Dragon King's Harem Chapter 107. The Spooky Town I
We passed the gate and down that creepy town. Eir and my eyes swept around us, enjoying the town scenery. A little spooky indeed, at least, this town had a lot more to see.
Most of the houses were in a crooked style and dominated by dark paint, either dark purple or black. The oddly shaped windows emitted a dim yellow light, forming scary faces on every house. Black dry trees with some fruit that looked like corpses' body parts, lined up along the streets and filled the houses' courtyards. Some yards even filled with those trees, making it look like a slaughterhouse.
Some oddly shaped caskets were in front of the houses. Few of them opened and closed on their own as if something was trying to get out or going in. A few of them had almost the same size as a coffin. A pale body part hanging from the gap of the casket made it look like a real one. But it was not what it looked like. The caskets were actually something similar to a dog house. The difference was, their pets were not dogs, but Toadrock. It was a tame low-level monster shaped like a big toad with forelegs joined by a pair of wings like a Wyvern. A tail resembling a lizard was behind them and the tip glowed like a firefly, except that their glow was purple. These monsters did not eat meat but ate fruit. That was the reason why almost all the houses had that tree.
Those were common pets in this area since Toadrock was very useful in a place like this. The people could use them as watchdogs. If a shadow or death type monster approached, Toadrock could spit out some kind of acid that had a certain smell and glow that could attract the monsters' attention. It could give their master a chance to escape. In addition, its tail provided light in the dark and their masters could use them to pick up fruits or anything from high places since Toadrock was an excellent climber.
'Ha... A better place to rest at last...' I thought as a smile formed on my lips. Rather than the cold wind brushing our faces and hair like in the previous towns and villages, the warmer temperatures in this place made the wind feel much friendlier to me. It was a nice feeling, considering the cold I had been through these past few days.
But Evelina and Jyne were clearly not enjoying it. They moved their mounts near me. Their eyes swept around in fear.
"What's that?" said Jyne in a stammering voice and turned quickly when a noise came from a Toadrock jumping into his casket.
"Calm down. It's only a Toadrock, Jyne," I reassured her. But her eyes remained fixed on where the voice came from in caution.
"A-Argod..." This time Evelina's voice came from the other side of me.
I turned to her. Her face was pale out of fear. Tears were in the corners of her eyes.
"W-What's that?" Her hand pointed at a casket with a pale hand sticking out of it. The hand shook around as if it was calling us to come closer.
"It's just a Toadrock eating in his house, Evelina," I said in a calm tone.
"B-But... What if it's a real corpse? What if it's an undead?" said Jyne in the same stammering voice.
I chuckled.
"Evelina can detect the undead. She should notice it." Yet she was afraid of this kind of thing.
"Y-Yeah, I-I can detect undead. You don't need to worry, Jyne," Evelina tried to calm her down. A forced smile on her face. Unfortunately, her expression still showed the same fear.
"B-But, why do you sound scared?" said Jyne doubtfully.
"Detecting the undead and being afraid of this kind of thing are two different things," Evelina said. And it managed to make me chuckle.
Meanwhile Eir lowered his head to suppress his laughter. The same as any other Dragon tribe he also liked this place more than the previous towns and villages. Also, this scary sight didn't bug him.
"I don't get it are you not afraid of this?" complained Jyne after she noticed Eir and my chuckles.
"Why should we be afraid? We know they are harmless and this is not in the wild, so there are no wild monsters here unless the wall is destroyed," I said.
"What is in this town is simply influenced by the environment and traditions. Besides, this place is similar to The Undead Tribe's territory," added Eir.
I turned to Eir.
"The Undead tribe's territory is much scarier than this," I explained. I said this based on my memory.
"Are you serious?" said Eir in surprise. While my words managed to make Evelina and Jyne's faces even paler.
"I'm serious. Also, dark clouds and fog usually cover some of their territories. And the underworld is worse than that," I informed.
"I'll never go there..." Evelina shuddered.
"Uh... Who would want to visit that place if they don't need anything important there?" Jyne added.
While Eir thought of something else.
"But I found it quite interesting. Maybe I should check it out someday," he said.
Jyne and Evelina turned to Eir at the same time.
"You're kidding, right?" they said in unison.
It startled Eir and made an awkward smile on his lips.
"I'm serious."
"Jyne, Evelina, dragons aren't afraid of the undead. Besides, what's the difference between them and us?" I asked. The one thing that scared us was if one day our tribe fell and we lost our pride as The Dragon Tribe. But things like ghosts, undead, demons and evil spirits didn't bug us at all.
"Of course it's different. Their original form is weirder than ours," said Jyne with a frown.
"My original form is also different from my humanoid form," I reminded them. I could still remember when she thought I would eat her.
"The Dragon Tribe's true form has a different definition of scary from them," said Evelina.
"What sets us apart?" I asked.
Jyne and Evelina pressed their lips. They looked confused about how to explain it.
"It's different for sure. But I can't explain it," said Evelina.
"Is it because both of you love Sir Ar?" Eir guessed.
"Maybe that's one of them, but we're not afraid of you either," said Jyne with a confident smile.
"If one day you turn violent and I have to fight you, I will gladly do it. But those undead..." She shuddered.
"I will run away even if he is weaker than me."
Eir looked at the two of them in confusion.
"I don't get it. That's a double standard."
Well, even though I couldn't understand it either, I knew this was the same as most girls' fear of insects and rats.
"We are here," I said. My hand pointed to a black building in the distance.
All of them turned to where I was pointing.
"Sir Ar... You must be kidding me..." whined Jyne.
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