Dragon-san Wants a Friend

Volume 5 Chapter 17: Dragon-san Organizes a Meeting

Translator: Kurehashi Aiko

「I, I, it’s a pleasure to meet you! Oh Black Dragon-sama! My name is Heinbert XII. Even though we are in a middle of a serious crisis, it is really a pleasure. What’s more, I would like to……」

「Ahh, yeah, yeah, the pleasure is all mine. My name is Lava. Thank you very much for coming.」

I watch as the man in front of me bows down to me deeply, looking at the tips of his shoes.

Umm, I don’t really think that he should do that. And please raise your head already!

This man is the king of Ballow. And I was really hoping to see Isha alone here, since she was such a huge dragon freak……

「Now, Your Majesty, please don’t bother Black Dragon-sama so much.」

Said Isha to her king, quietly standing right next o him.

I was guided to one of the round tables in the huge hall, and when we approached the table, I could feel a kind of a mask being placed upon the face of the king of Ballow.

「This man here is the king of Hesat. The rumors were that we was severely ill and even bedridden, but as you can see he managed to attend to this meeting.」

「King Ballow. It’s been a long time since we last talked. And I do feel sorry that the circumstances couldn’t be more favorable.」

This man was the king of Hesat. He had a thick beard, well-built body and gave off the impression of being incredibly rich.

However, thinking about the things which transpired in Hesat not so long ago, I could feel something inside of me growing terribly restless.

King Ballow responded to the greeting and stretched his chest in a proud manner.

「Obviously. However, I do believe that we have nothing to fear here, since it is said that dragons have been a graceful benefactors of our land since ancient times.」

Uwah, where did that come from, I wonder? Oh well, I guess he did that only so that he could reassure himself in this time of crisis.

I said that I understand, but I really don’t. I don’t think I can let comments like that slide anymore.

The atmosphere it the room was suddenly becoming really nervous, but then the big door at the end of the hall opened and another person walked in.

It was Mikado-san, the Emperor of Towa, all dressed in formal Towa clothing.

「I’m sorry for being late, Lava. It’s been a while since we could talk face-to-face like that.」

「Thank you so much for coming, Mikado-san.」

「What, it’s not everyday that you can travel to the other side of the world and meet some of its kings. All the while discussing the way to save the world that is falling apart.」

Mikado-san then smiled brightly and looked around the room, stopping at the table where two kings were sitting, their faces the impenetrable masks.

Truly, Mikado-san’s attitude was unlike any king I have ever seen before.

However, it wasn’t him that made both Kings look rather displeased, but his white-haired companion that was right by Mikado-san’s side.

Although the presence of Makoto was hardly even felt, both Kings were looking at her in a prejudiced way, but it seems that no one wanted to say something out loud.

Still, it seems that they didn’t wanted to risk being rude or offending him.

In the next moment Isha-san spoke to me quietly, as to not draw too much attention to herself.

「Hey, isn’t that the woman who appeared in the dreams of His Majesty?」

「We can talk about that later, so for now please act like you didn’t notice that?」

Apparently Isha-san was still adamant on investigating why that mysterious woman appeared in the King’s dreams in the first place.

At that time Ten wasn’t as small as she was now, and so she went to other countries and advised them on what to do against ‘Eclipse’, since she noticed that the seal upon it was beginning to weaken.

At the same time we also confirmed just how much does everyone know about the ‘Eclipse’.

「I can do that. Thanks to the advice we received from that girls, we managed to handle the situation with ‘Eclipse’ with relatively no problems.」

I’m glad to hear Isha-san say that.

This room was located inside of a mansion created by Lute.

I asked Lute to let me use the place, since it was by far the easiest way to access all of the lands that remained.

In this room, there were people gathered from all around the world.

Vast majority of them were some kind of aquaintances of mine, who just like me couldn’t sleep well because they were trying to figure out what to do about the crisis that has befallen our world.

So I visited them all and asked them to lend us their help in what was about to come. So far, everyone accepted.

When Mikado-san took his seat right next to other rulers, I looked at Nectar and Kyle.

With that, we could begin the meeting that was going to determine the fate of the world.

I took my seat at the table as well, and after looking at everyone present I eventually spoke up.

「Everyone. First of all, thank you so much for answering my call and coming here. Before we begin, could I ask you to wear the headsets I gave you over your heads?」

When everyone did as I said and wore the headsets with microphones on them, I spoke up in an ancient language to test them out.

「Do you understand my words?」

Now, if everything was working properly, everyone should hear my voice in their own native language.

While everyone seemed to be surprised at that, King Ballow asked in voice full of curiosity.

「A magical tool used to translate languages! This is great. Is that perhaps an ancient magic tool?」

「Not quite, Your Majesty. Instead of translating speech, it converts my thoughts into your languages via the tools themselves. As for the technology used in them, it comes from our current times.」

While I was saying that, I slide my finger across the tool, just like Isha-san told me to.

Originally we wanted for everyone to come with their own interpreters, but this method was a lot faster and time-saving, since it wasn’t limited to any language in particular, but rather translated all of the currently known languages of this world.

However, doing that live for each and every one of them would be too burdensome on me, and so we decided to produce those handy headsets. We then added a spell to them, one that would allow to “understand anything that was spoken to you” on them, while also being able to produce the same effect with the speaker’s voice.

Or, at least that was the theory.

「I’ve prepared that so that everyone would be able to understand what is going on. By the way, the one who created the devices themselves is that young Signos Academy student, Iori, who’s sitting right there.」

It was Nectar who suggested enlisting the boys for help, and together with Kyle, Iori and Elvie they worked tirelessly to make it done as fast as possible.

Even though they only had three days to make it done, I think they did a splendid job.

When the attention was focused to Iori, the poor boy went all stiff.

I wondered why, but he was probably feeling anxious because of everyone in here was such a bigshot.

「….. Really?」

Looking at the headset with a critical eye, it was a dwarf with a thick beard and strong physique.

He was the representative of the dwarven village that I happened to stumble across one day while doing my usual work.

Up until now, everyone thought that the guys was basically asleep, because he was waiting here for so long.

…… I also still hadn’t forgiven them for trying to hunt me down that one time, and so every time I look at him, it would be a sharp glare instead of my usual gaze.

The dwarf then looks towards Iori.

「Are you really the one who constructed these things?」

「T, that’s right. The magical diagrams are sculpted inside of the devices themselves.」

While Iori was talking, the dwarf was nodding his head in a nostalgic way.

「My,oh my, Io-kun, did you learn something like that at school? It’s really amazing.」

Sitting besides Iori was the representative of the elves, and apparently it was none other than Iori’s mother.

Elves are usually a nomadic race that goes from one forest to another, and their fortes are usually magic, dance and music.

Iori must have contacted her somehow, and she was able to attend this meeting as the representative of her people.

It also seems that there are some songs and other artistic pieces like that about me and my friend’s accomplishments.

It also seems that in order to avoid the white fog, the elves decided to come closer to human cities, and the elves as of now had their encampment right outside of Hibernia.

When I went out to scout the situation together with Iori, it was then when we happened across Iori’s mother, who apparently was guiding the elves during this crisis the whole time.

But for some reason the Elves and Dwarves were acting like total strangers to one another, so apparently they didn’t like one another very much in this world as well.

When Iori’s mother stood up, her body made it impossible for the dwarf to see Iori, and he had to raise his voice to let her know that.

「Oh my, is there some sort of a problem?」

「…… It’s nothing.」

With that the Dwarf representative quiets down and Iori sits back on his spot, all relieved.

Sorry about that, Iori-kun. I know that you are unlike any other Elves, so I’m terribly sorry.

So, in the beginning I was worried that this method would not be so good after all, but as I kept on talking to everyone present I was gaining more and more confidence.

「I do believe that some self-introductions are in order. My name is “Incarnation of Night Born from Lava”.」

Following my example, every person present started to introduce themselves.

In order they were: King Ballow and Isha-san, then there was King Hesat and his aide. Mikado-san, the Emperor of Towa and Makoto. Then there was the representative of the Dwarven village and the representative of the Elves, accompanied by her son Iori.

And there was finally a young man whose skin was all wrinkled and his eyes were more like the ones of an old, experienced man.

「…… Gustu. A chosen representative of the demonkind.」

The people of the Western Continent seemed surprised by his words.

King Ballow was the one to react out loud.

「E, even demons are allowed in here!?」

「Not by our own volition, mind you. It was all thanks to this here dragon.」

The tone of voice as well as the expression of the demon Gustu couldn’t be possibly more disinterested than they currently were.

「It’s alright, as long as I’m here this guy won’t try to do anything stupid. As to why he’s here, it is because I think that without the help of the demons we shall not succeed in what we are about to do.」

「But……」

I tried to explain the situation, while King Ballow was still hesitant.

「It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Gustu-sama. It is an honor to be able to meet one of the demons of this continent.」

Said Makoto, while both she and Mikado-san gently lowered their heads. They were the only ones around this whole table who took his introduction in a calm manner.

「However, this isn’t my actual body, but mere a replacement that looks like one of the humankind. Because of that, I can’t really function properly, even though I’m a demon.」

「…… Fuh, it’s just, let’s just call it the mistakes of the past.」

Gustu –– real name Gustuguss –– was the demon that got summoned to this world by a human more than a hundred years ago. Unable to leave the body of its host, he was manipulating the people of Ballow to kidnap young boys and girls from all over the place, in order for him to feed on their souls.

And since he was unable to leave his human body, it seems that he managed to survive all this time until now, doing what I told him to do, which was to hunt any demons that would try to do what he tried to accomplish.

He was also the one who kidnapped Isha when she was just a child, but since they have never met face to face, I decided to keep my mouth shut about that fact.

I thought it would be better for her not to know.

「But I can sense some good waves from you today. Looks like it was all worth repenting for your past deeds, huh?」

「That’s right, Guss-chan is happy that he can be of help here today.」

「Shut up, Aihana!」

Gustu shouted at the representative of Elves, clearly irritated.

The fact that the Elves managed to reach Hibernia in one piece was thanks to Gust who, since he was owning me a favor, used his demonic powers to protect the Elvish caravan while it was on its way.

Those demons who remained on the continent have also gathered around Gust, since they had nowhere else to go to, or no one to turn to.

Right now, there were spirits and demons gathered in tents across Signos Plains, and each passing day was bringing more tension and chaos with it.

Their overall number would hardly even exceed hundred or so.

By the way, it wasn’t even the small percentage of demons and spirits that were lost due to the white fog.

…… So even a hundred wasn’t that much at all!

「I wonder: if there are demons who look like humans, does this mean that there are also humanoid-looking gods?」

It seems that the Western rulers couldn’t quite believe what they were hearing, though Mikado-san was keeping silent, as if he was pretty much content with all that. Apparently he had no intentions of butting in on the affairs of others.

With the self-introductions being pretty much over, I looked at Nectar who activated the spell he was preparing.

A map of the whole world appeared right in the middle of the table.

But everything on that map was being dyed in white. Mountains, green plains, grey cities and blue seas.

「This is the current situation as we are aware. According to intel gathered from everyone present and our own research, about eighty percent of the whole world is being covered in white fog. So far, the only people that are alive and well are the ones living in the countries that you three gentlemen represent.」

The room was filled with heavy silence.

Doing that would mean actively defying the will of the Gods, and they said that without hiding their discontent towards the idea and its possible consequences.

It was King Hesat who detonated the real bomb.

「Although it is hard to believe, it may be so that this whole situation is the will of the Gods who created this world. So, whatever can we do against the will of the almighty being capable of putting even dragons into submission?」

I thought it was a pretty valid opinion.

In this kind of situation, it was perfectly natural to be scared and afraid, even though they initially promised to help me out. No matter how you look at it, it was understandable human reaction. However,

「I may be a dragon, but there are only so many things I can do on my own. If we are going to do this, I will really need your help. You don’t even have to think about it as doing something for the world. I want your help in protecting the places that each and every one of you holds important in your heart.」

As of right now, Nectar, Seram and Isha were going all out while calculating and making plans together, all at the cost of exhaustion and sleep depravation. But they were working together towards a single goal.

We will find a way.

I should hope that I will manage to persuade them somehow.

But the air about the King of Hesat and his aide began to change. I couldn’t allow myself to lose them here.

So I was about to open my mouth and persuade them further, but then Mikado-san opened his mouth and spoke up.

「For the sake of our own survival we shall lend you whatever power you’ll need. No, perhaps I should say it like that, since this situation is no one’s fault. It is more of a natural disaster. So it is only natural for us to work together in order to find a solution.」

「That would really be helpful, Mikado-san.」

「What, we were lucky that you came to our country when you did. And seeing just how few countries remain in the Western Continent, I’d say that our help will be a huge addition.」

No, it’s like, I was in Hesat even before Lute and his group got there, and we just happen to have a loose connection with them.

With that powerful statement form the Emperor of Towa, there was no way that other rulers could act otherwise, even if they wanted to. So they swallowed hard while making strange faces.

「Well, if it wasn’t for you, Hesat would not be able to even attend this meeting today. We would fall victim to this unprecedented crisis.」

King Hesat seemed to be eager to give us his full support.

Also, King Ballow also offered us his full support with his cheeks flushed with excitement.

「We are finally given the opportunity to pay you back for all the things that you did for our country, Black Dragon. Just tell what needs to be done and we will get it done.」

「Thank you so much.」

I was glad that everyone seemed to be so cooperative, and just like that we could move on to the main subject of today’s meeting.

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