Reincarnated as a Dragon and Raised by a Demon

Jema carefully surveyed her surroundings even after the autopilot magic was activated.

Occasionally, she glanced at the manual, but no significant issues arose.

Catherine sighed while staring blankly out the window.

“Are you troubled by something?”

“No. It’s just that I find it hard to believe I’m your bodyguard.”

Catherine’s current skills weren’t at the level required to protect someone.

It was difficult enough for her to take care of herself.

To protect someone on the battlefield, one must be capable of protecting oneself.

However, the need for protection might be a lie from Aila.

In the Academy of Latnia, that might not be the case, but no one in Roran knows us.

They probably just think of us as ordinary transfer students.

“Are we doing okay?”

“What do you mean?”

Catherine looked at me with a puzzled expression.

It felt like someone had just spoken to me.

“It’s me, Niv.”

“Is Ririan not feeling well?”

“No, just a moment….”

“Shh! You’re the only one who can hear me.”

I quietly listened to the Demon King’s voice that was coming from nowhere.

Only after catching on did I manage to respond to the Demon King’s words.

“How are you talking to me?”

“I gave you a scale. I’m communicating through that.”

I recalled the scale the Demon King had taken from my tail.

There was no way a dragon’s scale would have such a function; it was clearly the Demon King’s magic.

“I resolved the issue with that girl, Catherine. I wanted to let you know.”

“I see.”

“I’m going to eat now.”

After that, the Demon King unrelentingly rambled on about everyday life.

Living alone in a secluded forest castle surely couldn’t be without loneliness.

Eventually, I started to get a headache from how much the Demon King talked.

“Um… could you stop now?”

“Are you busy?”

“I’m not busy, but my head is starting to hurt.”

“Oh. Then let’s talk in detail later~”

It gave me the chills to hear that after such a long conversation, detailed talk hadn’t even begun yet.

Unlike my chatter, the inside of the carriage was eerily quiet.

Aila seemed to have relaxed with Jema’s driving skills and was sleeping, just like Catherine.

Only Jema and I were awake.

The speed of the carriage began to slow gradually until it stopped on the roadside.

“I’m starting to get tired.”

“You’ve been at it alone for hours, so it’s understandable.”

One major drawback of the mana-automobile, which had many convenience features, was that it consumed a lot of the driver’s mana.

I thought Jema wouldn’t tire out from the mana consumption alone.

There must be something in the carriage that fatigues the driver without us knowing.

Reluctantly, I took the driver’s seat.

The only peculiar thing was that I sat on Aila’s lap to adjust my sitting height.

Though Jema showed a discontented expression, she seemed too tired to protest.

I learned how to drive the carriage by listening to Jema’s explanations from the back seat.

When I started to get the hang of stabilizing the movement, I attempted to activate the autopilot magic, but Jema stopped me.

“I think the autopilot magic increases fatigue. Do it manually.”

Even doing it manually, all I had to do was control the amount of mana injected for speed and minor left/right movements.

Doing it myself revealed that it was quite different from actual driving.

It was at a level where I just held the steering wheel of a semi-automated vehicle.

If one could handle mana, even a child could master it quickly.

“Isn’t the speed a bit slow?”

“Isn’t it fast enough?”

I thought we were going quite fast by my standards.

“Look over there. The cars next to us are much faster.”

In an instant, a vehicle zoomed past us very quickly.

I began to inject a bit more mana into the carriage to increase our speed.

Without making any noticeable noise, our speed started to rise.

We were now driving parallel to the vehicle that had just overtaken us.

While I was lost in speeding up, Aila shouted loudly.

“Take the side road!”

Looking at the side road, the carriage raced forward at an impressive speed.

“Here is Raden.”

We arrived at Raden, which had a train station.

The city wasn’t very large, but it seemed to have all the essentials.

Following Aila’s guidance, I drove towards the hotel operated by the JS Group.

By returning the vehicle to the JS Group, we were assigned a room in the hotel.

Though it was still bright outside, we decided to spend the day here.

Jema was completely exhausted and in a state of unconsciousness.

The fatigue accumulated from driving for a long time was evidently severe.

Although I had driven too, I didn’t feel as tired as she seemed.

I laid Jema down on the bed in the room and went out into the hallway to look out the window.

The city of Raden had a large train station situated in the center.

It wasn’t a big city, but its train station seemed to attract many people.

Since Aila had said she could have free time until tomorrow, I left the hotel.

I decided to visit the train station we were planning to go to tomorrow to get a head start.

At the entrance of the train station, a large clock tower stood tall.

People seemed to use the area around it as a meeting point while waiting for their appointments.

Inside the train station, many shops were visible.

And I saw groups of people in masks running around excitedly.

“Catch him!”

Masked individuals were hurriedly chasing someone.

Since it didn’t concern me, I didn’t pay much attention to it.

Bang!

A loud explosion sounded from a very close location.

Fortunately, the defense of my necklace activated, preventing any harm from occurring.

Soon after, a series of explosion sounds started ringing out from various places.

“What is happening…?”

The public announcement broadcast warned the citizens to evacuate before abruptly cutting off.

“Ah, listen up. The train station is sealed off. If anyone tries to escape, I will blow them all up!”

There was no way that person was conducting this solo operation.

I began to think about who among the people that had just brushed past me could be the bomber.

The suspicious ones were the masked individuals. It was strange for so many people to be chasing one person.

And to seal off the train station, there would need to be a large number of them.

Having quickly assessed the situation in my mind, I prepared to move.

The train station turned into chaos in an instant.

“Ahhh!”

With a piercing scream, a group of people appeared.

They wore masks and were dragging visible individuals inside the station.

“Get that kid too!”

There were about ten of them, roughly estimating their numbers.

I could take them out in no time if I wanted to, but there were hostages.

For now, I followed their orders and went inside the train station.

Inside, numerous hostages were trembling in fear as they were captured.

Having shut the entrance to the train station, they each held a weapon, and their forms were not unfamiliar to me.

The weapon known as a gun could be gauged by the state of the hostages.

“Alright, from now on, you’re all kidnapped.”

“Why are you doing this? These people have done nothing wrong!”

One of the hostages shouted bravely in protest.

Bang!

The criminals fired their weapons and blew the head off one of the hostages.

“Shut up!”

They ruthlessly tossed the hostage who was shot outside the train station.

Step, step.

More masked individuals continued to appear from inside the train station.

Their numbers had now increased to the point that they were hard to count.

“Let’s introduce ourselves. We are the Ghosts. We’re here to clean you all up.”

I felt an unsettling familiarity from these unfamiliar individuals.

Concealing my hand behind my back, I cautiously drew a dagger and spoke to them.

“There are too many of you. It’s not advantageous to fight while protecting the hostages. Let’s stick together.”

“You think I’m crazy?”

“I’m just stating the facts.”

I transformed the dagger back into a ring form and began to think deeply.

Observing the hostages one by one, I noticed several of them were speaking in quiet voices.

Focusing, I realized they weren’t ordinary civilians but trained soldiers.

I quietly approached them and cautiously opened my mouth.

“I can help too.”

“Get lost, kid.”

“I’m sure I can be of assistance.”

They seemed to ignore my plea and continued their own conversation.

I reluctantly made the decision to bring up the words of magic.

“I’m with Aila.”

At those words, their eyes suddenly shifted, and they pulled me into a corner.

“Don’t spout nonsense, kid.”

“It’s not a lie. So please let me be part of your plan.”

They looked at each other quietly, then nodded as if reaching some agreement.

“We are soldiers under the Knight Order. We were on leave and got caught up in this mess.”

“Do you have a plan?”

“Yes, one of our comrades is preparing to cast a defensive spell around the hostages.”

While I could also cast defensive magic, the scope of my necklace’s protection wasn’t enough to defend all the hostages in this place.

“Will you move once that’s complete?”

“Yes. But do you have a way to contact Lady Aila?”

If I had such a means, I would have already called Aila.

Shaking my head, they expressed somewhat disappointed looks.

“Okay then, what can you do? Can you wield a sword well?”

“I can use a dagger.”

“Good choice.”

Bang!

A gunshot rang out into the air as a masked individual approached us.

“Hey! What are you all doing huddled together!”

“I was comforting my daughter because she was scared.”

One of the soldiers blocked my path while casually coming up with an excuse to deflect the suspicious masked individual.

“Your daughter? She doesn’t resemble you at all.”

“She takes after her mother.”

“Oh, I see. Your daughter is quite beautiful.”

Although he wore a mask, it felt like I could see him grinning sinisterly.

As the perpetrator returned to where he was, I pointed out what was wrong to the soldier.

“Um, I’m not a girl.”

“I just made a hasty excuse due to the urgent situation. I’m sorry.”

They would indiscriminately kill any hostages if they annoyed them.

After a short while, someone crawled and joined us.

“The magic is complete, but the issue is that there are too many hostages. What’s this kid doing?”

“He’s a little helper. If we can protect all the hostages with the defense spell, it’ll be easier for us to move.”

“So you called someone to help?”

“A magician?”

He nodded, and the soldiers’ expressions brightened considerably.

There was only one chance.

The plan was that when the magician over there gave a signal, we would also activate our magic simultaneously.

Whoosh!

“Signal! Deploy the shield!”

A blue wall rose tall between the hostages and the criminals.

“Now! Rush them!”

The sound of gunfire rang out as soldiers drew their swords and leaped over the blue barrier.

I also grasped my dagger and followed behind the soldiers.

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