Prologue 1On a large ledge that stretched from the bedrock, there was a young man standing up over the edge.
He seemed no more than 16 or 17 years of age, he had loose and disheveled black hair and was dressed in a strange outfit. A field hakama with spread cuffs tied with a thick belt and a flashy colored coat. None of them appeared to be from this world.
He was standing at the top of a smooth and vertical rock cliff without footholds, 300 or 400 meters above the ground, the view that stretched over the horizon was truly magnificent. A normal person would feel dizzy just standing there without even looking down.
Nevertheless, the young man was standing calmly at the ledge’s edge staring at the area.
Within his wide field of vision, the undulated land spreads out as its light green and reddish brown mottled patterns intertwine together. The dark green ma.s.ses that seemed to be forest can be seen from various places. If he raised his head around and gazed upward, over the vertical cliff to the land’s deep plateau, he could see the high peaks that extended on the mountain range and continued to the mountain’s feet.
A deep forest that covered the plateau. Thanks to the high density of the trees and the dark green leaves, if one would look down at the forest from the sky, it would have probably looked like black earth spreading out over the land.
The young man that was gazing at the view slowly raised his head.
Though it was faintly and blurry, he was able to have a good view of the snow-capped peaks in the distance. The ridge was cutting the skyline, separating the white earth and the blue sky.
The youth turned his head as some shadow appeared at the corner of his eye, seeing what appeared to be some kind of small winged dragon flying on the clear sky.
“It’s already too late to be saying this, but this really is a strange world.”
He still looked at the sky, following the black shadow as it goes away.
“Though I say that… I still cannot remember anything of my own world, but I know at least that there wasn’t creatures like that flying in the sky.”
At that moment.
A woman approached the youth’s back.
The woman seemed to be in her early twenties. She had a long bluish black hair hanging down her back until her waist. She was wearing a long dark dress that wrapped her body till the ankles. The long dress had an opening that showed from both sides of the skirt, from which one could take a good look of the s.e.xy woman’s thighs.
The woman stopped before the man’s back and called him after taking a glance at his back.
“What are you looking at, [Dragon King (Naga)]-sama?”
“I was just… wait, I told you already to stop calling me Naga-sama. Who do you think I am?”
“Other than Naga-sama, how else should I address the one with the t.i.tle of [Dragon King]??”
Although a smile appeared on the woman’s face, it didn’t seem to have any kind of sarcasm in it.
But on the other side, the young man’s face had a sarcastic smile.
“It’s too grandiose. Firstly, I didn’t know that my name had such an outrageous meaning like [Dragon King].”
“You say so but, aren’t you going to unite this world? Unite it and bring a new order? Then I believe that being called [Dragon King(Naga)] is very appropriate for you.”
“That’s my intention, however, I haven’t taken a single castle yet. If I begin to claim myself as Dragon King, then how should I call myself when I take over the world?”
“You can call yourself whatever you wished then, like Dragon conqueror or holy dragon emperor?”
“Uha ha ha!, those are certainly pretentious.”
Although the youth laughed happily, the woman had a slightly amazed look on her face.
“You’re the pretentious one. To unite the divided countries like this, to unite this torn in pieces world, is not something a normal person would think of. Every countries got their hands full just protecting their own territory, and for the sake of protecting their country they attack the neighboring ones. It’s the same for humans and witches, to protect themselves humans try to destroy witches, and to protect ourselves we witches counterattack them. We have been keeping that unending cycle of wars for hundreds of years. It’s already too late to coexist with each other… That’s what everyone thinks.”
“Then it’s useless. If the only thing they do is protect the country, neither the country nor its people will advance forward. If somebody doesn’t take the challenge, the world won’t change. If n.o.body is up to the challenge…”
The man turned to face the woman and smiled boldly.
“Then I will take it.”
“I’m totally surprised by that way of thinking. How did a young man like you get this sort of idea?”
“I don’t know how either but, I feel that it’s something I must do. Though I wouldn’t say it is… an obsession, it’s like a voice is resounding somewhere in my heart, saying that the torn world must be united.”
“I wonder if that secret is concealed within your lost memories.”
“That might be possible.”
Once again, the man gazed upon the mysterious widening scenery before him.
The vast world.
The abrupt nature.
The many countries.
The diverse humans.
The ones called witches.
The long conflict between humans and witches.
As well as the continuing conflicts between humans.
Can this man really unite this world?
Can he stop the long conflict between humans and witches that had been going for centuries?
To put an end to the people’s power struggle that continued for hundreds of years?
“I will do it.”
The young man boldly laughed.
“It doesn’t matter what kind of world is out there, I was born to unite the world.”
The youth stopped smiling and looked at the woman’s face with a serious expression.
“So Harrigan Halliway Haindora, the jet black witch of the black forest, would you and the others witches fight alongside me?”
“That’s our intention. Though our group lacks on strength, we are prepared to give all our power to help your ambition. In any case, it’s the light of hope that shines upon our future as we roll down on a slope facing extinction. If we realize your ambition, we can secure our future “
“I hope so.”
“To begin with, you saved our lives, so we must return that debt. Didn’t you say it before [to certainly pay a night’s stay and a meal debt][1]? Now it’s our turn to pay it.”
“For a witch you’re too honorable.”
“I’m honorable because I’m a witch. And in the first place, it’s you that risked your life fighting for us because of [a meal and a bed debt][2], would be the one too honorable.”
The young man, remembered what he did, just happily laughed.
The youth continued laughing for a while, and soon turned his body.
“Well, let’s go back Harrigan. It’s getting a little cold here, we will catch a cold if we stay too long.”
The young man and the witch departed and soon disappear into the cave’s entrance.
A gust of wind blowed over the abandoned rock ledge, making a melancholic sound that resembled the winter wind whistling through a fence .
These are the warring states.
A world where war never ends.
A world covered in the tumults of war.
A world covered by the clouds of war.
Where the ravages of war never cease.
Where the drums of war never stop.
Where battlefields spread over the world.
In which what awaits on a man’s path could be victory or defeat, and also life or death.
Can this man really save the witches that are on the brink of extinction?
Translator and reference note:
[1]: It’s from a j.a.panese expression, it means to repay a debt of grat.i.tude.
[2]: Same as the first note.
Credits:
Prologue 1 was copied from BakaTsuki. The translation and editing were respectively done by Darkdhaos and Zexth.
Prologue 2There was a small lake in the forest.
Although if you looked at its scale over the sh.o.r.e, it would be more appropriate to call it a pond or bog. But its inhabitants called this place…
Ryuujinko, the lake where the dragon G.o.d lives.
The water of the oval lake was cold and clear, it wouldn’t become muddy even if it rains. Therefore, It is said that the water springs from somewhere at the bottom of the lake.
Though it’s a place that people rarely approached, people still come. Some of those few, said that they had seen strange things at that place.
Someone said that he seen a foreign city at the bottom of the lake.
Another said that the lake’s water was stirring even though there was no wind.
Another said that he seen a dragon swimming there.
And another said that he seen a foreign girl in the lake.
As those rumors spread around, the few people who approached the lake suddenly stopped coming.
Today as always, that forest wrapped in deep silence, the Ryuujinko had a quiet appearance with the lake’s surface shining from the sunshine like a mirror.
At the lake’s sh.o.r.e, there was a young man standing.
The young man was probably around 16 or 17 years, and was wearing an strange outfit.
He had loose and disheveled hair, wore a pipe hakama of pongee that you cannot find around here with a katana on his waist, and also a coat colored with flashy designs.
The young man stepped inside the lake sh.o.r.e, not caring at all about wetting his legs as he looked into the lake.
“A dragon lives here? How does it live in such clear water? In the first place, the bottom of the lake is completely visible. Where the h.e.l.l is the dragon? I came a long way here expressly for this, but it turned out to be a fake.”
As the young man spit out his displeasure, he bent to pick up a pebble that fell to his feet and aimed at the lake to throw it.
At that moment, the lake’s water began to swell even though there’s no wind, and the ripples approached the sh.o.r.e.
The sound of the ripples breaking in grew stronger.
“What!? Waves so suddenly!? It can’t be, is there really something here!? “
The young man threw away the pebble and once again looked into the lake. A view he had never seen before propped on the surface of the lake.
“W… what is, that…”
Dense stone buildings.
A plaza covered with stone pavement.
An extravagant palace with pinnacles.
“What is that!? A town!? No, but those buildings…”
In front of the young man, the view inside the lake completely changes.
A thick and dense dark forest.
A surprisingly thick and tall giant tree.
Beasts that he never seen squirmed in the forest.
“What on earth am I looking at!? No… What is it showing me?”
The view changed again.
And again, and again, and again.
The next thing projected in the water was a plain tree building, with the smoke of cooking rising from it.
And the shade of a beautiful girl’s face somewhere.
The young man never seen any kind of appearance or clothes like these before.
“A mirage!? No, I never heard of a mirage that projects underwater. What the h.e.l.l is that!?”
As the young man steps inside the lake charmed at the spectacle, the waves that broke in the lakesh.o.r.e suddenly grew.
“Uwaaah!?”
It isn’t the sea, it’s just a little pond.
The energy of the rip current was terrifyingly big, the young man was pulled underwater as if a huge invisible arm had caught his leg.
“Wha… what is going… gaah.”
The young man disappeared in the waves.
Suddenly, the lake calmed down, the waves stopped and the surface became like a mirror once again.
Nothing was heard, not the sound of the wind or the chirps of the birds. It’s a strange calm, as if the lake had absorbed all the sounds. The small lake is wrapped with the same silence it had before.
And for the young man who disappeared…
The lake’s depth was only a few meters, and the water was so transparent that the bottom was totally visible. And yet, there was no sign of the young man in the water or at the bottom of the lake.
“Young master… Where are you?” Young masteeer.”
the voice of one of the young man’s retainer called for him?
“Young masteer… Do you hear me? Young masteeer.”
The voice’s owner drew closer to the lake little by little.
“The young master, where on earth did he go leaving his retainers aside. he couldn’t have went to the lake by himself.”
An elderly man approached the lake, and bent his body towards the lake a little, and took a timidly peek.
“It can’t be. No matter how unreasonable the young master is, he wouldn’t have dived into the lake where the dragon G.o.d lives alone. So… Where did the young master go? “
The elder retainer of about 50 years clicked his tongue with a frustrated expression.
“d.a.m.n it young master. Going around without retainers with such rundown clothes, that’s why you’re called a fool by everyone.”
Letting out a sigh, the elder retainer turned and walks away from the lake.
“Young masteer! If you’re there please respond! Young masteeeer!”
Credits:
Prologue 2 was copied from BakaTsuki. The translation and editing were respectively done by Darkdhaos and Zexth.