Chapter 59 – Demon Dragons
The journey to Dragon Mountain was quite smooth.
I haven’t encountered robbers on the street since the Blue Three Stars, but instead, I’ve often been attacked by demons.
Doom Land is a land rich in mana, and there were quite a few beasts that evolved in a threatening direction under the influence of it.
Such magical beasts became experience points that allowed Ozma to become accustomed to using magic in combat.
Thanks to that, it feels like Ozma’s magic skills have improved over the past few days.
Judging from what I’m doing right now, I think I’ll probably be able to rise to the 3rd rank soon.
Indeed, it could be described as a natural talent.
Why did such a talented person only learn swordsmanship?
Anyway, the trip to Dragon Mountain has entered the fourth day.
After waking up early in the morning, I washed up by the river, returned to the base camp, and started organizing the tent I used to sleep in last night.
As I folded the poles supporting the tent and put the tent in my backpack, Ozma crawled out of the tent on the other side.
“…Water.”
Ozma said so while scratching her tousled hair.
I snapped my fingers because I was too lazy to go directly to hand it over.
Then the water bottle is blown away by the wind and lands in Ozma’s grasp.
Ozuma, who naturally opened the lid and gulped down the contents inside, asked, wiping his wet mouth with his forearm, as if he finally came to his senses.
“You seem to have woken up early today.”
“Yes, well. The morning air is nice, so I thought I’d meditate.”
“Why are you doing that meditation?”
“When you meditate, all your thoughts disappear and your head becomes clear. It is also the process of releasing old mana and accepting new mana.”
I also learned from my master, but doing this improves the state of the virtual magic furnace.
It feels like putting engine oil in a car.
Perhaps he was interested in hearing my words, and Ozma crept closer to me.
I frowned as if I was clumsily trying to imitate my posture while sitting on a rock.
“How do you do this pose?”
I saw Ozma, who couldn’t sit still and continued to squirm, whether it was uncomfortable to sit cross-legged, and I smiled softly and corrected her posture.
It was only then that he seemed to be able to do it, so he stood behind Ozma, who began to sit cross-legged with a relaxed expression, and taught him how to meditate.
“For now, close your eyes and use the correct breathing technique I taught you.”
Then Ozma nodded, closed his eyes, and began to breathe in a different way than usual.
Oh oh oh ─
It is the secret breathing method of our school, which is a one-person practice.
Actually, I shouldn’t leak it without Master’s permission, but this was all I knew about breathing, so I couldn’t help it.
This is because the presence or absence of the breathing method makes a big difference in the operation of magic.
In that respect, our school’s breathing method was very good at optimizing mana efficiency.
To the extent that a newcomer who had only been introduced to magic for less than two weeks could use basic magic.
I waited quietly by the side after confirming that the mana flowing through her body was rotating properly.
Originally, I should have done my job, but Ozma, who is meditating for the first time today, could have made a mistake, so I watched from the sidelines.
Wouldn’t this be much better than losing a cow and fixing a barn?
Ozma, who had been sitting still in her cross-legged meditation, finally opened her eyes.
She looked at my face with her blank eyes, and then she asked, as if in a flash.
“How much time has passed now?”
“About 15 minutes have passed.”
“Awesome. It feels like I closed my eyes for a moment and then opened them.”
“That’s the beauty of meditation.”
It seems like less than a minute has passed by the person who does it, but in reality, there are many cases where 30 minutes have passed.
This is because in a state of high concentration, it feels like the flow of time is speeding up tremendously.
Anyway, while she was meditating, Camilla, who was on duty for today’s meal, came out of the tent and prepared a simple breakfast, so she did not intend to wait any longer.
After the meditation was over, I asked Ozma to wash up and eat the breakfast Camilla made.
This morning was a mushroom stew with wild edible mushrooms.
It was winter, so the weather was quite cold, but after eating the hot soup, I felt warmed up to the inside.
As she ate the steaming mushroom stew, Ozma returned, shaking her wet head.
In this cold weather, if you leave her hair wet, you might catch a cold, so I dried her hair using a flower and bird wind moon.
Even though it was obviously developed for offensive magic, it seems that flower, bird, wind and moon are used in all sorts of miscellaneous things.
It’s nice because it’s comfortable, but I wonder if it feels weird.
Eventually, perhaps because her hair was dried to some extent by the warm wind of the flowers, birds, and the wind, Ozuma ate the mushroom stew that Che Camilla handed to her while putting her towel on her head.
“It’s delicious.”
Acknowledging Camilla’s culinary prowess with just one word, Ozma ate every drop of stew from her bowl.
After finishing the meal, the women fold the tent they used and prepare to leave again.
“How much further do we have to go now?”
Hearing my question while putting on her backpack, Ozma pointed to Dragon Mountain, which was already quite close.
“If you walk hard in the morning, you should be able to reach the beginning of Dragon Mountain by noon today. From there, there is no particular difficulty.”
“Okay.”
We mounted the horses we had tied to a nearby tree.
Whether they had enough rest all night, the horses were in good condition.
Judging by the luster flowing from her hair, it seems that her condition has not deteriorated yet.
It reminded me of the old country that I left behind in Devil’s Castle and the Gold Run on the eastern front, but this guy also didn’t feel bad on board.
I swept the horse’s gray mane once, then climbed into the saddle.
It’s Dragon Mountain soon.
***
As if it was worthwhile to work diligently in the morning, we were able to reach the beginning of Dragon Mountain just like Ozma said before lunchtime.
The weather, which had been quite cold in winter, came near the volcano, and it became warm as if a boiler had been turned on.
This is because of the geothermal heat coming up from the ground.
According to Camilla, Dragon Mountain’s specialty is a sulfur hot spring, so it would be nice to go in and sweat out when you have free time.
Perhaps because we weren’t the only ones invited to this meeting, the area around the mountain was crowded with demons we hadn’t seen before.
I was the only human here, so I put a dog-shaped mask on his face so that his identity would not be revealed.
It is enough to replace the unique body odor with a fabric deodorant.
“Isn’t this, Ozma-sama?”
When our party arrived at the entrance of Yongsan, the guys who smelled the power like ghosts approached to say hello.
Most of them were wanderers who wanted to look good to the Demon King.
Nero, the current demon king, was not only supported by all the four heavenly kings, but also recognized as a demon king by most of the tribal chiefs, so the influence he wielded was considerable.
Naturally, that halo also affects his family.
Ozma seemed to not like the guys in front of him, so he waved his hands around his mouth as he kept his mouth shut.
It was an obvious celebration, so the guys who approached with smiles kicked their tongues and went away.
Well, I thought it would be like this from the beginning.
Ozma, who has a naive personality, is not the kind of person who would accept requests.
It seemed that we could just follow the procession of the other demons from here, so we got off our horses and started climbing the mountain.
At the head of the long procession going up the ridge was a demon tribe that looked like a dragonnew, and it was probably a demon tribe mimicking a human.
After walking for about an hour like that, we were finally able to enter a huge village.
Unlike human cities lined with square-shaped buildings, the village of demon dragons was full of personality in a good sense and crazy in a bad sense.
No two buildings were the same, but each one seemed to have added a lot of their own personality or taste.
It was quite a strange sight, so as we were looking at the buildings of the village in awe, a muscular giant suddenly appeared in front of us.
“Ozma! Long time no see!”
Seeing the man greeting him in a friendly voice, Ozma groaned and changed his complexion.
But whether she did it or not, the dragon with her sky-blue hair grown roughly like her lion’s mane smiled brightly and held out her right hand.
“Are you here to fight me again?
When I heard that, I realized something.
“No way…?”
Then, as if Ozma was tired, he massaged her forehead and answered.
“What you think is correct. This guy is the current chief of the Demon Dragon Clan, Gabriel, or Gabu, the Heavenly Demon Dragon for short.”
“Gyahaha, please take good care of me.”
As Gav said that, he greeted us with a friendly smile.
