As soon as I said, "Be careful not to put Zavilia in danger," one of the dragons screamed as if to object.
When I turned to see if something was bothering me, a dragon spread one of its wings and pointed to the Bird Imitator's feather on the ground.
"Uh, that's..." (Fia)
As expected, it was a top-class dragon. It was highly intelligent and hit where it hurts.
"Um, those black wings…right?" (Fia)
I immediately tried to say what I saw, but I knew it was a waste of time.
This was because the only black dragon that existed in this world had black wings.
Nevertheless, the feathers on the ground were clearly not Zavilia's. If that's the case, then it was a specific entity that underwent various metamorphoses...
"I-I'm sorry! Those are demon wings. For some reason, I happened to encounter a demon today, but next time I'll be careful not to run into any danger!" (Fia)
Since there was no way I could mislead them, I sincerely apologized.
Oh, I failed. They must have been thought completely I was untrustworthy for them to confess that I had encountered a demon who had not been seen for 300 years, even before I had even said that I should be careful not to run into any danger.
As I hung my head, a quiet silence fell.
As I was too stunned to look up, Zavilia's strange voice rang out.
"Hehehe, what do you think? My saint is cute, isn't she? She's always honest, sincere, and tries to protect me. The reason I wanted to become king in the first place was to protect Fia, so if I didn't have her, I wouldn't have come to this place and aspired to be king." (Zavilia)
That's why, Zavilia continued.
"She's my master, so you guys should be more polite. It's different from what you expected, but...even though Fia is my master, she still bows down to me and treats me well. So, shouldn't those of you who follow me bend your knees to Fia at this point?" (Zavilia)
At that moment, Zavilia's voice suddenly seemed to change, and I felt the illusion that the air was numb.
It seemed the same was true for the dragons, who straightened their backs in a startled manner, then stopped moving as if they had become rigid.
Meanwhile, Zavilia stared at the dragons with a cold gaze.
"You guys should understand what it means that Fia is my master." (Zavilia)
After saying this in an icy voice, Zavilia's body became smaller.
Then, in the blink of an eye, he became his normal size, sat on my shoulder, and turned away.
...Well, the Black Dragon King is in a bad mood.
Seeing Zavilia clearly sullen, I was at a loss as to what to do.
However, Zavilia's attitude seemed to shock the dragons more than me, and they seemed restless, spreading their wings in a timid manner, or stomping around on the spot.
Then, when they stretched their neck, complained in a higher-pitched voice than usual, as if trying to please Zavilia, but Zavilia didn't reply at all, and he just looking in the direction of the day after tomorrow.
Well, even though the dragons had shown so much remorse, it's really a shame for Zavilia to not take any action.
When I saw the dragons surrounding Zavilia, so depressed that their heads touched the ground, I felt a pity for them.
I thought it was understandable that the dragons, who prided themselves on being superior to humans, would not respect me, and that they would devote all their loyalty to Zavilia, who they recognized as the king.
I pat Zavilia's head gently.
"Zavilia, thank you for caring about me. The dragons look devastated because the king, who rarely gets angry, got angry." (Fia)
Even so, seeing Zavilia looking away still warmed my heart.
The original plan was to show that I could do amazing things so that the dragons would protect me without a contract.
However, it seemed wrong to ask for their protection, so when I tried to reassure the dragons by showing them what I could do for Zavilia, my explanation was insufficient and I was unable to convince them.
Even though that's the story, Zavilia was angry at the dragons who didn't accept the explanation and didn't accept me.
That's probably because he cared about me.
"Zavilia, thank you for being angry for me. I'm really happy for how you feel, Zavilia. But I think the dragons love you as much as I love Zavilia, so let's make up. You're going to leave this place with me from now on, so we can't just break up and have a quarrel, right?" (Fia)
"………I got it" (Zavilia)
Zavilia said this reluctantly, but when he turned back to the dragons, he had a calm expression on his face.
Zavilia suddenly raised his chin and opened his mouth towards the dragons standing around, although he had shrunk, so he was looking much lower than the dragons, and looked cute.
"I'll look away this time because my kind master told me to, but there won't be a next time." (Zavilia)
The dragons looked visibly relieved and started making gestures as if to thank me.
Looking at the situation, I realized that perhaps this was part of Zavilia's strategy.
No matter what I showed, it probably wouldn't have impressed the dragons, so maybe it was one set where Zavilia got angry at the end and made them think they had to treat me well.
If that's the case, Zavilia must be a strategist, I said to the dragons with a wry smile.
"Thank you for joining Zavilia's team! Lastly, may I heal your injuries?" (Fia)
In the first place, it's normal for monsters to be injured to some degree, so the dragons gathered had scales coming off and unhealed wounds left all over their bodies.
Although I was concerned about this, when I healed them on my own, a proud dragon said to me, "Don't do anything unnecessary!" I could see that they would get angry, so I couldn't do anything about it.
However, now that they had accepted me with Zavilia's help, none of the dragons would openly rebel against me. I was sure, probably.
Thinking so, I appealed to the dragons as if this was an opportunity.
"I'm going to take away your precious Zavilia, so please at least let me give you something."
After saying that, I raised one hand without waiting for the dragons to respond.
"Healing light, fall on the faithful dragons before you—'Recovery'" (Fia)
I stacked it up and activated another spell.
"Protective armor, appear, cover and protect the dragons——[Physical strengthening] Defense power increased by 20%!" (Fia)
Normally, it would be done without chanting since it was a familiar spell, but I said each word carefully, hoping to activate the most effective spell.
When the chant was finished, wishing that the dragons who would be separated from Zavilia would be as safe as possible, a gentle magic rained down on them with a sparkle.
At that moment, the dragons' bodies glowed with light, their peeled scales regenerated, and their wounds healed.
At the same time, something like a thin membrane covered the dragons' bodies to protect them.
——After a blink of an eye, what was in front of me were dragons that looked as beautiful as if they had just been born.
"...Gya?"
"...?"
And the dragons tilted their heads as if they didn't know what had happened.
I couldn't help but smile because I thought the situation was cute, but Zavilia also thought it was cute and let out a laugh.
"Hehehe, when my master and I depart from this land, you will be given a beautiful new-born appearance and a defensive effect that will not disappear for a while...I never expected this either." (Zavilia)
"...Gya!"
"...ya!!"
While the dragons were weakly insisting on something, Zavilia nodded in an amused manner.
"Ah, that's right, I think it would have been easy if Fia used this magic first, but my main problem is that she doesn't do it." (Zavilia)
"I mean, this magic is clearly overkill, and I wouldn't want you to become too obsessed with Fia, so if I had known in advance, I would have stopped it," Zavilia continued, earning a short retort from the dragons.
After talking with the dragons for a while, Zavilia looked up at me in a happy mood.
"Fia, all the dragons protect Fia, and they seem to agree with me accompanying you." (Zavilia)
"...That also made me understand things unbelievably." (Fia)
Somehow, as I was admiring Zavilia's ability to bring the dragons together in the end, I heard Curtis muttered behind me.
"I can't believe that all the dragons would offer to be Lady Fi's allies without a contract... Familiar is a new idea that didn't exist 300 years ago. Maybe we can understand the correct way of being. It may not be the case, but it may be something that will be completed by the 'Saint'." (Curtis)
...As usual, Curtis's line was extremely selfish.
With that, we said goodbye to the dragons and left Blackpeak Mountain with Zavilia.