Although dragons existed in this world, most dragons still preferred staying on the ground, so the sky was relatively empty.
Precisely because of this, Elma, who had escaped from the base in the form of a blue sea dragon, could rampage through the sky without worrying about hitting anything she shouldn't.
Or rather, some birds flying in the sky had actually been accidentally killed by her collisions, but she didn't care about that.
Don't let her "Harmony Faction" status fool you—in reality, as a dragon, although she recognized coexistence with other races, she didn't actually care about the lives of other races.
Even in the original work, she'd received this evaluation from another dragon who extremely hated humans—Fafnir:
"Elma is, besides me, the one who trusts humans the least."
At this moment, Elma's mind was full of just wanting to fly chaotically for a while to vent the frustration in her heart, then go search for Tohru's traces.
She didn't believe Tohru had really just disappeared like that—that girl must have left some traces somewhere that could be tracked down.
With this thought, Elma's body traced an azure arc through the air, and then...
BANG!!!
A dull sound exploded in the sky. Elma, who was rampaging through the air, only felt like her head had hit something. There weren't many creatures that could fly at this altitude—if it were ordinary birds, they would be reduced to dust upon collision with Elma. But this collision was different—not only did Elma not continue charging forward, she actually felt her brain become dizzy.
"One plus... one plus four?"
Dragon-form Elma circled in the sky with her body swaying, mumbling confusedly.
Clearly, she'd never imagined there could be something in the sky more solid than herself in a collision.
And when she shook her head and looked carefully, she discovered what she'd hit wasn't another dragon at all, but a person!
A man floating in midair who looked quite handsome, wearing casual clothes that didn't fit this world's style, was sizing her up and down.
Compared to Elma's current size, the other party's height was less than one of her fingernails, but it was this tiny body that had directly stopped her collision.
"What a coincidence. I was originally planning to go to the base to find you, but I ran into you mid-air instead."
Without a doubt, the man floating before Elma was Shin.
Shin had been following Kanna's guidance flying toward the Harmony Faction's base when he was suddenly hit head-on by Elma rushing out. At this point, Shin had long been accustomed to spreading his "ki" throughout his body to increase defensive power, to avoid encountering the famous scene from Dragon Ball Super where Goku was pierced in the chest by a laser gun. Therefore, the result of Elma's collision with Shin was that Elma was directly knocked back, dizzy and disoriented, while Shin remained unmoved.
However, the fact that she could collide with Shin at such high speed and not be shattered by his "ki" was enough to prove Elma's physical fitness was quite good.
"You are... Kanna?"
Elma shook her head and finally came back to her senses, only then noticing there was a dragon she recognized sitting on Shin's arm.
However, even though she'd seen an acquaintance, Elma still didn't let down her guard. After recovering, she quickly assumed a vigilant stance:
"Who are you? Why are you with Kanna?"
Although Shin's strength seemed unusual, Elma still keenly noticed that Shin wasn't a dragon but a genuine human. She just didn't know why Kanna looked so close to him... she'd never seen Kanna be so intimate with a person before.
"I came specifically to find you, Elma."
Shin didn't beat around the bush and directly extended his hand toward Elma.
"Be my... wait, wrong script. Be my maid, Elma."
Because Shin had previously considered the possibility of a One Piece mission world appearing, he'd rehearsed Whitebeard's recruitment speech in his head and almost accidentally said it.
However, even though he corrected himself in time, Shin's words obviously still made Elma furrow her brow:
"Are you joking?"
Although as someone from the Harmony Faction she wouldn't openly discriminate against humans as "inferior species" like those Chaos Faction dragons, asking her to become a human's maid was looking down on her too much, wasn't it?
She knew what the maid profession entailed—this world also had nobles, and Elma had seen what maids did for nobles.
Having her do those things... if it weren't for her good temper and for Kanna's sake, she would have already attacked.
Elma's reaction was within Shin's expectations, so Shin directly threw out the biggest bait for Elma:
"You want to refuse? Tohru is working as a maid at my house, you know."
Sure enough, Elma, who had just been looking resistant, immediately froze. She even failed to maintain her dragon form, directly transformed into human form, and rushed over to grab Shin's hand:
"What did you say!? Tohru is with you now!?"
Elma's face was full of anxious expression, not even noticing her face was almost touching Shin's nose.
"Tohru-sama is indeed working as a maid at Shin-sama's house. She's been there for quite some time now."
Shin didn't speak, but Kanna sitting on Shin's arm answered Elma's question.
Compared to Shin, Kanna's words as a fellow dragon and Tohru's little follower had more credibility.
"Thank goodness, that girl is safe..."
Upon hearing this, Elma showed an expression of relief.
The rumor of Tohru being attacked by a holy sword had obviously reached her ears, and she'd been worried Tohru might have really suffered some accident.
She'd been frantically searching for Tohru during this time, partly to reconcile with her, and partly because she was worried Tohru might really have died in some unknown corner.
Now hearing about Tohru's whereabouts, at least Tohru's safety wasn't an issue.
However, that said, to see Tohru, she would have to work as a maid for this person... this left Elma somewhat conflicted.
"I can't stay on this side for too long. You'd better think it over quickly."
Shin looked at Elma's troubled appearance but had no intention of showing mercy, directly pressing her:
"Or do you plan to... use force to make me reveal Tohru's whereabouts?"
"Eh? Is that okay?"
Shin had only said it casually, but unexpectedly Elma suddenly looked up with an expression of sudden realization.
Although he'd long known Elma's personality was also a bit slow to react, seeing her display like this, Shin still couldn't help but hold his forehead:
"If you really want to fight, you shouldn't be asking the opponent's permission, right?"
Saying this, Shin gently released Kanna. Kanna understood and flew to the side, leaving enough space for Shin and Elma.
Shin looked at Elma—for dragons, using strength to make the other party understand they had no choice was also a very simple method.
To be continued…