Chapter 90:
A Retreat
“Wh-what is that?!”
“A wyvern? …N-no! That’s…”
“An elder dragoooon!”
Suddenly, an elder dragon came flying straight towards the imperial troops who had been monitoring the region the demi-humans were occupying. The soldiers panicked. Obviously, in a land that had been known to be inhabited by elder dragons in the distant past, there was no shortage of rumors about squads who offended a dragon and were destroyed, or entire territories left as uninhabited wastelands after crossing a dragon clan.
Even if they were to expend most of their resources and sacrifice large numbers of men to defeat a single dragon, they would only face its kin, coming to avenge the murder of a family member. And then, it would be all over for anyone who dared fight back.
There had been numerous instances of an entire royal line being wiped out, followed by wholesale changeovers of leadership, as a result of encounters with elder dragon clans. Thus, no one in this country would ever lay hands upon a single dragon.
Indeed, if faced with an elder dragon, the only thing to do was to fall to one’s hands and knees in apology—and if that was not enough, it was best to just lay down and die, so as not to be a burden to others. This was the duty of every citizen of this land.
Yet here these soldiers stood, faced with an elder dragon. They froze in place, still as statues.
The elder dragon flew right toward them…and then landed, just before reaching the soldiers. Its landing spot was shrouded by rocks and trees, and it showed no signs of further approach.
“ Are we…safe? ”
The dragon had landed in the spot where the demi-humans were.
Then, after a short while…
“It’s taking off again!” a soldier who had been fixedly watching the location where the dragon had landed announced loudly.
Thank goodness! It was going back home quietly!
Or so everyone thought. Until…
Ka-thoom!
Rather than flying in the direction from whence it had come, the dragon flew toward the soldiers, and in just a few seconds it had landed before them.
“Who is your commander?”
We’re doomed . This was the men’s only thought: that at this point they had no choice than for everyone here to offer up their own lives to prevent the destruction of the people of the Empire. When it came to elder dragons, this spirit of self-sacrifice was so deeply engrained into every Albarnian, that even the worst scoundrels—those who would cut down handfuls, tens, even hundreds of fellow humans without batting an eye—even such scoundrels as this could not bear to be the sole cause of the death of tens or hundreds of thousands, and the cause of the destruction of one’s motherland.
When it came down to it, it would be a literal wasteland of death, one that included one’s parents and family and friends and colleagues and mentors and neighbors… Everyone you knew, and everyone who knew you—every human, nay, every single living thing—all dead. All of them perishing while cursing your name with their dying breaths…
There was no one alive who could bear such a thing.
And so, instead, they would lay down and die. There was no point in resisting. This was common knowledge among all citizens of this land.
“I am the one in charge here,” the commander said, stepping obediently forward.
His heart was already as placid as the mirrored surface of a lake on a windless day. Perhaps, now that he was facing death, he had reached a state of enlightenment. A faint smile hung on his face. Indeed, he was now nothing but a human sacrifice, offered up to appease the elder dragons’ wrath, just like the many who had come before him…
The elder dragon simply glanced at the commander and spoke.
“We have built a second home in the mountains ahead of here, which you are not permitted to approach. So long as you do not set foot in that part of the mountains, you may continue to use this road. Understood?”
“…Y-yes?”
“Un-der-stood?”
“Y-yes!”
The commander was stunned. What else could he say? If he could avert an elder dragon crisis without a single loss of life, he would be a national hero, awarded badges—no, medals, land, and likely even a peerage. At the very least, there was no possible way he would be punished or even scolded for his course of action.
“Very good. Farewell!” said the dragon as it finally took off again, this time toward the southeast.
“W-w-w-w-we’re saaaved!!!” The soldiers rejoiced, still glued to the spots where they had frozen in terror.
Hidden by her cloaking magic, Mile grinned from where she had been watching the scene.
It was all going according to plan…
***
“So anyway, there’s a pretty slim chance of the soldiers coming to this place now,” Mile cheerfully reported.
“They definitely won’t be coming!” the other three members of the Crimson Vow agreed.
The demi-humans, of course, were still stunned into silence.
“Now then, as long as you don’t pick fights with any imperial soldiers, you’ll be just fine. If you can just break off into a few groups and slip off into the night, you should be able to make it home without any difficulty. The golems won’t be bothering the soldiers either, so they should be able to live in peace…”
“It’s not just the soldiers,” Reina added. “ No one is going to come here! There’s going to be an official decree not to set foot in this area in no time! Probably a decree so strict that if you put a single toe over the line, you’ll be hanged.”
“Yes, well, that makes sense. One wrong move and it could be the downfall of the entire country,” Mavis shrugged.
“Huh? Wait—then doesn’t that mean Mile made a pretty bad move in beating some elder dragons half to death—twice?” Pauline asked.
Reina and Mavis shrugged. What was done was done.
***
Kragon the elder dragon departed, and it was decided that the demi-humans would retreat in several small groups that very night.
Meanwhile, Mile called to the scavengers, instructing them to employ a number of deception tactics, such as constructing a full-scale moveable replica elder dragon tail, which could be pushed out from the mouth of the cave if any humans drew near, as well as devices to reproduce a dragon’s roar and breath. With precautions like these in place, they would be just fine for the time being.
Additionally, the event would likely cause enough of a stir among this country’s leadership that they would not be able to focus on any invasion efforts for some time. Of course, once this chaos was sown, they would not be able to do anything about it, and it was possible that this would cause more chaos as they began jumping at every shadow, for fear of an elder dragon attack… Clearly, no one would be able to march right into the area and demand that the elder dragons come out.
Furthermore, Mile had asked Kragon to pop in at the site from time to time, as a bit of an additional service. Even if he did not do anything when he arrived, a few sightings of him would be enough to establish a credible record of elder dragons being present in the area.
For an elder dragon, the distance from Kragon’s village to the site was about the same as the distance that a Japanese person living in the city might have to travel from their home to the local convenience store—in other words, not far. Considering the favor Mile had done for him with his tail, coming here once a month or so was nothing.
“All right, let’s retreat!”
Their business here was officially finished…as was their business in the Empire as a whole. Their plan now was to go back home. But first, they would continue on to the seaside, as planned, stock up on some seaside products, and travel along the coast northward, back to the Kingdom of Tils.
The Crimson Vow said their farewells to the demi-humans and set out with the merchants once more…
***
“Thank you so much for everything.”
The caravan made it safely back to the Kingdom of Tils without incident.
There, the Crimson Vow received a sincere thanks from the merchants, along with a carefully calculated additional sum for the goods the merchants had borrowed from Mile’s storage, the food shared with them, and a huge bonus. All this, along with an A-grade on their job completion report… Not that there was any other grade they could have gotten.
The guild handled payment for escort jobs in exchange for the signed completion report, so that part of their fee would not come from the merchants themselves. But in this case, it should go without saying that the bonus amounted to far more than the original fee for the job ever would have.
In truth, the job had been quite lucrative for the Crimson Vow.
“Hee hee hee, what a score!” Pauline said with a grin.
Sure enough, when Mile had made her request of Kragon, Pauline had tagged on one of her own—for some scales, and a fragment of one of the dragon’s talons.
Obviously, Kragon had been less than pleased about this, but he did not seem to have the courage to refuse her. Reluctantly, he parted with several scales, and a talon fragment.
Picking off a scale that had not been naturally shed seemed like an excruciating ordeal. And because he had begged not to have a whole talon torn off, they had compromised instead on just a small clipping. Of course, Pauline had healed him after the scales were removed, and the talon would grow back out soon enough.
Mile felt a bit bad about how down in the dumps Kragon looked after having his back nail trimmed, so she carved a cool-looking pattern into the cut talon that seemed to cheer him right back up.
Apparently, he was rather fond of his new look.
Since her time as Misato, Mile had always had a well-honed artistic skill, so with an extra sharp nanomachine-crafted blade on hand, this kind of detailed work was a cinch.
It would not do to engrave an elder dragon’s talon with a rising dragon emblem, or an ogre or manticore. That would be akin to tattooing a human with a picture of a house mouse, and not at all a suitable look for a fierce creature like Kragon. So, instead of opting for an image of any creature or demon or god, she simply carved a abstract pattern.
Plus, once Pauline had chipped off a piece of a nail that would be suitable to make a sword or knife, it was now slightly thinner, sharper, and had the look of a menacing, sinister weapon.
Mile started to really get into the groove of it when Kragon told her that every elder dragon has a special symbol that means something to them, and she carved Kragon’s symbol in reverse on his front claw.
“This way,” she explained, “if you flick someone on the forehead, your symbol will be engraved there, and they’ll never forget your power or fearsomeness as long as they live… Assuming that you don’t use so much power that you flick their head right off. Plus, whenever you visit a demi-human or human village, you can push your claw into a dirt wall or big tree, and your name will be passed down through the ages.”
At this, Kragon was extremely pleased and thanked Mile profusely before flying off to do her bidding.
In truth, Mile had thought to do this in order to create an incentive for Kragon to hold back his strength, merely placing his mark upon anyone he came to blows with, rather than killing them senselessly.
“Well, I’d say this has been quite a productive day…” Mile was quite satisfied with herself.
“Hee hee! Even this much of a nail is enough to make a few blades! I’ve never even heard of a blade made from an elder dragon’s talon. I wonder how I should price that…”
For her part, Pauline was equally pleased.
Sure enough, there were times when elder dragons would hand over scales they had already shed to humans as a thanks or apology, but no one had ever heard of one ripping off and handing over a talon. Which meant that there was no way anyone would be getting their hands on such a thing without locating and desecrating an elder dragon graveyard—a crime that would most certainly see not only the offender, but perhaps their entire home country—completely wiped out.
“Of course, once these are removed from an elder dragon’s body, they lose some of their potency, but they’re still light and fairly sturdy. Besides, no one would be using this sort of thing for day-to-day purposes. Anything made with it would be stored away in the palace vaults as a national treasure, or used for some kind of temple rites,” Mavis said.
“Right. No one would be stupid enough to use a weapon like that in a real battle,” Reina agreed. “It’d be like using a sword forged of pure gold.”
She was right. A pure gold blade would be expensive, heavy, and far too soft—such that it would likely warp after a single blow. Because it was soft, it would not break, necessarily, but gold was certainly not the sort of material one would want to go around using as a sword.
An elder dragon’s talon was, of course, much stronger, and could probably stand up to practical use, but still, no one would use something so expensive as part of their standard equipment.
That, however, was not enough to lower the value of such an object. Simply by virtue of being a blade made of an elder dragon’s talon, it would be a great treasure. In fact, its high price was yet another reason why something like this would not put into everyday use .
“We should probably sell these outside the Empire. They have too much history with—or at least too much fear of—elder dragons. Who knows what they’d do if they even laid eyes on such a thing?” said Pauline. The other three nodded.
And thus, Pauline’s talon blade became something that they would be holding on to for a while. Processing the talon and crafting the blades was something Mile could do in her spare time over the next several months. After all, it would cause quite a fuss if they were to bring such rare materials to a smith, and quite a lot of trouble for that smith, to be asked to work in something other than metal.
***
For some time after that, the Crimson Vow lived a normal life—or at least, normal for them —until, one day…
“Crimson Vow, there’s a letter for you from the guild post,” announced the guild clerk, handing them an envelope.
“It says it’s from… Wait, what’s with this weird crest?”
“Crest?”
Typically, if the sender of the letter was using a crest, they were a noble or royal. Mavis, who was familiar with such things, looked hurriedly at the letter in Reina’s hands and then frowned.
“Hm, this isn’t the seal of any noble house. It doesn’t have any of the typical elements or follow any heraldry standards…”
Pauline craned her head in to look as well. “Still, I feel like I’ve seen this somewhere before.”
After pondering it for some time, Mile chimed in, “Oh! That’s the one I carved!”
“Huh?”
Sure enough, it was Kragon’s mark, the one that she had carved into his talon. Naturally, the scale was quite different, so this crest could not have been made from the talon stamp itself, but it did carry the same image.
“Because I carved it in backwards, I didn’t recognize it for a moment!” Mile chuckled.
“Amazing to think that he could hold a quill in those huge hands. He must be awfully dexterous…”
“Obviously, he got a demi-human or someone to write it! Also, that’s not important! What matters is what’s written inside the letter!” Reina shouted.
The other three nodded their agreement. “That’s true.”
Suddenly, they noticed that the clerk who had handed them the letter—as well as virtually every employee and hunter in the building—was looking their way, ears pricked.
“………”
Quickly, the Crimson Vow made their exit.
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