Chapter 169: Felicya Is Acting Strange!

The next morning.

Julian stood near the large window, gazing at the scenery outside with a clear glint of interest.

Sunlight illuminated the mountains where the Qiezhuran Clan lived. A thin mist still wrapped around some parts of the range, while the fairly fresh morning air drifted in through the slightly open window.

But it wasn’t the view that caught Julian’s attention at the moment. It was the bustle going on below.

Several Dragons in humanoid form were walking along carrying all kinds of large objects. Others even used their Dragon forms to haul things that no ordinary human could possibly carry.

Various decorations were beginning to be put up, while some buildings looked to be getting cleaned and prepared.

’So they really are going to hold a festival.’

Julian recalled his conversation with Garph last night.

When the old Dragon had arrived, Julian had thought he was bringing something important. After all, who would visit someone in the middle of the night just to talk about something trivial?

But it turned out Garph only wanted to pass on some information.

One piece of it was the festival that the Qiezhuran Clan would soon hold.

"The preparations will begin tomorrow morning, Lord Julian. The festival itself will take place seven days from then."

That was what Garph had said.

Julian had been a little surprised to hear it.

A festival?

In the Dragon World?

He had never imagined that Dragons, who were known to be powerful and terrifying, also had the custom of holding celebrations like humans.

Of course, thinking it over again, it wasn’t really that strange.

After all, Dragons were a race with their own intelligence and civilization.

Why shouldn’t they hold festivals?

’...I wonder what a Dragon festival is like.’

Julian turned back to the commotion outside the window.

Judging only by the preparations, he felt the festival might turn out to be quite a big one.

What’s more, the size of the buildings and objects the Dragons used was completely different from what humans had.

In fact, one of the decorations being carried by a Dragon looked larger than an ordinary house.

’...Will they serve food too?’

The thought suddenly crossed Julian’s mind.

Don’t blame him. A festival without food was a very strange festival, after all!

And if there was food, he was curious what kind of food Dragons usually enjoyed.

Remembering the fruit he had eaten earlier, Julian couldn’t help hoping a little.

But after a few moments, he shook his head inwardly.

’Well, there are still seven days.’

There was no need to think about it too much right now. The pressing problems hadn’t disappeared at all, and if Julian kept thinking about food, who knew what might happen?

Besides, Garph had also passed along other information that piqued Julian’s curiosity even more.

About the Clan Leader of the Qiezhuran Clan.

"Lady Cleenah has heard about your arrival. She wishes to meet you in person once she has some free time."

That was what Garph had said.

After all, he was in someone else’s territory now. The one who had brought him here was even one of that Clan’s important elders.

So if their leader wanted to meet him, wasn’t that fairly natural?

There was only one problem.

’...Why do they respect me so much?’

Julian still didn’t understand it.

He had actually thought about it many times since the moment Garph suddenly changed his attitude.

At first, the old Dragon had looked like someone who truly wanted to kill Julian.

But after something Julian didn’t know about happened, everything changed.

Garph had even started calling him Lord.

And what was even stranger...

’...Why doesn’t he ask anything?’

Julian frowned inwardly.

This was truly hard to understand.

Just imagine.

A Rank-S Dragon suddenly meets a strange human who has come to the Dragon World. That human even brought along a Voidborn that the Dragons had been hunting.

Shouldn’t a situation like this raise a lot of questions?

Who was this human?

What world did he come from?

What was his real purpose in coming to the Dragon World?

And how had he come to have that Voidborn?

At the very least, Julian himself would definitely have asked those things if he were in Garph’s position.

But reality was different.

Garph hadn’t asked about Julian’s identity in any depth. He hadn’t tried to find out the real purpose of Julian’s arrival either.

Even last night, the old Dragon had only passed on information about the festival and the Clan Leader’s wish to meet him.

After that, he had left again.

’...What on earth is going on?’

Julian grew even more confused.

He had tried to think about it from many angles, but couldn’t find an answer that made enough sense.

The only possibility he could come up with was something related to the earlier misunderstanding.

’...Is this misunderstanding far worse than I imagined?’

That sounded quite plausible.

Perhaps Garph had misunderstood something about his identity.

And because of that misunderstanding, the old Dragon didn’t even dare to ask what he should have asked.

’...How troublesome.’

Julian let out a small sigh.

He didn’t know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing.

On one hand, not having to explain his origins and purpose was clearly an advantage.

On the other hand, Julian didn’t know what Garph was really thinking.

What if that misunderstanding was exposed one day?

’...I don’t want to think about it.’

In any case, he was now in the Dragons’ dwelling.

Causing trouble with a single Rank-S Dragon was already bad enough.

Julian had no desire at all to imagine what it would feel like if the entire Qiezhuran Clan suddenly regarded him as an enemy.

Especially now that he might be meeting their leader.

’Lady Cleenah, huh?’

Julian repeated the name in his mind.

He didn’t know much about the current Clan Leader of the Qiezhuran Clan.

Garph had mentioned her name, but hadn’t described her appearance or anything else about her.

So Julian could only imagine it for himself.

’...What does she look like?’

Was she a huge Dragon far more terrifying than Garph?

Or perhaps someone who used a humanoid form like the old Dragon?

Julian didn’t know.

But there was one thing he could guess.

’The Clan Leader of the Qiezhuran must be very strong.’

Garph himself was already Rank-S.

And if a Dragon that powerful showed respect to his Clan Leader, then Julian felt it was impossible that she was an ordinary Dragon.

Of course, that was only his own guess.

He had never met Cleenah.

So there was no use jumping to conclusions too quickly.

’...I hope she isn’t hard to talk to.’

That was Julian’s wish right now.

At the very least, he didn’t want the meeting to turn into something dangerous.

After thinking it over for a few moments, Julian finally let out a small sigh.

Maybe he should perform a few divinations to make sure it was safe to meet the Clan Leader of the Qiezhuran.

Julian smiled awkwardly in his mind, then turned his gaze away from the window.

This time, his eyes turned to the side.

Specifically toward a large bed not far from where he stood.

On that bed, a goat girl was sleeping peacefully.

Of course it was Felicya. Who else would it be?

"....."

Julian watched the girl for a while.

Actually, there was something else that had been confusing him since earlier.

And it was related to Felicya as well.

’...What happened to her?’

Julian didn’t know.

A little while ago, Felicya, who had always been clinging to him, had suddenly woken up.

At first, Julian had thought the girl would simply go back to sleep as usual. But something unexpected happened instead.

Felicya had pulled herself out of Julian’s arms.

Then, without saying a single word, she climbed down and walked toward the large bed.

After getting onto the bed, she lay down right away and closed her eyes again.

"..."

That was all.

Felicya hadn’t even given Julian a chance to ask. And now, the girl was still there.

’...Is she angry?’

Julian couldn’t be sure.

After all, Felicya had always refused whenever Julian tried to put her down somewhere else.

The girl had even preferred to stay in his arms rather than sleep on a comfortable bed.

But now it was the opposite.

Felicya herself had left him.

The sheer suddenness of the change left Julian rather confused.

What’s more, he didn’t feel he had done anything that could have made the girl angry.

’...Or maybe I did something without realizing it?’

Julian tried to recall the earlier events.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t find anything suspicious.

Meanwhile, Monk, who was not far from him, seemed to be having similar thoughts.

"Boss..."

"Hm?"

"Did you do something wrong?"

"...What?"

Monk glanced at the sleeping Felicya, then looked back at Julian.

"She usually doesn’t want to let go of you, right? But now she’s sleeping all by herself!"

"..."

"That’s weird! Very weird!"

Julian didn’t argue.

Because he thought so too.

But that didn’t mean Julian knew the reason.

"I don’t know."

"Eeehhh!? Even Boss doesn’t know!?"

Monk looked even more bewildered.

Both of her ears moved slowly, while she looked at Felicya again with an expression that was hard to describe.

"Could it be... Felicya is sulking?"

"..."

He didn’t want to jump to conclusions without knowing what had really happened.

Besides, Felicya was still asleep.

There was no way he would wake her up just to ask whether she was angry.

Meanwhile, a white-furred fox near Julian also raised its head.

"Lumi doesn’t know!"

"..."

Julian glanced at it.

’...I didn’t ask.’

He wanted to say that, but decided to keep quiet.

Then, as if the matter was no longer interesting, it went back to enjoying the Mana that Julian had given it earlier.

Its nine tails moved slowly, showing how happy the fox was.

Julian watched it for a moment.

’...It really doesn’t care, does it?’

Of course, Julian couldn’t blame it.

Lumi had only just met Felicya.

And rather than thinking about why the goat girl had suddenly chosen to sleep alone, the fox seemed far more interested in enjoying its food.

Meanwhile, on that large bed.

Felicya was still lying down with both eyes closed.

Her small body looked so calm, while the sound of Julian, Monk, and Lumi’s conversation could occasionally be heard from afar.

But even though she looked like she was sleeping...

Her consciousness was still there, and she could hear those voices clearly. In fact, she hadn’t truly lost consciousness at any point.

"....."

For a while, Felicya didn’t move.

Then, slowly...

Her eyes opened lazily.