We live at the foothills of Dragon Peak.
Those who obtain clues.
While Mistral’s squad was proceeding with their trial in the treacherous forest, in the deep forest spreading south of the high mountains, trainee warriors supervised by Yufilia and Nina were falling into despair.
“Kyaaa!”
“Uwaaaaaa!”
“Kyaa!”
“Hiii!”
The screams of the Dragon Race echoed through the depths of the forest.
“Fools.”
“Is that all the Dragon Race warriors are capable of?”
“Now choose. Death, or?”
The dragon’s eyes glinted. And then, it mercilessly attacked the fleeing trainee dragon warriors!
“Guha! Get blown away!”
“Kya!”
“Slowpokes, do you want your asses pierced more?”
“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!”
“This is just the beginning for you immaturе ones!”
“P-please, help me…”
A large chicken, or rather, a chicken dragon, proudly landed on the back of a dragon warrior who had collapsed, covered in wounds and exhausted. Then, as chicks scurried onto the dragon warrior’s back, a chicken dragon nest was instantly formed there.
“You’re not there yet, the chicken dragons won’t be satisfied with that.”
“This is just the beginning, now the chicken dragons will show their true abilities.”
Yufilia and Nina, the supervisors, watched over the trainee dragon warriors challenging the trial while playing with the chicks.
“Yufi-sama, is this really a necessary task for a warrior’s trial…?”
“Aren’t we just being toyed with by a flock of chicken dragons?”
A massive male trainee warrior, blown away by a chicken dragon’s charge, lay sprawled on the ground, being pecked at by the chicken dragons. Nearby, a female trainee warrior was screaming, being swallowed and jostled by a swarm of chicks.
Yufilia and Nina looked at the trainee dragon warriors and said,
“There was no one in this squad with a dragon heart. That’s why we can’t get the Dragon Princess’s fairy tale out of them.”
“So, we can teach them specially. But to do that, we first need to satisfy the chicken dragons.”
To know the legend of the Dragon Princess, one needs a “dragon heart” that can hear the voices of the dragon race. However, there were practically no trainee warriors with dragon hearts. As a remedial measure, supervisors were allowed to tell the fairy tale of the Dragon Princess to the trainees, depending on the situation. However, this was a trial for dragon warriors. Unless they overcame the harsh challenges, they could not obtain the reward they desired.
And so, Yufilia and Nina’s squad, who chose to search for clues in the forest, was given the harsh task by the twins: to subdue the encountered flock of chicken dragons. However, chicken dragons were also of the dragon race. Even if all the trainee dragon warriors combined, they stood no chance. As a result, the trainees were being toyed with by the flock of chicken dragons.
“Kts, are the other squads facing such harsh trials too…?”
“Aren’t we better off?”
“That’s true. If I think about it being ferocious wyverns or cunning earth dragons, I shudder.”
However, no one complained or gave up on the trial. Even after being knocked down by the chicken dragons countless times, the trainee warriors always got back up.
“I heard from a senior. In the village that guards Ryūbyō, a devilish game of tag is held day and night as training. The seemingly endless stamina and unbreakable spirit of the warriors from that village are admired even by the Dragon Kings.”
“I heard that too. It’s said that a young girl of the Mimicho Race, more terrifying than the Demon Lord, relentlessly corners the warriors. And that girl is feared even by the chicken dragons.”
“Hahaha, a Mimicho Race girl who scares the chicken dragons that we can’t even touch? Does that mean we’re weaklings who can’t even match that girl?”
“I can’t accept that.”
“Then, we have no choice, do we?”
“Let’s show them the pride of the Dragon Race warriors!”
“If that’s how we can overcome the task, then we have no choice!”
The trainee dragon warriors stood up. And then, they shouted at the flock of chicken dragons.
“Come at us from anywhere!”
“We will definitely overcome this difficulty.”
“Tag with the chicken dragons, bring it on!”
“We’ll show you the hidden power of the Dragon Race!”
It wasn’t just the four trainees.
“Let me help too.”
“I’ve been watching and getting restless.”
“As warriors, this seems like an interesting challenge to not overlook.”
Existing warriors, who had been accompanying them silently and observing, emerged from the depths of the forest.
“Kuwa! We were going to mercilessly eliminate you if you kept hiding.”
“Your spirit is admirable.”
“Then, from now on, we will teach you the legend of the potato Dragon King and the potato Princess with your own bodies!”
“Isn’t it the legend of the Dragon King and Dragon Princess?”
“Yufi-nee-sama, does it matter which one?”
Yufilia and Nina, nodding to each other, watched the spectacular game of tag between the Dragon Race and the chicken dragons with newborn chicks on their laps.
“Gasp… pant…”
“Haa, Haa…”
And as the sun touched the western ridgeline. The dragon warriors, utterly exhausted, collapsed to the ground.
“I-I never imagined the trial would be this arduous…”
The warrior, who had fallen face-first onto the ground, his eyes half-rolling back, was overwhelmed by an unprecedented level of exhaustion and despair. His vision blurred. The warrior, who had used up all his strength, was weakening and on the verge of losing consciousness.
In his vacant consciousness and blurred vision, the warrior spotted something strange.
“What is this…?”
This was a chicken dragon nest built deep in the forest. To make it comfortable, the nest was lined with thin branches and soft grasses and flowers. In a gap between these coverings, an unnatural man-made object was embedded.
“There shouldn’t be any Dragon Race villages or settlements nearby…”
It was a rolled-up sheepskin parchment. Chicken dragons had no use for parchment. Furthermore, there were no Dragon Race villages near the nest, so where did this parchment come from?
The warrior, desperately trying to maintain his fading consciousness, reached out to the unnatural man-made object embedded in the nest. And he opened the rolled-up parchment.
“…What, this is!!”
His consciousness instantly awakened. The warrior saw the text written on the parchment.
“Hey, you guys! Could this be the Dragon Princess’s fairy tale?!”
“I, I have one too.”
“I found one too!”
The collapsed dragon warriors finally noticed the artificial objects hidden in various places within the nest.
“Kuwa… You immaturе ones. If you had kept your vision wide from the beginning, you would have noticed the clues the supervisors had hidden much sooner.”
“Pi-yo, but thanks to that, it was fun.”
The dragon warriors brought together the sheepskin parchments, each inscribed with the Dragon Princess’s fairy tale, using their last remaining strength.
“If we gather the fragmented parchments, will the Dragon Princess’s fairy tale be complete?”
“It’s still not enough. Let’s split up and search!”
The chicken dragons did not interfere with the dragon warriors searching for clues to the Dragon Princess’s legend. Yufilia and Nina smiled as they watched the dragon warriors who seemed capable of overcoming the task on their own.
“It seems they’ve finally noticed the clues for the trial.”
“But it’s too late, everyone is exhausted.”
With that, Yufilia and Nina stood up in unison and said to the chicken dragons without hesitation.
“Tonight, it’s all chicken dragon egg dishes.”
“The chicken dragons should prepare payment for the Dragon Race playing with them.”
At the twins’ unhesitating pronouncements, the dragon warriors, who had been rejoicing in collecting the Dragon Princess’s fairy tale parchments, looked back in shock.
“N-no, that’s a bit much…”
The dragon warriors, their faces pale, looked around at the surrounding chicken dragons and chicks, thinking they should refrain from saying things that would take their precious eggs from the chicken dragons. However, the dragon warriors’ unease and worry were not conveyed to the chicken dragons.
“Kuwa! Gather the leftover eggs that won’t hatch chicks.”
“But there’s no one to cook the eggs?”
“Pi-yo, Yufi?”
“Nina-pi-yo?”
“This is bad! If we leave it to the twins, all our precious eggs will end up just boiled!”
Seeing the chicken dragons and chicks bringing eggs themselves with “pyo pyo” and “keko keko” sounds, the dragon warriors looked at Yufilia and Nina to confirm the situation.
“How rude. I can make all sorts of egg dishes too.”
“But since it can’t be helped, we’ll leave the cooking to the Dragon Race.”
“So you had no intention of cooking from the start.”
“Yufi-sama?”
“Niina-sama?”
Yufilia and Nina handed the eggs collected by the chicken dragons to the dragon warriors.
“Being able to cook chicken dragon eggs is a rare and valuable experience.”
“Being able to eat chicken dragon eggs is a rare and valuable experience.”
“These should be on your table quite frequently, shouldn’t they?”
“We’ve heard that you’re the ones who don’t cook, not us?”
“The chicken dragons are being noisy. Hurry up and cook them.”
“The chicken dragons are rushing you. Let’s have dinner quickly.”
The dragon warriors, who had been handed the eggs by Yufilia and Nina, were bewildered. What was the correct course of action? Weren’t the chicken dragons making a fuss around Yufilia and Nina angry? However, the chicken dragons were the ones who gathered the eggs. So, should they follow the twins’ instructions and cook the chicken dragon eggs?
“Grumble, grumble…” The stomachs of the dragon warriors, who had been moving strenuously all day, growled.
“Kuwa-kuwa! What pathetic sounds.”
“Sigh, you weaklings.”
“Feel the pain of your immaturity, lacking a dragon heart.”
The chicken dragons laughed heartily at the rumbling of the dragon warriors’ hunger.
“If they’re giving us eggs, they’re not going to attack us, right?”
“You’re really going to let us cook them?”
“We have no choice but to go through with this!”
Resolutely, the dragon warriors took out their cooking utensils from their belongings. And with a desperate resolve, they began cooking dishes using chicken dragon eggs.
“The trial has only just begun.”
“This is where the real battle begins.”
“We’re looking forward to the end.”
“Hey, aren’t ominous words leaking from the twins’ emissaries?”
“Stop it, don’t listen. We heard nothing, alright?”
“It’s only just begun with this…”
The dragon warriors, cooperating to make egg dishes, exchanged weary smiles. They had a premonition. This was a trial planned by the lively Dragon God’s messengers spoken of in rumors. It would surely be a harsh yet fun trial that would go down in the legend of Dragon Peak.
The evening sun had already begun to set beyond the ridgeline.
“This is…”
Each squad, composed of dragon warriors, was undergoing their trial. However, not all of them were overcoming their tasks smoothly. What awaited Sefina’s squad was a situation that even the supervisor had not anticipated.
“…This is troublesome.”
In the direction of Sefina’s and the dragon warriors’ gazes. On the rocky high ground, where night was beginning to fall, the corpses of earth dragons were strewn about miserably.
“The sheepskin parchments with the fairy tales are torn to shreds, aren’t they? Tearing parchment requires more than ordinary strength.”
There were likely three earth dragons, now mere chunks of meat. Someone had massacred three earth dragons and torn apart the parchment that served as clues for the trial. However, the warrior’s trial planned by Sefina and the others did not include such a bloody task in the first place. Then, who killed the earth dragons, and for what purpose? Those who faced the earth dragon corpses were increasingly bewildered by this unexpected turn of events.
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