Prologue 2

There was a small lake in the forest.

Although if you looked at its scale over the shore, it would be more appropriate to call it a pond or bog. But its inhabitants called this place…

Ryuujinko, the lake where the dragon god lives.

The water of the oval lake was cold and clear, it wouldn’t become muddy even if it rains. Therefore, It is said that the water springs from somewhere at the bottom of the lake.

Though it’s a place that people rarely approached, people still come. Some of those few, said that they had seen strange things at that place.

Someone said that he seen a foreign city at the bottom of the lake.

Another said that the lake’s water was stirring even though there was no wind.

Another said that he seen a dragon swimming there.

And another said that he seen a foreign girl in the lake.

As those rumors spread around, the few people who approached the lake suddenly stopped coming.

Today as always, that forest wrapped in deep silence, the Ryuujinko had a quiet appearance with the lake’s surface shining from the sunshine like a mirror.

At the lake’s shore, there was a young man standing.

The young man was probably around 16 or 17 years, and was wearing an strange outfit.

He had loose and disheveled hair, wore a pipe hakama of pongee that you cannot find around here with a katana on his waist, and also a coat colored with flashy designs.

The young man stepped inside the lake shore, not caring at all about wetting his legs as he looked into the lake.

“A dragon lives here? How does it live in such clear water? In the first place, the bottom of the lake is completely visible. Where the hell is the dragon? I came a long way here expressly for this, but it turned out to be a fake.”

As the young man spit out his displeasure, he bent to pick up a pebble that fell to his feet and aimed at the lake to throw it.

At that moment, the lake’s water began to swell even though there’s no wind, and the ripples approached the shore.

The sound of the ripples breaking in grew stronger.

“What!? Waves so suddenly!? It can’t be, is there really something here!? “

The young man threw away the pebble and once again looked into the lake. A view he had never seen before propped on the surface of the lake.

“W… what is, that…”

Dense stone buildings.

A plaza covered with stone pavement.

An extravagant palace with pinnacles.

“What is that!? A town!? No, but those buildings…”

In front of the young man, the view inside the lake completely changes.

A thick and dense dark forest.

A surprisingly thick and tall giant tree.

Beasts that he never seen squirmed in the forest.

“What on earth am I looking at!? No… What is it showing me?”

The view changed again.

And again, and again, and again.

The next thing projected in the water was a plain tree building, with the smoke of cooking rising from it.

And the shade of a beautiful girl’s face somewhere.

The young man never seen any kind of appearance or clothes like these before.

“A mirage!? No, I never heard of a mirage that projects underwater. What the hell is that!?”

As the young man steps inside the lake charmed at the spectacle, the waves that broke in the lakeshore suddenly grew.

“Uwaaah!?”

It isn’t the sea, it’s just a little pond.

The energy of the rip current was terrifyingly big, the young man was pulled underwater as if a huge invisible arm had caught his leg.

“Wha… what is going… gaah.”

The young man disappeared in the waves.

Suddenly, the lake calmed down, the waves stopped and the surface became like a mirror once again.

Nothing was heard, not the sound of the wind or the chirps of the birds. It’s a strange calm, as if the lake had absorbed all the sounds. The small lake is wrapped with the same silence it had before.

And for the young man who disappeared…

The lake’s depth was only a few meters, and the water was so transparent that the bottom was totally visible. And yet, there was no sign of the young man in the water or at the bottom of the lake.

“Young master… Where are you?” Young masteeer.”

the voice of one of the young man’s retainer called for him?

“Young masteer… Do you hear me? Young masteeer.”

The voice’s owner drew closer to the lake little by little.

“The young master, where on earth did he go leaving his retainers aside. he couldn’t have went to the lake by himself.”

An elderly man approached the lake, and bent his body towards the lake a little, and took a timidly peek.

“It can’t be. No matter how unreasonable the young master is, he wouldn’t have dived into the lake where the dragon god lives alone. So… Where did the young master go? “

The elder retainer of about 50 years clicked his tongue with a frustrated expression.

“Damn it young master. Going around without retainers with such rundown clothes, that’s why you’re called a fool by everyone.”

Letting out a sigh, the elder retainer turned and walks away from the lake.

“Young masteer! If you’re there please respond! Young masteeeer!”

Credits:

Prologue 2 was copied from BakaTsuki. The translation and editing were respectively done by Darkdhaos and Zexth.