We were heading for the Kingdom of
From the Kingdom of Si lon, we pressed west and further west. The weather was so mild and pleasant it was almost drowsy, wrapping all around us. On both sides of the highway stretched fields of grass as far as the eye could see.
In the distance ahead, I could just make out the Red Dragon Mountain Range. Three shadows could be seen circling slowly above the peaks.
It was idyllic.
Every now and then, some tactless bandit would come along telling us to leave anything valuable behind, and when
Even though we were on the Central Continent, this stretch of highway was a bit rough on the law-and-order front. I wish they'd take a lesson from the Demon Continent. You didn't get bandits there. Granted, you got about ten times as many monsters, but still.
Does people being able to do as they please just mean the world's at peace? Apparently, further north there were lots of small nations tangled up in wars with each other, and bandits were on the rise as a spillover from all that fighting…
Either way, it was an idyllic scene.
--- The Red Dragon Mountain Range was a massive mountain chain on the Central Continent. The mountains stretched across the continent like a dividing line, and the entire region was home to Red Dragons.
Red Dragons were the most powerful monsters on the Central Continent — the absolute apex predators, one might say. Each individual possessed S-class strength, yet they formed flocks numbering in the hundreds.
What was particularly noteworthy was their detection ability. They never missed a single creature that entered their territory. Never. They could pick up anything as small as a dog, and no matter how powerful a monster might be, once it set foot in a Red Dragon's territory, it would be swarmed and devoured down to the bone. How exactly they detected intruders into their territory remained unknown. Enter the territory, and you die. That was common knowledge in this world.
There were many species of dragon in this world. All of them were A-class or above on their own.
Of these, the Red Dragon was said to be the most dangerous and ferocious. Individually, each was said to be only lower S-class at best, but their flock size and territorial scale were simply too enormous. The species had become so entrenched in the mountain range that it was named the Red Dragon Mountain Range after them. An impassable mountain range of death. That was the Red Dragon Mountain Range.
Despite being such dangerous creatures, Red Dragons actually had one weakness. While their combat ability was high, their flight ability was pitiful, meaning they couldn't take off from flat ground.
To fly, they needed to leap from a high cliff or glide down a slope of considerable length. The Central Continent had mountains, sure, but it was basically all gentle plains and forests. As a result, people living in the flatlands were rarely attacked by Red Dragons.
That said, there were apparently the occasional dim-witted individuals. They'd get caught in turbulence or something and crash-land onto flat ground.
Such dragons were classified as Stragglers. Even fallen, these sky sovereigns remained formidable A-class-upper beings. They would rampage with overwhelming power, causing tremendous damage. If one crashed near a populated area, it meant a nationwide subjugation effort. Emergency quests would be issued, and it would stir up a hornet's nest of commotion. Most of the time, though, they fell far from any settlement. The quest rank might be S-class, but as a safety precaution, seven or eight parties would team up to set a trap, and the dragon would be surprisingly easy to hunt down.
By the way, dragon meat and bone were among the highest-grade materials for weapons and armor. Dragon hide also held great value as an art medium. In fact, it wasn't just the hide — a dragon could be used entirely, every last bit. Even if ten people slew one and split the reward evenly, the payout would be enough to live lavishly for a year. Specifically, a single dragon was worth around one hundred Asura gold coins.
Because the materials were so valuable, newly minted C-rank adventurers who couldn't yet take on quests would sometimes recklessly attempt the hunt. Most of the time, they'd end up as charred meat and devoured whole.
This was the Red Dragon Mountain Range, where such Red Dragons lived in droves. And there were only two points where one could pass through.
They were cliff-walled gorges known as the "Red Dragon's Lower Jaw" and the "Red Dragon's Upper Jaw." These gorges had existed since the Second Human-Demon War, and even back then they were the only passages wide enough for an army to traverse. Laplace had apparently released the Red Dragons into the mountain range with this very strategy in mind. So Ruijerd said, anyway, and I wasn't about to argue with him.
We were heading our horse-drawn carriage toward the "Red Dragon's Lower Jaw," the pass connecting the south and west of the Central Continent. Once through there, we'd be in the Kingdom of Asura.
--- But taking a detour meant a longer road. And there was one young lady present who was not fond of long roads.
"There's no need to detour — if Ruijerd is with us, we should be able to pass through the Red Dragon Mountain Range, right!"
That was Eris's unreasonable demand upon seeing the Red Dragons circling lazily above the mountain range.
"Don't be absurd."
Ruijerd replied with a wry smile. I'd thought maybe Ruijerd could pull it off too, but even he couldn't pass through the Red Dragon Mountain Range on foot. If that was the case, I certainly couldn't either. I couldn't beat Ruijerd, after all.
"But you could do it,
It seemed Eris wanted to experience dragon-slaying firsthand. I could sort of understand the feeling, but I wanted to tell her to wait. There were things one could do and things one couldn't.
"But Gislaine said she defeated a stray Red Dragon once!" "Really?"
I hadn't heard that story. Maybe it wasn't from her adventuring days. If it had been,
"Apparently she fought a Red Dragon before becoming a Sword King!" "Wow, all by herself?" "Well, she said it was about five high-class swordsmen of roughly equal skill." "How many of them died?" "Two of them, she said."
You idiots. That's a forty percent casualty rate. Why would you think I could take on a Red Dragon after hearing that?
"Besides, there's a huge difference in strength between a stray and a dragon nesting in the mountains. They can fly, you know!"
Flight was a massive advantage for anyone. Having the aerial attribute meant there was no weakness to arrows. And these dragons hunted in flocks. Monsters that formed flocks in this world generally knew how to hunt as a pack.
You had the King Dragons, which formed flocks but moved in only small groups, or the Black Dragons, which didn't form flocks at all — those were one thing. But being attacked by a hundred Red Dragons at once? There was no way you could tear through them.
"Right, Ruijerd?" "Mm. No one can handle a flock of Red Dragons. If anyone could, it would be the upper ranks of the Seven World Powers. Even the North God or the Sword God would probably have to turn back halfway." "Is that so?"
I'd assumed anyone in the Seven World Powers could handle dragons easily, but…
"Mm. They'd probably run out of stamina before they finished. It's not like they could sleep, either."
I see. Hundreds of dragons attacking without rest, day and night. Forget combat power — they'd simply be crushed by sheer numbers.
"That said, Laplace commanded even the Red Dragon King. So, someone in the upper ranks of the Seven World Powers would likely be able to pass through. In the old Seven World Powers, even the seventh-ranked could probably traverse a Red Dragon territory."
I see. The sealed fourth-ranked Demon God and the current fifth-ranked Death God. Apparently there was an uncrossable wall between those two.
"But someday, I'd like to hunt at least one…"
Eris was her usual self today — terrifyingly bloodthirsty. When that someday came, I'd probably get dragged into it somehow. For that inevitable future, I ought to at least study up on Red Dragon combat.
--- An idyllic day. A day when we were still several days away from reaching the Red Dragon's Lower Jaw.
While cooking, I was thinking about the
I compared that piece of advice with my own actions. Then I tried to piece together the sequence of events using the information I'd heard afterward.
For example, what if I hadn't fled with a Stone Lance and had instead listened to what the soldiers had to say? At that point, I could have learned that
In that case, I probably wouldn't have encountered
Hmm.
Honestly, even I felt that things had gone too well after meeting Zanoba. It was too convenient.
Could it be that the Man-God possessed the power to alter the future, beyond mere precognition?
No — Zanoba was there regardless. His personality hadn't suddenly changed. Even if I hadn't brought the doll, Ginger would have found some way to bring Zanoba and me together, I felt.
Zanoba would have brought the Roxy doll and talked to me. And I still would have pointed out the mole.
What about using a fake name? At least by not giving my real name, I'd been able to get along with
On the other hand, what if I had given my real name? Aisha seemed to think I was a pervert. In the end, the misunderstanding was cleared up. But at least when she first checked into the inn, she probably still wasn't sure I was her brother.
A perverted brother, alone with her at the inn… I'd be worried about my virtue. I might have snuck off to the bathroom and fled.
Where would she have gone? She'd been trying to send a letter, so she might have stolen money and left. I'd told her that with money, she could send a letter. A smart girl like her would use the money to buy stationery, ask someone for directions, go to the
I would search for her. How would I search? Ruijerd, of course. If I learned Aisha was missing, I'd no doubt panic, and without thinking, cast Detonation Magic into the sky to contact Ruijerd. Then I'd tell him I'd found my sister but she'd gotten away, and ask him to look for her. And the lost Aisha would be taken in by Ruijerd. Ruijerd was kind to children. Aisha would surely trust him.
Yep, no problem.
The more I thought about it, the more the Man-God's advice made sense. Even acting roughly, I was being funneled toward a single outcome. It had probably always been this way.
Whether Ruijerd helped me or not, I'd end up traveling with him in the end.
Whether I met Jirucal and received any one of his demon eyes, I'd probably still have been captured by the Doldia tribe in the Great Forest.
The bastard was thinking of many things and giving me advice accordingly.
But, as always, his purpose remained invisible. If only he'd tell me that much, I'd be able to be a little more straightforward.
More straightforward… Yes, I could be… As I glanced up at the sky repeatedly, lost in thought.
--- Eris and Ruijerd were training without fail today as well. I watched them while preparing our meal.
At first, I'd joined in, but given the difference in baseline stamina, I'd given up about halfway through. Recently, Eris's strength had been nothing short of spectacular. A year ago, I could have beaten her easily using the Magic Eyes. The Eris of that time might even have been able to pull my pants down mid-combat.
But not anymore. If I went all-out with the Magic Eyes and magic power, I might be the one standing at the end, but it would be a razor-thin victory. At range, of course, the win would go to me easily. But that also eliminated any chance of an accidental groping.
Still — was it talent? I thought I was putting in a decent effort myself, but Eris was outdoing me on every front. Both the quality and quantity of her training exceeded mine. I knew I needed to push harder, but my body couldn't keep up.
Could this body simply have poor stamina? I'd been judging by the standards of my previous life, but by this world's standards, it might be below average. With Eris being the only kid my age around, it was hard to tell.
As I was mulling this over, today's practice session came to an end.
Recently, Ruijerd had stopped asking Eris "Do you understand?" after training. Presumably because she understood without being told. Eris was absorbing it all.
"Eris."
As she returned to my side, Ruijerd suddenly called out to her.
"What?"
Eris took the well-wringed cloth from me and slipped a hand inside her clothes to wipe away the sweat. Before, she used to strip down to just her upper-body underwear to wipe off, but that made me get excited, so now she did it this way. She probably found the sweat gross too. Sorry about that.
"From today on, you may call yourself a warrior."
Ruijerd sank his weight onto the ground as he said it.
A warrior. Not a swordsman — a warrior. In this world, calling someone a warrior instead of a swordsman didn't inherently mean a difference in combat ability. So… huh?
That was when I grasped the meaning of Ruijerd's words. Eris, too, had frozen mid-motion, one arm reaching toward her side.
"…You mean…" "A full-fledged warrior."
Ruijerd said it quietly.
Eris flung the cloth at me with a stiff, jerky motion. I caught it, rewet it with water magic, wrung it out with a snap, and slapped it against my palm. Eris sat down beside me. I recognized this expression. It was the same face she'd made when I first handed her a staff — wanting to grin with joy but thinking she had to keep a solemn look instead.
"B-but Ruijerd, I still can't beat you at all!" "It's no matter. You already possess more than enough strength as a warrior."
Was this it? You could call it a kind of certification. Just as Gislaine had granted permission to call herself a Sword
"Congratulations, Eris."
Eris's eyes were spinning. Maybe she hadn't been training with any such thing in mind.
"R-Rudeus, is this a dream? Pinch me to check." "If I pinch you, you're not going to punch me, right?" "I won't punch you."
Having gotten her word, I gave her nipple a gentle pinch. Gently, of course. Oops, in this context, maybe "gently" wasn't quite the right word?