“The Dragon King? I thought Luli was the one that controlled the Dragons.”
“That’s how it should be, yes. This situation is fairly abnormal, on a whole. I was the one who originally decreed that Dragons not war with humanity, and the species has been following my laws for many years. This is the first time I’ve ever truly been defied.”
“It has been thousands upon thousands of years since you passed from this world, o Lady Azure. Some of the Young Dragons are unaware of you, even.” Kohaku and the others, the Heavenly Beasts, only manifested once every few centuries. Right now they were in the world because I had summoned them, which was rather rare. My summoning of Kohaku was purely coincidental, but every time after that I’d called upon the Monarchs specifically.
It seemed that Luli, ruler of Dragons, manifested even less frequently than the others. That made sense though, since Dragons lived long and reproduced infrequently.
“So who’s this Dragon King? Is he one of the Ancient Dragons?”
“No, he’s a man. A demi-human of the Dragon Clan. He appeared on Dragoness Island, took control of the younglings, and massacred every Elder Dragon living there. Then, the remaining adults were forcibly subdued.”
A demi-human... Then there’s no doubt in my mind. This guy used the Dominant Resonance Needle to take control. He probably used the younger Dragons to kill the older ones, since they couldn’t be controlled by him.
“All of our younglings fled to Dragoness Island after hearing rumors of the Dragon King’s power. They were tempted by strength and the promise of no longer being bound by the laws of our sanctuary. Some of them returned, even more powerful than we had expected. There are a few that haven’t come back yet, but we fear they could begin rampaging around the world at any moment.” I’d already seen examples of this in Reflet, and heard about it from Sandora. The Young Dragons were running rampant. They killed indiscriminately, as if it were a game, doing whatever they wanted to innocent people. They were just like that Black Dragon.
“What a miserable story... It has only been a few thousand years. Are my brood truly so weak of heart?”
“I-I’m sorry, Lady Azure... There is little I can say in our defense...”
“Hm... Well, I think I get the gist of it. The Dragon King is calling the shots, but the ones running rampant wanted to hurt people anyway, right? So you won’t have a problem if I wipe them all out.”
“...A Dragon who discards his pride is no more than a lizard. This is the mantra the Azure Monarch left to us before she passed. Those young ones are no longer our own. Dispose of them as you will.”
“Pride easily begets arrogance. These Young Dragons are not my kin, they’re simply looking down on the world. I recently was foolish enough to look down on this human, and I paid the price in shame.” Luli spoke quietly as she looked over to me. There was a saying that said ‘the boughs that bear most hang lowest,’ meaning that the ones with the greatest strengths were often the most modest. I didn’t think the phrase really applied to the Dragons.
Still, humanity wasn’t so foolish. No matter the might of a Dragon, humans could still stand against them. Dragons, unlike the Phrase, were still affected by spells. A talented wind mage could even bring a Dragon down to the ground.
Even so, the damage done would be immense. Captain Garm of Mismede once told me it took around a hundred soldiers to bring down a rampaging Dragon. I didn’t want lives to be lost because of this stupid situation. Still, if there were skilled soldiers or talented mages amongst them, they might have an easier time of it. But you would find less of those people in small towns compared to places like the capital cities.
Maybe if they were lucky they’d have good adventurers at their guilds, but there was no defending everywhere. People with the Dragon Slayer title were awarded it for killing them in a party of five or less. To manage that, you’d need at least five Red adventurers, and they were few and far between.
“...Now I’m just a little confused, though. It sounds like they have a stupid, but legitimate, grudge. So I’m wondering if they’re even being mind controlled by the needles...” It seemed like the affected Dragons were just doing whatever they wanted, rather than actually being dominated by a singular entity.
It might have just been that the Dragons were having the needles embedded to draw out the absolute brink of their power... Whether they were aware or not of the needle draining their lifespan was another question entirely, though.
Then again, Dragons lived for thousands of years, so it may have been a trivial trade-off.
“The easiest solution would be to take care of the Dragon King, right? But will killing him actually calm the rampaging Dragons?” It wasn’t a case where the Dragons would all die if he died. If anything, they’d escape from his control and probably just go berserk. But still, dominated or not, I’d kill any that threatened humanity, so I guess the order in which I took care of them didn’t matter all that much.
“Let’s trace the Dragons for now...” I pulled up my map and searched for Dragons. Whoa, that’s a lot! Geez, more than I expected. Even if there aren’t as many Dragons as there are humans, that’s still a fair amount. Hm... Guess I can narrow it down... I tried a different approach. Instead of just Dragons, I searched for Dragons with the Dominant Resonance Needle embedded in them.
The Dominant Resonance Needle kind of resembled a marking pin. Since its head was exposed, I’d be able to identify it from the outside if I got a look at a Dragon’s head. Thanks to that little detail, I was able to successfully run a search.
Even with the search refined, there were a lot... They were quite spread out across the world, flying around at their own leisure, and naturally there was a concentrated group on Dragoness Island, too.
Huh? What’s that...?
“Wait a sec...!” A group had flown out from Dragoness Island. It was a fairly big one, as well. Then, I noticed their destination.
“They’re on a direct flight path to Brunhild!” What the hell?! Are they trying to get revenge for the Black Dragon?! But why would they even know about me? How?!
It clicked in my mind that they were probably informed by the Dragon King. It wouldn’t be hard at all to ask around about who the famous Dragonslayer who saved a village in Mismede was, which meant that their goal was incredibly obvious.
“Luli. We’re in trouble. We need to get home, now!”
“As you wish.”
Are these stupid Dragons seriously doing this? Fine, then! Bring it! I don’t care who you are, Dragon or human or anything else! Nobody attacks my home.
I’ll crush every last one of you arrogant bastards!
◇ ◇ ◇
“So yeah, there’s a horde of Dragons on their way here right now. I’ll wipe them out though, so don’t worry.”
“...Baba-dono, I have no idea what to say to this young man right now.”
“Well, Yamagata. That makes two of us.” I was in the conference room with Yamagata and Baba. Both old men turned to me in sheer shock.
I gathered all the major members of my knight order and briefed them on the situation. I’d gotten back to Brunhild using a [Gate], meaning I still had a good lead on the Dragons. Everyone looked at me, unsure what to say. Eventually, however, Nikola broke the silence. He sighed slightly and stood up.
“Y-Your Majesty, please... Uh, well... When you say Dragons, are you referring to the creatures that fly in the sky and breathe fire from their mouths? Those Dragons?”
“Yep, that’s the ones. Apparently some of their young ones got all cocky, so now there’s a horde of them heading our way.”
“A... horde, you say. Just how many?”
“About twenty regular Dragons, give or take. But there are about a hundred lesser Wyverns traveling with them too. Barely anything compared to the Phrase we faced recently, right?”
“W-Wait, wait, wait!” Commander Lain had spoken up to ask about how many Dragons there were, but after I answered, she and Nikola both started
freaking out.
“It’s gonna be fine, right? Boss-man’ll take care of them no problem, like he usually does... Right?” Norn grumbled with mild concern as she spoke up. Her lupine ears were shuddering slightly.
“I thought about it, but then I realized this is a golden opportunity.”
“An... opportunity?”
“Yep. What better training exercise could there be for our knight order? These Dragons will make perfect targets, don’t you think?”
“Excuse me?!” Lain looked at me in utter disbelief. To be honest, I thought my country’s knight order was a thing of beauty. We were strong, but we also lived in a land with few monsters, and we were situated directly between two friendly territories. It would be good for them to get a proper training exercise done.
“O-Our knight order doesn’t even have a hundred people in it, and that’s including our intel corps! We can hardly pair one person to one Dragon, either! How are we meant to fight airborne enemies, anyway?”
“I’ll bring down the airborne ones. After that, you just need to focus on avoiding their deadly breath. You should be able to do it, sort of... I mean, your shields can resist fire!”
“Sort of, huh...?” I’d employed safety measures. I wasn’t going to risk their lives, after all. Plus, my fiancees and the Monarchs were to act as backup. I didn’t think the Dragons would be pushovers, so that was only natural.
Even if it was a tough fight, it’d be good to do this. We were a newly-established country, so we were likely being regarded by prying eyes. If word spread that our knight order managed to fend off over a hundred Dragons, we probably wouldn’t get any trouble from countries like Yulong again.
“W-We’ll be able to beat the Dragons easily with the Frame Gears... Right?”
“We won’t be employing the Frame Gears for this battle.”
“What?!”
I want to show these arrogant lizards the power of humanity. I’ll show them just who it is they decided to judge by their covers. After all, they’re attacking us out of some misplaced anger. Let’s shove it back in their faces.
It’d be far too easy a victory if I called out the Frame Gears, anyway. We wouldn’t get much in the way of real combat experience. I didn’t want my knight order mistaking the power of the Frame Gears as their own power, after all.
“And here’s the most important thing of all.”
“Hm?”
“We’ll be able to harvest the Dragon corpses for rare materials, and profit big-time.”
“......”
Damn right. Leather, bone, horns... If it’s draconic, it’s worth a lot. One Dragon alone is a fortune in itself, so killing over a hundred is an incredible chance to make a ton of dough.
“It’d help the country a lot if we had that money.”
“......”
“I’d also be able to use the proceeds to pay out a huge bonus to all my hardest workers.”
“Booyah!”
“Let’s go get those Dragons!!!”
So easy to manipulate...
“I see them in the distance. They look about three minutes from arriving.” Luli warned me, so I used [Long Sense] to see for myself. There were a lot of Dragons for sure. We were in the southern plains, just outside Brunhild Castle Town, waiting for the Dragons to arrive. We wanted to avoid any real damage to our nation, so we chose a wide open space as the battlefield.
“They’re noisy...”
“They’re speaking draconic, saying things such as ‘kill them all’ and ‘roast them alive’... A lot of obnoxious laughing, as well. Truly, these beasts are not my kin. They are far too lowly for that. Or perhaps their minds were infested by that cursed artifact...” I didn’t speak draconic, so I had Luli translate. I was glad she had such a good sense of hearing. I was a little irritated to hear what they were saying, though... Still, it gave me good cause to go all-out in killing them.
There was no room for discussion here, so I decided to knock the wind out of their sails.
Once you’ve identified your enemy, defeat them before the battle begins. That’s what my grandpa always said.
“Come forth, o Storm! Million Blades Borne of Air: [Tempest Edge]!” I invoked an ancient wind spell I’d learned from a book in the Library.
A great storm suddenly appeared, sucking the Dragons into the heart of it. It shredded their wings to pieces.
“GRAUGUUUUUUH!!”
“GUYOOOOOOGH?!” The Dragons, screaming horribly, all tumbled to the ground. If I was being serious, I could’ve killed them all then and there, but I only wanted to maim them for the time being.
Kougyoku, who had taken her regular phoenix form, cast a rain of fire down upon the grounded Dragons.
“Brunhild Knight Order, chaaarge!!!”
“HOOOAAAAAAH!!!” My knights brandished their crystal swords and shields, charging forth in response to Commander Lain’s order.
The Dragons suddenly turned toward them, breathing out a torrent of flame. But suddenly a wall of water appeared between the two forces, massively reducing the heat.
“Tough luck, darlingsss... Try again, hm?”
“We’re indeed masters of defense, let us show you.” Kokuyou and Sango were in charge of defending against the fire breath. I stood atop Kokuyou’s shell, since they were both back in their original forms, and watched as my knight order charged in against the Dragons.
Kohaku was in her original form too, charging toward a group of Wyverns. She roared out, releasing a shockwave that knocked everyone caught up in it backward.
“I’ll go as well. I can’t leave it all to that fuzzy fool, after all.”
“Try your best to support everyone evenly.”
“As you wish.” Luli spread out her wings, letting out a deafening roar as she took to the skies. Almost in response to it, the Dragons looked over to her and froze. If I had to guess, I’d say she shouted something at them, but I couldn’t begin to know what.
Even my translation spell couldn’t decipher draconic, probably because it was an animal language. I’d probably need a telepathy spell to understand what they were saying. And to be honest... I bet I could find a spell like that if I looked.
Luli flew off, firing blasts of fire at the clustered Dragons. A few Dragons were blasted off into the distance.
Hey, that’s my money! Don’t launch too many too far!
Luli didn’t have anything to say about my plan to sell the corpses either, so I assumed she had really given up on them. I thought it was a little cold of her, but she just had a very strong survival of the fittest mentality.
“We’ll support everyone as well.”
“Indeed.” Linze and Yumina turned to me before chanting some wide area of effect spells. They’d been doing more reading in the Library than I had.
“Come forth, Fire! Burning Barrier: [Fire Resist]!”
“Come forth, Winds... Blessed be the Updraft: [Tailwind]!” Everyone in the knight order found themselves engulfed in red and green lights. The two spells had granted them heightened resistance to flames, and increased their agility.
“Tower corps! Front lines! Assault corps, right behind them!”
“Understood!” Ten soldiers with large shields formed a row and tanked the breath of a Dragon. From behind them, several knights wielding crystal spears poked their weapons through the shield gaps, stabbing the beast.
“Gwaruuugh?!” Dragonscale, which was harder than steel, was still no match for phrasium weaponry. The Dragon was more confused than hurt, but not knowing why it was dying wasn’t going to save it.
“Haaa!” Lain, using her innate rabbit qualities, leaped over the tower knights and landed on the Dragon. Her crystal sword was plunged right into the Dragon’s head, putting an end to its flames.
The Dragon spasmed and convulsed two or three times, then lay still. Lain pulled the sword from the creature, and relayed more orders.
“On to the next one!”
“Aye!”
Good work, Lain... a
nd good work, knights! Support magic aside, around ten people taking out a Dragon is no less than incredible. Plus, the needle in their brains makes them stronger than Adult Dragons, too. I guess my ‘sister’ training these guys is finally starting to pay off.
“Touyaaa... Y’mean I really can’t go in too?”
“Moroha. It’s not gonna be a training exercise if you go in and wipe them all out in a few seconds, is it?” The God of Swords stood beside me, clearly angry that she couldn’t fight. She wanted to fight, but she didn’t even have a crystal sword. Her weapon would just get all scuffed up. That being said, I had a feeling she’d just bash all the Dragons to death with her sword’s hilt or something... She was that kind of girl.
“You never know, Touya. Could be some kinda worst case scenario situation. Wouldn’t it be better if I was in the fray?”
“Ugh... Fine, whatever. You can go over... But only as a support, alright? Just watch! Don’t you dare go all-out on them!”
“Ahaha! Fine, whatever! Just give me a sword already!” I sighed, opened [Storage], and passed a crystal greatsword over to Moroha.
She merrily skipped over to the Dragons, slicing open the legs of any unlucky beast she passed by. I had just told her not to overdo it, and she was already causing them considerable injury... Still, at least it meant we had no chance of losing. I’d just sent out our most lethal weapon, after all.
“We seriously can’t help...?”
“Now that my sister’s out there, definitely not. None of the knight order would be able to do anything if you all went out there.” Elze, Yae, Lu, and Hilde were all sulking nearby. But my mind was made up, and their grumpy faces wouldn’t sway me. Moroha was way, way more than enough.
If I just sent whoever over there, the fight would quickly become a crazy free-for-all. I had Kougyoku giving fire support, Sango and Kokuyou protecting everyone, and Kohaku and Luli were leading knights to their targets. That was more than enough.
As for me, I was tracking the wounded and fixing them up with recovery magic. Since Sango and Kokuyou were suppressing the fire breath, I couldn’t imagine anyone getting injured too badly unless they took a direct hit from a swipe or something.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 8 Page 8