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“M-miss Lapis! What are you planning to do!?”
“I’ll stop it for now. It’d be dangerous to continue while holding you.”

The Dragon noticed us and raised a threatening roar. That reminded me, it was written in the documents. The Dragon’s roar had Magic Power in it, and weak-willed individuals sometimes died or fainted just from it.

As expected, I didn’t die, but still felt so much fear that I almost fainted. Lapis who was holding me, however, disregarded it completely and just as she decided to approach it, she instantly appeared above its giant body and drove in a powerful swing.

“Graaah!?”

Following it, a blast of wind was released from her hand, which caused the dragon to spin towards the ground and crash with terrible force.

“Wait there for a bit. Oh, and I’ll be borrowing this.”

When Lapis landed on the ground, she took the sword from my waist and dashed towards the Dragon that was still writhing—and immediately appeared next to it. That’s way too fast! Was that really a speed a human could output!?

“Gaaaah!”

The Dragon roared and swung its claws and tail around. Lapis avoided them lightly as if she was dodging pebbles, and then aimed at its neck and swung the sword. Then, the Dragon’s movements came to a sudden stop, and the next moment, its giant and heavy body fell to the ground with a shockwave.

“…Huh?”

Lapis swung the blade to remove the stuck blood and beckoned me to come. As I timidly approached with tottering steps, the giant head of the Dragon tumbled before my eyes. Although I had seen everything happen before my eyes, I still couldn’t feel the reality of it.

I wouldn’t exactly call my sword blunt, but it still wasn’t sharp enough to slice a Dragon’s head in one fell swoop, and I couldn’t see Lapis thin arms achieving that either. Yet the reality claimed otherwise. Just who was this girl?

“There, now you can get as many materials as you want, right?”
“Huh? Ah, yes. That…is…indeed…the…case….”

My head was still not working well, so I replied in broken words. I put the sword she returned back to my waist and pulled out a dagger used for extracting materials, then I climbed up on the Dragon’s corpse.

A Dragon’s body was very tough, and even removing a single scale required a lot of effort. The scale I was holding for the first time was harder than steel yet lighter than wood. If one made armor with them, shallow attacks would be easily repelled.

“That would probably go for a high price, huh…”

Every part of a Dragon’s body was used as a high-class material. Heart, blood, and eyeballs, in particular, were the highest class materials. If you ate the heart, it could cure any kind of illness, the blood could be turned into medicine for nourishment and a robust body, and the eyeballs could be used for the observation crystals.

However, each and every one of those was too large and not something I could carry back. However, that was fine. Just one scale was enough to repay my debt, so if I took around ten of those with me, it would be enough to make a killing.

After stuffing as many as could fit in my bag, I jumped down from the corpse and bowed at Lapis.

“Thank you very much! I can cover my debt now! This was all thanks to you!”
“…Is that enough? There seem to be quite a lot of valuable materials remaining.”

Saying so, Lapis looked up at the Dragon’s corpse next to her. Since the eyes and heart were intact, I suppose she was talking about those.

“I do want to take them back, but they are so heavy I don’t think I can carry them.”
“I see. By the way, if you cram your bag like that, where would the food for the return trip fit?”
“Oh…”

I didn’t think that far. Thinking about it, even after I filled this bag full of food and water, it barely lasted me. This sucks… No way I could bring these back. Perhaps she found it hard to watch the teary-eyed me, she sighed and wrapped her hands around me like before.

“Miss Lapis?”
“I’ll take you close to the town. That way, you only need to carry the materials.”

With those words, Lapis started flying even faster than before. Since it was my second time, I was able to collect myself enough to observe the scenery down below changing at an alarming speed. What took several days on foot could be covered in an instant by flying. That mountain, or that river, they took me so long to cross.

“Amazing…!”

What I was feeling couldn’t be understood without actually experiencing how it felt to fly. Even the King and nobles couldn’t experience something like this. But alas, such a fun journey across the skies had neared its end. The town where I departed from was already close by.

When I pointed at it, Lapis gradually dropped her speed and let me down a little away from it.

“It should take you about an hour to get to the town from here.”
“T-Thank you very much! I mean it! How could I ever repay you…”
“Don’t worry about it. I just did it on a whim. Either way, I’m going back.”

She soared up into the sky without even waiting for my reply. I hurriedly called out to her.

“I’ll definitely repay this favor! I will come to meet you again!”

As I yelled that while waving my hands, Lapis returned it with a wave of her own and disappeared into the distant ends of the sky. It happened in the twinkling of an eye, making me feel as if I was dreaming or hallucinating all along.

But the bag full of scales that I was carrying on my back told me that all of it was reality. I bowed towards the sky she disappeared to, readjusted the bag on my back, and headed off into the town.

§　§　§

“I heard you went and obtained the Dragon scales?”

When I returned to the town, I immediately headed to the Guild and exchanged the scales, then went straight to the Adventurers I owed money to and returned the debt over the contract. They looked quite frustrated, so it made me feel quite good.

Since my wallet was full now, I decided to have a meager fest for myself on the first floor of my usual cheap inn. That said, I didn’t drink a drop. I learned my lesson from the current incident, so alcohol was banned for the time being. In exchange, I ordered luxurious food that I normally didn’t eat one after another and squirmed in joy from their delicious taste.

During that time, someone sat in front of me without a warning. It was Ciel, a fellow Adventurer with whom I formed parties every now and then. Being a valuable magician, she was always scouted by other parties, and she was apparently helping some party during this incident too.

Apparently, she had learned about my achievements somehow. She called the waiter and ordered alcohol, then bent over towards me.

“Where did you even hear about that? I don’t remember telling anyone.”
“Such information spreads around even if you keep quiet. This is a small town, so when such rare materials show up in the market, people start questioning their origins.”

So that’s how it was. Weapon and armor shops, and blacksmith, were the few I could think of from among countless others who’d want the Dragon scales. If they obtained it once, they would naturally want to request even more. It really was impossible to keep it a secret, huh.

“So, where did you obtain them? You will tell me, right?”
“……”

Ciel had saved me many times, not to mention, she was an important Adventurer of the same generation as me, so I didn’t want to be cold to her. But would she even believe my story?

“What? Is it something you can’t even tell me?”
“That’s not it, but… Fine, I’ll talk. I’ll say it first, but I’m not making it up, okay?”

With those words in advance, I started to talk. About how I almost died in those mountains and how I was saved by someone. At first, she listened dubiously, but the more she listened the more serious her expression turned, and in the end, she was left with a complex expression.

“…And so, Miss Lapis even carried me here. I’m not lying, okay?”
“Ah… Right. It’s not like I’m doubting you, but a beauty who talked like a man,¹ could use Flight Magic and could sever a Dragon’s head with one slash? Is that really a human?”
“I doubted it at first too, but she claimed she was one. Besides, if she was a monster, she wouldn’t have carried me all the way here, right?”
“Well, true, but…”

It looked like Ciel was still not fully convinced. Even I who experienced it firsthand understood how beyond the norm she was. It was natural for Ciel, who only heard of her through word of mouth, to doubt it. She kept her complex expression for a while, but then raised her face as if she thought of something.

“Hey, do you feel like going there once more? I really want to learn Flight Magic! She might refuse to teach me if I go by myself, so come with me! Please!”
“Huuh!?”

I just returned, and she wants me to go back somewhere that dangerous? I honestly wanted to refuse, but even someone as bold as her was lowering her head to me now. Not to mention, I wanted to repay Lapis for this, too. It couldn’t be helped. I wanted to repay her for always saving me, too, and if we have her Magic, we might somehow handle that mountain.

“I got it. Let’s go together then. But I’m not sure if she’ll teach you, okay?”
“I’ll handle that part myself! Thanks, Karin! A good friend is truly a great blessing!”

I gave a wry smile to her whose mood improved in one go, and then started simulating inside my head about what kind of souvenir Lapis would like.

1. TLN: For the record, the MC refers to herself as “ore” in contrast to “watashi”. Veteran weebs should know the differences by now but in Japan, the male usually refer to themselves as “ore” while the female uses the more polite term “watashi” to refer to themselves. That is not to say male don’t use “watashi” to refer to themselves though. For instance, when dealing with customers or business partner, they tend to use “watashi” since it’s more polite.