Chapter 72 – Dragon 5 Part 1
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Translator: SFBaka
Editor: Thor’s Stone
“Yosh, I see her!”
“Eh!? Alan! Where? I can’t see anything!”
“Over there.”
The people gathered around me turned to the direction I was pointing my finger at all at once.
“It’s true! I can see it as well!”
“Oh! Me too!”
It looks like those with great eyesight managed to spot her as well. But I bet all they could see was just a black dot on the horizon.
“Alan! I really can’t…… Ah, I can see it now…”
Gloria’s flying figure gradually grew larger and larger. Everyone should be able to see her now.
Screams of surprise and fear rang out from within the city, but no one from the Clans raised their voice.
Gloria was probably flying at an altitude of 100 meters or so. They should have chosen that altitude so the sound of the drone’s engines wouldn’t be heard by the people below. Before long, Gloria was less than 200 meters from the city gates. It was about time for the drones to detach their Flexible Arms.
As expected, the flapping of Gloria’s wings became more frantic due to the sudden increase in weight, and she slowly approached our position while descending. She approached the ground with her wings fluttering hard and whipped up strong winds.
Gloria quietly laid the dragon corpse on a spot about 20 meters away from where we were, and with a single strong flap of her wings, she landed right in front of us.
Iris then appeared next to her. Of course, the only ones who could see her were me and the others from the imperial military.
“Thanks for your hard work, Gloria. Was it difficult for you?”
Gloria started communicating by making soft growling sounds again.
『She says she didn’t have a hard time since the warriors from the clan helped her.』
“I see. In any case, you really helped us out a lot. Thank you. Now then, I’d like to introduce the rest of the Clan to you. The people around me are all members of our Clan.”
Gloria ran her gaze around everyone. She then turned toward the city and growled again.
『She’s asking if the people behind you and the rest are different.』
“Oh, those people aren’t Clan members. There are some more who aren’t present, but all of the people you see around me are the members of our Clan.”
Gloria seemed convinced and roared. Everyone stood in front of Gloria in awe with their mouths opened wide. I almost couldn’t stop myself from laughing.
“I’ll introduce you all. This is Gloria, the new member of our Clan. I hope you can all get along with her, everyone.”
“…………Alan, don’t tell me you can understand dragon language?”
“That’s right. I managed to understand her somehow. It’s not really such a big deal, right? And besides, Gloria is also smart enough to understand simple human words.”
Of course, Gloria doesn’t really understand human speech, but everyone probably won’t be able to meet with Gloria without me or Selena and Sharon present, so I guess bluffing like this won’t get found out anyway.
“Amazing…… It’s really amazing! Gloria! I’m Cleria! I’m very pleased to meet you!”
Gloria raised a roar in reply.
“Yosh. Alright then. Everyone line up and introduce yourselves. I don’t want to take up too much time, so make it short please.”
“Alright… My name is Elna. It’s nice to meet you, Gloria.”
The Clan members gave each of their names in order. Gloria greeted each and every one of them without fail. It was a bit of a hassle since there were about 60 people present. Selena and Sharon already introduced themselves to her, but it’s not like they can’t do it again.
After Gloria finished greeting everyone, she stood up and unleashed a loud roar toward the sky. Everyone became surprised at her sudden action.
『She’s just expressing her happiness at being accepted by the clan.』
“Oh, um, Gloria is just expressing her happiness because we welcomed her as one of our own. She’s not really angry or anything.”
“Ah, to think I would be able to exchange words with a dragon! I still can’t believe this is happening.”
“It truly is amazing!”
Since their nervousness was mostly relieved, everyone started to declare their surprise at what was happening, but it won’t do if they don’t try to interact with Gloria more.
“Gloria, can I climb up your arm for a bit?”
She replied with a soft grunt. I came up to Gloria’s knee with a short jump, and from there, I jumped up her arm.
Whoah, it’s pretty high up here. I guess I was about 8 meters off the ground. Gloria turned her head toward me and gazed at me from above. Now that I got another good look at it, I confirmed just how big Gloria’s head was once more. Since her head was now at an arm’s length away, I patted her snout with one hand.
I glanced toward Gantz city and saw that there was already a massive crowd forming outside. There were probably more than 500 onlookers already. The city guards and the Adventurer’s Guild employees were keeping them in line and preventing them from coming forward.
When I zoomed at the crowd, I found that they unexpectedly seemed not to be making much noise. Instead, they were holding their breaths as they looked at me standing on a dragon’s shoulder.
Oh, there’s the leader of the city guards, Captain Guido. He was looking at me blankly with his mouth wide open. It was quite amusing to see his usually sullen face making a shocked and stupid expression. Now he should have understood that I wasn’t lying earlier, right?
When I waved my hand at them, the crowd began cheering loudly. They seem to be having a blast.
Yosh, that’s a nice reaction. I was worried they’d panic if they suddenly saw a dragon, but it looks like that was unwarranted. In any case, we must make sure to let the entire city know that Gloria is harmless.
Oh, Karl’s waving at me with both arms while jumping around. He was probably trying to confirm if it was already okay for them to come closer. I pointed at Karl and beckoned for him to come over.
“Gloria, they aren’t part of our clan, but some more people want to get close to you and greet you. Is it okay for them to approach?”
Gloria immediately replied with a lively growl. I could tell it was a positive response even without Iris’s translation. I might be starting to get a hang of understanding dragons myself.
Karl quickly rushed toward us. The rest of the men from Gale approached us a lot more cautiously. At the same time, Karina-san and the Commerce Guild staff also came near.
I jumped off of Gloria’s shoulder in order to welcome them.
“Alan! You really went and tamed a dragon huh! That’s amazing, man!”
“Uh, it’s not like I really tamed it you know. It’s more like making a new friend. She looks quite grand, doesn’t she?”
“Yeah, she sure is! ……Hey, Alan. Just one time is okay. Can I touch this dragon, please?”
“Can the other humans touch you?”
I looked up at Gloria and asked, and she replied with a lively growl once more.
“I-It understands our words!?”
“Yeah, of course, she does. Dragons are actually as smart as humans you know. She says it’s okay to touch her. But just you, okay, Karl?”
It’s a lie that dragons can understand the human language, but I hope this story spreads out more so the number of people who’d try to mess with dragons would decrease.
“Yeah, alright. I’m really grateful, Alan.”
Karl slowly approached Gloria and started stroking her leg. He patted it several times to try and ascertain the feel of a live dragon’s scales and skin. It seems Gloria was curious about what Karl was doing and brought her head down toward him. Karl got surprised and jumped away from Gloria.
“You saw that right, Alan!? I just managed to touch a real live dragon! Yeah, I did it! I got a great story for boasting to my kids and future grandkids now!”
“I see. Good for you, Karl.”
So Karl was actually married? He really doesn’t look the part…
“Alan-sama, can Silas-sama please try touching it as well!?”
The one who requested was Karina-san. I didn’t notice him earlier, but Silas-san already managed to close in on us as well.
“…Of course it’s alright.”
Silas-san also approached Gloria carefully and touched her leg just like Karl.
Yosh. Let’s refuse this kind of request in the future. Gloria may have given her consent, but it kinda seemed like she’s being treated as some sort of attraction, so it didn’t feel too good.
“Thank you, Alan. I’m sure no more than five individuals have managed to touch a living dragon in this world. And I’m now one of them.”
“It’s no trouble. We’re really indebted to you after all.”
(Iris, we should probably wrap things up now.)
『Understood. I will have Gloria show me her nest after this. I’ll use it as a reference for building a nest near our base. I’ll continue learning her language as well.』
(Alright. I’ll leave it to you then.)
“It seems she has some errands to do after this, so she’s going to return to her nest now.”
“Eh!? We’re not going to see her again?”
“No, we’ll definitely meet her again in the future.”
“I see…”
“She’s going to take flight, so please step back, everyone.”
Everyone took a distance of about ten meters away from Gloria.
“Alright, Gloria. See you again.”
Gloria roared and flew up. She circled over us a few times and flew toward the sea of trees. The people of the city made a din once more.
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