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It was the place where the highway from the east crossed the ridge. A place that offered a full view of Kugutgulm. The place ■■■■■ and Giselle first saw this city from.

“The place of memories… should be here, right?”
“Yeah. At least I can’t think of any other place…”

Feeling the breeze, Lucella gazed up at the sky that filled his vision. His long hair and dress fluttered with the wind.

Since it was such a good viewing spot, the travelers of the highway seemed to use it to catch breaks as there were things like logs that could be used as chairs and a stone encirclement for a bonfire.

Looking around, Lucella wondered if there was any hiding spot here.

“…Giselle wouldn’t even hold her sword anymore, so she couldn’t have done anything extreme. But she did have a little bit of affinity for earth elemental magic…”

Lucella sharpened his senses and probed for the signs.

He was trying to read the invisible flow that constantly traveled through the world. And then, he found a place that stood out a little.

“It’s here.”

There was a single rock that was just big enough to sit on. Lucella moved it away and carefully dug the ground under it with his hands.

It didn’t seem to have traces of being dug up, but eventually, after he dug about 30 centimeters down, his hand reached something.

It was a small gunny bag, a storage magic item.

It could only store things about as big as its appearance suggested, but since it was a magic item enchanted with storage magic, things that were put into it were thrown into a sub-space and could be preserved without deterioration.

Lucella turned the bag inside out. And then, a gold ring with a meshed pattern rolled out of it.

“A ring…?”
“Excuse me for a bit.”

Viola inspected the ring with a shine in her glasses.

“It’s a magic item. There are many precedents of magic items bestowing linguistic competence to their equippers, but one that bestows Dragonian is normally unheard of. It’s extremely precious.”
“So this was the secret behind interpretation, huh?”

The ring was heavy, cold, and small.

“I suppose… we’ve accomplished our goal.”
“…Yeah.”

Lucella responded half-absentmindedly.

The reason they traveled all around the city the past few days was to find a Dragonian interpreter. That said, they didn’t actually need the person, but instead, they just needed it to make high-degree mutual communication possible with Kafal who was bad at human language, so looking at it that way, finding this magic item fulfilled that condition.

Setting aside whether that was actually something to be glad about.

—Kafal… I wonder what she’s thinking about all this?

Did she understand that I went to the mountain to steal her egg? Or did the language barrier get in the way… Yeah, no way.

Kafal simply stood there and watched the situation unfold.

She seemed calm, but Lucella couldn’t even understand the reason for that.

Lucella decided to try the ring.

With it, they would overcome the language barrier. He would be able to hear her true feelings.

But before that could happen…

“Ah…!!”

Kafal suddenly screamed with uncharacteristic urgency.

All four of them glanced at her. But by then, her clone form had already faded and had a hazy contour.

“Kafal?!”
“No… Dangerous! Humans… coming! Lucella… run…!!”

And that was the end.

Kafal’s body disappeared abruptly, leaving behind a terrific silence with only the sound of the wind.

“She disappeared… huh? Disappeared…?”
“Hey, look!”

No. There were sounds of violent battle mixed with the wind. A giant silhouette took off from Mount Kuguse. The giant crimson dragon roared in pain and shook the mountain.

“Wait… it can’t be…”

Something akin to winged insects were coiling around her.

What was necessary to hunt a dragon?

The most important thing was to not let it escape. If it escaped to the skies it would make attacking difficult and the situation would turn on you. You could end up facing its magic and breaths from the sky one-sidedly.

Thus, the best plan was to deal a preemptive strike and bind it so it wouldn’t escape the ground.

The giant dragon flapped her wings and squirmed like a butterfly caught in the spider’s web. There were several giant harpoons like horseback lances stabbed into her wings.

The harpoons had garbs and were connected to adamantine chains on the back which stretched from the ground below.

“GROOOAARRRR!!”
“Surround it!”
“Don’t let it escape! Catch it!”

In the world there was a magic called ≪Air Step≫ and those using it could run on the empty air. Learning how to freely walk through the sky needed long training, but the masters that accomplished it could even battle the dragons that dominated the skies.

Several warriors dressed in strange armor similar to black raincoats were circling around the red dragon’s giant body three-dimensionally.

She swung her sharp-clawed arms around and moved down with her tail. A direct hit would lead to great damage, or in the worst case death, regardless of how tough they were.

However, these people were dragon-hunting specialists that underwent hellish training. They already had experience battling a dragon before and belonged to a clan that had dragon-slaying skills handed down through generations.

Maltgartz had paid them good money to invite them and have them battle together with their army.

“Weaken it! Bind its wings more!”
“Fiiire!!”

A man holding some kind of small canon fired a harpoon from it.

The chained harpoon put another hole through her wing.

“Graah!”
“Hit confirmed!”

The man attached a long extension chain to the chain at hand and threw it toward the ground.

The Maltgartz soldiers positioned there grabbed it and tied it to a stake nailed into the ground there. There were already several such chains there.

The dragon Anchors stabbing into her wings not only tied her to the ground but also restricted her wings and dulled her movements.

“GRRROOAAAAA!!”

The red dragon spewed flames toward the ground forces. A gigantic fireball fell down as if the sky had burned and crumbled.

However…

Several walls of light manifested and connected together like a roof, protecting them from the breath.

They were defensive arms that used magic power to deploy. Dragon’s breath was also a type of magic, and its power had decayed due to the distance. As she was flying as high up as she could to escape, she wasn’t able to pierce their defenses.

“Heal the wounded! Just don’t stop restricting it!”
“The second unit, deploying! The first unit, cover! Its right side is shorthanded. Do a pincer attack!”

The Maltgartz army also moved to cover the dragon hunters working as vanguards.

Their aerial cavalry that rode hippogriffs charged toward the sky.

The hippogriffs had the head and wings of the eagle, the lion’s upper body, and the horse’s lower body, and were the most popular mounts for aerial combat.

They were two sizes bigger than horses, so though they weren’t good at close-quarters maneuverability, they were good enough to compete with the current dragon with its dulled movements.

A hippogriff rider avoided her poor-timed breath and closed in, stabbing a giant lance into the dragon’s abdomen.

“GROAAAR!”

Blood burst out along with a roar of anguish.

This spear was no ordinary spear either, but instead was a magic item – Anti-Dragon Weapon, which was enchanted specifically to deal big damage to dragons after researching and analyzing their body structure.

“It’s only a matter of time now! Keep up the attacks! Once it gets tired and drops to the ground, it’ll be over!”

The commander issued the manifesto on the ground.

When it came to an army as big as Maltgartz’s, they had a certain number of superhumans that could fight with dragons. Those warriors were currently observing the battle of the dragon hunters and the aerial cavalry, waiting for the aerial battle to end like tigers lying in wait for their prey.