■ Dragon Tribe □
The journey to Dragon Mountain was quite smooth.
Since the Blue Tri-Star incident, we hadn’t encountered any bandits on the road, but we were often attacked by magical beasts.
Doom Land is a land rich in mana, and due to its influence, there were quite a few beasts that had evolved in threatening ways.
These magical beasts provided Ozma with experience in using magic in real combat.
Thanks to that, Ozma’s magical skills had noticeably improved over the past few days.
Judging by her current progress, she would likely reach the 3rd tier soon.
It was truly a natural talent.
Why had such a talent been only learning swordsmanship?
Anyway, our journey to Dragon Mountain had now entered its fourth day.
Waking up early in the morning, I washed up by the riverside and returned to the base camp to start packing up the tent we had used the previous night.
As I was folding the tent poles and putting the canopy into the backpack, Ozma crawled out of the tent on the other side.
“…Water.”
Ozma said, scratching her messy hair.
Too lazy to hand it over directly, I flicked my finger.
The water bottle flew through the air and landed in Ozma’s hand.
She naturally opened the lid and gulped down the contents. After wiping her wet lips with her sleeve, she finally seemed to regain her senses and asked,
“You woke up early today, huh?”
“Yeah, well. The morning air is nice, so I thought I’d do some meditation.”
“Why do you meditate?”
“Meditation clears your mind of all distractions and sharpens your focus. It’s also a process of expelling old mana and absorbing new mana.”
Although I learned this from my master, doing this improves the state of the virtual magic circuits.
It’s like adding engine oil to a car.
Seemingly intrigued by my words, Ozma slowly approached me.
She tried to mimic my sitting posture on the rock but frowned when it didn’t work out.
“How do you do this pose?”
Seeing Ozma fidgeting uncomfortably, I smiled slightly and corrected her posture.
Finally able to sit comfortably, Ozma began to meditate in the lotus position, and I stood behind her, explaining the method.
“First, close your eyes and use the proper breathing technique I taught you.”
Ozma nodded, closed her eyes, and began to breathe differently than usual.
Hoooooo─
It was the secret breathing technique of our school.
Technically, I shouldn’t share it without my master’s permission, but this was the only breathing technique I knew.
The presence or absence of a breathing technique makes a huge difference in using magic.
In that regard, our school’s breathing technique was excellent for optimizing mana efficiency.
Even a beginner who had just started learning magic two weeks ago could use basic spells freely.
I confirmed that the mana flowing through her body was circulating properly and waited quietly beside her.
Normally, I would have gone about my own tasks, but since it was Ozma’s first time meditating, I stayed to watch over her.
Better safe than sorry, right?
After sitting in the lotus position and meditating for a while, Ozma finally opened her eyes.
She looked at me with a dazed expression and suddenly asked,
“How much time has passed?”
“About 15 minutes.”
“Amazing. It felt like I just closed my eyes for a moment.”
“That’s the beauty of meditation.”
For the practitioner, it feels like only a minute has passed, but in reality, more than 30 minutes often go by.
When you’re in a highly focused state, time seems to accelerate.
Anyway, while she was meditating, Camilla, who was on meal duty today, came out of the tent and prepared a simple breakfast, so I didn’t plan to wait any longer.
I told Ozma to go wash up and then ate the breakfast Camilla had made.
Today’s breakfast was mushroom stew made with edible mushrooms gathered from nature.
Even though it was winter and quite cold, the hot soup warmed me up inside.
As I blew on the steaming mushroom stew, Ozma returned, shaking her wet hair.
Leaving her hair wet in this cold weather could lead to a cold, so I used Hwajo Pungwol to dry her hair.
Despite being developed as an offensive spell, Hwajo Pungwol seemed to find use in all sorts of miscellaneous tasks.
It was convenient, but it also made me feel a bit of self-loathing.
Once her hair was somewhat dry from the warm breeze of Hwajo Pungwol, Ozma ate the mushroom stew Camilla handed her, with a towel still on her head.
“Delicious.”
With just one word, Ozma acknowledged Camilla’s cooking skills and finished every last drop of the stew in the bowl.
After finishing the meal, we packed up the tent the women had used and prepared to leave again.
“How much further do we have to go?”
As I adjusted my backpack, Ozma pointed to Dragon Mountain, which was now quite close.
“If we walk hard this morning, we should reach the entrance of Dragon Mountain by lunchtime. From there, it won’t be too difficult.”
“I see.”
We mounted the horses tied to a nearby tree.
Having rested well overnight, the horses were in good condition.
Seeing the sheen on their fur, it seemed their condition hadn’t deteriorated yet.
I thought of the old horse we left at the Demon King’s Castle and Goldrun on the eastern front, but this horse wasn’t bad to ride either.
I brushed the horse’s gray mane once and then climbed onto the saddle.
Dragon Mountain was just ahead.
—
Our early morning efforts paid off, as we reached the entrance of Dragon Mountain before noon, just as Ozma had said.
The winter weather, which had been quite cold, became warm and cozy near the volcano, as if a heater had been turned on.
This was due to the geothermal heat rising from the ground.
According to Camilla, the famous attraction of Dragon Mountain was the sulfur hot springs, so it would be nice to take a dip and sweat it out when we had time.
Since we weren’t the only ones invited to this gathering, the area around the mountain was bustling with unfamiliar demon tribes.
Being the only human here, I wore a dog-shaped mask I had prepared in advance to avoid revealing my identity.
The unique scent could be masked with a deodorant spray.
“Isn’t this Lady Ozma?”
As our group arrived at the entrance of the mountain, some individuals who seemed to have a keen sense for power approached to greet us.
Most of them were upstarts trying to gain favor with the Demon King.
The current Demon King, Nero, not only had the support of all Four Heavenly Kings but was also recognized as the Demon King by most tribal leaders, so his influence was significant.
Naturally, his influence extended to his family as well.
Ozma, clearly displeased with the individuals in front of her, kept her mouth shut and waved her hand dismissively.
It was a clear signal to leave, so the smiling faces turned away with a click of their tongues.
Well, I expected this from the start.
Ozma, with her rigid personality, wasn’t the type to entertain such requests.
From here, it seemed we just had to follow the procession of other demon tribes, so we dismounted and began to climb the mountain.
At the head of the long procession climbing the ridge was a demon who appeared to be a Dragonewt, likely a dragon tribe member in human form.
After walking for about an hour, we finally entered a massive settlement.
Unlike the neatly arranged square buildings of human cities, the dragon tribe’s settlement was overflowing with individuality in a good way, or chaotic in a bad way.
No two buildings were the same, each reflecting the owner’s personality or taste.
Fascinated by the sight, I was admiring the buildings when a muscular giant suddenly appeared in front of us.
“Ozma! Long time no see!”
Ozma’s expression changed at the sight of the man greeting her with a friendly voice.
But regardless of her reaction, the dragon man with sky-blue hair, styled like a lion’s mane, extended his right hand with a bright smile.
“You came to fight me again, didn’t you? As the chief of the dragon tribe, I welcome our esteemed guests!”
Hearing this, I realized something.
“Could it be…?”
Ozma, rubbing her temples as if tired, answered.
“Your guess is correct. This guy is the current chief of the dragon tribe, Gabriel, or ‘Celestial Dragon’ Gav for short.”
“Hahaha, nice to meet you.”
Gav greeted us with a friendly smile.
