Vanished Thieves and the Dragon Maniac's Arrival
Scratch scratch!! The corpses had vanished. Or had they never been there to begin with? I definitely felt something when I swatted down with my forepaw, but when I dug it up, there was no body. All that remained in that spot was the pile of gold coins and jewels the thieves had stolen. Scratch scratch. No matter how much I clawed at the ground, not even a drop of blood came up.
"You know something about this?"
"Uh, well..."
As I tilted my head and asked, Haring scratched her cheek and averted her gaze. She looked like she was agonizing over whether she should say it. Did she know something?
"I, uh, don't know the super detailed stuff or anything..."
"What is it?"
"You said the thieves were dressed kinda like me, right?"
"Yeah. Three of 'em."
"Then those guys were probably... no, Otherworlders. You ever heard of Otherworlders?"
Otherworlders? Come to think of it, the fairies mentioned that a bunch of them had flooded into this continent. They were people who came from another continent, and judging by their weird behavior, I figured Haring was one of them too.
"Otherworlders each have special abilities. Like, I can pull out photos from thin air like this..."
Rummage. Rummage.
Haring stuck her hand into empty space and pulled out a long sword. It looked pretty fancy for a newbie mercenary to be carrying. It was awfully similar to the subspace magic the thieves had used.
"Like pulling stuff out of storage."
"That's amazin', no chantin' or nothin'."
"Hehe. Anyway, them disappearin' is probably one of those special abilities too. They didn't die. They probably just teleported to a nearby village or somethin'."
Haring put the sword back. So the vanishing corpses were part of their abilities... It was intriguing, but even hearing the explanation didn't fully clear up my doubts. Haring, and those thieves from just now—they were the same.
For the power they've got, their abilities are...
They had decent physical prowess for humans who couldn't even use mana, but stuff like chantless subspace magic or spatial teleportation? That's high-tier stuff. Not something puny humans like these should be handling.
"Who gave 'em abilities like that?"
"Huh?"
"They weren't born with 'em, right?"
"Uh..."
If there was some clan called Otherworlders whose powers were passed down through generations, I could kinda get it. But in my 300 years of life, I'd never seen a race with abilities like that. Sure, they might've popped up while I was hibernating in my nest, but a clan with that kinda power wouldn't just appear out of nowhere in a few decades.
Somethin's up.
Otherworlders weren't naturally occurring. Someone must've engineered their birth.
Haring's face grew even more troubled as she fell silent. The silence dragged on, and I was getting fed up, raising my fist—
"Agh, screw it. Is it okay to tell you this? Even the forums were iffy about it..."
"Whatcha sayin'?"
"Well, y'see... the Goddess..."
"Goddess?"
That senile old hag?
"Goddess... Goddess, huh..."
The day after Haring left. I munched on the cookies she'd left behind, lost in deep thought. What kinda delusion had that senile old bat fallen into to create so many "apprentice heroes" like this?
"Sure, it's impressive results, but..."
That was just her being exceptional, not because the goddess bestowed power. Plus, from what I'd heard, it wasn't just a few—she'd spread it to tons.
Even roughly, gotta be over a hundred...
With power that diluted, they wouldn't shine—they'd be lucky to survive. What was she thinking?
"Thinkin' of doin' a gacha pull? But that ain't comin' out."
Munch munch. A once-in-ten-thousand-years prodigy showing up twice? No way.
"Siiiigh..."
Yeah. Guess I should pay a visit soon. If all these weirdos showing up weren't from bad upbringing but the goddess's handiwork...
At least the former hero needed to rein it in. The goddess up top wasn't coming down, so off the table.
"Tired... so tired..."
"Draaaagon laaaaady!!!"
Haring? I lifted my head at the sudden shout echoing through the nest. Had she come back already? But that voice was awfully masculine for her...
"I've arrived!"
"?"
Thud! Some guy leaped high and landed in front of the nest. He had a rugged, hearty face, a bow slung on his back, and was dressed like Haring or those thieves. Just from his lithe build and aura, he seemed stronger than the previous ones. He even had a bit of mana.
This guy's an apprentice hero too.
What was this, some kinda meeting spot? Why did they keep coming?
The man grinned ear-to-ear with joy, scanning around wildly. After looking for a bit, he spotted me lounging in the nest and his eyes went wide.
"Wha—wha...?"
"Who're you?"
The first one I met, Haring, wanted training. The second trio tried stealing. So what would this guy do?
Steal? Or train?
From his looks and reaction, he seemed more the training type than thief. I wasn't asleep, and seeing me awake and polymorphed, he probably wouldn't try robbing me. Or maybe he'd underestimate my kid form and challenge me.
"Ahh..."
"What's up?"
"Aaaaaah...!!!"
Thump. The man dropped to his knees, clutching his head. He wailed in agony like I'd done something, though I hadn't. Finally, he clenched his fists.
"This ain't..."
"Huh?"
Bam!
"This ain't a dragon!!"
"What?"
"What I want is a dragon massive enough to blanket the sky with its wings, with a badass look! Not some puny brat! This shitty little—"
Bam!!
"Scratch!!"
The man's head caved in.