>>29980
Veteran Guide
Dragon Altoiris
○ Affiliation: Dragonia Dragoon Corps (Captain)
○ Disposition: Calm, strong-willed, proud (docile, lustful depending on the situation)
○ Comfort around humans: ★★★ (Very sociable, but still possesses the pride of a dragon)
“You’ve got a long night ahead of you… ♥ I need you to be the perfect dragoon, after all ♥”
Profile
My name is Altoiris, but my good friends call me “Ally”. Under orders from Her Majesty the Queen, I currently serve as the captain of the prestigious Dragonia Dragoon Corps. In order to not bring shame to the lineage of the Black Dragon and the First Dragoon “Dell Row”, who together founded this great empire of Dragonia, I spend my days cultivating the next generations of dragoons, as well as tirelessly refining my own skills.
In the beginning, many of the dragons affiliated with the Dragoon Corps were quite shocked about being made into tour guides. However, within the few years that the Corps and the Tourism Bureau have been partnered together, the Dragoon Corps, which used to suffer from a chronic lack of personnel, is now seeing a steady stream of new recruits. Furthermore, as of late, many of our single dragons are eager to become guides all at once, and are undergoing the Bureau’s training program. The dignity and pride that we have as dragons is nothing to be ashamed of, but we are just now realizing how important it is for us to take the initiative and approach human men.
… what’s with that confused look on your face? Is there something funny about me being your guide? Do I look like some desperate old maid1 to you?! It’s because we’ve been so successful with this program! It’s only logical that I should go directly to the site, see what’s being accomplished, and how well the dragons are doing with my own eyes. Don’t get any ideas in your head; under no circumstances have I elected to be your guide because I like you, or wish to wed you, or any underhanded motive like that!
However, I feel that as the proud leader of the Dragoon Corps, I must set an example of proper intercourse between man and dragon… and as a part of that example, what a proper married life ought to look like! In short, I would greatly appreciate your help in this matter! Of course, let it not be said that you would be doing this all for free; I vow to commit fully to giving you a pleasurable experience! Even if it’s only one simple thing, I will heed your every word! But let me say this: because you’ve made me bend my knee this much, you’ve forfeited all rights to refuse!
~Captain of the Dragonia Dragoon Corps Altoiris~
Translation notes:
1: The original Japanese is 行き遅れた, meaning "too late" and is often used in the context of a lady who is "too late to get married". Altoiris is the cougar option, without a doubt.
Chief Guide
Dragon Eudephilis
○ Affiliation: Dragonia Tourism Bureau
○ Disposition: Calm, devoted (lustful, docile depending on the situation)
○ Comfort around humans: ★★★★★ (Excellent. She’s living a happily married life with her beloved husband)
○ Comfort around humans: ★★★★ (Very sociable; can get along with anyone)
“Welcome to Dragonia Tour Guides! Our guides will provide thorough support on everything from our tourist hot spots to hot and heavy life as a couple ♥1”
Profile
A love story that starts with a guided tour… dragon and man, nurturing their love hand in hand– it’s what we all dream about! Mrs. Eudephilis was the very first to live out such a happy wedded life, and now with her husband, she gives us all advice on how to achieve it ourselves. Most of the time, she’s incredibly kind, and as a married woman is full of tolerance and understanding… gosh, I’m so jealous!
But, if you make her mad, she’s known to be even more scary than the captain of the Dragoon Corps… it’s just like tickling a sleeping dragon!2 The only person who can calm down Mrs. Eudephilis is her husband… when she’s around him, it's like she's just a horny lizard ♥
~DTB Newbie Guide Litia~
Mrs. Eudephilis is a very open-hearted lady. It seems like she even acts as an advisor to the Queen; she invites dragons who drifted to Dragonia to the Tourism Bureau, and she’s always watching over us guides in secret to make sure that there aren’t any issues with us and our clients.
Well, it’d be more accurate to say that she’s peeping in on them having sex. Then, she goes home to keep having more sex with her husband… ugh, that sounds so— what, I’m not jealous or anything! I just want her to show a little more self-awareness as our senior!
W-well, whatever. The vast majority of our senior guides at the Bureau began their married lives with a guide-client relationship, you know. How they nabbed their men, what drew their husbands to them… it may just seem like bragging about your love life, but for those of us who have no experience with romance, it’s a part of our education.
~DTB Newbie Guide Syltia~
Translation notes:
1: I feel like it's a little late to be saying something so obvious now, but the term 夫婦生活, or "married life", is also used euphemistically to mean, specifically, your married sex life.
2: Ooh boy. Okay, you guys have read the profiles, you know about the "reverse scale" from the ryuu, so I won't regale you with too much background info! 逆鱗, in Japanese, is also referred to as "imperial rage", specifically the wrath of the Emperor. In modern idiomatic parlance, it's specifically incurring the anger of your superior (like a senior coworker or boss). So, in Eudephilis' position, this all works seamlessly in Japanese. It's much less cohesive in English. That's why I've decided to go with an English-language dragon-related idiom about pissing off powerful people, and I left this bit in here just to inform you guys, because it's all very interesting!
Queen of the Empire of Dragonia
Dragon Deonora
○ Affiliation: Empire of Dragonia
○ Disposition: Strong-willed, proud (docile, lustful depending on the situation)
○ Comfort around humans: ★★★ (Carries herself with a dignity befitting the dragon who rules over Dragonia. However, you may be somewhat nervous upon your first meeting.)
“I’ve been waiting for a brave young man like you to arrive ♡ If you vow to become my companion, I will bestow upon you the honor of ruling this world together ♡”
Profile
Hmph, I had heard that there was some impudent thief out to make off with my treasure, but… to think you could stand before me without any fear… I don’t hate it. That look on your face intrigues me, too.
If you were a mere thief, I would have had my attendants “devour” you, but in recognition of that foolhardy courage of yours in coming all the way here by yourself, I will grant you one boon. Simply… as a diversion.
Go on, speak your wish. As the queen of the dragons, there is nothing outside of my power. What is it? Endless wealth? Wine enough to bathe in? Or, a position of unwavering influence? Perhaps for a man such as yourself… the company of a woman with beauty unmatched?
… What? Have I heard you correctly?... y-you damned fool! Do you know who I am?! The dragon among dragons! The daughter of Her Majesty, the Mamono Lord herself…! Guards– take him away! N-no, on second thought, leave him!... I will personally administer my judgment.
So… you… you want to make me your bride, is that it? So be it. I’ll have you seeing for yourself just how long those boastful words will last… and the foolishness of your wish ♥
Translation notes:
Nothing super specific to say here, other than Deonora speaks in a very forceful, even masculine way. It's definitely suitable for a self-assured, powerful monarch.
So, what do you think? Did one of these dragons strike your fancy?
At this point, clients will be asked to look over the “Dragonia Visitor's Pamphlet1”, which discusses the history and geography of Dragonia, as well as its origins, alongside a “Guide to the Dragon Family” that will teach you about the various ecologies of the dragons living in Dragonia, and the relationships between humans and dragons. Learning more about dragons will make your visit even more pleasant… or rather, it will be the first step of your new married life ♥ And so, after you’ve really learned about dragons, you can begin your tour in earnest with your chosen guide!
I hope you two have a wonderful time together here in Dragonia ♥ Of course, if you end up falling in love with this country, you can always stop by our Immigration Bureau; there, we can introduce you to everything from case studies of our lifestyle, to citizen registration, to properties that could become your new home ♥ Well then, I’ll leave the rest of it up to your leading lady… please enjoy your visit to Dragonia, the land of dragons ♥
~Dragonia Tourism Bureau chief guide Eudephilis~
Translation Notes:
1: I've translated it this way instead of "Dragonia Immigration Document" and will encourage it to be changed in the headers/table of contents as well. This is because it's 入国書 in Japanese, and while 入国 can refer to matters of immigration (indeed, it does for 入国管理局, or "Immigration Bureau", which will be referred to in the very next paragraph), it literally just means "entering a country", and can apply to simple international tourism. As we can see, the Side makes the two distinct!
1. The History of Dragonia
1.1 The Dragon Empire of Dragei
Today, Dragonia is open to all as a country where dragons and humans coexist. But, of course, the history of this coexistence has not always been so peaceful. In the days of the former Demon Lords, Dragonia was known as “Dragei”, a mighty nation possessing awesome military power. Natural fortresses taking advantage of the steep terrain dotted the landscape in great numbers, and the empire’s defenses, said to be impregnable, never once permitted even a single monster invasion; the cornerstone of this power was their “dragoon corps”, a faction of dragon knights unrivaled throughout the world who tamed the land’s wild dragons.
As a part of their diplomatic campaigns, Dragei would show off the dragoons, the country’s greatest military force, as a symbol of their great nation, year after year sending out convoys that flaunted their bravery and splendor. Neighboring lands, seeing the heroism of the dragoons, dubbed Dragei the “Dragon Empire”– eventually, Dragei would establish a reputation as a particularly prominent force even among the numerous anti-monster states.
However, behind such brilliant light lay a dark shadow.
There, the people were divided into the “Voli1”, the nobility who owned the land that supported the mighty Dragei military, and the “Gradi1”, the ordinary citizens. This strict caste system gave rise to extremely high labor productivity.
Of course, for the people at the time, dragon taming was no simple task. During military campaigns, the dragons the Voli knights rode were only those that had already been thoroughly trained; incredibly perilous duties like the care of the completely untamed dragons that had only just been captured, the training to accustom them to humans, and the drills required to make them fit for battle were universally allotted to the Gradi relegated to the ranks of the infantry. Of course, the raising and maintenance of the dragons came at an enormous expense, which led to heavy taxation, yet another burden for the Gradi.
By all accounts, there were many times where training was unsuccessful, and the young trainees ended up falling victim. In addition, dragons who refused to be tamed were often sacrificed as well to further instill in the other dragons the power that humans wielded. On the backs of these countless victims, Dragei boasted a resplendent prosperity as a military nation. But behind the scenes, the rage of the downtrodden Gradi grew stronger by the day.
Translation Notes:
In general: I left "Dragei" as is because somehow, for some reason, I don't think you guys would have taken "Dragay" too seriously.
1: Both of these are novel kanji compounds in the original Japanese, AKA, not real words: 「上民」 and 「歩民」 respectively. Hyper-literally, that's "up-folk" and "walk-folk" (not "pedestrian", which is 歩行者). Naturally, novel word creation in Japanese meant that I couldn't just use any old English word, so I spent 50% of the time I worked on this section trying to come up with something that was at least mostly accurate and not utterly ridiculous, which, for terminology that only matters for one little section in this whole book, is a little silly in retrospect. Was I successful? Eh. "Voli" and "Gradi" are derivative of the Latin words for "fly" and "walk".
1.2 The Dragei Revolution
One day, on the eve of the momentous occasion wherein the Dragei Imperial Army would set out to defeat the Mamono Lord, the rage of the Gradi finally reached its peak and exploded in the form of a revolution. The leader of the revolt, who would later be known as “the First Dragoon”1, was a young man named Dell Row. On that day, Dell, a low-ranking soldier assigned as a dragon caretaker, together with his comrades, released many of the dragons that had been imprisoned by Dragei into the wilderness, so that they would no longer be used as the tools of humans, and rose in revolt against the empire.
His battle cry calling for freedom and liberation rallied many Gradi to his cause, and in the revolutionary momentum they surged towards the royal palace. After three days and three nights of tempestuous battle between the Imperial Army, made up of Voli, and the Gradi revolutionary army, the victors were the Voli. Dell had been captured during the clash, and, without their leader, the revolutionaries were utterly routed.
The king, enraged that this rebellion saw both the foot soldiers of the Dragoon Corps, a great source of national pride, join the revolutionary army as well as the release of the captured dragons, ordered the immediate public execution of the revolution’s leaders, including Dell.
Translation notes:
1: So he wasn't literally the first, obviously, but this is a pretty literal translation from 「始まりの竜騎士」; I think we should take this to mean that he was the first dragoon truly recognized by the dragons themselves as a worthy rider. I think it's also interesting that, contrary to what the original translation said, he was never once a rider while he was actually in the Dragei army.
1.3 The Dragon’s Reinforcement
It was on the very next day, with many of the Gradi gathered, faces full of despair, to witness the execution of the hero Dell– at the very hour the execution was to occur, a flock of dragons large enough to blot out the twilit western sky, and a single, gargantuan crimson dragon, as if leading this army, tore through the skies above Dragei. This sudden swarm of marauding dragons were the allies of those released by Dell, summoned for aid. The dragons, to rescue Dell from his imminent death, and to seek revenge for the poor treatment of their brethren, let out an earth-shaking roar, and mercilessly attacked.
Many fortresses once famed for their insurmountable defenses burned down as if made from spun sugar by the hellfire unleashed from the great crimson dragon’s mouth, allowing for the dragons to invade one after another. In the face of such overwhelming numbers, even the elite forces under direct command of the king, bearing arms of the dragon-slayers, were pushed to retreat in the blink of an eye.
The powerful Voli fled in succession, unable to realize the silent rage and sorrow that the dragons accumulated for years until the moment that they were forced to abandon their country. The king, who saw the dragons only as tools, couldn’t even imagine that the dragons, having broken away from human clutches, would come for revenge, to say nothing of saving Dell.
Despite declaring itself the Dragon Empire, Dragei, the country that could not see dragons as the living things they were, came to be remembered only as the land that was taken by them.
1.4 The Day of Dragonia’s Founding
The Gradi, victorious in their revolution due to the aid of the dragons, proclaimed their leader Dell a hero, and begged him to rule Dragei as their new king. Dell, however, refused, insisting that a human ruler had no place in the reconciliation between humans and dragons, and that what was truly necessary was the abolishment of the wicked institution of the Voli and the Gradi. For many, many years, he declared, it was precisely the dragons that had devoted themselves to us, went to battle with us, and saved us on this very day that must rule this land.
Not a soul rose in dissension against Dell, who spoke of dragons like they were his family. The people freely opened up the vast wilderness that made up the majority of the country, as well as the massive estates once owned by Dragei’s most powerful citizens to the dragons. The great crimson dragon, seeing the unanimous will of the people, ruled the land as the representative of dragonkind, and vowed that hereafter, they would lend their power to the humans and live in harmony. Thus, Dragei opened its next chapter as “the Dragon Empire of Dragonia1”, championing the ideal of human and dragon coexistence. This cherished founding principle has been passed down in an unbroken line to this very day.
Translation Notes:
1: Okay, so this is an interesting one. I've had opportunity to mention it before, but I wanted to wait until Dragei talk started to bring it up, and that's that Dragonia and Dragei use different words for "empire" in Japanese: 帝国 for Dragei and 皇国 for Dragonia. I racked my brain for it but there was literally no way to meaningfully differentiate the two in English, so I'll just give some context here. 帝国 is the more general word for "empire" that can refer to basically any empire in history, but 皇国 is a dated and poetic term used almost exclusively to refer to Imperial Japan. I have no earthly idea what this is insinuating, but it's persistent throughout the text.