episode_0039

“Phew… It’s settled to some extent.”

Globec put down the quill he had been holding all day and sighed. Until morning, the pile of documents that had reached the ceiling on the left had all been moved to the right.

“I can’t believe the star-calling days have all passed… If the workload hadn’t increased in the middle, I could have finished it a little faster….”

Recalling the headache of having to dispatch troops in response to a tip-off that there were suspected criminals having sex naked in the middle of the street in broad daylight, Globec opened the window of his office and looked up at the night sky.

It may have been a day full of stars, but the sight of twinkling stars brightly decorating the night sky was very beautiful. Globec was enjoying the beautiful scenery of nature after finishing his hard work. After a while, he noticed something strange.

“Hmm… I think it’s a little too bright, don’t you think?”

The sky is too bright. Of course, it was natural that the sky was bright as each shining star filled the sky, but even so, it went too far.

And at that moment, an attendant appeared, forcefully opening the door to the office.

bang!

“Lord! It’s a big deal!”

“Okay. It must have been quite a big deal since the office door was opened without knocking. What’s happening again this time? Did you catch any of the suspects who showed up in broad daylight?”

“Ooh, ooh… It’s a meteorite! A meteorite is falling on the city!”

“…What? What did you just say?”

For a moment, Globec wondered if he had heard wrong. However, the word meteorite kept coming out of the attendant’s mouth with a clear and accurate pronunciation.

“It’s a meteorite, a meteorite! This is a communication from the capital just now…! It is signed by the court wizard!”

The contents were being recorded in real time on the parchment that the servant handed to Globec. Parchment imbued with communication magic had the characteristic of synchronizing each other’s writing, so it was used as an emergency contact book.

“Hurry and give it to me!”

Globec snatched the parchment as if from a servant and read its contents. The content that began with the signature of the court wizard was indeed that a meteorite would fall on Eletrobe just as the attendant had said.

─The signature of the court wizard, Yehilam, informs that the following content was written by the person himself.

Count Globec Duneld. Since this is an emergency contact, I will skip saying hello.

While conducting astronomical observations on Star Calling Day, we observed a meteoroid approaching the atmosphere.

The size of the meteoroid is so large that it appears to remain at a certain size until it impacts the ground, and this wizard estimates its diameter to be around 180m.

Unfortunately, because the meteoroid’s impact point is territory managed by the Count, it is expected that Eletrobe and surrounding villages will suffer severe damage.

A conflict is already imminent, but in order to minimize casualties, the Count is requested to make efforts to evacuate the residents of the territory as soon as possible.

Please note that this meteoroid does not have any magical energy, so it is highly likely that it is a natural phenomenon…

Globec crumpled the parchment on which the text was being written in real time with all his might. If the diameter at the time of impact was 180 meters, it would be meaningless to evacuate.

“Holy shit…! What, what method…!”

When I checked out the window again, I saw a meteorite that was so close that I could already see it clearly. Fortunately, it didn’t hit the Eletrobe directly, but only over a hill, but it was clear that everyone in the Eletrobe would die.

Globec felt his entire body lose strength.

***

“Look at that over there. Is that a star too?”

“It’s quite big for an ordinary star… No, it’s getting bigger…?”

“Uh…? Isn’t that a shooting star?”

“Ah… If it were a meteor of that size, it wouldn’t disappear until it hit the ground, so there would be a complete uproar…?”

The people around me also kept looking at the sky, so they quickly realized what was happening. No, the sky was getting brighter to the point where it was strange that I hadn’t noticed it yet. In fact, it was safe to say that it was a cloudy day.

“Ugh, wow! A meteorite is falling!”

“Everyone run away!!”

In the face of an overwhelming natural disaster that no human being could dare to resist, the crowd quickly turned into chaos. As of now, even the guards deployed to maintain order were no different from ordinary people.

“Arjen, is there any way?”

“Huh? How? That one?”

Arjen pointed to a shooting star in the sky with his finger. The speed of the meteor seemed to gradually increase.

“Don’t worry! I was already about to run away.”

Even the dragon Arjen was thinking about running away. Is there really no answer to the 200m-sized meteorite?

I asked vaguely, just in case.

“You can’t break that thing…?”

“Ugh…? That one? It may not be impossible, but I think it will be very difficult…”

Is it possible to destroy that thing? That was very good news. The problem is that, as can be seen from Arjen’s tone, it is possible to get rid of the meteorite, but it is also quite a burdensome task for Arjen.

If we could just get rid of the meteorite, many lives could be saved. And here, Arjen was the only one who could do anything about that meteorite. So I had to convince Arjen somehow.

“Why? Eugene, do you want me to get rid of that meteorite?”

“Huh? Yes… I want to ask you a favor. Isn’t it possible…?”

Arjen made eye contact with me for a moment and squirmed. It was the look on his face when he was thinking about something.

“I’m not sure. Why does Eugene want to save other humans… Dragons aren’t like that.”

Empathy, altruism. Arjen’s response was that he could hardly understand such things. Perhaps this is not just Argen’s problem. As she said, dragons have a very strong individualistic tendency, so it is not unreasonable for them to not feel understanding, consideration, or compassion for others.

So no one can even imagine that dragons would do their best to save humans. That’s why I felt like I had to convince Arjen even if he didn’t listen to my request this time.

“Okay. I will save you.”

“Uh…?”

Arjen’s answer, which came just as I was preparing my mind, was unexpected. I just looked straight at Arjen, wondering if what he said was true.

“Actually, I don’t like it. It’s true that it takes a lot of effort… It’s a bit hard to say this, but if it were me before I met Eugene, I might have thought it was an interesting sight and liked it?”

Arjen joked for a moment, then stopped talking and continued talking with a bright smile.

“But, it might be a happy thing for me to be able to understand Eugene better through something like this.”

And it was the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen on Arjen’s face.

“Then… shall we go?”

With those last words, light enveloped Arjen’s body. Her hand seemed to hold me for a moment, but then I closed my eyes again and when I opened them, my body was already in the sky, not on the ground.

“Ugh…!?”

My body was sitting on something huge with silver scales. The beautifully shining silver scales were as dazzling and beautiful as the stars in the night sky.

Only then did I realize who I was riding.

-Boo, it’s embarrassing, so don’t look at me too much…

“Oh, sorry…”

With nowhere to go, I turned my gaze to the falling meteorite. The meteorite, which became even closer and had a clear shape, was truly a disaster.

Next, Arjen began to feel hot heat on his head. The light was so bright that it could not be surpassed by the starlight shining around it, which was a bonus.

Soon, something started spewing out of her mouth with great force. People who can sense mana might see it as a lump of magical power or other similar expressions, but to me, an outsider, it only looked like an energy beam like in the movies.

Suddenly, the necklace Arjen gave me activated and wrapped around me. Considering that nothing was hitting my body, it probably meant that my body was damaged only by the heat and sound generated by Arjen’s shot from his mouth and the impact of the meteorite.

“Arjen….”

Her whole body, in dragon form, began to tremble. Arjen was also currently doing his best. As if to repay the effort, the meteorite, which boasted an enormous size, shattered into pieces.

Fuuu!!

-Ugh… it’s hard….

After seeing the meteorite shattered to the size of a small pebble, Arjen immediately fell to the ground as if falling. Still, it seemed to have some strength left, so it flapped its wings just before it hit the ground and landed safely.

Coo!

“Huh… Huh…!”

“D… It’s a dragon…!”

“There is a dragon in Eletrove… No way, Arzen…!”

Some people with majestic appearance were whispering. Most of the other people fainted from the shock of directly encountering the dragon’s true body or fell down due to lack of strength in their legs.

When Arjen’s body returned to the silver-haired beautiful girl I knew, the heavy atmosphere around her was at least aroused. She gave up all her strength and snuggled into my arms with a very tired look on her face.

Wait, are you leaving me like this? If it stays like this, it will really attract attention…?