Chapter 20: Island of Messenger (part two)
There were five leather bags in front of me and the Black Dragon Tirnanog.
The size of each one was the trunk size for overseas travel.
They were sturdy and durable bags that were reinforced with metal.
Contents were clothing, shoes, with particular attention to necessities and lots of wands.
“I thought about using goods that can make me win even if I have a rematch with you as a guide.”
『Is it to the extent that you can win against me without that boy?』
I remembered the last incident in the Ruins of Visitor.
About the Hafan siblings, coping with the traps of the labyrinth, fighting against Zaratan.
That time was a complete mess.
Alchemists can’t deal with troubles after they have already happened.
It is in the theory of alchemists that we should be thoroughly prepared before striking.
Even so, situations occur unpredictably.
If there was no Eduart-oniisama’s Wunderkammer or the simple base camp, what would’ve happened to us?
My father, Duke of Aurelia, gave me equipment and magic as a caution against assassination and abduction while traveling for the Advent Festival.
However, what I wanted was a convenient magic that could turn everything around and deal a fatal blow in the event of an emergency.
Of course, I don’t want to get caught up in a predicament if I can.
Although I don’t want to get involved, it will always be a nuisance if it jumps on me from the other side even if I avoid it.
It would be too late if something has already happened.
Therefore, preparation as much as possible is necessary.
“Thinking that way, after trying hard and packing all the wands I thought I would need, I can’t move the bags whether I push or pull them……and I thought that they were already heavy when they were empty.”
『There is nothing impossible. If you want to fight alone, there is no such thing as too many wands.』
“I wonder if you could hold the bags for me?”
『Leave it to me, my friend. Such things, for me they are as light as feathers.』
As soon as he said it, Tirnanog lifted the large bag with one hand.
He was formerly a huge monster.
Even though he has gotten smaller, he is still strong enough to do the impossible.
It would be a great help if he carries my baggage.
It would’ve been alright if I only brought clothes, but since I got supplies for adventure, it would be impossible to ask the maids.
『Umu, umu. There is no problem with any number if they are only up to this level.』
Tirnanog stacked three leather-covered bags and lifted them lightly.
“How many do you think you can carry? Are you alright? Is it impossible?”
『Hahahaha, are you mocking me?』
Hmm, the small Black Dragon Tirnanog who is sticking out his chest is very adorable.
“That’s not what I mean, you have just revived in this world, so don’t push yourself.”
『Ha! Hilarious! Nothing is impossible, just up to this extent is not even enough for a warm up. My friend. I was supposed to be a big boat.』
Right now, Tirnanog is in his birth size, but when he grows he would become 5 kilometers long.
If I take into consideration that he was a small island, much less a big boat, there is no sense of stability.
Before I knew it, Tirnanog was walking with five large travel bags on his head.
He seems to be healthy.
『Hahahahahahaha! Light, light!』
“It’s okay to carry them lightly, but be careful not to drop them, okay?”
『I know!』
The preparation is complete.
Even so, the wands, books and other items crammed in my bags are the things of Eduart-oniisama.
If possible I don’t want to use them.
No matter how much money I have to return to my older brother, if I use too much, it wouldn’t be enough.
☆
My father and I, and also the servants, lined up in front of the Spring Palace’s transfer gate.
The destination is a small city a distance away from the 〈Island of Messenger〉 which is in the Kingdom of Ignitia.
For national defense reasons, except for emergencies, the transfer gates to go directly to Kingdom of Ignitia remain closed.
Therefore, from this small city to the Island of Messenger, it would be a horse-drawn carriage journey for a while.
That city, which we are visiting as a relay point, is crowded with people because of the Advent Festival.
Angel statues with swords and eggs were set around the city, both of which were decorated with plenty of flowers.
It seems that the Advent of the Founder King of Ignitia has been done independently by Hafan and Lucanrant by combining it with early summer festival.
A slave warrior who was born in the northern region of Karkinos1 continent was found by an angel.
The slave warrior drove away the vampires, who dominated Ichthyes at that time, by the power to manipulate dragons given by the angel and was enthroned as the Founder King of Ignitia.
The Founder King of Ignitia was also called the Conqueror King of Ignitia by the outsiders.
The boy was born on that continent but he became one of the heroes that everyone knows.
The angel at that time became the protagonist in this Advent and their angel figure models were decorated with flowers.
Since Ignitia has such an origin, there are two areas which are publicly called as Ignitia.
One is the Ignitia’s royal territory which occupies the southern region of Ichthyes continent.
The other is on the opposite side of the Ichthyes continent, across the Island of Messenger – the peninsula in the northwest of the southern continent, Karkinos, where the former Ignitia’s territory was based.
Generally speaking, Ignitia refers to the royal territory of Ignitia and Ignitia’s aristocracy around it.
The Island of Messenger is also the royal territory of Ignitia.
The carriage carrying the party from Aurelia gradually moved towards the coastlands.
We turned around the highway along the cape, and when the tall buildings of the city were cut off, the scenery was unfolded at once.
On one side, the cerulean blue sea spread out.
The highly transparent deep-sea ocean was shining brightly, illuminated by the strong light of the southern country’s sun.
Unlike Aurelia’s cold sea breeze, hot and humid air stroked my hair.
A pure white castle was built on such a beautiful sea.
If I look closely, it is both an island and a city.
It is unified with stone buildings whose streets are whitish, and consistent designs were adopted for tall buildings like the royal castle, the cathedral, and the walls.
It is in harmony with the whole island and the royal castle towering at the center of the city, so the island itself is a castle.
And, around the castle, many black shadows with wings are flying around.
Perhaps, those are dragons, not birds?
『Ooh……this is the Island of Messenger, huh? It is quite scenic.』
“Amazing. It looks like a castle is growing from the ocean.”
It is a beautiful island as I was told.
It is said to be the best view of the royal territory.
A single street was drawn in the sea.
From the distance, it looked like a thin bridge.
But as we approached, it turned out to be a surprisingly wide and robust stone construct.
I guess it is about 10 meters in width.
The surface of the bridge is slightly moist, and some barnacles and other things are growing everywhere.
It seems that this bridge would submerge about 20 centimeters when the sea is fully at high tide.
Our horse-drawn carriage went forward to the bridge which was submerged in the sea a few hours ago.
There were statues of huge dragons on the gate of the Island of Messenger.
The dragon on the right side is made of marble and the dragon on the left side is made of bronze polished to golden color.
They are the statues of the dragons of the Founder King of Ignitia, the White Dragon Urthona and the Golden Dragon Tharmas.2
From above the statue of Urthona, two dragons as big as horses flew off.
On the back of those girls – the gender of those dragons are unknown, but I call them with female pronouns for convenience’s sake – were the dragon knights of Ignitia in red military uniform.
To the visitors from each country including Aurelia, the two dragon knights waved their hands.
The dragon knights rose so high that their appearances disappeared behind the sunlight and then they fell steeply towards the surface of the sea.
The two dragons shifted to a level flight with the sea surface, their hind legs coming in contact with the water.
When the two dragons were about to fly overhead again, their hind legs kicked the water and splashed water droplets in the air.
“Wow! Rainbow!”
There was a slight rainbow on the trajectory where the two dragons flew in an arch shape.
It is a unique welcome of Ignitia, the Country of the Dragon Knights.
People from various countries who are visiting for the Advent Festival cheered and waved to the dragon knights.
『Are those the dragons of the South? They are small.』
“Is that so? They seem to be about 20 meters in size.”
『Only to that degree? They have a long way to go.』
Maybe from the sense of a 5 kilometers creature, they are small.
However, the dragons who are flying freely in the sky are quite a sight.
This is the first time I have seen a common dragon in this world.
The Black Dragon Zaratan is an artificial dragon created by ancient alchemists, so he is quite different from the orthodox dragons in this world.
Such things like Ignitia’s dragons and their offspring are imported creatures from the southern continent Karkinos.
A body line like a dinosaur.
Thin fore-paws and hind legs that are supple and strong.
There are no twisted horns like a ram, but they possess diverse horns for each kind.
They understand human language, but they can’t talk.
In addition to that, the flight type have a large pair of wings resembling those of a bat.
Among the monsters with limited magical power which can’t be classified as ordinary animals, those whose ecology has been elucidated to some extent and those that can be raised as livestock are called magical beasts.
Things like Ignitia’s dragons, griffins used as mounts by Karkinos’ sky cavalries and cockatrices used for the core material of the Wand of Hold, are classified as magical beasts.
Beyond the classification of magical beast, monsters that are stronger and harder to elucidate are called phantom beasts.
They can understand and speak human speech.
They can manipulate systematized magic rather than a single magic ability.
Anyway, their abilities as individuals are excellent.
There were only few sightings and encounters, but those were only from folklore and not the living ones.
There are various theories about the boundary of magical beasts and phantom beasts, but in many cases, characteristics that correspond to one or more of these are considered as phantom beasts.
Although dragons understand human language, they can’t talk so they are classified as magical beasts.
The unicorns which are said to inhabit the Hafan’s forest are treated as phantom beasts, because while their bones and horns are circulating, there were only few encounters with living individuals.
Extraordinarily strong, classification impossible and in addition has the ability to speak human language, Zaratan – Tirnanog is classified as a phantom beast.
And, those magical beasts and phantom beasts together, we call them as monstro3.
Ooh, finally it has led to the official title.
“Uwah~~ spectacular!”
While entering the gate of the Island of Messenger, the number of dragons dancing in the sky further increased.
With red, blue, green flags of various colors in hand, the dragon knights flew over the city.
As the dragon knights with blue flags were doing looping-the-loop simultaneously, the dragon knights with red flags were turning in an inverted flight.
When the dragon knights spread out, a large 20-meters-long dragon appeared and spewed a blaze of flames.
People were clapping and cheering in response to the blazing flowers blooming in the air.
Is it like an air show, as it was called in my previous world?
While it is to please the eyes of the visitors who came for the advent of spring festival, it is also an event to display their military power.
It is said that Ignitia has roughly a hundred dragon knights who have the ability to ride on flying dragons.
Of course, not only the dragons but the city was also beautiful, I felt an unique exotic feeling.
Walls and pillars made of white beautiful crystalline limestone that can be collected abundantly in the South.
Ventilated buildings.
Decorations for the Advent adorned everywhere.
Such things like red banners with Ignitia’s coat of arms painted on them and then, statues of angel decorated with flowers and handmade angel dolls.
People are wearing flower ornaments everywhere in an open and fun style of clothing.
Somehow, it feels like Greece or Italy.
Foods sold in such places like stalls and cities are also Mediterranean region-style delicious-looking foods.
When our horse-drawn carriage was moving along the street leading to the castle, I saw variety of magical beasts.
A lizard of a size similar to a cattle-size Triceratops was pulling a cart.
People who were likely to have money had salamanders on their shoulders.
While there were magical beasts originating from Ichthyes continent, there were also magical beasts originating from the continent of Karkinos.
Ignitia is not limited to dragons, it is the home of monstro.
The humans in this country, even the townspeople who are not dragon knights, can handle magical beasts.
They seem to be the owners of a gentle telepathic ability.
While doing so, the horse-drawn carriage came through the gate of the royal castle.
Here, my father and I would get off the carriage and face the people of Ignitia’s royal family.
Our servants went to the separate residence of Duke of Aurelia which had been prepared ahead of time for the duration of our stay in the capital and started preparing various things.
I felt sorry, but Tirnanog was waiting in the carriage while pretending to be a golem.
Now, although I am beginning to feel like sightseeing, I have to rein my energy back in.
From now on, I might meet the problematic Prince Auguste.
The goal this time is ‘Do not ridicule Prince Auguste.’
The thing to watch out for is the special event of the Advent Festival, the time of the tournament with a dragon.
It is a fancy event that seems to be the taste of the townspeople, a jousting match using dragons that can fly in the sky.
I have to be careful not to murmur things that are likely to be misunderstood when I carelessly get excited by the rarity of the 10-years-old Prince Auguste.
I took out my hand mirror and made a final check of my appearance.
Alright, there should not be any discourtesy.
I also fixed my trademark vertical roll smartly.
“Erica, are you ready?”
“Yes! Otou-sama. I’m ready anytime.”
Now, it is time for the audience.
I should go and check the face of the Prince Auguste when he was a 10-years-old that I couldn’t see in the original game.
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1 Karkinos: means Cancer in Greek. If you haven’t noticed, all the continents in this story were named after the ecliptic constellations (in Greek). Just as a reminder, the continent where our protagonist lives, Ichthyes, means Pisces in Greek. The author said that the continents look like their namesake. So Ichthyes looks like 2 fishes, a big one and a small one (Island of Messenger). And Karkinos looks like a crab, the peninsula mentioned here is the claw, and it looks like it’s trying to catch Ichthyes with its claw.
2 Urthona and Tharmas are two of the four Zoas when Albion divided into four in the mythological writings of William Blake. Urthona is the Zoa of inspiration and creativity, while Tharmas is the Zoa of sensation. Incidentally, Albion founded a country on an island and ruled there.
3 So, this is the big edit. I have been translating the title of the original game as Liber Monstrum, but I was wrong, it supposed to be Liber Monstrorum or Book of Monsters. It is referring to a late seventh-or early eighth-century Anglo-Latin catalogue of marvellous creatures. Oh but actually, on this sentence it said ‘monstro’. I think in Latin, it means monsters (plural). And if you add ‘rum’ in the end, it became ‘Of Monsters’. That’s why the original game’s name is Liber Monstrorum, but for the monster classification it is called monstro.