I Got Myself a Lackey
The woman still had her face buried against her knees, and looking at her, I could only think what a peculiar woman she was.
"That's enough. Get up."
I had questions I meant to ask, and I could hardly ask them while she stayed crumpled on the ground like that. At my words she dragged herself upright and patted the dust from her clothes, though her face was still flushed deep red and she kept it bowed low.
"I took you for shameless. So you do know what shame is."
"...Ugh..."
Her ears went red at that. She couldn't manage an answer, and only stared at the floor.
"Can you call that goddess of yours forth intact?"
"With my skill as it stands... it's still beyond me."
"She said it would be possible within a month. Use whatever method you like. I don't care."
"Set those so-called gods against me."
At that she seemed to sink into thought, and for a moment she only looked into my eyes without a word.
"Yes. So far as my ability reaches, I will see to it that you are satisfied, Lord Dragon."
She answered with a steady gaze, as if she had settled on something.
"I have no use for words. Prove it within the month."
"Yes."
"Though... yes. If you satisfy me within that month, I shall acknowledge you."
"Eh...? Do you truly mean that?"
"I do not say a thing twice, as you humans do."
She came bustling toward me in a flurry of excitement, so I coiled my tail around her and held her fast.
"So. Have you finished your business outside? Those two are nowhere to be seen."
Knowing full well she could not unwind my tail by her own strength, she simply gave her weight over to it.
"Yes. I finished what I could, left the rest of the cleanup to the two of them, and came straight here."
"And have you been at peace in the meantime, Lord Dragon?"
She was stroking my tail on the sly. I considered simply letting her go—but if I so much as glanced away, she would be rubbing herself against me again, so I left her where she was.
"I merely took a short rest."
"A rest does sound nice."
"A rest...? One moment—where exactly did you go to rest, Lord Dragon...?"
"A rather high mountain of snow. Humans call it Everest, I am told. I found it quite to my liking."
"Aaaah..."
She clutched her head and made a strange sound, and from the look of her I gathered that humanity had not yet realized the deed was mine.
"If people learn that was you, Lord Dragon... oh... gods..."
"The moment Everest gets traced back to you... the talks won't even be the problem anymore..."
She suddenly pressed her palms together and began to pray, so I extended my tail and put a little more distance between us.
"Lord Dragon, did any other human happen to see it?"
"Had any human been watching me from nearby, they would already have died in the aftermath."
"So no one saw. Thank heaven for that... ha."
She let out a sigh of relief, and the wild hammering of her heart settled back into a normal rhythm.
"You seem able to pass through gates as freely as I do."
"Yes. I am lacking, but under the gods' care I can handle a gate well enough."
I had the answer I wanted, and my interest fell away at once. I unwound my tail.
"I'm off to hunt for a while. See to your own affairs."
"Yes. Travel safely."
I glanced sidelong at her as she bent at the waist in a bow, and made straight for the gate.
When I came out through the gate opened over Heaven Lake on Mount Baekdu, the air felt much the same as it had inside. Perhaps because this was where Hyeonmu had made his seat, the air was clear, and the place suited me. I had come all the way to North Korea, thick with military installations, partly for the sake of testing the ability I had newly gained.
I drew cold up from my scales and claws as far as it would come, and wrapped it around my whole body. A transparent film settled over me, and my form vanished as if I had turned invisible. Even reflected in the waters of Heaven Lake, the stealth was nearly complete—an S-Rank hunter would have had to look very carefully indeed to make me out at all. The trouble was that my proficiency was still crude. In this state, I could not fly.
"Flying while concealed is still too much for me."
The slightest movement sent shards of ice hissing and flaking away. I clicked my tongue, kindled fire along my scales, and melted them. At this rate there was no point in having come to North Korea at all. I was mildly irritated at having gone to the trouble—but what was I to do? I was already here.
Drawing on the finer control of mana I had gained by taking in the vital essence of Mount Everest, I spread my mana wide and fast. It returned nearly twice as quickly as before. Feeling it come back to me, I searched the area for a suitable gate, and found the highest-grade one nearby—mana nearly on par with the griffin's. Without delay I climbed high enough to slip past radar and hunters alike, and made for it. I arrived sooner than I had expected, and entered at once.
Inside, the land was much as it had been in the griffin's gate: mountain ranges sprawled across it, and the lower ground was thick with trees.
"Hm? These ones at least live up to the name of monster."
The moment I entered, the boss of the place gathered its monsters into one spot. A hive-type, perhaps, like bees. I felt the mana of the creatures massed along the highest, broadest range inside the gate, and flew toward them.
"Krrrrrr...!"
What waited there were wyverns—green scales, teeth drawn out sharp as blades, and an acidic venom dripping from the spines at the tips of their wings.
"This should make for amusing sport."
Wyverns. I had never seen their kind. In novels and every other corner of subculture they appear often enough, a cheaper copy of the dragon. They wield no magic, and their wits are nothing remarkable—in the West, the same place an imugi holds in the East, a dragon that never quite became one. The beast before me, though, had a petty cunning. It had gathered its subordinates in one place so I could not cut them down one by one. And they were large besides. Even the underlings were more than half my size, and the boss stood a full two heads above the rest.
"Well? Why are you just standing there? Come at me."
Even with my mana laced through the provocation, the wyverns did not move. Wondering what they were about, I watched a moment longer—and the boss at the rear stirred, while the wyverns in front parted to open a path.
"Krrk."
It came forward on heavy steps, and in its eyes I saw a fixation: it meant to win, no matter what. Looking around, I found the others drawing back as if clearing an arena. So that was it. To avoid a needless sacrifice, it would settle this one against one.
"Khahaha! Good. This I like."
My mood began to lift. I had never thought the day would come when I dueled monsters. Those I had fought until now had met me head-on as well, but here I was given an audience, and a fine arena besides. I had come with nothing more in mind than filling my belly, yet faced with this, the least I could do was observe a minimum of courtesy. From the look in the boss's eyes, it had already foreseen its own defeat. And still it came. What an honorable enemy.
"Kraaaaa!!"
As if my words had been the signal, it beat its wings, shot in, and bit at my nape as though to snatch it clean away.
Crunch—!
"Krrk...!"
Those prized fangs did not sink in at all. For a moment it seemed thrown; I saw its pupils tremble. Boss it was, though. The instant it understood its teeth were useless, it fell back and charged again.
"Come. Put your back into it."
Just before the wyvern could drive the spine at its wingtip into me, I lashed its neck with my tail.
Boom—!!
"Kye...eeek..."
It slammed into the earth hard enough to gouge a great pit, vomited blood—and still got straight back to its feet.
Tenacious. I like this one.
That blow ought to have shown it a gap between species it could never close, and yet its fighting spirit had not broken in the least. It shook its head and threw off the impact.
"Krrrrrr...!"
Steadying its staggering body, it wrung out whatever strength it had left; I heard the sound of its blood gathering in a way that was anything but natural. Then it twisted as far as it could go and swung its sharp, spined tail. As if to repay the blow it had just taken, the tail came for my neck. I did not dodge. I met it.
Clang—!
The sound rang out like metal struck with everything one had, and blood sprayed. Only it was not from my nape. The wyvern's tail had lost to the hardness of my scales and burst apart.
"Krrrrrk..."
Dazed by the shock and its ruined body, it could not rise. I seized it by the nape and lifted it.
"That was amusing, in its way. I will remember you."
Blood poured from the tail like water. Its body heat was falling, and spasms ran through it in fits. So that it would be spared any further disgrace, I bit through the nape and tore. With a wet crunch the head came fully away, and I set it down on the ground.
A satisfying contest. In raw force alone it was only about the griffin's measure, but everything else had fulfilled me. I looked around, wondering whether the wyverns would rush me now that their boss was dead—and found every one of them with its head pressed to the earth, offering submission to me, their new boss.
"To the likes of you, the boss is simply whoever is strongest."
I turned my back on them and bit into the boss's corpse. Until my meal was finished, the wyverns kept their eyes closed and their heads to the ground, quietly honoring the one that had gone—and swearing their loyalty to me, the boss who had taken its place.