"When will that Ice Dragon come? Will he come tomorrow?" (Yuna)
It's still early afternoon.
It's okay if it came today.
But I wanted it to not come at night when I was sleeping.
There's nothing more annoying than having your sleep disturbed. It's not a flag.
"Calm down, that's something only the Ice Dragon himself knows." (Kagari)
Up until now, I had gone out on my own to defeat them, but this was the first time I had to wait and not know when they would come.
Usually, I headed towards the location where the enemy was and solved the problem.
My personality was also to act rather than wait. It's not good for me to wait.
"Kaga-san is calm." (Yuna)
"Have you forgotten how long I was watching over the serpent's resurrection?" (Kagari)
"..." (Yuna)
"I've been watching over the giant snake, not knowing when it will come back to life. The next time the ice dragon appears, it doesn't make much of a difference to me, even if it takes a few days." (Kagari)
Considering Kagari-san's longevity, yes.
For a normal person, it was difficult to wait for several days without doing anything. Not to mention, I couldn't relax in Crimonia or Land of Harmoni because I was waiting for a ferocious ice dragon.
I wanted to go out to town but it's freezing and there's nothing to do.
All we could do was wait.
"But, you have a point. In the case of the serpent, it didn't come back right away. There were signs that it would come back. But we never know when the ice dragon might come, so I can't drink alcohol." (Kagari)
It's true that she couldn't drink alcohol.
"By the way, if you drink alcohol" (Yuna)
"After getting into this body, I feel sleepy." (Kagari)
She's a child.
First of all, children should not drink alcohol.
Well, I had never drink alcohol either, so I didn't know if my constitution was weak or strong against alcohol.
Since Kagari-san and I had nothing to do, we decided to talk about countermeasures against ice dragons.
"So, are you thinking about how to fight the ice dragon?" (Kagari)
"Hmm, it might be a little more troublesome than I thought." (Yuna)
"Well, since we're dealing with an ice dragon, it's going to be troublesome." (Kagari)
"Kagari-san, I applied the bear-shaped flame to the ice dragon. That bear flame is quite powerful, but I don't feel like it did any damage." (Yuna)
The bear's flames hit it, but only a mark remained.
Ice melted with fire.
There was no doubt that fire was ice's weakness.
But that changed as the temperature got colder.
When I was in elementary school, I learned about ice and there was something called absolute zero.
The lower the temperature, the harder it was to melt. Furthermore, if it continued to cool from the inside, it would not be possible to melt it easily.
I didn't know what the ice dragon's skin was like, but there was also the issue of the strength of the skin as a dragon.
Since it's called a dragon, its skin alone seemed to be tough.
"It certainly didn't look like he was injured. But that's not the only problem. He's flying. I can fly, but you can't." (Kagari)
Bears couldn't fly.
It's common knowledge around the world.
Well, foxes couldn't fly either, but I had an image of mystic foxes being able to fly.
"That ice dragon is angry at me for attacking him. If that's the case, I think he's going to attack me, so there's a way to attack him." (Yuna)
However, you wouldn't know how far the attack would go until you tried it.
……After several hours.
There was no longer any talk of countermeasures against the ice dragon, so I relaxed and ate potato chips as a snack while leaning on Kumayuru and Kumakyu.
Delicious.
I felt like eating it sometimes.
Munch munch.
Kagari-san also seemed to like the potato chips and couldn't stop eating.
While relaxing and eating potato chips, Kumayuru and Kumakyu began to move.
Kagari-san and I lost our backs and fell to the floor.
"Kumayuru, Kumakyu?" (Yuna)
Kumayuru and Kumakyu were looking out the window.
I opened the window.
Cold air entered the room through the window.
"What!" (Kagari)
Instead of going out through the front door, we went out through the window.
The ice dragon at the top of the mountain spread its wings wide.
"Human child. If something happens to my child, I will consider you an enemy" (Ice Dragon)
The ice dragon just said what it wanted to say and then flew away.
In the place where the ice dragon was, there was a beautiful pale egg.
"So big." (Yuna)
Before I knew it, Kagari-san, Kumayuru, and Kumakyu were next to me.
"So, where did the ice dragon go?" (Kagari)
We looked in the direction the ice dragon flew away.
The sun was about to set into the sea.
It flew towards the sun.
"You must be kidding." (Kagari)
Kagari-san said as she watched the ice dragon flew away.
I couldn't see anything.
I looked closely.
Two points. Gradually I saw what it was.
"Two ice dragons..." (Kagari)
"Did he bring his friends?" (Yuna)
"So, that's why he withdrew?" (Kagari)
No, that would be cowardly.
The two ice dragons were coming towards us.
The ice dragon of the mountaintop headed straight for those two ice dragons.
Did the Ice Dragon notice this and go to battle?
When it says earlier that if something happens to the ice dragon egg, it will become our enemy, does that mean we should protect the egg?
I didn't know if someone trusted me or not, but if a fight took place far away from the mountaintop, I wouldn't be able to fight. All I could do now was see where it went. The battle between the ice dragon of the mountain top and a new ice dragon began.
I thought it was going to be a two-on-one battle, but then an ice dragon came towards me.
The ice dragon of the mountain top tried to chase after him, but one of the ice dragons got in the way and didn't let go.
An ice dragon was heading towards the top of the mountain.
"It's coming" (Kagari)
Kagari-san prepared for battle.
The ice dragon came right in front of us.
It spread its large wings and hovered in the air.
It opened its mouth.
It's bad!
Cold air like a blizzard was released from the ice dragon's mouth.
I used magic as soon as I appeared in front of Kagari-san, Kumayuru, and Kumakyu.
"Miss!"
Barriers created by wind magic around us protect us from blizzards.
It was in time.
When I looked around, I saw that the ground was frozen, freezing everything around me in an instant.
The eggs!?
When I looked behind me, I was fine.
If the egg was broken, the ice dragon of the mountain top would also become an enemy.
After confirming the egg, I turned my attention to the ice dragon.
A slight letdown could lead to danger.
Cold air was leaking from the ice dragon's mouth, perhaps due to anger.
The ice dragon was hovering and glaring at us.
Cold air was leaking from its mouth, but wouldn't it attack us?
Apparently, it was not possible to exhale cold air continuously.
I didn't want to fall behind, so this time I launched an attack.
Now was not the time to complain about the material, so I created a bear flame and released it.
"Go, bear!" (Yuna)
The ice dragon avoided the flying bear's flames.
"I won't let you escape." (Yuna)
After all, there's no doubt that it didn't like fire.
The only question was how much damage could be done.
The bear flame chased the ice dragon.
The Ice Dragon and bear's flame chase began, but if the bear ran out of control of my flame, it wouldn't be able to chase.
The ice dragon ran away from the bear's flames. At that time, showed its back.
Those marks on his back...
"Yuna, did you see his back?" (Kagari)
"Yeah, there was a mark. That's where I cast my magic yesterday." (Yuna)
"There's no doubt about it." (Kagari)
In other words, the ice dragon in front of us was yesterday's ice dragon.
The ice dragon that ice dragon of the mountain top was fighting became the ice dragon that came to support.
I didn't know which one was stronger, but it's definitely the ice dragon who had a grudge against me.
That's why it was staring.
After all, it didn't seem like there's any damage from the bear fire I hit yesterday.
The Ice Dragon launched an attack from the sky, where it had the upper hand.
"As expected, they're highly intelligent." (Yuna)
I knew how to fight to my advantage.
Maybe it had fought with people.
It even called its friend over.
But even ice dragons couldn't attack unless they got close to us.
It must know that blizzard, a long-range attack, could not defeat us.
Then, the real battle between us and the Ice Dragon began.
The ice dragon attacked me while avoiding Kagari-san's fire attacks.
"I will guide him." (Kagari)
Kagari-san took to the sky and launched an attack.
An air battle between the Ice Dragon and Kagari-san began.
If I could fly too, I wouldn't have to let Kagari-san play such a dangerous role, but only Kagari-san could fly.
Kagari-san's small body flew through the air. Deliberately entered the Ice Dragon's field of vision and made it focus on her. The ice dragon might have recognized Kagari-san, who was flying in front of it, as an obstacle, and breathed out cold air and attacked, but Kagari-san dodged it. Then, Kagari-san, who had targeted him, flew through the air and began guiding it.
Kagari-san flew in a wide circle, and the ice dragon chased after her.
"Miss!" (Kagari)
Kagari-san flew towards me. There was an ice dragon chasing behind Kagari-san.
My magic was complete.
Countless flame baby bears were spinning.
I sticked out my arm.
"Flame Bear Tornado" (Yuna)
I shot with mana to push it out.
The flame cub turned towards Kagari-san.
Avoiding Kagari-san, the flame bear headed towards the ice dragon that was behind Kagari-san.
The ice dragon tried to avoid it, but the fiery bears hit the ice dragon's wings.
However, the bear's flames were repelled by its wings.
It hit, but the contact was only momentary.
It left a mark, but it didn't seem like any damage had been done.
I thought I could deal damage with fire, but maybe the ice dragon's body was colder than I thought.
Furthermore, the ice dragon's skin might be stronger than I imagined.
Author's Note
The battle with the ice dragon has begun.
I've searched a lot about ice and fire, but it seems that if the ice is large, even a hot iron ball won't be able to melt it all[1]. Depending on the game, ice's weakness is fire, but it's difficult to write about it as a story.
...
*Thank you to everyone who reports typos.
Please note that some kanji have been revised to match the book, so some may not have been revised.
Translator's Note
[0] I don't know whether I should refer the "Ice Dragon" as "He", "She", or "It".
[1] Just for information, in real physics, it is actually a concept of energy transfer and thermal equilibrium. It depends on which one with more thermal capacity to receive or to release.