Chapter 173: Volume 8 - CH 7

Translator: Silver Editor: Namorax

「Arc In the Sky」

The sky was perfectly clear.

An eighty foot-long, huge dragon was lying on the ground in front of me, only its head was raised so that its reptilian could look directly on me.

“Are you sure about this?”

I stared up at the intimidating dragon…… at Dragon King Ferufivisurotte when I made that inquiry.

Ferufivisurotte regarded me with her violet eyes as she answered my question, making a “let’s go” gesture with her chin.

《Didn’t you say it yourself? To use your transfer magic you need to visit the intended destinations at least once. If you fly on my back we can reach them in no time.》

She urged me to climb on her back as she spoke.

Yesterday, it was decided that the best way to face the undead horde would be to divide our forces and face them on two fronts. When I explained the familiarity requirement of the spell, she insisted that the fastest way to reach those locations was by flight.

Certainly…… Flying straight to our destination would be quicker than traversing the topography with my secondary transfer magic.

Time was of the essence, now that Hiruku’s undead army had been unleashed, and it was without saying that her proposal was the most efficient option.

However. I was somewhat reluctant to do as she said and climb on her back.

I had no issue with riding my dragon mount Shiden, but even in her massive draconic form that was still able to speak I couldn’t see it as anything but straddling a woman.

“Ariane-dono, Chiome-dono would you care to tag along?”

I tried to remove the option of riding alone as I called out to Ariane and Chiome behind me, in an attempt to erect a barrier by having other women accompany me.

“I-I’ll have to decline. Such a dreadful task……”

“Flying through the air…… just imagining it is frightening.”

Ariane vigorously shook her head and refused to join the ride, while Chiome’s ears were flat against her head and her tail was hanging low to the ground as she hid behind Ariane.

Somehow, the two of them were not very keen about the idea of flying on a dragon king’s back.

You shouldn’t force a woman to take part in something she didn’t want to… As I gathered my resolve, Ponta cried out from her usual spot.

“Kyun! Kyun!”

“Oh, you what to come along Ponta……”

After hearing Ponta’s cry, Ferufivisurotte urged me to get on her back even more forcefully than before.

《Arc-han, stop being stupid and climb on my back. Besides, you already have the fluffy fox on your head. If too many people come, I’ll have to fly slower to avoid having any of them fall off.》

She used the crystalline sword on her long tail to push me towards her back after saying so.

What she was saying was true…… or rather, her point was absolutely correct.

In order to use transfer magic, I had to be able to visualize the location and taking me alone would be sufficient to memorize it.

It wasn’t necessary to bring multiple people.

The only issue was my reluctance to climb upon her back…… I thought it over again as I stared at the black scales that covered her back.

There was no proper way to go about this.

I used a saddle whenever I rode Shiden, but there was no such padding or anything similar on her back.

Naturally, there wasn’t a saddle large enough to fit a dragon king because no one would ever think of doing something as foolish as riding one. Not even a reckless person would do something so obviously detrimental to their health.

If I had to ride on her back as we flew in the sky then the answer was simple.

Just as Ponta always clung to my helmet, I had to hold onto her and try not to be thrown off.

For the time being, I wrapped my knapsack, which contained my drawing implements for sketching the location of the transfer point, around my shoulders.

I may have looked like an old-timey burglar, but it was the only way I could hold on to her with both hands.

After receiving further prompting from her, I placed Ponta on her large back.

The glossy black scales had a mysterious feel to them. Despite the hard texture, they had an elastic feel to it, I was so fascinated by the scales that I received a scolding from Ferufivisurotte.

《Arc-han, don’t stroke a woman’s back without permission!》

“Oh, sorry. It was unintentional, the feeling of your scales was……”

I immediately stopped my hand and apologized to her.

Ariane, who was now watching from a distance, was directing unspoken pressure at my back, preventing me from carelessly turning around.

Although I’d hesitated to ride on the back of a woman, I immediately began rubbing said woman’s back as soon as I climbed aboard…… while I was reflecting on my actions, Ferufivisurotte slowly rose to her feet and unraveled her wings, which caused the surrounding elves to back away from her.

《Well then, let’s go! Don’t fall off, ‘kay?》

“Understoー!?”

After her warning, she began to flap her gorgeous, large wings at a rapid pace, resulting in such a rapid increase in wind pressure that my body was pinned to her back.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ~~~~~~~~ !!?”

A scream leaked from my mouth as a torrent of wind that accompanied our rapid ascent pushed me backward before a strange sensation washed over me.

There was no time to look at the surroundings and only the sensation of being launched skyward was clear, which made me wonder if this was what astronauts experienced aboard a rocket.

“Kyーun!”

Ponta, who’d been pushed against my chest, let out an excited shout.

Even though I was envious of Ponta, I desperately clung on and fought against the wind pressure, until it suddenly stopped and my body became light.

I was finally able to take in our surroundings, and it was clear that we were a considerable distance in the sky. Soulia looked like a small speck in between Ferufivisurotte’s flapping wings.

I had no idea what the exact altitude was, but based on the size of the capital below I’d say we were between a thousand and two thousand meters in the sky.

“I-it would be instant death if you fell from this height……”

“Kyun! Kyun!”

At this height, I couldn’t even locate the elves who had gathered to send us off. Honestly, I would be cowering if I weren’t in my skeleton form right now.

However, at the same time, the feeling of taking in the otherworldly beauty of the scenery I was currently seeing, all the while being caressed by the wind, was utterly enthralling.

Eventually, Soulia faded into the background as Ferufivisurotte flew westward, in the opposite direction of the rising sun.

Now, the landscape that spread below was that of the Sobiru mountain range, which acted as a natural border between Nozan and Salma, and the forest at the foot of the mountains.

The height of the mountain range wasn’t low by any means, since some of its highest peaks were snowed over, which only occurred at three thousand meters.  However, Ferufivisurotte easily increased her altitude once more and leisurely flew westwards over the mountains.

“It seems that we will arrive at Salma’s capital earlier than anticipated.”

“Kyun! Kyun!”

As I was looking down at the landscape slowly wandering past us, Ponta finally popped out from under my chest, spread out her fluffy tail and let out a pleased cry.

Ferufivisurotte briefly looked back at me before puffing out her chest and boasting about her own prowess.

《Naturally, it is because of my wings. This time we checked the maps, so you can just relax on my back and enjoy the ride, Arc-han.》

Certainly, in regards to travel speed, nothing expect my long- distance transfer magic matched a dragon king, but that wasn’t something everyone could use.

I guess that the act of a dragon king placing someone on their back was dependent on Ferufivisurotte, Williahsfim, and the other kings’ attitudes.

However…… Things like altitude, the chilling wind and the effect of rapid acceleration and ascension on the body, in addition to maintaining one’s grip, had to be considered as well. In hindsight, it was probably for the best that Ariane and Chiome hadn’t come along.

She must have understood all of this from the beginning, which is why she refused to let anyone but me ride her, as I had proven myself capable of withstanding it…… let’s not think about whether or not that had been a thought-out conviction, or just an optimistic guess on her behalf.

……Well, in terms of viability, it wasn’t all that different from my transfer magic.

Still, neither the cold, altitude or speed prevented Ponta from cheerfully wagging her tail.

While I was thinking over such things, Ferufivisurotte’s violet eyes focused on me again as she spoke in an irritated tone.

《Arc-han, you’ve been quiet for a long time, say something.》

She thrust her long tail up as she made her demand to me.

It was enough for me to silently take in the scenery, but that didn’t seem to be the case for her, so she asked her passenger to speak with her.

I didn’t have anything to add anything to the abrupt conversation, but after scratching my head for a while I remembered something from our first encounter.

“Well, Ferufivisurotte-dono, if you would allow me there is one question I’d like to ask.”

《Huh, what is it?》

When I first met her…… the most surprising thing about her wasn’t her appearance or aura around her, it was the peculiar accent.

The first dragon king I had met was Williahsfim and I’d just assumed that all of them would speak in his formal manner, so it’d been a bit off-putting when I’d met her.

However, since nobody had commented on it, I gradually started to accept it.

“Ferufivisurotte-dono, your manner is speaking is a little peculiar, did you always talk like that? Or do you normally speak in a similar fashion to Williahsfim?”

She rapidly blinked her reptilian eyes at my question for a few moments before replying with a hearty chuckle.

《Ahahhah, that’s right. You also came from the other side…》

She paused for a moment before she settled her gaze on me again.

《It’s something that Eva-han taught me. It’s an elegant manner of speaking on the other side, isn’t it?》

Ferufivisurotte seemed a bit confused when I nearly choked on my words as I turned to reply to her.

“Umm, that’s the case, in a certain sense……”

Her dialect certainly resembled a Kyoto dialect…… it wasn’t dishonest to say that, but frankly speaking, it was obviously fake.

What on earth did the first chieftain teach her?

Given everything I know I’d thought that Evangeline, the one who’d created Great Canada Forest, had been Canadian, but perhaps she’d been Japanese like me…… no, it was just a possibility, not a fact.

While I pondered Evangeline’s nationality, Ponta looked towards the ground and wagged her tail more vigorously.

“Kyun! Kyun!”

When I heard that cry, I looked down and saw that the mountain range was giving way to plains.

“Oh, we’ve already crossed the border. That was indeed fast.”

The plains beyond the Sobiru mountains rested within Salma.

《If I’m not mistaken the capital of this country, Larissa, should be a coastal city.》

Ferufivisurotte had grasped the surrounding geography on a map before we left Soulia and seemed to know the route by heart, or was comparing the surroundings to her memory of the map.

Vast pains spread out beneath my gaze and the horizon stretched out in the distance.

Perhaps that was the southern sea. It hadn’t taken half a day to get here, and I let out a relieved sigh as things seemed to be going ahead of schedule.

Eventually the massive walls of a sprawling port-city spread out in front of us, next to the southern sea.