We have dinner in a dining room next to the inn . Afterwards, we hurry back . We decide to stay in my room until we go to sleep .

Priscillchan, as soon as she was full, fell asleep . Nymia, at the moment, is curled up next to her .

A smile crosses my face as I watch Priscillchan, “She really sleeps well . ”

“That’s because Long-Eared Tribe lives with nature . ”

Mistral tells me .

“They wake with the sun and sleep when it sinks . The human tribe and my people will light fires until nightfall while they won’t get up . ”

“Ehh, really? Then, back when we were invited to granny’s birthday, the banquet was held at noon because everyone would sleep in the evening?”

“That’s right . ”

At that time, I thought that having a banquet while the sun was still that high was really early . Then again, where I come from, the accepted practice is to go crazy after the sun goes down .

“My, my, well, well, have Ernekun and Mist gone to the village of the Long-Eared Tribe?”

“Ah, yeah . That’s also when we first met Priscillchan . ”

I tell Ruiseine about the time I was invited to the village of the Long-Eared Tribe . Naturally, I confirmed whether doing so was okay with Mistral . Apparently, we doen’t need to keep secrets from Ruiseine anymore .

Ruiseine eyes s.h.i.+ne as she listens to my tale .

“What an enviable experience . I also want to go there someday . ”

“Un, hopefully we can go together next time . ”

That is only possible with permission from the Long-Eared Tribe . I can’t just promise her she can go without any consideration .

“That’s right, I will introduce you to the venerable elder next time . ”

Instead, Mistral promises to take her to the moss-covered plaza .

“My, my, well, well, I’ll look forward to it then . Is he the Grandfather-sama whom safeguards the Dragon Forest? Although meeting him might be scary, I certainly want to greet him even just once . ”

Even though she seriously considers dragons to be terrifying existences, she must have already heard a bit from Mistral . Hence, Ruiseine can cheerfully say such .

I initially thought that Ruiseine was an honest, innocent, and reserved shrine maiden, but I was wrong .  Err, not about the honest and innocent part though . What I mean is, Ruiseine is an unexpectedly a.s.sertive girl . She actively comes forward to talk to me, a foolish child, at school . She also shows interest in a lot of things . The gap between image and character might just be Ruiseine’s charm point .

Ruiseine asks Mistral about many other things . Mostly about me and tales Dragon Forest, though .

She is very surprised to hear that my wooden sword is actually a tree spirit and that it is very valuable . I then lend the wooden sword to her and she places it upon her lap . From there, she intently stares at it .

“I always thought it had a very strange presence . Turns out it is because it is a transformed sacred tree that is known as a spirit tree . ”

“The reason you can feel it is because you have dragon eyes . ”

“Is that so?”

Dragon eyes are amazing . They allow beings like Ruiseine who have no knowledge about dragon spirit or the dragon vein to unconsciously be affected by them .

“By the way, what did you talk about with Ruiseine yesterday?”

It seemed like they had fun in the bath . I’m curious about what they talked about .

“Fufufu, it’s girls’ secret . ”

Ruiseine smiles as she returns the wooden sword to me . Mistral, also, just laughs without telling me anything .

Mumumu, not telling me only makes me more curious . T-there’s no way they’re saying things behind my back, right?

“Last night would have been quite fun if Ernekun hadn’t gotten swallowed up by a strange affair . ”

“Awawawa, don’t say it like that . ”

“But thanks to that, we were able to nip a problem between dragon tribesmen and human tribe before it arose . ”

“Un, that’s the only blessing from that misfortune . Ah, by the way . ”

I suddenly remember a thing .

“The sword that demon was holding was a magic sword, right? What happened to it?”

It is magic sword that resembles the holy sword . We were deceived by it and the fake Ristia .

“Ludriad-san mentioned that he was going to take it back, so I sealed it with a purification and handed it to him . ”

“When did you do such a thing?”

“Fufufu, secret . ”

I see, so that magical sword has been recovered . Maybe it’ll get reported to the higher ups? After all, it’s not just a magical sword . It’s such a great replica of the holy sword that I couldn’t even tell it was a fake .

This happened before, last time with those magical swords with the dragon slaying attribute . Looks like there are people secretly making magical sword in the Armard Kingdom, how scary .

“Even though that demon told us he was guided into this country by dragon tribesmen, is that really true?”

I wonder if Mistral even wants to talk about that topic and immediately close my mouth .

“Thank you for taking my feelings into consideration . ”

Mistral smiles gently at me, seeming to sense what I am feeling .

“No, sorry . It’s not that enjoyable of a topic . ”

“No, but it is quite important, regardless . ”

Mistral shakes her head .

“May we switch to a somewhat more serious talk?”

Mistral asks that towards Ruiseine and me .

“Yes, I do not mind . ”

“Un, I’m also fine with that . ”

Ruiseine hands me some water and I drink it .

“Then, I think we should talk a bit about the relations.h.i.+p between the dragon tribesmen and demons first . ”

And so, Mistral slowly begins to speak .