CH 21

“Fikar…”

Bright flashes of magic surrounded them. Lawrence-san, relentlessly pushing forward with magic and sword, had a thin smile growing on his face. By contrast, Fikar’s expression reverted from annoyed to expressionless. I wondered if they were androids or something like that, being able to move so violently without showing anything on the surface. Not only the onlooking adventurers, but Su was also silently following their movements with her eyes.

When Fikar tried to block one of Lawrence-san’s jabs, his footing became slightly unstable. Thanks to Kilris-san and Lawrence-san’s usage of water magic, the ground where the two of them were fighting had become very muddy. Fikar was able to sidestep Lawrence-san’s attempt to take advantage of his unsteadiness, but it wouldn’t bode well if that kept happening. Watching from the sidelines, I saw him making little motions that showed he had the same concerns.

“Hm? How come Lawrence-san isn’t slipping?”

“He’s probably using magic on himself. Maybe he’s using fire magic to harden the ground underneath him.”

“Isn’t that unfair?!”

Grumbling about Ludo-san’s analysis, I heard various scoffs from the other party.

“You call it unfair even though he’s just using his abilities…”

“Well, Fikar’s tired from fighting three people in a row anyway, isn’t he?”

“Oh my, I’m so sorry to hear that. I didn’t think that the Hero wouldn’t be able to withstand battling only three people… kukuku”

I couldn’t resist muttering “I hope mold grows in your robes…” at the sound of Kilris-san’s irritating tone.

“I can hear you?!”

“No one said it was about you, Kilris-san.”

I left my rather immature counterattack at that and walked up to Su. I pulled on her hand, which was small for her size, and grasped it tightly. Once her attention was firmly on me, I stroked her chin and spoke slowly towards her blinking golden eyes.

“Su, see that? The ground is wet over there and Fikar is in a big pinch. Got it? Fikar’s in trouble. Poor Fikar~. Look~, wouldn’t Su be able to dry it up for him?”

Su blinked a little more, turning her head to gaze at Fikar, then at me, then at Fikar again. I continued trying to coax her into helping, and eventually, her wings and tail started shaking and she opened her mouth, seemingly convinced, and filled the area in front of her with flames. The two who were fighting jumped to avoid it and, by the time they landed, the ground was parched. Su looked at me with anticipation in her eyes, so I praised her to her heart’s content.

Fikar and Lawrence-san returns to their battle without saying a word, but Degis-san glared at us.

“Oi, oi, you can’t lend a hand during an adventurer’s strength test.”

“No, they didn’t do anything. The dragon just happened to yawn.”

“Lies! You spit lies! She was just giving it orders!”

A fuming Kilris-san pointed at me, but Ludo-san laughed it off.

“Su’s master is Fikar. How could Sumire give it orders?”

“Ehh~?” 

I was about to continue, “Is that so?”, but Ludo-san gave me a wink that told me to keep quiet. However, Kilris-san wasn’t fooled.

“It’s true that a dragon wouldn’t listen to anyone other than their master… but it would also be strange for a dragon to let a normal human touch it like that!”

“Such a thing usually isn’t possible. And just because Sumire told the dragon something doesn’t prove that the dragon acted because of that.”

That was news to me. Apparently, ordinary dragons only acknowledged people who’ve defeated them and were tolerant, at best, of others. I wasn’t sure if this had anything to do with Fikar’s “education”, but Su was always very gentle when I stroked her, and I’ve even seen children throwing sweets at her on several occasions.

Lawrence-san tried to turn the dirt to mud several more times, but he soon gave up on that strategy since Su would dry the ground with her flames without me saying a word.

Seeing that, Kilris-san snorted.

“A dragon listening to commands from someone other than its master?… It’s impossible for them to obey even their master voluntarily…”

“It is really so unusual?”

“In the first place, humans make them kneel and then use them. Dragons are too proud to diligently follow orders made in human language by the person who humiliated them, even if they’re on the level of a Kouteiryuu. Who the heck are you guys?”

“Even if I told you who we are…”

I was sure Kilris-san would only get angrier if I said, ‘We’re just two people who almost collapsed.’

“Why’s he been hiding his abilities all this time? Isn’t his hair the light color of a noble bloodline?”

“Eh? You can tell if someone’s a noble from their hair color?”

Now that he mentioned it, Lawrence-san had blond hair, Degis-san had dark silver hair, and Kilris-san had greenish silver hair. All three shone like either gold or silver, similar to Fikar’s hair. It wasn’t a color you’d see very often in Tortea, but since everyone had such colorful heads, I’d just assumed that colors were equally vibrant everywhere. According to this rule, though, I could be easily identified as a commoner thanks to my completely black hair.

“I haven’t heard about any illegitimate children or hidden royalty, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it were true with such bright silver hair. After all, it’s impossible to subdue the Demon Lord less than a year after registering with the guild.”

“Mm, that’s true, there are many mysteries around Fikar…”

I hadn’t thought about it all that much since I was so busy with myself, but I wonder how Fikar got here and why he collapsed in the first place. Maybe he came from another world, too?

Well, that was a question I couldn’t ask anyone because it would be too outlandish. Unless it wasn’t unusual for people from other worlds to come to this one?

I raised my head to see if Kilris-san, a nobleman, might know something, but he only raised his palm before me and put on a troubled face.

“Stop, having unnecessary information is dangerous. Even for someone like you, you should know better than to entrust your secrets to someone you don’t know very well. I don’t think I have the answers you’re looking for, but maybe you can think of a way to make use of his unknowability.”

“Err… thanks for the advice?”

“Hmph, don’t end with a rising tone.”

Just as I was getting a little relaxed thanks to Kilris-san’s tsundere comment, my vision whited out. As a loud Boom! rang out, I felt myself being pulled aside and sheltered. It sounded like something had violently broken. I was momentarily disoriented, but something must’ve happened between Fikar and Lawrence-san while I was talking to Kilris-san. With all that sound and light, it seemed like a big bolt of lightning had struck them.

After regaining my vision, I saw that Ludo-san had covered me with his body and that Su had covered us both with her wings. My ears were still ringing, but other than that, it didn’t look like there was any damage in the area. I thanked Ludo-san and Su, peeked into the center of the plaza, and saw that Lawrence-san had just stood up and was brushing the dust off his clothes. He shook out his limbs a bit before speaking cheerfully.

“Ahh… I lost, I lost. You’re pretty strong.”

Fikar walked over to us, passing by the outstretched hand offered to him. Lawrence let out a soft chuckle and, a few moments later, the adventurers around us started to cheer.