I thought I had died and arrived in a place that many people described as hell–a very hot place with nothing but scorching hot fire.
But instead of painful screams that should have been echoing throughout the area, what I heard was…
“Groaaar!”
Dragon’s roaring and the sound of wings flapping.
I instinctively looked above and saw several dragons–mostly red and brown in color, flying around the sky.
Ah, right. I am in the dragon’s continent, not hell!
The realization made me heave a sigh in relief.
“Hey Kuu-chan, where are–” I tried to call out to Carbuncle who I thought was by my side, but I was just talking to the air.
“K-Kuu-chan?! Carbuncle?! Where are you?!” I panicked a bit and raised my voice.
At that time, I felt a gust of wind from above, so I unconsciously turned to look at the direction of the wind and–
“...!!”
A golden-ish yellow dragon with green markings on its body was slowly descending in my direction. A red garnet was embedded in the dragon’s forehead area—-
“Kuu-chan!” I quickly identified the dragon.
“Where were you?”
I thought she was really by my side, but when I realized, she had already transformed into her dragon form and was just in the sky?
“Just greeting some old geezers,” Carbuncle said as her body slowly transformed into her humanoid form as she descended right in front of me.
“Old geezers?” I asked as I turned up to the sky–and a red and brown dragons whose body size was bigger than Carbuncle’s dragon form was floating there. They were looking at Carbuncle and me.
“Don’t mind them,” Carbuncle waved her hand at me before she turned towards the two dragons and shouted, “Oyyy! You’re making my little friend nervous! Shoo!”
“Tsk, so stingy!”
“Crbnkl, you’re no fun!”
“Next time, okay? Next time! We’re in a hurry now!” Carbuncle answered with another shout.
The two dragons protested, but they flapped their wings away from us anyway.
T-thanks?
“Where are we?” I finally managed to ask the question I was meaning to ask Carbuncle. S~eaʀᴄh the NovelZone.fun* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
As far as I could see, we were currently standing on a big magical circle that I identified as the teleportation portal, with us right on top of the smaller circular pattern that glowed red. Right next to it was a smaller circular pattern that glowed green.
And right in front of us was a stone gate–no, we were surrounded by big stones that seemed like… stonehenge?!
Is that what stonehenge is supposed to be? A relic left by the dragons?
There was one historical site that no one was unable to understand why it was built back in the desert that’s located in the Neutral Area. It was named Stonehenge, don’t ask me why.
“Welcome to Pyrpgrnt kingdom!” Carbuncle said with a grin.
“Pyrp… How do I pronounce it?!” I almost wanted to cry. How did Carbuncle say it, again?
“Pyrpgrnt. Easy, right?”
“...I’ll call it as Pyro kingdom, then.”
“Ah, going straight to the popular abbreviation without having me to tell you about it, huh? As expected of our Lyr!” Carbuncle nodded proudly.
“...” It… it just sounded like pyro-something…
Based on the appearance, it seemed like it’s a kingdom of fire dragon?
“Are we resting here tonight?” I asked as I followed Carbuncle’s lead as she walked.
Thankfully, she didn’t choose to fly again and just walked. The distance must be close, then.
“Yep,” Carbuncle nodded.
“Where, exactly?” I asked as I turned to look at my surroundings.
Not too far away from the portal, there was an intersection.
I could see several building-like structures that seemed to be made of the ground standing to my left. It must be the dragons’ dwellings here.
So, fire and earth dragons? Maybe?
The building-like structures must be made by the dragons that inhabited this area. Judging from their coloring, they must be fire and earth dragons, or perhaps a mix of both, since our friend, Carbuncle here, was a thunder dragon main with a secondary wind magic attribute.
And the direction in which Carbuncle led me was to my right, to where the castle-like structure was erected… Nn? Castle?
“W-wait!” I quickly chased after Carbuncle, who was leisurely walking towards the castle gate.
“Why, Lyr?” Carbuncle asked without even turning to look at me.
“Halt,” The castle gate’s guards said as they blocked the way.
This is exactly what I was thinking about–can you even walk straight to the castle as if it’s your playground?!
“You are…,” One of the guards looked at Carbuncle and seemed to have been struck with a realization.
“Yo! I came here to play with Schelri,” Carbuncle said as she waved her hand.
“Ah, come in!” The guards suddenly said with open arms.
“Eh?! That easy?!!!” I almost popped my eyes off.
Anyway, we waltzed into the castle… as if we were just walking through a store.
I mean, really… Carbuncle marched in with confidence, without anyone halting her. If any, they were just casually saying hi to Carbuncle.
“Crbnkl! You done with your world viewing quest?”
“Oy, back already, Crbnkl?”
“Are you here to see Princess Schelri? She’s in her room.”
“Eh, you’re bringing a tiny human as a souvenir? Wait, how could a Non-Draconis step foot here?!”
I shrank my body a little bit in order to not get noticed by any of them. When they noticed me, they all looked at me with eyes full of wonder, as if I was some rare specimen, after all…
“Eh, she has a bit of dragon blood. I lent her my dragon orb to help her dragon aura shine more, to help her step foot in our Dragon’s Heritage,” Carbuncle explained.
“Whaaaat?!” The dragons were surprised to hear that.
“Anyway, she is not a souvenir! We’re here for a quick visit. It’s already late, why don’t you go to sleep?!” Carbuncle said casually to the dragons that seemed to be the castle’s workers.
S-such casual tone of speaking… Is this even alright?
“Well, we can ask the princess later on!”
“Yeah, yeah!”
“Sleep? We are the night shift-ers! Hehee! Let’s get back to work, everyone!”
With that, our way was cleared.
Before long, we arrived in a separate smaller castle after going through corridors and what seemed to be a garden. After walking through several hallways, I stood in front of a room that Carbuncle wanted to barge into, if not for the maid standing in front of it, stopping Carbuncle from doing so.
“Schelriii!”
Carbuncle called out a name as the maid entered the room and closed it in front of us, not before telling us to wait for a moment.
True to her words, the door was opened again after a short time.
“Crbnkl!!! What is this?! Barging in the middle of the night?!” A dragon girl appeared behind the maid that opened the door once more, greeting us with a yawn. Her straight golden hair was more lustrous than Carbuncle’s marigold hair, her red eyes looked clearly sleepy. She looked like… the sun. Appearance-wise, she looked like a girl in her sixteen or seventeen… but I knew first-hand that we couldn’t judge a dragon’s age by their appearance.
“Still in the dreamland, Schelri? Remember where I was supposed to be?” Carbuncle asked.
“Huh? You were supposed to be… in your world tour thingy… Aah!” The girl named Schelri opened her eyes as if she had just fully awoken.
“Mhm.”
“Then, why are you here? Going back already?” Schelri blinked her eyes.
“Nah, I’m just stopping by for a bit. Help me, will you?”
“Help? What could you possibly need help with? And why don’t you just go home?” Schelri had so many questions.
“If I were to go home, it’d be hard for me to leave again!” Carbuncle quickly opposed Schelri’s suggestion.
“Oh… right. Wait, who is this little girl?” Schelri seemed to just notice me, who was standing right behind Carbuncle.
Her nose then twitched a bit before she muttered, “A human…?”
Then, Schelri walked closer, with Carbuncle moving so that she wouldn't be in the way.
In the meantime, Carbuncle began to introduce me with the same line that she used to explain why a human me would be able to come here in the first place.
“Flip flop eyes!”
I couldn’t tell if Schelri even paid attention to Carbuncle’s words as she just stared at me intently before she suddenly said, interrupting Carbuncle’s introduction of me.
“Ah, her eyes are in different color because it oddly runs in her–”
“I know! The Hartmann family, right?” Schelri said with sparkling eyes.
“H-how do you know that?” I was surprised.
“Of course I know! Lyr, was it?” Schelri called out to me. Ah, she paid attention to what Carbuncle said, even when she didn’t look like she was paying attention…
“My name is Alrescha Lyra Hartmann. Pleased to make your acquaintances, Your Highness Princess Schelri–”
“You can drop the formalities. We dragons don’t really bother with that,” Schelri waved her hand.
Huh… Really? But won’t it be insolent for maids to be casual with you?
I was confused, but I decided to just go with the flow rather than stressing myself with trivial matters. Anyhow, the person herself told me not to sweat it, so I should just trust her words.
“Right, let’s have a bit of chit-chat! You are not in a hurry to sleep and leave tomorrow, right?” Schelri asked as she sat down on the sofa in her living room.
“No, I need some rest, it’s not like I can go quickly,” Carbuncle said as she stretched her arms and small wings on her back.
Ah… of course she’d be too tired. Flying almost non-stop for almost one day…
“Good. You two can sit! What kind of tea and refreshment do you want?”
As per Schelri’s request, we quickly sat on the sofa that was on the opposite of hers.
“Refreshment? Tea? I am hungry! Can you give me something to eat?” Carbuncle asked.
Her attitude frightened me so much that my eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
“Hahaha! Sure, sure! It’s been so long since you last ate a dragon’s meal, right? Lyr, do you want a full meal or a light one?” Schelri asked.
“Huh? Ah…” Come to think of it, we had our last full meal at dawn before we departed, and we only ate some snacks we brought with us while we were on the way here. So, for the sake of preserving my stomach’s health, I will…
“If it’s not too much of a problem, can I have a full meal too?” I timidly asked.
“Sure! Blze! You heard them, right?” Schelri called the maid that was on standby.
“Yes, Princess!”
“Hey, Blze! Remember that our little Lyr here is a human, she can’t have anything too dangerous,” Carbuncle said as she pointed at me.
A-anything too dangerous? What does she mean by that?!
“Ah, right! Note that to the chef and give me some refreshment, I am not too hungry since I have eaten dinner earlier,” Schelri added.
“Yes, Princess! Wait for a bit~,” The brown-skinned red-haired maid named Blze quickly disappeared from the room.
“Fufu, wait, alright? I can’t wait to see what kind of reaction you will have upon seeing our food,” Schelri cheerfully said to me.
“Huh? Ehh?”
Now, I am getting worried!
First, Carbuncle’s casual remark about how they shouldn’t give me something dangerous… but it’s food, right? How can food be dangerous? It’s not like we can eat anything bad or poisonous…
Carbuncle once ate a poisonous mushroom out of curiosity and it upset her stomach, so it wasn’t like dragons could just eat poisonous things…
I took another glance at Schelri’s cheerful expression with eyes that seemed to look forward to what she’d see.
If that kind of gaze is directed towards me, I can’t feel rest assured! What am I? Have I become this princess’ entertainment? T__T
I was looking forward to knowing what a dragon’s meal was, when it was first mentioned. But now… I felt like I was more nervous and afraid than excited…
I will be fine, right?