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Seeing Ciel look restlessly around, I answered, “On top of the dragon,” and she curiously began to caress the dragon’s back.
It has both the softness of a living creature and a hard, scaly texture; it’s a really interesting sensation.

「So you’ve awoken.」
「Good morning, dragon.」

Either from Ciel’s touch or the absence of my song, the dragon woke up. It appears that this dragon is the type to be immediately cognizant after waking up.

After replying to the dragon, Ciel blinks a few times, as if confused by her own answer.

「… Come to think of it, do you have a name?
From my memory, dragons in stories all have their own names.」
「I don’t. It wasn’t as though I had anyone else to converse with, after all.」
「I see. Not having a name certainly doesn’t matter in that case.」

Ciel didn’t have a name until I was capable of talking, and Ciel didn’t know my name then either. Recalling it now, I took up the name Ainsel back when we decided on Ciel’s name, too.
Up until then, we were able to communicate without the need for names. Moreover, we even managed to communicate somehow without the use of words.

「But right now, we have three people here. So wouldn’t having a name be more convenient?」
「I can only see one of you at a time, though… but you aren’t wrong, I suppose.」
「Then can we give you a name?」
「Do as you wish.」

The white dragon conceded. It honestly doesn’t sound very enthusiastic about this, but I feel like it doesn’t want to betray Ciel’s child-like expectations.
Ciel seems to have expected this dragon to have a unique name, just like the ones in the stories.
Either way, both Ciel, who wants to give it a name, and the dragon, who’s fine with being given a name, seem to be satisfied with this arrangement.

It’s like they’re friends. I’m not jealous of that at all.

I was feeling a bit excited about what name Ciel was going to come up with, but then, “Ain, what name would be good?” she suddenly called me.
While I did somewhat expect this, my naming sense isn’t the best either.

『How about Blanc?』
『That has some sort of meaning, no?』
『It means ‘white’ in French.』
『Then no. I don’t want you to use words that come from your old world, Ain. I want to keep those only for the two of us.』

Ciel’s words almost made me smile. Unlike before, I have a visible spectral form now, so she’ll see it if I break into a smile. And that feels somewhat embarrassing.
That aside, with words from my old world removed from my options, this is a lot more difficult now.
What caught my attention first was the dragon’s characteristic white and gold colors… “Khyturi”? That’s harder than just saying “dragon”, but we can just shorten it to Tur, or Khytu.

『How about Khyturi?』
『Gold and White! Right, right! That fits really well!』
『I’m glad to hear that. It’s hard to pronounce, so feel free to shorten it as you like.』

I’m glad to see that Ciel likes it.
Still, there’s no telling if the dragon will like it as much. It’ll probably turn it down if it hates the name.

「Then dragon, from now on your name is Khyturi. We’ll call you Tur.」
「Do as you wish.」
「Tur.」
「What?」
「Khyturi.」
「Again, what is it?」
「We’ll come play again.」
「Sure, feel free to come anytime.」

Ciel responded happily, while the white dragon Khyturi curtly yet assuredly welcomed Ciel’s return.

Khyturi then slowly stood up. It felt as if we were about to part ways, so I asked Ciel to switch with me.
Now, I was pondering how to call Khyturi for a moment, but since Ciel said that we would call him Tur, I decided to follow suit.

「Tur.」
「It’s you now, isn’t it? Ainsel.」
「You remembered my name.」
「As if I could forget the name of someone who can take the full extent of my power.
Well, what is it?」
「Could you make it so that monsters won’t appear in the stratum above us for a while?」

This is one thing I have to confirm.
We went out of our way to save them; it’d be such a waste if the people we saved were killed by monsters out of the blue, and it’d just cause problems later on.
While Tur is here, even if monsters do suddenly spawn, they’ll likely be occupied hiding from Tur. However, who knows what will happen after Tur leaves?

There is the option of protecting them ourselves, but we have no obligation to do that much, and if no one goes outside to report, no one will come to save them either way.
The ideal would be for Tur to stay here for a few days, but Tur will surely get bored if we—or rather Ciel—isn’t around, so I can’t ask for that.

「You’ve defeated all the monsters there, haven’t you? In that case, they will not appear for a while.」
「Is that so?」
「It appears to be a measure to prevent capable individuals from dying in the depths, but barely anyone ever goes deeper than the 50th stratum.」
「May I ask what the deepest stratum is?」
「The 100th stratum. The strata from the 51st and beyond are classified as the depths, but there’s no deep meaning behind that.」
「I see. Thank you very much. Well then, I’ll be switching with Ciel now.」
「Do as you wish.」

Tur replies curtly, and… does nothing more, actually.
For being Ciel’s first friendship, this relationship is pretty cut and dry.
Ciel’s quite similar since she was ready to go home immediately after imparting the name, so they might have good compatibility.

After switching with Ciel, since there was nothing else to talk about, Ciel leaves a simple “We’ll be back” and heads back to the upper stratum.

And that ends our short meeting with grandpa dragon. Khyturi was a real “grumpy but not actually” grandpa until the very end, lol.

It was cute how Ciel immediately looked for Tur after fully waking up. And Ain being slightly jealous of Ciel having her first close friend, lol. While Carol is a bit distant (and Ain is no better in that regard), she’s the closest person Ain probably has for a friend, lol. Also, Tur really doing some tsundere moves over here. Still, I wonder why I find tsundere old people to be much more endearing than regular tsundere? Is it an execution issue?

Anyhow, it’s nice to see Ain and Ciel finally having someone who’s not an acting guardian know their secret. Carol is pretty much a peer to Ain at this point, but most of the people they’ve met so far have been seeing them as children that need protection. That’s not a bad thing, but that puts a certain limit to their relationship, one of being an adult and a child they need to take care of. However, Tur is only individual so far that 1) knows their secret, 2) acknowledges them as an equal, and 3) does not see them as children that need to be watched over. While being such a grandpa, Tur also has that irresponsible fun uncle energy, and it’s working positively for this certain situation, lol. Of course, as I always say, this is all my personal opinion.

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