Dragon-san Wants a Friend

Chapter 22: Extra Edition: Dragon-san Becomes a Little Girl 1

Translator: Kurehashi Aiko

It is something unrelated to the main story, so please enjoy this arc.

When it comes down to placing this chapter in the main timeline, it will be somewhere before the ‘Dragon-san and Their Everyday Life’.

—

It was a pleasant and cheerful feeling.

As usual, I moved to the forest, traced my hands across my face and neck, then arms and legs to see it there were any scales left on them, put on my clothes and inspected if I wore them correctly.

I confirmed that I was controlling my magic power perfectly, and then I took a deep breath, letting all of that fresh air into my lungs.

The clear blue sky was spreading over my head.

As it wanders through the sky, the cool early summer breeze brushes against my skin.

The dark green color of the lush trees was also pleasant to my eyes.

Today was truly,

「Today is the perfect day to break some castle walls!」

Well, I could go about breaking them anytime I want.

That is why I started to casually stroll towards the castle’s main gates, which were shining brightly in the morning sun.

******************

「Oh, Lava-sama, welcome, welcome. You come in at the perfect time.」

「Heya there, Belga! …… Or rather, what’s wrong?」

Today I yet again managed to successfully infiltrate the kingdom by shaking off the soldiers and went right for Kyle’s house, only to find that the man himself was not there, but I was greeted by his young wife, Belga, who seemed awfully relieved to see me.

She was wearing a beautiful dress that matched the color of her fair hair. She was holding a wicker basket in one hand, covered by some kind of cloth, and the other hand she was holding a staff.

「You see, Kyle seemed to have forgotten to take his lunch with him, and since my children are supposed to be back from school any minute now, I can’t really go out and leave the house unattended. I am terribly sorry to ask you this, but could you watch the house while I’m gone?」

She explained to me right off the bat, also coming out with a request like that.

I was thinking what should I answer her, but then I had a great idea.

「Well then, if it’s okay with you, I can deliver your lunch to your husband, while you stay here and greet the children when they come back home.」

Hearing my proposal, Belga’s eyes widened in surprise, and she started to panic,

「No way! This is simply outrageous! I could never trouble you like that!」

「You don’t need to worry. Truth is, for quite a while now I wanted to see the place in which they work. If I’ll suppress my magical powers I will be able to just go there and make the delivery without any kind of trouble. But could you lend me a hooded cloak just in case?」

Although for a short while Belga looked like she was having serious doubts about this idea,

「To be honest, I was really worried since Seram seems to be having trouble at school, I wanted to see him as soon as possible.」

「Yeah, and besides, it is one of the mother’s privileges to greet her children when they come back home. It’s not really something I should be doing.」

Hearing my words, Belga laughed and smiled in a cute way. It was a really charming smile, truly befitting of a mother of two children.

「No, no, I’m sure my children would be delighted if they could see you. Since they always seem so excited whenever you come around.」

Oh really? Well, I kind of understand that, since I was not all that different when I was a small child.

I was happy to hear that, and so I scratched my cheek with embarrassment.

「I, is that so?」

「But, are you really okay with doing that?」

「Just leave it to me. I’ll see your lunch is safely delivered to your husband!」

I responded casually to still reserved Belga.

******************

「And thanks to that, I am here.」

Since it would look way more natural than a hooded cloak, I borrowed a decorative hat from Belga, accompanied by a modest, yet cute dress in toned colors.

However, Kyle did not accept the lunch basket that I presented him, only shaking his head in disbelief and saying something like this:

「I can’t believe you actually came here. Not only this is the magical research center, but it’s in the middle of the royal palace! Royal palace, you understand? Do you even realize what would have happened if you were caught in here, wandering without permission? What would you do if I wasn’t around?」

「That is exactly why I contacted you in advance and came up with a nice story, plus I got a permit to enter from your wife and I suppressed my own magical power. Just in case I would stumble upon someone other than guards. See, I took various kinds of necessary precautions.」

While I was getting a little bit angry, Kyle brought me into a big, spacious room that must have been either his office or laboratory. I did everything that I could, so why was he angry with me? For a while he looked upset, but finally seemed to give up, as his shoulders dropped.

「Do you really have risk your identity being revealed, just to see this place before you will be satisfied……?」

「I thought it sounds like a lot of fun, and let’s not forget that I am a Dragon, so everything in here is new to me.」

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You know, I am, in fact, a dragon. Let’s not forget about that.

That being said, as soon as he heard the ‘in fact’ part Kyle laughed wryly.

Well, he didn’t seem all that convinced by my answer, but he seemingly left it and that and mumbled a short curse under his nose, as if to add himself some confidence.

「Indeed you are, my friend, indeed you are……」

Just then, as I was feeling a tiny bit guilty, there was that loud sound of footsteps echoing from the distance, and when Kyle turned towards that sound there was a loud *BLAM!* noise, and with that the door to the room was vigorously opened.

「Lava!」

「Hey there, Nectar! I came to visit.」

As usual, Nectar was the total opposite of Kyle, looking all disheveled, windy hair and huge smile on his lips when he saw me.

「Nectar, my friend.」

「What’s wrong, Kyle?」

「My office is supposed to be protected by a magical lock. Pray tell, how did you manage to get in?」

「Oh.」

Nectar looked back at the door as if he only noticed them the first time, confirmed that there indeed was a lock on them, then turned back and smiled ambiguously at Kyle, who looked about ready to explode with anger.

「Guess I kinda broke it.」

Hearing that nonchalant answer, I could almost hear something inside of Kyle finally snap.

「If you can so easily break the level 5 security lock, then you can fix it as easily, am I right!?」

「Kyle? Wait a moment, I’ll fix them so please stop! I give up, give up, give up!」

Kyle quickly managed to apprehend Nectar and caught him in some really nasty-looking joint locks, while in the meantime I secured some free space to open up the lunch prepared by Belga.

It looks like it was not the first time Nectar has done something like that……

Belga must have anticipated this situation, for when I began to put out the contents of the box, it turned out that it was more than enough for the three of us.

While Nectar was busy with fixing the magical lock and occasionally casting us the envious looks, we began to indulge ourselves in bread, fried fish and boiled vegetables that were the contents of the box.

「Ah! Hey, leave something for me!」

「You’ll get to eat once you finish your job!」

Said Kyle while wolfing down his share of rice, without even having the slightest bit of pity towards Nectar.

Even though I do not need something as basic meals to survive, I can still admire the taste of the dishes and the delighted look on Kyle’s face while he was eating.

「All of this is simply delicious! Your wife’s cooking is truly exceptional!」

「It’s only natural since she put so much work into it. I barely even come home these days, but Bel understands that and supports me the best she can.」

「You have a really good wife.」

「I know, right?」

Kyle smile brightly as he said that.

Nectar sped up his work by a few notches and soon he was sitting together with us, gratefully eating away on his portion of the lunch, while we got him some more rice and tea.

「By the way, do you have any idea what this magic tool is? We found it in the mountains some time ago.」

I was amazed by the myriad of magical tools that were just laying around in wooden boxes around the room, some of them pretty ordinary and others really bizarre.

Where did they got all of this stuff from!

「Oh, this? It all belonged to an illegal magician who was running some smuggling business. We caught him last week. This mage was selling ancient artifacts to aristocrats, wealthy businessmen, and members of the clergy for the most part. Most of them are fakes, but what’s troubling is that there are some genuine things mixed in there, so we were tasked with appraising and cataloging them all. That’s the reason why I was unable to come back home for a whole week.」

Said Nectar instead of Kyle, who was stressfully looking at the literal mountain of items right in front of his eyes,「I am also helping in the analysis of these items by examining them at my place for any kind of unusual magical techniques that might be applied to them, as well as people involved in their creation. But seeing how vast majority of magicians in this country is part of the military, it is highly possible that some foreign magicians may have been involved.」

「We managed to get some of the things done, but there are also things that we cannot appraise by any means. It is a difficult process, because we need to check their enchantments one by one.」

「And even if that’s done, there are still more things waiting for their turn.」

By the way, it was my first time seeing genuine magical tools.

I had to be extra careful with them, remembering how easily I managed to destroy Nectar’s restrains that fateful day.

Still , being unable to contain by curiosity, I approached the boxed and took a peek inside of one of them.

Although they looked disorganized from the outside, on the inside you could see that the items were neatly divided into swords, accessories, tableware and many other things of daily usage. Each one was labeled accordingly, so that it would make deciphering them a little bit easier.

I could feel that none of the things in the box were emanating any kind of magical power, but then my eyes were drawn to one accessory in particular.

It looked like a huge glass beads or a transparent stones.

Instead of being connected with a string, there were pieces of chains in between each bead, while each one of them had some symbols written in ancient language on them, that gave each bead some amount of magical power.

By this I mean, the amount of magic in the runes were pretty much non-existent, but it was there for sure.

Because of that, the words themselves were really faint and difficult to read.

‘Absorption’, ‘Release’, ‘Reduction’, ‘Suppression’…… Things like that.

「What’s wrong?」

「There’s something written here in ancient language, but I can’t read it all too well.」

I heard the voice of Nectar and I replied to him, all the while carefully studying the object I was looking at.

I was getting a really weird vibes coming off from this items, so it surely must have been something magical.

It looks just like a normal beaded string, but maybe –––– I reach out my arm for the object.

「Ouch!」

「Lava! What are you doing!?」

Kyle, seeing that I was reaching out my arm, got close to me and smacked me in the hand.

「No, you see, I can’t really read what’s written on this thing all that well, so I thought it might be faster to actually activate this thing and see what it does. Who know, it might not even activate, so maybe it’s just broken?」

「Don’t try to play with something if you don’t know what that thing does!」

「Haha, I’m sorry.」

Kyle’s argument made lot of sense, so much that I started to reflect on how my curiosity managed to get the best of me.

However, while I was apologizing and trying to put the beads back where they belonged, the chain connecting them suddenly started to tighten around my wrist and I also noticed that the faint letter were now perfectly visible and black in color.

「Wha-a?」

Noticing that something strange was happening, Nectar tried to get close to me, but then suddenly a magic circle appeared all around me with a loud sound, the place trembled and shaked, making the world in front of my eyes go pure-white.

「Whoa!?」

At that moment I understood that my vision went blank as a reaction to the convergence of huge amounts of magical power, and I felt as if all magic was going to burst out of my body all at once.

When I tried to erect a blocking barrier around the beads, I heard a disturbing sound.

I forcibly restricted the flow of magical energy around me, acting in the same way as if I wanted to cut myself from the leyline’s influence.

When I finished with that, a few moments later, the light finally stopped shining, but this incident managed to surprise me so much that I reflexively sat down on the spot.

Feeling slightly overwhelmed, I can still see that my vision is shaking and my breath was also ragged.

「Well, it surely was a surprise, no?」

I was afraid that they might have been so quiet because something terrible has happened or that I made some kind of mistake, but as I said that I was surprised by the strangely high pitch of my own voice.

Why is my body wrapped in so much cloth?

「…… Lava?」

「Ohh, I’m terribly sorry, my friends. I seemed to have messed something up. What did I do? And why do you look so shocked?」

「La, La, La, La, Lava’s, Lava’s body is, it’s shrinking……!!!」

「Huh?」

The look on both Nectar and Kyle’s faces was genuinely freaking me out, until I finally realized what really happened.

The fact that not until a while ago my clothes were fitting perfect.

The fact that my line of sight seemed to be unusually low.

I think it is fairly safe to assume that I have indeed shrunk.

「Oi, oi, what’s this?」

My clothes, unable to fit my new, small body fell onto the ground, as I kept on staring at my small, tiny hands, with the beaded bracelet not fitting perfectly on one of them.

It was Nectar’s voice that brought me back to reality.

「Is everything okay? Are you hurt anywhere!?」

「Yeah, it’s okay, my body is nothing to be worried about.」

With Nectar’s help I stood up, and I admired just how calm I was about this whole situation.

「You seem to have reverted back to the age of seven years old, your hair seems to be thinner and softer than normal, and your skin seems to be somewhat different. Looking at such delicate and pretty appearance feels your chest with this strange warmth that you can feel nowhere else! Ah, is this the feeling of ‘moe’ that I heard so much about? I’m afraid that this might awaken something new inside of me! Oh, I’m sorry, Lava! This cannot be, first of all we need to procure some clothes for you! For now, let us go to my room.」

…… Is it only my imagination, or is Nectar looking at me in a rather funny way? Like I was some kind of a tasty piece of meat?

He lifted me up in the air with ease, as if I had no weight at all, and I could only watch with an angry expression how Nectar drew his face closer to mine, breathing heavily. At the same time, Kyle silently approached Nectar from behind with something in his hands, and……

*THWACK––––!!!*

「Oh, hell no! Hold right there, you f****ng degenerate!」

Harrisen (that large paper fan that you can sometimes see in anime and manga, it’s really painful to be hit by that thing, trust me.) fell down in a clear arch…… and made contact with Nectar’s head with a wonderful crushing sound.

So, I was somehow able to escape from Nectar’s arm, who was slowly getting up after being struck by this enormous object. But before he could fully recover from the shock, Kyle mercilessly grabbed him by the neck.

「Ugh.」

「For the time being, Lava-dono, please change your clothes. There should be some of my shirts in that drawer over there. In the meantime, this idiot here and I are going to have a nice little chat.」

「Umm, yeah, thanks a lot.」

I nodded at Kyle and moved towards the drawers, while he took Nectar and the two of them disappeared into another room.

******************

I tried to put one of Kyle’s shirts on, but thanks to my new appearance it actually took me a few good minutes to accomplish this task.

In addition, since Kyle’s physique was quite broad, his shirt was still way too big for me.

And his shirt was in no way cute. It was something that you could sleep in, given that you had no alternative at hand.

Even so, while struggling with my little hands, I managed to roll up the sleeves to a point where I could see my own hands, and tied it around my waist with some kind of rope that was lying around.

Later, the two men came back to the room.

However,

「The problem is not in the appearance, since it’s Lava we’re talking about here. Even if she becomes smaller, since she’s a dragon, there is no change in her true nature. That’s right, since this is Lava, nothing really changes.」

Whereas Nectar’s eyes were kind of blank and indifferent, Kyle looked worried but tried to look normal.

「I’m sorry it took so long.」

「No, it’s fine, really.」

I shook my head while breaking into a cold sweat.

That’s because their timing was almost perfect.

While I was waiting for them to come back, I found a magic mirror and looking in in for a moment, I thought to myself “what is this cute looking creature? So adorable!” For a short while I was striking poses in front of the mirror, all the while making various cute sound effects. If the door haven’t opened, I would probably spend whole eternity doing just that.

Right, best to leave it at that.

「Oh yeah, it looks like it was some kind of seal used to seal away evil spirits or demons.」

At the same time I decided to try to decipher the meaning of the black symbols on the beaded bracelet, Kyle came up to me and basically told me the results off the bat.

「Sealing tool?」

「Most probably. It is programmed to suck up the target’s magical power and permanently return it to the surroundings, so it would render both spirits and demons unable to move or act in any kind of way. And since it continues to drain the magical power, monsters and spirits cannot spread their influence. What’s more, thanks to the formula that was woven into the spell itself, the more powerful the creature and its magic, the more powerful the bracelet magic becomes. Not very refined method, but tremendously effective, if I do say so myself.」

「So, is this really an ancient magical tool?」

「Correct. Good answer. You didn’t really put it on, more like touched it, but it was more than enough for it to start sucking out your magical power. Good thing you have so much of it. But this only means that even though it looked to be broken, it must have been inactive and turned on as a result of contact with magic.」

True, it is a good thing my magical power is so vast.

I try to imagine how it would look like if I got my magic completely sucked out and dried up as a result. Just thinking about it made me tremble, and at that moment Nectar finally came back to his usual self and came to me, all worried.

「Lava, are you okay? It didn’t sucked out all of your magical power, did it?」

「Yeah, I’m quite alright. Having this much magic sucked out of me is not nearly enough to be a threat to my life. I just temporarily disconnected myself from the leyline, switched to my internal reserves of magical power, concentrated around my left arm and limited the amount of magic flowing into it. It should be okay for me to leave it at that for a while.」

That being said, both of them stayed silent for some reason.

「Can you revert back to your original dragon form?」

「Ah, about that, when my body gets smaller so does my magical power. So for now it would be hard for me to revert back.」

「What if you tried to extract your power back from the bracelet……?」

「How can I get rid of it?」

「What?」

「Huh?」

I asked Nectar and Kyle, and in return they looked at me with blank expressions.

Oh, does that mean I’m currently sealed in this form?

「Or rather, you don’t really have to remove it. It cracked a little when you tried to use your magic on it earlier, so maybe if you fill it with enough magic it will go past it’s holding capacity and break apart.」

「Really?」

「Yeah, it should be possible, with you being a dragon and all……」

If I was just an ordinary spirit or a simple magician, it would probably be impossible for me to move freely or use magic right about now, but since I am a dragon I have no problems with that, so hey, silver lining, I guess.

「But it’s a valuable ancient tool, right? If possible, I would like to get back to normal without having to break it, but as I am now I can’t really analyze it at all.」

Honestly, I don’t entirely dislike working in such a roundabout way.

I looked up at Kyle, who had a rather complicated expression on his face.

Even if I stood up, since the difference in our heights was too big I had to look upwards.

「But, can I break it anyway?」

Kyle got lost in thoughts for a moment, before he turned back to me and said:

「If it’s not making you uncomfortable in any way, then by all means please don’t break it.」

「Who knows, this might even take 100 years to wear off. Are you fine with me being in this form for so long, my friend?」

「N, no, not at all.」

For some reason Kyle averted his gaze, rubbing his neck and continued talking.

「The easiest way is to leave that as it is and wait until the bracelet let go on its own, at the same time thinking of a solution of some kind, like draining the device out of its magic. Like that, you may be able to grow bigger and use some more powerful magic.」

「If that’s the case, we can conduct the analysis, it will be even faster with two people doing it. Lava, are you really feeling okay?」

I nod to Nectar’s question.

「Yes, I can sense leylines as usual, and as long as it does not resonate with the device I can even use some of my magic. However……」

「However?」

「I won’t be able to return to my original form for a while without breaking the bracelet, so how will I get back home from here?」

Since I’ve come here as a young girl, a small child would surely not go unnoticed (more so I was wearing a really shabby shirt).

By the way, teleportation would be no problem in my original form, but now it was pretty much impossible to connect with the leylines.

「What to do……?」

In the end, we all just stood there, thinking about this issue as if it was the most pressing matter in the entire world.