Chapter Thirteen: Tourist Attractions
We went back to Lazy Pig’s territory, refilled our carriage with food, and headed to eastern Melromarc. We sold our food in a village crowded with adventurers. The village was flanked by a mountain range.
We took a break from business, put on comfortable clothes, and went to a local tavern.
“This place is lively,” Father remarked.
“It’s a flourishing village,” I agreed.
The word of the saint of the bird god had even reached the ears of the villagers here, so they had already heard of Father.
“The Sword Hero slayed an evil dragon on the mountain here about a week ago,” the bartender told us. “So a bunch of adventurers came by to take its treasure.”
“Oh, really?” Father said.
So Ren had killed a dragon here? Maybe he stopped by on his way over to Zeltoble.
“Should we go check it out?” Father asked me.
“Is that really necessary?”
I didn’t remember coming here in the first go-around.
“More and more adventurers are on their way,” the bartender continued. “Didn’t you know that the guild made a whole posting about it?”
“O-oh, yeah, I went to check and see for myself,” Father said. “We’re peddlers just passing through.”
“Thanks to the saint of the bird god, our village is prospering more than ever before,” the man said.
“That’s great to hear,” Father said, and the bartender left us to our meal.
When we went back outside, Father looked over at the mountain.
“I’d like to add some dragon drop items to my shield,” Father said.
“Should we head over, then?” I inquired.
“I’m thinking about it.”
“I despise dragons.”
“I know that. Sakura doesn’t react well to them either.”
Yes, because filolials are dragons’ mortal enemies, I say. And any enemy of a filolial is an enemy of mine!
Incidentally, I wasn’t very impressed by this village either.
“So a dragon’s treasure, huh . . .”
An adventurer standing nearby, who had looked like he had just gotten back from the mountain, overheard the conversation. His eyes sparkled as he immediately turned to his companions, then set out straight toward the mountain again.
“It’s like an all-out war to get that treasure,” Father said. “This town isn’t lively. It’s a war zone.”
“For an ordinary adventurer, it might be a dangerous task to recover items from a dragon’s corpse,” I said.
“Yeah, you’d need to be strong to handle it. There are strong monsters in the mountains. But you can see a bunch of people bringing back monster corpses, regardless.”
I nodded. Judging by what the adventurers were carrying, there appeared to be a wide variety of monster types up on the mountain.
“What type of creatures are dragons in this world, anyway?” Father asked.
“I haven’t the slightest clue,” I said. I knew that they were my mortal enemies, but besides that, they were nothing more than a good source for drop items and experience.
Back in Father’s village, there were a few people who knew a lot about different monsters. I would ask them if I could, but I had no idea where they were in this go-around.
“I figured that in one chief dragon’s territory, there were only other dragons, but I’m seeing people with all sorts of random monsters,” Father said.
“Good point,” I replied. There weren’t only dragon-type monsters on the mountain. In fact, non-dragon types seemed to make up the vast majority. Some of them appeared to be crosses between dragons and other species of monsters. Something about it seemed to have captured Father’s attention. Whatever could it be?
“So they say that Ren slayed the dragon here. But what kind of dragon was it? A boss class or something?”
“That very well may be the case.”
“I played games where we worked together to beat boss-class dragons, but they were huge. Are all the adventurers just ignoring the main dragon corpse?”
“Why don’t we go to the part of the mountain that is the most crowded?” I suggested. “We could probably find it there.”
“Maybe. Look, all of the dragon-type monsters that the adventurers are carrying are super small, but some of them have those giant scales that they’re showing off.”
Now Father appeared to be glancing up toward the mountain in concern.
“Are you worried about something, Father?”
He nodded. “If no one is actually bringing back the dragon corpse itself, doesn’t that inevitably mean that there’s some problem or reason they can’t? Maybe it’s already rotten. I mean, so long as there’s not an infectious disease or anything, that’s fine, but it still concerns me.”
“A disease, you say? A disease is driving people away from the dragon corpse?”
Unfortunately, I didn’t know nearly enough about dragons to confirm or deny anything that Father was saying. I really wasn’t interested.
“Exactly. I’m not sure how it would work in this world, but in works of fantasy, there are all these stories about how to dispose of a dragon’s corpse. A strange amount. I think in some of them you have to use magic or even your own life force to get rid of it. I wonder how it works here.”
“They’re living creatures. Wouldn’t they just rot?”
“Yeah, that’s what you’d think on the surface. But we don’t want a dragon zombie to rise or anything. They’re a staple of a lot of RPGs, and they’re even stronger than regular dragons.”
“I do recall there being dragon zombies in Emerald Online,” I said. “That’s what I always used to play.”
Father fell into deep thought.
But in Emerald Online, regular dragons didn’t turn into dragon zombies—dragon zombies just spawned from a specific dungeon, kind of a mid-game boss.
“Hmm. Motoyasu, didn’t you tell me before that relying on your game knowledge actually made a lot of things go wrong for you? Not saying that you’re wrong about dragon zombies in particular.”
“So why don’t we just go to the mountain and crush all of your concerns?” I suggested.
“I guess so.” Father frowned. “I’m not sure if we’ll get much out of it, but if we can use materials from the dragon corpse in our weapons, then I guess it’ll be worth it.”
Father went back over to Keel and the others, who were waiting in the carriage.
“What’s goin’ on, Big Bro?” Keel called.
“There’s a dragon corpse up in the mountain, so we were thinking about going to pick up some materials there,” Father said.
“Nice! Should we come too?”
The filolials stood up and came over to us. They seemed happy to do something new.
“I’m just worried about thieves and all of our food supply. Will one of you stay behind to watch the carriage?”
“Oink!”
Lazy Pig quickly and enthusiastically raised her hand.
“Elena, and . . .”
“So I can go, right?” Keel asked.
Father looked over at the filolials. Sakura, as always, must have wanted to accompany Father. And both Yuki and Kou looked like they had been bored out of their minds and happy to get some action. Keel had already mounted Luna.
Father pulled out a few tickets. “Let’s do a lottery. Two of you will stay back with Elena.”
Each of the four filolials took a ticket. I couldn’t help but feel a little bloodlust coming from them.
Yuki and Kou drew the bad cards.
“That’s a shame,” Yuki said.
“Aw, man. Can I eat some of our food, at least?”
“Just a little,” Father said.
“Yes!”
Kou looked overjoyed.
“Yuki and Kou, please take care of the carriage, I say!”
Yuki nodded earnestly. “Your command is giving me the enthusiasm to do it! At once!”
After we got back from our trip, I decided I would bring Yuki and Kou up the mountain afterward.
“All right, we’re headed off,” I said.
As we climbed the mountain, Father let out a sigh. “This is no different from a crowded tourist spot,” he said.
The road that led into the heart of the mountain was full of villagers and adventurers. We slowly made our way up the mountain, and I started to think that Father was right. It was like we were on a school trip. They even collected a fee to let us enter the mountain.
“They’ve done a pretty shoddy job,” Father said, surveying the area. The villagers had built a road, but everything looked like it had been constructed in a hurry. It made sense, given that Ren supposedly slayed the dragon just a week ago.
“I could not agree more,” I said.
Every once in a while, dragon-like creatures leapt out of the brush to attack us, and the adventurers rushed to fight them. Since Father and I would end up revealing our identities if we fought back, we let Sakura, Luna, and Keel do the fighting.
“The church is saying that this is the legendary scene where the Sword Hero enacted his great battle against the dragon,” Father said. “They’re making it out to be a whole sightseeing spot.”
“And charging a silver coin to see it,” I said.
Father snorted. Sure, it was rare to see territory reclaimed from a dragon, but they certainly didn’t need to be charging people to see it.
Ahead of us, we started to see the place where the dragon’s corpse lay.
“They’ve made it a spectacle,” Father said. “I wonder what Ren would think about all this.”
Adventurers were lining up in front of the dragon corpse. I saw the villagers offering each of the adventurers a single scale of the dragon that the Sword Hero had slain.
“He must already be in Zeltoble,” I said.
“I guess so. Do you get there by land or sea?”
“I’m guessing Ren would go by sea, although he can’t swim at all.”
Ren didn’t know how to swim, but knowing him, I assumed he’d take the boat. That’s what he did when we went to the Cal Mira islands.
We approached the dragon corpse and took a look. The horns, teeth, and eyeballs were already gone. It was as if the corpse had been attacked by a swarm of hungry vultures.
“Yikes,” Father said. “They already took the heart. But besides that, all the organs are just sitting there.”
“That’s what it looks like.”
“It stinks,” Luna said.
“Yeah! Let’s get out of here, Big Bro! It smells awful!”
Keel and the filolials were wrinkling their noses.
“It’s been a week since he killed it, so it must be starting to rot,” Father said. “We should be careful.”
Father, keeping his cloak carefully covering him, approached the villagers. He had to hide his shield so they wouldn’t recognize who he was.
“Excuse me,” Father said. “About this dragon, here. I think it might be a good idea to dispose of the rest of the organs and the flesh. It’s starting to rot, and what if it spreads a disease?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” a villager replied roughly. “If that happens, then the adventurers wouldn’t come anymore.”
“Yeah, but . . .” Father trailed off.
For some reason, the villagers were glaring at Father. Did they think he was trying to pick a fight or something?
Father talked to them for a while longer, trying to convince them, but eventually shrugged his shoulders and gave up.
“It’s no use,” he said. “They’re too focused on making money from all the adventurers. Do they just not care about the health and safety of this? But if we dispose of it, they’ll be furious with us.”
I nodded and stepped forward. “Then I shall burn them all to the ground!”
“No, Motoyasu, you can’t just do that!” Father shouted.
Huh? So should we just leave things the way they are?
Father did warn me that being reckless could come back to hurt us down the line, I supposed.
“Maybe we could at least warn the people back at the village.” Father looked over at the droves of adventurers walking past us. “Where is everyone going?”
This group of adventurers seemed to be a bit stronger than average. They had classed up, at least, if I wasn’t mistaken.
“Did they hear about the treasure at the tavern and came here looking for it?” Father asked.
“That must be it,” I said.
“A dragon’s treasure . . .” Father muttered to himself.
“Big Bro, didn’t we find some before?”
“Yeah, with Lars that one time. There was so much money we couldn’t even bring it back with us to Melromarc.”
“Lars really goes crazy over some treasure! She’s so cool!” Keel said.
Had Father been embarking on adventures without me? I supposed that you could find all kinds of dragons when out monster hunting, so it made sense that they would encounter dragons eventually.
“Are we gonna look for the treasure too?” Sakura asked.
“With so many adventurers, someone probably already found it,” Keel said.
“Yeah, maybe,” Father said. He examined the group of adventurers carefully. “Well, we may as well check it out. We already came all this way.”
“I’m with ya, Big Bro! It’s weird, but I’m all in!”
“Then let’s follow them, I say.”
We headed away from the dragon corpse, deeper into the mountains.
Not too far from the dragon corpse, we ran into a clash between the adventurers and other dragons, probably family of the one that Ren had slain, protecting their den.
So these were the sort of things you could find deep in the mountains. It was certainly an area that ordinary adventurers wouldn’t go to.
We heard the grumbling of voices: “We’ve been fighting for days, and even with the boss gone we still can’t break through to get the treasure.”
If it were me or Father fighting, the dragons wouldn’t be very strong. But the dragons did look considerably exhausted. The adventurers were starting to cut them down one by one.
Then, after a while, the adventurers finally took down the last remaining dragon.
“We did it! Now, everyone! The treasure lies ahead! Great riches await our village!”
The leader of the adventurers appeared to be a youth from the nearby village. They were armed with swords and shields marked with a seal from their village, and by their shouts, I could tell that they had fought for the benefit of their village.
The adventurers let out a cheer and rushed toward the den. There were still a few dangerous monsters outside the den, but all of the adventurers quickly hurried away to the den. We followed after them.
There was one dragon left inside, struggling to protect the dragon eggs and the treasure within. But it wasn’t as strong as the others outside, and the adventurers quickly exterminated it.
“Dragon eggs!” one shouted. “Those’ll fetch a high price!”
“So they were guarding a treasure,” another said, ogling the treasure. “I can’t believe the Sword Hero didn’t realize it.”
Ren tended to miss things like that, I say.
“I don’t like those guys,” Keel said, rubbing up against Father and grabbing onto his cloak.
“They do seem like the slave hunters we encountered before,” Father agreed. “Are you thinking about the lumo incident or when the soldiers attacked your village?”
Keel nodded.
“I understand,” Father said. “They may be monsters, but the way they exterminated them . . . They weren’t even the ones who took out the boss.”
It made me sick to my stomach to watch those adventurers try to seize a prize they hadn’t even earned. It was the sort of thing a pig would do, I say. The adventurers may have been men, but I was starting to see them as pigs instead. Some of them went to collect the treasure while others continued to slaughter the few remaining monsters.
“P-please, stop!”
A voice came out from the back of the den.
“Please, no more, I beg you!” The voice was wracked with grief. “Don’t kill anyone else! Father . . . please save us . . .”
Keel’s ears twitched and she immediately glanced over in the direction of the voice. She was clutching Father’s cloak with a surprised look on her face.
“Hey, there’s a kid in there!”
I saw ugly smiles light up the adventurers’ faces as they turned in the direction of the voice. “Hah, they must’ve been raising a demi-human to rape! Let’s capture and sell it.”
More screams of dying monsters came out of the cave.
“I won’t let them!” growled Keel. “I’ll go fight ’em!”
“No, Keel!” Father said, trying to hold onto her.
Keel wriggled out of Father’s grip and charged into the dragon den.
“All right, I guess we have no choice,” Father said. “Motoyasu, you come too! And you too, Sakura and Luna!”
“Got it!”
“Okay.”
“Keel!” Father hurried after Keel, while Sakura, Luna, and I followed them into the dragon den.
“Hey! What’s up with this dog?!”
Keel leapt barking and growling at the adventurers, already having rushed around them to protect something on the other side. Since their bodies were between us and Keel, I couldn’t see exactly what it was, but it must have been the voice that we had heard before.
“Don’t get any closer! Arf arf!”
“Uh . . . who are you?” It was the voice who had asked for help before.
“Get out of the way, stupid dog! Is it a therianthrope? What is a filthy demi-human doing here?”
“Hang on, that’s a dog demi-human! We could make a huge profit selling something like that. Capture it!”
“I’m telling you to back down!” roared Keel, leaping forward, grabbing the extended arms of an adventurer by the teeth, and sending him flying. He landed in a heap in front of us.
“You,” Father called to the man in a threatening voice.
The man straightened up and spun around to face us.
“What? Who are you? There’s this weird dog in our way. If that’s your dog, then I’m gonna—”
“The dog is mine,” Father said. “I set him on you.”
The adventurer glanced back into the den and then at Father again, who kept his cloak closed tight to conceal his shield.
“You’re saying that you sent an evil hound against us?”
“Only because you’ve been committing actions that are obviously unjust,” Father said.
“Unjust? How could capturing a filthy demi-human possibly be—”
As he glared at Father and then at me, he suddenly stopped, noticing Sakura and Luna in their filolial queen forms. By this point, the filolial queen forms were widely known to be the bird gods that had roamed around Melromarc helping people. We were known across the whole country. We had even sold medicine and food right here in the village before heading up the mountain.
“H-hang on!” called one of the adventurers. “Isn’t that the dog that goes around with the saint of the bird god?”
“You’re right!” Keel snarled. “And I won’t forgive what you’ve done! Arf arf! Arf arf!”
I had never heard Keel get this angry before.
“I know that you’re adventurers, so I didn’t come here with the intention of stopping you from taking a dragon’s treasure. But . . .” Father said with a glint in his eye as he stared down the adventurer and put a hand into his cloak. “You’ve given me no choice. If there’s someone back there that’s a part of that treasure, I will protect them. You want to sell a person? Then maybe I should never bring my medicine and food to this land ever again!”
“S-saint of the bird god!” cried the adventurer. “There must be a misunderstanding! We were going to protect it! It was held captive here by the dragons!”
Keel and the leader of the group of adventurers overheard Father speaking and stood aside to let him come forward. I finally saw what Keel was trying to protect.
What in the world? It was none other than Filo-tan’s doctor’s assistant!
She was still a young demi-human with dog ears and a tail, not too different from Keel. She had helped take care of Filo-tan and the other filolials . . . I had always wondered about her hair but realized now that it resembled a dragon’s cut.
That was definitely her. I remember how she always pacified those dragons that Filo-tan despised so much.
“We were just going to return her to where she belongs,” one of the adventurers started to say. But that was obviously just an excuse. By that did he mean a slave’s tent? Perhaps she had been a slave at one point before, but she belonged here, in the dragon den. The assistant rushed over to protect the last surviving monster.
Keel and Father stared blankly at the scene and then glanced at each other.
“Unfortunately, I overheard everything that was said before,” Father said. He looked farther into the dragon den. “The dragon eggs . . .”
“Those are ours!” one of the adventurers shouted, holding them tight.
Father let out a long sigh.
“Then let us handle the remaining monsters. They’re ours.”
“B-but!”
One of the adventurers started to protest, but Father gave him a glare that could be felt even from within his hood and cloak.
“If you’re just going to protect them, then you shouldn’t mind us doing the same job, should you? Or were you thinking about doing something else besides protecting them as soon as we got out of your way?”
“Fine, fine,” the leader said. “But isn’t it dangerous? That is a demi-human with the monsters, after all.”
Father ignored the adventurers and went over to the assistant. The dragon creature she was holding growled as Father approached.
“It’s okay. I won’t hurt you.”
Father gently extended his hands toward the assistant and the dragon, who stared back blankly.
Any living creature will come to like Father in no time, I say. But monsters are monsters, of course, and without a monster seal, you can’t totally ignore the possibility that they might attack.
“Let’s get you out of here,” Father said. “Otherwise, more might come later. So I want you to come with us.”
“Yeah!” Keel barked. “There are lots of bad guys out there! You’re not safe here!”
Keel and Father both had their arms extended, but the assistant didn’t move, holding on tightly to the dragon.
“I don’t know . . .”
“But if you stay here . . .” Father trailed off.
“We’re waiting for Father to come back,” she replied. “If he comes back and we’re not here, he’ll be sad.”
Who is the girl’s father? Since this was the dragon den, did that mean it was the boss dragon?
What an unfortunate father to have, I say.
In the first go-around, the filolials in Father’s village did tell me that this girl was really helpful though. If she had helped the filolials, then I shall accept her fully! Even if she was the child of a dragon, I had to repay her kindness!
“And your father is?” Father rubbed his face, unsure of what to say.
“Gar! Gar!” said a young dragon, standing up and taking a few tottering steps forward.
“Hey! Wait! Where are you going?”
“Gar! Gar!”
“But . . . but what about Father?”
“Gar!”
The young dragon turned to Father and pointed.
“O-okay . . . So it’s really okay for us to go with him?”
“Gar!”
The dragon jumped onto the assistant’s back and the girl walked toward Father.
“Okay,” she said. “Please, can you help us just for a little?”
“No problem,” Father said. “Let’s get out of here. I’m going to take care of them,” Father said to the adventurers. “Do whatever you want with the treasure. I’m off.”
Glaring at the adventurers, Father took Keel and the assistant’s hand and led the dragon back toward me and the filolials, and we left the den.
“Let’s get out of here,” Father said.
Sakura and Luna didn’t look happy about having to help out dragons, but since Father was protecting them, they nodded and came with us as we left the dragon den behind.
Once we made our way about halfway down the mountain, we paused. Father scratched his head.
“Hm . . . what to do now.”
Keel slowly approached the assistant and tried to cheer her up.
“Hey, can I ask you a question?”
“Uh, okay.”
“What’s your name?”
“I’m . . . I’m Wyndia.”
“So Wyndia, is it?” Father said. “Well, what do you want to do now, Wyndia?”
“I want to find Father,” Assistant responded at once.
I was pretty much sure by this point that Assistant’s father was the boss dragon. Which meant that he was no longer in this world, I say.
“Before we look for him, there’s something I want to ask you first. Is that okay?”
Assistant nodded.
“Would you rather live in a fantasy where you can still hold on to hope or face the harsh truth?”
She understood the meaning of Father’s words at once, and burying her face in her hands, started to cry.
“Big Bro! That’s so cruel!”
“I know it is, but it could’ve been way worse if we didn’t get out of the dragon den. They need to move forward.”
“But still!”
“But still, Wyndia needs to decide for herself what to do.”
“Big Bro . . .” Keel trailed off.
Assistant continued to cry.
“Gar gar!” The little dragon tried to cheer her up.
She wiped the tears away. “Yes, I know. Thank you.” She looked up at Father. “I want to see Father.”
Father went pale and shook his head. “I . . . I don’t know about that. I wish I could’ve protected him. I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything else.”
Assistant watched Father. The little dragon climbed back up onto her back.
Well, things turned out the way they did. We wouldn’t be able to undo the death of the dragon or what happened to all the treasure. We also couldn’t let anyone find out that the Shield Hero was the saint of the bird god, or all of our plans would go to waste.
If you left it all to me, I would’ve just killed everyone so we wouldn’t have to deal with this situation in the first place.
“Father told us before,” Assistant said, “that he might die someday—that we needed to focus on protecting ourselves before mourning him . . . I remember my little sister got so mad.”
“Is that your little sister?” Father asked, gesturing to the dragon.
“Gar?”
“Yes, she’s my little sister.”
Assistant did her best to put on a smile and turned to Father and Keel.
“Thank you for helping us.”
“No need for thanks,” Father said. “We haven’t taken you to see your Father yet.”
“Yeah!” Keel agreed. “I’ll keep you safe, Wyndia!”
“Keel, you need to be more careful,” Father said. “There were so many enemies in there—you can’t just rush into them.”
Keel hung her head. “Got it, Father. I’ll be more careful.”
“I was surprised,” Luna said.
“Me too!” agreed Sakura.
“Sakura and Luna, I know that these two may smell like dragons, but they’re not your enemies,” Father said.
“I understand,” Luna said. “If I look closely, they look kinda cute. So I don’t want to fight them.”
“I get it,” Sakura said. “They’re our friends now.”
Hearing the voices of the filolials was like a breath of fresh air for me. I had been starting to feel pent up and angry after seeing so many horrible sights.
“I can kill every last one of those adventurers single-handedly,” I declared. “If they lay another hand on you, it’ll be over for them. And then I can erase all the evidence of the deed!”
“M-Motoyasu! No, I’m begging you, no!”
I knew that Father wouldn’t let me.
I wasn’t exactly thrilled about having to work alongside people associated with despicable dragons. But I wasn’t so uncouth to steal someone else’s accomplishments either, I say! The easy thing to do would be to just go into another mountain and get some dragon’s treasure yourself, after all.
We slowly descended the mountain with Assistant and the little dragon. I kept a close eye on the dragon. Looking closely, I realized it was a little different from a typical dragon. It seemed like it had blood from other monsters in it as well. I think I remember one of the filolials telling me in the first go-around that mixed dragons were actually quite common.
I don’t like having it around, but I may as well give it a name. So I’ll call it Monster. If it grew up into something more dragon-like, I’d just rename it.
Once we approached the cliff near the area where the dragon corpse was, Father paused and turned to Assistant.
“Wyndia, it’s coming up.”
She nodded without a word, and as we made our way around the crag, the sight of the dragon corpse appeared.
Assistant gasped. Large teardrops fell from her eyes.
Father gave her and the dragon a squeeze.
“No need to be brave. No need to hold back.” Father nodded. “Cry into my cloak. And don’t ever forget this feeling.”
Assistant fell into Father’s arms and sobbed her eyes out into his cloak so that her voice didn’t leak out. Sakura and Luna also chanted a spell to summon a rush of wind that hid the sound of her voice.
She let out an anguished wail into Father’s chest and didn’t stop crying for a long time.
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