We live at the foothills of Dragon Peak.
Let’s heal our fatigue.
In the end, we were all covered in mud, without exception.
It wasn’t because Priscilla-chan and Ares-chan were playing in the mud.
What was submerged in the swamp were the bones of an Earth Dragon, and we found them right away. However, we had trouble pulling up the bones.
Even if we dove in, our visibility would be pitch black due to the muddy water.
With my feet sinking, I located the bones and informed Nimia. Nimia, who had grown large, plunged her hands into the swamp and worked hard to pull them out.
If it were only this much, only Nimia and I would have gotten dirty.
The bones of the Earth Dragon that had been submerged in the mud were, of course, covered in mud. We had to brush off the mud and determine which parts could be used.
So, we all split up and worked diligently to brush the mud off the bones that Nimia had pulled up.
The parts we obtained from the Earth Dragon’s remains were its fangs, bones, and claws. This included a thick skull, the bones of a thick tail, and dorsal fins and horns.
The recovered materials were placed on Nimia’s back, where she maintained her large form.
I had hoped to use Ares-chan’s mysterious space, but she flatly refused, saying she didn’t want to store dirty things.
“Will this be enough?”
“We’re not making anything too large, so if we need more, we can come back and get it,”
“I’m tired…”
“Alright, Priscilla-chan and Ares-chan. Mud play is over.”
“Okay!”
“So fun, so fun.”
“It’s finally over. But my face and hands are covered in mud.”
“It’s finally over. But my hair and clothes are covered in mud.”
“That’s right. Everyone is covered in mud. Well done. Alright, we can’t just go back like this, so how about we stop by a hot spring on the way back?”
“Hot springs?”
Mistral and the others looked at me strangely, wondering where there would be hot springs in the Dragon’s Mausoleum.
“Isn’t there a scenic open-air bath here!”
“So we’ve arrived. Hello, Airi-san.”
Riding on Nimia’s back, we arrived at the Dragon Altar in the crater of the dead volcano, and greeted Airi, who came out to greet us.
“You truly live life freely.”
“Huh? Is that so? Even so, we’re quite busy.”
Airi looked at us, who had arrived covered in mud, with a wry smile.
As I greeted her, I extended my hand to shake hers.
I wondered if she’d refuse me, saying my hands were dirty.
I had cleaned my hands, though. I hesitated slightly, but Airi took my hand without any aversion.
And then.
“Doryaaah!”
“Kyaa!”
I was thrown with all my might into the lake that spread around the small island.
I wasn’t the only one.
Ruiseine and Laira, who screamed and ran away after seeing what happened to me, were also mercilessly thrown in.
Yufilia and Nina readied the Ryūhōken and resisted, but were instantly kicked away.
Priscilla-chan, Ares-chan, and Nimia willingly jumped into the lake themselves.
Only Mistral remained, confronting Airi head-on, glaring at her.
But afterwards, he jumped into the lake himself.
“Go and get clean for a bit.”
“Ehh. I wanted to use Airi-san’s open-air bath.”
Even so, we washed off the mud in the lake.
Airi watched us from the shore.
Even in summer, the water in the high-altitude lake is cold.
But it felt good.
As I was washing off the mud, Yufilia and Nina splashed water at me, so I fought back.
Priscilla-chan and Ares-chan rode on the back of the large Nimia, splashing around together.
Ruiseine was washing the mud out of Laira’s hair, and Mistral was also comfortably wiping the mud off his clothes and hair.
“See, you are free after all. No matter the situation, you find a way to enjoy yourselves.”
“Ha, now that you mention it… then, how about you join us, Airi-san?”
“Elnea?”
“Elnea-kun?”
Despite my casual invitation, Mistral and Ruiseine glared at me.
Airi was smiling.
Airi had rich hair, a full chest, and an alluring body, but it was just slightly different, that’s all.
Perhaps the women felt a slight resistance to it.
However, when the women showed their discomfort, Airi would playfully tease them about it.
“In that case, I won’t hold back.”
“Wh-what are you doing, Airi-san! Why are you starting to take off your clothes!?”
Mistral, who rushed back to the shore, tried to stop Airi, who was unhesitatingly taking off her clothes.
“This is terrifying…”
“It’s frightening…”
Yufilia and Nina watched, trembling.
“Elnea-sama, cheating is not allowed.”
“No, no, I’m not cheating or anything, and Airi-san is different, you know?”
While everyone was distracted, Laira hugged me.
Under the water, Laira’s wet body writhed around me.
Perhaps because of the cold water around us, Laira’s human warmth felt more pleasant than usual.
“M-Mist-san!”
However, Ruiseine didn’t notice Laira’s preemptive move.
That was to be expected.
Mistral, who emerged from the pond, was completely wet.
We had entered the lake with our clothes on, but Mistral’s thin body was revealed through his clinging wet clothes.
Mistral, with his wet clothes clinging to his body, was several times more alluring than Airi, who was starting to undress.
Mistral noticed my gaze and glared at me.
Pretending to look away, I still looked at Mistral.
“You’re such a boy.”
“It’s fine, I think I’ll be forgiven.”
Hehehe.
As a boy, I won’t look away just because I’m told off a little!
Seizing the opportunity, I stared at Mistral’s alluring figure.
Mistral, in the first place, wasn’t embarrassed about being seen in light clothing by me.
Although he glared at me, he didn’t throw any blunt objects, and he was still stopping Airi, who was trying to undress.
“It’s unfair to only look at Mist-sama.”
In the water, Laira pinched my arm.
Laira also looked alluring in the water.
Her clothes were loose as they swayed in the water. The chest area, pressing against me, was wide open, as if about to spill over.
“Damn, Laira beat me to it.”
“Damn, Laira’s preemptive move succeeded.”
“Hey, you two. Why are you starting to take off your clothes now!?”
Ruiseine, who was knee-deep in the lake, rushed to stop Yufilia and Nina, who had decided to take off their clothes in a bid for a comeback.
Even Ruiseine’s clothes were disheveled by the water flow.
Hmm.
What a wonderful reward.
It must be my reward for successfully completing the difficult task of finding the dragon’s remains in the swamp.
Priscilla-chan and Ares-chan were already playing, completely naked.
Looking back, Airi seeing Mistral’s alluring figure only slightly touched my jealousy.
We played to our heart’s content in the lake.
Airi seemed to give up on undressing and entering the lake, and went to prepare the open-air bath, leaving us behind.
I never imagined that afterwards we would all bathe together…
Although my ulterior motive wasn’t fulfilled, the open-air bath after the cold lake was incredibly relaxing.
“…A wedding gift. That’s a good idea. So, what do you want me to do?”
After bathing, we ate the dinner Airi had prepared and talked about ourselves.
As expected of a master of conversation, before we knew it, we had told her everything about ourselves.
So, since it was a good opportunity, we decided to talk about the original purpose of our visit.
We didn’t just come to Airi’s place to use the open-air bath. We had another errand.
“Yes. Jiludo-san asked me to give it to you when I next met you.”
I handed the carved stone object I received from Ares-chan to Airi.
It was a stone statue of a dragon to be displayed at the Dragon Altar.
As expected of Jiludo-san, who had harbored the dragon king’s Dragon Jewel within him, the statue closely resembled the dragon king I saw here in the spring. Airi accepted it with a “thank you,” but grumbled.
“Honestly. When will that child ever come to visit me here?”
“I’m sorry. He’ll be busy with the reconstruction of the capital for a while longer. So, would you like to visit Jiludo-san instead?”
With that, I handed her a letter.
“What is this?”
“It’s an invitation to our wedding ceremony. As one of my masters, won’t you come, Airi-san?”
The open-air bath and the delivery from Jiludo-san were merely incidental.
The main purpose was this. To deliver the invitation to Airi-san.
“I know your duty is to perform purification rites for the dragon race here. But can’t you leave for a few days? We really want you to come.”
We had prepared invitations for all the guests ourselves. We made each one by hand.
Airi smiled as she looked at the invitation.
Will she come?
Perhaps she can’t leave here because of something that happened in the past?
But I still want her to come.
We are greedy.
We want to be blessed by everyone involved.
We want everyone to see us happy and be happy themselves.
We all held our breath, waiting for Airi’s reaction.
“…I suppose I have no choice. What troublesome disciples you are.”
And then, she smiled happily.
“I will be waiting!”
“Keep it a secret from Jiludo! We have to surprise him by going secretly.”
“Understood!”
That’s good. It seems Airi will come.
We breathed a sigh of relief and returned to our meal.
“So, can you tell me what kind of ceremony it will be?”
“No, that would spoil the surprise on the day.”
“Don’t say that. Um, what are you planning to do with those dragon bones and things?”
“Th-that’s a secret.”
“Dragon Princess-chan is of the Dragon Race, isn’t she…”
“Yes, please don’t snoop, big sister!”
“Hmm… Ah, that’s right. About those dragon bones and things that you cleaned so well. I’ve purified them for you properly.”
“Ugh…”
“There’s no curse, but it’s better for such things to be sacred, isn’t it?”
Grumble.
While there was no direct mention, Airi seemed to see through everything.
The collected dragon remains were originally intended for me to purify later.
As Airi said, the dragon bones and fangs weren’t tainted with any impurity, but they were still remains. We had to offer condolences to the dead dragon and show consideration for using its remains.
But it seemed Airi had already taken care of that.
She clearly knew what we were planning to do with the dragon materials.
After all, Airi was also of the Dragon Race.
“Airi-san, please don’t pry too deeply into this. It pertains to our hospitality.”
“Oh, Mistral-chan, is it alright to say such a thing?”
“Wh-what do you mean?”
“How do you intend to process those dragon remains?”
“Well…”
“That’s from an Earth Dragon, isn’t it? Normal tools wouldn’t even be able to scratch it, let alone process it.”
“For that, we’ll go back to the village…”
“Borrowing tools for processing? But what’s the difference between that and borrowing from me?”
“Now that you mention it…”
We didn’t have tools like carving knives.
Dragon claws and fangs couldn’t be cut with ordinary blades.
So, we had planned to borrow processing tools from Mistral’s village.
Indeed, Airi was right.
We wanted Airi to come as a guest, but Old Man Sleigsta had said, “If you can’t prepare everything by yourselves, ask for help from those around you.”
“It’s a bargain right now. You can make something special. After all, with Mistral’s and your ideas, it would likely be a modern, ordinary decoration, but with my advice, it could become a stylish, ancient artifact from seven hundred years ago.”
“Mumumu, that’s very tempting.”
Airi’s proposal was incredibly appealing.
Since we were giving everyone commemorative items, we wanted to go all out.
After discussing it, we ended up asking Airi for her cooperation and decided to create the wedding favors.
