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KT48: Gift
—- Arakawa Kouki Point of View —-
“Those who wish to use the gate should proceed while staying on the line”
I line up obediently as I listen to the voice making an announcement. Today is the third day after the interracial war was concluded. When I wake up this morning, I received an email from mom forcing me to go back to Hakone base.
In the mail, it was stated that it will be impossible for the security forces of Noah to guard me while they are busy on Noah’s post treatment and consultation with other countries. Ma~ I didn’t have any problem with it because its been a while since I met Alice and Shingo─ however the line is too long!?
“The entrance to the gate is cannot be seen from here…”
“Kon…”
Kon frowned as she reply to the words that I murmured while staying on my shoulder. Since yesterday, they are working to transfer a large manufacturing facility to this side and it seems that the gate is crowded like crazy because of that.
While I was wondering how long it will take me to reach the gate, I hear the sound of a motorcycle with its throttle fully opened. I turn around to take a look.
“Isn’t that… Coat-san”
What a good timing. He is someone who transport goods right now so he should be able to take me with him to Earth using his priority permit. Let’s make him carry me as ‘goods’ as well. While I came up with such a strange idea, I waved my hands out so he could see me.
Coat-san who noticed me waving my hands stop his motorcycle in front of me.
“Ya~ Kouki-kun, are you going back to Earth?”
“Yes but since the line is too crowded, I don’t know when I will get through the gate. Coat-san have a priority permit for transporting goods right? Please carry me with you as goods, if you don’t mind”
In my proposal, Coat-san think while rubbing his chin with his hands. After a while, he asked a question.
“It’s fine but, did Kouki-kun ever ridden on the back of a motorcycle before? It will be dangerous if you haven’t done it yet and it’s too late to practice right now…”
“No Problem, I can ride”
It’s alright Coat-san! I have experienced riding plenty of times. Since I died in my previous life in a motorcycle accident, something like this is not much!
“Is that so, then come sit behind me”
I climb the motorcycle after thanking Coat-san who clear the seat behind him, and the motorcycle started to run slowly. Speaking of which, Macho’s troops should have been turned into security, why is Coat-san returning to earth?
“Are you done with your job Coat-san? I’m pretty sure dad’s unit is in charge of security right now, is it not?”
“I will be acting as liaison in Hakone Base. I will be transporting military supplies which are needed from earth in case of emergency”
I see. I thought that Claire-san or Ellis-san is in charge of such work, atleast that’s their image to me but I guess everyone shares the work? While enjoying the bike for the first time in a long while, Coat-san continued his sentence.
“Besides, I wanted to give Victoria a present from earth so I decided to go”
“Victoria, you mean Victoria-san?”
“That’s right. I’m going out with her” (TN: Going out = they are dating)
“……is that so”
Coat-san said that he is going out with Victoria with enthusiastic voice but, Did she really agree to it? He did not force her to go out right? However, I cannot imagine Coat-san who looks like a murderer acting with her in a decent way. When I was thinking of such things with my inner feelings, Coat-san asked in a sad voice different from a while ago.
“Could it be, Kouki-kun is also thinking that I forced Victoria to go out with me”
“That’s not true! Coat-san is a good person, I believe you”
“No, it’s okay. Captain also asked me multiple times, ‘She agree on it right?’, so I am now used to it”
Even macho’s brain muscles are worried. So everyone who heard his story came up with the same conclusion as me huh? Ma~ Coat-san is a really kind person since he took care of kittens so Victoria-san might have been attracted because of this.
Anyway, gift huh… She is a Demon Lord so she might already have most of the things that she want, Coat-san seems to have difficulty in selecting a present. Something that I can do for him right now, there is only one thing─
“Coat-san, I will give you a piece of information to thank you for letting me ride on your bike”
“Nn? What is it?”
“She was asking about the perfume worn by a female officer of Noah before. The cosmetics including perfume from earth seems to have higher quality compared to what she have so if you give her cosmetics or something similar she will be pleased”
“Ho~ That’s good to know. I’ll try giving her a perfume “
After that, I talked about presents with Coat-san and we get out of the gate and exit to Hakone Base. In the other world, its already been a few months but its kind of strange to know that it has only been a few days since I was away from Alice and the others. I thank Coat-san and get off the bike and while I was heading towards the aisle, Coat-san called out to me
“Kouki-kun, I almost forgot. The orichalcum sword has been completed. It is kept in the weapons depot on Noah Island, so you can get it whenever you have the free time”
I completely forgotten about it but I did ask him to have a blacksmith from the capital to forge it. Ma~ I can check on it later, right now I want to see Alice. I decided to head to Alice’s room after I answered “I understand” to Coat-san with a smile.
I was lightly preparing myself in front of Alice’s private room by making sure that I look properly groomed. I pressed the intercom button and I heard her says “Yes”. While waiting as it is, the door opens and Alice peek from the door.
“Alice, long time n─”
“Kon!”
Before I can greet Alice, Kon jumps from my shoulder and dives into Alice’s chest. Lizard! I want to dive on her chest too. Let me finish my greeting at least! I glare at Kon with a grudging eyes but I can’t keep myself angry anymore when I see Alice happy.
“Wa~ Kon can fly now”
“Kon! Konkon”
“Awawa, that’s good. So they taught you”
“Kon, Konkon. Konkon”
“He~ there are more of your kind in the other world?”
When I saw Alice talking with Kon with gentle expression as if talking with a child, my heart is touched and the experience that I had during the war are healed. However, I also want to talk with Alice… Haaaaa!? Kon did not create floating text. How is Alice able to talk with Kon so casually?
“Wa-Wait a second, why does Alice know what Kon is saying?”
“Kon!?”
Even Kon who realized my question was surprised and raised a strange cry. Did they make a new type of translation device? While thinking about that, Alice returned a far more obscure answer.
“E? I can understand her gestures, besides Kon has a lot of facial expressions…… Does Kouki-kun don’t understand Kon?”
I don’t understand. No matter how many facial expression she has, it will not change the face that looks like a lizard. I’m the normal here, Alice is the weird one right? While thinking so, I looked at Kon and Kon was also looking at me with her head tilted.
Alice opened her mouth in a slightly panicked voice when she felt the subtle air around us.
“Let’s enter the room for now, I’ve been listening to the story of other people and skinhead but I’d like to hear more from you about the different world”
While Alice is saying that with a bitter smile, I went inside the room. We talk about what happened on the previous months in the other world while drinking tea in a feminine-looking room.
I did my best to not say anything about the war and the ghouls. I told her how cool the Knights of the Kingdom of Merkava are and how the Ursna Empire live. Alice listened to all of it with glittering eyes. I was talking for about three hours when I stop because I realize that Alice have a serious expression.
“Alice, what’s wrong?”
“Etto ne….”
“Unn..”
“I want to go to the other world! I want to ride Ririn, the white dragon you mentioned earlier”
No, I am not the one who rode Ririn-san, it was Kon! In the first place, you cannot just say “Please let me ride on your back” to the Queen of the Dragons. Since it was Alice’s request, I want to do something, but it really is impossible.
While I was thinking on how to convince Alice on giving up, Kon who was eating tomatoes on the table created floating letters.
“If I ask Ririn, she will let you ride her. She is a very kind dragon”
“Really!?”
That’s right… there was a “God” above the Dragon’s Royal Family. Surely if Kon request for it, they will do it but is it really alright to bother them?
“Kon, I do not want to say this but won’t we bothering Ririn-san?”
“Don’t worry. The dragon race have a lot of free time. Besides, there is something that I would like to ask Ririn”
Fumu, guess that’s fine. I’ve been here for more than 3 hours so 3 days should have passed on Noah Island, it should be okay to go there right now. If we go with the crew who are transferring the manufacturing facility from here, we should be able to go soon… it will just depends if it’s a convenient time for Alice.
“If it’s alright with you, we can go ask Ririn-san right now”
“Really? Since I’m free, I am ready to go right away. I’m actually about to go for a walk outside the base when Kouki-kun arrived”
“Is that so? so that’s why you are wearing ‘camouflage clothes'”
In my question, Alice answered “Yes!” in high spirit. I thought that it was her casual clothes so I didn’t ask. I opened the door of the room and hold her hand making sure not to show that I misunderstood Alice’s hobby.
When we get pass the gate and came back to Noah Island, the sight where you can see a lot of people in queue 3 hours ago already disappeared. Looks like the transfer of the large parts for the facility is already done and we can now use the gate at the usual speed as before. Suddenly, when I look at Kon, she created something that looks like green magic ball and holding it with both of her small hands.
“What are you doing?”
“I am calling Ririn”
Kon created floating letters to answer my question and she throws the ball into the sky. At first it was floating unstable but when it reach the height of around 10 meters, it accelerated into the sky in high speed.
Ah, I should send a mail to mom if we are going for a flight trip with Ririn-san. I’m afraid that it might become similar to when I went to get an Orichalcum in the North Continent. I used the terminal attached in my arm and sent a mail.
“By the way, why did Joachim-san marry a Cat Sith? You said that discrimination against beast people were strong right?
“I also thought about it and so I asked the same thing”
I reply while using my terminal, Alice said “Tell me all about it”. I summarize the story that his wife, ‘Minya-san’, told me.
“When Joachim-san was young and still in training, he was injured in the forest. He was hungry and was about to die. It seems Minya-san who passed by chance helped him”
“It’s good that she helped him but they don’t go along well with humans, right?”
“Yeah but she feels bad abandoning someone who is dying. She heal him using a magic potion that she brought with her and let him drink it by putting it on his mouth. When she was about to leave─ a monster appeared in front of her”
I speak with a sense of realism as I tell the story, Alice and Kon are hugging each other. They are also like this when we are talking in Alice’s room. Perhaps, they like listening to this kind of stories?
“She is unable to move because of fear, then she heard a sound from behind. When she turn her head to take a look, she saw Joachim-san who recover enough to stand up on his own pulling out his sword”
“And then!? What happen to both of them?”
“Joachim-san step in front of Minya-san and fought the monster while protecting her. He having a hard time in fighting the monster but he was able to win somehow. This how they meet each other”
“Sugoi~ Joachim-san is so cool”
Well, it is a story that I heard from his wife so I guess that it is probably exaggerated. The next story is about Joachim-san singlehandedly defeat a swarm of monsters attacking the Cat Sith Village.
It seems that he got married by overturning crisis similar to stories of heroes in a fairy tale, however… the story is not very credible since she tell me the story in exchange for ‘Katsuobushi’. I was hesitant if I should also tell this fact to Alice but since she is thinking highly on the encounter of Joachim-san and Minya-san, I decided to keep quiet. Suddenly, a magic circle appeared in the sky.
(TN: Katsuobushi is a dried, fermented and smoked tuna. Commonly known as Bonito Flakes)
“Beautiful… Is that magic?”
“Yes, I cannot use it yet but it is a transition magic used by the Dragon Race”
Kon proudly shakes her tail in Alice’s question while making the floating texts. I already seen this magic before but seeing this huge magic circle floating in the sky is still overwhelming. While looking at the magic circle, a white dragon slowly emerge, flew and landed in front of us.
“Long time no see, Kon-sama, Kouki-kun. I’m sorry to be late”
“Kon, konkonkon. Konkon?”
“No, not at all. So then, Kon-sama , Kouki-kun and Alice-san want to fly around the continent”
Although I cannot understand a single word that Kon is saying, it seems she is asking Ririn-san to let us ride her back. I was watching the conversation of Kon and Ririn-san and after a while, the negotiation seemed to be complete. Ririn-san bring down her beautiful wings on the ground and said “Please get on my back”.
“Ririn-san, Thank You. I will climb to your back”
“Ririn-san, thank you for granting my wish”
“Kon”
Both Alice and I climb to the back of Ririn-san after giving our thanks but Kon, for some reason, was acting high and mighty as she climbs on Ririn-san’s back. I really should teach ‘restrain’ and ‘modesty’ to Kon… Alice poked Kon’s cheek and scolded her for acting arrogant.
“Now then, I will fly”
Ririn-san said that before starting to flap her wings. Sitting beside Alice, we saw Noah Island getting smaller. I then saw Alice who looks happy, smiling. I had never seen her this happy before.
“Good for you Alice, you are riding a dragon right now just like you dreamed”
“Yes! It is amazing. We are flying so high and fast”
Looking at Alice who is having fun, my face also breaks into smile. By the way, Kon said that she wanted to ask Ririn-san about something. What heppened? I was curious so I asked Kon who is sitting on Ririn-san’s head.
“Kon, are you done with what you need to do? You said you wanted to ask something to Ririn-san?”
” I already did, but I am still not able to learn anything”
Kon who walks towards me while having floating texts in front of her looks somewhat lonely, Alice stops humming and anxiously look at Kon. What happened? I have never seen her like this before.
“What’s the matter? If you have any trouble, you can talk to me”
“You can talk to me as well”
“I got a box from Marvelous that won’t open. It is something that my mother had in the house where she live in this world, however it is sealed by magic and cannot be opened by anyone”
While saying so by creating floating letters, Kon took out a box with almost the same size as her from a magic circle. The first thing that comes to my mind when I saw it was ‘Treasure box’ which you can see frequently in a fantasy world but if you look closely, you can see that there are small decoration engraved throughout the box.
If this the same as the magic circle that shows when using magic, then this could be one of those complex magic. I was tracing my finger while looking at the decoration of the box. Alice seemed to be interested as well and try to touch the box. As soon as her fingertip touched the box─ there was a bright blue light and the lid of the box opened.
“Kon!? Kyu~u…. Kyun”
“What happened? Are you alright!?”
Alice was surprised and call out to Kon in a panic when Kon suddenly cry while shedding tears. Kon trembled while holding the box. I feel uneasy so I tried to take the box away from Kon but then I started to hear some kind of music.
“Kouki-kun, do you hear that?”
“I can hear it. This is, a sound of a music box”
Following the sound, it is from the box that Kon is holding. Is this song something that Kon knows?  I pet the head of Kon and ask in a gentle voice.
“Do you know this song?”
“It is a lullaby passed down in the Dragon Race, and since the magical power that I can feel from the box is similar to me, I’m sure that it the magic power of my mother”
I see, this music box is made by Kon’s mother. She died before Kon was born so this is the first time that Kon can feel the warmth of her parents. When I said, “I’m happy for you, make sure you treasure it” to Kon who is still hugging the music box, Kon was still crying and replied “Kon” in a happy and loud voice──