Chapter 18 –

«The apostles of Goddess Liliel. Will you be kind enough to save these kids of mine on the Floating island?»
“Please wait, Grandpa! We will fulfill your wish! And, why do we need to rely on outsiders!?”
“Indeed. Are you going to ask outsiders when we don’t even know if they’re capable enough?”
Just like how I was baffled by the dragon’s words, the angel Shael and the Dragon warrior Yahada also raised their voices in bafflement.
«We’re going to have a more serious discussion. Shael, Yahada, leave.»
“”……Yes.””

However, the dragon they called Grandpa asked them to leave, regardless of what they had to say.

Shael and Yahada, complying with his words, unwillingly pulled their friends outside, and left for the settlement we came from before.
«Now, make yourselves at home, visitors.»

“Hmm, alright.”
“Let’s sit down!”
Then, as we sat down on the ground, the mythical beasts who had tagged along came out to support us with their warm, fluffy bellies.
There were also mythical beasts who had secretly followed us and nuzzled themselves on our laps or arms. The colossal dragon watched all of this with loving eyes.
«You’re really loved by mythical beasts whose intuition and instinct far surpass that of humans. Indeed, you’re just the right person to entrust with my request. Speaking of which, my self-introduction is still due, isn’t it? I’m the ancient dragon of Verdigris — a senile old dragon who has been alive for 10,000 years. Everyone calls me Grandfather though.»
“Nice to meet you. ——I’m Witch Chise. And also the apostle of goddess Liliel.”

“Teto is… Teto-nanodesu! And a swordsman (?) guarding Majou-sama-nanodesu!”
The dragon before me, who called himself «Ancient Dragon of Verdigris», nodded at our introduction.
«Alright, so it is Majou-dono and Guardian-dono. To entrust my requests to you, I would like to tell you about the history of this floating island. But may I ask how much you know about it?»
“Alright, well, I have heard about the legend where the island disappeared into the sky with the mythical beasts 1200 years ago, but that’s all…”
The ancient dragon nodded when I answered.
«That’s the basics. Let’s first talk about how it all began, the mana disappearance 2000 years ago.»
Then, the dragon grandpa began to talk about the familiar faraway past — one that Liliel and Lariel had often told us in the dream oracle — from his perspective.
«An unprecedented crisis in the shape of the disappearance of a vast amount of mana due to the fault of the magic civilization struck the world, resulting in the deaths of multitudes of mana-reliant creatures. Since we, the ancient dragons, were the ultimate beings who had been alive since the genesis world, we are mana independent and also possess a tough body. We cooperated with the gods to sustain the world, made our place in the various parts of the world like in the mountains, valleys, or forest, and continued to release mana that came forth from our souls.»
It wasn’t just the goddesses who took action to save the world by doing things like isolating the low mana region by erecting a barrier, other beings like ancient dragons cooperated with gods and sacrificed their bodies to continue to supply the world with mana, apparently.
«Everything went well for the first 500 years. However, the people who had restored civilization to some extent discovered the ancient dragons — who, as foolish as they were, had exhausted themselves to the limit to supply mana to the world — and slayed them.»
“That’s……”
«This resulted in the collapse of one of the pillars in charge of the mana supply. However, there were also mythical beasts or people who lived in the places of my brethren. They who were chased away from one home to another gathered before me.»
Both Teto and I felt a sense of sympathy for the dragon grandpa, who squinted his eyes as if recalling that time.
“I have heard about the legends of dragon slayers in various places, but I never knew such was the story behind it……”
“They killed you even when you were working so hard, it’s so sad.”
He then grinned in self-mockery at our reaction.
«We, the ancient dragons, don’t resent humans. Besides, ancient dragons are the ultimate beings born at the inception of the world. Even if our bodies were to rot away, we would become a new egg somewhere in the world and reincarnate, inheriting those memories. ——We are «Undying», so to speak.»

However, to heal themselves and be reborn again, they needed to gather a good amount of mana from the environment, so they would not appear in the world for a while — he added.
I had become «Immortal», but I didn’t expect there to be undying ancient dragons too. Indeed, I could never underestimate this fantasy world.
«Returning to the topic; human greed eventually made its way to me and other nearby places too. Multitudes of mythical beasts ran for their lives from the domain of other ancient dragons and gathered here. And if I were to be slain, the mythical beasts and people who sought refuge with me would be left without a place to go, destined to either be hunted down by humans or perish without access to mana-rich lands.»
“And this led to the creation of this floating island, I guess.”
«That’s right. There happened to be an apostle of the sea mother, Goddess Luriel-sama, and an apostle of the Heaven Goddess Leriel among the people who sought refuge with me. We used the powers of the two apostles to create a floating stone, then I made the island float with my mana and escaped into the boundaries of the sky.»
So that was how the floating island was created, huh?……
“Then, are the people like Shael, who named themselves angels, and the dragon warriors like Yahada one of the races of those refugees?”
«Indeed. Well, Shael and the other angels may have taken the title of god’s kin, but they are no different from the Demonic race.»
Then he began to speak about how those two races came into existence.
The angel race like Shael was the result of their ancestors having children while in a state of being possessed through «Divine Descent» by angels.
An angel’s «Messenger Descent» was an extremely powerful magic, very much like the «Demonic Possession».
One could understand it as letting a spiritual lifeform take possession of a practitioner which would result in the mana of that spiritual lifeform supplementing the practitioner’s.
In the case of «Demonic Possession», it created side-effects like sanity erosion for the practitioners, and some situations may even lead to a reversal in the master and servant positions and have their bodies be taken over by the demonic lifeforms which was why it has been banned.
However, in the case of the angels’ «Messenger Descent», humans were set to be the master and angels were the servants. Aside from that, a method has also been addressed in the magic index of the five goddesses church in case there was a need to resolve an angelic possession.
Anyway, having a child in that state resulted in the assimilated angel getting fused with the fetus, and the babies were thus born with white wings, the characteristic of angels.
“I see, since their origin is connected to the angels serving the gods, they have taken upon the title of god’s kin. But why did it happen, though?”
«Such a phenomenon was unimaginable 2000 years ago. The introduction of status has made possible the birth of new species like angels. Though, it seems like some conditions need to be met for the birth of these angels as they cannot be simply born just by having a child while in «Messenger Decent» state.»

And if these conditions are somehow met, and if the demonic beings that had either mutated from «Demonic Possession», independently materialized, or born from mutation had children with humans, it was possible that — or maybe it has already been established as a distinct species somewhere in the world — the offspring may carry demonic traits.
«Heaven Goddess Leriel-sama judged that the apostles — the parents of the angel race — might be used as religious tools due to their appearance, so they sought refuge in my place under her guidance.»
“Then that means the dragon warriors like Yahada were the new species of the demonic race that escaped to your place for the same reason?”
When I hurled my question, which seemed to be an obvious outcome from the conversation so far, the ancient dragon who was was called Grandfather slightly averted his face as if it was hard to answer.
«Ah–, They’re… they were just humans in the beginning. In their long life on the floating island, there happened to be a time when there were only a few males left somehow. So, to avoid their bloodline from getting too concentrated, I used my seeds on those who wished for it. I had thought it would end well since the mating between ancient dragons and humans in the genesis era gave birth to dragonkin. However, in my case, they became Dragonoid — a dragon demonic species.»
The dragon grandpa looked embarrassed since it happened on his watch. So in other words, the dragon demonic species — Dragonoid was born from the attempt to recreate a myth. If anything, Dragonoids bore a striking resemblance to the genesis’s dragonkin, since they looked very much closer to dragonkin in their «Dragonification».
“Then there are only angels and demon dragon species on this island?”
«Indeed. I’m not sure if it was due to the special environment of the floating island, or maybe due to the increase in population to avoid the extinction of the newly born species…… but no normal human child was born for a whole generation. Only the angels and demon dragon species continued to be born.»
It appeared that there was a settlement with a total of 350 demon-race people on this floating island.
“Nya-Nya-nanodesu.”
«Nya~»
As our conversation went on, Teto became bored and started playing with Kuro and the other clinging mythical creatures.
As we observed them playing, the dragon grandpa and I found a moment of relaxation before cutting to the main topic.
«Well, that is all about the origin of the two species, let’s talk about the main topic now.»
Although I was quite content to be able to hear about a piece of history, we have yet to talk about his request.
“You want me to save the children of this floating island, the mythical beasts, angel species, and demonic dragon species. But what exactly do you want my help with?”
«It has been 1200 years since we escaped to the sky to avoid the flies on the surface. This island has worn down quite a bit after all these years and is gradually losing its area. I don’t wish for any more offspring to be born on this narrow and unstable island. So, I would like you to take my children back to the surface.»

However, they would only be the target of persecution and hunting if they were to return to the surface without a plan. I guess he must be hoping for a place that could give them asylum, and a room for growth in place of this floating island.
And I have the «Empty Wilderness», a place as big as a small nation. Besides, there was also merit for us in helping him out.
To raise young mythical beasts, they need to be provided with mana. However, once they become adults, they would instead supply mana in return.
The «Empty WIlderness» was currently relying on the world trees for the most part to generate mana, but the addition of mythical beasts would give us new sources and generators of mana.
“I understand your plight. I will set up a «Transfer Gate» here, and will get ready to accept the migration of the mythical beasts and the island’s residents slowly.”
“Eh? So not just Kuro, but Kuro’s friends will also live with us, Majou-sama?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Receiving my approval, the dragon grandpa bowed his head.
«You have my gratitude. Indeed, just as Goddess Luriel-sama said in the oracle. You will become the key to bringing my children back to the surface from this ark.»
And in this way and on a peaceful note, my first encounter with the dragon grandpa — who looked as if a weight had been taken off his shoulders — came to an end.

T/N – Beretta’s – Master, please bring more guests.
Chise – Alright. (Bring-in whole legion of Mythical beasts and demonic race)
Beretta – Master, when I said to bring more guests, that wasn’t what I meant.

Somehow, this meme automatically replayed in my mind xD.