The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

As soon as the truce with the Ancient Dragon was settled, Lapis took out an ink pot, a pen, some sheets of paper from her luggage, then started to write something on them.

Lapis took some time to finish her writing as Loren and the dragon looked on. Then she signed the papers, waited for the ink to dry, then rolled them up and presented them to the dragon.

"I've written a letter to Mother. If you show this to her, she will meditate for you."

"YOU ARE JUDIE'S DAUGHTER?"

The dragon had guessed that their party was related to Demon King Judie because of the greatsword Loren was carrying, but of course it did not know that Lapis was Judie's daughter.

"Yes, I am Judie's daughter, and my name is Lapis."

"IS THAT SO?… THAT'S GREAT… BUT IS IT ALRIGHT FOR ME TO GO TO JUDIE'S CASTLE?"

It sounded just a little worried, but Lapis just shrugged.

"I don't know. To begin with, I don't know what has happened between you and my mother."

"DO YOU WANT TO HEAR IT?"

Lapis thought about the dragon's question for a short while, then nodded.

"If you don't mind."

"ALRIGHT. AS AN EXAMPLE…"

From there, the Ancient Dragon told them about Judie's deeds. They were the kind of things that raised the eyebrows of even her own daughter, Lapis.

She had come to test her skills, but rather than an honest challenge, she tore off dozens of dragon's scales while it was asleep, saying that she would use them as ingredients for something. She had thrown various things into the crater where Loren's party were heading, claiming they were garbage. As a result, the entire mountain was contaminated to the point that even dragons could not survive due to the noxious gases emitted from the burned wastes. And that was just the beginning.

She had tried to steal eggs countless times because she wanted to make large omelets. When she heard that dragons' tails were delicious, she hacked off the tails of the normal dragons in the Ancient Dragon's family and took them home. When she heard that a baby dragon had been born, she kidnapped it to the castle to keep as a pet. She said she wanted sulfur and other minerals, and riddled the mountain with holes.

"THE FIRE SPIRIT LIVING IN THE CRATER WAS SO ENRAGED BY THE HORRIBLE WAY SHE TREATED IT THAT IT EVOLVED INTO AN EFREET AND BECAME THE GUARD OF THE CRATER. NO ONE COULD COME NEAR THE CRATER AFTER THAT."

Efreets were higher fire spirits, wild spirits in the form of giants. As beings that controlled destruction, there were even humans who revered them as Gods. When Loren's party heard that one was created by Judie's actions, they were stunned beyond surprise.

"AND SO, IF YOU WANT TO GO TO THE CRATER, YOU'LL HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS EFREET FIRST BEFORE YOU CAN EVEN GET CLOSE."

"My mother has been a real trouble to you…"

"NO, IT WOULD BE UNREASONABLE TO BLAME THE PERPETRATOR'S SUBORDINATES AND DAUGHTER. I LOST MY COOL. I HOPE YOU CAN FORGIVE ME."

As Lapis knelt down on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly, the dragon also started to swing its head up and down. It was not every day that you saw a person and a dragon bowing to each other, but Loren scratched his head and wondered how he was going to keep this under control.

Lapis and the dragon continued to bow to each other for a while, but eventually, they stopped without warning. The dragon deftly plucked the letter Lapis had offered it again with its claws and spread its wings wide. Loren's party still had to climb further up to the crater from here, but as the dragon had caused some damage near the Great Demon King's castle, it had to talk to the demons as soon as possible, or the Great Demon King might come to this mountain in person. Loren's party had already had their full share of Ancient Dragons. The Great Demon King coming here would only make things even more complicated, and they wholeheartedly agreed that the matter should be taken care of as soon as possible.

Even though it was currently nighttime and no one was sure that the dragon could speak to Judie even if it flew to her castle right now, at least it could use this as an excuse that it had actually tried to do something about this mess.

"I'M SORRY. I'LL BE BACK AS SOON AS WE REACH AN AGREEMENT. AS A DRAGON MYSELF, I HAVE NO DESIRE TO BE ON THE SIDE OF HUMANS OR DEMONS, BUT I PROMISE TO REPAY YOU IN SOME WAY FOR THE TROUBLE I'VE CAUSED."

The dragon gently kicked the ground and soared up, its movements unimaginably light for a body that huge. Loren felt an indescribable sense of discomfort when he noticed that its wings rarely flapped.

"DRAGONS DON'T FLY BY FLAPPING THEIR WINGS, YOU KNOW."

He wasn't sure if these thoughts were showing on his face, but Lapis got up and whispered into his ears.

"THEY FLY BY EXERCISING SOMETHING SIMILAR TO MAGIC. IN THE FIRST PLACE, IF THEY FLY BY FLAPPING THEIR WINGS WITH SUCH HUGE AND HEAVY BODIES, THEY WOULD CAUSE QUITE A BIT OF DAMAGE TO THE SURROUNDINGS JUST BY FLYING."

"So that's how it is."

"I'M LEAVING THEN. SEE YOU LATER."

With a word of goodbye, the dragon flew high into the sky. Loren muttered to himself as he watched the dragon fly away in the direction of what was probably Judie's castle.

"That dragon was a female, isn't it?"

There was no way he could tell the gender of a dragon from its voice or gestures. He had a feeling that the voice was a little thin and high-pitched, but not enough to distinguish between male and female or young and old. He guessed it was a female based on its words.

"She said something about eggs."

"Eggs… I'm hungry. Everything in my belly is on fire."

It seemed that Gula wasn't able to eat the <<Breath>>, but got her Evil God's power burned by it instead, and her stomach was in a bad state. Smoke was still coming out of her mouth, making Loren wonder if there was still something smoldering in there. He was also worried if she would be okay with a burning stomach.

"First of all… Should we sleep? It's night."

"You're right. Then, Gula, please dig another hole."

"Ugh… Making me do stuff on my empty is bullying, you know."

"Have some baguette and ham then."

"We still have them?!"

Lapis cheerfully dug out said food from their luggage and handed it to Gula, who was starting to panic. Loren watched them while idly thinking that even the Evil God of Gluttony would get tired of certain food.

Gula was able to stop Lapis somehow. Still muttering complaints, she used her power against the mountain surface and dug out another cave big enough for three people to sleep in. However, it took her more time to complete the cave than before their encounter with the dragon. Apparently, the Ancient Dragon's breath had done more damage to Gula's powers than expected.

"We have to keep guard."

"Right. Lapis-chan and I will take care of that, so you just sleep."

"It's unlikely that the Dark Elf will return, but I'll set up a magic barrier just in case she does. You fought the Ancient Dragon with your human body, so you should rest."

If you thought about it, fighting an ordinary dragon was a rare event, an event difficult enough that could annihilate an unlucky adventurer. But Loren, despite not meaning to, had gone right beyond that and fought a top-ranked amongst dragons, an Ancient Dragon.

Thinking again that he had experienced something extraordinary, Loren finally began to feel the fatigue that had built up in his overworked body and he felt extremely sleepy. With somewhat unsteady steps, Loren went into the cave Gula had just dug and leaned his greatsword against its wall. The moment he crammed into the sleeping bag Lapis had set out, he could barely move his head anymore. He let the drowsiness take over and drifted to sleep.

When Loren woke up, it was the morning of the next day. The sun was high in the sky, and Lapis shook him awake. He hadn't woken up once during the night, and had fallen into such a deep sleep that he didn't even dream.

Loren didn't know how Lapis and Gula had been keeping guard while he was unconscious, but judging from Lapis' relaxed face as she made a fire and prepared breakfast and Gula's occasional glances at their surroundings while watching her working, it seemed that nothing had happened since the dragon left.

"Good morning, Loren. Did you sleep well?"

Lapis asked. She seemed to have made a simple stove by piling up the broken stones scattered around them. She lit some kind of viscous substance that she had taken out of her luggage and put a small pot on the fire to cook something.

"Breakfast will be ready soon. We'll have beans and salted meat stew this morning. It's a little plain, but we have no choice."

"I don't think it'll be enough at all."

Gula complained, and Lapis silently offered her a long, thick baguette. Even Loren had to wonder where the hell she got it from, but Gula, who had received the baguette without saying a word, suddenly took a bite of the plain, filling-less baguette and began to chew. Loren wondered if she had gotten used to it or she had given up after being played with the same trick over and over again.

Lapis had served Loren some stew from the pot. It was a very simple dish of different types of beans, sliced salted meat and herbs stewed together, but when he scooped some into his mouth with a wooden spoon, it tasted soothing. He wondered if it was the quality of the ingredients or Lapis' skill. Loren took his time to savor it, chewing slowly.

Lapis took her own serving, then handed Gula the pot with the rest of the stew. As Gula took the pot and poured its contents directly into her mouth, Loren and Lapis felt their appetites diminish somewhat, but they continued to eat their breakfast at a somewhat-leisurely pace.