A drive was a kind of slang.
Let us go flying together.
Though the degree differed, there was no dragon who disliked flying.
The same was true for riders. The experience of flying through the sky was not something one could easily have.
When a dragon offered to carry a person outside of work, it was also a kind of sign of closeness.
In other words, a drive was a sort of bonding act between dragon and rider.
Bella flew up.
Because it was a comfortable flight like a stroll, the altitude was low, around one hundred meters.
“What’s gotten into you? You asking to go for a drive.”
“You looked like you needed a change of mood. We haven’t talked much lately either.”
Bella said that and carefully spread her wings.
There was no shaking, and the headwind was weak.
It meant she was flying while being mindful of her rider.
“……Mm.”
He did feel his mood loosening. Eugene simply bent over and lay down on Bella’s nape.
Dragons were unexpectedly warm. They were beings created by the magic of the world. Though they looked like reptiles, they were not cold-blooded animals like them.
Bella said,
“Do not cling to me.”
“No. It’s cold.”
Bella clicked her tongue with a groan.
Apparently, just for today, she intended to put up with Eugene’s childishness.
As he clung to her like a leech, for some reason, her beautiful scales, shining silver and softly luminous, struck his eyes more intensely than usual.
A sudden powerful urge arose.
Should I lick one? I’m curious what it would feel like.
“…….”
Even so, he did not want to leave his name behind as the Dragon Knight eaten alive during a drive.
Barely suppressing his instinct, he cleared his throat and said,
“Come to think of it, things have been so hectic that I haven’t been paying attention. What have you been doing lately? Still training?”
“I have been training Henri. And I have been learning from Henri as well. Just like what you and Noan are doing.”
“……? There’s something you can learn from Henri?”
“Yes.”
Bella was a warrior who had reached the pinnacle.
The only one who could teach her was her master, Tibolt, and if one wanted to merely exchange opinions with her, they would at least have to be one of the ten strongest warriors on the continent.
People often said that a sage could gain enlightenment even by seeing a stray dog passing by.
But the exact meaning was that one could gain something from even trivial things, not that one practically learned something.
Eugene recalled Henri at this time.
Was he not a child who did nothing but eat, sleep, roll around, and stare at books every day?
“What are you learning?”
“Since I did not spend much time with him before, I did not know, but that boy…… has an exceptionally outstanding talent for flight.”
Eugene nodded.
“I know that. I don’t know about anything else, but his flight sense is innate. He barely practiced, yet he reached a level similar to yours now.”
Those were the words of Eugene, who had spent nearly ten years with Henri.
Especially when Henri’s skill had reached its peak while experiencing battles against the Voidnir, he had been remarkable.
Henri had not excelled in close combat or magic, but he displayed astonishing flight skill and turned Eugene into a perfect gun platform.
“He seems to instinctively know what posture is efficient for flight. When I fly around with him, there are many points I never thought of. I am learning well.”
Indeed, Bella’s sincere personality seemed to help in situations like this.
Being able to look straight at others without prejudice was a great talent in itself.
When Eugene nodded, mm, mm, Bella laughed softly.
“Thanks to him, I gained one more technique as well.”
“What technique?”
“I will show you. Hold tight.”
Before Eugene had time to answer, Bella flapped her wings widely.
With her tremendous strength, she pushed away a massive amount of air with just a few beats of her wings and reached top speed in an instant.
After accelerating rapidly like that—at one moment.
BOOOOOOM!
With an explosive roar, she suddenly turned sharply to the side and flew off.
“Uwah!”
At the unexpected, violent change of direction, Eugene, who had almost been flung outward, let out a choked breath.
When Bella slowed down again, Eugene asked while sweating coldly,
“What was that just now?”
Just now, Bella had been flying at nearly full speed.
And yet, during that acceleration, she had changed direction by nearly forty-five degrees in less than a second.
And without any major deceleration!
‘She didn’t use separate inertia control or acceleration magic either.’
It sounded easy in words, but it was an incredible technique.
Especially when making a charge such as Lance Charging, it meant that even if the opponent tried to avoid it, she could follow within a forty-five-degree range.
Bella laughed heartily and explained.
“I learned it from Henri. He strikes the empty air with his tail and, at the same time, turns by using the elasticity of his body. It is still a bit unstable, but if you support me with acceleration magic, I should be able to use it much more stably.”
Bella said she had named that flight technique Tail Hook.
And she had already organized its contents and submitted it so it could be included in the Order’s flight instruction manual.
The chance of registration was not high, but if the contents were added to the instruction manual, it would be recognized as an achievement, and she could receive a large performance bonus.
Eugene tilted his head.
“You learned this from Henri? I’ve never seen him move like that.”
“You simply failed to notice. It is difficult for him to make such a rapid turn with his body. He has flexibility, but his muscular strength is far too lacking. If he wants to properly make use of his talent, he will need to make considerable effort from now on.”
In other words, this technique was something that could only be done when supported by monstrous physical ability like Bella’s.
But what of it?
Any technique one could use was good.
Eugene had learned the trick of high-speed casting from Noan.
Bella had learned a new flight technique from Henri.
It was a good sign. They were steadily building their abilities together.
Seeing that their recent efforts seemed to be producing results, Eugene felt better.
He nodded with satisfaction, then asked,
“By the way, where are we going right now? We’ve already left Alframe.”
They had been flying while chatting this way and that, and before he knew it, they had passed the capital and were flying into another region.
The low altitude had also risen at some point to nearly several hundred meters.
“Wait a little. We are almost there.”
“??”
She had said they were going for a drive, not that they were going somewhere.
While Eugene was puzzled, Bella lowered her head and examined the ground below.
Then, as if she had soon found something, she began lowering their altitude.
The place where Bella began looking for a landing point was a mountainous region with peaks rising on both sides.
The forest was so dense that there was no place to land while in dragon form.
When she had descended to a suitable altitude, Bella used transformation magic and returned to human form. Then she fell into the forest with Eugene slung over her shoulder.
It was truly free fall.
“Uwaaagh! This again?!”
Eugene screamed.
He had experienced it to death when descending underground with Echo Helstein, but this was not something one could get used to no matter how many times it happened. The problem was not simply falling. Throughout the movement, his body bounced like a toy held in a child’s hand.
As soon as Bella set him down on the ground, Eugene plopped down and panted for breath.
Bella patted his shoulder and supported him.
“Now, now. Get up. We have arrived.”
When he lifted his head, a large building came into view.
It seemed to be a business establishment rather than a private building, with several carriages in its large yard and quite a few people going in and out of the entrance.
“Where is this?”
“A resort with hot springs. Warriors stop by here to heal their injured bodies.”
“Oho…….”
Now that she mentioned it, among the people coming and going, there were quite a few masses of muscle carrying weapons.
He had heard somewhere that there was a mountain inn where warriors could soak in hot springs.
“The hot spring water contains minerals, so it is good for recovery. And the dishes made using it are special as well. The freshwater fish stew that is this place’s specialty is easy to digest, so it will give you energy too.”
Eugene was truly surprised.
To think she had come all the way to a place like this out of consideration for her partner!
He had not known Bella was a person with this much consideration.
He looked at Bella with an moved expression, then immediately turned his steps toward the entrance.
“Nice. Let’s go in right now.”
“Wait.”
Bella grabbed Eugene, who had been grinning.
She smiled at Eugene, who looked at her as if puzzled.
“We cannot just go in. Before entering, repeat the Thirty-Six Heaven-and-Earth Energy Forms one hundred times.”
The Thirty-Six Heaven-and-Earth Energy Forms were calisthenic movements Bella had taught him. According to her, they were like the warm-up exercises of the Adamantine Refinement Great Art……
But from Eugene’s perspective, every single repetition was already a high-difficulty exercise.
And she was telling him to repeat them a hundred times?
Eugene’s face immediately hardened.
“Do we really have to do that after coming all the way here?”
“I brought you all the way here to do that.”
At the same time his excited mood sank completely, Eugene’s lips stuck out a foot.
“I have already paid all the travel expenses and meal costs, so all you need to do is go in with your body.”
“…….”
“On top of that, if you want, I will fly you here anytime. If you show sincerity, I may even pay for everything. This is a decent deal, is it not? The exercise I am making you do is actually for your sake as well. Calculate it as you usually do. What truly benefits you?”
Certainly.
For the price of some hard exercise, the reward was generous.
Eugene’s mind spun quickly.
Emotionally, he hated it enough to die.
But reason spoke.
Refusing this would make him the greatest fool under heaven, incapable of even counting numbers.
And Eugene was a person whose reason came before emotion.
“One, two! One, two!”
In the end, he diligently did the calisthenics as Bella instructed. Since he had come after finishing the day’s work and every bit of strength had drained from his body, doing that really felt like death.
Eugene made hiiik, hiiik sounds and exercised until he nearly lost consciousness.
“You’re doing well! Good! Just a little more!”
Beside him, Bella counted for him and encouraged him.
Eugene’s mind grew hazy.
He was sure she had said he only needed to do one hundred……?
While his mind blanked, he felt as though Bella was ignoring several numbers and increasing the count.
But he was too exhausted to count directly. He could only leave everything to Bella’s calls and move his body.
In the end, he succeeded in completing the number Bella wanted.
“Huuuuuaaaagh!”
Eugene sprawled out flat on his back. His whole body was drenched in sweat. Even though no one had put a hand on his chest, he could hear the sound of his heart pounding wildly.
Bella crouched beside him. With a satisfied smile, she gently stroked Eugene’s head.
“See, see? You can do it if you try. Well done.”
The hand stroking his head was unbelievably gentle.
Eugene looked up at Bella while half-dazed.
A woman with stern beauty that seemed as though not even a blade could enter was wearing a soft expression as she indulged him.
If that had been not Bella but some nameless older sister somewhere, Eugene might have fallen in love.
But suddenly, a thought came to him.
Is this…… right?
Ever since he became Bella’s partner, he had never been swayed by her as much as he was now.
The Bella he knew only knew how to push forward stubbornly, and she was not someone with the skill to melt people so smoothly.
But what if Bella had a greater capacity to embrace others than Eugene thought?
Something dangerous might happen in the future.
Such as falling for Bella.
‘……That’s impossible!’
Eugene shook his head. Because the woman before him was a fool whose input and output were always consistent.
Just like this.
Eugene grinned and looked up at Bella.
“Lying here like this, it’s like you’re my mom.”
“…….”
The hand stroking his head turning rough like that of a jailer dragging out a prisoner happened in an instant.
Bella’s handprint was engraved on Eugene’s back.
The next day.
The inn’s hot spring was good. The food was delicious too.
After a deep rest, Eugene was able to begin his daily life again with a much lighter body.
And he was relieved.
Because he had learned that Bella’s embrace was still too narrow to hold all of him.