Chapter 9: The Effects of Dragon’s Blood
While Arman was stationing his troops in the city, Ruri was getting herself ready. She put on her pair of glasses, her brown wig, and a robe that could completely hide her from head to toe. She also draped Kotaro in a hooded cloak as well since it would cause a huge commotion if anyone realized that he was a sacred beast from the Nation of the Spirit King.
Ruri and her crew were now all set, but there was again discontent—this time coming from the smaller spirits. Once she told them that they had to stay at the castle because it would immediately out her as a Beloved, she was met with a chorus of “ugh”s and “I wanna go”s. She only managed to convince them to stay by saying she would buy them all a present from town.
With everything settled and their preparations finally set, they headed out to town. Their group consisted of Kotaro, Rin, and Chi, as well as Joshua and Ewan. All things considered, it looked like a trio of travelers from the Nation of the Dragon King and their merry band of pets. The other dragonkin were there as well, but they were apparently keeping guard incognito.
Ruri went into town quite nervous and on edge, but unlike Celestine, who was a familiar face in these parts, Ruri’s presence didn’t garner any attention in particular. If anything, Joshua, Ewan, and Kotaro with his huge body were drawing the most amount of eyes.
The vast majority of dragonkin were specimens of beauty, and Joshua and Ewan were no exceptions to that rule. As they strolled around town, most of the ladies eyed the attractive pair. However, it seemed the dragonkin presence emanating from their bodies made it hard for people to approach them. The several ladies, their cheeks flushed, kept their distance and looked only from afar.
With humans, they either had weak mana or no mana whatsoever, so their ability to perceive mana was just as weak. Few humans who stood before dragonkin were left fearful or awestruck by their presence. The Nation of the Beast King, however, was a land inhabited by demi-humans. Perhaps it was because most of the people around sensed the presence of dragons about, but not a single person even tried to come up to them. In fact, they kept a set distance away. Thanks to that, it was extremely easy to notice if anyone up to no good was trying to approach.
The differences between the Nation of the Dragon King and Beast King’s royal capitals were endless, but a point they shared was in how active and bustling both cities were. As you would expect of a tourist attraction, there seemed to be a lot of sightseeing travelers around.
Ruri found that the shops offered a large selection of souvenirs, but what stood out the most were the standing banners that read “Beloved Approved” or “Beloved by the Beloved.” While this made sense for items like clothes and jewelry, items like bread, confections, dishware, and cosmetics—any and everything that Celestine ever consumed or used—were being paraded as Beloved fair. But it didn’t stop there. There were cookies baked in the shape of Celestine’s face and even “Beloved Candies” with the same shade of green as Celestine’s hair. Droves of people were taking their pick and buying it up.
“This is kind of, uh, how do I put this? This kind of feels like they’re putting too much of her private life on display. It feels icky.”
It wasn’t clear how this information had been leaked, but everything around seemed to be the type of stuff you could only know if you knew about Celestine’s daily life. The thought of other people knowing everything from what you had for breakfast that morning to your everyday necessities left Ruri feeling averse to the idea.
“It is what it is,” Joshua started, “since the Nation of the Beast King attracts people in with their hot springs and their Beloved. And the Beloved is pretty tolerant of the bandwagon merch if it helps the nation prosper. This nation is very spirit-religious, so they have a strong adoration for their Beloved and want to use whatever they might use themselves. You have some experience with people doing that, don’t you, Ruri?”
“More or less,” Ruri replied. She recalled the phenomenon of people buying up everything she ate during her walks through the Nation of the Dragon King’s capital. Since she was technically an object of worship, it was bound to happen, but it was probably even more intense here in the Nation of the Beast King.
“It probably won’t get as overblown as it is here, but it won’t be too long before the Nation of the Dragon King has its own bandwagon merch too.”
“I’m not sure how to take that.”
The signs were already there. The good luck charms and scent pouches that Amarna sold were good examples. The more shrewd business owners would probably try to capitalize off of the healthy sales Amarna’s trinkets brought in by unanimously deciding to sell their own brand of Beloved-based merchandise. Ruri would probably need to make the same kind of allowances Celestine did if she were to ever let that happen.
Ruri and her group proceeded to leisurely stroll without issue. Thanks to that, Ruri was enjoying a comfortable tour around town, seeing the sights and relieving some of the tension from being so on-guard lately.
However, that was when a little girl came out from the crowd and walked up to Ruri and the others—no, more accurately, up to Ewan. Perhaps his dragonkin aura had hit her, because there was a twinge of fear on her face.
“Um, are you a dragonkin?” she asked.
“What of it?” Ewan responded. Assuming that she wanted to say something, he squatted down to her eye level.
Her eyes were initially filled with determination, but now she stood in front of Ewan with a pleading stare. “Blood... Give me your blood,” she said. Her voice was shaky, but her message was clear.
The message caught Ewan completely by surprise, and he replied, “What are you talking about?”
“Please! Just a little!” the young girl desperately pleaded, clutching Ewan’s sleeve. “It doesn’t have to be a lot; just a little!”
“Stop this,” Ewan said, shaking her off.
Ruri and the others silently looked on, but in the next instant, the girl bit her lip and reached into the bag slung across her shoulder. She pulled out a glinting silver object—a dagger—and swung it right at Ewan.
Ewan, being the dragonkin soldier that he was, wouldn’t be caught dead being unable to dodge the attack of a single little girl. He effortlessly avoided the swing of her weapon, and then he grabbed her wrist and wrenched it. She winced in pain and dropped the dagger.
“What are you doing, girl?” Ewan asked, looking down at her with a piercing gaze.
The girl let out a tiny yelp. Her eyes filled with tears until she found herself unable to take it anymore and she broke down in sobs. “Waaaaah!” she wailed as hot streams of water poured from her face.
Ewan was the one who’d been assaulted, but at a glance, it looked like he was accosting an innocent young girl.
“Oh, boy~ You made her cry~” Ruri said.
“Naughty, naughty~” Joshua chimed in.
Ewan flinched at their teasing. “Me?! Why is this my fault?!”
Unable to stand Ewan’s floundering, Ruri walked over to the girl and patted her consolingly on the back. As she did, a woman came rushing over.
“E-Excuse me, but did this girl just do something?”
“She assaulted me. With that knife,” Ewan explained, pointing over to where the evidence—the single dagger—lay.
The woman’s eyes widened and trembled. She then kneeled before Ewan and bowed her head. “Please accept my apologies!”
“You her mother?” Ewan asked.
Her face paled and she bowed deeply. “Yes, I am her mother.”
“You can’t just apologize it away,” said Ewan. “I would have been fine, but one wrong step and she could have gotten seriously injured. What kind of parenting are you even doing? She tried to kill someone she’s never even met.”
“I wasn’t!” screamed the crying girl. “You’re wrong. I wasn’t trying to kill you. I just wanted a little bit of your blood; that’s all.”
“Just a ‘little bit’? Why, you...”
“Ewan, hold it,” Ruri interjected, interrupting Ewan’s angry and exasperated rebuttal before it could get started. “We might want to take this someplace else.” They were in the middle of the street, and this mishap was drawing everyone’s attention.
“Let’s continue this conversation once we’ve moved,” Ewan said after taking a look around them.
“In that case, I humbly invite you to our house,” said the mother. She stood up and took the crying child’s hand.
The group followed her all the way to her home, a typical one-story house in the Nation of the Beast King.
“Now, get some tea ready for our guests. I’ll go check on how your father is doing,” the mother said as she proceeded to walk through a door in the back of the house.
Ruri and the others sat and waited for the young girl to prepare tea, and it wasn’t long before her mother returned.
She once again bowed her head and apologized. “I am so very sorry for what happened to you. I shall make amends for it, so I humbly request that you forgive my daughter. She simply wanted to help save her father.”
“What do you mean by that?” Ruri asked.
The mother’s expression turned grim. “Her father is a carpenter. He took a big fall the other day and got pinned under some lumber. He sustained near-fatal wounds and we’re not sure how long he has...”
“Oh, no...” Ruri said, trailing off.
“When the doctor told us that he’s too far gone to help, he murmured something under his breath. He said, ‘Maybe he could be saved if we had some dragon’s blood, though.’”
Dragon’s blood possessed incredible restorative properties. The medicine made from their blood had the power to immediately cure any wound. It was a fact that Ruri was informed of just recently.
“Of course, there’s no way we could ever get our hands on any ourselves. We were told that dragon’s blood can’t be exported and can’t be acquired by anyone—not even those in high authority. But then we overheard some people talking about how there were some travelers from the Nation of the Dragon King. The news must have spurred my daughter to take action. She was convinced that the dragon’s blood would save her father, which is why...”
She tried to hurt someone, so it was an utterly brash and hasty decision, but it was hard to be mad at the girl considering her young and immature feelings.
“I am truly sorry.” The girl’s mother bowed earnestly.
Finally understanding the severity of her actions, the young girl also bowed deeply and apologized in a tiny voice. “I’m sorry...”
With both mother and child bowing before them, Ruri shot Ewan a look. Since Ewan was the one assaulted, it was appropriate that he decide the course of action. The girl seemed to be apologetic, so Ruri figured it was fine to let the matter drop.
Ewan seemed to be in agreement as his expression wasn’t angry at all. “If you swear you’ll never do something like this again, I’ll forgive you,” he said.
The girl raised her head and nodded profusely. “I...swear. I’m...sorry.”
“Dragon blood is too strong to be used anyway,” Joshua interjected. “It has to be processed into medicine first, and only dragonkin know how. Even if you had gotten some, you wouldn’t have been able to use it.”
Hearing that all of her efforts were ultimately pointless, the girl seemed crestfallen.
Ewan watched the girl slump in despair, and with sympathy he said, “Hey, Ruri, I’ve got a favor to ask.”
“Thought you’d never ask!”
Ruri knew what Ewan was about to say, so she pulled out the goods from her pocket space—the goods being the small bottle of medicine made from dragon blood that Jade had given her. This instant cure-all medicine could help cure her father’s wounds.
“Is the injured man in the back of the house?” Ruri asked.
“Um, yes, he is...” replied the mother, confused.
Ruri walked away on her own and proceeded to the door toward the back. Inside the room lay a man covered in bruises, wrapped from head to toe in bandages. He was unconscious and his breathing was shallow. One glance was enough to tell he was in critical condition.
“These are some terrible injuries,” Ruri said. She opened the lid of the bottle and brought it near the man’s mouth.
Before she poured it in, Joshua warned her, “Ruri, just one drop. That should be more than enough to cure him. If you give him any more, it’ll end up poisoning him.”
“Okay, I won’t.” She delicately tilted the bottle toward the man’s mouth, being careful not to give him too much, and let a single droplet of the crimson liquid fall in.
The results were near instant. His visible wounds started to heal in the twinkle of an eye. The wounds hidden underneath the bandages were most likely closing up in similar fashion.
After getting permission from the little girl’s mother, they took the bandages off of him just to be sure. His wounds underneath weren’t completely healed yet, but they were on the fast track to recovery.
They all waited and watched in silence. Before long, the man’s eyes fluttered a bit before slowly opening.
“Dear!”
“Dad!”
He was still only barely responsive, but the girl and her mother started to cry tears of joy.
Ruri hadn’t doubted the effects of the medicine, but she was still astonished that the dragon’s blood really ended up healing the man’s wounds.
“Wow, its restorative powers are something else.”
A single drop yielded this sort of effect. Ruri saw the dragonkin’s restorative abilities on display all over again.
“If one drop does this, then I wonder what a whole bottle would do. Maybe it’d even bring back someone from the dead.” She said it as a lighthearted joke, but there was a hint of seriousness to it as well because of how well the medicine was working.
Joshua heard that and smirked. “No way that could happen. It’d be too strong and they’d do just the opposite—they’d die instead. That’s why you need to be careful handling that stuff, Ruri.”
“Right.” Ruri returned the bottle of medicine back to her pocket space and turned her eyes to the bed to see the girl in tears and clinging to her father. She watched the scene unfold, happy and warmhearted.
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