It Hasn’t Noticed Us
Isn’t this way too sudden? I mean, I need some mental preparation… Just as I was thinking that, I heard the dragon’s groaning voice.
Has it not noticed us?
“Didn’t they say it was a White Dragon? The one in front of us is a Black Dragon,” said Brother Gerald.
“Then, there might be others,” said Brother Chris.
“Atre, you said it was a White Dragon, right? And this dragon doesn’t seem to have noticed us. Isn’t that strange?”
Apparently, the dragon that Atre’s mother confronted was a White Dragon. However, its body had a lot of black blotches.
“Black blotches?”
“Hardt, what did Atre say?” Brother Chris asked, so I told him what I had heard from Atre.
We also asked Ripka’s parents and Bianca’s family, but it seems they haven’t come near this place recently. Still, just like Atre said, the White Dragon apparently had black blotches.
“Maybe this dragon is under a curse. That might be why it hasn’t noticed us.”
“… A dragon on the verge of falling into darkness?”
“If it’s a curse, then holy water should work. What if we try pouring Jarrett’s purification water on the dragon?”
“The dragon is so huge—I don’t think we have enough.”
“What if we have Reinhardt do the same concentration trick he did earlier?” suggested Young master Rainhall
“That’s our only option. Jarrett, Hardt, sorry, but can you make some more purification water?”
“Young master Jarrett, how many bottles of holy water do we have left?”
“Eight bottles left.”
Only eight? I thought we might have more…
“Can I use two of them?”
They made purification water using two bottles of holy water in a large pot. To further increase the concentration, I held two World Tree leaves and, saying, “Make it forty times more concentrated,” I dropped the leaves into the pot. The water turned from clear to a much denser milky white than before.
Just like earlier, we made water orbs for those who could use wind magic to spray the purification water, and had them pour it over the dragon in front of us.
After all of it was sprayed, the dragon was still black. But its groaning had stopped.
“The fact that the groaning stopped means it must’ve had some effect. But at this rate, we’ll run out of holy water,” said Captain Kyle.
Yeah, exactly. We’re going to need stronger purification.
Holy water, World Tree leaves, anything else that could help with purification… maybe the hot spring fruit?
We need a vessel large enough to hold a lot of purification water powered by those with healing magic. The vessel needs to be even bigger than the pot… Then why not build a pool the dragon can bathe in?
“Let’s make a hot spring here and have the dragon soak in it.”
We used earth magic to turn the area around the dragon into a shallow pool.
The dragon looked like it was trying to open its mouth but couldn’t—just moving its lips. Maybe its consciousness was starting to return.
Its whole body was still pitch black, though.
The two people who could use healing magic and Young master Jarrett poured healing magic water into the pool.
Then we added one World Tree fruit and four World Tree leaves, poured four bottles of holy water over them, and as I said, “Become a purification hot spring,” I poured my magic water over the fruit and leaves. A huge amount of my mana was drained, and I collapsed.
“Hardt, you awake? Looks like you’ve run out of mana—take it easy. Also, drink this potion,” Brother Gerald woke me and gave me a potion to drink.
It seems I’d been sleeping inside the tent.
When I asked about the situation, they said the dragon was still there.
The dragon, still in the hot spring, wasn’t rampaging or making noise, so they were just observing it for now.
“Hardt…” Brother Gerald started to say, but before he could finish, Brother Chris came over.
“You’re awake, Hardt? How are you feeling?”
“I drank the potion, so I’m okay. I want to see how the dragon’s doing.”
“Just observe, don’t do anything,” he said, and gave me permission.
“Brother Gerald, you were about to say something?”
“No, it’s nothing urgent,” he replied.
The three of us went to see the dragon. Young master Rainhall and Brother Chris’s school friends were there too.
“Reinhardt, are you okay?” Lord Jarrett asked, and I replied that I was fine.
Then Young master Rainhall said, “Reinhardt, didn’t you put something besides the World Tree fruit, leaves, and holy water in there earlier?”
What do you think about this chapter?
