LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 71 - Chapter 71: The Settlement
Chapter 71: The Settlement
“Yawn…”
“Oh, it’s rare to see the captain yawning.”
“Mom came last night, so I woke up! But I’m not sleepy!”
“Hmm? Could it be that Jest woke the captain up in the middle of the night?”
As we were moving away from the camping site, Simon misunderstood Jest’s complaint and leaned in close to my back, teasingly speaking.
“No, no! Simon, you don’t understand anything I say. It would be nice if there was magic to make you understand.”
“Haha, Jest says you’re wrong and is getting mad. Well, Jest might be able to talk to everyone normally if he could use transformation magic.”
“Then I’ll ask Mom to teach me transformation magic!”
“Yeah, looking forward to it.”
Simon blinked alternately at me and at the chirping Jest on my back.
“Huh? What? What’s going on? Could it be that Jest can transform into a human with magic!?”
“That’s right. But it seems he has to learn magic from his mother.”
“Wow… I wonder what Jest would look like if he became human. Maybe a bearded old man?”
Simon laughed imagining it on his own.
“Jest is ten years old. Since his voice is still that of a child, he’ll probably have a child’s appearance.”
Ten years old… My younger brothers were obedient and cute until they were ten. Hikaru, the fifth son, who was exactly ten years old, was obedient, but Yamato, the fourth son at thirteen, was cheeky.
I wonder if Jest will become a beautiful child like his mother last night. It’s almost a given in stories that transformed dragons are beautiful, so I’m looking forward to what he’ll look like. As we continued our journey after the lunch break, I noticed something.
“No monsters are appearing…”
“Yeah, we haven’t seen any monsters since this morning. There were a fair number of them until yesterday.”
Arnault looked around nervously.
“I think it’s because of Mom’s presence! Even when we were in the nest, monsters didn’t come.”
I couldn’t see him, but I could tell he was saying it with a smug expression.
“I see, monsters don’t come near when a dragon’s presence is strong… huh?”
“Haha, so that means Jest isn’t a dragon after all!”
Oh, I thought of that, but I didn’t say it.
“That’s because I’m still a child! When I become an adult in a hundred years, they won’t come anymore!”
Jest emphasized loudly in response to Simon’s words.
“Oh? Are you getting angry now?”
“It seems they change when they become adults in a hundred years. A dragon becomes an adult at a hundred years old.”
Come to think of it, I didn’t know much about the detailed ecology of dragons. I hadn’t heard about it from private tutors or academy classes. Probably only scholars know about it.
“A hundred years… That means we won’t see them become adults in our lifetime. But if they return to their original size now, they’ll be quite large, right? How big are adult dragons?”
Certainly, Jest’s mother, whom I saw last night, seemed quite large. I couldn’t tell her exact size because she was already in the sky. But still… oh, so I won’t be able to see Jest’s adult form…
As I was pondering such things, my field of vision suddenly changed. Although it had been a dense mountain path just now, we suddenly found ourselves in front of a village with log walls. Standing in front of the gate was a beautiful woman.
“I’ve been waiting. Since I’ve already informed the dwarves, feel free to enter the village.”
“Who’s that…? She’s incredibly beautiful.”
Simon’s mouth hung open in surprise.
“That’s Jest’s mother. Don’t think strange things.”
“Huh? What? Huh!? Jest’s mother!? So, does that mean this beauty is a dragon!?”
“Jest’s mom!? Where is she!?”
Simon’s unnecessarily loud voice seemed to have reached the ears of the saint behind us, but it seemed that she was hidden from the view of the Third Knight Order. Jest’s mother just smiled faintly and went into the village.
“Let’s go in for now.”
As the Third Knight Order advanced, it seemed that the Holy Knights were following properly. The moment we crossed the gate, the sound of hammers could be heard from all over, and there seemed to be over a hundred buildings. And above all, the people there… real dwarves were walking around as if it were normal.
Since it’s a dwarf settlement, it might be natural, but they had the stout and chubby physique as we learned in class. And there was no distinction between men and women that we could discern; in other words, even the women had long beards growing up to their chests. I remember that only children didn’t have beards.
“Oh,Azure! Are those the ones you were talking about!”
As I observed the surroundings, a dwarf approached and spoke. “Azure” was probably referring to Jest’s mother, who was probably called “Azure” because she was a beautiful blue dragon when in dragon form.
“That’s right. Boy, show your face to the dwarf chief. He’s been helping us look for the missing boy.”
“Yes!”
Jest replied and flew off my back to his mother’s side.
“Oh, he’s quite small, isn’t he? Is the kid shrinking to be with the humans?”
“Yeah! I like sticking to Justin’s back! Simon’s head isn’t bad either!”
“Haha, is that so! It’s good to see him having fun! His mom was worried about him!”
“Sorry, could you explain?”
While feeling warm from Jest and the others’ interaction, Axel, the knight commander with the saint on board, came over while still mounted. Not only the Holy Knights but also the Third Knight Order seemed confused, so I had to explain.