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Lucella returned back to the nest before the sun had set and Kafal’s shadow soon showed up on the afterglow sky too.

“Welcome back, Kafal.”

She flapped her wings greatly and landed, and started sniffing around Lucela so restlessly in human terms you’d have described her as pale-faced.

“Grooar….rooar…”

Kafal’s giant face moved in every direction so fast it almost slammed into Lucella. Her mouth opened, revealing her fangs little by little.

“Grrraaah…”

Lucella could feel anger towards something detestable and frustration toward her own carelessness from Kafal. It seemed that she realized that Lucella had met with humans. And the invaders of the mountain also turned out to be unforgivable enemies for her.

“Ah, well, I met some humans… but it’s okay. They didn’t do anything to me and I think they didn’t damage the mountain either.”

Lucella spoke in defense while waving his hands around.

It was true that they came here to gather herbs, but there were ultimately harmless adventurers who were chased around by a single monster. Nothing like what Kafal feared would happen… or so Lucella thought.

Kafal stared at Lucella attentively, but then she held up her giant hands over the ground. Magic power gathered and shone in her hands that were loosely wrapped around it, and once it ended…

Inside her hands, there stood a single woman who appeared as vague as a heat haze.

“…Who’s this?!”

That was not a living being — Lucella immediately realized it.

It was a lump of power so great it felt like it would rupture at any moment. If you ignored its size, it gave off a similar presence to Kafal.

But it was hard to describe it… perhaps it having no “outline” was the closest way to put what Lucella was feeling into words. It was similar to putting burned sand into a temporary human shape.

In human terms, she looked to be in her late thirties. She had rich red hair similar to Kafal’s mane and wore a deep red dress made of unknown material that had a silhouette similar to flickering flames. Her skin was as white, glossy, and perfectly molded as Kafal’s horns. Among her dignified facial features, her clear, light brown eyes left the biggest impression. Her pupils were slitted like a cat’s under the sun.

All in all, she looked like what Lucella seemed would turn out after growing up.

“Is this an illusion made by magic?”

There were many spells in the world that could display illusions.

There were spells that created illusions by manipulating light, and there were also spells that interfered with the target’s senses to show them what didn’t exist.

Though the principles behind it were unknown, Kafal had used magic that created illusions… or so Lucella thought for a moment, however…

“Lucella.”
“It talked…?!”

With a clear and gentle sound like the crack of bonfire firewood, the illusionary human spoke Lucella’s name.

“Humans… come here?”
“W-Wha… Wait, before that, what’s going on?! You… you can speak human words?!”

As Lucella got flustered by the unexpected event, the red humanoid and the giant dragon laughed in unison.

“Surprised. Hehehe! Lucella is surprised!”

She spoke as if she succeeded in a trick.

“So, you didn’t go out to hunt, but instead to learn this magic from some other dragon…?”

After twenty minutes of talking, from Kafal’s broken speech Lucella summed up that she had gone to an acquaintance dragon.

Dragons were said to be able to take on human forms.

Kafal had gone to learn that spell.

However, that magic was apparently not something you could learn overnight even if you were a dragon, so at the moment she couldn’t transform into a human but only produce an illusion that was her personification and manipulate it like a puppet.

“Magic… takes on… human form. Can only… make… fake body. Impossible… for Kafal… to enter it… yet.”
“So that’s how it works.”
“Human language… speak… necessary. Lucella… not understand… dragon words…”

Sitting with her back on Kafal’s giant dragon body and speaking with the human-shaped “Kafal” felt like talking to her clone and felt quite strange.

Or rather, talking with Kafal itself was strange.

Until now, Lucella could only guess her intentions by the nuance of her voice and gestures. It was hard to say that it was enough… it was closer to a compromise. Being able to speak was obviously a far better choice.

“…Can be… useful… now. Lucella… what happened…”

It was hard for humans to read dragon expressions.

But now, Lucella could tell the human-shaped Kafal’s expressions very well.

What she was displaying was a clear and intent worry as would a mother toward her child.

“Adventurers came. They came to gather herbs. They got lost and I guided them halfway.”

Lucella explained as simply as she could.

“Lucella… okay? Safe? No pain?”

Kafal touched Lucella all over using human hands to make sure. Her touch felt strange to Lucella as if a cloud was touching him.

—I thought she hated that the adventurers came to the mountain, but was she just worried about me? I thought she’d tell me why I let them return alive or something…

“I’m okay. The adventurers were weak enough to lose to magic beasts.”
“I see. I’m glad.”

Kafal sighed in relief and hugged Lucella using the human body. It felt very vague as if being hugged by a plushy.

“…Did you study human words too?”
“A little. But I memorized it… hearing Lucella… speak.”

Kafal said it matter-of-factly, so Lucella felt a little surprised and a little awkward.

—Meanwhile, I don’t understand the dragon language at all, and I never even tried to learn it…

Lucella had given up on it, thinking the dragon language was too difficult so it would be impossible to learn without any guidance.

So hearing that Kafal was trying to learn the human language all this time made him feel like he had pushed his own responsibility on her, and that made him feel awkward.

“What is it?”
“Don’t worry… Thank you for learning the human language.”

But he couldn’t tell all that to Kafal herself, so he decided to just express his thanks. She had studied the human language for no one else but Lucella and even obtained a way to use said language.

“Kafal. Can I ask you about the time I arrived at this mountain? I just can’t seem to remember it…”

Lucella asked since it was a rare chance, but Kafal hung her head.

“This is… very difficult. Kafal… human language… not good. I may… say wrong… so unable.”
“I see.”
“Wait… a little. Until… I am… better.”

Perhaps there were complicated circumstances involved or there was something she had to convey. Whatever it was, she didn’t want to speak about it with imperfect language.

“Human words… inconvenient. Hard to… convey…everything. Need to… become… better.”
“You’re right…”

Instead of words, Kafal hugged her tightly with the humanoid figure and wrapped her dragon throat around her body, drawing her face closer.

It was clear to Lucella that she treasured him greatly.

But knowing that alone wasn’t enough.