Volume 6 Prologue (1/2)

If you looked at the map of this world, there was the one diamond-shaped continent, Landia, and several outlying islands of varying sizes.

In the center of that continent, called Landia's Navel, there were the three-thousand-meter cla.s.s mountains that made up the Star Dragon Mountain Range.

This was where the dragons lived, gathering around the living G.o.dbeast, Mother Dragon, who was the subject of wors.h.i.+p. It could even be called a nation.

The nations of mankind understood the Star Dragon Mountain Range to be the nation of the dragons. There was no clearly demarcated border, but no country wanted to infringe upon their territory so badly that they were willing to fight the immensely powerful dragons over it. And so, mankind and the dragons naturally stayed apart from one another.

Even though times had been chaotic since the Demon Lord's Domain had appeared on the continent, the Star Dragon Mountain Range was a natural fortress, isolated from the effects of that.

In the high plateau in the center of the Star Dragon Mountain Range was Dracul, the dragons' paradise.

Perhaps due to some act of Mother Dragon, the plateau enjoyed an eternal spring despite being at an elevation of over five thousand meters. It was a fertile and verdant land with an abundant supply of clean water.

In Dracul, the dragons lived a unique lifestyle.

Despite their large bodies, ma.s.sive wings, and powerful horns and fangs, dragons could speak the human language. They could also take on beautiful humanoid forms. They formed riding contracts with the knights of their ally, the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom, under which they would become the knights' favored mounts, swearing an oath to fight together on the battlefield. At the same time, they were to become life

partners, giving birth to the knights' children.

Members of the race of dragons were s.e.xually ambiguous, and unable to produce children between themselves. In other words, in exchange for fighting alongside the knights of Nothung, they had the knights guarantee they would have prosperous offspring.

Each child would be born either as a dragon, a dragonewt, or the race of the knight.

If it was a dragon, it would come in the form of an egg, and it would be taken from the parents to be kept by Mother Dragon in the Star Dragon Mountain Range. This was partly to keep the parentage of a dragon from being considered important, but it was also unclear how long a dragon egg might take to hatch. Because it could sometimes take hundreds of years, it couldn't be left with the parents.

In any case, these partner contracts were formed between the new knights and the dragons at the Contract Ceremony held at the end of spring each year.

That time… had almost come.

In the middle of the 3rd month, 1,547th year, Continental Calendar

It was a forest on the east side of the plateau Dracul in the Star Dragon Mountain Range.

With its everlasting spring, the forests of the Star Dragon Mountain Range were always decorated with fresh growth. The leaves were a deep green, and when you looked up at them from inside the forest, they sparkled brilliantly in the sunlight s.h.i.+ning through the treetops. However, further down, at ground level, there was little sunlight, and it was gloomy.

In those gloomy woods, there was a small cave.

A white dragon landed in front of that cave. Her white scales glistened in the light. Her silver mane blew in the wind. On her head was an exquisite pair of goat-like antlers. The silver dragon folded her large wings, craning her neck to look into the cave.

“Naden, you're in there, aren't you?” the white dragon called into the cave.

Though she was speaking, it wasn't aloud. Dragons could converse by willing it,

without using their voices. There was no response to the white dragon's call, but a little noise did escape from inside the cave. Its occupant was probably pretending not to be there.

The white dragon groaned. “Stop ignoring me! I know you're in there!” she called, sounding exasperated, and then took a deep breath. When the air she inhaled returned to her mouth, orange flames leaked from the corners of her lips. If she opened her mouth now, she would unleash her dragon's breath, the flamethrower attack known to lay waste to entire countries. “If you're too uncooperative, you're going to get burned, you know!”

“H-Hold on, Pai! You'll burn the books!” came the panicked voice of a young girl from inside the cave.

When she heard that voice, Pai swallowed her flames, then let out an exasperated sigh. “Honestly… Stop holing yourself away in there and get out here.”

“But I was watching Music Port…”

“Music Port? Wuzzat?”

“It's a music program from the Gran Chaos Empire.”

“The Gran Chaos Empire?!” the white dragon exclaimed.

The Gran Chaos Empire was a strong nation with a firmly entrenched power base in the west of the continent. Though they had been on the defensive since the appearance of the Demon Lord's Domain, they were still effectively the most powerful of all the nations of mankind.

During the time in which the Gran Chaos Empire had been trying to establish its hegemony over the continent, it had invaded the Star Dragon Mountain Range. This had been the Empire at its peak, with an army numbering in the hundreds of thousands, facing around a thousand dragons. As one might have expected, given that it was said that a single dragon could destroy a small nation, the Imperial forces were overwhelmed, leaving them no choice but to retreat. Ever since that battle, it had been hard to call relations with the Empire cordial.

“The Empire is hostile to us, you realize!” Pai cried. “What are you thinking?!”

“It's not like we're at war right now, are we?” Naden retorted. “The current Empress, Maria, is beautiful and seems peaceful. I think we should take the chance to try and make friends with them.”

“You say that, but… wouldn't Lady Tiamat be angry if she heard you?” Pai protested.

Tiamat was the leader of the Star Dragon Mountain Range, the one that mankind knew and wors.h.i.+ped as Mother Dragon. She was like a mother to all the dragons who lived in this area, and when her name came up, the girl in the cave sounded a little panicked.

“Ahaha… That's kind of scary… You're scaring me, so keep quiet about this, okay?”

“Oh, for goodness sake…” Pai sighed. Her entire body emitting a bright light, she instantaneously transformed into a beautiful young girl with pale skin and long, flowing white hair, wearing a white one-piece dress. She looked unmistakably human, but the goat-like horns sprouting from beneath her hair and the white tail extending from her rump clearly showed she was the white dragon from before.

Pai walked into the cave. It wasn't as dank as it looked. If anything, the air was fresh.

This was normal for caves in the Star Dragon Mountain Range.

Pai progressed through the cave, coming to an area where it suddenly opened up.

Before her eyes spread a room that, completely unlike the rock walls of the cave up until this point, was very girly. There was a cute dresser and bed. The bookshelves were lined with books from the nations of mankind (mostly romance novels). Pai addressed the person watching the simple Jewel Voice Broadcast receiver in the middle of that room.

“Oh, Naden, there you go, watching that simple receiver again…”

“Yeah, and?” the girl called Naden responded. She had black hair and was wearing a black one-piece. “I can watch what I want.”

There were deer-like antlers growing out of her voluminous black hair on either side of her head, and a black tail sprouting from her rear end. At a glance, she looked to be around fifteen years old. She was short, and looked underdeveloped. However, when looked at in profile, her young face had a hint of beauty, and if she dressed right, she would probably look very cute.

Knowing that, Pai sighed all the more at her disappointing friend. “Sigh… I don't know which is worse: this, or when you had your head full of dreams, reading too many romance novels.”

With the past suddenly brought up, Naden coughed in surprise. “I-I was just reading books! It's not like I was only reading romance novels, okay?”

“You were obsessed with them. Saying things like, ‘I'd put love before duty!'”

“I read ordinary adventure stories, too!”

“Dragons don't usually read human books to begin with…”

The reason for that was simple. Since the only country that had diplomatic relations with the Star Dragon Mountain Range was the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom, not many products from the nations of mankind made it here. If one wanted to acquire products from the nations of mankind, one had to go to those nations directly, leaving the Star Dragon Mountain Range. Most dragons were not interested enough in the world outside, or in products from the nations of mankind, to do so. Those like Naden, who used every opportunity she could find to go outside and come back with foreign products, were a rarity.

“Wait, where did you get that receiver anyway?” Pai asked, startled.