CH 96

This was the meeting place for the Warren Council. An emergency meeting was being held today.

The theme for the days meeting was, “The application by a Land Dragon to become the city’s guardian deity.”

It was a terrible title for a meeting to have that served to only confuse the council members not in the know.

To start things off, the Adventurer’s Guild’s Theseus explained about the current situation to his fellow councilors. People have been living in fear of the ‘monster’ in the western hills since before any of them had been born despite nobody having even seen it in the last few decades. And now, that Land Dragon had suddenly made contact.

Supposedly he had been under orders by the previous Demon Lord during the last Demon/God war to guard those hills–an order that, so he says, was only released a short time ago. Recently however, he has become angered about a new Demon Lord suddenly declaring himself the ruler of the continent. In order to help protect this peaceful land, he was seeking to strike a peace accord with the humans through a treaty.

Only a fool would trust such a shady sounding story that just suddenly pops up like that.

So Theseus brought up the next point of the story. The Land Dragon was currently on his way hear.

The meeting room quickly broke into an uproar.

Regardless of their worries, Theseus turned towards a door leading to a waiting room. The Thieves’ Guild Baltis walked in with someone else tagging along beside him. That person had blonde hair done up with five differently colored ribbons, emerald green eyes, and cherry-colored lips.

“Hm? That’s Ellis, isn’t it?”

Flint was surprised upon seeing that individual’s appearance.

“No, they’re taller than Ellis with shorter hair. Also, that’s a boy isn’t it?”

Maria was able to quickly pick out the differences.

“Everyone listen. He is not, no, she is not……….this is the Land Dragon.”

The Land Dragon’s voice echoed inside the consciousness of each person inside the room.

“Diminutive humans, I am the Land Dragon. Thank you for accepting my offer at this time.”

The Land Dragon spoke as if the the matter had already been settled. A very effective strategy for negotiations.

Everything up to this point was working exactly how the Jewelry Box girls had thought it would. So now came the Q and A portion of the plan. Everyone held doubts about whether the dragon really wanted to protect Warren. This could be a trap to get them to lower their guards so he can strike, and even if the dragon really did mean what he said, how were they to know whether the dragon would actually be able to resist the new Demon Lord’s orders or not.

For this, Baltis would take over as the leading actor.

“Everyone, has nobody stopped to consider why the Land Dragon has taken the form of our associate member Ellis?”

The room fell silent until Baltis spoke again in a sad voice.

“Ellis made a covenant, and in order to ensure that the Land Dragon would never again fall under the thrall of the Demon Lord, she was forced to dedicate her chastity to the dragon!”

Once again the room burst in an uproar. There were voices calling for more information coming here and there, while others were shuffling around trying to find the real Ellis, while others started crying over her misfortune. Ellis decided that this was a good time to show herself. When she did, the turmoil grew even louder, but Baltis beat them all back until they quieted down.

Ellis started to explain with a subtle look on her face. She told them all in order to secure the dragon’s help, she had to dedicate her chastity to him in order to protect her purity, and that it was her decision to do so, not the dragon forcing her to do so. Thanks to this covenant, the Land Dragon would never be forced to enter into another contract. In other words, as long as Ellis kept this contract with the dragon, the Demon Lord would never be able to take him over. She explained it all as the same fairy tale told about unicorns and maidens.¹

Crying a little bit after the explanation, Ellis was able to settle into her role. The others in the room all remained silent. Some had even started to sob along with her.

Taking Ellis’s hand in his own and helping her to stand straight up beside him, the Land Dragon once again started speaking directly into each council member’s mind.

“Allow me to show you my power. We should all go outside.”

There was nobody who resisted his words.

This was the town’s central square. In addition to all the council members, there were a large number of ordinary citizens gathered as well.

Men from the Adventurer’s Guild hung up a fence to wall people off from the spectacle creating a large circle 15 meters in diameter. This was the size Theseus had ordered in advance. The Land Dragon lie in wait at the circle center still in his blonde-haired human form along with Theseus, Baltis, and Ellis at his side.

“Now then, I shall show all of you my true figure here and now.”

And so, the Land Dragon started taking off all the clothes he was wearing.

The spectators were shocked by the sudden case of stripping. This was also the case for Theseus, Baltis, and especially Ellis, but if they were to move to stop Ra-chin now, the balance of power might end up revealed. They were stuck.

The Land Dragon removed his shirt and trousers, gradually making his to the underwear he was wearing. He folded it all very carefully before handing it over to Ellis. He then moved to address the crowd.

“This body imitates Ellis, but I am neither a man, nor a woman. As such, I have no breasts nor any other sexual organs. I don’t even have any holes on my bottom either, you see?”

There were a couple maniacs who pushed their way to the front of the crowd as the dragon bent over to show his naked behind. Ellis meanwhile was trembling in embarrassment. It was such a genuine reaction that even the most cynical critics in the audience were convinced that this wasn’t an act.

“Honorable Land Dragon, about that body…..”

Ellis was still able to keep up the facade as she moved to talk to the dragon, but when she got close enough that nobody else could overhear, she whispered into his ear.

“If you do not get on with this, I will break every single one of your limbs, gouge out your eyes, and leave you partially frozen underneath Warren’s sewage!”

The trembling Land Dragon quickly returned to the center of the circle.

Ellis then loudly cast the {Reset Body} spell as loud as she could, causing the Land Dragon to be overcome in a bright light. When that light disappeared, where an imitation of Ellis had stood before, now stood a large lizard with beautiful golden scales too radiant to now call an ocher color and five magnificent horns on its head. A different colored ribbon was wrapped around each horn, marking his affiliation.

As a demonstration, some full plate armor were brought before the Land Dragon. With a single stroke of his tail, it was crumpled down to scrap iron.

The next demonstration had the ever reliable Buzz and Doug thrust into the spotlight, Minotaur mauls in hand. The two men looked nervous as they approached the dragon at first, but they were able to show some gumption as they raised a shout and swung their weapons down.

*Gong!* *Gong!*

The ends of the mauls shattered upon impact, but there wasn’t a scratch on any of the Land Dragon’s scales.

“Does anyone else want to try?”

The Land Dragon tried provoking his audience, but nobody stepped forward.

“Well then, behold my magnificent figure!”

With those words, the Land Dragon changed his size down to about a meter in length, causing his horns to disappear and the ribbons adorning them to fall off. Seeing him like that, the audience was united with a single thought, “This was supposed to be magnificent?” It was just a lizard.

The Land Dragon returned to his normal size once again, and seeming to misunderstand everyone’s silence for amazement, he shrunk down again to show off his glory. Ellis in the meanwhile, took on the job of explaining things since he clearly wasn’t going to do it himself.

The Land Dragon would wander the city while either in his human-copy form or in this diminutive state. With the covenant made, he hoped that the people of the city would all refer to him as ‘Ra-chin’ from now on.

The whole presentation left much to be desired, but Ra-chin was still somehow able to pull off becoming the guardian dragon of Warren. When the news circulated, outsiders would see this as a historic pact made at the most trying of times, but for the people in the know, they could only see this as a playful recluse wanting to move to the city.

The Council formally recognized Ellis as a subordinate to the Land Dragon, and so Ra-chin moving into Ellis’s mansion was seen as the obvious ending.

The first obstacle to this arrangement occurred almost immediately after they arrived, meeting Pi-tan. Honestly, Pi-tan was freaked out. Why was there such a large lizard here? Ra-chin…..was also freaked out. Why was a Metal Eater taking a nap here with a soft blanket laid overtop him inside a basket?

*Sha*

Pi-tan immediately went for the self-defense approach.

“My scales are made of organic dark mithril. Your metal deconstruction has no effect on me.”

In seconds, the scene broke down into a case of a lizard and anteater turtle trying to provoke each other. A standoff that eventually devolved into the two just glaring at each other.

“Yes yes, that’s enough of that.”

Frau interrupted the two’s heated battle and picked up Pi-tan in a hug. But while he was held into Frau’s chest, Pi-tan’s eyes turned down, clearly showing off how he was the winner.

“Mu”

Ra-chin didn’t understand where this sense of defeat was coming from, but he still found himself groaning as Reeve came up to him from behind.

“Is Mr. Dragon not good with hot water?”

“Hot water?”

“Our bath. C’mon, try it out.”

And so Reeve picked him up. Pi-tan tried to protest, but his objections were soothed with Frau’s gentle pets. As far as Ra-chin could remember, he had never been hugged like this before whenever he had made a contract in the past. It felt surprisingly good. Ra-chin decided to remain silent as he was taken away to this mysterious ‘bath’.

And after taking his first bath,

“This is heaven,”

was Ra-chin’s honest thoughts.

Another tub about one size large than Pi-tan’s tub was placed next to it was where Ra-chin was allowed to relax. He had originally thought about turning into his human form and bathing with Ellis, but he stopped when he noticed just how euphoric Pi-tan’s expression was. And as Ellis washed his scales while Reeve took care of Pi-tan, he understood why.

“By the way Ra-chin, you said earlier that your scales were like dark mithril.”

“That’s right Ellis. It’s a substance that can be used for dark mithril after I’ve molted, so you can use them for weapons afterwards.”

A shocking new perk. Ellis tried to pretend to be calm as she tried to pump him for more information.

“So, when will the next time you molt be?”

“Not sure.”

Ellis came to a decision then and there. Ra-chin would receive an extra helping of rice every day. She would see just how long it would take him to molt after being sufficiently fattened up.

After everyone was finished in the bath, Claire reworked a wooden treasure chest to prepare Ra-chin’s bed. Like Pi-tan, he was given a soft cloth to use as a blanket.

“Ra-chin, you will sleep out here.”

“I can’t sleep with Ellis?”

“Ellis is busy at night as well.”

Feeling like he shouldn’t press forward after hearing the tone of Claire’s voice, Ra-chin rested inside his treasure box.

And then the night descended.

Ra-chin immediately knew what was going on. And when it was over, he told himself,

“Because yuri let’s them keep their purity, there is no problem.”

And afterwards he enjoyed the nicest sleep he had had in a long time.

Thus the sanctity of Ellis’s nighttime fun was preserved.

1. I know it’s a little late at this point, but I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware that the common folklore for unicorns is that they would only allow female virgins to ride them.