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The two fly to the sky, with it being more of a jump in Ciel’s case. 
After all, Ciel can’t actually fly; she only creates wind footholds midair.
It’s the same method we used when traveling from Norvell to Capital Estoque.
In other words, it’s an Elicinary ability, and thus I have to sing nonstop.

The sight of Ciel grasping the sky with her toned, slim feet could have her mistaken for an angel.
Angels in this world would likely be individuals like Mother, far from what I’m imagining.
This white dragon before us, too, could be considered an angel in the divine messenger sense of the word.

Actually, I’m suspecting that completely purified monsters are what the divine messengers of the past were.

Now then, we’re currently up in the sky. Ciel is skipping about, as she’ll actually fall if she stops dancing, and it’s safe to say that playtime has already begun.
Looking at the white dragon, embers are spilling from the edges of its mouth.

「Well then, let us dance to our hearts’ content.」
「I’m already dancing, you know?」

They don’t seem to be talking on the same wavelength.
The white dragon probably didn’t think that Ciel’s use of the word “dance” was meant to be literal.
Regardless, it doesn’t change what I have to do, so I’ll just leave them be. Rather, Ciel will fall if I try to comment on it.

In the next second, the dragon bent forward and opened its mouth wide.
From its red mouth, a stream of scorching fire was released.
It’s the iconic wide-range breath attack. With heat likely capable of burning a whole town to ash, Ciel lightly flips backward to dodge.

And then, for some reason, she thrust her hand into the burning flame.
While my barrier should block off the heat, that’s such a dangerous thing to do.
It might be best to scold her about this later, but I’m quite sure that she’ll just answer, “I thought it’d be fine with Ain’s barrier, you see?”

Actually, it really didn’t pass through my barrier, huh.
That’s one thing to be relieved about.

With her hand within the flame, Ciel raises her arm as though to scoop it up. 
A portion of the dragon’s breath follows Ciel’s arm with a water-like flow.
Ciel then extends both of her arms and draws the form of a circle, which then causes the flames to spread like fireworks before vanishing.

This wouldn’t be possible to do against regular sorcery, so these flames must be something special. However, let’s leave the thinking for later.

Considering Ciel’s dissatisfied look, maybe she originally wanted to seize the entirety of the fire breath.
Witnessing its own attack being manipulated, the dragon began circling around Ciel with a plan seemingly in mind.

As if to prevent Ciel from easily touching its flames, the dragon fires a breath attack while moving around.
Ciel dodges the attack while also launching a fireball at the dragon.
And as one may expect, the dragon didn’t seem particularly affected by Ciel’s attack and appears to have suffered zero damage where it was hit.

Yeah, this won’t do.

◇◇◇

As if locked in a dance, the two continued flying round and round, but as I was nearing the end of my song, their game came to a close.
Ciel, who had been energetically skipping in the air up until now, suddenly went limp and started free-falling. As things stood, she would be engulfed in the dragon’s breath attack, but that wasn’t a problem.
Even if she fell to the ground, the barrier would absorb the impact, so that also wasn’t a concern.

As these thoughts ran through my mind, the white dragon caught Ciel’s falling body on its back.
It then slowly descended to the ground before curling its body like a cat, with Ciel still on its back.

「Thank you for going out of your way to save us.」
「You’ve given me entertainment I haven’t had in a long while, you see.」

The white dragon helped us, so I borrowed Ciel’s body and gave my thanks.
Come to think of it, this might be the first time Ciel has ever depleted her magic power. Will she be alright?
I’m sure this won’t kill her, but she might feel ill when she wakes up.

「Still, this wasn’t what you originally wanted, wasn’t it?」
「While that might be true, competing with someone in their own field is no less enjoyable.
Besides, she said it earlier, hadn’t she? That this is only play, that it’s simply a dance.」
「Ciel loves dancing after all.」
「And she was able to push my limits with it.」

Hmm. It was not mine, but Ciel’s strength, which pushed this dragon to its limits. Hearing makes me feel happy.
In actuality, Ciel only relied on my barrier at the very start and the very end of the battle; the rest of it was practically all her doing. This dragon recognized it, and I appreciate that.

Even if Ciel’s magic power was at full capacity and the battle continued as is, I believe Ciel would have still run out of magic power first anyway.
Which means we still lack the power to win against this dragon.

「Now then.」

With the dragon saying that, I thought it was going home, but then it slowly closed its large eyes.

「I shall sleep until Cielmer awakens.」
「Then allow me to aid in your rest.」
「What do you mean?」

It seems like this dragon really likes Ciel.
Ciel might feel sad if the dragon is gone when she wakes up, and I’d rather Ciel be happy.
Besides, we have shown this dragon Ciel’s dance, so I suppose I can let it hear my song as well.

Without replying to the confused dragon, I began singing a tranquil song.

◇◇◇

『Ugh… this feels so terrible. Still, hearing Ain’s song the moment I wake up is so wonderful. Wonderful!』
『If you’re feeling ill, you can sleep a bit longer, alright?』
『No, I’m fine. More importantly, where are we?』

About an hour after I started singing, Ciel woke up.
It took me a whole night to recover when I exhausted my magic power in the past, but perhaps my singing sped up her recovery.
Or perhaps it’s due to the difference in total magic power. 

I didn’t have that much magic power back then, after all.

And that ends the first half! That was a quick battle! A rest well deserved for our performers!

Ciel dancing is alwasy a treat, and this time they’re even in the air! It was cool to see Ciel being more playful this time, she really meant it when she said this is only playing. And not leaving because it would wake up Ciel? The dragon really is just a large grandpa at this point, lol. Also, the Ain being like “You were expecting a fight, was this okay?” and the dragon just replied “Meh, fun is fun.” Actually adorable. Poor Ciel woke up with a magical headache, though.

Now then, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to comment. Stay healthy, stay safe, and have a nice day~!