Chapter 11 Dragon Demon Princess (5).
Chapter 11- Dragon Demon Princess (5)
Someone was watching her from the construction site.
Of course, there were many gazes. The moment Arrieta stepped off the carriage, several dozen gazes focused on her. However, she was agitated by a single gaze amongst them.
‘Dragon Magic?’
Dragon magic was a power only the Dragon Demon race had. As a mixed-blood of the Dragon Demon race, she had this power and it’s characteristic was different from a human’s magic.
However, she could feel someone here with Dragon magic staring at her.
‘No, the feeling is a bit weird.’
The scent of Dragon magic was in the air, but her head tilted in confusion. Was it really Dragon magic? She could feel a very faint feeling of Dragon magic layered on top of human magic….
Arrieta felt unsure, while looking at the main character.
A youth with long red hair tied behind his back was watching her with blue eyes filled with curiosity.
Azell was surprised the moment he saw the Dragon Demon Princess Arrieta.
Azell was human, but he was able to sense Dragon magic. He was an existence, who had fought and defeated numerous Dragon Demons. In the process of doing so, he was able to master a portion of the Dragon Demon race’s power.
When he looked at Arrieta…..
‘Why is the Dragon Demon race’s dragon magic so strong in her?’
After listening to Rick’s explanation, he thought that the blood of the Dragon Demon race would be weak in the Dragon Demon Prince and Dragon Demon Princess. However, when he looked at Arrieta, the amount of Dragon Magic she was emitting was no joke.
‘If she has that much then she might be comparable to a pure Dragon Demon?’
While Azell was being surprised, Arrieta looked towards Azell. She correctly looked towards Azell, who was among numerous workers.
Both their gazes intermingled in the air, and magical energy was emitted. Then….
Arrieta appeared in front of Azell at a frightening speed.
‘She’s fast!’
She crossed the distance of 50 meters in an instance, while forcing her way through the crowd! A normal person couldn’t even see her at that speed.
‘She uses the Instantaneous Movement method pretty naturally. The young miss is considerably talented.’
The Instantaneous Movement method was a high speed movement skill used by Dragon Demons and Spirit Order pract.i.tioners. In a normal person’s eyes, it looked as if she had teleported and appeared in front of Azell.
The past Azell would have realized what was happening earlier by a wide margin. However, his senses and physical abilities was weak, because his body held only a small amount of magical energy. In the past, he could have grabbed Arrieta with time to spare, but her movement felt too fast right now.
‘I almost attacked.’
He was barely able to suppress his reflex to attack. Azell blamed his own immaturity, then he looked at her.
Hu-ooooooooo…..!
Her movement cause a gale to form. Arrieta’s long silver hair and her coat with the white background and green symbols fluttered. While inside the gale, Arrieta stared at Azell with eyes filled with curiosity.
“You…”
Finally, Arrieta opened her mouth.
“Dragon Demon… You aren’t one?”
Her head tilted in confusion.
The difference between a Dragon Demon and a human becomes very apparent when one compares their body’s characteristics. Moreover, it wasn’t that he didn’t have any special characteristics, rather he seemed to have lost the power even if he had the blood of the Dragon Demon race.
However, she could sense a weak scent of Dragon Demon magic. Arrieta knew no instance where this should be possible.
“Princess!”
The others ran towards her belatedly.
However, Arrieta didn’t pay any attention to them. She asked Azell a question.
“Who are you?”
“I’m working here as a laborer. My name is Azell Zestringer, princess.”
Azell took into consideration that his opponent was a princess, so he spoke politely.
Arrieta’s eyes became round.
“Laborer?”
“Yes.”
“You are?”
“Yes.”
“Even though you have Dragon magic? You are doing manual labor?”
“I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Azell feigned ignorance.
At the same time, he was surprised inside.
‘This lady’s magical detection ability is totally like a dog’s nose. How did she know?”
Azell had hidden the flow of magical energy that was emitted by his body. Also, his power had been exhausted, and he had only recovered only a little bit. There shouldn’t be any fragrance of Dragon Magic from him. However, Arrieta was very sensitive, so she was able to detect it.
At that moment, Giles approached and asked a question.
“Princess. I am the Western Frontier Garrison’s Centurion, Giles Vince. May I speak?”
Since Arrieta’s status was so much higher than anyone here, Giles’ behavior was cautious. Arrieta nodded her head.
“I’ll allow it.”
“What is your business with this man?”
“I was looking at him, because I thought he was a Dragon Demon.”
“Mmmmm.”
Giles was stunned, so he looked towards Azell. Azell made an expression that indicated he didn’t know anything.
Giles spoke.
“Couple days ago, he was released by an evil black magician after he was experimented on, and we rescued him. The shock from his previous experience caused him to lose his memory, so he doesn’t remember much about himself.”
“Mmmm?”
Arrieta was surprised by those words.
“This forest has a black magician?”
“We haven’t confirmed it yet.”
After hearing Azell’s story, Giles ordered his patrol to investigate if there were any traces of the black magician. However, he didn’t have much information so far. The monsters inside the forest were a given, but it would be a big problem if a magician was cooperating with them.
Arrieta looked at Azell with suspicious eyes.
“Hmmmm…..”
“Of course, it would be difficult for the princess to believe this. However, when we found him, he was in such a bad shape.”
Giles defended Azell. Arrieta looked at Azell for a moment before speaking.
“Centurion Giles. Bring him to me later.”
“Understood.”
After Giles lowered his head, Arrieta turned around.
Azell grumbled inside.
‘This is going to be problematic.’
Dragon Demon Princess Arrieta. She was an unwelcome presence to Azell.
8
Afterwards, Arrieta accompanied them to the excavation site. Truthfully, she came here as a symbol representing the fact that the royal family treated this matter with importance, so she really didn’t have much to do here.
After receiving the news, Rick whistled.
“Azell, I heard you received a hot stare from the Dragon Demon Princess?”
“…how could you characterize it like that?”
“Every is talking about it. What was the reason? I’m curious.”
“Mmm. I don’t really know. She just approached me suddenly and asked if I was a Dragon Demon?”
“What was she looking at to cause her to think that?”
Rick was dumbfounded. As a healer, he obviously knew about the special characteristic a Dragon Demon possessed.
Azell shrugged his shoulder.
“I don’t know? There must be something only the Dragon Demon Princess can identify. However, she didn’t seem too sure about it.”
“Hmmm…”
“Anyways, it puts me in a bind. I don’t really want any attention.”
“You shouldn’t talk like that.”
Rick laughed as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing
Everyone was paying so much attention to Azell that everyone here already knew about him.
The initial circ.u.mstance of his discovery and the extreme changes he went through after couple days of recovery made people doubt that he had suffered from any nefarious magic…..
Azell laughed bitterly.
“I guess.”
If he knew it would turn out like this then he would have recovered more slowly.
‘I was too hasty.”
However, Azell had no choice, but to be impatient. His body was in a mess, and he was thrown into a distant era by himself. It was inevitable that he would become obsessed with recovery, which in turn will allow him to protect himself.
Currently, this resulted in him looking very fit. He had gained considerable meat on his 180cm frame, and the past couple days of training resulted in his arms starting to take definition….
His hair was roughly grown and he hadn’t shaved yet. He looked bedraggled so his appearance wasn’t that pleasing. He was in this state on purpose, but if he had a wash and a brush up, then Azell would be a tall and handsome youth. (TLN: 6ft is average height in US, but considered tall in Korea)
Rick spoke.
“Anyways, it might be a good opportunity?”
“What do you mean by good opportunity?”
“For a change, the Dragon Demon Princess is eyeing you. If you make a good impression then you might be able to become her servant.”
“I would decline being a servant to the royal family.”
“You don’t even know who you are, and yet you are talking high and mighty.”
Azell bitterly laughed at the words tossed by Rick.
It was right at moment.
“Mmmm?”
Azell ran outside of the barracks when an ominous echo stimulated his senses. Rick was taken aback, so he asked a question.
“What are you doing suddenly?”
“Rick.”
“Yeah?”
“Alert the others.”
“About what?”
“Enemies. It might be monsters coming here. They are coming in incredible numbers.”
Rick was taken aback. The excavation side had many soldiers patrolling the grounds. He hadn’t heard any news from the people who are used to fighting against the monsters of the Balan Forest. So what was he saying?
Azell lowered his body, and he spoke while touching the ground.
“The ground is ringing.”
“What are you saying?”
“It reverberates like this when many march in one direction.”
Azell had experienced the Dragon Demon war, so he knew of many ways to detect the enemies’ movements.
He was able to separate the vibrations, and one more thing…
“They are using magic to hide their appearances, and suppress the sound. Even the magical wave was hidden, but they forgot to hide the hive mind(TLN: group thought). No, maybe they didn’t know they had to do it?”
Azell spoke while looking at a far away place.
He was someone who had trained the Spirit Order to the extreme, so he was able to see them. He saw the maelstrom of apprehension emitted by the gathering of numerous monsters. Every creature who can think emits apprehension(TLN: misgivings…its a direct translation. I’m guessing every organism capable of though emits a negative energy). If one was alone then various nature’s energy hides the apprehension, but when numerous beings are gathered in one place, then it coalesces into a clear presence.
This was hive mind. (TLN: the direct translation is group thought but it sounded weird)
In Azell’s generation, it was common sense to hide your hive mind when ambushing one’s enemy. However, it wasn’t the case in this generation. That may be, because a person who can read the hive mind was rare or non-existent.
Shuiiiiii…..
Right then a flash of light flew up into the air on the other side of the forest. Since it was mid-day, it was faint, but it was definitely a magical flare.
Qua-ga-gw.a.n.g! (TLN: boom!)
The light flare flew in an arc, and it fell at the heart of the camp and blew up.
This was just the starting point as more flares started flying. The laborers ran away while screaming and the soldier were put on emergency alert.
“It’s an ambush!”
“They have a magician!”
From across the camp, the army of monsters revealed themselves. The roaring monsters ran forward, and it caused dust clouds to form.
Shui-iiing…..!
Again, another flare of light flew into the air. However, something several times faster than an arrow flew towards the camp. This happened the moment the ball of light exploded.
Puh-ung! (TLN: collision/explosion sound)
Something blocked the explosion in mid-air. The destructive power was weaker compared to the initial explosion.
Beyond the explosion, the figure of a girl with silver hair swirling around her was revealed.
The people who saw her figure hanging in mid-air shouted.
“Dragon Demon Princess!”
On the ground, Azell started moving.
“I’ll leave the direct conflict to the miss… I guess I should earn my keep? Rick!”
“What?”
“Hold on to this.”
Azell handed a wooden log to Rick. Rick was confused so he queried.
“What is it?”
“It is a protective item that’ll guard you. Don’t lose it. Take it and hide. You have to treat the injured. If you get hurt then I won’t be able to face the criticism.”
After Azell said this, he ran into the rising dust storm.