Summon Elemental

 

Those girls born only to be swept away by the flow of time did not retain their memories.

Yet even while losing their entirety,

that red color was deeply engraved into their memories.

 

"Sure enough… This is… a bit… too much…"

"I'm sorry, Mentor… It's because I'm so big…"

As I let out a rough breath, I gently lowered Lufelle's body to the ground.

"Yeah, no, I think it's a very good thing that you've grown bigger."

It had been about a hundred years since I met Lufelle. Her height, which had been about five meters, was now approaching eight meters. The fact that she grew so quickly was truly a delightful thing.

The problem was that even in my dragon form, I couldn't transport her massive body.

It had been over a decade since Rin discovered the method of making elementals speak.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Rin, a merfolk, had very poor compatibility with earth elementals. She was able to summon elementals for water, wind, and even fire, but she just couldn't summon Gnomes.

The girl, who'd originally been on the verge of death, was still healthy. She really seemed to have rejuvenated. Learning magic from the more energetic than ever girl, Lufelle was the first to successfully summon a speaking elemental.

I immediately thought of having Lufelle decipher the mural, but a problem arose.

I couldn't take her to that cave.

After all, it was separated from us by a sea. We couldn't walk there. I'd thoroughly searched if there were any connecting land bridges, but all I found out was that it was a completely separate continent, lacking any connections at all.

The strait lying in between would take about two hours even with my wings. It was impossible to carry Lufelle for such a long time, let alone a few kilometers.

"Maybe a boat would be best after all?"

If neither land nor air would work, the only option left was to go by sea. But as we knew, this worlds' boats wouldn't even float for me, let alone move.

They'd float to some extent even with me on board if I wore clothes of a different color, but that wouldn't change the fact that the boat would refuse to move.

"Mentor, I'll try hard to row!"

"No, no… that's a bit much."

I waved my hands at Lufelle, who'd insisted she could do it with her fists clenched. While it would certainly move if rowed manually, the distance wasn't something that could be reached by oars alone, even for a giant like Lufelle.

In that case, it seemed more realistic to train my body to more easily carry Lufelle. Not that I knew if a dragon's body could even strength itself through training, though…

"Why not attach a rope or something and let the Mentor pull it in dragon form?"

Tia spoke in a half-joking tone.

"I thought about that too."

In fact, I'd even tried it already.

"When I'm in dragon form, the boat sinks immediately."

"Right…"

It was a simple matter in my human form; I could just cover up with clothes. I couldn't do that as a dragon. I couldn't do something like bathing in white paint to cover up, even ignoring the fact we hadn't invented proper paint yet.

"You had it hard back when we gave that a try, right Rin?"

"Huh?"

I thought that maybe Rin and I would cancel each other out and the boat would float if she were on it, but that was a naive thought.

"Remember? The boat sank even with you on it. That would have been one thing, but remember how it then split in half and nearly seriously injured you?"

"Oh, yeah. That did happen."

She'd been very close to being nearly cut in half by the split boat. She was truly a great person to be able to dismiss that experience so lightly. I doubt that even Rin's magic would be able to heal her if she was cut in half.

"… Why not let the elemental pull it?"

Suddenly, Nina spoke up.

I see. That might be more realistic than me pulling it.

If it was someone with a good compatibility with water elementals like Rin, she'd probably be able to keep it out for a long time.

"Alright. Let's experiment right away. Lufelle, Yuuka, can you bring out the boat we made before from the warehouse?"

I instructed them as I put on the white coat made for me by Nina for whenever we interacted with a the water elemental and headed to the waterway.

The boat sank immediately before, but it doesn't when I wore the white coat. I don't really understand why it hates red so much…

"Undine, the maiden of water. Appear!"

Setting aside my color, it seemed that my compatibility with water elementals weren't bad. It wasn't good, but they would still appear.

"Could you pull this rope and carry the boat?"

When I showed the rope tied to the boat and asked, Undine nodded.

With that, I was dragged into the water with the boat.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

"I said straight…! Glub glub glub!"

I was pulled straight in and I sank underwater.

"No, not like that… on the surface of the water… whoa!"

The boat was pulled with such force that it flew, and I was thrown into the waterway.

"Slowly, slowly, slowly… no, that's too slow! Pull a little faster… blub blub blub!"

Unable to bear the boat being pulled at a speed slower than a snail, I shouted and was submerged again.

"… Alright, this method won't work."

"Oh, finally realized that have you?"

Nina, who had been sitting in the grass doing some embroidery, threw spoke in a snarky tone toward me after I'd been tossed into the waterway more times than I could count on both hands.

"If you realized, you should have told me!"

I'd have definitely caught a cold if I weren't a dragon.

"If she's even having trouble, there's no way you're going to do it right."

Saying that, Nina pointed to Rin who was energetically plunging into the waterway.

It didn't seem to be because I called Undine and gave her orders that it wansn't working.

"Geez! If it's that much trouble, how about this!?"

Perhaps she was frustrated that it wasn't working well over there either? Rin dove into the waterway with a huff. After a while, she emerged onto the land, drawing magic lines with a wax stone.

"Undine, the maiden of water, come out!"

There was a splash.

What appeared by splitting the waterway was an Undine as large as Lufelle.

I see, she drew a magic circle on the bottom of the waterway. If you drew it as wide as the waterway and poured in enough magic power, it could definitely become that big.

"Carry this boat… like this, hold it and try not to shake it as much as possible!"

Undine nodded, picked up the boat under her arm, and started walking through the waterway with a splash. Rin, who had given the order, watched the unmanned boat being carried away and smiled contentedly.

"… There's no point in it being a boat now…"

Nina sighed in exasperation. Indeed, there was absolutely no point in that. However—

"That's it…!"

—I had an idea.