Chapter 173: Dragon

Chapter 173: Dragon

The Dragon atop its hoard took a step forward, growling at us. In the massive room, it almost looked small—or, smaller than a typical Dragon was—but that did nothing to take away from the primal fear the sight struck into me.

I held out a hand and bowed my head. “M-my apologies, uh...”

“Wealthhoarder, Slavedriver Neenix,” Index reminded me of its name.

I repeated the words back at it. In my panic when we first saw it, I hadn’t quite been processing what it’d said. Well, other than the fact that it’d threatened to kill us. But, really, the name wouldn’t be nearly as difficult to remember as some of the others. With just two titles...”

Wait. I looked closer. Only two titles before the name? And it didn’t just seem small because of the massive room, it was small. It was still much larger than a person was, but probably half the size of a Dragon like Astintash or Paiiniak. If it was small, and only had a couple titles, that meant it probably hadn’t lived very long.

Index, am I correct in assuming...

“It’s a Young Dragon, yes. So that means pre-evolution into becoming a normal Dragon. But, uh, definitely don’t let that increase your confidence here. Even if it’s only a Young Dragon, it’s still definitely got a raw numbers advantage. Won’t be one-shotting you or anything, but as just the three of you, you wouldn’t win a fight if one broke out.”

It continued to approach us, holding its head up so it could properly look down on us. “You dare intrude on my land, kill my slaves, destroy my home?! Insolence!”

“Look,” I said, “I’m sorry. We didn’t know you were here. We just knew there were some Goblins causing trouble, and we were asked to get rid of them. No idea they, uh, belonged to you. So we’ll just head out, and won’t bother—”

“You will perish!”

It charged, and I braced myself. But just before it could reach us, Erani shouted out, “We know Astintash!”

It stopped in its tracks.

“Right,” she continued, “uh, Mountaintamer...um...”

I quickly had Index relay the titles to me, so I could mentally remind her of the excessively long list through Ainash.

“Mountaintamer, Giantslayer, Kinsbane, Homeholder, Wastelayer, Ashbearer, Chasmcreator, Earthquaker, Humanslaughterer, Wisdomholder, Bearer-of-the-Heavens Astintash,” Erani said with renewed confidence with my—and Index’s, and Ainash’s—help. “We assisted it with felling an extremely powerful foe. As do we know Peacekeeper, Compassiongiver, Hearthaver, Homeholder, Gracegiver, Knowledgegainer Paiiniak. I assume you know them.”

“...I do,” it said. I could actually see fear in the eyes of the Young Dragon at Erani’s name-dropping. “I was thrown from my home recently by Astintash, and Paiiniak did nothing to help me. They are the reason I am stuck down at the bottom of these mountains!”

“Yes,” she said, holding a hand out as though trying to tame a wild animal. “We are well-connected. If you spare us, perhaps we could put in a good word with them. Get your home back.”

It snorted, smoke coming from its nostrils. “...Perhaps. But how do I know you are telling the truth?! You could be lying!”

“That is true,” I said with a nod. “We could be. But even if we are, it would still not be a good idea to kill us.”

“And why would that be?!” It felt like every time the Dragon spoke, it shouted. “If I can kill an enemy, then I am stronger than them, and they deserve to die!”

“Yes, perhaps with other beings,” I said, “but Humans are different. We are cooperative. See, we came here because other Humans kept getting attacked. If we, too, get attacked and killed here, the Humans will take notice. Even stronger Humans will be sent to attack you, over and over, until they’re able to defeat you. So by letting us go, we won’t want to attack you.”

“Bah, Humans,” it spat. “You’re all weaklings. There’s no chance any Human could defeat me!”

“You’re mistaken,” I said. “Even if there’s no Human nearby that could take you on alone, we still have strength in numbers. Your own Goblins prove that. Individually weak, powerful as a group.”

“Yes, yes, strength in numbers. And how has that worked out for these Goblins? Have they been able to defeat me?”

I sighed. We weren’t getting through to it. Sure, we’d opened up a dialogue, but it wasn’t going anywhere. At best, the only way I could see out of this situation would be to somehow distract the Dragon so we could run off.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

“You!” it turned to one of the Goblins cowering against a wall—one of the ones that’d entered and informed it about our attack. “What is your name?”

“Uhh...” it looked up in fear. “You not...not have give me name.”

“I’ll call you,” it moved its body in what I realized was the four-legged version of a shrug. “Ploblin. Yes, that works. You look like a Plob. Do you think you could ever defeat me?”

“No, not possible.”

“What if you had another Goblin to assist you?”

“No.”

“As long as we can pull it off.”

“But father,” Ainash said, “what about Dragon and Goblins?”

“The guild will most likely send in a squad to take care of them once they’re aware of what’s going on.”

“They will kill all of them?”

“I guess.”

“But that is bad!”

“Wait, what? I thought you were totally fine with killing them.”

“Dragon is bad. It is trying to invade new territory and take it over! Destroy it and replace it with Dragon place. And this place is not for Dragons! It should go back to its home in mountain, not in here. So should kill Dragon. But Goblins are supposed to be here! They are being used by Dragon to do mean things! If Dragon is gone, Goblins are not problem, right?”

I frowned. “Well, I guess they won’t be as aggressive anymore. But the way the Humans we spoke to talked about them, I don’t think they can leave the Goblins alone even if the Dragon is dead. They’ll still cause problems for the town. So it's just one of those situations with animal territory, right? The Goblins are trying to attack Humans, and the Humans don’t want to be attacked, so they’ll fight back. You shouldn’t have any problem with that, right?”

She looked down, obviously disappointed. “There is nothing Humans can do to make Goblins not be mean anymore?”

“I mean...I don’t know. Maybe they could figure out a peaceful solution. But I have no idea why they’d do that.”

She sent something to me that couldn’t really be put into words. It could best be equated to when someone pouted, like a sad and frustrated sigh.

I looked over and saw her expression. She really did seem upset about this. “Is something wrong?”

“Yeah,” Erani said, “if there’s something bothering you about this, you can tell us. We’ll try our best to figure out something that makes you happy.”

“...Do not want Goblins to die,” she said.

“Why?” I asked.

“I do not know! Feel bad for them, they have been attacked and abused by bad, mean Dragon, and now when Humans come, and they think they will be saved by Humans, the Humans just kill them too! It is sad and I do not like it!”

“Well, we might be able to talk to the Humans about keeping them alive,” Erani said. “Maybe they could establish a peaceful relationship, or something. They can talk, so it could be possible.”

“I mean, yeah, maybe,” I said. “I don’t know if they’ll be particularly kind or anything, but maybe they could exist alongside each other without fighting.”

“Should be kind!” Ainash said. I could feel from her tone that she was absolutely determined. “Goblin species should not be ended! If Humans not take care of them, then...then...I take care of them!”

“You...what?”

“I will take Goblins after Dragon dies. I will be leader! Will take care of them and teach them to be good guys! That way, nobody will want hurt them! They will be like...” She frowned and looked down for a moment. “Will be like my...what do other Humans say? They think I am something. Like I am owned by you, and you feed and take care of me. Like I am little baby animal, or something. They say I am a...pet! Yes, they think I am a pet. That is not true. But Goblins could be real pets! Goblins can be like my pets! Can I have them?!”

“Uh...”

“Ainash, darling,” Erani said in a soft voice, “I don’t know if that would be...a good idea. I don’t think you can keep a Goblin as a pet. Normally pets don’t make weapons, and they don’t use bombs to blow people up. Normally they don’t kill people at all. Don’t you think that would be a little unsafe?”

“Will take good care of them! And teach them to be good! And to do tricks!”

I pursed my lips. “I don’t...”

“Two Goblins we caught before, they were good! They were helpful and nice! If I teach them for long time and give them good home, they will be even better!”

“Tell you what,” I said, “we’re going to go back to the town and talk to the Humans. Tomorrow, once Time Loop has fully refreshed for me, you can go and try to communicate with the Goblins. Promise you can take care of them better than the Dragon can and try to get just one or two to come join you. If something goes wrong, I can just go back and undo it. If you can get that small number to work with you and prove to us that they’re capable of cooperating, then we can see about finding a peaceful solution for dealing with the rest of them.”

“Yes,” Erani agreed. “And you’ll be the one responsible for them, okay? They can stay out here with you, and if they get into trouble with attacking any Humans, you’re going to need to deal with it. We won’t be able to babysit them the whole time. Are you okay with that?”

“Yes! They are very cute and funny, so will not be mean.”

“We’ll see about that,” I said. Then I turned to Erani. “Okay, let’s head back to town. We need to negotiate payment with the guild. And I guess also prepare to have a Goblin tribe as a pet.”