34: Mysterious Marathon

What was Edallion’s recommended walking course? Kuuga wondered, but it became immediately obvious when he thought about it.

Edallion, who loved animals in general, not to mention dogs, also served the mysterious role of a zookeeper. His recommendation was where the animals were.

The first place he was taken to was the stables. The horses bowed all at once as they looked at Kuuga. Edallion, who already saw this same scene once, muttered, “it’s as amazing as ever~.”

[Beast King. Food, eat.]

[No, I don’t eat that, so you eat it.]

The horse that Gadillas rode tried to give him his feed, so he hurriedly refused. The reason Kuuga came here was not to eat hay, nor was he a herbivore.

[By the way, it seemed that a Divine Beast appeared in the neighboring country. Is it also a Beast King?]

[Beast King.]

He’s not sure, but it didn’t seem like that. Or rather, it didn’t know.

Up to now, two or more Divine Beasts hadn’t appeared, but no problems had occurred yet, so he thought the administrator probably didn’t think deeply about it.

By the way, Edallion was rubbing his horse while Kuuga was talking to it.

He was then taken to the training camp for cavalry dragons. Although it was taken for granted, this was the first time Kuuga saw a dragon, so he was amazed.

The dragon, which was a common fantasy element, was normal in this world.

[...it’s surprisingly small.]

In Kuuga’s imagination, it should be about 10 meters or more, so he unconsciously muttered in front of the dragons. He saw a dragon that had a total length of about 3 meters and thought it was small.

[Of course, since we’re such a race.]

[Right, right, bigger ones getting along well with humans would be suspicious.]

For some reason, the dragon talked like a younger brother. He felt kind of complicated, but he’s a bit happy to meet the most natural speaking creature to date. Did the dragons have that much intelligence?

[Is there a big dragon?]

[We are the smallest. It’s also recommended because our maneuverability is sharp!]

[The dragon that the Beast King is imagining should be the Dragon King. There is one in this country, too. It lives far beyond this mountain.]

[In this country? Are there many Dragon Kings?]

[That’s right. We’re that kind of race.]

By any chance, was the Beast King really treated as a race rather than the king of all beasts?

While they were talking, Edallion, who looked up at the dragon with glittering eyes, approached me a bit.

“Kuuga-sama, can you talk to the dragons?”

[It seems so.]

“That’s nice~! I heard that Dragon Knights could communicate with their partners. I was quite envious…”

According to Edallion, the Black Knights were a group of Dragon Knights. Even in this world, there’s also a hero story about a Dragon Knight fighting evil on a dragon, which most boys yearned for.

Edallion seemed to have aimed at becoming a Dragon Knight, wanting to interact with the dragon rather than how cool it was, but he seemed to be afraid of heights. Right, that would certainly be painful.

Edallion was looking up at the dragon with slightly pitiful yet unsightly eyes.

Kuuga felt he was pitiful because he knew how strong his love for animals was, so he decided to put Edallion on his back. He thought that Gadillas would be the first, but it couldn’t be helped.

He then turned his back to Edallion, lied down and tapped his back with his tail to tell him to ride. When he looked back at Edallion and repeated the same gesture several times, the other man seemed to understand what he meant and glanced at it.

“Eh, can I ride!?”

[It’s a special offer.]

Nodding and hitting his back again, Edallion happily smiled and straddled Kuuga’s back while muttering, “please excuse me.”

After confirming it, he slowly stood up. Kuuga expected he’d be fine, but it seemed like he really could lift an adult man without any problems.

However, it’s precarious because there’s no special saddle and no reins. Perhaps he didn’t want to pull on his fur too hard, so Edallion’s grip was very loose.

If he ran too fast, he might drop him. So at first, he walked slowly and gradually found a way of walking that had little effect on Edallion. After confirming that there’s still room to spare, he eventually increased his speed and then heard a happy voice.

Running along the fence inside the Dragon Training Center, some dragons seemed interested and ran happily next to Kuuga. They ran on two legs while balancing their heavy bodies with their wings, so the way they ran was childish and somewhat cute.

Perhaps Edallion had the same impression since he’s laughing excitedly.

“Awawa! This is the first time I’m running with a dragon! It’s amazing!”

[Is this training? It looks fun!]

[It’s hard to run with your feet!]

[This is also training!]

For some reason, the dragons said that they’re training. The training camp here was where the dragon knights interact with their dragon and train each other’s cooperation, but it seemed like the dragons, who had no partners, were free.

Even though their partners hadn’t arrived, the inside of the stables was cramped, so it seemed like they’re released here during the day.

The already partnered dragons under the Black Knights, who were training, seemed to like it as they tilted their heads at seeing this scene. As if implying they wanted to train like that too.

Influenced by the others, Kuuga also had fun, and in the end, a mysterious group marathon continued until the overly excited Edallion was completely exhausted.

After that, it seemed like the dragons without partners had the habit of running a mysterious marathon, but Kuuga did not ask.