A silver knife shone in his hand. “I’ll prove you’re a witch!”
There was neither time for anyone to stop him nor opportunity for Hilda to dodge.
“Urk!” A shock ran through her stomach. She looked down and found a knife impaled in her gut.
“Ah, now you’ve done it!” one of the villagers shrieked. They hadn’t been certain that Hilda was a witch. Some of them thought she might just be a girl who lived alone.
“Ugh…” Hilda held her stomach and staggered—but no more than that.
Despite being stabbed, she was fine.
She’d known she might be attacked, so she had tucked a thick tome underneath her clothing just in case. Blocked by the book, the blade had hardly touched her body.
She didn’t bleed, even after taking a knife to the stomach.
A villager cried out, “She’s a witch! She’s not bleeding.”
“No, this is because…”
The villagers weren’t listening to what she had to say. They’d convinced themselves the woman in front of them was no mere girl. Hilda tried to pull the book out from under her clothes to show them, but they wouldn’t even wait for that.
“Kill her! She’s a servant of the devil!”
The mob surged toward Hilda, the villagers’ rusty blades and dully shining farm tools ready to tear her to pieces. She had no way of protecting herself.
“Listen…”
There was a splattering sound as blood flew into the air.
“Ah…” The village elder backed up, letting out a little shriek.
The person who had attacked Hilda was now a lump of meat. The dragon had appeared behind the girl and shredded the villager with his claws.
<How dare you assault my family.>
The dragon was ugly. He had not a single scale, and one of his wings had been torn off. Countless raised scars ran over his exposed body. One of his eyes was cloudy white yet fixed in a glare at the humans.
He was the spitting image of the devil.
He’d already looked fearsome to begin with, and now he was eyeing the villagers with clear hostility.
The townspeople screamed. They ran off in terror. Not a single one of them had the courage to face him.
“The devil! It’s the devil!” “A dragon! Aaaaaahhh!”
The dragon pursued the villagers, his whole body brimming with rage. He had to be intent on slaughtering them all.
“No! Stop!”
The dragon didn’t even listen to Hilda’s attempts to stop him. He’d hated humans to begin with, so he had no hesitation in killing them. Hilda was the sole exception.
The creature immediately caught up with the fleeing villagers. He tore them apart, crunching them in his jaws.
A number of the villagers escaped the dragon’s claws and fangs and made it back to the village to ring the alarm bell there. Its piercing sound rang out, breaking the tranquility of the night. The fleeing townspeople jostled their sleeping fellows awake and warned them of the dragon’s attack.
A little girl screamed and cried, running around in confusion. Some were praying to the heavens.
“Oh, save us…” “Oh, God, most holy, save us from this beast…”
They roused the men of the village. This time, the villagers faced the dragon.
When the humans came at him, the dragon fought back with his fiery breath. Flames spilled from his maw, scorching the people and burning their houses, turning the village into a sea of fire.
The villagers fought hard, but the outcome had been evident before the battle even began. Mere humans could never match a dragon.
Soon the clash was over.
The ugly dragon was the only thing left standing in the ocean of fire. Not a single villager moved.
At the creature’s side, Hilda wept.
She’d wanted to prevent this from happening. That was why she had tried to talk with the villagers, knowing the danger. But once the villagers attacked her, there was no option but for both sides to struggle against each other until one was wiped out.
The dragon looked at Hilda and said, <We must leave the country before the knights find out about what happened.>
Hilda wiped her tears and nodded. It was no use crying. She had no choice anyway. “Let’s leave right away. You should be strong enough now to break through the soldiers at the border…”
Right as she was about to walk away with the dragon, they heard a man’s voice ring out from somewhere.
“What’s this?” he said. “For God’s sake… And here I was taking pains not to burn the village, only for me to get here and find it already ablaze.”
The man cut through the flames and appeared before the dragon and the girl.
He had black hair and black eyes.
Hilda was struck speechless at the sight of him. This man was a far more dangerous opponent than the knights.
Bodies lay around the man. Among them were scorched and blackened children. One look at those, and he said to the dragon, “Listen well, foul beast. I came here to bring you back, but your sins are now beyond forgiveness. This is the land of the dragonslayers. I will pass judgment on your wicked kind.”
He gave a bloodthirsty smile meant to intimidate his foes and fixed his beady eyes on the dragon.
In response, the creature bulged his muscles and dug his claws into the earth.
<Sigurd, you vile man!> The dragon charged toward Sigurd. <I will never…!>
Even with the dragon charging him, the dragonslaying king showed no fear at all.
The dragon breathed fire in a conflagration capable of melting iron like candy. A human body could never bear such heat. Enveloped by bright red flames, Sigurd disappeared from view.
The king’s voice rang out from amid the fire.
“Have our countless battles taught you nothing? Dragon attacks have no effect on me.”
Even wreathed in flames, Sigurd was unscathed. He had a mocking smile on his face. His body was unaffected by the regular laws of physics. He would suffer no harm.
Sigurd waved his hand. In an instant, the flames around him were snuffed out. Next, he thrust his right arm at the dragon. Something like lightning ran around his fingers, becoming an arrow of light that assailed his foe.