#053
The fallen fruit dropped straight down and fell into the water with a splash. It was from such a great height that if the ground had been below instead, even the hardest fruit would have been smashed to pieces.
Fortunately, since it was water, the fruit that sank deep with a plop floated back up to the surface after a moment. It was bigger than I had expected. As if it had always been that way, the Fragment of the Sacred Tree that crossed through the fruit remained embedded without any problems.
“Raon.”
Carlisle called me. I glanced at Carlisle, hoping it wouldn’t be what I feared. Carlisle gestured toward the fruit with his chin. He was telling me to go get it. Since it was a Fragment of the Sacred Tree, he was probably worried that sending Taro or going himself might cause other problems.
I understood logically. This was inside a safe hidden dungeon and the water looked shallow, so what could be the problem?
I went and stood by the water’s edge. But.
My hands were trembling, so I clenched them into fists. My underwater trauma was trying to activate again.
No one but me knew, but just moments before, hadn’t I been suddenly dragged underwater and trapped in a sudden event? Of course, it hadn’t been an event that harmed me in the end, and if I had to be honest, I quite liked the content. But the experience of being dragged in and trapped without warning wasn’t exactly pleasant.
If I had been in a state where I’d taken a Tranquility Potion, I could have at least acted like I was fine while being scared, but not now. The effects of the Tranquility Potion had almost worn off. Even without entering the water, just looking into the clear, transparent spring that didn’t even seem very deep made my palms sweat, my head dizzy, and my breathing short.
“…Taro.”
Had he noticed something was wrong? Carlisle called Taro.
“I’ll fish it out!”
As if he had been waiting, Taro shot out like a rocket as soon as his name was called. Of course, he seemed to stop abruptly just before jumping in and take something out to test the water first. Judging there was nothing wrong, Taro shouted “Yahoo!” and jumped into the water with a splash like a child who had come to play in the water.
But that was only for a moment.
“Waaaaah!”
Suddenly Taro screamed and came scrambling back out. Still not having calmed down, I was also startled and quickly stepped back. At the same time, Carlisle drew his gun and stood in front. Taro, who had burst out, was about to run past me when he turned back and hid behind me.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Didn’t you say there were no monsters here? But there are!”
“What? That can’t be.”
In the first hidden dungeon, no monsters had appeared from beginning to end. The air, water, and flora and fauna weren’t contaminated, and it was the same here, so I hadn’t thought monsters would appear. My fear was just a mental error; I hadn’t been scared thinking there would really be monsters. I looked at the spring in confusion.
“Is it really a monster? Wasn’t it just something living there? Like fish or something.”
“No. It attacked me. It tried to hit me with its head. Look! It’s there!”
Taro screamed like a banshee right in my ear, making it hurt. But something truly gigantic did surge up out of the water, so I froze with my mouth hanging open. It really was a monster. Or was it a monster?
“It’s too pretty to be called a monster…”
I found myself muttering. What emerged from the water was, so to speak, a dragon. It was an Eastern dragon with a long snake-like body, wearing crown-like horns on its head, and its scales were white all over, making it mystical and beautiful.
Actually, it was a creature I’d seen in the game. Wasn’t it one of the divine beasts known to live in the Sacred Tree’s lake? It was an existence that ordinary people didn’t know about, and only the Administrator of the Sacred Tree and the player farmer could see. In the game, it existed as a cute, big-eyed, two-headed figure though. Seeing it brought to life like this, it felt sacred and wondrous. But why was it here?
Taro said he was attacked, but from its appearance of lifting its head and quietly looking at us, I couldn’t detect any aggression at all. Since it wasn’t originally a monster, unless humans attacked first, the dragon would never attack humans first. Even just looking at it now, it was so clean that I absolutely couldn’t believe it had been contaminated and turned into a monster.
The dragon looked at Carlisle briefly, then looked at me hiding behind him with only my face visible, and tried to approach by stretching its head out smoothly. The way aggro was drawn to me was somehow similar to other monsters.
Carlisle hid me further back and aimed his gun. A bang echoed, making me flinch involuntarily, but it seemed to be a warning blank shot fired into the air since it had no effect on the dragon. The dragon pulled its body back and looked between me and Carlisle alternately. Then it tilted its head. That gesture looked so harmless, as if it was puzzled by our behavior of being wary of it.
“Did it really attack you, Taro?”
“I’m telling you it did! Do you think I’m an idiot who can’t tell the difference?”
Huffing that he’d show us if we couldn’t believe it, Taro stepped forward again. The dragon, which had been docile until then, really made rough sounds and showed threatening behavior when Taro tried to enter the water again.
With his hair and clothes that had been drying quickly thanks to the item’s effect getting soaked again, Taro scrambled away and stuck to my back again.
“See?”
I was dumbfounded. I mean, you could have just said so with words – why did you have to show us and invite danger again? What a truly peculiar character.
“Wait here.”
Saying that, this time Carlisle stepped forward. After walking a step or two, he looked back and frowned slightly.
What? I can’t go with you even if it kills me, so go alone.
I expressed my position clearly with a resolute expression. But Carlisle seemed to be looking steadily at my shoulder area rather than my face. He walked back toward me with big strides.
“Pathetically…”
Hey, what did I do to be pathetic…
Feeling stung for no reason by his frowning words, I got upset, but Carlisle passed by me, grabbed my shoulder, and caught Taro by the scruff of the neck as he clung close.
“Wait, hold on. Boss!”
He dragged the struggling Taro and positioned him in front of me like a shield, at some distance.
“Hold your position.”
Having given that order, Carlisle turned back toward where the dragon was. Come to think of it, during that brief moment all three of us had been defenseless, but the dragon just stared blankly at us without any intention of causing harm. Carlisle seemed to think the same.
“Huh? What’s the boss doing right now? Having a staring contest with the monster?”
Taro said incredulously. And rightfully so, because Carlisle had lowered his gun and approached, then just stood there staring at the dragon for a long time. It couldn’t even be called a staring contest since, while I couldn’t see Carlisle’s back, the dragon didn’t look threatening at all.
Then suddenly the dragon began to move, making us tense up. But still, the dragon didn’t attack us. Instead, it slowly approached near where Carlisle was and lowered its head down to where his hand was. As if asking to be petted.
Carlisle actually reached out and petted its head, and the dragon made sounds like it was being affectionate. Both Taro and I gaped.
‘What? Did Carlisle have the ability to tame monsters? Or some kind of item? That can’t be right. There’s nothing like that in this game.’
While I was stupidly spacing out just watching, Carlisle looked back at me. And gestured for me to come over.
‘What? You want me to come too? Are you crazy?’
I shook my head vigorously. Carlisle frowned.
“Huh? He’s telling you to come? Why? Can’t you walk?”
But this clueless damn Taro lifted up my frozen self like he was moving some pillar and relocated me in front of his boss. Carlisle’s face seemed to crumple again, but Taro was startled by the dragon’s breathing becoming rough again, so he practically threw me at Carlisle and ran back again.
Though I ended up collapsing into Carlisle’s arms unintentionally, since the dragon was right in front of me, instead of quickly escaping his embrace, I actually grabbed onto his clothes and clung close. This was an unavoidable survival instinct. I had just witnessed the dragon becoming fierce right before my eyes.
Clinging to Carlisle like he was a lifeline, I froze stiff, but as soon as Taro stepped back, the dragon became docile again as if nothing had happened.
‘Taro… you didn’t happen to throw rocks at it when it lived in the lake, did you?’
The dragon even pushed its head toward me like it had done with Carlisle, as if asking to be touched. I stared stiffly at Carlisle alone. I didn’t want to touch it. I don’t trust wild animals. Who knows when they’ll show their wild nature?
Carlisle clicked his tongue and took my hand, overlapping it with his. Then he placed my hand on the dragon’s head just like that. His large hand, big even for a man, completely covered the back of my hand.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
