CH 95

The girls shook back and forth as they rode the Land Dragon back to Warren. As they calmly relaxed on his enormous back, Frau absentmindedly asked him a question.

“Does Mr. Land Dragon have a name?”

The Land Dragon’s voice clearly echoed inside of each girl’s mind.

“Not right now. By the way, you all, are any of you planning on naming me?”

?????

The Land Dragon suddenly started snorting around like an over-sized pig. It was like he was trying to confirm a smell in the air.

“Yes how rare. All five of you have the proper qualifications.”

?????

“What do you mean nya?”

Katie asked the question plaguing all of their minds, but the Land Dragon reacted as if they had just asked him what color the sky was.

“You all, you’ve never heard of a Dragon Maiden?”

The five of them had absolutely never heard of such a thing. But the term did poke something in the back of Claire’s mind.

“Is it like the relationship between unicorns and princesses you hear about in fairy tales?”

The Land Dragon started laughing at the comparison, but when he realized they weren’t joking, he had to stop and think. The last thing he wanted was to be forced to fight again by those annoying demons, and he had already bet on these girls with giving him a nice, comfortable life. So if it was to keep these girls alive, perhaps it would be fine to live with a few constraints on himself. And so he came to a decision.

“That is probably what the story of Dragon Maidens devolved into. Let’s focus on the matter at hand for now. Which one of you will give me a name? I’ll show you something interesting when you’re done.”

And so the usual round of naming began.

“How about Huge King Kaiju Land Dragon as a name?”

The always straightforward Reeve.

“A Ridiculously Long, Hard, Rigid Lizard With a Total Length of 11 Meters would be a good name.”

The person with the constant need to describe everything Claire.

“Myamumu…….”

The nodding-off Katie.

“Since he is a Land Dragon, how about naming him Ra-chin?¹”

And the simple yet always likable Frau.

“Mr. Land Dragon, your name from now on is Ra-chin.”

Ellis made an executive decision and chose the only logical choice, gifting the Land Dragon with his new name.

“Ellis, you have named me Ra-chin.”

But the wording the Land Dragon gave in response was a little weird.

“Alright then, I’ll show you all something fun, so would you get off me for a second?”

The five girls descended off his back just as they were told before Ra-chin turned towards Ellis.

“Ellis, I am not trying to deceive you, so could you kiss me?”

Saying you are not trying to deceive someone is the perfect way to look like you are trying to deceive someone. But, interesting things are interesting. So throwing her suspicions to the side, Ellis stood on her tiptoes and kissed the tip of the Land Dragon’s nose.

The world spun for a moment as if a rug had been pulled out from under her. A warmth entered Ellis’s body, as if a piece of the Land Dragon had entered her and was now searing its presence into Ellis’s mind. Two command phrases flashed in her mind, forcing her to shut her eyes tight. When she finally opened them again, the Land Dragon started appearing to her like a magic tool.

“It seems like it recognized you after all. The contract has been completed with this, so first, how about you use {Change Human}.”

Ellis was still reeling from the sudden pressure that had flashed over her, but she was able to work past the small headache throbbing in the back of her skull and muttered out one of the two phrases that had appeared in her mind.

“{Change Human}”

Ra-chin was then enveloped in a flash of light, a light that slowly began to decrease in size. Soon the ball of bright white light had shrunken down from the size of an 11 meter long dragon to that of an eight year old human girl. And once the light had faded completely, a naked girl stood before them with the same hair and eye color as Ellis.

“This is {Change Human}. When it’s used, I can mimic the body of the person who cast it. The only difference is that I have no sex, so there are no breasts or other holes. Do you see?”

The naked little girl did a spin, and the sight left the five feeling a little perturbed. As the dragon had said, he looked exactly like Ellis, but his chest was a complete washboard along with a lack of any sex organs. Although the girls didn’t care enough to find out if that included the hole on the buttocks as well.

“Well then next is to use {Reset Body}.”

Ellis did as she was instructed, and sure enough, the dragon returned to his normal enormous self.

“Also with this contract and so long as Ellis doesn’t forbid it, the ability {Permission Size Change} has automatically been granted to me. This should prove useful to all of you as well.”

As the dragon spoke, his body gradually shortened until he was only about a meter long.

“Only {Change Human} requires Ellis to activate the spell. I can’t turn human whenever I want, but I will be able to change my size. It should help me get around in this city of yours.”

He slowly returned to his normal size as he explained so.

“The size alteration should be useful, but the second group of command words should be what really interests you.”

Ra-chin gave Ellis the signal to use the second command group after confirming that Ellis had enough MP to actually pull it off.

The first spell {Share Sight} which as it name implied allowed Ellis to see things through Ra-chin’s point-of-view. A dragon’s eyes are better than a human’s, so Ellis found that while using this spell, she could see farther and observe the landscape in even greater detail.

After that was the spell {Lock-On} which helped focus her gaze onto a single point.

The last spell was the most flashy of the three. {Summon Volcano}. After activation, the ground she had locked onto split open, and a massive amount of boiling magma exploded out in a deafening roar. The crimson pool spilled out around the area, soon calcifying into a large pillar of solid rock.

Ra-chin continued to talk while the girls stared at the newly created erection in awe.

Dragons and other monsters are made up of not just the power of demons, but of nature as well. So when certain conditions are met, they would be able to demonstrate that power over nature like what they had just seen.  Those conditions are probably what led to the creation of fairy tales about unicorns and maidens.

By fulfilling those conditions, the girl and dragon would become conscious of each other, and the full capabilities of the dragon could be released at the girl’s will. The hardest hurdle of all to overcome would be the ‘strong spirit’.

This would mean having the strength of mind to be able to exist on equal standards with a dragon. All five member of the Jewelry Box have this strength of mind built up after numerous ventures into advanced level dungeons. Ordinary people would never qualify.

On the other hand, the girl had to make a sacrifice in order for this bond to be made. That sacrifice was the purity of the maiden. If ever a girl who had made a contract with a dragon would try and lie with a man, then that man would come down with a curse of instant death.

“But if you were to use {Summon Volcano}, you could easily blow away even a great demon!”

Ra-chin nervously tried to gloss over the unmentioned sacrifice he had tricked a little girl into giving up, but Ellis was already under the idea that this deal had nothing but positive points. As a matter of fact, her thoughts had already moved on to something else.

“Hey Ra-chin, a while ago, you muttered that the contract was completed. So with this deal, does that mean the Demon Lord can’t put any new restrictions on you?”

“Absolutely correct!”

Ra-chin yelled out happily at the mere thought. Yes, so long as Ra-chin has a contract with Ellis, he doesn’t have to do what the Demon Lord says. He has successfully changed his occupation from guard dog to pet-with-benefits.

“Ra-chin, can other dragons do the same thing?”

“The story about those conditions should apply to us all Ellis. But you are only able to make a contract with one dragon.”

“Fufufufufu. We still have four other girls good to go, so that means we can have four other dragons.”

The other girls were more-or-less able to understand the meaning behind Ellis’s wicked smile, but it was Ra-chin who shared a consciousness with her that was able to really see those thoughts. It sent a shiver down his back.

“I found an interesting partner,” he thought to himself, “but isn’t her belly a little too black?²”

“Now then, how are we going to explain this to the council?”

“Wouldn’t it be fine to just bring the Land Dragon back with us and explain the situation from there?”

“But it will be inconvenient for people to know we did something about it.”

“What should we do?”

“Can’t we just tell everyone we became friends nya?”

“That…..that might actually work.”

Ellis prepared the following story.

First of all, the girls had decided to go to the western hills without knowing about the dragon that lived there. That’s when they accidentally ran into the Land Dragon. The girls tried to quickly escape, but the dragon stood in their way at every turn. That was when the Land Dragon started to speak to them. The orders placed onto him during the previous Demon/God war had already been lifted, and he wanted to live in a world of peace. So Ellis suggested that he introduce himself to the Warren Council after having his mouth sealed with a ‘special’ ribbon. The Land Dragon evidently agreed to that proposition.

He would travel and make peace with Warren.

“I wonder if that sounds convincing enough?”

The other four remained silent, not completely convinced. It would be impossible for people to not ask questions, and holes would eventually appear.

“What about telling Father and Baltis beforehand about the contract with Ellis. If it’s them, they should be able to easily help us keep the secret.”

And Frau was able to come up with a correction that was able to abate some of the more pressing concerns.

So plan correction.

First, Frau would secretly visit the Adventurer and Thieves’ Guilds to talk to Theseus and Baltis. Until then, the other four would wait with Ra-chin at one of the nearby marshes. After explaining the circumstances to Theseus and Baltis, they would assume the story of Ra-chin wanting peace would be convincing enough with the five colored ribbon tying his mouth shut and the cut-out poisonous portion of his tail acting as evidence. It would be best to introduce him during an emergency council meeting. He can come in while in human form, and his true appearance can revealed while out in the open afterwards. The other council members might panic, but things should be okay as long as Theseus and Baltis hold it all together.

“Is how it should hopefully go.”

“Well, I’ll do what I can and hope for the best.”

Following the plan, Frau activated her Magical Horse and proceeded on towards Warren alone.

After awhile, she returned with Theseus and Baltis in two. The two of them had decided it would be better to see things up-front beforehand. The two of them listened to the story from beginning to end, interrupting only to ask a question here and there. The end result, well, they were guild masters after all. If they thought it would benefit Warren, they didn’t see any problems with it, and the fact that the Jewelry Box had facilitated the deal would make it just credible enough that ordinary citizens would start to believe it as well. The official story would run as Ra-chin having become a guardian dragon for Warren under a vague ‘covenant’. Of course they would figure some excuse along the lines of, “He is tied to the area,” to fool any messengers sent from Skycastle and Marsfield.

With the plan laid out, Ra-chin turned into his human form. Luckily the resulting naked appearance problem was forseen by Frau who had brought a spare change of clothes from the mansion. Standing beside Ellis, the two of them would have passed as twins.

“It’s a little unsettling Ra-chin.”

“Hmm, maybe if I try to use my size alteration while in human form…..”

It took a minute of concentration, but the fake Ellis-body soon went through another change. Ra-chin’s hair soon shortened a little bit, stopping right above his ears while the rest of his body grew to be about one size larger.

“Is this okay?”

“No problem.”

And so, five girls, two men, and an undersized dragon resumed their journey back to Warren.

1. Friendly reminder that L’s and R’s are the same in Japanese, and La-chin would have sounded like a musical note.

2. Kind of an uncommon idiom. It means someone is sly or mean-spirited.