A Hatchling Slave's Curse
In the Moncrito Kingdom, my existence as the Strongest Elf had turned overnight into a legend.
From the tales of me battling the Four Heavenly Kings and the Demon King's army in a village near the royal capital, to the rescue of Princess Sophia in the temple's prayer hall from assassins...
The story had spread to nobles and commoners alike, flooding the entire kingdom with whispers about me.
Moreover, with the medal and reward money today, the rumors would surely burn even hotter and spread wider...
After the medal ceremony, I had politely declined the king's repeated requests for me to attend the banquet with Duke Deorus I and Princess Sophia.
I simply didn't care much for such gatherings, and I slipped out of the palace.
I had received a hefty reward.
Shopping was one thing, but the assassination attempt on the princess had given me something even more important to investigate...
The magic swords the assassins had been carrying.
Magic swords with a nature similar to those used by the Demon King or the Four Heavenly Kings...
I had not told this fact to the king of the Moncrito Kingdom or any other person.
If they later found out, I didn't know what kind of criticism they might throw at me for not saying anything.
But if this sword were to spread and be used in human-to-human conflicts, it would cause far greater damage than anything comparable to the war against the Demon King's army.
Of course...
If the assassins trying to assassinate the princess were already distributing it in the back alleys...
Then I was grateful to the assassins who had brought that sword before me.
If they hadn't, I would have continued not knowing this crucial fact...
The first place I went after leaving the palace was the back alley I had first entered when I came to the royal capital.
Normally, such places were where underground guilds like the thieves' guild or assassins' guild gathered, illegal guilds the kingdom itself did not recognize, so I had blindly entered the dark alley without knowing the location.
Even on a bright, clear afternoon, the back alley was just as dark as night, with no difference at all.
The only thing different was that the brightly lit tavern lights that once shone so brilliantly at night were all extinguished, and even the bare women plying their trade in front of those taverns were nowhere to be seen.
The only open door...
A small shop taking slaves chained in iron chains down from a carriage...
The store run by the slave trader I had been related to back then.
"Come in...!!"
The clerk who had spotted me loitering in front of the shop that day.
He was the same one who had run away from me screaming his heels off when he realized I was a Hero Party member back then...
Still haunted by that memory, he stood there for a long while, staring at me blankly.
"Are you a customer?"
"Th-that's not it..."
"Why? Who came, then?"
After that, the fat slave trader, hearing the clerk's greeting from inside the shop, waddled out, his belly jiggling.
"Y-you are..."
"Are you well? Fat Uncle?"
Three days had passed, and just like the clerk, he looked surprised to see me.
"L-Lowell-nim... W-what brings you here..."
"Ah~ This time, I came to ask you something."
"Huh? What exactly..."
"Do you happen to know where the assassins' guild is around here?"
The slave trader hesitated instead of answering my question.
He probably couldn't just say it because he didn't know my purpose.
"Th-that's... I don't really know..."
"Ah.. Is that so? How unfortunate. I was going to ask someone to kill for me..."
I spoke with a troubled look and stared straight into his eyes, but his constant dodging suggested he knew something.
"Then I have no choice. I'll have to borrow a bit more money from Fat Uncle and go look for the assassins' guild."
"Y-yes!!? I-I..."
The slave trader, upon hearing my words, was so shocked at my trying to extort money from him like last time that he fell backward on his butt.
I didn't retreat. Instead, I stepped closer and fiddled with my fingers in front of the toppled slave trader.
"Ah... ah... I understand! I'll tell you... But please don't say I told you."
"Don't worry. I won't say anything."
The slave trader brought a pen and paper from inside the shop and began drawing a rough map of the assassins' guild's location.
He drew it in great detail so I wouldn't have to come back here again.
"If you go in that direction, you'll see a tavern that looks just like an assassins' guild."
"Thank you, Fat Uncle. I've burdened you again this time."
"Haha.. Don't mention it..."
"But this time, I owe you one?"
"Yes?"
I followed the strange aura that had been growing stronger since I entered the shop and walked deep inside.
The deeper I went, the stronger the aura became, making the fine hairs on my body stand on end.
"Whoa... Fat Uncle, you're really in big trouble..."
A young girl with red hair sat inside a small cage, her body wrapped in chains.
As I approached, she suddenly opened her tightly shut red eyes and glared at me as if she were about to leap out and bite.
"Do you know who this kid is?"
"Huh? Who... ah! That crazy kid?"
The slave trader, who had come over to take a closer look at the cage I was pointing at, laughed as if it were nothing and didn't hesitate to curse.
"Crazy kid, huh?"
"Hahaha, I bought her from an intermediary, but she says she's a dragon! Hahaha, are there really dragons in the world that get captured as slaves by humans?"
The slave trader, still oblivious to what he had done wrong, was laughing and mocking the red-haired girl locked inside the cage.
"Yes. There are no dragons in the world captured by humans. But... if it's a dragon's hatchling... or even a somewhat insufficient hatchling... it could be captured?"
"Hahaha, ha... ha hatchling? What did you say!?"
"A somewhat insufficient hatchling."
Upon hearing my words, the slave trader finally realized what he had done and approached the cage to confirm her exact appearance.
"Fat Uncle, you really should be grateful to me. What were you thinking if her mother showed up?"
"Ah... What do I do, Lowell-nim! I-If she's really a hatchling... not just me, this whole kingdom will be wiped out!!"
If there was something more foolish than plucking a dragon's whiskers, it was provoking a dragon's maternal instinct...
It seemed the fat slave trader next to me had committed that crazy act.
Dragons were famous for not breeding at all despite living infinite lives, and due to that low birth rate, they were known for overprotecting their hatchlings.
Having locked a hatchling in a moldy cage inside this shabby back-alley store...
It was amazing that it hadn't been discovered by dragons yet.
"There is a way..."
"Is-there a way? Ah.. Please just tell me! If you need money, I'll give you as much as you want!"
Instead of speaking, I held up one finger to the slave trader to show him.
"A big one."
"Huh? Th-that's... what is..."
"Prepare just one big one. Then I will take this mother to the hatchling and bring her back to you without any harm to Fat Uncle or this kingdom."
Of course...
I didn't know the detailed method either.
I had simply said that if I took her to the unknown mother, that would be the end of it.
"Wha... A big one... how much..."
"Hey.. You know.. A big one isn't obvious, right?"
The slave trader's face, which had been full of hope just moments ago that I would solve the hatchling problem, was slowly darkening...
If I didn't give him money, he would have to take care of the hatchling himself, and no matter how much he disliked paying, he finally entered another room inside the shop.
And after a short while...
The slave trader dragged out a large money pouch from the safe and placed it in front of me with a groan.
"Is... Is this enough?"
I slightly opened the pouch to check the amount inside...
"10,000 gold coins."
The slave trader had told me the exact amount inside the pouch in advance when I tried to check it.
It was completely different from the one finger I had meant...
Since I had received 500 gold coins just recently, I had planned to haggle a bit and take only 500 more to make the big one, which was 1,000 coins.
But...
10,000 coins...
"Lowell-nim, I've given you exactly what you wanted, so please take good care of this hatchling. Preferably without harming me..."
The slave trader handed me the key to open the cage and was already slowly backing away, and I first put the money pouch he gave me into my magic pouch and accepted the key to head toward the cage where the hatchling was locked.
The hatchling, who had been glaring at me with eyes burning in anger,...
From her appearance, she looked like a cute young girl in her teens, but her eyes were sharper than any adult.
Clank.
I opened our door and extended my hand so the girl could grab it and come out.
"Here, hold my hand."
I had simply held out my hand kindly to show kindness to the girl...
But the girl pushed my hand away and crawled out on her own from the cage...
"Tch..."
Once outside the cage, she brushed off the dust on her clothes and suddenly stuck her tongue out at me.
"Dirty elf filth, how dare you touch my body?"
"....."