ol li Okachan’s Rock/li /ol

    * * *

    The next morning, in the dim early hours before the sun had peeked over the horizon, a procession could be seen advancing in a line up the slopes of Nanga Mountain toward the summit.

    They were the people of Yamaok Vige.

    Leading at the front was Vige Chief Megatonkohsuke.

    Though walking with a cane befitting his elderly appearance, he led the vigers at a pace unimaginable for his looks, taking the lead.

    With each step, bells attached to his cane jingled shanshanshan.

    Walking behind him was the hunter Gonpeter.

    He and his close friend Sabrown were carrying a litter.

    A roofed litter enclosed by doors on all four sides.

    Inside the closed doors slept Emi, the cursed child chosen as the sacrificial victim for this journey.

    Having slept in a bedding with a roof and walls for the first time in so long, Emi’s slumber was truly profound.

    Though she normally deployed her 【Mana Sensing Threads】 to remain vignt for enemy attacks even while sleeping, conveniently for the vigers, she had let her guard down today.

    Even being lifted and loaded into the litter did not rouse her – instead, the swaying motions only lulled her deeper into dreaming.

    Behind the litter walked several women in silence, carrying flowers to offer Okachan as they ascended the slope.

    After climbing for a while, the tall trees gradually disappeared, giving way to low shrubbery.

    More noticeable wererge boulders.

    Rugged crags around 4 to 5 meters tall jutted upward like thorns toward the sky in numerous clusters.

    Beyond this point was Okachan’s Rock.

    The dragon’s domain.

    A sacred ce the vigers rarely set foot in under normal circumstances.

    Shanshanshanshan……

    In the silence without even birds, only the ringing of bells echoed before being swallowed by the cloudless sky.

    The slowly emerging morning light illuminated Gonpeter’s back as he carried the litter.

    “…………”

    Backlit by the sunlight, his expression was obscured in shadow, unreadable.

    He had been contemting this endlessly.

    “……We have arrived!”

    After walking a few more minutes, Megatonkohsuke raised his voice as he stopped, having led them at the front.

    Before them was a t, stage-like rock surface surrounded by jagged towering crags.

    Gonpeter’s group lowered the litter before that rock as the women decorated it with the flowers they had brought.

    This was the audience chamber.

    Whenever the vigers interacted with Okachan, it was always done here ording to ancient traditions decreed long ago.

    “Okachan! We, the people of Yamaok Vige, havee to answer your summons!!!”

    Once the decorations wereplete and the vigers knelt with bowed heads, Megatonkohsuke rang his bell shanshanshan before shouting loudly.

    He then knelt and bowed his head as well.

    For a while after, only the sound of the wind could be heard before a pping noise basaribassari gradually arose from above their heads.

    The sound grew louder until finally a heavy thud zushun reverberated, then fell silent.

    Taking that as their cue, the vigers simultaneously raised their faces.

    There atop the stage-like rock, which had been empty moments before, now stood the massive form of a dragon.

    Majestic.

    Any viger seeing that dragon’s form for the first time would undoubtedly feel such reverence.

    Its pale pinkish scales glistened in the morning sunlight, the white mane sprouting from its elongated neck fluttering in the breeze.

    Its bodyrger than a small hut brimmed with vigorous life force, the ws extending from its hands and feet sharper than any de.

    This was Okachan.

    The dragon who had guarded Yamaok Vige since antiquity.

    “Ffshuu!!”

    As if clearing its throat, Okachan exhaled a pale pinkish mist from its mouth before craning its long neck downward to peer into the faces of each viger kneeling below the rock.

    It then spread its massive wings sprouting from its back with a basari p to adjust its bearing before addressing the vigers via 【Mental Voice】:

    Good morning, humans! It’s me, Okachan!!

    A surprisingly childish voice resounded in the vigers’ minds.