★
It was almost lunchtime. As the home tutor, Emalia, was not present, Silvia took her two remaining daughters out for a hike.
They were at a hilly area covered with fresh, green grass roughly 30 minutes of flying away from their house. In fact, this location was closer to the royal capital than it was to Treia.
Silvia was wearing a hat with a wide brim, holding the basket that held what they would all be eating for lunch, and watching the children playing around.
“Let’s go, Purucchi! Today is the day we’ll surpass the speed of sound!”
“U—wa—h—so—fa—st— ♪~”
“Kueh——!”
Puru the blue dragon had its head thrust forward in an effort to streamline its body so as to reduce drag. Kana and Hina were both crouching on its back, hanging on tightly.
When they approached the top of a hill, suddenly Puru switched to gliding, trying to hug the hill’s slanted surface as close as possible.
“Kana, if you go too fast then—” zzzoooOOHHHHmmm “—you’ll get thrown off, silly.” Although she called out to them when they passed by her at extreme velocity, her admonition only served to prompt them to go even faster.
Silvia placed a hand on her cheek, with an “oh my, oh my” troubled look on her face.
Even for a blue dragon, exceeding the speed of sound was an impossible feat. And the faster they went, the harder it would be for the girls to hold on. Kana might be fine, as she was awakening to superhuman physical prowess, but Hina’s physical abilities were no different from that of the average 5-year-old.
As Silvia mentally readied herself to fly to the girls’ aid at any moment—
“What could that be?”
Far off, near the foot of a hill, the figures of many people could be seen walking along the road. No, to be specific, they were marching.
With a huge flag in front, cavalry and foot soldiers that numbered more than a hundred in total were proceeding in orderly ranks. And in the middle of the procession was a luxurious and gorgeous box carriage.
Unfortunately, this carriage that clearly was carrying someone of extremely high status—
“Kueeeh!”
—happened to be right in the path of one of Puru’s charges.
“What is that?!”
“A dragon?!”
“Protect the carriage!”
“Men, take positions!”
“Mage squad, start chanting!”
The soldiers quickly got into formation, despite being quite shaken by the abrupt development.
For its part, Puru also noticed that there were a lot of humans in its path, and thus began pulling up to avoid them. However, the soldiers that had identified Puru as a hostile target would not let up.
Behind ranks of soldiers forming a spear wall, a group wearing robes thrust their hands toward Puru.
“Fire!” At the signal from their commander, several fireballs were released simultaneously.
It was a homing type of fire magic. This was a great demonstration of the capability of this magic squad. Based on both speed and power, even one of those fireballs would have been enough to shoot Puru down.
However, although they were released in misunderstanding, Silvia was not about to let even one of those destructive missiles anywhere near her precious daughters.
Several magic formations abruptly appeared in midair. Because they appeared only several tens of centimeters in front of each fireball, the fireballs had no time to change their trajectory and thus all crashed and burned to nothing.
Silvia did not stop there. Belt-shaped magic formations appeared en masse, raining onto the soldiers below. Those that hit the ground began wriggling like snakes, until each and every soldier was completely tied up.
However, at that moment—
“U—wa—h~!”
“Hinacchi?!”
“Kueh?!”
High up in the sky, Puru had yet to notice that all the fireballs were already dealt with, and thus was still repeatedly making sharp turns in midair. And as a result, Hina had gotten thrown off.
“U—wa—h~!”
Silvia watched as her beloved daughter hurtled downward. However—
Bo~ing.
Hina bounced off of the gigantic balloon that Silvia had made in advance. Boing, boing, boing she went as she bounced on the balloon repeatedly.
“What is that, it looks so fun!!!” Kana’s eyes sparkled like stars as she jumped off Puru’s back to join in.
“Ahahaha~! This~! Is~! So~! Fun~! ♪~!”
“Whee—♪!”
The two of them squealed with laughter while jumping up and down on the balloon.
As the soldiers that were restrained with magic formations watched on dumbfoundedly, the door of the carriage banged open.
“Where are the ruffians! I, Lynfil Alsbeit, shall neither run nor hide!” The high-pitched voice was accompanied by the appearance of a young girl in a pure white dress. She flicked her soft-looking blond hair back dashingly.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Your Royal Highness! It is dangerou—”
“Please get back inside the carri—”
Threading her way through the immobilized soldiers, the girl glared sharply toward the front.
“No, I will draw their attention. In that time, all of yo— hm?” Before her eyes was the sight of two sisters having fun bouncing up and down. “What is that, it looks so fun! I want to do that too!”
“Your Royal Highneessss—?!” As she dashed off at full speed, an old man also appeared from within the carriage and tearfully set off on her heels—