Elfina

[After Suna left her with the villagers]

“Just what do you guys think you are doing?!” Elfina complained angrily. In front of her, sitting while guiltily looking at each other, were the villagers that grouped together to drive away Suna from their village. In front of the villagers were the village head, also looking down to the ground in guilt.

“W-We are very sorry for acting so rashly, your highness. But even if that dragon did save you, we wouldn’t know what the dragon might do to our small village, hence the effort.” The village head reasoned. As his mouth moved, his long greyish beard move along with its motion.

Elfina began to ponder from the village head’s words. It’s true that she and the dragon named Suna only know each other for about a day. She wouldn’t even know if the dragon’s kind demeanours were truly her persona, or something she created on a whim. Some dragons are known to be playful, after all. “…Still, you could’ve just wait for me to settle things peacefully with Suna-sama. Her sudden departure without a speck of hospitality is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Things could go awry if we were to encounter her again in the future.”

“W-We are very sorry, your highness.” The village head crouched down to the ground, followed by the other villagers. Judging from their doomed expressions, the villagers didn’t think that far off yet before deciding to become hostile with the female dragon. Luckily, the villagers that got involved in driving the dragon away were made of most of the men from various families. Women and child were excluded from this group. Elfina heaved a long, tired sigh before she ordered her people to stand up and disperse.

The whole situation returned normal after that. As the villagers came back to their task, Elfina and the village head were on their way to the village head’s lodging.

“Pardon me, your highness, but my lodging is the only place that is deemed best for you to stay.” The village head spoke politely.

Elfina shook her head. “It’s fine. I won’t stay long in this village anyways as I had to head back to Rustaval immediately.”

The village head raised his thick, shaggy grey eyebrows. “Are you departing today, your highness?”

“It depends on when the troop of knight who were supposed to fetch me comes.” Elfina then stared into the distance. The sun is rising higher in the sky, meaning that it’s almost noon. “I can’t stay long anyway even if I wanted to.”

The village head gazed at the elf princess in wonder, while she continued on looking towards an indistinct direction, worry and conflict reflected on her green irises.

Suna

“Then, isn’t it bad?” I tugged on the sleeve of Clairmont’s coat while I eyed the female knight who was standing at the end of the throne room. Contrary to my assumption when Clairmont talked about the females being warriors in Rustaval, I thought they would look slender and weak, just like that pair of elves who opened the door for us. However, the warrior females were nothing near the weak image I generated of them.

They looked like they were specially trained for combat; a tall stature and toned body behind those shining full body armour. Which part of them would be the cause of their own demise if they were to be sent to the battlefield? They looked like they could even overpower a knight on a horse.

I wonder if I could beat her in a physical fight?

“What is?” Clairmont’s reply snapped me out of my thoughts. I glanced back at him and whispered, “You know, the whole situation. If they managed to assassinate the king, then won’t the kingdom come to ruin?”

Clairmont rolled his eyes. “You bet it would. So, what are you gonna do about it, kill everyone who have malicious intent towards the king? I could say 70% of the people here wanted to send his head flying.”

I think my eyes unconsciously widened from his statement. What’s wrong with this plot? Why’s almost everyone in the palace wanted to see him dead? Is he a tyrant or something?

“Is he actually a bad person that people wanted to see him dead?” I tugged his sleeve again.

“I don’t know. He gives off an aura of a good king, despite being young. People might be going after him because he is too good of a king that they couldn’t do anything suspicious behind the scene.” Clairmont said, sounding somewhat annoyed. I guess I’ve been tugging on his sleeves for too many times, that Clairmont literally stopped his feet for a bit and pulled both of my hands to hold onto one of his forearms.

“Come on, you know how the noble couples walk, so do it like them.” He hushed in reply. “And how about we talk using telepathy? Your whispering voice is uneven that it’s hard to understand your words.”

Clairmont then resumed to walk. Am I the only one here feeling flustered when he suddenly pulled me in to hold onto his forearm? And what’s with that? It’s hard to whisper especially in a quiet and echoey hallway like the one me and Clairmont was walking through. I hope the king didn’t hear anything that we whispered. His back seemed unbothered as he walked in front of us.

“Focus your Mana in my direction and try saying something.” Clairmont informed.

Well, easy for him to say. I didn’t even know Mana existed before I got reincarnated here. The online store is more like a skill that doesn’t require Mana usage, and despite using some Mana when morphing, I didn’t feel tired even though I have been maintaining this form for some time.

…How much is my Mana again?

I motioned towards my front and my status window appeared. Clairmont shot me a scrutinizing glance and a “What are you doing?” comes after that. I brought my finger towards him, signalling a wait gesture.

Hm.

Eight figures.

No wonder my Mana draining didn’t affect me much. I’ve been using my Mana for a while now yet the digits aren’t decreasing. What can I say, my stats are too OP. I might as well be the last boss in this world. Wait, if there are about 200 dragons in this world, won’t there be a lot of last bosses? Will the other races even survive if the dragons decided to create a calamity and destroy the entire planet?

I shuddered towards that thought.

Right, let’s distract thyself from those terrifying thoughts and start a random conversation my dragon buddy beside me. I think I would somehow get the hang if this.

“…Clairmont.” I tried to send a telepathy to him. I hope he heard me.

“What?” Clairmont replied. By the sound of echoes in his voice, I can tell that he replied to me in my head. Which means, the telepathy was successful.

“How old do you think the king is?” I turned to look at him, despite speaking to him internally.

Clairmont grabbed my jaw and gently tilted my face to the front. As he did, he replied, “Dunno. I heard about Rustaval changing their ruler once when I visited a long time ago. They might have changed rulers soon after that.” Clairmont pondered a bit. “I’m guessing… 50 years old?”

“50?!” I tensed my neck muscle to prevent from looking to my side after hearing that shocking news. Kuzan is literally my uncle-years-old, isn’t he??

“Hey, it’s really not that shocking, you know? High elves like Kuzan can live up to one thousand years. 50 years old is like in infant for elves.”

“Then…” I added. “Doesn’t that mean they all wanted to kill Kuzan because he is an infant?”

Clairmont unconsciously let out a snicker. “Who knows. The elders might be pissed by the fact that the leader of their nation is an infant, still wet behind the ears. But because they know that he is better than all of them combined, they couldn’t do anything but watch in spite.”

His reasoning seemed to make sense somehow. If what Clairmont said was true, then them plotting to kill Kuzan might be the result of their building hatred towards him.

We continued to follow Kuzan to the banquet hall. I could tell from the entrance, and the number of voices behind that door that there will be a lot of people attending the banquet. I guess getting an SS-rank not for one, but two adventurers at the same time is a big thing.

And I could tell from a single glance that when the door of the banquet hall opened, almost half of the people present harboured malicious intent that is directed towards Kuzan. Their hatred towards him is intense that it was hard to even look at. I’m impressed that Kuzan didn’t take notice of their hostility. He calmly presented us to the crowd and said something about the country and stuff, while I glanced at a distance and saw a small floating yellow light.

Upon a closer look, the light was actually a female pixie. Her gown was donned beautifully with colourful flowers, as if enhancing her cuteness. It’s a bit strange though because she was cowering in fear as she stayed at the corner of the hall, away from all the people. Is she sick or something? Her cherub face looks pale.

Then I glanced towards other directions, to see if I could find some more pixies apart from her.

Eh?

Where did the other pixies go?