I flew for half a day. It’s already dark out, and the moon is high up in the sky.
Then, I finally saw the city covered by walls.
It’s the country Adofu mentioned, Ardezia.

If I get any closer, I’ll be seen.
I’m still far from the city, but I landed on the ground nonetheless.
Now… how do we go about this?

There aren’t any stone pillars lined up that make monsters drowsy in sight, but…… although I want to get to the city as soon as possible, I’ll stay here for now.
Should I turn into human and move in from there?
But, my〖Human Transformation Art〗isn’t perfect.
I hid my face while in Haranae…… but, I was still suspicious to the people.
There’s now a rumor in Haranae that humanized dragons exist.

While talking about Haranae, I wonder how Adofu and Hagen explained it to the people.
It’ll all depend on how the people react and how the church plans on doing something about it after the influence of the people.
If the news of a humanized dragon from Haranae reaches Ardezia, then the impression of Nina from the people might not turn up good.

It was already discussed in Haranae that they won’t ask for Nina’s identity to seize power in Ardezia, that’s probably something Adofu did for my sake…… but, I still want to remove this lingering doubt in my head.
It’s best to say goodbye right here and watch over her from a distance.

I stopped walking and put Nina down.

“Irushia-san… Tama-chan… Thank you so very much for everything nya…… we’ll…… see each other again, right?” [T.N: Tama-chan is Ball Rabbit, and it can also be translated to Ball-chan XD]

Both me and Ball Rabbit can’t seem to utter a reply.

“Gra~a!”

Once again, Partner says something first.
…… Would you please read the situation?
Or, maybe she already read the situation and that’s why she said it?

“Gra~a~a!”

I say something too after Partner.
And, Ball Rabbit too…… Ball Rabbit?
What’s wrong? This is goodbye, so you should say something too……?

Then suddenly, I felt a presence from behind.
It’s a human. It seems like it’s hiding its presence while approaching us.
This is bad. Since the city was already on sight, I should’ve been more cautious.

I turn around, and at the same time, I lightly move back from the area.
It’s just a light movement. I’m not planning to kill.

I saw sand dust scattered.
I slammed whatever was under the sand with my tail and there’s something there.
It looks like it was able to guard itself quite well.

“Gu~uh?!”

It’s a man with aquamarine hair.
He fell on his back and sand splashed behind him.

“Let’s move it, you stupid moron! What are you doing, Cain?! This gigantic thing is not something we can take on by ourselves! Let’s hurry back to the country and report it!”

Behind the man on the ground was another man riding a horse.

“T-That girl and her rabbit are being attacked by that monster!”

The man with aquamarine hair, Cain, says while standing up.
I think Cain bit his lips when he landed on the ground, his mouth is bleeding.
He immediately wiped the blood with the back of his hand.
He’s wearing armor on his arm, and it looks like my tail broke it.

Well, Nina aside, they’re also assuming that I’m attacking Ball Rabbit too and that they think he's Nina’s pet……
I already heard from Adofu that Ball Rabbits are warm and they make great pets.

“Since it has noticed us, an unprotected part of Ardezia will be attacked by the dragon! If that happens, many people will die!”

“That’s why it’s better if it never attacked in the first place! If you’re scared, you can run away yourself!”

“Tsk…! If you want to die, then you can die for all I care!”

The man on the horse circled around me and headed straight towards Ardezia.

“You there, are you okay?!” Cain screams at Nina.

“P-Please wait nya! You’ve got it all wrong! Irushia-sa…… Dragon-san is helping Nina……”

I slammed my tail on the ground. The ground broke apart and I caused a small tremor.
Nina loses her balance and falls down.

“Ki ~ya~a!”

“Oh no! I’m going to save you now, okay?”

Cain holds out a sword and jumps at me.

If you treat me as a rogue monster attacking Nina, there will be less suspicions of her.
It’s not good to make a bad first impression after all.

Either way, I can’t enter Ardezia with the way I am now.
If they misunderstood this situation as Nina being attacked, then that’s good.
It’ll be hard to explain how she got all the way here, even if she said she got lost, though I was expecting a carriage would past by and lend her a ride, but not this. She can probably find some excuse later.

I glance at Partner without showing any signs of letting Cain notice me.

“Gru~u~o~oooo!”

I stomp my foot just barely in front of Cain’s face while I roar.
Cain jumps on my foot and sticks to my face. He then cuts my face with his sword.

“〖Flame Slash〗!”

The fiery sword slashes my cheek sidewards.

“Gruho~o!”

I purposely got hit by the attack, but it did more damage than I expected.
Still, this guy isn’t half-bad.

I pulled my head back and quickly stepped away.
After receiving this kind of attack, is it okay if I run away now?

“Pefu~u?!”

Then, Ball Rabbit suddenly fell on my body from out of nowhere.
He folded his ears as a cushion to soften his fall. As expected of Ball Rabbit. [T.N: How did he get there?!! XD]

When I tried to pick Ball Rabbit up, he turned his gaze elsewhere… when I turned to where he was looking, I noticed that Nina fell down.
…… I guess it can’t be helped that I still worry for her.
But, of course. I think she once again pretended to be fine during this travel.

If it’s Ball Rabbit we’re talking about, he’d probably be able to enter Ardezia with Nina.
It’ll be a lot safer for Nina if Ball Rabbit acts as her bodyguard. He’s smart, and skillful too.

Ball Rabbit looks up at me.

Say, Ball Rabbit… what do you want to do now?
I don’t have〖Telepathy〗so I don’t know what you’re thinking, you know.
But, I think… you’ve been thinking about what you wanted to do for a while now, haven’t you?

“Pe, pefu……”

I noticed that whenever Ball Rabbit is troubled, he always stares at me, and he doesn’t use〖Telepathy〗at all.
That, to me, is a clear and silent answer from Ball Rabbit.

“U ~ooooo!”

Cain prepares to attack me and is running towards me.
I hide Ball Rabbit out of sight and fall back, leaving Ball Rabbit behind.
I then kicked off the ground and flew upwards.

Cain points his sword at me and is about to restrain me.
I turn my body around and face my back towards Cain.
After a considerable distance, I look back down at them and now they look small.

Cain stopped following me and sheathed his sword before sighing in relief.
Briefly glancing back at them, Ball Rabbit looks at me back.

“Pefu~u! Pefu~uuu!”

Thank you, Ball Rabbit.
It’s thanks to you that I didn’t become lonely in this desert.
Although I was often always busy with many things…… you’ve saved me more than enough times.

I didn’t know what I had to do before.
I picked you up only because I wanted you to dig me a house.
No… I think I just wanted a reason to have a companion that time.

I flew straight eastward.

I don’t think I should look back.
Cain might feel suspicious, and it will only waver my heart.
While I think about that, Ball Rabbit kept on staring at the sky, at me, and it’s making me want to turn around over and over again, but I set my sights east.