Chapter 38: The Dragon and The Empire

“Well, shall we go?”

News of Milim’s destruction of the target quickly spread among the adventurers.

However, thanks to her cute appearance and the popularity of these stories, rumors of her being a vampire or demon did not take hold.

Well, that’s because if she doesn’t enter combat mode, she just looks like a cute human.

“My arm is tingling… I wonder how big the dragon is.”

“Why are we even talking about fighting? We’re just going for an investigation! Come on, Milim.”

“What? It doesn’t matter if I defeat them!”

“Yes, we look forward to your success.”

“Please spare me…”

With that, we were being sent off by Nina-san and Gihren.

Our destination was the dragon’s graveyard.

“Can you fly throughout this journey?”

“Hmm… Well, I can fly without running out of magic, but it’s not ideal for travel.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Yes. If I need to travel a certain distance, it’s better to travel on the ground.”

“Got it.”

“By the way, I need some information.”

“Information?”

“About the sleeping dragon, the dragon’s graveyard, and the way to request the investigation.”

“I see.”

“We’ll start with the easy ones, but there’s no rule for investigation requests.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. It’s just that the rewards are based on the information we find during the investigation.”

“I see. So, it depends on the value of the information we find.”

“Well, there’s also a basic reward we can receive just for accepting the request, but we have to at least report that we went to the location. But, it’s mostly a matter of trust. That’s why, generally, investigation requests are divided into group investigations that have little to no basic reward and special investigations that are requested with trust.”

“So, the Dragon’s Graveyard and Dragons… this is a famous story you hear from your parents before bedtime, right?”

“Hmm… it’s the same as our ancestors’ legend.”

“Yeah, for us, heroes are those kinds of stories.”

“Long ago, there was a dragon that was feared in the surrounding villages.”

“The dragon demanded a sacrifice from the villagers once a year.”

“If the sacrifice wasn’t good enough or wasn’t to its liking, the dragon would bring disaster to the village without mercy. The villagers, fearing the dragon, eventually started to worship it as a god.”

“One day, the dragon decided to visit the nearby Empire on a whim.”

“The Empire wasn’t as docile as the village and, of course, opposed the dragon.”

“Was it the hero who acted at that time?”

“No, the Empire and the dragon went to war, but there wasn’t any outstanding presence on the side of the Empire.”

“Is that so?”

“However, after the war, the dragon was also heavily injured. That’s when the hero appeared.”

“Hmm… Wait? That way of saying it means…”

“The hero destroyed the empire along with the evil dragon.”

“The hero was the village’s next sacrifice.”

“The sacrifices gathered from the village received protection through continuing to worship the dragon and formed a party with considerable power. Originally, the villagers might have seen the empire as a threat greater than the dragon. In the villagers’ eyes, the dragon’s actions may have appeared to be helping them.”

“So, why did the dragon die?”

“It’s said that it reached its limit during the war with the empire, or that it was brought to the decisive battle so that the sacrifices wouldn’t die.”

“What do you mean?”

“After all, it’s just a story. There are various iterations of it.”

“There are those in which the dragon is depicted as a thorough friend of the village, and there are also those in which it is depicted as an evil dragon and always an enemy.”