Book 8: Chapter 17: Mother Fox and Dragon God

“Ryuka, Hakua, are you alright?”

The two girls were staring in a daze at the charred dragon, so Halt called out to them.

“What to do…w-what did I do…”

“W-we’re done for. We’re going to be scolded, for sure.”

Both of them looked like doomsday had come.

“Scolded? Who will?”

Halt didn’t understand.

What he thought he did was just rescue his wives that had been taken away by the dragon.

Halt hadn’t noticed it yet.

He didn’t have an inkling that the dragon that he didn’t manage to burn entirely, nevertheless attacked with magic until it could no longer move, was in fact a deity.

That’s why he was shocked by what Ryuka and Hakua said.

“Halt, actually, this dragon — no, this esteemed personage is the Dragon God, one of the gods of this world.”

“What!?”

“He did not assault us…We were just being carried.”

“Huh? Eh, then I d-did that to a g-god —”

Blood rapidly drained from Halt’s face.

He was finally aware of the grave faux pas that he committed.

“HEAL!!!”

Halt was in a panic as he casted recovery magic on the Dragon God will all he had.

The Dragon God didn’t have a soul.

He only had his existence, being the deity that he was.

He wouldn’t vanish as long as people still had faith in him.

Again, the massive dragon body before Halt and the rest was just a vessel that the Dragon God used to move in this world.

Halt attacked the Dragon God’s body of flesh until it could no longer move.

In other words, it would be fine as long as he managed to heal that body of flesh.

The dragon body fully recovered after a few seconds.

“Ugh…I-I’m indebted to you for healing me.”

“I-I am deeply sorry!!”

Halt prostrated himself before the Dragon God.

“Notwithstanding my ignorance that your esteemed self is a God, I did such a blasphemous act —”

“You… I can’t be mad at you. Your attacks had been truly marvelous, even to the point of incapacitating a god’s body of flesh.”

The dragon stood up.

“The problem is with you two, Ryuka, Hakua!!”

“Hiii!” (Ryuka)“I-I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” (Hakua)

Ryuka and Hakua also bowed to the ground behind Halt.

The Dragon God addressed them.

“Why didn’t you help me!?”

“…Yes?”

“You’re so horrible!! I’m your God, the Deity of the Dragons and the Dragonoids, you know!? I was attacked for 10 minutes straight! You could’ve stopped him halfway!!”

“T-that’s…” (Ryuka)

“Uwu, uwu, sorry, I’m so sorry.” (Hakua)

“Ahm, please quell your anger and please don’t scold them too much. It is I who attacked you. Please, I’ll receive your punishment, so —”

“That’s impossible.”

“Eh.”

“I attacked you with the intent to kill earlier when you were assaulting me. But what happened, huh? You don’t even have a single scratch on you. So, how can I punish you then, given that you’re just like that?”

“T-that’s…”

The Dragon God’s claws did hit Halt.

Part of his clothes were ripped because of that, but Halt’s body didn’t receive any damage at all.

“Besides, you obstructed my teleportation earlier, did you not? How did you do that?  A-are you a deity yourself!?”

“I am just a mere human. The disturbance in the teleportation was due to the minor tampering I did with the characters for the teleportation spell.”

“Normal people can’t do that! Those are Divine Characters, you know!?… You, what’s your name?”

“I am Halt, Halt Ernol.”

“Halt, Halt, huh…Hm? No way, are you perhaps!?””

The name Halt was somewhat familiar to the Dragon God.

It was similar to the name of the Guardian Hero that defeated him a century ago.

The Half-Elf woman that was with the Hero had indeed addressed him as “Haruto” back then.

‘As if.’

The Dragon God thought so as he sniffed Halt’s soul.

“”Y-you’re the Guardian Hero…”

The scent of the soul within him was indeed that of the Hero.

“So you also know about him. Yes, I was the Guardian Hero in the past. I have transmigrated and have become a Sage now.”

“I-is that so.”

The Dragon God gave up on all thoughts of taking revenge on Halt.

There was no way he would win.

He already released all his divine power when he attacked Halt, but Halt didn’t even budge on the spot.

He called himself “a mere human” — how absurd, was there even a human who remained unscathed after being attacked by the supreme colored dragon that had undergone deification?

— There’s no way that such a person existed.

It didn’t matter if he was a Hero who achieved the highest level, it was still impossible.

There was a skill called “invulnerability against physical attacks”, but the Creator God bestowed the ability to negate that skill to Martial God and Dragon God so that they could stop that person who possessed that skill in case he went out of control and tried to invade the Divine Realm.

There was no one who could block a single blow from the Dragon God.

There SHOULDN’T BE ONE, at all costs.

However, a Monster who could precisely do that was now standing right before the Dragon God. Even if they fought inside the Divine Realm, he would win against this monstrosity.

There were also magical spells that could only be activated inside the Divine Realm, but Halt would just crush and destroy those Divine Characters even before he had the time to activate them.

And so, he gave up on taking revenge against Halt.

However, that didn’t mean his anger abated.

“Ryuka, I will take away your role as the Dragon’s Shrine Maiden. I will also limit your power as a Dragonoid. Hakua, your are forbidden to enter the Shrine of the Dragon from here on.”

“Yes…”

“G-got it…”

Once the dragons reached their maturity, they had to do a pilgrimage to the Dragon Shrine to offer prayers. Afterward, their power would rise exceptionally.

Forbidding Hakua from entering the Dragon’s Shrine meant that she would never mature into an adult.

Despite that, both Hakua and Ryuka wholeheartedly decided to follow the Dragon God. They were aware how grave the sin they committed was.

Halt also decided to accept the Dragon God’s decree if that meant Ryuka and Hakua wouldn’t be injured.

However, there was a person who wasn’t satisfied with all of this.

“Punishing a little girl because she didn’t help you… Really, you’re still small-minded as ever.”

“W-what’s with you?”

“Oh dear, so you didn’t recognize my appearance, I presume. This concubine is Kikyou.”

“Kikyou…N-no way, Kikyou, is that really you?”

“Hm? I don’t remember giving you permission to drop your honorifics when addressing me.”

“Ah, s-sorry, Kikyou-san — wait a sec, no way, I’m now a GOD, for crying out loud!! Allow that much, will yah!”

“Oh my, so you have become a deity. My goodness, you have truly become an important person…So?”

Kikyou smiled, but cold bloodlust radiated from her, and it was directed towards the Dragon God.

“Hii!! S-sorry, Kikyou-san!”

The enormous dragon turned into a human in a blink of an eye, and he kowtowed before Kikyou, the mother of Youko.

“Erm…Kikyou…san, what’s happening?”

Halt didn’t understand what’s happening before his eyes.

“Oh my, it’s alright for Halt-sama to address me casually. Please do call me Kikyou.”

Kikyou purred in a cloying voice, acting like she wanted to be pampered as she clung to Halt after helping him stand up.

“W-why can’t I do the same? I-I’m a deity, for goodness sake…”

THe Dragon God muttered under his breath, but no one heard it.

–––––-

T/N: Are Dragon Males really that weak? Not physically, but standing for themselves, they almost look like henpecked husbands even though they’re such great beings…Dragon God and Kikyou’s interactions remind me of Ryuushin and Ryuka haha.