The 5000-year-old Herbivorous Dragon

Chapter 35 – The Proud Dragon of Fierce Winds (self-proclaimed)

He was surrounded by an air of sorrow, looking completely like a fierce beast that had its claws and fangs removed.

“I am Doradora… I am Doradora…”

Without any sign of light in his eyes, the silver dragon was only repeating that sentence, as if he was talking in delirium. Even an amateur could tell he was in a dangerous mental condition. Most likely he’d break like glass with just one more push.

What the hell. Did Rēko get so vexed with not being able to find Doradora, that she went and made a new sorrowful one appear?

I trembled as guilt flowed over me. Though the guilt wasn’t enough to make me go and help him. Then, Ariante pulled out her sword.

“Hey, Doradora.”

“Mm, what’s up? What is it you want me to do…”

“Not you, him. Don’t just react naturally to someone calling Doradora.”

“Sorry, it slipped out.”

While seeing off Ariante, who was approaching the silver dragon, I stealthily distanced myself. It wasn’t because I was frightened. I wanted to prevent Rēko from waking up here at any cost. Otherwise, she’d just deal the finishing blow to his already paper-thin psyche.

Incidentally, Lady Saintess was lying low even farther away, covertly examining the situation from the tall grass’ shade.

“I am… The Proud Dragon of Fierce Winds… My spirit won’t ever yield…”

“Oi, one called ‘Doradora’. I’ve no idea what you came back for, but if you treasure your life, you best return before the wolf wakes up. After all, I feel what happened to you is slightly regretful.”

“I am… I am…”

At that moment, he moved. The silver dragon brandished his right arm and flung his huge claws at Ariante.

The attack’s wind pressure blew up a dust cloud, simultaneously resounding with a thunderous boom.

“Ariante!”

“Stay there!”

An immediate response came to my scream. Ariante caught the giant claws with just her left hand covered in armour, and a fierce competition of nothing but physical strength unfolded.

“Can you see it, Rēvendia? His state is strange.”

“Yeah, I knew that from the start.”

“I don’t mean that kind of strange. His spirit had been broken this much, I don’t think he’d have tried to start a useless fight. It doesn’t seem like he’s just deranged.”

Once Ariante had finished speaking, she moved. She escaped the deadlock by fending off the claws’ force by parrying them down to the ground, moreover she dashed in one breath up the dragon’s arm right up to his face.

“Don’t think badly of me.”

Just like that, she vehemently launched her armour-covered knee at the dragon’s forehead. The dragon’s tough skull and the armour’s metal reverberated, causing an echo to resound, as if someone had struck a bell.

Before long the dragon’s body had lurched and he flopped down without any strength onto the ground.

“I put him to sleep for now. We should bind him with iron chains or something while we can.”

“Woo amazing. You’re really strong.”

Thinking about it, even though Rēko had a large handicap, Ariante was the only one to make her kiss the dirt.

Staring at the fainted dragon, Ariante muttered “Well then…”

“For the time being, should we try having him and the kin girl talk as shock therapy once he wakes up…?”

“I feel it’s a wrong way to tackle this problem. It’d be like thrusting down a person who almost drowned once again into water.”

Fortunately, Rēko was still soundly asleep. Ariante scratching her head turned toward me.

“Anyway, let’s start with restricting his movements. Rēvendia, take the kin girl away from here and”

In the next instant, Ariante’s body was blown away. I crouched and shut my eyes, not being able to withstand the delayed blast wave and dust blowing across the ground.

When I cautiously opened my eyes, I saw the silver dragon standing, dyed in the same purple colour as Lady Saintess before. He leaked a white lump of condensed air from the corner of his mouth. He had to have produced that fierce blast wave by releasing compressed air. The so called breath, which the dragon kind was known for.

“My Great Self thanks you for severing his consciousness. After all, this thing resisted me quite vehemently before coming to this town. I finally took hold of him.”

There’s no doubt. This silver dragon was being controlled. The one talking now had to be the previously mentioned spirit demon.

“Y-You―― Shouldn’t you be dead?”

“Do not get carried away after erasing just a miniscule part of the greatness that is me. I have determined there was too little maliciousness, so I could not breathe… Never have I thought extinguishing me with that method was possible.”

“Is that so? I’ve no idea how it happened, but probably everyone did their best to defeat you.”

I started backing away slowly, after giving him a humble excuse. All the while I was trying to pretend like the annihilation of his form was someone else’s doing.

“Now then, you are that Doradora, the one who destroyed one of my forms.”

No good, it got exposed anyway. Ariante was blown away somewhere, I couldn’t even see her figure. Lady Saintess shut herself inside the barrier. Rēko was sleeping.

“Hey, maybe we can calm down and talk?”

“I shall not listen to your nonsense.”

The controlled dragon had opened his mouth and started gathering magic power. It wasn’t a simple wind breath, but a sphere of violet coloured magic power.

However, there was movement trying to forcefully close the mouth in which the power was accumulating.

“W-Wrong… Doradora, is me… I’m Doradora…”

The original owner of the dragon’s body unexpectedly started showing resistance. What in the world had happened to him? Why was he so obsessively fixated on the Doradora name?

That was something which shall not be known to anyone except Rēko. I also didn’t especially feel like knowing, either. If I learned that, I might have trouble sleeping at night.

“You fool―― why are you deliberately hindering me. You are my subordinate. A fellow of the Demon King’s army”

“… I have, sworn. Swore by my pride, even if I have to oppose the Demon King…!”

“You fool! I do not give a barest whit about your resolution!”

Along with a bellowing cry, the spirit demon released a purple orb. Still, maybe because of the resistance from the silver dragon host, its force was akin to a gentle breeze. It split apart and vanished the moment it touched the defenceless me. As soon as that happened, the silver dragon regained the ownership of his flesh.

“Yes, I AM Doradora! The king governing all the sky’s winds. Just because I lost to some little girl, don’t think you can break my pride with”

His speech only made it that far. Ariante, who came back running, threw a punch at the self-proclaimed Mr Doradora’s temporal region, while Rēko, who opened her eyes after being denounced as a little girl, had finished him off with an uppercut to his lower jaw. This time, the silver dragon has fallen down for good.