「Roommate-san, roommate-san」

My stomach was filled and when I was about to settle down Yggdrasil called me.

Before I could ask what was wrong a trembling high voice like a newborn wildcat screamed out.

「Wh-wh-what are you doing?! Evil dragon!」

I turned around towards the voice and standing there was the girl whose body was violated by the weapon.

Contrary to her courageous voice her body was trembling.

It was no wonder. There was no way to be not frightened while standing in front of a dragon.

With her utmost courage she stood strong with a fortitude that didn’t match her age or appearance.

Now the eyes of the girl possessed a shine unlike the gray eyes from when she was possessed by the weapon.

Unlike before those were the eyes of a living person.

「Miin min min min?」 (TL: Fumu, is your body alright? Human child)

「 . . . eh? What? These words?」

「Miin min min min」 (TL: Dragons can’t speak, did you think that? Without sufficient knowledge humans are haughty and conceited.)

The girl covered her ears with her hands and looked with a face that didn’t understand.

Humans seem to see only what they want to see and the ears seemed to be the same.

The girl didn’t want to believe the fact that a dragon could speak words.

「(Roommate-san, roommate-san. She might have been surprised by your cry?)」

Yggdrasil quietly whispered to me with a volume like two leaves rubbing against each other.

No wonder, it was that.

Because the words of a dragon are the soul language and not spoken in human speech, therefore there was a discrepancy with the contents she understood from the dragon which didn’t talk human language.

Then here, let’s try to match it with the human method.

「 . . . fumu, is this alright? Human child.」

When I chose to spoke with the words of human from my inherited knowledge the girl sighed in relieve.

Although it didn’t solve her caution of me.

「Well, first of all let’s answer your question. You asked what I was doing and the answer to that is, I was having my meal.」

The shoulder of the girls shook at the word “Meal”. When her blue eyes noticed my big fangs her face was colored in fear.

「Did I startle you? I don’t intend to eat you. To begin with I don’t like either blood or meat.」

「A, a dragon not liking human flesh is an obvious lie! Evil dragon!

The words I had spoken to calm her seemed to have caused her further caution instead. The girl bent her body like a wildcat and shrank down.

「It’s not a lie . . . . That you are still living, isn’t that the best proof?」

The eyes of the girl swim. She noticed that there wasn’t a discrepancy with between my words and reality.

The girl was about to say something but she kept quiet.

「Well, human child. May I ask a question? What’s with that evil dragon thing? I have no memory of harming your people and have no intention to do so in the future either.」

I who didn’t remember anything that I should be ashamed of in this life tell her so with dignity while looking in the girl’s eyes.

The girl flinched.

The truth was sharper than any weapon. I understood the girl’s confusion.

The girl seemed to be praying because connected the head, heart and navel with three fingers.

Fumu . . . , if I wasn’t mistaken that was a prayer for the protection of the world tree.

In the great war between the dragon and the humans 300 years ago that remained in the memory I inherited, all the humans have prayed like the little girl when they disappeared like seaweed in the sea.

「I will not be confused by your words! The dragon is an evil being! The preceding dragon demanded seven sacrifices every year! Also the miko-sama of clairvoyance . . .」

「Human-san, the dragon of this generation is a very gently person. He is anything but evil.」

To the girl who was never going to accept my words and I had a hard time dealing with, Yggdrasil assisted me and cut off her words.

Yggdrasil saved me. . . .But calling me gentle, I was embarrassed.

「Ehh . . .? Whose voice is it? I heard it in my head . . . , where . . .?」

The girl was looking around while searching for the owner of the voice. That state was exactly like me when I met Yggdrasil for the first time.

「Here, small human-san.」

The girl turned her head left and right. Umu. Even when said here she didn’t understand it.

The girl totally wasn’t aware of it, so I as her “Senpai” should teach her where here is.

「Human child, now, touch it with your left hand. It’s the most beautiful and noble existence in the world. She can speak to dragons and humans and is much greater than me, there is no reason that you wouldn’t understand her words.」

「Mou, roommate-san you are exaggerating. You’re praising me too much because I can give sap.」

「It’s what you said. I treasure sap above all.」

The girl who heard our conversation seemed to have noticed the owner of the voice at last.

「No way . . .」

Her small blue eyes were opened wide.

「Nice to meet you small human-san. I’m Yggdrasil.」

▲

▼

「Harpy, are you there?」

From the yurt I heard something rattling and rolling and from dripping water.

After a few minutes, from the entrance made of cloth, the harpy put out her head like a turtle.

As soon as seeing my appearance a smile bloomed on her face. Water was dripping from her blue hair.

. . fumu, was she in the middle of bathing? My timing was bad.

I held out a finger to the head peeping from the tent and Harpy also strongly stretched her head out to me.

The appearance of only extending her from the yurt really resembled a turtle and was lovely.「(Good morning, ryu-san! Did you come to play?)」

「(No, to I have a little request. I want you to lend me clothes for girls.)」

「(For who . .. ? UEE?! H-human?!)」

Harpy was awfully surprised by the girl who came out of my shadow.

But it was no surprise, the humans who set foot on this ground were reckless savage adventurers because of the sacrifices to the dragon.

「(Don’t worry. I will make sure that no harm is done. If possible could I ask you to give her a bath?)」

「(Ah, y-yes! Of course! . . . B-but you are not allowed to watch! Ryu-san please wait outside!)」

I also realized it when she mentioned it. I don’t want to be an impolite peeping tom that watched women or girls change clothes.

I turned around to the girl and urged her into the Harpy’s house.

「She will lend you clothes. You mustn’t harm Harpy. Nyuju.」

The girl fell silent and timidly walked towards Harpy.

Harpy also timidly watched the girl.

The two were small and were about the same height when lined up.

The human name she was called by was Nyuju.

▲

▼

「I-it’s the world tree?! I-I’m your faithful servant, I’m called Nyuju!」

Nyuju said so while kneeling down on the ground while pushing out her hands and formed a prayer and till she rubbed the ground.

Her back was perfectly round like a little white woodlouse.

From the prayer for protection from the world tree she showed a little while ago, she seemed to a devoted believer of the world tree religion.

In this world the world tree religion had reasonable power.

It was a religious form of monotheistic belief which influenced other countries.

More than 1000 years ago, a empire assumed the world tree religion and oppressed other regions by propagation.

The whole continent was united in no time and the Millennia Kingdom was born. That was what the inherited knowledge told me.

I could never tell the gently Yggdrasil that the faith of her was used as a tool of war.

Anyway, the world tree religion gathered believers.

But if you looked closely there were a lot believers of the world tree religion which pure and righteous heart, so not everyone might be bad.

Moving the religion of the country was the privilege of those with rank and believing in the religion were those faithful and modest living citizens.

However, the word to describe the girl was “Fanaticism”.

The figure of her rubbing the ground while praying looked pathetic to me.

「Please look up, Nyuju-san. I’m just a tree. My only merit is having lived longer than anyone and I’m just a powerless tree.」

「That . . . What powerlessness . . , the Holy Tree is almighty! I thank you for directing words at my small existence!」

I thought that Nyuju’s words were funny.

Because the world tree was speaking to her she was rejoicing so pitifully.

Was that the form of faith the young girl was dedicated to?

Nyuju seemed to be totally digging the ground and her head was deeply rubbing against the ground.

「Nyuju-san. If you believe in me, can’t you believe my words? The dragon of this generation is gentler than anyone I know and he is a gentleman with a big heart.」

「Yggdrasil, you are exaggerating too much.」

「No, I’m not exaggerating at all. I only spoke what I feel from the bottom of my heart.」

「It’s a misunderstanding. You are gentler than anyone else and have the biggest heart.」

「Ara? The one with the misunderstanding seemed to be you roommate-san.」

Yggdrasil and I were laughing together while Nyuju watched aghast.

Her eyes were like a child whose important thing was taken away . . . , no, it was more like a child abandoned by her mother.

Those wide blue eyes shed tears.

The mouth was left open as if she was taking a deep breath of air.

「I-I! I have lived for the sake of the world tree till now!」

And suddenly the girl began to shout.

「To defeat the evil dragon and save the world tree! That’s why! That’s why I have lived until now!」

Such severe words were spun by the mouth of the little girl.

「To defeat the dragon even at the cost of my life! To defeat the evil dragon! That’s why I have lived until now!」

Was this how the young girl always was?

She was only eleven or twelve years old and I didn’t know what kind of life she had lived so far.

「To defeat the dragon, to save the world tree, so . . ., I was told . . .」

Brainwashing. Would be the word to describe it.

Since long ago it was said that the mind of children were weak and it was easy to be washed away and dyed in different colors.

Why, I didn’t understand how defeating me would save Yggdrasil, but it must have been the sole truth for the girl.

「The dragon is an evil creature . . . . Cunning, powerful, cruel and it’s only possible to defeat it with the Spear of Valkyria . . . , that’s why, I . . .」

. . . Therefore you took up the ancient weapon . . . ?

I thought that the girl was fused with the ancient weapon by force, but reality was crueler.

For a young girl to voluntarily decide to lay down her life, wasn’t that crueler?

「Yet . . . , Yet . . . Why are you saying such things world tree?」

The girl was crying.

It was easy to imagine that in her severe life only the faith to Yggdrasil continued to support her.

The girl was crying like a child clinging to her mother who was leaving her.The insane faith of Nyuju dyed the air and earth near Yggdrasil in sadness.

After staying silent for a while Yggdrasil spoke to the girl with a gentle voice.

「Nyuju-san . . . . I have a request.」

“Request” to those words the girl opened her eyes wide and nodded. 「Yes! Yes!」 And she looked like a hungry dog that wagged its tail while waiting for the next words.

「With roommate-san . . ., with the dragon of this generation, will you spend a day together with him? If you spend a day together you will surely understand that roommate-san isn’t an evil dragon.」

The girl’s eyes opened wide in surprise.

After looking at me with eyes of despair she shifted back to Yggdrasil.

「My request . . ., will you accept it?」

Nyuju had no other choice than to faithfully nod.

While she was nodding I could see tears dropping to the ground.

The girl didn’t look up and only nodded while looking at the ground.

「(Roommate-san, I’m sorry for doing this without your permission. If possible . . ., this girl . . .)」

「(Ah, leave it to me. Yggdrasil)」

I understood what Yggdrasil was about to say. I also thought that the pitiful girl couldn’t be left alone.

Somehow, couldn’t the girl’s tears be stopped?

Please, couldn’t this girl laugh?

「Nyuju. Can you use magic to fly?」

Nyuju affirmed by nodding her head while looking at the ground.

「I don’t have any urgent business at the moment. So is there a place you want to go?」

To my words the girl nodded her head,

「I want to go to a water place. Because I want to wash my body and clothes.」

She answered so with a trembling and low voice.

「Fumu . . ., I don’t mind . . .」

I thought about it for a while. The girl didn’t have clothes to change.

The water in the river was cold though it was summer. To begin with, what did she intend to wear after washing her clothes?

Looking down on this small girl I was incidentally reminded of my friend Harpy who was the same size. I remembered then.

「That’s a good idea, you should borrow some clothes from my friend.」

「Friend . . .?」

The girl looked up for the first time. She looked at me suspiciously while raising an eyebrow.

「Do you find it strange that a dragon has friends? Child of man. You don’t have friends?」

The girl didn’t answer my question.

It was no surprise, after all the girl seemed to have lived a severe life until now. Otherwise she wouldn’t have chosen to be the user of the ancient weapon at such an age . . .

Besides the pitiful fanaticism towards Yggdrasil she had nobody to support her.

「Then let me guide. Follow me.」

Thus I took Nyuju to Harpy’s house.

Nearly two hours had already passed since Nyuju disappeared into Harpy’s yurt.

While I had my back turned towards the yurt I strained my ears all the time.

I heard noises and I sometimes Nyuju’s voice but they weren’t fighting so time passed peacefully.

Then I heard the sound of the yurt door fluttering.

Harpy and Nyuju stood there when I turned around.

「Fumu . . ., it looks good」

Nyuju was wearing clothes with a bright colored racial pattern from the harpy race.

These clothes looked girlish compared to her battle clothes.

Harpy and human. They were of a different race but they looked like sisters because of their same height and similar clothes.

「(You took your time Harpy. Was there any problem?)」

「(Yes, dragon-san! The size of the clothes fit Nyuju!)」

Where was the problem there, though it made no sense, so instead of expressly asking again I smiled and nodded at Harpy as if I understood.

As for Nyuju, she was restless and her gaze was wandering around, but the distance to Harpy was small. She seemed to have no bad feelings towards the Harpy.

「Then let’s go towards the sky today as a reward, Harpy.」

She understood my intention for a second flight. Harpy flapped her wings and flew up and firmly clung to my neck.

「Well, Harpy and me will go for a walk in the sky for a while, do you want to join us? Nyuju.」

After shifting her gaze between me and Harpy for a while she then refused.

「 . . . well, I will wait here for a while.」

I didn’t force her either. To her I’m still the 「Evil dragon」.

I opened my wings and took off towards the sky, but then the weight disappeared from my neck.

「Ah . . .」

White wings land in front of Nyuju. Harpy slowly reached out her hand and opened her mouth PakuPaku.

『Let’s go』

She couldn’t speak those words but I thought that I had surely heard them.

Nyuju slowly reached out her hand. After their finger-tips grazed each other the two of them firmly grasped the hand.

I did not know how two people who couldn’t hold a conversation spend two hours together. . . . But indeed, certainly『There was no problem』 at all.

「Then shall we go with three people.」

I danced through the sky while feeling two weights on my neck. Harpy clung to my neck while the child clung to Harpy.

Nyuju, did you know?

What you have obtained now. What the person is called whom your both hands are grasping.

That person is called 『Friend』.