[Sorry. I just wanted to look cool…]
“Alright, just stay still.I’m worried the magic circle will get crooked because I’m scared of hitting the tail while drawing the circle.”
As Tene, in her dragon form, sulked and muttered while sitting on the ground with her four legs stretched out, Felix, who was drawing a giant circle around her, responded.
“Phew… Ugh! This is it. Now we just need to attach this.”
“Oh… So, is this the magic circle or whatever?”
Felix, who had been groaning after straightening his back, announced the completion of his work, and the others who had been watching from a distance immediately rushed over to see it.
“Hmm… It doesn’t look like the tight, intricate one I’ve seen in movies. Why does it look so sloppy?”
“Yeah, did you just draw it carelessly?”
Despite Dalian and Rozaria not knowing anything about runes used in magic, the circle that Felix claimed was a magic circle didn’t match what they had expected.
They had imagined it would be filled with dense runes and intricate patterns, but the result was only the outer circle that symbolized the shape, and the rest looked like something out of an elementary school art class.
“I took out unnecessary incantations that wouldn’t help activate the magic,
and since Tene isn’t a regular human, I stuffed in some essential parts in chunks.
The magic will activate only a transparent shield that will wrap around her large body and bend it, so the magic energy will be handled by Tene herself.”
“Anyway, whether it’s math or science, the simplest formula is the most beautiful one, right? Just look at Euler’s equation! Why complicate things with unnecessary connections and casting times? Why even bother?”
“Euler’s equation? Are you talking about kerosene? Oil? A stove?”
“Ugh…”
Felix, flustered by the ignorant response from Dalian, sighed and continued to explain his own magical theory, but his example was lost on Dalian.
In the end, Felix just gave up and sighed.
“Anyway, bring your belly a little closer.”
[Like this…?]
“Wait, wait!?
Are you telling me to lie down and die?!”
[Ah, I couldn’t see properly! Sorry!… Hehe, now that I can see it, you look like an ant!]
“Stop talking and hurry.”
[Alright…]
Slap—
In the end, Felix gave up on explaining and instructed Tene, who was curiously staring at the magic circle around her, to move closer.
He then stuck a piece of paper with something written on it directly onto her large belly.
And then…
Ziiing—
[Huh, huh?! My body’s glowing?!]
A white light started to seep out from the paper with the patterns on it, and it quickly engulfed Tene’s massive body.
Completely consumed by light, Tene twitched, and the immense glow wrapped around everyone remaining, as if a sun had appeared in the spot.
Then…
“Agh, my eyes…! Huh?! it really disappeared?!”
“Woah, it’s gone? Wait, seriously? Wow, holy crap!”
“Oh my, it’s really gone?”
The enormous form of Tene, which had been there a moment ago, had completely vanished.
[I’m here!]
“You can still hear her voice?”
However, with Tene’s voice echoing from the air, it was confirmed that she hadn’t truly disappeared.
Felix’s transparent magic had successfully worked.
“Hm. As expected of me. It was a success right away.”
“But how are we supposed to ride if she’s invisible now?”
“Don’t worry. It’s a transparent shield that surrounds Tene within a 3-meter radius, so if we approach closer, her original form will appear.”
“Oh, you’re right. I could see her when I got close, and then she vanished again, huh?”
Just as Felix proudly stated that his magic had worked, Dalian took a step forward and immediately saw Tene’s original, large form again.
“Now, shall we get going?”
“Alright, start by going down the tail. You should be able to get on there.”
[Huh… This feels like one of those theme park rides…]
“More like a taxi, don’t you think?”
[If you keep teasing me like that, I’ll charge you!]
“Hey, let’s wake up the elves and get them on too.”
With the preparations complete, the Evergarden group woke up the still unconscious elves and climbed onto Tene’s back via her tail.
Whoosh—whoosh—
Soon, her wings spread out, and the black dragon soared into the sky.
Here’s the revised translation with new lines after each sentence:
“Wow… I can’t believe I’m riding on the dragon’s back and flying through the sky. It feels unreal!”
Shalrey, who had barely poked her head out from behind Tene, where she was perched, looked down below with sparkling eyes and shouted in amazement.
“You’re not fainting anymore?”
Rosaria, who had expected Shalrey to either be trembling or fainting from fear while riding the dragon, asked, surprised by her sudden excitement.
“Hehe… I decided to think of this moment as a dream. When I think of it like that, it’s more exciting than scary, you know?!”
“Seems like you’re not with your companions, huh?”
Ugh…?! Gah…! Cough…!
Meanwhile, Dariann, pointing at Shalrey—who had completely changed her mindset and accepted the moment as a fun dream—while Rio was still twitching and foaming at the mouth, spoke up.
“Well, it’s a good thing. We can’t have someone who’s supposed to guide us fainting. At least one of them is fine, so there’s no need to force the others awake.”
“Right, it’s a relief we don’t need to use those tools.”
“…Wow! Clouds! I grew up hearing stories that clouds are really sweet, do you think that’s true?!”
Shalrey, with her excellent elf hearing, overheard a conversation between a couple discussing how one elf was still conscious and they wouldn’t need to use any tools for the journey.
She decided to pretend she hadn’t heard.
“But still, it’s really a spectacle. It’s a scene we rarely see in our world.”
Suddenly, Rosaria, looking down at the scene below, marveled at the view, mumbling to herself.
Though she had not been able to see the numerous cities or endless seas from a plane as originally planned, the feeling of looking down at the beautiful natural landscapes and the distant smoke rising from chimneys was like something out of a movie.
She couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of nostalgia.
“Tene—!! How about you?! Are you okay?!”
[I’m flying through the sky!!! Yaaaahooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!]
“…Heh, you’re excited. I would be too.”
Rosaria, her eyes sparkling, shouted so that Tene could hear, and Tene, also filled with excitement, flapped his wings and shouted joyfully.
“Oh, over there. That’s the forest.”
“Over there? You mean that dense forest? But why can’t we see the World Tree?”
As Shalrey pointed to a distant forest, Rosaria tilted her head in confusion and asked.
She had expected to see the towering World Tree, the hallmark of the elves’ homeland, proudly showing its presence, but the forest Shalrey pointed to looked like any ordinary one.
“Elves hide their identity from other races. So, they cast a high-level illusion magic over the whole forest, even more advanced than the spell that Tene is under, to keep their base hidden.”
“Oh… I see.”
“You know a lot about elves. Do you study them or something?”
“Oh, no, it’s just… stories like that are common.”
“Ah… yeah, I guess they are. Hehe.”
At Rosaria’s question, Felix, a fan of the morning star, answered reflexively, then awkwardly tried to cover up, all the while Shalrey looked at him curiously.
Felix, not wanting to reveal that their world was a fictional story in his, wiped off the cold sweat that had started to form.
“We’re almost there. I guess the elves are gathered over there.”
As they flew on Tene, it didn’t take even half a day to reach the Great Forest from Evergarden, and Rosaria, amazed by the speed, looked down at the forest ahead.
“But wait, isn’t Tene a terrifying being even to elves?”
Suddenly, as if remembering something, she turned to Shalrey with a question.
“Yes, it’s not just that he’s scary… he’s an indescribably powerful and high-level existence. There are legends from the past about dragon slayers, but Tenebricks Nox is far beyond those.
His infamous reputation has been passed down for centuries, and it’s still fresh in people’s minds.”
“Aha… so, in a way, we’re bringing this terrifyingly infamous being into the elves’ homeland?”
“Yes. Hehe, I bet my mom would be shocked if I told her!”
“Hehe… He… wait, hold on.”
As their conversation continued, Shalrey, who had been chuckling, suddenly stiffened, turning her head slowly to look at Rosaria with a serious expression.
“…Just to make sure, you did contact them in advance, right?”
“No, I didn’t…”
“Then, the Great Forest must be in total chaos right now, right?”
“…Probably?”
“……”
“Well, but! We can still explain the situation quickly once we get there—”
[Oh, oh??! Big brother?! Sister?! What’s that flying out of the forest?! Is that… a fireball?! What is it!!??]
“…This is bad.”
Just as Rosaria was having ominous thoughts, Shalrey, opening her mouth to explain, was interrupted by Tene’s panicked voice.
Rosaria looked down, and above the forest, countless magical circles appeared in the air, followed by dozens, if not hundreds, of spells flying toward Tene.
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