Jill opened her eyes wide under the cloudless blue skies of the Water City of Veilburg.
Long torsos with large wings, his entire body was adorned with bright gleaming robust scales.
Their legs were as tall as Jill. Despite so, without causing any noise, they gently descended on to the front yard of the Veilburg castle.
“D, dragons…! Your Majesty, there are dragons! Why!?”
Although impressed by the three dragons standing in a row, Jill didn’t know the reason for their arrival. As such, she looked up at her tall husband, who stood beside her—Hadith.
Hadith’s beautiful golden eyes narrowed as he showed a mysterious face.
“It seems to be a greeting from the Imperial Capital. I have no need for human personnel so I asked my brother to send me the dragons that are being kept by the royal family.”
“Per-personnel!? As in, drivers?! So, we’re going to ride these, then?! Not a horse, or a carriage!?”
“Yes… that’s right, in Kratos, you don’t use dragons as a mean of transportation. After all, dragons won’t be born in Kratos.”
Jill nodded at Hadith’s deduction.
There were two large kingdoms in the East and West of the Continent of Prathi across the Rakia Mountains.
One was Jill’s homeland—the Kingdom of Kratos. It was a kingdom under the patronage of the Goddess of Love and Earth—the Goddess of Kratos. The direct descendant of the Goddess, which was the Royal Family of Kratos, also lived there.
The other one was the Rave Empire, where Jill currently was. It was a kingdom under the protection of Rave, the Dragon God of Reason and the Sky. The descendant of Dragon God Rave was the Royal Family of Rave.
Although they were supposed to be one land, be it the crops or the climates, the two kingdoms were vastly different.
“I, I, I’ve never seen them this close…!”
The last time she was that close to a dragon was amidst a raging war—the dragon was spitting flames before being shot down to the ground by Jill—that can’t be called ‘seeing up close’, alright…
Jill, moved, put her hands together—Hadith who saw that smiled bitterly.
“You aren’t scared?”
“Not at all! I’ve always dreamed of riding a dragon! I even wanted to keep one! But, dragons hate magical power…”
“To be exact, they hate the magical power inherited from the Goddess of Kratos.”
Suddenly appearing on top of Hadith’s shoulder was a mysterious creature with small wings on his snake-like body—that seemingly dragon creature was the Dragon God Rave.
Hadith furrowed his eyebrows and whispered.
“Rave, stay inside me, we’re in public!”
“If I don’t show up then you wouldn’t be able to command those dragons, that’s why I’m here, the almighty Dragon God Rave!”
“So, the dragons can see Rave?”
Preparing their departure to the Imperial Capital, people were moving around in a hurry, putting saddles and loads on the back of the dragons. None of them paid attention to Rave.
Rave, the Dragon God, could only be seen and heard by humans with powerful magic.
Jill asked her previous question in a quiet voice, Rave followed suit.
“—of course they can! They’re dragons, after all! In the first place, that condition only applies to humans!”
“Is that so? Does that mean even Sautee can see Rave?”
On Jill’s back were two backpacks.
One contained a hand-sewn teddy bear she received from Hadith, who said rather heavily, ‘think of it as me.’ The other, the chick that she had started to keep after receiving permission from Hadith. The former was called Haddy and the latter was named Sautee—
—each time her surroundings heard her calling the chick by its name, they pulled their faces—but Jill didn’t care.
Sautee, whose leg strength increased in response to Jill’s voice, came out from the gap between the backpack and responded to her.
“It seems that it can! —wait! Don’t peck me! It hurts! What’s with this chick!? So, you really want to be sautéed by Hadith, huh!?”
“Piyo—!”
“Please be a good boy and play with the Emperor Bear, Sautee. Back to the topic in hand, if dragons hates the magic power of the Goddess of Kratos, then, doesn’t that mean I…”
Due to the protection of the Goddess of Love and Earth, Kratos, it was normal for the people of Kratos to be born with greater or lesser magical power.
Born in Kratos, Jill, who had a tremendous amount of magical powers, would probably be hated the most by dragons.
The anxious Jill was suddenly embraced by Hadith.
Jill took a breath when Hadith’s face, which every single aspect of was beautiful, approached her suddenly.
He often hugged her like that—but that didn’t mean she was used to it.
Whether it was his long eyelashes, his bottomless golden eyes, which seemed to be drawing her inside, or the shape of his thin lips, which would call her name… she couldn’t get used to any ofthem.
“You’ll be fine—after all, you’re the wife of the Dragon Emperor. You are a princess who has been blessed by the Dragon God. You even wear the golden ring, which is the proof of that. The dragons wouldn’t be hostile to you.”
“Eh!? So, I can ride them, after all!?”
“As long as you’re with Hadith, you should be able to ride a dragon without a problem. Even if they say they ‘hate’ you—that’s just generally the case. However, don’t force them to carry you by yourself. If a dragon doesn’t approve of its rider, it won’t protect her—as such, when flying highly, not only will you suffer altitude sickness, you also won’t be able to control the dragon.”
To ride alone would be that difficult?
A little disappointed, Jill hugged Hadith’s head—in the end, the joy that she would still get to ride a dragon won.
“I want to ride one! Please, Your Majesty, give me a ride! Quick! I want to quickly fly in to the sky!”
“I get it, I get it—but, you can already fly in the air as you currently are, so why—”
“—flying with a dragon has a whole different sensation to it!”
Once again, Hadith replied with, ‘I get it’, and a voice came from behind.
“Jill-chan~ our preparations are ready~—wait, huh~!? We’ll be riding a dragon!? No way~!? I’ve never been on a dragon before~!!”
Camila, who turned deep blue, was the knight of Jill, the Dragon Princess. Of course, she would ride on top of the dragon along with Jill.
Zeke, whom was also the Knight of the Dragon, was frowning deeply as he stood behind Camila.
“No way, seriously?! …I wasn’t seeing things, those are truly dragons… amazing.”
“Y-you guys will be alright, dragons are kind creatures, after all…”
Sufia, who also came to see them off, said in a soothing voice.
Sufia was not only serving as Jill’s tutor, but also as the Marquis of Veil.
Instead of moving with them this time, Sufia would be taking charge of that place as Jill and her crew took their leave for the Imperial Capital.
“Lady Sufia, have you ever ridden one before?”
“J, just a little bit, I got to ride them…”
Sufia shyly admitted with her eyes closed. Hadith laughed.
“I always thought Lady Sufia has a tendency to be liked by dragons—but not to that extend, that’s truly amazing.”
“It’s probably because someone from several generations ago had gotten married with the princess… the dragons are all the friends of the Royal Family of Rave.”
“However, whether or not they are liked by dragons ultimately come down to what kind of individual they are. It seems that there were some people who were hated by the dragons, even though they were part of the royal family, because they were as venomous as snakes.”
No matter how someone looked at it, Sufia, who chatted with Hadith, gave off the vibe of a delicate Marquis’ daughter. Most probably thought a fragile woman like her couldn’t muster any courage to ride on a dragon.
The mixture of awe and distress on the faces of Camila and Zeke face amused Jill.
Jill’s laughter turned into a joyful one when Hadith sat on his saddle and the dragon began to rise from the ground.