The Strongest Wizard Becomes a Countryside Guardsman After Taking an Arrow to the Knee

Chapter 423 – Dragon Queen Sighisoara

「Hm? There’s no destruction lord. Timi, I thought he was getting closer?」

「Yes, much closer.」

Timi said, still kneeling.

And in a tone more polite than usual.

She must be treating me like a regent because the six duchesses are watching.

The dragon world has a lot of rules.

「The destruction lord…isn’t dead, right? So that means whoever it is…is very close.」

After all, there was a good possibility he was hidden just like Shiggy’s light hid all the other lords.

I guess I would find out about who it was soon enough.

First, we had to get those duchesses off the ground.

You couldn’t just keep them in that pose forever.

「Duchesses…please stand.」

「We thank you very much.」

And so the duchesses slowly stood from the ground.

「ryaaryaa! Ryaa」

Seeing how huge their bodies were made Shiggy excited.

「Thank you, queen.」

One of the duchesses said, seeing Shiggy so excited.

It seems she understood what Shiggy meant.

「And now let me introduce the friends of the dragon queen here.」

「ryaa」

「「「Certainly.」」」

I introduced Cruz, Luka, Yureena, and Belda.

And I didn’t forget the beasts either.

After the introductions, I thought I needed to greet the duchesses as well.

「Though we are all standing here, well…」

There was no way to invite them in for a proper welcome.

I thought that perhaps they could transform to human form like Timi did.

However, asking them to become human was a little rude.

Since I didn’t know ancient dragon rules, there was no way to proceed.

「No need, we have had all the greetings needed for today.」

「We simply rushed here to make sure the dragon queen had our deepest loyalty.」

「We will conduct any ceremonies at a later date.」

And so the duchesses filled me in on what was to happen quite kindly.

Shiggy looked at each duchess and said「ryaaryaa」to them.

And seeing that, each duchess teared up and prepared to leave.

With the ceremony over, the duchesses all flew into the sky.

They would all go back to their own palace and notify their followers of the new dragon queen.

And so they circled in the sky about Elkay a bit, and then suddenly disappeared.

After they left, i asked Timi,

「Timi, did you not notice that Shiggy had become the new queen?」

「…sorry…」

「You don’t have to apologize.」

「I had checked before I left the palace, but there was no indication then.」

「I see.」

In other words, it had just happened, yesterday or today.

It must have been such a huge event to get the duchesses to speed to this location.

Usually these dragons had their own palaces on high mountains, the moon, or in the deep sea.

「Those duchesses are something. They’re very fast.」

「…I should learn from them. I was surprised that Shiggy ascended to duchess before…」

「And dragon queen was out of the picture?」

「I’m ashamed to say I thought so.」

「Well, it surprised me too. I will say that I did notice she had become more noble.」

「ryaa?」

And Shiggy had looked noble, but now she was looking over at something.

「What is it?」

「ryaa ryaa」

「Hmmm」

Seems that Shiggy had noticed something.

Somewhere I felt that someone out there was quietly watching and holding their breath.

「Good job, Shiggy.」

「ryaa」

So I said out to the forest while petting Shiggy,

「No need to hide, the ceremony is over.」

「…you did well to notice me.」

Someone said, and then a boy with a handsome face emerged…

No, it was a girl. A bit of an androgenous one.

「It wasn’t me that noticed. This young one here has good intuition.」

『I noticed.』「Moo moo」

「I noticed too!」

Seems that Femm, Moofy, and Cruz had all noticed as well.

Strange that Femm had just let it go and not mentioned it.

「Even so it was a great concealment magic. Who are you?」

Femm, Cruz, and Moofy all had very good senses.

And this person had approached without even an S rank adventurer like me noticing.

Also, the person was so young, it was a tremendously skillful accomplishment.

So I looked the youth over and Belda said,

「Sir Alra, this is my vice agent.」

「Oh…the vice chief for Belda. You’ve picked quite a talented person.」

「Thank you.」

That reminded me that Belda had mentioned her vice chief coming.

I wondered if the reason Belda continued to be so polite was because I was the regent of the ancient dragons now.

「Excuse me for intruding.」

「And your name?」

「The Marquise Ecces Halewood.」

「I see, so Miss Marquise…are you the follower of the destruction god?」

And after I said that, she stared at me and took a step back.