Chapter 30: Ditching the dragon

I'm so dumb, why do I have to be this dumb?

"So how long has it been since you saw her leaving?"

"Around ten hours mistress"

I completely forgot about that necromancer demon, but you can't blame me! All my attention was taken by the ant... who am I kidding, of course I'm to blame, I should have restrained her with a spell that lasted longer than paralysis.

The dragon says that he saw her running away ten hours ago, she could be anywhere by now, I can't believe I let someone so dangerous escape...

"And why didn't you try to catch her?"

"Well... you didn't seem to be concerned about her at all so I just thought that you didn't want to capture her"

Is he serious? This guy is really not very smart, is he... this makes me wonder...

"Hey... could you tell me what your wisdom stat is?"

"My wisdom? It's nine, why do you ask?"

Nine... the average is around twenty, so he's at less than half of that, and yet that's still more than twice of mine.

That can't be, there's no way this dragon can be smarter than me.

"Ara, you know how stats work, don't you? Why is his wisdom higher than mine?" I ask her whispering so that he doesn't hear.

"Mmmm, let me think, how can I explain this?"

Arana thinks for a bit and then turns to the dragon.

"Alright, Mr. Dragon, imagine that you want to steal something from some building and it's very important that nobody sees you do it, you get lucky and manage to do it without any trouble, however, you are not sure if you left the drawer where you found it closed, would you go back inside just to make sure that you did?"

"Huh? Of course not, nobody is that dumb"

"See? He's not THAT dumb"

I should not have asked...

"Whatever, here's the relic you were looking for, you can go back to your home now"

"My home? What do you mean by that?"

"You found the 'horn of the earth', shouldn't you take it back?"

"I'm your underling now, I have to go with you"

Wait, was he actually serious about that?

"Don't you already work for those dragon elders you mentioned?"

"Not really, those who live in the dragon nation are expected to fulfill a request from the elders, but it's not as if I swore loyalty to them, and I already found the relic which is all they asked of me"

"Well, that's great... but I don't want you to become my underling"

"EEEEH!!!?"

Why does he look so shocked? I thought that was obvious from the start.

"Why not!? If I'm not good enough I promise that I will do my best to improve and live up to your expectations! Just give me a bit of time!"

"No, that's not it, I'm just worried that your attitude is going to contribute to people thinking that I'm evil!"

"Uh? Who cares? Even if they think that you're evil you are strong enough to deal with anyone"

"That's it! That's exactly the problem! You cannot just ignore what other people think because you're stronger!"

"Why not?"

"Look... this is not going to work, let's go our separate ways now"

"Never! I was born to become your servant! I've never been more certain of anything in my life!"

He's just not going to listen to me, no matter what I say is he... I need to get rid of him somehow.

"Well then I'll give you a job, fly back to where you last saw that demon and see if you can still find her"

"Uh? But that was ten hours ago, and she was running really fast, there's no way I'll be able to find her"

"I think that there may still be a chance of her being around that area, take a look just in case"

"Well, if you say so..."

After seeing him fly away I turn around to Arana and Nera.

"Alright, let's take this chance to leave him behind"

"Hehehe, I guess it might be more interesting in the long run to leave that guy unsupervised for a while"

"..."

"Was it really a good idea to get rid of Irvan like that?"

"Irvan?"

"Yes, Irvan, you know, the dragon"

"Oh, right, I forgot he had a name, don't worry, he probably would have just caused more trouble for us"

Nera seems to be concerned about going back to her country, but I still don't know why she had to leave in the first place.

"So Nera, could you please tell us about the problem with your mother?"

"Ah, right... you see, my mother has never been a very popular queen, she's very arrogant and gets angry all the time, and on top of that, she doesn't have the ability of the royal family to communicate with the water spirits that dwell in our kingdom"

"Oh! Do you have that ability?"

"I have more than that... normally my family is able to receive strange visions or have some words appear in their minds, but my skill 'good listener' lets me clearly hear the voices of the spirits, I can even hold actual conversations with them, but that ended up being the origin of my problems..."

Nera stops for a moment before continuing, she looks a bit sad.

"When I was four years old, I said in front of a lot of people that the spirits had told me that they didn't like my mother, I was too young to understand the implications of saying something like that, my mother started to strongly dislike me ever since that day"

So her own mother didn't want her, huh... I understand how that feels, she's a bit similar to me in a certain way.

"That's not your fault! A mother should not dislike her own child for such a small reason! Or for any reason, really!"

"Huh!?"

She seems surprised when I suddenly hug her.

"No no! I'm fine, really, let me continue..."

When I let her go I see that her face is a bit red, maybe I used too much strength...

"There's another reason people don't like my mother, and that is the fact that she wants to get rid of the demons living in our kingdom. The demons living in the Agua kingdom are considered to be citizens and amount to about half of the population, most nobles strongly oppose my mother on that matter, and even if she's the queen, she doesn't have absolute power, that is a great source of resentment for her, and that's why..."

"Mistress! You almost left me behind!"

An annoying dragon comes flying and interrupts Nera's story, I guess it's not that easy to get rid of him.

"That was the idea, I was trying to leave without you"

"What!? Why!? If I did something wrong just punish me please!"

Why does he sound like he's looking forward to being punished? It just feels very disturbing... I cannot let him continue to follow me, I guess I'll use a more direct method this time.

'Mind void'

"Alright let's leave while he's sleeping"

"Sure..."

"So Nera, what were you going to say?"

"Oh, yes, I also need to tell you about Kalroth, the demon lord that has his territory just next to our kingdom"

Kalroth? I think I've heard that name somewhere before...

"He was born in a place known as the 'infernal caverns', an extremely dangerous area filled with rivers of lava and powerful monsters, it should be impossible for a newborn demon to survive in that place or be able to escape it, but Kalroth was strong enough to do it, as a result of such a feat that proved his incredible strength he became known as 'Kalroth the infernal', he became a demon lord not long after"

I see... I guess that is pretty impressive.

"He gained a large number of followers and conquered many tribes of demons, then he created a system where the strong rule and the weak are treated as little more than slaves. Also, he seems to want as many of his subordinates as possible to gain the 'demon lord' title as well, but I don't know why"

"Oh! I think I might know"

Arana seems like she was waiting for the chance to say something.

"He's probably trying to obtain the 'demon king' title, that requires to have at least 1000 underlings with the 'demon lord' title"

"1000? That sounds really hard"

"It is, as far as anyone knows, only one person has ever been able to get it, the demon king who tried to take over the world 2000 years ago, but that title supposedly comes with a great increase in power so it might be worth the effort"

"Well, I don't know the details, but it seems like the way he organized the country that he had created caused them to not be very prosperous, they have to resort to act as bandits and attack the nearby countries, and they have not been able to expand their territory any further, that's when a witch approached my mother and proposed an alliance between her and Kalroth"

"An alliance?"

"To make it simple, first Kalroth will have his underlings assassinate all the nobles who oppose my mother, then she will send all the demons in the Agua kingdom to him, after that, the Agua kingdom will use its resources to support him while Kalroth acts as the muscle and continues his conquest for the two of them. My mother underestimated my skill and I heard about her plans, that's why I had to escape before they silenced me"

So she wants to get rid of the demons but she's willing to form an alliance with a demon lord? That seems a bit hypocritical.

"That witch told your mother to kill you?"

"No, she said that locking me up in the dungeon would be enough, it was my mother who said that they should kill me"

Ugh... that woman sounds like she's completely insane.

"Mistress! Sorry for falling asleep!"

Aaaargh, why won't he go away!?

That spell didn't keep him sleeping for long, I underestimated his resistance to magic...

"Please! Just leave! I'm begging you!"

"I could never abandon my mistress! I will always be by your side!"

That's it, I didn't want to do this but he's forced me to use drastic measures.

'Shadow chain'

"Eeeh!?"

"Don't worry, that chain will disappear in 48 hours, you're tough enough to last that long, even if a monster shows up"

"But mistress! If you keep traveling all that time while I'm here, how will I be able to find you again?"

"THAT'S THE POINT!!! YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO FIND ME AGAIN!!!"

At least I hope that he doesn't...

forli

Also, I was wondering, did anyone remember his name?