I get up from where I was sitting with Reina, who is still sleeping, and look towards the way I came.
“Luna, can you look after Reina for just a bit?”
“Yes! Where are you going?”
Hearing that voice full of energy reassures me that I can leave Reina with her.
“I’m going to see why that dragon’s here.”
The black dragon that suddenly came at us.
I can tell the dragon Elga called Bahamut is here for me, but I don’t know why exactly.
I don’t think she has bad intentions, but I also can’t comprehend her suddenly dropping an emperor boar, turning into a human, and hugging me.
But I think that’s the sort of thing I need to understand if I’m going to live on this island.
Reina will leave one day, but whether it’s by building a boat or waiting for rescue, it’s going to take quite a while.
I can’t have something like this happening again and put so much pressure on her mind and body.
I’m not too worried about me, but her body won’t last at this rate, so we need to understand why the people living in this forest do what they do.
“Let-me-go!”
“If I do you’re just gonna run after him.”
I leave Reina with Luna and go back to the forest, where I see the black-haired girl struggling while Elga holds her by the scruff of the neck.
She looks about old enough to be in high school, but what I saw and heard before makes her seem a little younger.
It was the same with Luna, so maybe beings on this island don’t develop mentally as quickly as they do physically.
Our eyes meet suddenly, and hers shine.
“Darling! You’re finally back!”
“Ou, Arata. Is everything all right?”
“Yes, Reina’s settled down for now. So…”
What do I do about this girl that keeps calling me darling?
My experiences so far tell me this isn’t something my body with godly characteristics can just fix. I don’t even know why she’s attached to me in the first place.
“Can you tell me your name?”
“My name is Tiltue! The most magnificent ancestral dragon on this island, with the divine dragon Bahamut as my ancestor!”
The girl, Tiltue, introduces herself proudly while breathing heavily and swinging in Elga’s grasp.
To me, Bahamut is like Fenrir, something I know from games and manga. The image that comes to mind is that of a great dragon, and not something I can connect to the girl in front of me.
Anyway, I can’t just not say anything after she introduced herself.
“My name is Arata.”
“Hou, so my husband is named Arata!? It sounds strong!”
“T-thanks…”
Maybe she’s heard that name before, because she happily praises it.
Hearing someone praise the name my parents gave me doesn’t feel bad at all, but why is she being so friendly?
“By the way Tiltue, why do you call me your husband and darling?”
“Hn? What a strange thing to ask. Because I’m accepting your passionate proposal, of course!”
“Hum…”
I look at Elga, and he shakes his head like he’s telling me not to ask him.
It looks like he doesn’t know what she means either, so it’s not an inside joke of this island or anything like that.
“I didn’t intend to propose…”
“What!?”
Yells a surprised Tiltue, but I really don’t see why. How did things get twisted like this?
“B-but darling, didn’t you send me that emperor boar!?”
“Hn?”
“Giving a female a strong monster with powerful magic energy infused. That’s a proposal for us ancient dragons! And the magic energy you infused was incredibly strong… I-if you give me something like that as a symbol of your proposal, how could I not accept it!?”
“W-wait, stop!”
I stop Tiltue, who is excited and speaking really fast, and try to process what she said.
“Hum, can I take this one thing at a time?”
“…I see, so that before was just a joke, wasn’t it darling? Fufufu, that’s lovely. And you want us to know each other better first!? Good idea, darling!”
I’m a little bewildered, because she’s twisting everything I say and interpreting it in a nice way that makes her like me more, but it’s still better than her being an enemy.
I turn to Elga again, and ask him to put her down. Now that she’s on the ground, I see she’s about a hundred and fifty centimeters tall, and about a head smaller than me.
I look her in the eye, and start asking questions.
“…So you’re an ancient dragon, Tiltue?”
“Yes! With Bahamut as my ancestor!”
“And you keep calling me darling… Because I proposed to you and you accepted it?”
“Ancient dragon females have no interest in males weaker than them! That means someone that’s far stronger than me like you is melting my heart!”
And that’s where this whole misunderstanding started.
I question Tiltue, whose big smile is exposing her small canine teeth, and learn that apparently the emperor boar I punched landed right next to where she sleeps.
And to ancient dragons, offering a powerful monster as food is an act of courtship, and it’s customary to infuse it with one’s magic energy as a show of strength.
And so, Tiltue interpreted the boar landing next to her as an act of courtship.
Also, I don’t know how it happened, but my strong magic energy, the super power contained in this cheat body, was also infused into the monster, so she mistook me for a male that’s far more powerful than her.
“What about dropping the emperor boar on us?”
“I was responding, saying I accepted your proposal and that we should eat together as family!”
“…I see.”
So she didn’t come here with bad intentions.
Now the problem is that I didn’t do any of that on purpose. But it’s also undeniable that my actions are what caused that misunderstanding.
“Hum…”
I tell her everything that happened. How I suddenly found myself on this island, how I walked through the forest with Reina, the girl that collapsed earlier, and met Luna and Elga.
And how I sent that emperor boar flying.
“S-so you really didn’t propose? You’re not just covering up your embarrassment?”
“Y-yes.”
I tell Tiltue I’m an outsider that doesn’t know anything, that everything that happened was a coincidence, and she looks shocked.
“Uu… I see, so I misunderstood… I see… I’m too strong even for an ancient dragon, so no one comes near me, and I got all excited because no one has ever proposed to me. But it was a misunderstanding…”
“S-sorry.”
Tiltue was looking bright and cheerful just a moment ago, but she turns her back to me, and sits down with a shadow hanging over her. I can almost hear the gloom sound effects.
I can’t help but feel sorry for her, as she picks up a twig and starts drawing circles on the ground.
“I know no one would propose to a loner dragon like me. Those weaklings don’t even come near…”
It sounds like she’s strong even among her people, and is the type that doesn’t mingle with the others.
“Hey Arata, this loner dragon’s a real pain.”
“Don’t call her that, that’s mean.”
I’m feeling a little relieved, because at least it doesn’t look like she’s going to start rampaging.
I’m not used to this body’s strength, so if she attacked me like the emperor boar and I fought back, I would probably end up hurting her because I can’t hold back.
Still, she’s someone we can talk to. And as this thought crosses my mind, I turn to the emperor boar.
“Ah, that’s right. Hey Tiltue.”
“Nu?”
“Since you’re here anyway, why don’t we eat together?”
“Nununu?”
Despite the gloomy aura around her, she reacts to what I said and looks up. Still, she has a somewhat doubtful expression on her face, like she doesn’t really trust me.
“…Together?”
“Yes, together.”
“You’re not all going to start having fun talking and push me into a corner?”
Just what exactly happened to this girl?
“You’ll join us, and we’ll start by just eating.”
“I-I’m good at roasting things whole! I can breathe fire! Like gagagah gogogoh!”
“That’s nice. So we’ll leave the fire control to you and…”
I smile awkwardly as Tiltue is trying to show what she can do, and I guess she gets too excited, because she shoots fire from her mouth and I don’t have time to get away before it engulfs me.
“Ah… Oh no!”
“A-Arata!”
I hear their panicked voices.
“I-it’s all right, it scared me but… I’m not burned.”
““…””
I say with a smile when the fire stops, and they look at me with their mouths open like they can’t believe what they’re seeing.
This is a cheat body given to me by god, but apparently it’s abnormally tough from the point of view of two of the strongest races.
I look down at my body, thinking it really will help me live on this island without having to worry.
“And it’s great that my clothes didn’t get burned either.”
““That’s what’s on your mind!?””
Both yell at the same time, before we go to Reina to decide how we’re going to cook the emperor boar.
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