CH 12.1

Chapter 12: Good Morning (Part 1)

“Huh, it's morning already.”

I mutter as I put my hand on my forehead to cool my foggy head from staying awake the whole night. 

"...It's finally over!”

I fell to the floor and started to roll over the ground.

I let out a deep, long breath of mixed feelings of accomplishment and exhaustion.

I make a half roll and look up at the ceiling of the "Devil's Den". The sunlight is coming in from the ceiling, and the crystals reflect the sunlight diffusely creating a different view from last night.

"It's really beautiful.”

I mutter to myself.

I wonder if my voice has woken her up, but a muffle, growling voice sound behind me.

"Hmmm…”

Crawling out from under the blankets, Spica let out a big yawn and rub her eyes.

"Hey, good morning."

“... G-good morning."

She moves her head slowly and her voice sounds carefree than usual.

I look at her while she lazily stares at me with sleepy, half-open eyes.

...Hey. Don’t you think you’re letting yourself get a little too comfortable with me?

I can’t stand to look at her face, so I do another half-roll. I put my forehead on the cold ground and breathe in slowly to calm my heart. 

Yuck, it smells like dirt.

A different kind of fever, different from the fever of being awake the whole night, messed up my head.

She looks so beautiful but I'm not going to tell her because I'm too embarrassed to reveal it to her.

"What are you doing?"

The voice was a little more gentle than before.

"...I'm testing the smell of the ground.”

"Do you smell something unusual?.. I don't smell anything unusual though.”

Just when I think I have successfully hidden my embarrassment, she seems to have taken the trouble to sniff the ground.

No, no. Spica, there is no need for you to sniff the ground!

However, when asked what I meant, I felt very embarrassed, so I decided to repeat the words appropriately.

"Well, that's what I meant."

It didn’t make any sense though.

"Sometimes Sun-kun says things that I don't understa…!!!"

She stops her words in the mid-way.

“...Spica?"

I raise my head and look at Spica as I’m worried about her.

Her gaze is a little further back than mine. She slowly moves her head upward, sideward, downward, and finally looking up at the ceiling.

“...Wow. That's great, Sun-kun.”

“Well, I'm not the only one who does that."

What Spica was looking at, is a huge dragon made of ice.

It is probably eight meters long and made of ice, giving it the appearance of a reptile. However, what separates it from the regular reptiles is its huge, powerful wings. Its majestic wings are being bathed in sunlight and emitting a faint white glow.

It has a rough body with visible scales and a long, thick tail that covers more than half of its body. The clear eyes give the impression of being sharp, filled with round crystals that reflect light like an eye gleam.

It's a dragon with a slender body, and it's made up of layers of small, thin ice spikes.

I proudly nod to myself as I did a nice job.

When I see Spica rushing up to the dragon, I channel my mana into it.

.... With a roar, the ice dragon flaps its wings powerfully and the heavy sound causes the entire place to shake.

It’s not over yet.

"Shall we finish breakfast with the leftover pot-au-feu and bread from last night?"

As the ice dragon flaps its wings, a low, horrible, muffled voice escapes from its mouth.

When she hears the voice, her body trembles in surprise and looks at me with a twinkle in both of her eyes.

"How did you do that?”

"I buried this in the dragon's body."

Then, from the inside pocket of my jacket, I take out a crystal that contains my mana in it.

"I've been trying to recreate this for a long time. Now I’m successful in making it. I've embedded some of them in the dragon's body, using them as a trigger to manipulate the dragon's body."

By putting command into my mana, the crystals react and move as I wish.

It's like operating a radio-controlled car. It's fun.

"I used a bit of my mana to create that voice.”

"It draws mana from those crystals that I buried in this body and use it to make it sound like a voice. It's like I'm forcing it to recreate what happened with the wind crystal."

Halfway through the sentence, instead of my mouth, the dragon tells her.

"... It's easy when you say that, but it's outrageous. I don't think there's anyone other than Sun-kun who could do it."

She says that cannot be described as astonishment or dismay.