The prince and I needed to return to Aryagard in order to explain the situation to the king and assemble an army.
“To Aryagard please, Phalaris,” I asked him.
“You’ve got it!”
“It’s great to have you with us,” said the prince.
“I know, right? You should’ve brought me with you this time too.”
“You said it was a ‘pain in the butt’ and didn’t want to go, remember?” I retorted.
“Eh, I did?”
This dragon kid was such a scatterbrain—he always forgot inconvenient facts.
“Can you carry four of us?” I asked.
“Sure!”
It was a little scary fitting so many people on his back, but we had no choice.
I approached the fairy king, who was no longer naked since he had borrowed Prince Richie’s spare clothes. They looked good on him but were a little too short due to his height.
“Let’s head to the royal capital, Fairy King.”
“Visiting the capital on a dragon, hmm? What a thrilling experience. Especially with two young ladies at my side,” said the flirt, grinning.
Stamp! Stamp!
“Agghh!”
Adela and I stomped on his feet at once. Give us our Barkus back! I didn’t like this flirt of a man one bit.
“How cruel of you. You were so nice to me when I was Barkus.”
“You’re Fairy King Ulupano now, not Barkus. And really, just turn back into Barkus!” said Adela.
“I can’t! That curse turned me into a child in various aspects—that’s why I looked like that!”
“Then try your hardest to take that form again!” Adela pressed the fairy king, staring daggers at him.
“Well, let’s try.”
Performing a somersault, he disappeared into a puff of smoke. When it cleared, an enormous wolf the size of a bull was standing in his place.
“This is how I look now. I can assume the beast-man form too.”
“Not adorable,” I told him.
“Not adorable at all. Also, speaking is a no-no,” added Adela.
“You ladies are so strict.”
His fur looked stiff too. Zero out of ten, Ulupano. And when he returned to his human form, he was naked again. How immodest.
“Have to say, though, I love that look of disdain in your eye!”
The fairy king continued to talk nonsense as he put his clothes back on.
“So, how long do I have to wait here?” asked Chief Jörd.
“We’ll gather an army and return as fast as we can. How many can this train fit?” I asked.
“About a hundred. It’s still experimental, so we haven’t put many passenger cars on it yet.”
“So ten trips would only move a thousand or so. Looks like we’ll have to walk or use horses to move ten thousand,” spoke Adela, her arms folded.
“You’re a maid and you know a thing or two about army marches, huh? There’s a highway running alongside the tracks—why don’t you have your troops use it?”
“Wait here for three days, please. Actually, I’m surprised there was a town here,” I said.
Behind the station were brand-new houses: it seemed a new town was being built here. There was an eatery and an inn too.
“Yeah, it kind of appeared as we built the tracks. Gonna be a prime location before long.”
“Some shrewd merchants must’ve moved here. Looks like we have a new border town on our hands.”
Trading with the Dwarven Great Caves would no doubt be highly profitable, and everyone would want to use the Magic Train once it went into regular operation. This town would surely grow big.
“Ask King Arvi to extend the tracks to Aryagard.”
“I will. The economic benefits of having the train run to the outskirts of the royal capital would be incredible,” I replied.
“Father likes new things, so I think he’ll want a ride too.”
“Sounds great. All right, off you go, then,” said Chief Jörd, beaming from ear to ear.
It was amazing how the dwarves had actually laid the tracks all the way to the border.
Doing a somersault, Phalaris turned into a large dragon. Why did the nonhumans of this world perform somersaults to transform? As he brought one of his wings to the ground, we climbed it and made our way to the back of his neck. With four of us it was, of course, pretty tight, and we had to stick to each other. I sat at the front. Behind me was Prince Richie, then Adela, and Ulupano was at the end.
“Touch me anywhere weird and I’ll hit you.”
“Y-You’ve got me all wrong. I would never mistreat a lady. Women are, after all, the most beautiful things in the world.”
Looking behind me, I noticed a vein standing out on Adela’s forehead. If only he had stayed as Barkus...
“You okay, Phalaris?” I asked.
“Yeah, you’re all light. Just don’t go falling off.”
“We’ll hold on tight. We should have Chief Jörd make a saddle when we have the chance.”
“I don’t want a saddle,” replied the dragon.
I wanted a safety belt, though, since we were flying through the skies. There was this one time I flew on Phalaris and got caught in a rainstorm—I’d thought I would die that day.
The dragon started flapping his wings. With a movement of his neck muscles that I felt under my hips, he jumped and took flight, flapping his wings rapidly to gain altitude.
The view from high above was always great, no matter how many times I experienced it. I could clearly see the distant horizon. Looking back, I saw the Thunder disappear into a tunnel of the mountainous region, appearing minuscule at such a distance. I would bring down the Demon Lord next time. But first, I had to go to Aryagard and gather my team.
The trip to the royal capital on dragonback didn’t take long, given the speed of these creatures. Phalaris landed in the central square, flapping his wings. He made frequent use of this place for takeoffs and landings, so by this point no one was surprised to see this. Some of his fans spotted him and cheered in shrill voices—he was surprisingly popular with girls, being a little wild and handsome.
As we made our way to the royal palace, we came across King Arvi.
“Oh, Richie, Floortje! What took you so long?”
“A revolution has occurred in the Elven Forest Republic, father. Chancellor Mickaël has let the Demon Lord’s army into the forest and started a coup. Floortje and I were almost caught, but we made an escape.”
“The Demon Lord’s army?! And what about the fairy... Ah, Your Majesty Fairy King Ulupano. Welcome to Aryagard.”
The fairy king somehow assumed a pose that made him look elegant.
“It has been a while, Your Majesty King Arvi. I was caught up in the events which your son accurately described, and had to make an escape with him. Would you lend me your troops? I intend to retake the Town of Yggdrasil.”
“Hmm, very well. The friendship pact between our nations is still in effect, after all.”
“That fool Mickaël broke it without asking anyone, but I was the one who made it on behalf of the elves and I do not remember approving of such an abrogation. In fact, I would pledge ever stronger ties between our nations.”
“Good. Well, let’s not stand around any further; let’s talk through things at the palace instead.”
With an arm around Ulupano’s shoulder, King Arvi invited him to the palace. The fairy king was a good-looking fellow whose presence was strong whenever he got serious, so he was quite dignified.
“I’m going with them to help explain things. What about you, Floortje?”
“I need to scout the rikishi for the upcoming competition. Going to pay a visit to Yustin’s and Clifton’s stables.”
“Remember, we can only have five.”
“We’ll bring others as stand-ins. Clifton should definitely go, though, to bring Kukuri back.”
The prince smiled.
“Agreed. We need her back here, doing sumo with us.”
It was vexing to give up such a splendid wrestler to Dark Sumo.
After parting with the prince, we walked through Aryagard as three: myself, Phalaris, and Adela. I had missed this city.
“You’re gonna field me, right?”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Oh, come on, you have to field me. I wanna fight Arima again!”
“You should use the opportunity to fight someone else. It’s not every day you get to do team sumo.”
“Yeah, I guess that would be good too. I wanna fight Kukuri in her arachne form. Won our bout at the last tournament here, but she seems stronger now compared to when she was human.”
Being able to see different rikishi go against each other was part of what made sumo so fun. I wanted to go against Uta, not just the Demon Lord. Being able to root herself in the ground made her a threat, but you could launch anything you wanted at her since she couldn’t move. If she managed to overcome that shortcoming of hers, she would become even stronger. As these thoughts coursed through my head, we arrived at Yustin’s stable.
“Excuse me!”
“Who’s there? Oh, Lady Floortje, and Phalaris too. Are you here to practice together?”
I was greeted not by one of the younger wrestlers, but by Yustin himself.
“You’ve gained weight again! How dare you!” I exclaimed.
“As a sumo wrestler, it’s my job to eat. Gocchan!”
It’s so unfair. Why do the prince and I remain so light while this man can get so fat?! You almost couldn’t call him the slim-built type of sumo wrestler anymore—soon, he would be the big-bellied type. The slim-built type might look stronger, but weight is a very powerful weapon in sumo. However, big-bellied wrestlers are more vulnerable to attacks on their knees, as well as to diabetes. Gaining weight comes with its own problems.
“Something bad has happened in the Elven Forest Republic. Come with me, I’ll explain along the way.”
“Okay, but where are we going?”
“Clifton’s stable. We need Aryaka’s five strongest rikishi.”
“Strongest rikishi? Now you’ve got my attention. Let’s go.”
With Yustin joining us, our party size grew to four. Well—considering we were going to defeat the Demon Lord, the term “party” was not entirely inaccurate. I explained the situation to Yustin along the way, and at every point in the story, he was irksomely vocal in his surprise and excitement.
“A team competition against Demonic Sumo, with the Demon Lord at the pinnacle of that form of sumo? Well, this is most exciting. What about Maurilio?”
“I had to leave him in the Elven Forest Republic. I’m sure he’s alive, though.”
“Yes, he is a military man. It would take a lot to bring him down.”
“With you, me, and Richie, there’s only two empty slots left. You gotta choose between Yustin, Clifton, and General Maurilio,” spoke Phalaris.
“Y-You’ll field me, right? I’m an ōzeki,” said Yustin.
“I don’t know about that... Also, Clifton is definitely going.”
“Huh? You can’t be serious. His rank is komusubi.”
“Kukuri is on the opposing side. I’m having Clifton bring her back.”
Yustin stared at me in round-eyed wonder.