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Chapter 17 – Part 2

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Translator: Artemis

Editor: Ryunakama

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Her flames missed their mark completely, and the distance between us closed rapidly. In response, Vaje stopped spewing out fire, but her own magic remained scattered in the surrounding air, which began to cause interference with the still burning sparks of flame.

Fumu, so she had properly learned from her defeat during our last fight. How good, how good.

「With this, now you can’t evade!」

Carried away with her premonition of victory, Vaje gave out a roar, and the surrounding air suddenly became filled with scarlet flames, swallowing me up.

Vaje used the scattered magic and the sparks in the area as catalysts, and without even a single moment of error, she created a flame hot enough to evaporate steel.

In the blink of an eye, those flames were wrapped around my whole body. There was no space anywhere around me that wasn’t her flames.

Although this was a lesson that I had taught her through pain, she had become able to handle her flames this well after just a short time. That deserved praise.

But I couldn’t praise Vaje; I had to give her words of discouragement instead.

「I can’t evade, but I can still defend, young lady」

I emitted flames from the scales of my body, and they were a far higher temperature than Vaje’s flames. Her flames never even made it anywhere near me.

If I simply defended with a magical barrier, opening up a hole in the space around me that would expel her flames to some other world, Vaje’s wide-area attack could be surpassed.

I had taken the choice to defend against Vaje’s flames with my own, and I had thought that would be the best experience for her to have if she were to fight other dragons who are stronger than her.

「Hey, you would dare use fire against me, white dragon!」

「The characteristics of each species are indeed important, but if you don’t know that there are opponents in this world who have abilities betraying their appearance, then you’ll end up getting hurt in unexpected places, young lady」

「You keep on talking down to me, that’s why I don’t like you!」

Vaje covered her whole body in flames once again. But this time, they weren’t scarlet, but rather, the same color as her scales: crimson.

This was most likely the hottest temperature of flames Vaje could produce. These flames were refined by her Crimson Dragon magic, and could surpass the material world, and the worlds of heaven and the underworld. This was the flame of a true dragon, capable of burning all.

My act had provoked Vaje’s wrath. Now then, as the meddlesome senior, I will be a proper opponent for this lively youngling.

I would wait for Vaje to attack me, and each time, I would either defend or evade, while sometimes interjecting with a counterattack.

In the space between us, multiple flames formed, sometimes as a bullet, sometimes as a focused laser, and sometimes as a blast spreading in a radius. The blue sky was dyed crimson and white with our flames.

Most likely, for Vaje, the only dragons she knew that were better than herself at handling fire was probably only her parents or any older siblings she might have. She couldn’t hide her surprise from seeing a white dragon who could control flames better than she could.

Even so, she kept on using her own flames to attack me, and the reason for that was probably her pride as a Crimson Dragon.

But the flames which she released with all her might did not even reach my scales, and instead, her own flames would sometimes get burned away under the pressure of my fire. Even the prideful Vaje would realize the foolishness of continuing to challenge me with fire.

Should she continue to exchange flaming attacks with me, even though she couldn’t see any way to win with that, or should she try another tactic —- for example, engaging in hand to hand combat with me? She showed her hesitation and indecision.

Fumu, so maybe she was done using fire, and next we would get into an actual scuffle.

Without overlooking her hesitation, I began to cause interference in the surrounding atmosphere as I flapped my wings once, and accelerated greatly all at once. I became a cannonball of wind, and approached Vaje without regard for her reaction, making it to arm’s length of her.

Unused to close quarters combat, Vaje started waving her arms and tail around with all her power, and stretched her neck to try to bite her fangs into my throat. But because she was so shocked from how quickly I had closed the distance between us, she was putting excessive power into her movements, and they were easy to dodge.

Just a single swing of her arms could smash a giant’s head in one blow, but I slipped past those strikes, and wrestled with her outstretched left arm. Using her momentum and body weight against her, I threw Vaje onto her back midair.

Still holding onto her arm, I moved my wings and fought against gravity, forcing the both of us to stay afloat in the air.

Vaje stretched her neck to try to hit me with a fireball, but I trapped her left arm with my leg, and pulled it behind her, stretching it past its limit so I could use that pain to control her.

Just like that, Vaje’s left arm was constricted, almost to the point of breaking, as I waited for her surrender. Although she continued to endure the pain for a while, even she couldn’t endure her arm getting broken, so she waved her tail to signal her surrender.

Her tail tapped on my leg weakly.

「Gu, gunuuuu……」

「Fu, sorry, I put too much power into it」

I offered short words of apology and released Vaje’s left arm. I flapped my wings lightly as I gently let go of her.

The pain must still be remaining even down to the marrow of her bones, because Vaje didn’t even try to return to an upright position as she rubbed her arm.

Even though she was still in front of me, she was desperately trying to bear the pain, so I flew in close beside her. She was slouched over from the pain, and I leaned over to take a peek at her face.

「Your bone shouldn’t be broken, but maybe the tendon……」

「Guahhh!!」

「Fumu」

When I stretched my neck to peer at her face, Vaje found an opening, and twisted her body around to try to bite my neck. But I struck the top of her head with a hand chop, and pushed her away.

Her acting was too terrible, so it was obvious what her plan was. Convinced that expressing anything through body language alone was impossible for Vaje, I knew she was a bad actor.

「Gah!?」

「If you don’t hide your killing intent while pulling a stunt like that, there isn’t anyone in this world who would be fooled by your terrible acting. Vaje, you’re just a little too straightforward for that.
You might calm down with age, but if you don’t start learning how to restrain yourself more, then all the blood rushing to your head will seriously shorten your lifespan」

「Tsuu, my life is mine alone. It’s not something for you to say anything about. First of all, you don’t look much different from me, so even if you say something so elderly and prudent-sounding, it’s not convincing at all」

Since I actually was an ancient dragon, it couldn’t be helped that the young Vaje would feel like I was older due to my mannerisms. But the appearance of my clone was that of an adult dragon not much older than Vaje, so it makes sense that this would be one reason why she is repulsed by me.

And because I had beaten her so badly during our first meeting, it seems Vaje would get hot headed just from seeing my face, and would be unable to restrain herself from challenging me again immediately.

But, well, it looks like she really thought about what I said last time, about coming up with many fighting methods. When I moved my wings just like I did last time to suddenly brake so I could get behind her, she was able to react this time. So it seems like she isn’t completely ignoring the things that I say.

Young ones grow fast. Vaje had learned from my words and increased her own strength. Seeing that, I really felt like that growth was a quality special to young people, and I felt deeply moved by that.

「However, Vaje, with your temper, you won’t be able to find a male who would be willing to be your mate, you know. Don’t you think it would be great to show your mother and father their grandchild’s face?」

I asked her that question with much the same feelings as her parents might have about this topic, and an expression that said, “What the hell is this guy saying?” rose to her crimson colored face.

In terms of human years, Vaje was maybe only a year or two older than Leisha, so she probably hasn’t fully thought about becoming a mother herself yet.

「I haven’t thought about that even in my dreams. Moreover, that isn’t something you need to worry about!」

「Look, there’s that short temper that I keep telling you to fix. Anyway, you’re too energetic right now, and I don’t feel like battling you again, so let’s end this here for today. Now then, Vaje, see you later」

「Next time for sure, I’ll be wrapping your entire body in crimson flames」

「I’m looking forward to it, young lady」

Upon hearing me call her that again, I saw crimson flames begin to spill out of her mouth again. Instead of complaining, I simply spread my wings widely and flew away from that place. In the blink of an eye, Vaje became nothing more than a crimson colored speck.

For as long as I could still see her, and maybe even after my figure disappeared from her sight, it was easy to imagine that Vaje would continue to glare after me.

Fumu, what an energetic young lady. I’ll stick around a little longer and train her some more.

***

Apart from my daily life at the village, I routinely forged the clone of my white dragon body, took strolls in the sky near Bern Village, and continued to teach Vaje how to fight —– although from her perspective, maybe I was just teaching her how to get captured.

I felt fulfilled from my life at Bern Village, and my dragon self was also lively and in high spirits from getting to fly in the sky, though if Vaje saw me, she would put on an exasperated face.

I thought I would try showing off a loop while flying, but when I flapped my wings to do so, I felt a familiar presence approaching from the southwest, flying much faster than Vaje. I stopped my wings, and shifted directions to face this person.

It was one of the two fellow dragons I had met while in my white dragon clone form, the dragon priestess, Liu Yu.

After I turned my direction toward her, we were now both heading toward each other, so it was only a short amount of time until we met up in the air.

「Liu Yu, it’s good to see you’re doing well. Did something happen, ahh, did you talk with Lord Ryoukichi about that one conversation?」

Under the blue, cloudless sky, but above a sea of clouds, I questioned the beautiful blue-scaled dragon priestess. She was a neat and tidy, beautiful priestess, but she answered by showing me a face tenser than any I’ve seen on her before.

「Yes. When I told the emperor about what we talked about, she became incredibly nostalgic and told me she would like to meet with you very much.
Could you please come back with me to our palace?」

Fumu, so Emperor Ryoukichi definitely remembers me.

Well, it’s doubtful that she thinks my current self as Dran is the same individual as the once supreme dragon from my past life. She probably just thinks that I’m a descendant of one of the ancient dragons that were around at that time.

Among the wise dragons remaining on earth, I have ties with the famous Emperor Ryoukichi, and there would be no loss in strengthening those connections. With a nervous feeling, I turned to Liu Yu with my answer, and conveyed my approval.

「I don’t mind. To have a direct audience with the famous Emperor Ryoukichi, that is a rare occurrence. I would be extremely honored to meet her」

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