it used to be.

It also has wings now that should have been stingers.

-0-

The kings are the highest beings of the forest and among them, us dragons are the most powerful and are responsible for the protection of the entire forest.

When the evil eye began to spread in the forest, we traced the core of the evil eye and attacked it.

However, we weren’t able to destroy the core and on the contrary, we dragons lost a huge amount of magical power, and defending became the limit of what we can do.

I can’t tell how much I regretted it that time. We underestimated humans too much.

-0-

Us dragons gradually shrink as we use our magical power to protect the forest and being in our big form consumes a lot of magical power.

We have never cared about sizes but humans wanted blood and flesh of dragons.

A dragon is still a dragon no matter how small it becomes and its power stays within it.

We had to prevent dragons from falling into human’s hands at all costs.

However, we have another troublesome role to play.

Being a divine beast.

We can’t accept death easily.

It’s because we have the role of a divine beast.

However, I can’t even remember what exactly that role is….

The only thing I remember is that I must not die since I exist as a divine beast.

It’s a tricky thing.

-0-

What should we do to protect ourselves from humans?

The first thing to do something about that was the fire dragon.

The fire dragon transformed into a smaller form and it looks like a completely different species.

After that, we also transformed, imitating the form of the fire dragon.

-0-

The kings remained to protect the forest after that.

When the dragons stopped attacking, humans immediately began to invade the depths of the forest.

The other kings transformed into gigantic forms to cope with it and drove the human invaders away.

Transforming to a bigger form is too burdensome.

Even so, they chose that path in order to instill the humans that other than dragons, the kings are terrifying beings too.

It can be said that during those times, that’s the only thing they can do.

「I like the way I look so there’s no problem.」

I heard the phoenix Karen’s voice from behind.

I looked over to see Karen, the biggest of the three kings presently here, holding a barrel of wine.

….you’re going to anger the golems.

Are you going to be okay?

Did you ask for permission?

「Flying Lizard, I’ve been out for a long time so how about a match!」

It’s called wine and it feels great to drink.

That’s right, past is past.

The world tree has revived, the forest has gained strength.

The kings have become friends and the strongest of the forest have gathered here.

So be it.

Fire dragon and wind dragon will be here someday.

-0-

I won’t lose to you, Karen.

Ah, his lordship is looking at me, I’m getting closer to my true form!