“That’s a shame,” Yuki said.
“Aw, man. Can I eat some of our food, at least?”
“Just a little,” Father said.
“Yes!”
Kou looked overjoyed.
“Yuki and Kou, please take care of the carriage, I say!”
Yuki nodded earnestly. “Your command is giving me the enthusiasm to do it! At once!”
After we got back from our trip, I decided I would bring Yuki and Kou up the mountain afterward.
“All right, we’re headed off,” I said.
As we climbed the mountain, Father let out a sigh. “This is no different from a crowded tourist spot,” he said.
The road that led into the heart of the mountain was full of villagers and adventurers. We slowly made our way up the mountain, and I started to think that Father was right. It was like we were on a school trip. They even collected a fee to let us enter the mountain.
“They’ve done a pretty shoddy job,” Father said, surveying the area. The villagers had built a road, but everything looked like it had been constructed in a hurry. It made sense, given that Ren supposedly slayed the dragon just a week ago.
“I could not agree more,” I said.
Every once in a while, dragon-like creatures leapt out of the brush to attack us, and the adventurers rushed to fight them. Since Father and I would end up revealing our identities if we fought back, we let Sakura, Luna, and Keel do the fighting.
“The church is saying that this is the legendary scene where the Sword Hero enacted his great battle against the dragon,” Father said. “They’re making it out to be a whole sightseeing spot.”
“And charging a silver coin to see it,” I said.
Father snorted. Sure, it was rare to see territory reclaimed from a dragon, but they certainly didn’t need to be charging people to see it.
Ahead of us, we started to see the place where the dragon’s corpse lay.
“They’ve made it a spectacle,” Father said. “I wonder what Ren would think about all this.”
Adventurers were lining up in front of the dragon corpse. I saw the villagers offering each of the adventurers a single scale of the dragon that the Sword Hero had slain.
“He must already be in Zeltoble,” I said.
“I guess so. Do you get there by land or sea?”
“I’m guessing Ren would go by sea, although he can’t swim at all.”
Ren didn’t know how to swim, but knowing him, I assumed he’d take the boat. That’s what he did when we went to the Cal Mira islands.
We approached the dragon corpse and took a look. The horns, teeth, and eyeballs were already gone. It was as if the corpse had been attacked by a swarm of hungry vultures.
“Yikes,” Father said. “They already took the heart. But besides that, all the organs are just sitting there.”
“That’s what it looks like.”
“It stinks,” Luna said.
“Yeah! Let’s get out of here, Big Bro! It smells awful!”
Keel and the filolials were wrinkling their noses.
“It’s been a week since he killed it, so it must be starting to rot,” Father said. “We should be careful.”
Father, keeping his cloak carefully covering him, approached the villagers. He had to hide his shield so they wouldn’t recognize who he was.
“Excuse me,” Father said. “About this dragon, here. I think it might be a good idea to dispose of the rest of the organs and the flesh. It’s starting to rot, and what if it spreads a disease?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” a villager replied roughly. “If that happens, then the adventurers wouldn’t come anymore.”
“Yeah, but . . .” Father trailed off.
For some reason, the villagers were glaring at Father. Did they think he was trying to pick a fight or something?
Father talked to them for a while longer, trying to convince them, but eventually shrugged his shoulders and gave up.
“It’s no use,” he said. “They’re too focused on making money from all the adventurers. Do they just not care about the health and safety of this? But if we dispose of it, they’ll be furious with us.”
I nodded and stepped forward. “Then I shall burn them all to the ground!”
“No, Motoyasu, you can’t just do that!” Father shouted.
Huh? So should we just leave things the way they are?
Father did warn me that being reckless could come back to hurt us down the line, I supposed.
“Maybe we could at least warn the people back at the village.” Father looked over at the droves of adventurers walking past us. “Where is everyone going?”
This group of adventurers seemed to be a bit stronger than average. They had classed up, at least, if I wasn’t mistaken.
“Did they hear about the treasure at the tavern and came here looking for it?” Father asked.
“That must be it,” I said.
“A dragon’s treasure . . .” Father muttered to himself.
“Big Bro, didn’t we find some before?”
“Yeah, with Lars that one time. There was so much money we couldn’t even bring it back with us to Melromarc.”
“Lars really goes crazy over some treasure! She’s so cool!” Keel said.
Had Father been embarking on adventures without me? I supposed that you could find all kinds of dragons when out monster hunting, so it made sense that they would encounter dragons eventually.
“Are we gonna look for the treasure too?” Sakura asked.
“With so many adventurers, someone probably already found it,” Keel said.
“Yeah, maybe,” Father said. He examined the group of adventurers carefully. “Well, we may as well check it out. We already came all this way.”
“I’m with ya, Big Bro! It’s weird, but I’m all in!”
“Then let’s follow them, I say.”
We headed away from the dragon corpse, deeper into the mountains.
Not too far from the dragon corpse, we ran into a clash between the adventurers and other dragons, probably family of the one that Ren had slain, protecting their den.
So these were the sort of things you could find deep in the mountains. It was certainly an area that ordinary adventurers wouldn’t go to.
We heard the grumbling of voices: “We’ve been fighting for days, and even with the boss gone we still can’t break through to get the treasure.”
If it were me or Father fighting, the dragons wouldn’t be very strong. But the dragons did look considerably exhausted. The adventurers were starting to cut them down one by one.
Then, after a while, the adventurers finally took down the last remaining dragon.
“We did it! Now, everyone! The treasure lies ahead! Great riches await our village!”
The leader of the adventurers appeared to be a youth from the nearby village. They were armed with swords and shields marked with a seal from their village, and by their shouts, I could tell that they had fought for the benefit of their village.
The adventurers let out a cheer and rushed toward the den. There were still a few dangerous monsters outside the den, but all of the adventurers quickly hurried away to the den. We followed after them.
There was one dragon left inside, struggling to protect the dragon eggs and the treasure within. But it wasn’t as strong as the others outside, and the adventurers quickly exterminated it.