The words that came out of Erend's mouth seemed too absurd to the ears of the four adventurers.
The words made them miss all the things they wanted to say and ended up with frowns on their foreheads and stay in silence.
Erend saw the expressions on their faces full of skepticism.
'Well, that's natural.'
Now Erend's body felt very tired and weak. He decided to walk to a nearby tree and sat leaning against it.
"Hhhh..." Erend took a deep breath and looked up at the sky.
The sky looks clear now. Erend forgot to pay attention to the sky when he was having a great fight with the Dark Mage.
Erend turned to the Dark Mage. His body was still lying there. His staff, books, and daggers still stay by his side.
'Hmm, looks like those are things that will come in handy later.' Erend intends to take the Dark Mage's relics.
He didn't know if those things still contained the power of Dark Magic and whether it could affect him.
"Wait a minute," Annette said. "So you are that Dragon?"
Erend turned to the group of human adventurers. They were all looking at Erend with questioning eyes.
Apart from Annette and the green-robed man, within the group of adventurers were two more people.
One of them was a young girl wearing a long blue robe that covered almost her entire body. Her hair was as bright blue as the sky this afternoon. She carried a staff with a blue gem.
The other was a large man with a short haircut. He wore armor that looked quite hard and carried a sword and shield.
"Yes," Erend answered in a tired tone.
"You... Human?" The young girl in the blue robe asked.
Erend nodded with a mumble that confirmed her words. He was tired enough to say anything more.
"How did you turn into a Dragon?" the man with a large body asked in turn.
The humans in the adventurer group seemed to express their confusion. The facial expressions continued to show that they were confused and the words that didn't come out, indicated that they still couldn't believe the fact that Erend was someone who was a Dragon earlier.
"Well, if he really is a Dragon, I actually believe him," Annette said.
Her words made all of her friends turn to her with the same frowning expression.
"Why?" the man in the green robe asked.
"Well," Annette said. "When I did telepathy, I felt like I was talking to a human."
Erend turned to her. Then think. 'Is that what happens?'
"Oh, if that's the case, fine," the blue-robed girl said.
When Erend turned to look at the adventurers again, the expressions on their faces were no longer questionable. It was as if they had already gotten a satisfactory answer.
'Is that easy?' Erend was confused about how they could immediately be convinced of Annette's answer.
But well, if they already believe that's great. So Erend doesn't need to bother explaining everything to try to convince them again.
Annette came closer to Erend and took a small bottle from her pocket. Inside the bottle is a clear green liquid that looks refreshing. In Erend's tired eyes, the liquid looked like melon juice.
"Drink this," Annette said with a smile.
"What's this?" Erend asked.
"Potions. It can restore your stamina quickly," Annette replied.
Erend accepted the potion and drank it. It turned out that the effect of the potion was almost instantaneous. The fatigue and weakness in his body disappeared and Erend felt a feeling like he had just woken up from a refreshing sleep.
"Wow, thank you," Erend said with a smile.
Annette who was still smiling nodded. "My name is Annette."
"So... Uhh... How should we address you?" the green-robed man said as he drew closer to Erend. "My name is Jan, by the way."
"I'm Hund," said the big man.
"I'm Esther," said the young girl in the blue robe who was carrying the staff.
"You can call me Erend," Erend said. The four humans nodded their heads.
"You have saved this world from the existence of the Dark Mage. And of course, the villagers are not far from here. For that, we thank you," Jan said.
Erend felt that he didn't deserve the thanks. He defeated the Dark Mage because it was his Daily Quest, not because he wanted to save anyone.
Even after that, Erend also thought that he should save the villagers, but that's not what he wanted to do.
But of course, Erend wouldn't tell them the truth.
"Yeah, the important thing now is that the Dark Mage is dead," Erend said.
He stood up and walked toward the Dark Mage's corpse.
"What do you want to do?" Annette asked.
"Take his leftovers," Erend said honestly.
"Why did you do that? Anything that a Dark Mage has still contains his Dark Magic," Jan said in surprise.
Erend wasn't really sure either. But he had seen for himself what these things could do so Erend wanted to have them.
He didn't know whether the Dark Mage's items would make him evil or not. Erend could confirm it by asking Aurdis. If these relics made him evil, he would just throw them away.
"Don't worry about it," Erend said.
Erend began to take one by one from the Dark Mage's relics and put them into the Inventory.
The items instantly disappeared into the Inventory, causing the human adventurers to gasp in admiration and shock.
"Thanks for your help," Erend said.
The humans realized that Erend was going to say goodbye.
"Wait!" Annette said. "Can we talk a little longer?"
"I'm afraid not," Erend said with a faint smile. "But we might meet again some other time."
After that, the Portal opens and Erend enters it.
He left Annette with a disappointed face and a slightly sad look.
"Hey, don't worry. He said we can meet again later, right?" Jan walked to her side and tried to cheer her up.
He knew how much Annette was attracted to Dragon. But when she finally saw the Dragon in front of her, who turned out to be a human, her chances to talk were not much.
~~~