———Kenni———

  <1: 12 pm>

  “So. I’m sure some of you have read up on it, but dragons do have a humanoid form they can shift into. No one really knows why, but that is just something they inherently have.” The pilot, Edea, expined. I think I have heard something of that effect, but I couldn’t really remember when or where.

  Some of us immediately turn to look at Orrel and Gregori, our resident nerds.

  “I didn’t think it was important. The chance of us seeing genuine dragons in the first pce was low.” Gregori quickly defended himself.

  “More importantly. I only knew that they could do it. I don’t know their reasoning for doing so.” Orrel added. Well, from what just happened, it has a… at least a possible use, though I doubt that was the original intent.

  “Well, I think we do now.” Edea said, looking around to evaluate the general mood of the css. I think it’s mostly shock, so no one is really feeling depressed, I’d wager. “Not that it works, since that dragon still got shanked. Wiina was about to go five-for-five if Able didn’t steal the kill.”

  …The hell are you on about? It did work, she very clearly hesitated.

  “This was never a competition, you know?” He said, not disputing their false cim. Are they covering for her? “Anyway, are you guys okay after seeing all that gore, anyone getting nauseous?”

  No one raised their hand, so that just left us with a period of awkward silence. I think we’re well-adjusted where it counts, so no angsty rambling here.

  “Now then, I think you all probably want a recap of what just happened.” Edea said, seeing as there’s no need to console anyone here. “We fly around the Wyernpeak, just sightseeing and all that. The pce has more monsters roaming around more than ever, so you can’t really explore this pce on-foot without being constantly harassed, not to mention the cold.”

  Do they really need to recap that part?

  “Quite a fancy ship you got here, tourists.” Okay, now what?

  …Wait, it’s that minty-haired woman. She must’ve jumped and nded onto the deck before making her way down into the lobby. Her name is…

  “Oh. Envel. Did we make too big of a fuss?” Edea casually greeted her.

  “A fuss? If I didn’t live underground my hypothetical house on the surface would’ve been crushed by all those dragon corpses raining down.” She exasperatedly replied. “Most of them have most of their body charred, burn bck and all, I almost thought they were some weird rocks at first.”

  “...Do you need compensation or something? Or are you just here to chill.” Edea asked.

  “Want to hear whatever the hell leads to that, more than anything.” She answered. Well that’s convenient, considering that’s what they were doing.

  “You’re in luck, I was talking about it.” Edea pointed out. “We flew around, and the Dragon’s Gate happened to activate, causing an outflow of dragons, mostly very young and probably low on critical-thinking, to surround us.”

  “...Are you sure you didn’t tinker with it?” Envel asked, obviously finding it hard to believe that it would activate now of all times.

  I don’t really know anything about the gate, so I can only assume. Seems like there is an ancient device that spawns in dragons, probably from some pce that is removed from even Earth itself.

  “Nope. You know full well that we’ll be on a shitlist of some almighty beings if we do that. Need I remind you we don’t want an apocalypse to break out?” Edea said, starting to sound apprehensive from the accusation. Envel simply shrugged. “Haaah… As for what happens next, the dragons start to surround and attack the ship, so Able kills most of them with his lightning magic, and the rest that survived Wiina is the one to get rid of them.”

  “I see… I suppose the gate has closed now, considering the ck of dragons around here.” Envel remarked. “If that’s all, then I guess I won’t bother any of you any further.”

  “You sure you don’t want to entertain the students here?” Edea called out to her because she could leave.

  “Is this about my street magician act? It’s just a hobby.” She said, clearly not interested. “Besides, these kids could probably use something more stimuting to entertain them.”

  “Like what? Beating them into submission? We already have Walsuna and Rico for that.” Edea sarcastically replied.

  “I never suggested that I would participate anyway.” She responded.

  “Excuse me, can we go back to the main topic.” Gregori said, interrupting the exchange. “Can you tell us more about the Dragon’s Gate? You only never name-dropped it and not much else.”

  “Right. Sorry. Envel, you can go now. Use those dragon corpses however you want.” Edea said, and Envel simply nodded before walking to the deck, probably flying back to wherever she was. “Anyway. I guess I should talk about it. I was going to do that originally, until its activation cock everything up.”

  They then press something on the control panel. I don’t think I ever get a good look at it, or anyone else, for that matter. I’m surprised it's not in its own room, isoted to make sure no one just waltzes over and press random buttons.

  A screen popped up, showing what I believe is the gate they were talking about. It seems to be made up of rocks, mostly. Some engravings and symbols. Overall archaic-looking. It’s just a giant ptform with a circur gate in the middle, nothing too arming or noteworthy outside of its size.

  “I do not know when it was created exactly, but its purpose is very clear just from the name. A gate that can be activated to allow dragons to move from its own realm to our realm. Unlike with demons which also have its own dedicated dimension, most dragons cannot move freely through worlds without the gate. Also, you need some amount of power to activate it from either side. From the looks of it, a rge number of young dragons pulled their powers together in order to open it, causing the mess that we just went through.” I guess that all tracks, but there’s still one thing on our minds… “As for why it happened just now. I do not know. The thing with dimensions is that times are not completely sync up. It can be erratic and illogical in how they managed to link together. At least if a tear in dimensions happened recently, the worlds will move at the same pace for a while, not that any of you can tell, of course.”

  “So in that case. We should probably not expect another exodus of dragons?” Gregori pointed out, finding it unlikely that there will be another group doing something so reckless again. Since the time of the two worlds have synced up for now, it means that there shouldn’t be any shenanigans like dragons hundred years in the future of that realm popping up to our realm tomorrow or stuff like that. It’s probably also why otherworld nonsense is the way it is, pulling people from modern worlds instead of an equivalent time period. I don’t think anyone really seriously talks about it, despite the rumors.

  “Yeah. I bet a lot of dragons in the Dragon Realm are pissed that their kids are doing something so reckless, but there’s no need to worry, it is written in their culture that any dragons that pass the Dragon’s Gate once are considered disowned until they manage to return on their own. Basically, they wouldn’t care that so much of their young leave. In fact, those that care are in the minority.” Edea expined. That’s convenient for us, at least. Still a rather callous way to handle it. “Anything else you want to ask about them? I got plenty to talk about, and it’s not like we’re pressed for time.”

  “From what you said, it sounds like these dragons we encountered, hulking beasts that they are, are considered young?” Orrel asked, clearly finding that rather hard to believe.

  “Yeah. If they were actual adults, and in such a high number, the continent below us would've disintegrated from the power needed to get rid of all of them.” Edea casually mentioned something very terrifying. “Able here can fight one on equal footing, but that’s about it. He’d be sughtered if the roughly five dozen dragons were on that level.”

  “...Said the person who’s a few dozen times stronger.” Able said, clearly not liking the comparison.

  “Eh. I would’ve already stepped in if it was that apparently dangerous.” They dismissed the compint. “So does anyone have anything else to say? Maybe even a pce they want to go see?”

  …The heck are we supposed to say?

  “Nothing, huh. Well I guess we’ll just fly to… Kenya. Or something.” They said, clearly having no idea where else they wanna go. “Lake Turkana, Kenya. One of my favorite spots to chill out in.”

  “Let’s just stop speaking and get a move on. Prepare more snacks and drinks for them too, and clean the floor.” Able said while scratching his cheek, looking at the mess on the floor filled with spilled drinks and snacks. Right. The sudden attack kinda makes everything fall off the table. It’s a mess in the lobby right now.

  “Right.” Edea ftly said.

  *Snap*

  …Ah! The mess is gone and the tables of snacks and drinks are refiled. When in the world did that even happen? They snap their fingers and… Hmm… I felt a disturbance just then, but it was in such a short window of time it felt more like a hallucination. What terrifying magic did they just use?

  ———Lynda———

  <1: 33 pm>

  “I see… Well. I guess crisis averted… Hm… Well it’s not like you can’t handle it yourself… Okay then, see you ter.” Looks like she finished her conversation. “Alright, everyone. Get back on the bus. Time to finally get to the dungeon. The trip shouldn’t be longer than an hour, if the traffic doesn’t turn out too badly.”

  Looks like it’s finally time to get a move on. We’ve been just sitting around not really doing anything aside from ordering more desserts. The school already overpaid the pces they rent out in compensation, so we can just order more for free.

  Anyway, all that procrastination is done and over with, time to go back to the bus.

  Got back inside and back at our seat. The bus shakes a bit as it starts up and there we go.

  “Doesn’t look like the rain is going to get worse than this, at least…” Rico said, seeing the rain calmed down, but still clearly present.

  Looks like we lucked out, considering the very loud thunderstorm we heard like half an hour back. That shit startled me straight. There are probably a few csses that are stuck in very bad weather right now, and all the traffic that came with that.

  “Once we get to the dungeon, we’ll go down, I’ll do my talk, and be on our merry way. Most of you have been in a dungeon before, but like I said, this is just to help anyone who hasn’t entered it before. I think a lot of people are still trying to ignore all the magical nonsense happening in the world after the Mythical Eclipse. You all should be at least a bit aware of the new things appearing… Well, not new, but… Nevermind.” She was about to talk about a period of time where magic was abundant. I have read up on those, just something I stumbled upon after I heard her advice about learning more about magic and people and such. “Hm? ‘So we’re not going to run into any adventurers, right?’. Of course not. We ordered them to make sure no one else entered. It’d be a clusterfuck if so many people are crammed into the dungeon. Didn’t I talk about this this morning?”

  I mean, some people have bad short-term memory, or they just didn’t pick up that specific sentence, that happens to me sometimes.

  …Guess that’s the extent of the questions for now. I guess that makes sense. We’re probably gonna pepper her with more questions in the dungeon anyway. There’s an awkward feeling with asking questions through this device anyhow.

  Hmm… That’s odd. There seems to be some sort of commotion happening on the road. What’s that about?

  “You gotta be kidding me.” Rico grumbled as she seemed to have some idea about what’s happening. “Protesting in the rain, what is wrong with these people?”

  Looks like we’re gonna be stuck here for a while then. And here I thought we might be one of the more fortunate ones.

  “Hmm… Interesting.” Rico remarked as I felt magical reactions happening in the area of protestors… Wait. There are spells flinging our way!