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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
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The journey to Dragon Mountain was quite smooth.
After the Blue Tri-Star incident, we hadn’t encountered any highway robbers, but instead we were often attacked by magical beasts.
Doom Land was a land rich in mana, and influenced by it, there were quite a few ferocious beasts that had evolved in threatening directions.
Those magical beasts became experience points that helped Ozma get used to using magic in actual combat.
Thanks to that, Ozma’s magical skills had noticeably improved over the past few days.
At this rate, it seemed like she would be able to reach the 3rd tier soon.
It could truly be called natural talent.
Why had such a talent been learning only swordsmanship?
Anyway, our journey toward Dragon Mountain had already entered its fourth day.
I woke up early in the morning, washed briefly by the river, then returned to base camp and began packing up the tent I had used for sleeping the night before.
As I was folding the tent poles and stuffing the canvas into my backpack, Ozma crawled out of the tent on the opposite side.
“…Water.”
Ozma said that while scratching her disheveled hair.
I was too lazy to go over and hand it to her directly, so I snapped my fingers.
Then the water bottle flew through the air and settled into Ozma’s grasp.
After naturally opening the cap and gulping down the contents, Ozma seemed to finally come to her senses and wiped the moisture from her lips with her forearm before asking.
“You woke up early today, it seems.”
“Yes, well. The dawn air is nice, so I thought I’d do some meditation.”
“What’s the point of that thing called meditation?”
“When you meditate, all distracting thoughts disappear and your head becomes clear. And it’s also a process of expelling old mana and accepting new mana.”
I had learned it from my master too, but when I did this, the condition of my virtual mana furnace improved.
If I were to compare it to a car, it felt like adding engine oil.
Whether she found my words interesting, Ozma slowly approached my side.
She tried to awkwardly imitate my posture of sitting on the rock, but when it didn’t work well, she frowned.
“How do you do this posture?”
Seeing Ozma, who seemed uncomfortable with the cross-legged position and couldn’t sit still, continuously fidgeting, I smiled slightly and corrected her posture.
Only then did it seem somewhat manageable, and I stood behind Ozma, who began sitting cross-legged with a comfortable expression, and taught her how to meditate.
“First, close your eyes and use the proper breathing method I taught you.”
Then Ozma nodded and closed her eyes, beginning to breathe in a different way than usual.
Whoooooo—
It was the secret breathing method of our school, passed down from master to single disciple.
Actually, I wasn’t supposed to leak it without my master’s permission, but this was the only breathing method I knew, so I had no choice.
The presence or absence of a breathing method made a big difference in operating magic.
In that regard, our school’s breathing method had very good performance in optimizing mana efficiency.
So much so that a newcomer who had only just entered magic for less than two weeks could freely use basic magic.
I confirmed that the mana flowing through her body was rotating properly and waited quietly beside her.
Normally I could just do my own work, but since it was Ozma’s first time meditating today, she might make mistakes, so I was watching from the side.
Wouldn’t this be much better than locking the barn after losing the cow?
Ozma, who had been sitting quietly in a cross-legged position meditating, finally opened her eyes.
She looked at my face with vacant eyes, then asked as if suddenly remembering.
“How much time has passed now?”
“About 15 minutes have passed.”
“Amazing. It felt like I just closed my eyes for a moment and opened them.”
“That’s exactly the charm of meditation.”
From the practitioner’s perspective, it seems like not even a minute has passed, but in reality, 30 minutes have often flown by.
This was because in a state of highly concentrated focus, the flow of time felt tremendously accelerated.
Anyway, while she was meditating, Camilla, who was on cooking duty today, had come out of her tent and prepared a simple breakfast, so I had no intention of waiting any longer.
I went to Ozma, whose meditation had ended, told her to go wash up, and then ate the breakfast Camilla had made.
This morning’s meal was mushroom stew with edible mushrooms gathered from nature.
It was winter, so the weather had become quite cold, but eating the hot broth warmed me all the way inside.
As I was eating the mushroom stew, blowing on the white steam rising from it, Ozma returned, shaking her wet hair.
Leaving her hair wet in this cold weather might cause her to catch a cold, so I used Firebird Wind Shear to dry her hair.
Even though it was definitely magic developed for attack purposes, Firebird Wind Shear seemed to be used for all sorts of miscellaneous things.
It was convenient and nice, but somehow I felt a sense of self-loathing.
Soon, perhaps because her hair had dried to some degree from the warm breeze of Firebird Wind Shear, Ozma ate the mushroom stew Camilla handed her with a towel placed on her head.
“It’s delicious.”
Ozma, who acknowledged Camilla’s cooking skills with just one word, scraped up and ate every last drop of the stew in her bowl without leaving a single drop.
After finishing the meal like that, we folded up the tent the women had used and prepared to depart again.
“How much further do we need to go now?”
Hearing my question as I put on my backpack, Ozma pointed to Dragon Mountain, which had become considerably closer, and said.
“If we walk diligently from morning, we should be able to reach the entrance of Dragon Mountain around lunchtime today. From there, there won’t be anything particularly difficult.”
“I see.”
We climbed onto the horses we had tied to nearby trees.
Perhaps they had rested sufficiently overnight, the horses’ condition was fine.
Looking at the shine flowing from their coats, it seemed their condition hadn’t collapsed yet.
I thought of Craigslist, whom I had left at the Demon Lord’s castle, and Gold Run, who was on the eastern front, but this guy also had a decent riding experience.
I stroked the horse’s gray mane once, then climbed onto the saddle.
Now it was almost time for Dragon Mountain.
Whether it was worth being diligent from morning, we were able to reach the entrance of Dragon Mountain as Ozma had said, before lunchtime.
The weather, which had been quite cold because it was winter, became warm and cozy like a boiler had been turned on when we came near the volcano.
This was due to the geothermal heat rising from underground.
According to what I heard from Camilla, Dragon Mountain’s specialty was sulfur hot springs, so I thought it would be good to go in and sweat it out thoroughly when I had time.
Since we weren’t the only ones invited to this gathering, the area around the mountain was bustling with unfamiliar demons.
Since I was the only human here, I put on the dog-shaped mask I had prepared in advance so my identity wouldn’t be discovered.
The distinctive body odor could be changed with fabric deodorizer.
“Isn’t this Lady Ozma?”
As our party arrived at the entrance to Dragon Mountain, those who had ghostly sniffed out the scent of power approached to greet us.
Most were drifters who wanted to look good to the Demon Lord.
The current Demon Lord, Nero, not only had the support of all four Heavenly Kings, but was also recognized as Demon Lord by most tribal chiefs, so the influence he wielded was considerable.
Naturally, that halo was bound to affect his family as well.
Whether Ozma didn’t like the guys in front of her, she pressed her lips tightly shut and waved her hands dismissively.
Since it was a clear order to chase away guests, the guys who had approached with smiling faces clicked their tongues and went back.
Well, I had thought it would be like this from the beginning.
Ozma, with her upright personality, wasn’t someone who would accept things like solicitation.
From here, it seemed we just needed to follow the procession of other demons, so we got off our horses and began climbing the mountain.
At the head of the long procession going up the mountain ridge was a demon who appeared to be a Dragon Knight leading them, probably the appearance of a Dragonkin disguised as a human.
After walking like that for about an hour, we were finally able to enter a huge village.
Unlike human cities with their rows of square, uniform buildings, the Dragonkin village was overflowing with individuality in a good sense, and chaotic in a bad sense.
Not a single building was the same, and each seemed to have generously added their own individuality or taste.
It was quite a fascinating sight, so as I was blankly admiring the village buildings, a muscular giant suddenly appeared in front of us.
“Ozma! It’s been a long time!”
Seeing the man greeting us with a friendly voice, Ozma’s complexion changed with an “ugh—”.
But regardless of whether she did that or not, the dragon-man who had grown his sky-blue hair wildly like a lion’s mane smiled brightly and extended his right hand.
“You came to fight me again this time, right? As the chieftain of the Dragonkin, I welcome our precious guest!”
Hearing those words, I realized something.
“Don’t tell me…?”
Then Ozma answered while rubbing her brow as if tired.
“What you’re thinking is correct. This guy is the current chieftain of the Dragonkin, Gabriel, or Gav the Heavenly Demon Dragon for short.”
“Gyahahat, please treat me well.”
Gav said that while welcoming us with a friendly smile.
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