Atelier Tanaka – Volume 5 Chapter 2 Part 9

Dark Continent (2nd)


We didn’t have to walk far before spotting the source of the explosion. 

“Ah….”

“This isn’t good.”

The Chocololi’s prediction was spot on. The Green Sylphs had encountered a monster on their way back to their village. A massive dragon. It’s massive wings were large enough to cast a shadow that covered a one kilometre section of this forest. 

We were in a thick section of the forest. The Sylphs had carved out sections of the trees that they now call their homes. I could see a flaunt glow coming from their eyes as they hid within the hollowed out trunks of trees. They reminded me of owls. 

Their entire village was around the size of a hundred metres square. The village that I have to assume is the Green Sylph’s village is currently ablaze. It was burning well, as expected of a village made entirely out of hollowed out trees. Sylphs that escaped their burning homes were flying through the sky in a panic.

“Dragon!” “A Dragon is here!” “Dragons are scary, dragons are scary!” “It burns us, it burns everything!” “Our homes will burn!” “Run, run away!” “Hot, so hot!” “Run away from the hot!” “Dragons are scary!”

The countless Sylphs flying through the air reminded me of a swarm of bees. However, bees would be trying to protect their home in any way possible; these Green Sylphs are just trying to run from the Dragon.

The Green Sylphs flew in whatever direction they could to escape the flames, but the Dragon floating above the canopy of the trees would spew out a torrent of flames that would incinerate all of the fleeing Sylphs. I felt bad for them despite their previous attacks on me.

[Guuooooooo!]

The dragon let out an imposing roar.

I could see flames beginning to form in the back of the dragon’s throat.

This is a perfect chance for me to gather as many Sylph wings as I want. This chaos would be the perfect opportunity for a thief to take whatever he wants without any worry of being caught. It wouldn’t be any trouble at all to cut the wings off of the Sylphs dead on the ground that weren’t incinerated. I could even protect myself from the Dragon’s flames with my Stonewall.

However, I couldn’t bring myself to stand by as this tragedy happened.

Not when all of the victims are the cute Green Sylphs.

Not when they’re all naked.

If I do my best to help them here, there’s a small chance that a few of them will fall in love with me. If I can accomplish that, I may finally get some proper use out of my lower body.

I want to live my life with a Sylph turned cowgirl.

“I’m going!”

I turned to face the dragon after shouting my intent.

Right now our position of vanguard or rear guard doesn’t matter.

“Ah,  wait a moment….”

I could hear Goggoru-chan’s voice from behind me but I ignored her.

I don’t have time to hesitate.

I conjured up several fireballs and aimed them at the Dragon.

“Fireball!”

Fortunately, the Dragon was still unaware of my presence.

I noticed something strange about the Dragon’s attacks. It had spread a ring of flames around the perimeter of the Sylph’s village, forcing all of the Sylphs to gather towards the centre of the ring. Is it planning on taking them all out at once?

What should I do?

The Dragon will completely wipe out this village of Sylphs. I quickly increased my number of fireballs to over a dozen before launching them at the Dragon through the canopy of the tree. The thick leaves that still existed outside the ring of fire hid my presence and my attack from the Dragon.

[Gwa!?]

By the time he noticed the incoming projectiles, it was too late.

I only know how to throw fastballs.

Boom, boom, the satisfying sound of explosions followed. It was louder than fireworks going off right next to me and the shockwaves it produced caused my clothes to flutter wildly.

The fireballs seemed to deal a good amount of damage to the Dragon as it let out an anguished roar.

[Guuuuuooooooooo!]

It started to frantically flap its wings as it roared.

After only a few flaps, it had risen dozens of metres into the sky. With the blue sky behind it, it reminded me of the Dragon Extermination quest or the boss rush I went through yesterday.

“Ku….”

I braced myself for its attack.

I was ready to summon a Stonewall to protect me and the Sylphs if necessary.

I was just about to check the Dragon’s status when something unexpected happened.

Maybe the Fireball did enough damage to scare it off, but the Dragon flew off into the distance without even trying to find the source of the attack. Even after watching the skies for a few minutes, there was no sign of it returning. It really did run away.

It must have chosen to act cautiously. Without being able to identify the source of the attack, it decided that the safest course of action was to flee.

The Phoenix, this Dragon, and the other high-level monster on the Dark Continent are more cautious than other creatures I’ve fought. The way the Dragon behaved reminded me of the Phoenix from yesterday.

It must have been a Great Dragon or something similar.

This was my fault.

The Green Sylphs may have attacked me earlier, but they only did that because I approached them with the intention of gathering their wings. I can still make up for it by using my recovery magic to cover the entire village.

“Heal!”

Relieve all of their pain.

A massive magic circle formed that covered the entire Sylph village. The bodies of the Sylph became illuminated by the glow from the circle, some of them remained motionless but most of them began to move before taking to the air again.

The residents of the village may be healed, but even I can’t repair the damage done to their trees. The flames continued burning and the trees remained dead and blackened. I could still see flames from the surrounding circle catching fire to the remaining, living foliage. This could burn down the entire forest if left alone.

“…you managed to drive the dragon off.”

I was trying to come up with a plan when Goggoru-chan called out to me.

Her voice was as beautiful as always.

“That Dragon was just being cautious.”

“….”

She just silently stared at me as always. What could she possibly be thinking?

Her silky white hair contrasted her dark skin and her unique red eyes were entrancing. Her eyes were big but she always kept her eyelids half closed which gave off a certain aloof atmosphere.

It felt like she could see straight through the facade I always put on. As if she was the only person that could see the true me.

“Is something wrong?”

“…not really.”

“I know we agreed on something else. I’m sorry for doing things how I want.”

“This worked out for the best.”

“I’m glad you think that.”

I had a brief chat with Goggoru-chan.

While we were doing so, the Green Sylphs began to gather around us. Perhaps they were interested in our conversation. Whatever the reason, it was making me a little uncomfortable having so many of them surround us.

“It’s the flat yellow.” “The flat yellow one is here.” “It’s with the Goggoru.” “The flat yellow and Goggoru are here.” “The flat yellow and Goggoru are together.” “I saw it. The flat yellow scared off the Dragon.” “The flat yellow drove away the Dragon?”

The first one began to cautiously speak, but it didn’t take long before all of them were just as lively as before.

“Why would the flat yellow help?” “Goggoru is scary, the Goggoru is scary.” “Is the flat yellow one and Goggoru good?” “The flat yellow is super strong.” “Stronger than the Dragon.” “Flat yellow can use fireballs.” “The flat yellow is supposed to be weak.” “Goggoru is scary, Goggoru is dangerous!” “Is the flat yellow one strong?” “Strong flat yellow must be scary.” “Is the flat yellow scary to humans?”

One of the many Sylphs floating around me flew towards my face and stopped within arm’s reach of my face. This close distance made me worry about her intentions.

I naturally prepared myself for an attack.

However, the Sylph in question stared into one of my eyes before asking,

“Is the flat yellow one kind to the Sylph?”

Zukyun~

How cute can she be?

With her being such a small creature, it was inevitable that I would have an unbearable desire to protect her. At the same time, I want to use her like an onahole.

This complicated disparity in my feelings is incredibly erotic.

After the first Sylph approached me, the rest of them began buzzing around and staring at us. Before I noticed, nearly one hundred of them were gathered close to me and Goggoru-chan. 

I only see one answer to give them.

“The flat yellow one is very kind to the Sylph.”

I don’t care anymore. I’ll accept the title of ‘flat yellow one’ if it means I can get a personal collection of flying onaholes.

“The flat yellow is kind to Sylphs!” “Flat yellow one is kind to us!” “But the flat yellow is with the Goggoru!” “Are the Goggoru and flat yellow together?” “The flat yellow is kind to Sylphs but it’s with the Goggoru!” Is the Goggoru kind to Sylph?” “Is the Goggoru the same as the flat yellow?” “Goggoru?” “Goggoru?”

Is this going to be okay?

What are you going to do?

Goggoru. Goggoru.

The Goggoru-chan in question looked around at all of the Sylph.

“…Goggoru is kind to the Sylph.”

The kind chocololi was able to read the atmosphere and nodded.

Smiles quickly spread across the Sylphs’ faces.

“The flat yellow and the Goggoru are kind to the Sylph!” “Flat yellow and Goggoru are friends of the Sylph!” “Flat yellow is a good human.” “Goggoru is a good Goggoru!” “The flat yellow isn’t alone anymore.” “Flat yellow and the Goggoru are together!” “The flat yellow one isn’t lonely!” “Goggoru and flat yellow!” “Is it really okay though?” “Is the Goggoru really kind?” “The Goggoru is probably kind.” “Probably, Goggoru.” “The flat yellow helped the Sylph!” “So the flat yellow is good!”

They quickly made their minds up about us.

The flat yellow one had been accepted while Goggoru-chan had been deemed ‘probably okay.’

“I guess we don’t have to worry about being attacked anymore.”

“…it seems so.”

A peaceful atmosphere had settled around us and the Sylphs, but is this okay?

The forest is still burning. The temperature around us has increased dramatically and just standing here is enough for me to be sweating profusely.

And the Sylphs weren’t doing any better.

Now that they knew they had nothing to fear from us, their focus naturally changed to their burning village.

“Homes are burning, our home is burning!” “The flames burn everything!” “Put it out, we must put it out!” “My home is gone!” “Hurry, hurry!” “You can do it!” “Let’s give it all to put out the flames!” “My house is gone!” “My house also burned!” “If we do nothing, everything will burn!” “Put out the fire, put out the flames!”

Several of the Sylphs flew up into the canopy of the trees. I watched them, curious as to what they were going to do.

They raised their small hands out in front of their body where several small magic circles formed.

Water magic that Sophie-chan showed me a long time ago.

The only difference was that the water pressure from the Sylph’s spell was increased. They shot the water down from the canopy of the trees with the force of a fire hose. In no time at all, the flames were almost all gone. Fighting the fires would be difficult for one Sylph, but with all of them helping it became a simple task.

I recognized this simple life lesson while admiring the rainbow they created in the sky.

***


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