Persuasion
After the undead purge came to an end, Rian washed the blood off in a nearby stream and headed back to the village. The aftermath of the fierce battle had left his clothes little more than rags, but fortunately he had more than enough money to buy spares, so the worst-case scenario was averted.
The problem is that I've already been spotted by someone from the Kinel Holy Kingdom...
When she had called his name, he'd felt his heart freeze over, right down to his veins. Eight years of living in seclusion had made him assume few people would recognize his face even if he showed it — a clear miscalculation.
Come to think of it, did the Holy Kingdom even have someone like her?
Even at a glance, she had been an extraordinarily beautiful woman, radiating nobility from every pore. Flowing platinum blonde hair, exquisite features, and a remarkably potent reservoir of divine power. It was the kind of face that would command the devotion of crowds wherever she went.
And every last piece of clothing she wore was top-shelf luxury, wasn't it?
He remembered her outfit as the sort worn by someone of at least noble rank. And what had he done to a woman like that? Drawn his sword to threaten her, grabbed her hand and shaken it around wildly, and finally patted her bare, exposed shoulder.
Yeah. I'm screwed.
He had asked her to keep his existence quiet, but recalling the atrocities he'd committed, it was hopeless. At any moment, a pursuit squad from the Holy Kingdom could come snapping at his heels, and it wouldn't surprise him at all.
He wouldn't run if they picked a fight, but he'd rather not so much as make eye contact if he could help it. If word spread that he'd fought them, the demons would come swarming in, desperate to kill him.
"Well, it'll work out somehow."
Worst case, he'd simply wipe them all out. That was the mindset he carried as he trudged down his blood-soaked road of carnage.
***
"Good morning, Master Aaron."
"Good morning."
"Did you sleep well last night?"
"A little short on sleep, I'm afraid."
Rian had stayed up all night fighting the undead and washing the blood crusted over his body, so he'd only fallen into bed late. He could have finished sooner, he admitted to himself, but he'd gotten a bit carried away by the thrill of combat — something he made a mental note to reflect on.
"I do apologize. Merchants like us have to rise early and keep busy, so I'm afraid we can't accommodate your sleep schedule, Master Aaron."
"It's quite alright. I was the one who stayed up late doing something, after all. And don't worry — even when I sleep less than usual, I never doze off while standing guard. You have my word."
"Heh heh. Words that put my heart at ease."
Rian took the luggage from Fabiel and loaded it into the cargo bed of the carriage. Fabiel, who had turned a tidy profit in the village the day before, had rented it. It was a cheap, rattling carriage with an awful ride, but it beat walking by a wide margin.
"By the way, where is Miss Rama?"
"Rama stepped out to buy provisions. The distance to our next destination is considerable, so we're stocking up on food for camping along the way."
"Hmm, 'considerable distance,' you say. That would mean you're headed east, to Freldishu, correct?"
"That's right. Yesterday's customers advised us that we could sell our goods at a much higher price in Freldishu. So we're heading east to strike it big!"
Fabiel's merchandise consisted of herbal medicines commonly used in the Eastern Kingdom. Rather than treating external wounds, these remedies bolstered the body's vitality and metabolism. Among the miners and blacksmiths of Freldishu — a region with more mines than stars in the sky — they were bound to sell like hotcakes.
"Sounds good to me."
"Oh, right! There was something I never got the chance to ask you, Master Aaron. Would it be alright if you accompanied us all the way to Freldishu? If you have somewhere else you need to be, we'd be happy to arrange our route around it."
"No, there's nowhere in particular I need to go, so let's press straight on to Freldishu."
For Rian's purposes, this was actually ideal. The day before, he had gleaned from the Lich's dying message that the Tongues Merchant Firm had departed for the southeast. To find Maxwell, he would inevitably have to head south.
But of all the luck — the territory directly south of their current position belonged to the Kinel Holy Kingdom. Blundering after the Tongues Merchant Firm would be like voluntarily walking straight into the tiger's open jaws.
So his best move was to head east first and then drift south at his leisure.
The route down from Freldishu just barely skirts outside the Kingdom's borders...
Done right, he could pass through without ever crossing paths with anyone from the Holy Kingdom.
"Very well, then. Rama is just coming back, so let's be off."
"Yes."
And so Rian set out from the village alongside the merchant pair, beginning his eastward journey.
"Master Aaron, is the road to Freldishu a dangerous one?"
"The terrain is a bit rough, but there are hardly any dangerous creatures. The worst you'd need to watch for would be the wolves living along the foothills."
The central and eastern regions of the Northern Snowfields harbored no abnormally threatening creatures like Ice Smilodons or Wendigos. In the very distant past they had roamed the entire region regardless of borders, but humanity's expansion into the north had long since put an end to that. And so Rian assumed he could relax and keep his guard down for a while.
That is, until — less than a single day into the trip — unexpected news reached his ears.
"I'm sorry — did you just say a pack of drakes has appeared?"
"That's right. Freldishu is currently impassable due to a drake swarm."
"Drakes... you mean the wingless sub-dragons, I take it?"
"The very same drakes you're thinking of."
Drakes were a variant breed descended from dragons. They resembled them closely, but lacked wings and were far more savage in temperament. As apex predators that regarded every living creature as prey, some individuals could even breathe fire like true dragons. Naturally, then, drakes were classified as far more dangerous than Wendigos or Ice Smilodons.
"Master Aaron...?"
Weren't you the one who said there was nothing dangerous?
Rama stared at him as if demanding an explanation for this blatant contradiction. Having unintentionally deceived her, Rian could only scratch his cheek in embarrassment. Left with no other choice, he wedged himself into the conversation between Fabiel and the border guard to smooth things over.
"Now, that's strange. I've never once in my life heard that drakes lived in Freldishu — let alone that they roamed in packs."
"It's the first time we've experienced anything like this ourselves, so we're at quite a loss. For now, every operation has been halted so as not to provoke the creatures."
"Do you have any plan to deal with them?"
"We've filed an official request with the guild and continue searching for someone who can resolve the problem. But..."
"Not a single applicant, I'd wager. One drake alone might be manageable, but how could anyone beat drakes that hunt as a pack rather than solo?"
"You see it exactly."
Inferior to dragons though they were, drakes were still dragon-derived monsters. They were creatures so formidable that even a knightly order that had drilled and fought side by side for years couldn't guarantee victory against one — let alone many. Only a nationwide extermination campaign mounted by the state could even attempt it, and even then, the toll would have to be weighed heavily. The appearance of a drake swarm was, for all practical purposes, a natural disaster.
"What about the neighboring nations and the lords?"
"Word is they're all scrambling to dodge the issue and shove it onto someone else. As if they've forgotten the favor of all the fine weapons we've supplied them over the years!"
The guard manning the checkpoint swallowed his fury for as long as he could before finally venting it. Rian understood exactly how he felt. When they needed something, such men flattered without sparing a drop of spit — but the moment crisis struck, they looked the other way. Rian had watched opportunists like that countless times himself.
"In any case, that is why you cannot pass. There's no telling when the drake swarm might descend upon this place, so I strongly recommend you head back at once."
Denied passage for perfectly legitimate reasons, Rama and Fabiel had no alternative. With sorrowful expressions, the pair moved to turn the carriage around.
But unlike them, Rian found himself unable to simply accept the situation. Normally he would have shrugged and complied, but right now, he had pressing circumstances of his own.
If I turn back here, I'll have no choice but to collide head-on with the Kinel Holy Kingdom...!
Fight a drake swarm with the power of a national army, or literally fight the power of a nation? There was hardly any difference — but from Rian's standpoint, the former was infinitely more appealing.
"Leaving things like this is a real shame. Allow me to go talk some sense into the guard."
"Huh? M-Master Aaron?"
"I'm the one who wants to get to Freldishu, so don't worry on our account. I'll be right back."
Rian leapt down from the moving carriage and strode back toward the guard he had just been speaking with. The man, expecting Rian to leave quietly, couldn't help wondering why on earth he'd returned.
"Did you perhaps leave something behind?"
"No. That drake problem you mentioned just now — I believe I can solve it, and that's why I've come back."
"Hm?"
"I have a method of wiping out every one of those drakes. So — would you open the road for me?"
"Hah! Freldishu is in the grip of an unprecedented crisis! Things have gotten so dire that people are already talking of abandoning this land entirely — do you think I'm in the mood for jokes?"
"It's not a joke. I mean every word."
"You, without a single proper weapon to your name, can solve a problem that borders on the miraculous? If that's not a joke, then what in the world is it?"
"How about you hear me out first, then decide? You never know until you try, don't you think?"
"Ha! It isn't worth the listening. Drop the tough act and go home quietly!"
The guard refused to lend Rian's words the slightest ear, and was barely concealing his contempt. At that attitude, Rian only chuckled and spoke up.
"The average drake is four meters long. A sub-dragon that can grow anywhere from three to five."
"What are you doing right now?"
"Temperament is generally ferocious. Omnivorous — it devours meat, plants, and even ore without discrimination."
"Everyone knows that much!"
"It favors dark places like caves. The location of its reverse scale varies by individual, but generally sits midway along the line where the neck meets the chest."
"Reverse scale...?"
"It grooms its tail twice a day, and molts once every two months. The scales it sheds at that time, it buries in the ground."
"I-is that true?"
Rian's knowledge of drakes came pouring out like a flood through a broken dam. He had hunted them on occasion ever since awakening his sword, and so he knew them intimately. Drawing on that knowledge, he intended to solve the problem — and earning the guard's trust was the first step.
"Its least favorite food is salt-cured smoked meat. Its favorite is a honey-glazed pork foreleg."
"Whoa..."
It was a mountain of information so vast one might wonder if the man himself were secretly a drake. The guard began to think, could it be...? — but soon shook his head. In the end, none of it was verifiable, was it? It was far too implausible to believe on the spot, and just as he opened his mouth to press the man to turn back and leave—
Rian delivered the highlight of his little lecture.
"And the one thing drakes love to the point of utter madness. That would be..."
"That would be...?"
"Relieving their lust with carriages."
It was an utterly deranged claim — and yet the guard found himself sensing some inexplicable ring of truth in it.