Wikifag here, the translation of Side I is now complete. I'll probably upload the whole thing to the wiki later today.
>>42225
>Dragonia Glossary
>【The First Dragoon, Dell Row】
A legendary man considered one of the founding figures of Dragonia, as well as the architect for the Dragonia Dragoon Corps as it stands today. Although now revered as a hero, during the days of the Dragei Revolution, Row had a puggish nose and a face full of freckles, not to mention a rather squat figure— he would not have been considered terribly handsome by anyone’s metrics. Even so, his honest heart, compassion for dragons, and simple yet sincere nature swayed the hearts and minds of many dragons. Indeed, since the succession of the current Mamono Lord, many dragons had attempted to court him. After finally settling down with a dragon and becoming an incubus, he still lives to this day somewhere out in the Dragonian Territories, and on occasion comes to check in on the Dragoon Corps, offering words of encouragement to the young dragoons. Of course, the dragoons who learn who he actually is are always completely dumbstruck.
>【King Dragei】
Born Julius Legreid1 Dragei. A human king who ruled the Dragei Empire during the age of the former Mamono Lords. Ascended the throne at the age of twenty-two. Known as an arrogant figure who dubbed himself the “Dragon King” despite being a human, Dragei is often spoken of as a mad king2 who drove the empire to ruin through the suffering of its citizens brought upon by his many draconian policies, and the vicious exploitation of the dragons. But at the same time, after his coronation at a young age, he completely abolished Dragei’s self-serving senate dominated by conservative opinions and drove any form of the Order’s influence from its borders. By setting to work on building up the Dragoon Corps and advocating for the importance of diplomacy with a backbone of military force, he rapidly transformed the tiny frontier nation of Dragei into a military superpower. The political acuity he demonstrated was not that of an incompetent man.
From the very start, Julius pushed his aggressive policies regarding bolstering national power despite dissent from those around him because he sensed an impending crisis for his country from the decadent, wasteful habits of its aristocracy and the self-serving attitude of the senate even facing pressure from neighboring nations. However, the policies that he had hastily decreed instead resulted in the suffering of Dragei’s citizens and countless dragons. The behavior of those in his circles who, fearing the threat of banishment, constantly monitored his expressions for changes in mood further drove the king down a path of solitude and impulsive behavior. Moreover, Lady Dragrinde, the sole member of the aristocracy who opposed Julius to the bitter end, was also his childhood friend— the only person he could never hope to outdo.
Translation Notes:
1: I confess to still having no confidence in this romanization of レグライド, but the most obvious, "Legride", just looks like "leg ride", which I just didn't like. Because it only appears the one time though, I'm not gonna stress too much about it, and you guys shouldn't either.
2: 暗愚 means something closest to "foolish", but it has a particular nuance that it particularly affects your understanding of right and wrong, leading one to make decisions one could call evil. Googling the full term used, 暗愚王, for some more potential context, revealed a suitably crazy-looking villain from Fire Emblem whose title was localized as "Mad King", which was my original take, so I went with that.
>【Crimson Dragon Queen, Deonora】
The dragon queen who rules Dragonia. During the age of the former Mamono Lords, dragons with red scales were classified as “crimson dragons”1. Crimson dragons, due to their ferocity that outranked even the many dragons that exist, and their truly staggering power that drove scores of countries to ruin, were referred to by the people of the time as “dragons among dragons”, “avatars of hell”, and “rulers of dragons”, and feared as a threat comparable to the Mamono Lord. Deonora is one such dragon: even now, she possesses terrible power and vast stores of mana worthy of being called a monarch, and exudes a regal bearing that naturally pulls many dragons under its sway.
As a dragon, a race that, rare among typically much more uninhibited monsters, possesses a particularly high degree of pride, Deonora has– for better or for worse– a strong sense of responsibility regarding her duties as the ruler of Dragonia. For her, her previous conflict with the Mamono Lord that she now thinks so highly of is simultaneously her greatest regret, and a wonderful opportunity to realize her own weakness. In letting her love for her country run rampant in the wrong direction, she has something in common with the human king who once professed himself to be the Dragon King. Ever since her epiphany regarding her shortcomings and the wonders of love following her battle with the Mamono Lord, she has become more and more meddlesome about the affairs of monsters who she sees too much of her old self in, who struggle with opening their hearts to humans and conveying their love, coming down to the city much more actively.
The name “Deonora” itself is the greatest treasure she has ever received from her esteemed Mamono Lord. The honor of being bestowed a name directly from such a figure instills in Deonora the same sense of pride as a “daughter of the Mamono Lord” as any other lilim.
Translation Notes:
1: Alas, another frustrating instance of the flexibility of the Japanese language and its use of loanwords making my job harder. This is originally レッドドラゴン, literally in English "red dragon". But it sounds dumb as hell to say in English "dragons with red scales are classified as red dragons" when in Japanese it's clear that there's at least the nuance of an Exotic (English) Title. So, I used "crimson dragon", the term I'd been using for the translation of the novel compound 赤竜 that had previously been used abundantly in reference to Deonora.
>【The Great Wing, Sylvia】
A wyvern who currently owns “Loveride”, a popular chain restaurant for monster couples in the Dragonia Empire, and a former captain of the Dragoon Corps. She’s famous as a gorgeous woman with the same beautifully flowing silver hair as her daughter Syltia, and the fleeting yet ever-so-tempting allure of a widow. Her current concern is that Syltia still struggles with being honest regarding her feelings towards men. While she doesn’t rush her daughter into marriage, deep down, she restlessly awaits the day where she gets to meet her future son-in-law. Sylvia has remarkably massive wings, and in terms of her flight ability alone, she’s said to have no equal even among the captains of the Dragoon Corps who have led before her, all great talents in their own right. While enlisted in the Corps, she leveraged her innate faculty for flight to visit many different mamono realm nations, making great strides in expanding the scope of Dragonian diplomacy.
In regards to her husband, during day-to-day life she assumes a wifely humility1; in the bedroom, however, she prefers riding him relentlessly, tormenting him with verbal abuse. She uses her broad wings to wrap him up in an all-encompassing embrace, and then single-mindedly, even selfishly, crashes her hips down on him without pause.
Translation Notes:
1: The term used is translated literally as "walking three steps behind", but 三歩下がって歩く is actually an idiomatic expression generally meaning comporting oneself with humility, and often refers specifically to women regarding their partners.
>【The Grandwurm Grywe】
Also known as “Grandmother”. A massive wurm comparable in size to Queen Deonora who rules over the underground citadel of the Lair of the Grandwurm with her highly unusual “intoxication mana”. She is the first wurm known to have settled in Dragonia, and it is said that the strong tolerance for alcohol that Dragonia’s wurms all share, as well as a propensity for operating taverns, is due to the influence of her mana as a drinker truly without peer. While Grywe has neither a dragon’s pride nor an arrogance that leads her to look down on humans, she has a terribly lustful and hedonistic mindset. Her castle in the heart of the underground city is constantly hosting some variety of bawdy banquet, alive with wine, song, and sex.
>【The Healing Goddess of Water, Tatsuizumi】
A ryuu who acts as the head hostess of the sprawling and storied ryokan “Tatsuizumibana” in Ryuusen Village, and the mother of all of the ryuu who call it home. As the head hostess– that is, the overseer of all other ryuu who run resorts– she is sometimes imagined to be a strict and demanding dragon queen by other tourists, but in reality, she possesses the same tranquility and grace as any other ryuu, and is herself especially gentle. On most days, she entrusts every aspect of even her own ryokan to her daughters and, claiming it to be “on-site inspection”, wanders about Ryuusen Village with her husband, eating manjuu without a care in the world. Her own daughters even scold her for her excessively free-spirited demeanor, somewhat befitting as it may be for a monster mother.
That being said, despite her somewhat childish behavior, it cannot be said that she never bothered to give her daughters a proper education. Indeed, once one of the village’s ryuus come of age, they are always summoned to Tatsuizumi’s bedchambers. There, they witness their head hostess display acts of marital bliss so extreme and obscene that they can scarcely imagine such a woman doing them, and learn how to please a man. The ryuu of Ryuusen Village is always perfectly ready and able to “entertain” tourists and travellers at a moment’s notice thanks to their mother’s vigorous, and consummately educational, demonstrations.
>【Swordsmaster Drandina】
A lizardman known as the greatest swordswoman to ever grace the Dragonia Arena. Unusually for a lizardman, she led a pack until she finally ended up in Dragonia, acting as the leader for a squad of lizardman mercenaries who travelled every corner of the world in search of a strong man worthy of being called a husband. Coming to Dragonia originally as a guest of honor for the Dragoon Corps, she rented out the Dragonia Arena, at that time no more than one of many abandoned structures, as her temporary home, and by having Dragonia’s warriors duel her squad’s lizardmen, she spread awareness of the importance of practical combat experience, laying the foundation for the Grand Tournament of today. Drandina advocated that powerful dragons shouldn’t avoid doing battle with humans, but instead deliberately seek to face off with them on equal terms, and that only by clashing might against might can one learn true compassion for their partner. Her teachings of how love deepens only in a battle where all of a warrior’s self is laid bare remains the guiding principle for all who stand in the Dragonia Arena to this very day.
At the annual Grand Tournament of Dragonia’s opening ceremony, it’s become tradition that a lizardman playing the role of Drandina presents a magnificent mock-battle with her husband, followed by an intense and passionate bout of love-making, thus embodying the “love born from battle” that the swordsmaster championed.
>【Bells of Happiness】
Two pairs of bells that sit atop the Pillar of Heaven. Legend has it that they’ll grant the wish of those who ring them… or at least, that’s the gossip prevalent among adventurers. In Dragonia proper, they’re instead called the Bonding Bells, and when a couple rings them together, a vow of eternal love is formed. The mighty thundering of the bell represents the roar of a pair-bonded dragon. For the wyverns who inhabit the Pillar, ringing the Bells of Happiness together with their beloved husband is their most deeply held aspiration. An adventurer who had finally reached the top of the Pillar and rang the bells by himself is, at least for the wyverns dreaming of the day that they will ring them with their future husbands and become a bonded pair, the best (and perhaps loudest) marriage proposal they could ask for. That is the truth behind the legend of the Bells of Happiness: the peal of a bell diligently maintained in order to grant the wishes of unwed wyverns.
>【The Mamono Lord’s Royal Guard】
The Mamono Lord’s personal guard, and the pride of the Mamono Lord’s Army. Serving the Mamono Lord and acting as her bodyguards is the highest honor imaginable, and the group itself comprises a very small number of monster couples carefully hand-picked by the Mamono Lord herself, from an army already made up of nothing but the best. Every member of the Guard takes supreme pleasure in spreading mamono realms in the name of the Mamono Lord’s ideals and ideology, and there are many among them who have such absolute loyalty to the cause that they would not hesitate to give their lives if it were for the sake of the Mamono Lord or her philosophy.
Their primary duties are divided into “escort duties”, accompanying and protecting the Mamono Lord on diplomatic missions and military campaigns, and “agent duties”, visiting other mamono realm nations as envoys of the Mamono Lord or performing reconnaissance in human nations. The former role requires the high levels of mana necessary to quickly ascertain potential threats to the Mamono Lord and promptly incapacitate them via monsterization, while the latter demands not just maintaining proper decorum as an envoy, but being able to seamlessly blend into human nations while masquerading as a human couple. It’s for these reasons that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the Royal Guard is the “elite of the monster world”, the cream of the crop among countless monsters, and the aspiration of many. And yet, even though the Royal Guard represents monstrosity’s best, it’s a matter of course that the gulf between their ability and that of the woman they are sworn to protect is like that between the heavens and earth.
>Afterword
So, how was your tour of Dragonia? I hope that you’ve come to understand how wonderful the time spent between humans and dragons can be ♥ Hehe, it seems like you’ve become quite close with your guide— if that’s the case, I’ll be getting out of you two lovebirds’ way shortly~ Now, just so you’re aware, the places you’ve visited in Dragonia on this trip were those available in our three-days, two-nights sightseeing package. This is, of course, only a mere glimpse into our lovely country. If you wouldn’t mind, we at the Dragonia Tourism Bureau would be most pleased if you could let other tourists know as a satisfied customer— no, no, as a proud new citizen of Dragonia yourself, just how magnificent this place is ♥
Well then, I won’t keep you any longer— I hope you’ll enjoy a lovely night together, just the two of you as husband and wife ♥
~Dragonia Tourism Bureau chief guide Eudephilis~
I feel now as if I am starting to understand, if only somewhat, why my teacher travels the world even when it puts him in such great peril. At the very least, even though my sojourn here in Dragonia was quite brief, it was enough to topple the previous knowledge I had held regarding dragons and monsters. There are such stark differences between humans and dragons… no, humans and monsters; it is simple and immutable fact that there is an unbridgeable gap between our species. The issue lies, upon accepting these differences, in whether to scorn them utterly or find some compromise. The humans living in this land have chosen the latter path, and even now are fostering their love here. Whether or not this is the correct path for humanity to walk, if things will always continue as they are here… I’m afraid I still lack the experience necessary to work out an answer for these questions. Nevertheless, as I am now, I cannot help but hope that the smiles of the people who live in this land will last forever.
Well then— it pains me to leave, but seeing that I’ve been able to ascertain my teacher’s whereabouts, I need to depart as soon as I possibly can, or else I’ll only become more and more fond of this place. I have no earthly idea how, or even why, my teacher ended up in such a dangerous place when he was supposed to be bound for Zipangu, but this seems to be the norm for a monster scholar. It appears I, too, have no choice but to prepare myself for the worst. Please wait for me, dear teacher! No matter where in the world you may be…
I will catch you ♥
~A note from the student of a wandering scholar of monsters~