"Hey, where's Alisa? The boss wants her!"
Kane's subordinates were calling my name and searching everywhere, but naturally, I had no intention of answering.
Even though I was disguised as a woman, if Kane got a look at my face he'd probably recognize me, and if we came face to face, I'd likely end up cutting him down on the spot.
After helping the other women who had come along prepare the meals and things settling down, I dashed into the surrounding darkness and activated my dark magic and earth magic.
"Black Curtain, Create House."
I blanketed the area in invisible darkness and erected a small makeshift cabin within it.
I'd hole up here until morning.
The next day, one of the women on cooking duty asked, "Where were you? You were being searched for, you know," but I replied, "Nobody called me, so I was sleeping in my tent."
Then, by evening, I arrived at the dragon's nest.
Kane and his group would stay overnight, but my real work started now.
Using [Gentleman Thief]'s [Night Vision] to see in the dark, I tracked the presence deeper and deeper inside.
Before long, I found a crimson dragon.
When I looked at it with [Divine Eye], the readout said: Ruby Dragon, recently laid eggs, major stat reduction.
And the dragon's eggs were lying right there as well.
Well then, let's get to it.
The Ruby Dragon noticed me and slowly raised its head, its crimson eyes gleaming as it opened its maw.
A wide-area flame breath sprayed forth.
I dodged it by kicking off a wall, then closed in on the Ruby Dragon from the side in the manner of a triangle kick.
Since the dragon's neck was thick, I supplemented my short blade with battle aura and cut the Ruby Dragon's head clean off.
Even weakened, it was a dragon — probably not a match even for someone of Mithril rank — but with my [Sword God] skill, I took it down with ease.
Then I stored the corpse in my extra-large-capacity magic bag.
I destroyed the eggs as well, annihilating every trace with [Holy Magic]'s Saint Fire.
This should prevent any stampede in this area for a while.
I also collected the gold and silver treasures the dragon had hoarded.
Well, technically they were the remains of adventurers who'd been killed trying to take it on, but still.
Now there was nothing left to prove the dragon had been slain.
If I left anything behind, Kane would probably try to claim credit for it.
Now then — tomorrow's Kane would be quite the sight to behold.
◇◇◇
Impossible.
There were no traces of the dragon.
None at all.
They searched the interior of the dragon's nest, focusing on adventurers with detection skills.
They could tell a dragon had been there.
The equipment of adventurers who had apparently perished seeking the title of Dragon Slayer lay scattered and rotting everywhere.
But the dragon itself was nowhere to be found!
It was supposed to have laid eggs — there was no reason it would have left its nest.
There were no eggs, either.
The treasures it should have hoarded were gone too.
This was bad.
He had already made a huge public announcement in the Vermilion Marquis's territory.
Not only would he fail to earn the Dragon Slayer title, he would be going home having done absolutely nothing.
If things went badly, people might even whisper that he'd fled in cowardice.
His father would be furious at the dishonor to the family name.
His [Sword Master] skill hadn't leveled up, either.
And it got worse.
Originally, most of the adventurers had been wiped out, so he'd expected to avoid paying any rewards.
But now he'd have to pay out a considerable sum.
He spent two more days searching, but the dragon was never found, and the expensive expedition turned out to be a colossal failure.
For quite some time afterward, he would be the laughingstock among the nobles.
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Skills: [Reverse], [Divine Eye], [Sword God], [Gentleman Thief], [Dark Magic], [Rock-Iron Magic], [Holy Magic]
Rank: Iron