Gentle shaking from Ruiseine wakes me the next morning. The refreshing and clear air feels great, and I immediately wake up. Mistral pulls out Priscilla-chan out of Nymia’s fluffy, long, fur and wakes her up. At the same time, she tries to escape back inside while saying, “Uuugh, want to sleep a little more!” Nymia seems to already be awake and is enduring the battle between Priscilla-chan and Mistral occurring on her neck.

“Good morning.”

For now, I greet Ruiseine who woke me up. Then, I greet Old Sleigstar who’s gently watching over us from a short distance away. After that, I greet Priscilla-chan as she rubs her eye from sleepiness and Mistral.

Our breakfast is last night’s leftovers.

After finished eating, Priscilla-chan becomes energetic and immediately starts playing tag with her spirits.

Speaking of which, this is Ruiseine’s first time seeing Priscilla-chan’s spirits. She is amazed at how Priscilla-chan uses her space jump to play tag with the two spirits with adult appearances. It seems Ruiseine has some knowledge over spirits. She’s both excited and surprised at how Priscilla-chan’s spirits are both human and appear as adults as she chases Priscilla-chan with her eyes. 

“She moves quite fast.”
“Rather than fast, it’s an instant move. It isn’t something you can chase with your eyes.”
“If she uses this sort of movement to enter a blind spot, it will be instant defeat.”
“If a dispute were to occur with the Long Eared Tribe, I suppose that space jump would be the biggest thing we’d need to watch out for.”
“Speaking of which, didn’t Ernea-kun also use this against the fake Ristia-kun?”
“It’s a technique I was able to use after imitating Priscilla-chan’s space jump. Just, I can’t use it repetitively due to the large amount of dragon spirit it consums. The moment I fly off to somewhere like Priscilla-chan is doing, I won’t be able to fly to another place again.”
“Even so, I think it’s very amazing.”
“Ehehe.”

Ruiseine praises me, making me bashful. Even though Mistral and Old Sleigstar also praised me the first time I did this technique, being praised still makes me happy.

“Priscilla, you can keep playing like that over there for a bit longer. We’ll be over here.”

As we watch over Priscilla-chan’s game of tag from a distance, we move just below Old Sleigstar. Ruiseine and I faintly sense what we’ll be discussing from now on.

“I don’t believe this is a matter has anything to do with either of you, but…”

Mistral hands us some drinks, sits down on Old Sleigstar’s nose, and starts reveals the truth.

“First, about the demon beast in the forest from the other day.”

Mistral said she would tell us about the large gathering of demon beasts the once we returned to the moss-covered plaza. Since there wasn’t a chance to talk about it last night, I guess we’re doing it now.

“I heard about the situation from the great wolf demon beast.”

I didn’t hear them exchange any words. It must have been done through telepathy.

“Recently, a decaying dragon has appeared in the southern area of Dragon’s Peak. As such, the demon beasts and animals that lived there seem to be migrating into Dragon Forest.”

Uugh, I swallow my breath.

Speaking of decaying dragons, the twins who founded the Armourd Kingdom and Jortenitost Kingdom are famous for defeating the king of the decaying dragons. The king of decaying dragons was a powerful creature that not even dragons and the dragon tribesmen could defeat. This decaying dragon shouldn’t be as terrifying, but it’s still an existence of dreadful and immeasurable strength to us.

“A decaying dragon, a dragon that was cursed on the verge of death, that decaying dragon?”
“That’s right, a pathetic dragon who couldn’t accept death and became a shadow of its former self.”
“It’s… pathetic?”
“A dragon who, for whatever reason, couldn’t accept its own death is pathetic. They are disgraceful.”

Old Sleigstar’s voice is sorrowful as he closes his eyes. The dragon tribe is an immensely proudful race. That’s why, even when it’s about death, they need to face it with pride.

Ruiseine is a shrine maiden. I wonder if she has any thoughts about death?
She’s closing her eyes at Old Sleigstar’s peaceful voice.

“Eetto, even though we now know that know a decaying dragon appeared, how does it connect to the mass migration of the demon beasts and animals?”

I return the conversation to the main topic.

“About that…”

I get the feeling Mistral is troubled over she should explain it.

“Fumu, do humans know about the instincts of animals?”
“No, unfortunately, I don’t know about it. Ruiseine, how about you?”

Wondering if it’s just me who don’t know about it, I check with Ruiseine. However, she also shakes her head.

“I see, then for example, let’s say there is a scary looking person nearby. Would you want to get closer?”
“Rather than getting closer, I want to get away.”
“Fufufu, this is the same. If there are a powerful mamono is nearby, then demon beasts and animals will run away from fear of being preyed upon or simply even killed.”
“I see, so since a decaying dragon has appeared, they’re running away from fear.”
“If that’s the case, does that mean the demon beasts and animals are not afraid of the dragons before they become a decaying dragons?”
“It’s just like what Ruiseine said. Dragons are a dreadful existences, but they still live within the providence of nature. Above all else, they also have a high intelligence. Decaying dragons, however, are rampaging dragons who’ve lost their sense of reasoning. Being near them is terrifying.”
“I see.”

Ruiseine nods.

“Allow me to add a supplement.”

Old Sleigstar says.

“Demon beasts and animals all have their spheres of activity.”
“You mean like territory?”
“Indeed, as for their spheres of activity, you can say it’s influenced by the prey they hunt. Powerful demon beasts have a strong desire to monopolize. They loath sharing their spheres with other competitors. As such, those strong demon beasts repel other demon beasts from them.”  
“And if one unreasonably stays and claims territory for itself, there will be a fight?”
“That’s right. Furthermore, this decaying dragon also has a sphere of activity.”
“I see, so these demon beasts and animals are running away to here from its sphere of activity. There’s nothing they can do against a decaying dragon, after all.”

Are the demon beasts and animals escaping from the place where the decaying dragon will rampage?

“In other words, there is no one else within that range of activity who is stronger than the dragon.”

Ruiseine gives a profound nod, “Un un,” as she takes in conversation.

“In which case, I just realized something incredible.”

---

<51.2 A Lively Dinner
52.2 An Unusual Incident at Dragon’s Peak>