Translator: Kurehashi Aiko
Editor: [QueenieZhuz]
Volume 4 Chapter 2: The Reason for Dragon-san"s Vacation
As you can clearly see, I allowed myself to invite the members of the Magical Machines Study Club to our little vacation near the Vishana Mountains.
The reason for that was fairly simple: I heard from Elvie that because of various reasons and a pile of homework to do, they weren"t able to go out and enjoy themselves as much as they would like.
Certainly, with monsters skulking around these parts it would be dangerous for them to wander on their own, but with us grown-ups around, it should all be fine. And even if they didn"t want to go explore the forest, there were plenty of activities to be done here in the hot spring instead.
I was just that indebted to them so much for taking good care of Aru, that I thought it might be a good way to repay them.
What"s more, you know what they say, right? The more the merrier.
We also dragged Kyle along in hopes of him spending some time together with Elvie. It is precisely because of that that this trip suddenly became so large.
The kids changed their clothes and went out to play without holding back.
「Right, Senpai, I shall join them as well.」
So I went out to the middle of the lake, floating on a rectangle piece of equipment that resembled a board, able to keep oneself on the water"s surface.
Aru"s swimsuit was a custom order.
Handmade by Ligurila herself, the jacket was a thin cloth with intricate design that with each of his movements created a fluffy and cute image.
His white and healthy legs were clad in a denim-style shorts.
Furthermore, the red Dragon Jewel buried inside of his chest looked just like an accessory.
The board that I was floating on was a piece of equipment that Elvie"s club specially invented.
According to Iori"s words, it was coated in sorcery that would prevent it from sinking into the water.
「Listen up, Aru. To make the board float, you only need to activate the spell that was cast on it. To accelerate or decelerate, you only need to increase or decrease the magic output. Just be careful on the breaks, they tend to be kind of wonky.」
「Understood!」
Supported by Iori who was right beside him, Aru stood on the board and poured his magical power into it, his eyes full of childish joy and expectation.
Then, as soon as the board was fed magical power, it activated, jumping forward while staying afloat on the water"s surface.
When Aru finally managed to maintain his balance on the board, Kyle used his magic to create some artificial waves.
Seeing that, Aru accelerated even further, dashing straight towards the incoming wave.
「Take that!」
Aru crashed head-first into the wave, and as a result, was launched into the air together with the board.
He sent splashes of water everywhere, and the drips of water rained down onto everyone else, together with dancing water spirits.
He looked really adorable at that moment.
But eventually, he started to fall, and hit the water"s surface flat with his belly.
「Aru!?」
Elvie immediately swam towards Aru, wondering if he was okay, but then he emerged from under the water, all happy and smiling.
「El-senpai, did you see that!? Did you see how high I flew!?」
「Yeah, it was perfect, but don"t scare us like that!」
「But, I wanted to act cool in front of all of you. You should give it a try as well!」
Aru got back on the board and was already approaching another wave, while Elvie put his hand onto his forehead.
「Oh well, guess if he"s fine it"s okay. …… Besides. If he still wants to go, who am I to try to stop him?」
Elvie was still confused with Aru"s behavior but decided to follow after him, and I heard a loud splashing sound behind me.
It was Kyle who approached the two boys, riding his board in a much smoother way than Aru was.
Of course, he was also wearing his swimsuit.
And since his body was in perfect condition due to his military training, he looked simply stunning.
Both Aru and Elvie were at a loss for words.
「Hmm, so you basically move this thing by adding or subtracting magic from it? I see that it"s still just a prototype, but it"s really well-made.」
Elvie looked at Kyle for a little while, before eventually he said:
「Okay then, Kyle-san. Let"s have a little compet.i.tion!」
「I"m already used to it, so I"m not going to lose!」
Hearing the boy"s declaration, Kyle laughs.
「Okay, sure. I can even take you both on at the same time.」
With those words, both Aru and Elvie grab their boards and get ready to face Kyle.
「You"d better not underestimate us, or else you might come to regret it later!」
「We"ll show you just how fast we can be!」
Soon after, their race against Kyle was fully underway.
Some distance away from the boys, Marca was riding through the water on Senpai"s back, who became a slightly larger version of his Mini-Dragon form.
Then Marca, who was wearing a cute-looking one piece swimsuit, accentuated with ribbons, slides off of Senpai"s back and gets into the water.
Mikoto was already in the water, and once Marca got in, she gently took her by the hand.
By the way, Mikoto"s swimsuit was a combination of a striped tank-top and some rather short shorts.
Her tail was slowly swaying inside of the water.
「First, try to, let your body, sink in, gently.」
「It"s so fluffy and weird, I"m scared……」
Marca"s body was tense and she looked as if she was about to cry, but somehow she looked happy at the same time.
「Huh? I can feel the bottom with my feet?」
Even though the water was deep here, Marca was able to stand properly with the water reaching as far as her chest. Looking at Mikoto, she realized that she was floating in a normal way.
「Vaas, is this your doing?」
「Correct. I made a temporary footing for you.」
Vaas-senpai nodded, extending his neck towards Marca.
「The fear of water is probably induced by the memory of nearly dying in the past. So in order to eliminate that fear, such solution is thought to produce the best results.」
「Yup. Thank you so much, Vaas. I"ll do my best.」
Marca smiled and laughed, looking like a flower in full bloom. Vaas-senpai seemed somewhat happy.
After I enjoyed the lake for some time, I sat back at the small folding chair at the sh.o.r.e, and while I was still watching them, Nectar joined me, also wearing a swimsuit.
He was wearing a trunks-type swimsuit, so it was exposing his upper body in a very nice way.
I knew that well, but for a researcher and a magician, Nectar was exceptionally muscular.
「For the time being, we have scouted the perimeter and eliminated every Second Cla.s.s monster that we could find.」
「Thank you so much, Nectar.」
Nectar relaxes quite a bit, and then he looks at me.
「I knew it, it looks good on you!」
His eyes were filled with pleasure when he was gazing at my swimsuit.
「No, umm…… Yup. I like it a lot, too.」
My swimsuit was custom made by Ligurila as well.
It"s design was similar to that of Aru, but had much less cloth to it as to accentuate my cleavage, which was already accentuated quite a lot thanks to the Dragon Gem sticking out in the middle of my chest.
The bottom part came with a thin cloth wrapped around my waist, to give it a nice mature yet cute touch.
Nectar"s eyes were crawling all over my body, but since they got nothing more but praise for me, it wasn"t that bad of a feeling.
But still, it was also kind of embarra.s.sing, since my less than desirable figure was on full display while I was wearing that outfit!
「Kyle looks to be having fun, I"m glad.」
I said that in order to distract Nectar away from my body.
Out in the lake, Aru, Iori and Elvie were currently all ganging up on Kyle in order to beat him.
As the creators of the swimming boards, Elvie and Iori had a good grasp on controlling them, and as such were proving themselves to be quite a challenge for Kyle.
However, Kyle was also a quick learner, and in such a short amount of time, he had managed to grasp the idea of controlling the board with ease, and was currently evading the boys" attacks.
At the moment those boards looked much more like skateboards, since they didn"t need waves to make them move.
Aru was also trying to use his magic to do some tricks with his board, but so far his results were proving to be rather miserable.
But Kyle"s expression seemed to be much brighter than when we got back from Melias.
「Yes. I"ve been worried about him ever since we got back from Hesat.」
「It"s impossible for him to act as if nothing ever happened, but maybe he should come back to his old self little by little.」
After that whole "Eclipse" event, Kyle was visibly feeling down.
It was only natural for him to be that way, seeing how his wife Belga was made into a spirit, and was also one of Lute"s lackeys.
When the riots finally settled, for some time Kyle was following the trails that Lute"s groups had left, hoping to find them and getting some answers out of the about Belga.
We were also trying to gain some intel on our own, but our attempts gained us pretty much the same results as Kyle"s - nothing. Not to mention that what he was doing was dangerous.
So instead of having him running around and looking for G.o.d knows what, we forced him into coming here so that he could cool his head off and think about things calmly.
Since even if he did end up finding Lute, nothing good would come out of it.
Having him spend some time with Elvie and Marca proved to be good enough of a distraction, even though he was still looking kind of absent-minded sometimes.
「Lava, since I am here now, you can go out and play some more.」
I think a little bit about Nectar"s offer.
Sure, I wanted to give the swimming board a go as well, but I wanted the kids to have as much fun as possible.
「But on the other hand, it"s getting kind of late. So I might as well wait here with you.」
「If that"s what you want. Alright, let"s wait together, then.」
Nectar sat right next to me and we watched the kids play for a while, before I realized that Mikoto came out of the water.
「Ara, what"s wrong, Mikoto?」
She shook her tail and started to dry her fur, and then I handed her her luggage that I was holding onto.
Just to be on the safe side, in case of something unexpected happening, everyone"s staves and weapons were right here beside us, ready to be handed out to their respective owners.
However, if we really were to need our weapons to fight here, that would be really annoying since it was our vacation and all.
「I wanted to get into the hot springs, but I need to prepare myself first.」
Looking at Mikoto, her eyes were full of antic.i.p.ation that couldn"t be suppressed any longer.
Yeah, I"m glad that you are looking forward to it so much.
「I see, maybe I should go for a dip as well?」
「Well then, see you later.」
After leaving our luggage back in Nectar"s capable hands, I took Mikoto with me and we returned to the villa.