Translation We Dwell at the Base of the Dragon’s Peak

69.2 What’s Your Name?

“Now, let’s become one.”
The girl separates from me with those words and spreads her arms.

Eeehhhhh!?”

As my mind gets thrown into chaos and Ruiseine blushes, the girl shines. She then turns into countless grains of light that fuse with my body. While Ruiseine is shocked, I quiver as my body wells with immeasurable power.

“Ernea-kun,”
Ruiseine looks into my eyes.

“Your eye color has become gold.”
Eeh?”

My eye color is the same as my hair, brown. They aren’t gold. As I think that, Ruiseine pulls out a hand mirror. I check and, my eyes really have become golden.

However, that isn’t the only surprise Ruiseine has for me.

Anou, this is something I am fairly certain only I am able to see, but right now, Ernea-kun is enveloped in a terrifyingly dense layer of dragon ki.”

I, too, feel it upon being told. I have never before experienced such a dense and powerful dragon ki circulating through my body. It feels as though it’s overflowing.

“This… is because I united with the spirit of the spirit tree?”
“Yes, that reason does seem to be the most likely.”

I united with the spirit. This is something I never would have expected. Both Ruiseine and I are on the side of the road, shocked.

Eetto, having united, what happened to the spirit-san?”

Could it be that she vanished? If so, that would be terrible. Priscilla-chan comes to the moss-covered plaza for the sake of communicating with the spirit of the spirit tree. If that spirit-san doesn’t come back, won’t Priscilla-chan be sad?

[No worries. I am here.]
I don’t hear her voice with my ears. To my surprise, it’s directly with my heart.

I look to Ruiseine, but she doesn’t seem to have heard it. She’s merely staring at me in wonder.

[When I become Ernea’s power, our hearts and body become the same. When I’m not, we’re separate.]

I see, then spirit-san can separate from me at will?
I hold my hand against my chest and sigh out in relief.

Once more, I turn my attention to the immeasurable amount of dragon ki welling out of my body.

The dragon ki I’ve been giving my all to refine and spread across my body until now feels like a tiny amount of dragon ki. What I’m feeling now is on a completely different level. Then, without my realizing my abilities have risen, I feel the dragon vein. Through it, I pick up on a lot of what is happening around me.

It’s time for morning attendance at the academy. Classmates continue to pass by. As they do, they curiously look at me who is seated on the roadside and Ruiseine who is supporting me. Various morning people are going back and forth.

I can feel various people without dragon power around me. Not just that, I can also read their movements. Then, separating from the ground, fluttering about high in the sky I can feel birds. I’m even able to understand just how high they are flying. The way I’m able to intuitively grasp and process all of this is surprising.

I gaze at both of my hands and pickup my wooden spirit tree sword. From it I feel a pulse stronger than I’ve ever felt before.

I’m realizing this now, but I still haven’t mastered this wooden spirit tree sword.

Why did Old Sleigstar turn the young spirit tree into this form and why did he instruct me to wield it in my left hand? Why is my weapon a wooden sword? Why am I wielding such an important young spirit tree as a weapon?

It’s intuitive, but I feel like I know the answer.

[This child protects Ernea, because this child loves Ernea.]
“Yeah,” I nod in my heart.

That’s right. This wooden spirit tree sword isn’t for attacking. It’s for the sake of defending. I hold this wooden sword in my left hand to protect myself. By uniting with the young spirit girl, I’ve gained an immeasurable amount of dragon power and dragon ki. This is the meaning of the wooden spirit tree sword.

As I am now, I feel like I can match Gild-san on equal footing.

“Ruiseine,” Her gaze as she stares straight into my eyes is dazzling. “Thanks for healing me. I feel much better now.”

“Yes, it is my honor to help Ernea-kun back onto his feet.”
Ruiseine smiles.

Eetto, this might be bad, but I’ll be going to Gild-san’s place after this.”
“My, my, well, well, in that case, looks like I will be going to school on my own.”
“Sorry.”
“No, after Ernea-kun’s exchange with the young spirit girl-san I saw a very dense dragon ki come from Ernea-kun. I began to wonder if this might happen.”
Hahaha, I can’t keep anything from Ruiseine’s dragon eyes.”

I also smile.
Then, I separate from Ruiseine and stand up.

“I have to go. I must defeat Gild-san by the end of the year.”

Even if I don’t beat him today, I now have a way to achieve victory. It all depends on my resolve.

“It’s possible that I might not go back to school until the end of the year.”

If I have to do anything for victory, then I can’t afford to go to school. For me, defeating Gild-san is much more important than my lessons at school.

“Mist-san has been quite worried too. Hurry and come back to Sleigstar-sama’s place.”
“Yeah, I’ll absolutely return.”

I nod to Ruiseine.

“Because, if you lose Mist-san, you will also be losing me.”
Uhii!?”

I flinch at Ruiseine’s revelation.
If I’m unable to defeat Gild-san, I won’t just lose Mistral, but Ruiseine too?

“Me, Mist-san, Priscilla-chan, and Nymia-chan. That is why, for Sleigstar-sama, please, you must come back.”

With those words, Ruiseine gives a bow derived straight from her shrine maiden training.

“Yeah, I’ll absolutely return to you all.”
I nod once more and take off.

It’s possible that this isn’t just my fight. Making everyone worry like this makes me a terrible child. Still, Mistral being worried about me fills me with energy.

I’ll absolutely defeat Gild-san.
I dash as hard as I can across the royal capital of that morning.


T/N: Thinking about it, didn’t Mistral threaten to kill Ruiseine if she didn’t marry Ernea?? The idea was that since Mistral was already going to marry Ernea, Ruiseine also marrying him would pull her onto the dragon side. If Erena loses Mistral, Ruiseine will lose the protection that would have come from marrying Ernea. Therefore, what Ruiseine really meant when she said Ernea would lose her was that her life was on the line.

<69.1 What’s Your Name?
70. The Spirit and Ernea>