Chapter 56 – 56 – The Price of Corruption
I don’t know who the Bishop of Waldenhardt is. I only know the last name, but I’ve never even heard the name.
“Gunter Waldenhardt. If you asked me to choose the most dangerous man in the world, I would choose him without hesitation.”
“···Aren’t you your father?”
“Of course, that’s true, Eshen Taiga. But I can’t say we’re on good terms even with empty words. He’s the one who killed my daughter who tried to stop him and left her on a sinking ship.”
Now, thanks to Florica, I even know the name. She also found out that Florica and her father were not on good terms, to the point where they tried to kill each other.
According to Florica, she snuck into the Adamantons’ third ship to help us. And to her surprise, she tried to join her father, who was on the ship, in the middle of the wreck.
The remaining two ships, which were blown away by the wind of the storm, carried out the operation among themselves without even knowing what had happened to the straggler. Thanks to this, the operation to attack our ship was in vain.
If that is true, I owe you a big debt. Morgan, who was running after the group, shook her head and muttered.
“I thought my dad was so strict that he wouldn’t get offended.”
“Because I lacked strength… I couldn’t stop the person who was trying to get to you. He jumped into the sea while mocking me. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t block the sun with my hands, and no matter how hard I tried to deny it, I was just a failure. ···!”
Florica must have been so angry that she even tried to wriggle off my back. As I carried her, I held her legs tightly at her side and held her in place.
Because she changed into her loose-fitting hospital gown, the bare skin of her thighs touches my forearms. The noble warrior of the Church of Mithras had a sad look on his face. It looks like no one has ever dared touch his body.
But we can’t keep moving. They all washed up on the beach, dead.
“If you were to choose the most dangerous woman right now, I think I would choose you. Just stay still. Is she going to run side by side with a body like that?”
“Listen to our porter, or we’ll throw you in the hospital.”
Eshen warned, holding out his finger. But she didn’t question it any further.
If he’s been hiding on this island, Florica would know best what that damn bastard looks like.
But isn’t it pointless to worry? Of course, Florica knows best who he is and what he can do, but even so, we can’t be sure that he will have arrived on this island in advance, right?
As I ran towards the city toward the blacksmith shop, I asked Florica.
“You said that Bishop Waldenhardt, after a bloody fight, shattered the keel of the ship and jumped into the sea with her daughter?”
“I know what you’re saying, but there’s not even the slightest chance that he just drowned. There’s a saying that all people who become parish priests are monsters. Among them, there are social monsters and academic monsters, but Gunther is a monster in the literal sense. He killed the dragon with his bare hands. “Because he’s a bastard who beats him to death.”
“What kind of aptitude do you have?”
“It’s not that I’m strong because of my aptitude. I have the same [Clairvoyance] Aptitude as Visserk’s party alliance director. Thanks to that, there’s no chance of me getting lost in the middle of the sea.”
“···Then how do you kill the dragon?”
“A natural body and rigorous training. He rose to the rank of parish priest purely with an iron fist.”
I imagined the party federation supervisor doing hard deadlifts and bench presses, then lunging at the dragon with his muscles doubled in size, swinging his fists. Even if it wasn’t a suitable match, it seemed like it could rise to the status of a high-protein snack.
Nidroga snorted as if wondering if that made sense. Nidroga’s cousin looked a little scared.
Common sense would make him want to agree with Nidroga, but his intuition based on years of experience speaks against him. He said, ‘There’s no harm in preparing for the worst.’
“…Then let’s change the subject. Did you say he was targeting the Succubus Queen? What on earth are you planning to do with that?”
“That’s right. What is the priest who is the head of the parish trying to do by securing a monster that turns men into women? Is he doing it because he wants to become a woman?”
In response to Eshen’s pure question, Florica smiled coldly and answered yes, even though she was sweating from exhaustion.
“He doesn’t seem like he’s dissatisfied with his gender, but if his god had ordered him to become a woman, he would have followed it as if it were natural. What could a man who would sacrifice even his six-year-old daughter without hesitation be unable to do?
What…?
“I was so caught up in my emotions that I was talking nonsense. This has nothing to do with the current situation. I don’t know how he plans to use the Succubus Queen. However, he will do anything to help that god. And I can guarantee you that the plan is “Even because no one was told, something peaceful that everyone can agree on will never happen.”
“What if we try to repeat what Bisserk did in the dragon’s nest? What if all the dragons become female, the population becomes unsustainable, and a succubus queen who absorbs all the dragon’s magic is born?”
A realistic yet scary prospect uttered by Nenya out of breath.
Nidroga, who had maintained his stance that this could not happen, also hardened his face this time.
“This island can only be found if the dragon blows away the fog outside. But if he got through that obstacle and got to this island, wouldn’t he have already found the forge?”
“I don’t know how strictly your blacksmith shop is guarded, but it’s probably not impossible. He doesn’t know what’s impossible.”
“Then let’s do it this way. I’ll go first, so you guys ask for the cooperation of the remaining dragons! If it’s the Lord’s order, everyone will follow it without question!”
The festival scene is getting closer. I looked at the dragons who were so drunk that they seemed not to listen to their mother.
“Wait. Is that okay? Will you believe us?”
“You’ll probably believe me. You wouldn’t imagine that an outsider who wasn’t a dragon would dare impersonate the Lord’s orders!”
In other words, everyone knows that if they impersonate someone carelessly, they will regret it.
However, Nidroga did not explain any further and quickly climbed up the tree and jumped high.
And he exploded, transformed into a giant dragon and flew away. The group paused for a moment, shuddering as they tore through their hair.
But her cousin from Nidroga did not follow her. We turned to him and asked.
“Aren’t you following me?”
“Someone has to keep you from being surrounded by party goers.”
“So you mean someone like you?”
In response to Leni’s serious point, Nidroga’s cousin scratched her head and acknowledged.
“Yes. And I will take responsibility for saying ‘Rod ordered it’. If you think about it, you are just a customer, so you can’t pass the burden on to them.”
Nidroga’s cousin nodded reassuringly. And he looked at the cookies he had packed in the bag with a sad expression.
“Let’s eat all of this first. I’m a little scared to do it soberly.”
“···Why are you trying to feed cookies that make even you drunk to people who aren’t meant for them? Are you crazy?”
Nidroga’s cousin picked up apples and served them, perhaps because he had a bad taste but was kind at heart. And from that excuse, we were able to find out one fact that is useful if it is useful and useless if it is not useful.
Dragons are so fascinated that they classify the feeling of ‘being drunk’ as a taste. Even if you pour alcohol on your liver, the message doesn’t go away, so you crave to get drunk by making snacks out of strange herbs.
“Billena.”
“Hehe, hehe, why do you have to follow me- huh? Why?”
“Have you ever thought of becoming the hero of the party?”
“Which one? That festival or our extermination party?”
“Both.”
The party members were taken aback by my suggestion. And when it worked, I was even more embarrassed. We were able to obtain local cooperation more easily.
When the first dragon that drank the ‘sample’ fell down with a red face and hiccuping, the dragons who were enjoying the party in human form were suspicious at first. I muttered, wondering if I had been poisoned or if it was a trick.
However, when a dragon with an aptitude for being a healer sensed the pulse and declared that he was ‘drunk’, the dragons cheered louder than the moment the winner of the bomb-eating contest was decided.
A miracle in which a dragon whose liver is as strong as an entire large dwarven family dies in one drink. Villena, who was called a hero and raised her arms to the dragons, spoke with a dazed look on her face.
“I brought this for Nidro to drink. Nidro is a stronger drinker than I thought.”
“If the first person to find the ‘Gunther Waldenhardt’ I mentioned earlier, I will give you ten bottles of ‘Umbrella Spirits’ and a brewing set needed for brewing!”
I put my mouth to the loudspeaker and cried out to the dragons. Among the dragons with big smiles and favorites, one wearing a Mithraic necklace raised his hand with a shy expression.
“I don’t know much, but is that the head of the Mithraic parish? Is he here? Why?”
“It’s hard to tell, but he’s trying to destroy this special brewing method!”
I don’t know if this bullshit will work, but alcohol is a very serious problem for certain races. I decided to think of these guys as dwarves cursed with the inability to get drunk.
The dragon, presumed to be a Mithraic follower, looked shocked and began screaming desperately, asking where Gunther Waldenhardt was.
Not only the apostate layman, who was ready to beat the parish priest to death, but all the dragons joined in the anger. I was relieved that it worked.
“Yes, I know some people still have doubts! There’s nothing to lose if you can’t find even the slightest thing! It’s like a treasure hunt!”
The dragons were even more pleased with the words ‘treasure hunt’. Since they are always thirsty for new stimulation, they seemed to respond more favorably when we provided them with something to play with.
Soon, the dragon festival stopped and murmurs spread everywhere. The dragons from the slap contest began looking for Gunter Waldenhardt’s cheek, and the dragons gathered for the suspicious cookie tea party wandered around holding cookie dough rolling pins like blunt weapons.
Nidroga’s cousin was impressed.
“That alcohol is alcohol, but you are also quite smart. If I told you that it would pose a threat to this island and that I had to find it, in fact, 99 out of 100 people would have dismissed it as nonsense, just like Nidroga.”
“If that many people are looking for you, you probably won’t be able to move quickly.”
It is impossible to run through this crowd to the blacksmith shop. It would take several hours to traverse straight, and it wasn’t even clear if he was lurking near the blacksmith shop.
So this was my best. Of course, Nidro would have arrived at the forge by now, and someone would have told the Lord that there might be an intruder. I just took initial action a little quickly.
Even if the search is in vain because they cannot find him, the dragons who have been exposed to Villena’s special liquor will not be angry. I hope so.
And more than that, I hope that unlike the time of Bisserk, this alone will be enough.
———–
Aetreon put down his hammer. It became clear that this heavy clicking noise was a separate noise from hammering.
The great white dragon, who forged the warrior’s sword, looked down at the uninvited visitor who had left shoe prints in his workshop without even noticing it.
Regardless of whether it was polite or sane, it was a strange thing. A dragon is a wild animal that can hear the roar of a bison even from several kilometers away.
Like Aetreon, the five senses of warrior elder dragons that retain their ancient bestial nature are particularly keenly developed. The only ones that can compare to that sensitivity are the Tigris of the Muldimon Mountains and the high-ranking fairies of the Great Forest.
Even though the man was right in front of him, he couldn’t clearly feel his presence through any sense other than sight. If it weren’t for the footsteps deliberately made to announce his presence, he wouldn’t have even noticed when he came up right behind him.
The eyes of a madman are as round and bulging as the beautiful bald head of his head. Anyone can see that it is a priest’s uniform, but it is black with no markings or decorations to identify which denomination it is. Atri On tilted his head.
“I don’t think they are the ones called the Extermination Party. Did your sister send them? They weren’t supposed to receive any visitors today.”
“I do not ask permission from lower things.”
Atrion sighed, thinking she knew what it was. This is a challenge. A dragon as old as him and his sister woke up from his slumber, and without knowing anything about the world, came to compete for the position of Dragon King. Like a volcano that erupted 500 years ago and then came back again.
“6-dong, 13th street.”
“What is that?”
“Go outside the blacksmith shop over there, and if the festival-goers try to catch you, ignore them and go straight three blocks over. Then, there will be a center that helps dragons who are visiting here for the first time. From there, ask where the farm at 6-dong, 13th Street is.”
“And then?”
“What happens next? No one will stop you, so go and beat your sister to death. Try not to touch the farm as much as possible. You could die.”
Instead of turning around and leaving, the other person began to climb the stairs of the hall without answering. Aetreon thought there was something strange about her and looked closely into her opponent’s eyes.
Those eye wrinkles are a sign of aging, but the passage of time is a human thing. Aetreon was deeply embarrassed.
If the opponent wasn’t a dragon, how did they come in after silently defeating the young guys who were guarding them outside?
“Here is what I want, blacksmith.”
With someone else’s blood dripping from the backs of his hands, the clear-eyed man adjusted his sleeves.
“Inside the skin of the horned dragon are the devil and Satan, and wasting all his years on lust and corruption is like the vice of an apostate. He despises the sky and boasts of his wings, but there is no one high under the light.”
“What are you doing?”
“As I look around this island, it is filled with the stench of pleasure and greed. Only then do I understand that our one and only Lord, the Sun, has borrowed my fist to bring down the iron fist of judgment.”
The man stretched out his hand to the monster sealing sphere on the anvil as if picking up something of his own.
Aetrion swung her meteoric iron hammer with that forearm. She was embarrassed, but it was because she was scared. It wouldn’t have been this scary even if dozens of young people born with the aptitude for being a warrior came here.
However, the hammer that could strike the metal of the gods could not cut off his life or his bones, but merely crumpled his priest’s clothes.
Aetreon was thrilled by the taste of his hands, which could not be felt as the muscles of a living creature. It was as if she had hit the hardest type of meteorite.
As if not feeling the pressure of the dragon’s force, the bastard looked back at Aetreon with his forearm still in the air.
For the first time since Atrion came out of her eggshell, she thought she was going to pee.
“I will teach you the price of self-indulgence.”
“What can teach order to a dragon in a dragon’s nest?”
Aetrion looked back at her entrance. She sighed and she didn’t know if it was relief or anxiety.
Nidrogar clenched his fists and walked up to the vicar.
“Only Lord, cultist. Today I will be your Mithra.”
