THE DEMON LORD AND THE ICE DRAGON
“I messed uuuup!”
Things have been going so well, I let my guard down!
I chose the wrong way to deal with those monkeys, big-time.
Shit.
White’s gonna die!
“Aaargh!”
I kick at one of the dead monkeys to vent my frustration.
It’s all their fault that things got so complicated.
I could’ve finished the rest of them with a flashy move, but I was afraid to set off another avalanche, so I wound up taking way too long to kill them all.
And while I was doing that, White and the others got swept out of the range of my detection.
I just hope they’re all right…
“Let’s go find them, quick!”
Snapping orders at Ael and company, I look down at where the avalanche led.
“In a hurry, are we?”
A telepathic voice from above stops me in my tracks.
Looking up, I see ice dragon Nia, the ruler of the Mystic Mountains.
She descends to the ground near us, landing with far more grace than you’d expect from her giant form.
“Yes. So why do you need to bother me right now?” My tone comes out harsher than I intended, but I’m pretty annoyed right now.
“Oh dear. You seem to be in a foul mood.”
“If you’ve got no business with me, I’m going to head out now, okay?”
“If I had no business with you, surely I would not have shown myself like this.”
Nia’s teasing tone just annoys me even more.
“Oh my, how frightening.”
Recognizing my frustration, Nia smirks even more infuriatingly.
For half a second, I consider killing her on the spot, but that time could be better spent looking for my lost friends.
“Come now—wait a moment.”
As I start to turn away, Nia stops me again.
Honestly, talking to her stresses me out so much that I want to ignore her.
“I would not have spoken were I simply passing through, but I do wish to raise a complaint or two about all the destruction you’ve just caused in my domain.”
“…What’re you getting at?”
“Dear me. An apology following wrongdoing is the natural course of things, is it not?”
Damn her!
Is she threatening me at a time like this?!
“I don’t think I did anything wrong, actually. It was just an accident. Not our fault.”
“Alas, think of my poor kin. With all these powerful outsiders wreaking havoc in my domain, and right under my nose at that, surely they will be unable to sleep soundly for all their terror. What a cruel fate.”
The ice dragon shakes her head with exaggerated lamentation.
I’d almost forgotten.
It’s been so long since I saw her that I almost forgot which of the dragons was the most obnoxious!
“Want me to relieve them of that terror by putting them to sleep forever, then?”
I’m half-serious with this threat, but Nia seems unbothered.
“Are you quite certain? I doubt my lord would sit idly by as you slaughtered my kin.”
It’s awfully petty of her to name-drop Gülie right now, if you ask me.
I guess when the god’s away, the dragons will play.
That being said, the god really would back her up in this situation, which only makes it even more obnoxious.
“Besides, I do not think to ask anything so dramatic of you. The liquor you have in that carriage, for example, would be more than enough.”
Yeah, I guess that would be a small price to pay for her to leave me alone.
But it was a bad idea to piss me off even more at a time like this.
“I’ll pass.”
“Hrmmm?”
Nia looks surprised; she must not have expected me to say no.
If she thinks mentioning Gülie is enough to get everyone to do whatever she wants, she’s dead wrong.
“Are you quite certain?”
“That’s my final answer. You sure you wanna keep pissing me off? ’Cause I will end you. Don’t think I won’t.”
Nia becomes flustered, probably sensing that I’m dead serious.
“Wait, wait! If any harm comes to me, my lord will be truly cross, you know!”
“Yeah, well, it’s too late for that. I’ve already killed Gakia. Do I have to spell out the rest for you?”
Nia freezes. “What did you say?”
“Earth dragon Gakia’s dead. I killed him. The wheels are already turning; you just don’t know about it.”
Earth dragon Gakia.
The leader of the earth dragons, who protected the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
He was one of the major dragon powers, just like Nia here.
With him gone, big changes are already underway.
Knocking off one more dragon won’t change that now.
“Well? Your move.”
“All right! I’m sorry!”
Nia hurriedly apologizes, always quick on the uptake.
“If you’re sorry, could you stop this stupid blizzard already? You don’t normally make this much snow, do you?”
“O-of course. But could you not wait a little longer first, please?”
“Say what?”
“All right, all right!” My glare makes Nia quickly withdraw her request. “I’ll stop! Just quit looking at me like that!”
Petty people like her sure change their tune quickly when they realize they’re in hot water.
“However, controlling the weather is no small feat. I shall cease my technique at once, but it will not immediately improve, you see. Please understand.”
“Fine.”
I guess even Nia can’t change the weather this fast.
“I’m in a hurry, so bye.”
“Please leave at once. Honestly. First that little brat, and now you? What a horrid sequence of events.”
I need to start looking for White and the others right away, but something about Nia’s comment makes me pause.
“Little brat? Was it an ogre, by chance?”
“Hrmmm? No, it was an oni. At any rate, since it returned to my domain, it has caused nothing but trouble, running about and killing everything in sight. In fact, it was on such a rampage that I had to give it a stern scolding.”
Oni… An advanced evolution of an ogre.
I’m guessing that infamous ogre must have evolved, then.
But what does she mean by returned? “Is it originally from the Mystic Mountains, then?”
“Indeed. Once, it was but a mere goblin. Who knows what possessed it to evolve into an ogre. Well, I suppose it must have been because of the events that forced it to leave this place, most likely.”
A goblin?
Now, that’s odd.
Goblins technically can evolve into ogres, but that means giving up being a goblin, so I’m pretty sure they usually don’t do that.
Goblins take a lot of pride in their species. It’s unthinkable for one to evolve into an ogre, unless something crazy happens to give them no choice.
“What happened?”
“To put it briefly, humans attacked the goblin village and destroyed it. I believe that particular brat was then forcibly enslaved by the humans, who led it away.”
Ah. Well okay, then.
I guess that’d be a good reason for a goblin to evolve into an ogre.
Putting this story together with the ones we heard in town, I’d be willing to bet that goblin was taken to that now-abandoned village at the foot of the mountains.
Then it must’ve broken free of their control somehow and exacted its revenge.
Afterward, it ran into those adventurers and turned the tables on them, I suppose.
“Gotcha.”
“Truly, those humans do the most despicable things. No wonder that poor little brat flew into a rage.”
Hmm?
Something about Nia’s words strikes me as strange.
Is this pompous jerk actually feeling bad for someone?
“They didn’t just destroy its village?”
“I can say no more, for it is too repulsive. All I shall say is that it may be in the brat’s best interest for it to die here.”
I guess they did more than just wreck its village, then.
“Wait, you said you scolded it, but you didn’t kill it?”
“Indeed. I cannot kill it directly, by order of our lord. As such, I simply arranged for it to die of its own accord with a little help from this blizzard. The creature stubbornly clings to life, however.”
…If it dies from a blizzard that you caused, wouldn’t that still be killing it directly?
I just don’t understand dragons’ logic.
And wait, why did Gülie tell her not to lay a hand on it anyway?
“Incidentally, were you not in a hurry?”
Something starts to click in my head, but Nia interrupts before I can quite grasp it.
“Oh yeah, that’s right.”
I have to find those four who got swept away by the avalanche.
The other three might be fine, but White’s weak right now.
If I don’t find her soon, it might be too late.
In fact, she might be dead already, for all I know…
Can a normal person survive getting caught in an avalanche?
Somehow, I have the feeling White wouldn’t let something like that kill her, but I don’t have any grounds for that.
Either way, I should really find her as soon as possible.
“Ael.”
I nod to the puppet taratect who’s carrying the carriage.
Ael understands what I mean right away, produces something from the carriage, and places it in front of Nia.
“What is this?”
“We’ll just call it payment for the information.”
Pushing the barrel full of alcohol toward Nia, I head in the direction of the avalanche’s end, for real this time.
“Many thanks.” Nia sounds pleased.
Waving her off without slowing down, I begin my search.
Ok Ok OK !!!!