Chapter 2 : Whispers of the Blue Dragon

Rachel

A cheerful five-year-old girl from the village of Istel, located at the edge of the eastern Great Plains of the Runan Kingdom. She loved fairy tale books.

The books she had already devoured extended from her home’s study to the village headman’s house. For the past year, she had been fixated on one particular scene.

The sea.

A vast body of water, said to be dozens, hundreds of times larger than the small stream that flowed near her village. Moreover, it was a mystical place full of the fish that Rachel loved so much.

‘I want to go to the sea!’

And so, she began to fall in love with the sea.
In particular, one of her dreams was of a girl riding on the back of a creature called a ‘turtle’ and traveling around the beautiful sea.

But Rachel could only wish; she couldn’t make that dream come true.

Rachel was perceptive. Other children her age were still very dependent on their parents and often threw tantrums. If they wanted something, they would whine and complain.

But Rachel didn’t. Her father, Jonan, was a prominent figure, a key member among the hunters of Istel village. Her mother, Sophie, led the textile business, one of the village’s sources of income.

Rachel’s parents were busy people, and Rachel knew it.

So, Rachel didn’t express her desire to go to the sea, keeping it bottled up inside.

Then one day, she happened to see a map hanging on the wall of the study.

And just like the girl in the fairy tale who rejoiced at finding a treasure chest in the sea, Rachel herself was very happy.

‘There’s a sea near the village…!’

She noticed the word ‘sea,’ written in small letters on the right side of the map, which was mentioned in the fairy tale book. The vast forest next to the village, where Jonan went hunting, had the sea at its end.

The sea she had longed for so much was actually near the village.

Rachel was ecstatic about this fact.

And she began to plan a trip to the sea.

For a week, Rachel, avoiding the eyes of Jonan and Sophie, began to plan a picnic while looking at the map.

‘If I just go and see it for a little while when Mom and Dad are at work, it’ll be okay!’

It was a mature consideration unusual for her young age, but it became her downfall. Because Rachel was only five years old, she couldn’t know how far the distance on the map really was.

The forest between the village and the sea was huge, several times the size of the village. So even the village hunters marked their paths to avoid getting lost.

But Rachel had no way of knowing that, and even if she had, nothing could have stopped her once she had set her mind to it.

To look pretty like the girl in the fairy tale, she brushed her black hair with a large comb and tidied up her favorite straw hat. She also secretly washed the white dress she only wore on her birthday, getting soapy water on her face in the process. In addition, she showed more filial piety to Jonan and Sophie than usual, washing away the guilt that remained in a corner of her heart.

And finally, on the day when Jonan and Sophie were both away, Rachel left the house. Carrying a fairy tale book, a sandwich she made herself, and her favorite candy.

Surprisingly, no adult stopped Rachel until she entered the forest. Because of Rachel’s usual good behavior, they mistakenly assumed that she was running an errand for her parents.

“Alright! Straight ahead!”

Having easily avoided numerous watchful eyes, Rachel entered the edge of the forest and began to walk forward endlessly.

The fear of getting lost, the eerie scenery of the forest, the fear of the unknown—none of these could stop her steps. With the sea as her goal, she was as unstoppable as the steel trains said to exist in the Empire.

“Sea~! Sea~!”

Even the animals of the forest didn’t touch Rachel, who was singing and marching forward. Think about it. All the animals were keeping each other in check, maintaining the balance of the forest, when suddenly a human comes along, singing and walking forward madly.

Would you be able to touch that person?

The animals of the forest couldn’t. They simply stayed away from Rachel, looking at her with bewildered or fearful eyes.

Rachel, until she reached the edge of the forest, was not attacked by animals, nor, for some reason, by red monsters. And when she parted the last of the grass, covered in all sorts of dirt, she was able to face the scenery she had longed for so much.

“It’s the sea!!”

Could she see me? I’m not sure.

Currently, I was submerged in the sea with only my head sticking out, looking up at the cliff. But the girl on the cliff was just jumping up and down. That wasn’t the reaction one would expect from seeing an 80-meter-long monster.

[What should I do?]

Contact with humans wasn’t in my plans yet. My initial, simple idea was for me to approach them, not for them to approach me. And a child, no less.

The only good thing was that she hadn’t noticed me. If I left her alone, her parents would come and get her, or she would get tired and go back on her own.

[…But how did a child get here?]

Come to think of it, it was strange. There was a huge forest between this cliff where I was and the village. It would surely take an adult an hour or two to cross, but this little girl didn’t seem tired at all. Besides, there were wild animals like boars in the forest. There was even a chance of bears or felines.

But for a child to pass through such a forest unharmed?

I suddenly felt a sense of incongruity from the child.
Whether she knew my feelings or not, the child sat on the edge of the cliff, struggling to hold down her hat that was about to be swept away by the strong sea breeze. Then she looked back and forth between the book and the sea, muttering something.

“Blue, sparkly trees… I don’t see them? Are they inside…?”

Sparkly trees? Was she talking about coral reefs? The girl’s voice, buried among the sound of the waves, was very warm. Just hearing that voice, I could tell that she had grown up receiving a lot of love.

“Turtle… There’s no turtle!”

The girl, who had been looking back and forth between the book and the sea, put the book down blankly as if she had been shocked by something. No turtle, did she mean that shelled turtle?

[To go through the forest just to see an animal…]

I didn’t know whether to praise the girl’s bold actions or to worry about her. But regardless, I felt a growing desire to protect her innocence.

Why? Because, who knows, maybe this child could be the trigger that helps me establish a strong relationship with the village.

I slightly lowered my head and looked into the sea. Far away, I saw an old turtle swimming leisurely. I dived deep so as not to affect the waves and moved to the turtle’s side. Surprised to see me, it tried to escape in a hurry, but it seemed to have given up in frustration.

[I won’t eat you.]

Then, the turtle, which had been moving its body so much that it was hard to tell if it was shaking or being swept away by the current, slowly rose to the surface.

“Uh… uh, uh?! Uh!!! Turtle!!!”

Come to think of it, this little girl has very good eyes. Even though she’s looking down, how can she see this turtle from the top of that cliff? I felt a sense of pride for no reason as the girl rejoiced.

More than that, it was very inconvenient to move around with this big body.

I am a Blue Dragon. Although there are slight differences depending on the legend, it is a mystical being that exhibits various miraculous abilities.

But having the body of such a being, I felt it was inefficient to move so clumsily just to lift a turtle. It was certain that this body was not just a giant worm that looked like a Blue Dragon.

I had abandoned that thought the moment I flew into the sky, although I didn’t know the principle. In other words, if I explored a little more, I might be able to use the hidden abilities of the Blue Dragon.

The abilities of a Blue Dragon.

The most representative one is the ability to control the weather. Not limited to the Blue Dragon, Eastern dragons were generally associated with the weather, so I might be able to use it if I did well.

Then I should focus on digging into this part. How much more I can reveal the abilities of the Blue Dragon. This will ultimately increase my chances of survival in this world where only the strong seem to survive. In fact, not limited to that, the ability to control the weather itself was very intriguing.

Clouds moving freely with my hands. Wouldn’t it be one of the superpowers that any ordinary man has thought about at least once in his childhood? Of course, it’s less romantic than shooting beams from your hands or becoming a superhero, but it was a cool enough ability.

Then, after the child leaves, I should think about this seriously. For now, it was important not to be seen by the child in order to successfully complete the human encounter plan. As I was wriggling in joy thanks to the realization, I suddenly felt the top of the cliff become chaotic.

“………Huh?”

The child fell.

From the cliff.

So I moved without thinking.

My huge body instantly soared into the sky and headed towards the falling child.

And when I finally reached the child, her body slowly began to stop in mid-air.

“Uh, uwa? Uwaa?”

The child made a dazed sound when she saw me. Anger and sighs poured out at the fact that the plan had gone wrong from the start, but at the same time, I was stunned by one fact.

This kid… how is she in the air?