The ogre used the cage like a club, first swinging it towards the emperor in a wide arch, and when that failed, brought it down to try to crush him into the ground, but because his movements were so large, they were easy to follow and avoid.
The emperor leapt deftly on top of the cage, then used it as a springboard to jump high into the air and swing his sword straight down towards the ogre’s head.
At the last moment, the ogre brought up his arm to block the sword, so although it didn’t connect with his head, blood began dripping from the ogre’s arm.
The emperor’s smile, which hadn’t faltered once during the fight, only deepened.
He seems to be enjoying fighting with the ogre!
And he was only getting started. Without pausing to catch his breath, the emperor moved again, his sword dancing through the air. Despite its size, he handled it like an extension of his own body, and in moments, nicks and cuts appeared all over the ogre’s body.
Although he hadn’t sustained any potentially fatal blows, it didn’t look like the ogre, who was forced to take the defensive, had any hope of winning.
Just then, the ogre let out a thunderous roar that shook the very air around us.
The emperor froze as if the roar had physically barreled into him, stunning him at such a close distance.
Then, to my shock, the ogre seemed to transform right before our very eyes, growing even larger and more heavily muscled than before. It was an absurd amount of muscle beyond anything a human could achieve. He looked even more muscular than a gorilla.
One of those ridiculously muscular arms shot out, heading straight for the emperor.
Even at this distance, I heard the CRASH! as the ogre’s fist made contact. In his temporarily stunned state, the emperor was a sitting duck—the ogre’s fist barreled right into Celiunos’s stomach, sending him flying through the air and slamming hard to the ground a short distance away.
Killing intent rose off of the private guard and imperial army soldiers in waves.
“Don’t interfere,” Louis called out, ordering those who’d stepped forward with the intention of rushing to the emperor’s aid to halt.
When he slowly rose to his feet, I saw that, incredibly, the emperor was still smiling.
He really is terrifying!
I unconsciously clung to Will as fear rushed over me at the sight of the emperor’s almost deranged smile. I may have been a tad too forceful and accidentally strangled Will a little bit in the process… oops.
A white mist began to form all around the emperor.
That looks familiar…
Mama creates the same kind of mist when she’s very, very angry.
The mist grew thicker and darker and curled around the emperor’s sword. The sword appeared to grow in size as something translucent and shimmering affixed itself to the length of the blade.
When the emperor again swung his sword, each time it made contact with the ogre’s skin, the blade left behind white marks that stood out starkly against the ogre’s naturally gray skin tone.
When the blade touched the ogre’s skin in the same place for a second time, the discolored area fractured into pieces as if it were made of stone.
Is the sword freezing anything it touches? For such a durable body to crumble to pieces like this, the sword must be freezing him at a temperature equivalent to liquid nitrogen…
Eek, that’s terrifying to think about!
A moment later, the ogre fell to his knees.
The emperor touched his blade to the ogre’s neck and asked, “Do you accept me as your ruler?”
“…We recognize you as our master.”
So he really could speak all along!
“In that case, I, Celiunos Raux Linus, bestow upon you the name of ‘Dalgard.’”
A round blue mark appeared on the forehead of the ogre named Dalgard.
After taming Dalgard, the emperor proceeded to name the remaining ogres as well. Perhaps because they’d just watched him defeat the strongest among them, the rest of the ogres meekly accepted him as their master.
“This was a very nice present, indeed,” the emperor remarked to Will with a genuine smile that in no way resembled the terrifying smile he had during the battle.
“I’m glad you like it,” Will replied with an artificial smile.
Yikes, I’m getting goosebumps again, this time from Will…
“You just about scared the life out of poor Neema. If you insist on doing such reckless things, I’ll be forced to tell Mother,” Louis chided his older brother.
It did little to ease my fear when the emperor turned to me and apologized.
He doesn’t have to apologize to me! I don’t think he did anything wrong, I was just frightened.
“You’re not allowed to leave Wildwood, but other than that, you’re free to do as you like,” the emperor said to the ogres.
“Very well,” Dalgard acknowledged the order, then disappeared into the forest, taking the other ogres with him.
“Now that that’s taken care of, I’d like to invite you and the others to dine with us, Will. What do you say?”
“All of these people? Are you sure?”
“You can fly, can’t you?”
And so it was decided that we would skip returning to Earl Helios’s manor entirely and fly straight back to the imperial palace.
However, the unit leader of the emperor’s private guard flat-out refused to allow him to fly back unaccompanied, so we had to wait for the dragon corps to meet us.
While we were waiting, I took advantage of the chance to chat with Ghizel.
“Hey, Ghizel! How have you been?”
“Those guys have been using the promise of getting to see you to manipulate us into doing whatever they want.”
I don’t really understand what he means; he sounds seriously ticked off! What was Dan thinking?!
I quickly searched around for Dan and saw him standing near Sol. He stood still, not moving a single muscle, just staring up at the giant red dragon.
Is it just my imagination, or does it look like he’s gazing adoringly at Sol like he’s the most amazing thing he’s ever seen?
“Dan!” I shouted loudly, finally shaking him out of his stupor. “Ghizel and the others are very unhappy. What kind of orders did you give them?”
“…Huh? Wait, what?!” He seemed surprised, but I found it strange that Dan, who was normally so attentive to the smallest changes in the dragons’ moods, hadn’t noticed.
“What’s wrong? Is there something on your mind?” I asked.
“Oh, um, no… Nothing like that…” Dan prevaricated, glancing discretely over at Sol again.
“Why do you keep looking at Sol, then?”
“He’s just nervous because someone he idolizes so much is right here in front of him.” This answer came from an older man who I’d never met before.
“Someone he idolizes?” I asked.
“Pfft, this guy clawed his way up to the position of legion commander with nothing but his borderline-excessive love of dragons. So there’s no way he could act normal when a primordial dragon is so close that he could practically reach out and touch him.”
Oh, so that’s it. I suppose that’s true; Dan really does love dragons. So much so, in fact, that I’ve heard not only Lestin but also many other people tease him about it.
“By the way, who are you, mister?” I asked.
“Forgive me for the late introduction. I’m the Director of the Intelligence Department, Seerio Yugee,” the man said, executing the formal bow that the knighthood used when speaking to a member of the nobility.
“I am Dayland Osphe’s youngest daughter, Nefertima,” I introduced myself in return, choosing an appropriately respectful curtsy in light of his position of authority.
“Dan, everyone is planning to head back to the Imperial City, but I think you’d better placate Ghizel and the others first…”
“To the Imperial City?”
Dan was confused about why we were traveling to the Imperial City, so I explained that His Majesty, the emperor, had invited Will to dinner. When he heard this, for some reason, Dan’s shoulders sagged in dejection.
What exactly did he say to the dragons to get them to come here?
“Lady Nefertima, if you wouldn’t mind, could you please help Dan out? The dragons were complaining, so to get them to carry the ogres, he told them they could see you if they did.”
I thought so! I guess I’ll have to help him out, then.
“Come on, Dan. Let’s go!” I said, all but dragging Dan over to where Ghizel and the others were waiting.
The dragons let loose a barrage of complaints against Dan, but in the end, I calmed them down, and once that was out of the way, we used the wide-open field to play to our hearts’ content.
With seven of them and only one of me, I was a bit outnumbered, so I roped Shinki into playing with us, too.
For some reason, they were still into the strange game where Shinki dragged them around by their tails. Their bodies left trenches of overturned earth in the grassy field as they were dragged back and forth.
Just when the dragons’ moods had finally improved, the wyverns arrived, and for a tense moment, I thought they were going to go at each other tooth and nail. Thankfully, all it took was a single word from Sol to settle everyone down.
Way to go, Sol!
“Have a safe journey!” Earl Helios called out as she and Lutie saw off the small army of flying dragons that leapt into the sky one after another.
Louis and Theo were riding wyverns.
Karna, Paul, and the others were riding lindblooms. I’d given strict instructions to the lindblooms before we took off to make sure not to let them fall, so I was pretty sure they’d be okay.
As for Shinki, he was riding on Sol, carrying Seigo and Rikusei in his arms. He looked like he was carrying two little stuffed animals, which was adorable all on its own. Plus, the fact that they could be so easily mistaken for stuffed animals just went to show how cute Seigo and Rikusei were.
Inaho and Haku were riding on top of Sol’s head. Inaho and Sol had immediately hit it off, maybe because they were both fire-affiliated?
Gratia was with me, riding on Lars’s back. He’d missed Lars’s fluffy fur just as much as I had because he was enjoying it with his entire body.
I’m jealous! I wish I could sink into Lars’s fur until my body disappears, too! I bet it would make an amazing mattress…
Due to Sol’s striking appearance, a rumor began to spread like wildfire through all the countries…
“The primordial dragon of the north brought an army of dragons and razed the southern country to the ground.”
🐎🐅🐎