Chapter 24: Explanations

-Nera-

These past few days have been very stressful, first I'm betrayed by my guards, then I get kidnapped twice, and now...

"I'm telling you that's the reason why dragons have such a bad reputation, you cannot go around extorting people to give you what you want"

"But I need to make it clear that I'm stronger than them! Otherwise, I will not get the respect I deserve!"

"That's what I was telling you before! Nobody respects someone so arrogant that they keep praising their own strength, people just pretend that they do because they don't want any trouble, you need to learn to be more humble"

I'm witnessing a rather surreal scene. The queen of darkness, a woman with unmatched magic power, who is able to make even dragons cower in fear and was prophecized to be one of the most fearsome villains in history... is currently giving a lecture on humility and basic morality to a dragon.

And it's not only this, a moment ago she forcefully ended her fight against said dragon and healed him, it was as if she was more concerned with the safety of her opponent than her own.

Granted, it was obvious just from watching the fight that the only one in any danger was him, but still, that's not something that I would have ever imagined someone like her doing, or rather, all of her words and actions keep being the exact opposite of what I would have expected.

At first, I thought that it was all a ploy to make me lower my guard, every time she told me to not be afraid while looking at me with an intimidating expression, I believed that she was being sarcastic, but now I'm starting to have some doubts... could it be that she just can't avoid inspiring terror on everyone around her? It sounds crazy, but it's the only explanation I can think of. In fact, I'm starting to think that her friend is the worst of the two...

I always believed that I was not the kind of person who judged others because of their appearance, but I would have never imagined that it could be possible for someone's appearance to be so different from their real self.

"Are you alright?"

"Eh!? What!?"

When did she get near me? I was distracted and she scared the crap out of me!

"You have been silently looking at the ground for a while, is anything wrong?"

"Ah, no, I'm fine"

Is she worried about me? The way she looks down at me is scary. Since she's so pretty and so tall, it gives the impression that she looks down on people as well as looking down at them, but now that I think about it, I don't think that she's actually done or said anything demeaning to me, was it really all in my head?

And the truth is that I need to get help from someone, most of the guards who were traveling with me were actually working for my mother all along, and the only two who were truly on my side are now dead... which means that I am all alone.

At first, I thought of asking the dragon in exchange for my help, but it seems like the artifact he's looking for is not here, and to tell the truth, he does not seem like a very dependable person, so as crazy as it sounds, maybe I should ask the queen of darkness for help. I'm still not sure if I can trust her, but earlier they were talking about sending me back home, and if they do that, I will die for sure, so maybe I should take the risk after all...

"Are you sure you are fine? You're looking at the ground again"

She's placing her hands on my shoulders, and her face is really close! She's way too scary after all...

-Luna-

This girl is acting strangely again, well, it's true that she's been through a lot these past few days so maybe it will be weirder if she acted normally.

I'll get back to her later, for now, there are a few questions I want to ask the dragon.

"So what exactly were you searching for around here? I think you said something about a dangerous relic?"

"Ah yes, it's something called the horn of the earth, a device that can gather large quantities of earth mana to create an extremely powerful monster, since there's no way of controlling that monster, a great disaster will occur if someone were to use it"

Monster creation... since they are stronger and easier to make, people keep trying to make use of uncontrollable monsters for war, but it always ends up backfiring.

"It was created in the northern continent, that's also where I'm from, but it disappeared a long time ago, recently it was discovered that it had been sent to a research facility in this continent, so the dragon elders thought that it needed to be destroyed before someone manages to find out how to use it, and since I'm the most powerful dragon in our nation they gave the mission to me"

He says that like it's a big deal, isn't a nation of dragons usually just a couple of hundred of them?

So they gave him a mission that made him have to go to a different continent, they must have really wanted to get rid of him.

"And you think that it's buried here?"

"I'm sure of it! Didn't you notice that there's not even the smallest amount of earth mana around here?"

Eh? Is that true?

'Mana sense'

Oh, he's right, that's strange, some areas have more mana of certain attributes than others, but there's no such thing as a place that does not have any mana of one attribute at all.

"That's because the horn of the earth must have collected all of it, and yet... I could not find it, despite looking for it everywhere, even Nera's skill didn't help"

"Could it be that someone got it before you could?"

"No, I asked the Lord of the town and he said that nobody had found such a thing"

"And why do you think that he would know if someone had? And that he wasn't lying?"

"Eh!? So someone did get it before I could!?"

I'm starting to think that this guy might be a bit dumb...

"Then how can I find it? The one who took it could have been anyone!"

"Don't ask me, you are the 'most powerful dragon in your nation'"

"Being powerful is not going to help me here!"

He really does not seem as prideful as he was before, I guess that's to be expected, first I easily beat him and now this...

"Anyway, there's actually something else I was curious about"

"Eh? What is it?"

"What did you want gold and silver for? I don't see what you could have needed that for"

"Oh, that was just to have something to eat"

Uh... I think I heard that wrong.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

"It was to have something to eat, I heard that there was an alchemist in that town so I thought I could take advantage of it"

"What? But... dragons eat metal?"

"Obviously, have you not heard the stories of dragons stealing treasures?"

Well, yeah, but that made dragons famous for their greed, and you are telling me it was actually gluttony all along? I guess all those adventurers that go looking for a lost dragon hoard are just wasting their time then.

"Well then, I suppose that's all, I need to go look for my 'friend', there are a few things that I want to tell her..."

"Ah, please, wait a moment"

Oh, it seems like the dragon is transforming into a human form, I knew that they could do that, but it's still surprising.

He looks like a handsome young man with red hair, and thankfully, he's wearing clothes despite being naked in his dragon form, I guess that's part of the transformation, but I wonder what he wants to look human for.

"Nera told me earlier that you were the infamous 'queen of darkness', I didn't believe her at first, but you proved it to me during the fight"

Did he need to add 'infamous' to my title?

"Yeah, that is technically true"

"Then, if you are planning to take over the world, you must be in need of strong underlings"

What is he talking about?

"No, I don't want to take over the world, and... are you offering to become my underling? Why?"

"That battle was a unique experience for me... nobody had ever looked down on me like that before, and the way you completely overpowered me and then made me follow your orders by making me feel absolute fear... it made me feel a way I could not understand"

Eh... I really do not like where this is going.

"But now that I've given it some thought, I believe that I have fallen in lo-ough"

Uh!? Somehow my body moved without me wanting it to. Before I realized what I was doing I had already punched him on the stomach, sending him flying several meters until he crashed against a wall, now he's whimpering while laying on the floor.

This is scary, I need to control myself better, otherwise, I might end up hurting somebody...

forli