Part of that is dealing with Naden Delal. She's one of the dragons, but an unusual one. She's picked on and bullied by the other dragons for her wingless dragon form and inability to breathe fire. Her mockery is led by Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerada, who spend a lot of their time and energy mocking Naden.
Upon meeting her, Souma sees something entirely different about Naden. He recognizes her as a ryuu, an eastern-style dragon, and that her ability to control electricity can be incredibly useful. Forced together by Tiamat, Souma quickly figures out how Naden can fly even without wings. Given the situation, Souma and Naden realize that forming a contract between the two of them is almost inevitable, but can't be rushed into.
Using Naden's flight, Souma returns to the palace to talk to Liscia about forming the contract, which would effectively make Naden another of Souma's wives. Liscia agrees, but also insists that she go to the Star Dragon Mountain Range with Souma to deal with the situation that Tiamat hinted at. They return to the town near the border that Souma was taken from to find that Aisha has caused great damage to the countryside after Souma disappeared, settle all the unrest there, and make their way into the Star Dragon Mountain Range.
The disaster that was on its way was an attack on Crystal Castle in Dracul, the center of the mountain range. A huge storm whipped up, making it difficult for winged dragons to fly, causing all the dragons to turn on Ruby for driving away Naden, the only dragon who can fly in that weather. While Souma heads out with Naden and Aisha to try and stop the bombing of the castle, Hal gives Ruby an opportunity to help, hopping on her back and riding into battle.
While the others stop bombs on the way to the castle, Souma flies into the storm, finding a cube at the center of it. When Souma yells towards it, it seems to recognize that he's speaking Japanese and stops the attack. This leaves Souma more puzzled about what happened and doesn't get helpful answers from Tiamat. While Souma is trying to understand everything that happened, Hal is being told off by Kaede for riding Ruby into battle, the equivalent of proposing to her, so shortly after Hal proposed to Kaede.
The story ends with formalizing the Dragon Knight contracts between Souma and Naden, and Hal and Ruby, before heading off on the next stage of their travels.
Tropes
- Accidental Marriage: Hal doesn't realize that it's highly inappropriate for a dragon to let anyone who isn't their partner ride on their back. Kaede, despite already being engaged to Hal, pushes him to marry Ruby to make it right and prevent this from lowering her standing with the other dragons.
- Alpha Bitch: Ruby, complete with lackeys.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Naden feels left out and is persecuted by the other dragons for not looking like them.
- Arranged Marriage: Tiamat basically forces Souma and Naden together.
- The Bully: Ruby is this to Naden. While Naden hated her for this, when everyone else turned on Ruby for driving Naden away, Naden at least respects that Ruby would say it to her face, unlike the rest of the dragons.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Pai serves as this to Naden, being the only other dragon that gets through to her even a bit.
- Didn't Think This Through: Hal jumps into battle with Ruby at the first opportunity, not realizing what riding on a dragon's back would mean.
- Girl Posse: Sapphire and Emerada seem to follow Ruby everywhere.
- Godly Sidestep: Tiamat won't answer most of Souma's questions, claiming that there's only so much she can do to interfere.
- If It Swims, It Flies: Souma gets Naden to start flying by having her swim up a waterfall and not stop at the top.
- Meaningful Name: Tiamat being a common name for fictional dragons in our world is pointing towards this, though Souma can't quite figure out why.
- The Old Gods: Tiamat and the cube that attacked Crystal Castle are these, but it's not clarified what this means.
- Only Friend: Pai is Naden's only friend before Souma comes along.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Most of the dragons are western-style scaly, fire-breathing creatures that also can transform into human forms. They form contracts with humans, trading off fighting with and protecting humans for the ability to use the humans to reproduce. Naden takes this weirdness further, being an eastern-style ryuu who controls electricity rather than breathing fire.
- Person of Mass Destruction: In her grief/anger from having Souma taken away from her, Aisha starts swinging her sword around outside of the town she was left in, leaving massive craters in the ground. Hal, Kaede, and Carla combined can barely hold her back.
- The Scapegoat: Ruby takes the blame for driving Naden away from Crystal Castle, even though everyone else also treated Naden like a pariah.
- Tall Poppy Syndrome: Souma accuses Ruby and the rest of the dragons of making Naden a pariah because they were threatened by her uniqueness.
