/
Clau Soras
That day, the city of Ishka was blessed with fine weather without any clouds in the sky.
I woke up before the sun rose into the eastern sky and changed my clothes in a way that wouldn’t wake up Ciel, who was still sleeping on the same bed. Then, I left the house as I suppressed a yawn.
My destination was the city’s gate in the north.
It was the same route to the Titis forest, but this time, I wasn’t going to the forest. I was heading to the stables for familiars that’s right by the gate.
I came to give the indigo wyvern its breakfast.
The other day, the indigo wyvern that had been acknowledged as my official familiar was granted the rights to enter the city of Ishka.
However, I had it rest at the stables outside of the city’s walls.
There was a reason for that.
A wyvern that has been acknowledged as a familiar is still a wyvern.
The requirement it has to meet in order to enter the city was to have insurance for when they are apart from their owners.
That means it had to wear a collar for familiars- an item that can explode and take the familiar’s life by the city’s will.
It wasn’t just for my wyvern, other medium sized and large sized familiars would have to wear one to enter the city as well.
Well, it’s understandable from a safety standpoint.
If a familiar goes on a rampage in the streets, many guards and citizens will get hurt. It’s natural to have insurance in case that happens.
However, from my point of view, to have the life and death of my ace in the hole wyvern controlled by somebody else was not something that I could agree to.
There’s also the incident with me and the adventurers’ guild. They are Ishka’s upper management, but it’s quite likely that they would do something to put me at a disadvantage against them.
It would not be funny to have the wyvern as their hostage at that time.
Therefore, rather than having a familiar’s collar put on the wyvern, I decided to place the wyvern outside.
With the help of the union, a huge stable was built for the wyvern’s use. Lately, for me to see the wyvern, I would have to push through all the sightseers who wanted to see the wyvern to get to it.
Because of the existence of dragon rider corps in the Canaria Kingdom, wyverns weren’t seen as demonic beasts, but beneficial animals that could fight together with humans.
One would not call them that if they had ever been attacked by one, but that wasn’t something that happened often to normal citizens.
For that reason, the wyvern became pretty popular amongst the people who lived in Ishka.
Recently, strange rumors such as “whoever touches a wyvern’s scales directly would have good luck” started to circulate around the city.
The guards at the stables told me with a bitter smile that because of that, there were endless trespassers who tried to climb the fence to see it.
Even with that being the case, I still frowned instinctively when I first caught sight of that.
…In the stables where the morning sunlight was shining in through the windows, I saw a female’s hand reaching out to touch the indigo wyvern’s scales.
I could not help but question if it wasn’t just some misguided fellow but someone who was trying to cause harm to it.
However, I immediately noticed something strange.
The blue winged beast wouldn’t normally let people get close to it so easily. Even Ciel had only finally managed to be able to feed it recently.
That wyvern was letting this unknown woman touch it without any resistance.
It was neither excited nor on alert even when she was standing so close to it.
Suddenly, the wyvern noticed that I came to visit and screeched out happily. It started hitting the ground with its tail.
The woman looked at me as she came to realize that I was here.
At that moment, I was completely blown away. That person was just that beautiful.
She looked older than me. I wonder if she’s older than 20.
She had brilliant blonde hair that made me think that she had noble blood, and her eyes were like a pair of amethysts. Her skin was white like the snow, her nose drew an ideal curve, and her lips had the perfect shape.
It was as if a princess had come out of a fairy tale.
However, she didn’t give off the impression of the typical high-class frail girl.
Yup. She was carrying a sword by her waist. I could tell from the way she was standing that she wasn’t just carrying that weapon for looks.
When I looked into her eyes, the word “Strong” was the first thing that came to my mind.
In Ishka, the strongest person I know is the guild master, Elgart. A level 35 adventurer of the first tier.
This woman gave me the impression that she was on the same level as him, or even stronger.
I can feel her strength that was hidden under her calm surface.
And the next thought I had after I saw her was “Huge”.
She wore silver-plated boots that were made for combat, but they didn’t have heels or some kind of padding that would make her look taller.
Despite that, she was taller than me.
I haven’t measured myself recently, but I should be around 175cm tall. Judging from my height, this woman is probably around 180cm in height.
Her limbs had muscles of a swordsman’s, there was honestly no “delicate” or “fragile” feminine feel coming from her.
However, on the other hand, I never thought that she was “buff” or “manly”. Her physique was very balanced.
A person who trained hard to hone the talents she was given since birth. I’m sure that this woman in front of me was that kind of person.
And, she clearly has a good family background.
I could tell at a glance that the clothes she was wearing were made of silk, and her armor such as her silver-colored breastplate and boots were all top-quality products.
She could not possibly be an adventurer or soldier. This person is definitely a knight, and a high-ranking one too. I would believe it if someone told me that she was the knight captain of the king’s guards.
Why is someone like her at my stables so early in the morning before the sun’s even up in the sky? I could not figure it out.
Then, this person who I’ve been looking at for some time now slowly opened her mouth-
「……Sss」
「…Sss?」
「Sorry!」
She suddenly lowered her head in a hurry.
Her golden-colored hair swayed in the air as she got into her apologizing pose. My body also jumped a little.
I looked at the back of the woman’s head with my eyes wide open.
I honestly thought that she would say something like “What are you staring at, you peasant?!” to me so I was bewildered by her behavior.
That woman continued to apologize without noticing that I was confused.
「I wanted to take a look at the wyvern from the rumors, but nobody was around…so, um, I figure since it’s so early in the day, nobody would notice if I looked inside for a bit」
「…So, you tried to sneak a peek. Okay, but what about you actually coming in here and touching it…?」
「I’m so sorry! Um, I really was going to head back after a glance, but I didn’t think that it was really an indigo wyvern…Well, I heard that it was an indigo one from the rumor, but indigo wyverns are vicious wyverns that humans shouldn’t be able to tame. I thought it was just misinformation…」
But when she saw it, it was actually an indigo wyvern.
Then she couldn’t stop her curiosity and entered the stables as well.
After I came to understand the situation, I asked the woman to raise her head.
「Ah, you don’t have to apologize that much. The wyvern letting you touch it like that means that it likes you as well」
It’s not good for my mental health to see someone who is clearly of a much higher social standing lowering her head to me.
Then, the girl raised her head back up with a relieved expression.
「Thank you for your generous words. I’m sorry for taking advantage of your generosity, but can I ask you something?」
「Sure, what is it?」
「This wyvern sees you as its master, correct?」
「Yes」
When I nodded, the woman’s eyes sharpened as if she was thinking about something.
However, that was only for a moment. She quickly returned to normal and her eyes shifted to the basket in my hand.
I took one of the things out of the basket and showed it to her.
「Ohh, these are ansu apricots. They are the wyvern’s breakfast」
「Apricots? For the wyvern? I thought raw apricots are sour and tough to eat…wait, do carnivorous wyverns eat fruits in the first place?」
「It normally eats meat. But because of a strong experience it had in the past, it has a good impression with sour things now」
When I placed the fist-sized apricots down for the wyvern as I answered the woman, the wyvern screeched out “*Pugii!*” in joy.
Even though the seeds of the apricots are tough, it’s nothing to a wyvern’s sharp teeth. With satisfying crunching sounds, the wyvern chewed on the apricots.
By the way, the “strong experience” it had in the past was about the time it got poisoned by the manticores and ate the jiraiaooks tree’s fruit.
At that time, it couldn’t endure the sourness of the fruit and it was screeching out in sadness, but after that, the poison in its body was cured, so it seems to think that “sour food=good”. Since then, it has frequently asked me for sour fruits.
It would definitely be annoying to make trips into the forest every time to get it jiraiaooks fruits, so I use the edible sour apricots as a replacement instead.
The woman watched in surprise as the wyvern happily ate the fruits.
「…Are fruits the indigo wyvern’s favorite food? No, that definitely wasn’t what I read in the records about them. Moreover, I’ve never heard of a wild breed that likes to eat sour things…」
It was probably an unintentional habit of hers, the woman folded her arms and started muttering to herself.
It was actually a joy looking at her since her cleavage was really standing out with her arms folded like that. Ah, but since she’ll notice pretty soon if I stare too hard, I forcefully removed my dirty eyes.
I thought she was going to ask me about the “Strong experience” it had, but it looks like she didn’t wanna pry too much into things and she asked me about something else.
「By the way, I’ve noticed that you’ve been calling this little guy “wyvern” this whole time. Have you not decided on a name for it yet?」
「I’ve been told by other people to try giving it a name too. But it doesn’t seem to like any of the names I suggested so far. No matter what I suggested, it looked at me with a sad face」
「That’s probably because your name wasn’t included in the names you suggested」
「My…wait, my name?」
When I tilted my head, the woman looked up at the wyvern that was eating the apricots and smiled.
「Wyverns are creatures that wish to have the same name as the one who they recognize as their owner. The smarter the wyvern is, the more true that is. For individuals like this one that can clearly understand what people are saying, I think it would really want to have the same name as its master」
「Hm, that’s the first time I’ve heard about it…So in other words, I just have to add my name to its name? Like Sorali, Sorara, Soran?」
When I tried to say various names, the wyvern did not respond badly to it. At least, it didn’t stare at me like when I tried to name it “Daigo”.
「Soramichi, Misora, Sorato, Soraris…Mmm. Aren’t there names that are a bit cooler than this?」
「*Pugi*, *Pugi*」
「Wait, don’t be hasty. I got more. Sorasa…Sorashi…Sorasu…..or how about we try something crazier, Sorataro?」
「*Pugggiiii!*」
「Ow?! Hey, don’t hit me with your tail! My bad, okay? I’ll think about it more seriously!」
When I was playing with the wyvern like that, the woman clapped her hands as if an idea came to her mind.
「What about Clau Soras?」
「…Clau Soras?」
「Yes. It means the sword of flame in the ancient language」
「Ohh, that sounds cool! It’s perfect for a wyvern that uses fire. What do you thin- Well, it looks like there’s no need to ask you」
「*Puiiii!*」
The wyvern happily flapped its wings. Hey, stop that, dust is flying everywhere.
「Alright, from today on, your name will be Clau Soras」
「*Pugii!*」
The wyvern straightened its long neck and howled sharply when I declared its name.
Was it just me? I feel like its expression has become dignified now.
After I lightly patted the wyvern–I mean, Clau Soras’ head, I turned to the woman.
「Thank you for giving it such a good name, erm…」
「You can call me Astrid. Thank you as well for teaching me some really interesting things. Umm…Sora, do you mind if I drop the honorifics?」
「Sure, you can just call me Sora」
「Alright, Sora. I would like to talk a bit more with you, but unfortunately, I have a meeting to attend, so I’ll have to kindly be excused here. I’ll see you again soon」
「Alright. I’ll see you again someday- wait, soon…?」
I blinked when I caught the way she made it sound like she was sure that we would meet again soon.
Then, the girl named Astrid smiled and put her long index finger in front of her lips.
「At that time, please keep our encounter today a secret. Now then, please excuse me」
TLN : The wyvern hit him because “Taro” is like a lame name to jp ppl.