Seikoku no Ryuu Kishi: Volume 3 Chapter 4

Status: Incomplete

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Chapter 4 - The Battle at Willingham Mausoleum

Part 1

During the midnight, Ash slowly sat up.

“It hurtssss…”

Because of the pain in his joins, he can’t have a good sleep. It is because that he was playing in the waters during the day.

Silvia and Eco were riding on Lancelot.

Jessica was riding on Rhiannon.

Without any warning, a normal fun on the waters had turned into a two side’s battle field of ‘Fighting for Ash’. If they really wanted to play something, Ash hoped that it would be a more peaceful game.

But the swimming wear that Eco and Silvia wore was deeply engraved in Ash’s mind.

Eco was wearing a white swimming suit which brings out her cute self. Even though her body is still far from perfect, there are still guys who are sure to fall for her innocent self. Although her true ruthless attitude will be exposed when she speak…

On the other hand, Silvia was wearing a sexy bikini. Ash was going to have a nose bleed just by thinking about it. For sure it was not Silvia who chooses a bikini that exposes that much of skin, but Cosette who was the culprit who force it on her.

Ash quickly removes all this troubles from his mind and left his bed.

The bedroom in the training camp is a twin sharing bedroom. Max was sleeping soundly at the bed beside. Eco was not in the room. It is because the neat freak Max said that ‘sharing a room with a girl is illogical’, so Eco was taken care by the other girls.

Logically speaking, since it was Cosette, there should not be a reason for him to worry… But Ash had been together with Eco for a long time. Once Eco is not beside him, he felt uneasy as if a part of his heart is lacking.

“Can’t… I really can’t sleep.”

Ash sighed, and slowly stood up. Then, he left the room and wanted to ask for a cup of water in the kitchen.

Ash was walking at fast pace at the corridor of the second floor. The old building felt like a haunted house. The kitchen was located at the first floor, so he was walking towards the stairs.

The moonlight shines through the windows. Tonight is a full moon with silver lights.

“…Huh?”

Ash stopped beside a window.

He felt a shadow passed by.

“That is…”

Every single corner of the garden can be seen through the corridor’s windows. A girl can be seen walking under the moonlight. She was wearing a one-piece pajama. Ash recognized her.

“Is it… Lukka?”

Under the moonlight, the golden white here is emitting a mysterious light. Even her white ceramic liked skin was a if they were shining. Her pointy ears can be seen indistinctly poking out from her hair.

Lukka walked past the garden with her unsteady steps and through the old back door. After the back door is an endless piece of forest- Norg Forrest.

In a blink of an eye, Lukka disappear inside the forest.

“Hey… What was she thinking?”

Ash rushed down the stairs to the garden through the door specially used by the instructors. He rushed at a fast speed to the back door following the stone slabs. After he was mentally prepared, he walked to the forest.

But, just as he step into the Norg Forrest, he immediately took a step back.

“…Are you kidding me?”

Ash originally thought that he was used moving in the forest, but that is only limited to day time. This is the first time he went to the forest at night. Even the wet ground had a different smell. The nocturnal animals and bug creeps the hell out of him. The lushly branches of the trees had the sky covered which also blocked the moonlight from piercing in. Also, there were sounds that was suspected to be the sounds of an owl.

Could it be that Lukka is just an imagination? Ash secretly hoped that this is true.

“Wait a minute…”

The Eckbalds were also known as the ‘Forest Yōsei’. Actually, the self ruling territory of the Eckbald in the Knight Country is a wide forest called ‘Eckbald forest’. Maybe to Lukka, every forest is like the garden back at her home.

After Ash mustered his courage, he moved forward while trying to feel around with his hands. The rough tree bark made him feel at ease, but every time he touches something slimy, he will immediately retract his hand. If there is a small animal that passed by his feet, he will immediately jumped.

“This is bad for my heart…”

Ash complained while walking and unconsciously thought about Gawain. All the other dragons were together in the dragon house of the training camp and only Gawain alone was resting in Norg Forest. It is because Norg Forest is a well known resting spot for dragons.

“I see. She went to look for Gawain…”

Ash who realized the truth continued to walk deeper into the forest.

After a while, his field of vision widens.

In front of him is an empty space. The moonlight shines directly from the sky. There is a in the empty space, and the water was reflecting the moonlight.

Gawain cuddled itself while lying beside the pond.

Its shining white fur was reflecting the moonlight.

Lukka was standing some distance away from Gawain. For a breeder, the amount of distance was weird.

Ash found out that Lukka’s shoulders were shaking.

“Please, Gawain. I… can’t live without you.”

Lukka was calling after Gawain in a pitiful tone. Ash hid behind a tree a listen to her.

“The only Eckbald left in Ansarivan… is only me. The people in our home town have high hopes on me.”

Gawain didn’t answer. It is still with its same old self.

“Why must you go against me? I had always treated you as a family. When you became a maestro, I was very happy. But why…?”

Suddenly, some unexpected things happened.

“Grrrrrr…”

Gawain actually lifted its neck to scare Lukka. Lukka was afraid to move forward and fell to the ground on the spot.

Then she silently cried.

The sounds of the owls and the wings of the insects suddenly stopped which is most probably caused by Gawain’s growl. In the silent night, the only sound that could be heard was Lukka who was crying.

-Crack!

Ash stepped on a dried branch. Damn- he regretted just as he found out about this. The sound was tremendously clear in the middle of the night.

“…?”

Lukka while wiping of her tears, turned back and looked at Ash’s direction. It seems that there is no longer a point for him to be hiding. After Ash made up his mind, he walked towards Lukka.

“You are… From the student council?”

It seems that she didn’t remember Ash’s name. But since she also didn’t remember Silvia’s name, so this was expected. Ash stated his name while smiling.

“I’m ash.”

“…Why are you here?”

“Sorry. I accidentally saw you running into the woods…”

After Ash explained, he looked at Gawain.

Gawain had frightened Lukka just now. That was a total rejection.

Lukka treated Gawain as her family which is undoubtedly the right thing to do… But Ash still didn’t understand why Gawain was not bothered by it. The image of Lukka sobbing remains in Ash's mind…

In a few moments, it had turned into determination.

Ash as if he wanted to protect Lukka stood in front of Gawain.

“Say, Lukka. The previous experiment… Can I have it continued right now?”

Lukka gasped.

“This… had nothing to do with you.”

“No, of course it has something to do with me.”

Ash took a step closer to Gawain.

“This fellow had made you cry. This reason alone should be enough for me to interfere.”

Part 2

Anya was looking at Ash sudden challenge with Gawain from afar.

“That guy… What is he trying to do?”

Anya followed her plan which was working at the training campsite at the Allonnes Lakeside representing the student restaurant ‘La Tene’. The work to prepare the food was more troublesome than she thought. It was already midnight when her job was done.

On her way back to her room for a rest from the kitchen, she accidentally saw Ash.

Anya was interested in Ash who sneaked into the Norg Forest.

After all, the reason why Anya worked hard to infiltrate ‘La Tene’ was to investigate Ash Blake. She thought that she had a better chance to come into contact with Ash in the restricted area of the training camp compare to the wide area of the school grounds.

For Ash to act in the middle of the forest was out of Anya’s expectation. He even challenged Gawain.

As for the matters concerning Gawain, Anya also heard something regarding it. It was said that it was resting in Norg forest because it was not feeling well.

Anya couldn’t figure out the reason to bring a sick maestro here. The rest of the staff in charge of the foods also didn’t receive any information regarding it- There was probably no reasons for the basic staffs to know about it.

Ash was protecting a girl at his back. To her surprise, she was an Eckbald. Her name should be Lukka Saarinen… Anya secretly thought. She had memorized all the names of the student who attended the training camp before hand.

Form their conversations that she could not hear clearly, it seems that Lukka’s and Gawain’s relationship right now was bad. So Ash wanted to help her to solve this problem- This should be the whole picture for the incident.

Ash is probably thinking about riding on Gawain just like how he defeated the Necromanica.

“What is this about… Trying to play the hero in front of a cute girl.”

Anya wonders why would she suddenly get mad for.

Part 3

The sharp claws tore the moonlight mercilessly.

Ash immediately jumped aside from the strong front paw. He will die in a horribly way if he face it directly.

“Stop…!”

Lukka shouted at the top of her voice but Gawain had no intention of stopping.

After its front paw missed, Gawain’s weakness was exposed. Ash uses that opportunity to step on a tree branch to climb up a nearby tree. After he reached a thick branch, he looked downwards.

Gawain’s entire back was in his view.

“Uoooooo!”

Ash decided to jump down from the branch.

Gawain was not in his riding gear, but this is just what Ash wanted. When he had decided to ride on a dragon, the riding gear would only be in his way. Actually, Ash had heard before in class that ‘All the great riders hated the riding gear’.

“You are now under my control!”

Ash successfully landed on Gawain’s back. Ash was riding on Gawain’s naked back like how as horse riding tribe riding on a horse without a saddle. His hands were holding on tightly on its neck. He swore not to let go of it even when Gawain tried to shake he off with its might.

“Grrrr…”

The swing that Ash experience nearly made him faint. He kept on telling himself never to let go.

Ash tried to tame Gawain with all his might and tried to persuade it to accept Lukka again.

But suddenly, Gawain gave an earth shattering roar.

“What’s happening…?”

Ash felt fear. But, unless Ash let loose of his grip, Gawain had no chance of winning. As long as Ash remains on its back, Gawain can’t use its breath attack, magic, teeth and claws.

If it is so, then what is the uneasiness he was felling.

Even when Ash had a total advantage of attacking from the back, but he felt uneasy deep inside as if- He was the one whose back was exposed to a shinigami.

At that moment, there was a wave of magic that feels that it exploded out from Gawain’s body.

“Uwaaa…!”

Ash was thrown into the air by an invincible wall.

His sight was spinning.

The bright moonlight came into his view for a moment.

Gawain’s tail, like a whip, swung at Ash. Ash who was at midair had nowhere to run to.

“*Cough*…!”

It was a direct hit on Ash.

An unimaginable strong impact swept pass from his chest to his abdomen and he flew parallel with the ground. It was until he hit a tree, only then he fall to the ground slowly.

“*Coug*…*Cough*…!”

Ash coughed and he even coughed out blood. He probably had inner injuries. He was making some weird noise from his throat, which was probably caused by a broken bone that punctured his lungs.

To make it worst, the blood from his head flowed in to his left eye and blinded half of his view.

His body totally ignored his orders. Ash felt a cold chill. He didn’t know how serious his injuries were. The thing that frightened his most is he can’t even feel a single pain after such serious injuries. As if this body is not his.

Will my life end like this…? Ash had lost hope.

Eco face suddenly emerged in his mind.

An angry face. An angry face. An angry face… No matter what, it is always an angry face. Even so, I hope that she smile to me more, a pure, cheerful smile.

-Stop! What am I thinking about? Isn’t this… No different from dying. How could eco smile at me…

With his back on the tree, Ash mustered all his remaining strength and glared at Gawain.

“Grrrr….”

Gawain was threatening Ash.

There was a thin layer of magic on its body. Ash had only found out that the thin layer of magic was the culprit that sent him flying.

“Reflecting type… defense magic!”

This is a high level magic that could only be activated by a maestro.

The effect of this magic was not to neutralize an attack but to reflect it. Even though Ash was only clinging on to Gawain, but it probably take Ash presence as an ‘attack’. Could this had anything to do with his ability ‘to ride on any dragons’?

“Just what kind of rascal is it…”

Under those conditions, Gawain could even use its defense magic to eliminate Ash. If it was another dragon, Ash will be on their back and have them tamed.

He already reached his limit.

Just before his loses consciousness, he felt that he heard Lukka calling after him.

References and Translation Notes

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