<h4>Chapter 534: Famous ce</h4>


    The day after we defeated the Modoki.


    After leaving themercial fleet, we were heading northeast. It was a straight route to the Academy of Magic.


    『I never thought we’d be involved with themercial fleet by chance』


    「Nn. It was amazing」


    「Woof!」


    『Me too, I’ve never seen that many ships in one ce before』


    I looked at Lake Vivian again as we were leaving, and it was still looking big from this distance. Maybe it really was much bigger than Lake Biwa.


    Well, I’ve never seen the real Lake Biwa before, so I don’t know what it was really like.


    After that, we traveled by flying in the sky while riding on Urushi’s back. Since the Kingdom of Belios was a mountainous country, there were a lot of differences in elevation, and it was fun to see aplete change in the scenery just by going a little further.


    「…?」


    Fran was staring at the clouds far above.


    『What’s wrong?』


    「What is that?」


    『Huh? Aah, it finally reached here huh!? It’s the floating ind』


    「Looks strange」


    What Fran has discovered was a huge mass of clouds, standing even higher than normal clouds. No, she was probably looking at the shadow of an ind floating in the middle of it.


    「Floating Ind」


    It was the same kind of floating ind that we had explored with Jean the necromancer.


    However, this one was not a dungeon. I’ve done some research at the adventurer’s guild in Alessa after all.


    「So, there is no strong magic beast?」


    『No, that’s not true. It’s a Grade S magical area, the bed of the Heavenly Dragon. It’s one of the most dangerous ces in the world where the strongest ss of magic beasts in the world, the A-rank magic beasts, live』


    Yes, that ce was more of a dangerous ce than a dungeon.


    I don’t know how it works, but there was always a lot of water flowing down from that floating ind.


    ording to those who have reached the ind, rivers as wide as 100 meters fall straight down from the edge of the ind to the ground. However, these waters never reach the earth.


    The water seems to turn into vapor and dissipate before reaching the ground. The same principle applies to Angel Falls, a famous waterfall on Earth that has no basin.


    The clouds surrounding that floating ind were created by the waterfall that turned into clouds.


    「Heavenly Dragons? It exists?」


    『Yeah. I heard some are living on that ind』


    However, these Heavenly Dragons have rarely caused any damage to this country. In the first ce, they seem to be unable to live on the ground and never descend below the clouds.


    It was said that during a battle with adventurers who broke into the Heavenly Dragon’s sleeping quarters, the breath that a Heavenly Dragon released rained down on the earth, destroying the highway to some extent.


    『I’ve heard that there are few records of them being defeated in the past, so we don’t know how strong they actually are』


    The reason it was called an A level threat was that other Dragon species were ranked as threat level of A. Since they were dragons too they were ranked A for the time being.


    Only A-ranked adventurers or higher were allowed to enter the sleeping quarters of the Heavenly Dragons Well, it seems that more than half of them were knocked down by the magic beasts that inhabit the sea of clouds beforending on the ind though.


    And even if they managed tond, most adventurers won’t challenge the Heavenly Dragons right away. Their main goal was the several dens that exist on the floating ind.


    In their dens, they collect the scales and the beards that have fallen off and then run back. That was the main goal of those adventurers.


    There was the possibility of being attacked by multiple Heavenly Dragons, but there was no ce to run to in case of emergency. When that happened, the adventurers would be at an overwhelming disadvantage, it was because fighting the Heavenly Dragons in there would be suicidal.


    『They say if we’re lucky, we’ll see a Heavenly Dragon flying between the clouds!』


    「Really?」


    『Yeah』


    「What is it like?」


    『They say it looks like a long snake with a body length of about 200 meters』


    Yes. That dragon figure looks like an Eastern-style Dragon, unlike a Western dragon. It has a magic power that far surpasses that of a Western dragon, and if a Western dragon was a warrior type, this dragon was more of a magic and skill type.


    Eastern-type Dragon and Western-type Dragon. Their ecology seems to be very different.


    『They have golden scales that looks blinding on a sunny day』


    「Nn… I can’t see any」


    「Woof…」


    『Well, they say it’s really rare. But since we can see the ind from anywhere in the eastern part of this country, so if we’re lucky, we’ll get to see it』


    「Nn」


    We proceeded to look up at Heavenly Dragon’s ind to see if we could see any dragons. Urushi too was slowing down while looking up, but he sometimes failed to maintain our altitude and Fran almost fell. In the end, we couldn’t see any Heavenly Dragon.


    『Ooh, I saw the town』


    「So that was the Academy of Magic? It’s so big」


    『No, you’re wrong. The Academy of Magic is in the back where the tower is. It’s still big though. What’s in its front is just a town』


    It seems that a town has developed around the Academy of Magic. It was also called the Academy Town.


    『That’s Lady Blue, the town where the Academy of Magic was built 』


    「Blue? It’s not blue though?」


    『Lady in Blue. It’s a name that honors the world’s most powerful ocean magic user, the High Elf, Weena Rhyn』


    「I see」