It has been roughly one year since we had come to live in this wonderful place. I have felt several times that all of this was just a dream and will wake up from it. But no matter what, I am always here, this was reality and not a dream.
I have always thought of reflecting over what has happened this past year, but I believe it will be hard to reflect on all of it in a single day. I remember the first time I met that person.
It was a normal day in those desolate lands when that man suddenly came to our village.
Shen was one of the superior dragons, the one who manipulates the fog of illusion combining the attributes of water and wind. It was an old dragon with a bit of whimsical nature, but it was very important one for us. I have heard stories from my father and grandfather that long ago, our ancestors asked it for protection in exchange for serving it for the rest of our lives. Since then our scales have become blue and we have acquired abilities close to or superior to dragons, even though we are just of the lizard group. Even in this harsh desolate environment, we are able to live adequately.
The superior dragon Shen has long fallen into a deep sleep. I believe it has been asleep for quite a while since both my father and grandfather did not have a chance to see Shen for themselves. Even though I have heard of its form and characteristics from the stories, I almost deemed it an enemy when it first appeared over our village.
“It has been awhile, my kin. Sorry for the sudden announcement, but we are moving.”(Tomoe)
Those were words that I had never expected. However, I wonder if it was an instinct as its kin? Just listening to those words and voice, I knew this person was Shen, our lord. Despite it being the first time I have heard this voice, I understood at first glance that it was our lord thus, I did not have any hesitation.
“I understand, we shall prepare.”(Mist Lizard)
I answered the lord, I did not know if my words would reach him. The figure in the sky faded away; I panicked a bit when it disappeared suddenly. I knew I was not daydreaming since everyone else in the village was looking up towards the sky because they heard the voice.
“Oh, thanks for the immediate response, are you the current chief of the village?”(Tomoe)
“?!”(Mist Lizard)
I suddenly heard a voice come from behind, I turned around to see it.
I saw a girl with blue hair, it was a hyuman being. It laughed quite fearlessly. But I did not make the same mistake twice because from the voice I could tell who she is.
“Lord, is that you?”(Mist Lizard)
“Yes, I am Shen, your lord, because of certain circumstances I have decided to go on a journey. I am in this form due to the fact I have signed a contract with a hyuman child. Although it was mirrored, I put my previous form in the sky through my powers in case you would not recognize me. But I guess showing that form was unnecessary, thank you for your quick response.”(Tomoe)
“I thank you for the kind words, Although we do not have many people here, we still number around 100, please give us time to prepare for the move.”(Mist Lizard)
“That is not necessary, just gather all the people and meet me outside around this time tomorrow. I will explain the situation later. Please inform everyone of this and I will come back tomorrow.”(Tomoe)
“Yes, my lord.”(Mist Lizard)
“Hehe, your generation is very lucky, the journey I am going on will be very exciting.”(Tomoe)
That was my first conversation with Lord Shen. It was a very short conversation that just discussed the matter and nothing more. However, those last words resonate within me even to this day.
After that, as we were told, we readied ourselves and awaited lord Shen. She had come. In the next moment, a fog covered all of us. Instantly our environment changed from a desolate wasteland to green plains with grass and tree as far as the eye can see. The house moved along with us and did not change in position. Although I was chief, I recalled that all my thoughts had stopped for a moment. I understand that it was impossible to grow without failure but even to this today, I find myself sighing at how pathetic I was at that time.
It was not the familiar cracked ground but a lush land. It was not the barren land without grass but a rich landscape with trees that surrounded us and blocked our visibility. This was a very good land to inhabit was what Lord Shen said. What kind of blessing was this?
It seems that this land already has people living on it, the highland Orc, they are not kin of Lord Shen but they seem to deeply respect her. I have heard that the magic power they possess was much higher and magic skill wise, they are more versatile than us. I had thought they were also brought to this land by Lord Shen, but it seems that they followed the hyuman child Lord Shen has a contract with.
There were also Elder Dwarves. They were excellent craftsmen who created outstanding armor and weapons. They were able to construct weapons that bestow abilities upon the user, they were a tribe that was well admired even by our people. It was lucky that they will live with us.
We were actually prepared to fight with Lord Shen’s contractor if the contract was made unjustly. We were going to fight to our last lizard, but the possibility of that happening was low given Lord Shen’s attitude and behavior.
It was as we thought, the child…..Waka-sama was different.
But Lord She- I mean Tomoe-sama was cruel to say that person was a hyuman child.
He had a very relaxed face and the amount of Magic power that he was giving off was something I have never seen before, it was dripping down from his whole body. When I first laid eyes upon him, all thoughts of fighting him had disappeared. Also, we were able to see that Tomoe-sama was not put under the contract unjustly, she laughs and speaks in a formal tone with him of her own volition.
I think the moment I realized the person in front of me was not a hyuman child was because of the other person with him. It was a black-haired woman who had the power to rival even Tomoe-sama. I knew that we could not beat the other woman, no matter what. To put both people under a contract was something a hyuman can never do.
Besides, he also had talked to not only us but all the other races in their native tongue. That was outrageous. We held a conference at night and decided to proceed to call him Waka-sama.*
Tlnote: this is where they officially call him Waka-sama but I like to stick with Waka-sama throughout the story since it is always that name.
Later on, Tomoe-sama had told us that Waka-sama was not hyuman but a Human. I do not know what a Human is, but if all Humans are like Waka-sama then I will be very afraid of that race. We were told after thinking of that, that Waka-sama was special and not all Humans are like him.
In this place, we cooperated with the Highland Orcs, Elder Dwarves, and Alkey to build a town here in this land.
We also wanted daily battle training and thus sent a proposal for it, it was approved very fast.
Originally, I thought the quality of training we would have here would decline due to the peaceful environment, but that was a needless concern. If we wanted to go outside to the wasteland then we were immediately allowed to do so. Sometimes Tomoe-sama and Mio-sama would participate in the training. We were able to try out various types of fighting styles and think of new ways to organize ourselves for battles that may happen in the future. Also, when Waka-sama participates in training with us, it becomes more of a game of dodging his attacks rather than a battle or spar. The things that person does always has abnormal accuracy and incredible power. Tomoe-sama says that his operational magical power was in fact, very low. He does not have the right spell or catalyst to use his immense magic power, thus if we properly defend with our lives at stake, we will survive somehow. I do want to take one his attacks head-on someday but right now, I do not have any sort of countermeasures for it. That person was a walking country destroyer, even his bare-handed attacks were incredibly powerful. Currently, we are still looking for a way to deal with his attacks, but none other than dodging comes to mind.
Every day was the same peaceful day, the same routine of training and laboring to build the town. I wonder if it was for this reason that incident happened.
In Asora, the first death by battle appeared. Although we are always have been prepared to die on the battlefield, hearing of our colleague’s death in this wonderful environment was a great shock. The death of the highland Orc due to the rampage of a hyuman adventurer.
It was due to Waka-sama and Tomoe-sama’s idea that Asora had a hyuman inside it. Tomoe-sama’s split body was also destroyed and she herself had sustained some injuries as well. Waka-sama blamed himself for this incident. I have always felt that Waka-sama was too much like a young child, he has so much power but was unaware of it or rather, does not want it. I believe it was his innocence and gentleness that made him unique, but it was also a fact that those traits made him slightly careless. I do believe he has a perception of his position though, he himself had eliminated the hyuman.
However, the people who should have been the most attentive in this case was us Mist Lizards. We have to always be on guard like in the wasteland. We have let ourselves get too relaxed. I gathered everyone and scolded our entire tribe including me.
Waka-sama ordered me to guard the city and patrol Asora. He said we should not guard in a military fashion, but rather police the streets and patrol. The chief of this force was, of course, Waka-sama, but he has placed Tomoe-sama as his representative to take care of matters if he was away. I wondered if he thought about our origins and placed Tomoe-sama to be our leader because of this. We hurriedly reformed and carried out the work he had presented us.
The young one in our tribe wanted the same type of sword as Tomoe-sama. I do agree with its beauty and sharpness but it takes time to get used to. I am quite at a loss of whether I should allow it. I, personally do want it as well but……
The elder dwarves send us a message about the equipment we requested for repairs and says they are finished. Our Mist Lizards weapons are fully made by the elder dwarves, I truly cannot thank them enough. AS warriors who train and fight all the time, our armor and weapons are in constant damage. But with the elder dwarves helping us now, we have been able to effectively use these weapons and armor to their full extent. Recently though, I believe they have been having a tough time with the demands of Tomoe-sama.
Elder dwarves spoke about the sword for Tomoe-sama and our young one requested that sword as well without even discussing it with me. It was a truly deplorable fact, they left their chief out of this moment in our tribe’s history to obtain the same weapon as our lord.
The sword was called a Katana and apparently, they are having trouble with making it. However, since Tomoe-sama desires it and they have obtained some advice from Waka-sama to create the sword and have some success in getting the shape. Tomoe-sama was really happy with the final product they have made and was full of smiles when she was holding that weapon.
However, the Katana was a weapon that can only be used by a skilled swordsman. It was not just any weapon, it had its own character. I have selected a few individuals to try it out and they had failed miserably. The maintenance for the Katana was very costly and was a weapon that had to be carefully crafted. They broke some of the katanas in the process, I apologized to the elder dwarves. The dwarves did not mind and actually wanted us to test the weapons in practice battles since I am also interested in the weapon called a Katana, I agreed with the suggestion.
We did a training session with the Forest Oni. The session was observed by Komoe-sama, Tomoe-sama’s new split body. Mio-sama was also there. To be honest, they were not that strong. I think my standard of measuring strength must have been skewed because of always seeing Waka-sama. They had great agility, but we were higher in both strength and skill. We were both skilled in magic equally and if it was attack magic, they had an upper hand, but we had the upper hand in defensive magic. Though this did not matter since they had an attack method called breath. Also, we are conducting this training session with unit based battle, not 1v1. Their leader Mondo seemed to have prohibited an ability of their, I am guessing it was a dangerous ability, thus they must not use it Asora. I will have to keep this in mind for next time.
We had the opportunity to fight two Forest Oni……that was truly a deplorable match. I could not believe this was the same Forest Oni who had been attending to customers every day. What happened to her to make her become like that. I judged we had been severely lacking in training and started over again. If we dilly dally too much we must face the TM boot camp. Thus I had ordered everyone to do 3 times the regular training.
We had gotten a strange proposal from Waka-sama. He wanted a warrior who would help him train. I said we would gather the entire tribe for that but he declined and told us that he need just 1 person. I wanted to introduce the best warrior we have but again he declined and said he needed a low level warrior.
It seems we are to be helping out with some hyumans training. I wondered if any of those low level warriors will meet Waka-sama standards……..
From my experience as chief and as a trainer for the tribe, I have learned that using excellent talents are the best way to train other individuals. I do not know what Waka-sama has in mind though. I went with my experience and introduced our second best warrior as a low level warrior since I had already introduced our best warrior. I do not know what kind of training method or form Waka-sama will have but I know that if the person you are training with has doubt in their heart, the other people will be affected by it as well. I have learned from Tomoe-sama that sometimes blindly listening will not be helpful and use the experience to be more helpful to him.
We seem to have expanded and obtained new residents in Asora. The winged people with a flying ability and a tribe called Gorgon with a powerful petrifying ability. They both have incredible numbers, but they have both accepted the terms and conditions of living in Asora. We have never had any training with fighting flying opponents thus, I am quite looking forward to that. Apparently, the Gorgon ability for petrification was even dangerous to the residents here, Shiki-sama who was another follower of Waka-sama was working on a solution with the elder dwarves.
The chief of the winged people visited us for a greeting. Her tone and voice was soft, but the air around her was dignified. We had quite the meaningful time when I suggested a joint training session. She was also surprised by many of my responses when she asked the living standard here. Unlike us Mist Lizard, she wanted to help in the administration or management in Asora. I think it would be a good thing if they can help Ema-dono and work in the administration part where the highland Orcs were struggling due to lack of people.
They have yet to touch upon the true wonder of Asora which was Waka-sama and his followers. That realization and surprise will no doubt be the strongest, I want to spectate that reaction if possible.
Two people from the Gorgon came to greet. I was with Shiki-sama. I was required to test whether we can achieve resistance without her glasses. Among all the people here besides Waka-sama’s group, I had the highest resistance towards abnormal conditions. I, who was in full armor and a girl gorgon who were glasses were facing each other. I said I was ready and she took off her glasses. I started to feel a strange sensation that suppressed my body, I instantly release the magic power I had stored in my body to disable this effect. This was the most common method to restore your body to normal from abnormal effects. The suppression effect quickly came back, this was quite troublesome. If I do not always keep up the resistance, I will be swallowed huh?
We tried other equipment and did some other experiments. At some point, my consciousness disappeared. I woke up to see Shiki-sama and the girl apologizing to me. I got petrified huh? It was quite the power I must say; it was good for training to always be on guard and always be on your foot. If you relax even for a second you will lose.
I said there was no need for an apology and enjoy more times with talking with the winged people. Waka-sama was immune to the petrification effects and can even restore objects that have been petrified and make sure they do not petrify again. I think he has learned some abilities and a few small things in the academy while teaching. It was encouraging that he was training and growing his powers. He still does not have the perception of him being a king or a ruler but his training with the bow and attitude towards that are superb I must say. I do believe he was in control of his own power and was doing some tests to use his power more efficiently as well.
By the way, the Gorgon tribe had come to us to ask about our biological process. Do we engage in activities involving men and women, I had said we do but we are born from eggs. I wonder if this will be useful as a reference to the gorgon who had the same biological structure as hyumans. Our body sizes were also very different. We were asked at the end if we desired their bodies, but I could only give them flattery and nothing more. They were as beautiful as this land, but we do not feel any sexual desire towards them. They seemed to have a pained expression, but this was not something I can change or control, if our tribe people desired you I would have said it.
I must say, I have experienced a lot of things in my year here in Asora. It was very different from that monotone life I lived back at the wasteland.
Well, I believe I should write this down in a book. A young dwarf had also done this and I shall use his book as a reference of how to proceed in this matter. I do want to record my event but it was quite the tedious work. However, this year was filled with too many happy memories not to record. I hope to continue living here and let my children know of my experiences here.