Volume 1, Episode 23
As Airen muttered to himself about a nearby port, he suddenly turned toward the pure-white donkey standing off in a corner.
“Priest!”
“……?”
When Seherbian met his gaze, Airen grinned and asked, “What do you think is the best way for the priest of winter to handle this?”
Seherbian honestly had no idea.
From his point of view, the entire journey felt more or less pointless, but he couldn’t exactly say that out loud. So, under the expectant look on Airen’s face, the rigid expression on Jin’s, and Casio’s unfailingly bright stare, he slowly raised a finger and pointed ahead.
“We just push through.”
In the direction Seherbian indicated stood not the road skirting the volcano, but a mountain range smothered in thick forest. Wyvern Nest, the habitat of the green wyverns.
Wyverns were a kind of draconic species, the highest-tier magical beasts and the creatures that most closely resembled dragons.
That alone made them dangerous, but their high intelligence and habit of living in packs made them even worse. They also possessed so much mana that even beast tamers hesitated to lay a hand on them.
Honestly, it would be safer to walk beneath the erupting volcano than to try facing a wyvern pack.
“That’s impossible!”
So Airen had no choice but to reject Seherbian’s suggestion.
“Wyvern Nest is a place where wyverns actually live. Everywhere except the road the royal family had mages carve out and shield is a dangerous area full of wyverns roaming around, so……”
“Doesn’t seem all that dangerous to me.”
“Huh?”
Airen clamped his mouth shut for a moment, wondering if he’d heard wrong. But the other man’s expression was so calm it was almost absurd.
Seherbian sat atop the donkey and flapped a hand casually.
“Has anyone here actually seen a wyvern attack a person?”
No one stepped forward to say they had.
That was only natural. Wyverns were territorial creatures, and unless someone invaded their land, they had no reason to leave it. Avoiding an encounter with them was therefore not very difficult.
“Think about it. If even a powerful mage came along, and a real wyvern pack charged at them, how would anyone have managed to cut a road through this mountain range?”
“Well……”
“You all know wyverns are a kind of draconic species, so their temperament varies by color, right? Green ones are the most peaceful of the bunch. Their staple food is plants.”
Blue wyverns could survive on sufficient water, while red wyverns absorbed energy by gathering heat in their bellies.
And the green wyverns that lived in Wyvern Nest were herbivores.
“Those fellows will never attack anyone unless they’re attacked first. Which means there’s nothing to worry about.”
The logic was simple and perfectly reasonable, yet Airen’s expression did not brighten.
The problem was that the information Seherbian had just given them didn’t match what people generally believed.
Wyverns were vicious, dangerous apex magical beasts.
They were especially famous for never letting anyone who invaded their territory live.
“Do you have proof?”
At that moment, Jin stepped forward.
“If what you’ve just said is wrong, then ignoring the warning and barging into wyvern territory would amount to reckless trespassing.”
Her tone was cold, but her point was fair. So Seherbian didn’t interrupt her as she came right up in front of him.
“In ordinary circumstances, ignorance is not a crime. But if your words can influence the decision of the person in command, then you should be prepared to shoulder the consequences.”
The blue eyes that had come close enough to touch gleamed with cold light.
“Are you planning to drag your comrades into a death trap through nothing but ignorance?”
Seherbian, met with that reproachful stare, blinked slowly.
Then he hopped down from the donkey as well, and the sunset-colored eyes that had been watching her quietly looked up again.
“No.”
“Then you have some other basis for your claim?”
“Of course.”
Seherbian lifted his thumb with shameless confidence, and then every gaze shifted to the crimson-haired boy pointing at himself.
“I’m Winter Bell’s dragon priest.”
He said it with a small smile. The moment the knights were left speechless by that easy grin, only the beast tamer Casio Drake slapped a hand to his forehead and went, “Oh!”
“Ah, now that you mention it, wyverns……”
“Sir Casio?”
“Aren’t they famous as a specialty kept by the Holy See? They’re magical beasts, but they actually follow priests!”
Only after hearing Casio did Airen remember the little bits of information he’d picked up while studying doctrine.
He had pushed the knowledge aside because he had never expected to encounter a wyvern in person, but it was true that the Holy See kept gold wyverns.
“Wyverns are fairly familiar with divine power.”
Even if they were only draconic in species, a dragon was still a dragon, and wyverns liked divine power very much. Especially in front of a dragon, they became almost like puppies trying to charm a person, unable to contain themselves.
“They might follow people because they like the smell of divine power, but they never consider it hostile.”
“Ah, I’ve heard that too.”
Airen agreed, bringing a fist down into his palm.
Thankfully, the fact that wyverns liked divine power was knowledge already circulating among people.
“At the very least, as long as I’m with you, there’s no need to fear wyverns.”
Though he was a priest who had left the temple, and though he no longer belonged to the church, it made no difference when it came to handling divine power.
Once that sank in, everyone finally fell quiet.
“I swear in Winter Bell’s name that I will guarantee your safety from the wyverns.”
“……!”
He had invoked the name of the dragon his priest served.
That oath carried enormous weight: if his words proved false, he would have to endure even the dragon’s curse.
Airen stared quietly at those sunset-colored eyes, unshaken by even a trace of doubt, his own mind stirred with surprise.
“Commander.”
“Boss.”
Jin and Casio called out to their leader at the same time.
After meeting the eyes of each man in turn—eyes that carried their separate feelings of approval and concern—Airen finally made his decision.
“Well, if Varzian can’t trust the winter dragon priest, then that’d really make us a laughingstock.”
“Huh? We already are, though…… Oof!”
Casio had been foolish enough to object without thinking, and Jin elbowed him in the side, sending him sprawling, but no one helped him up.
Airen lifted gold eyes full of trust and looked straight at Seherbian.
“If the one under Winter Bell’s protection says it’s fine, then it really must be fine. Right, Priest Seherbian?”
In truth, it wasn’t just a matter of being under Winter Bell’s protection—he actually was Winter Bell—but Seherbian only nodded with complete composure.
That was enough for Airen.
“Then let’s move out.”
At the command, everyone followed their leader without further protest. Since they would have to cross the rough mountain range rather than a well-maintained road, they all dismounted and led their horses by the reins.
And unlike before, this time it was Seherbian, who had been at the very rear until now, who took the lead and started walking ahead.
After they entered Wyvern Nest, a heavy silence hung over the group for a long while.
No matter that a priest was with them, tension was unavoidable. The party stayed on guard and moved carefully.
As expected of untouched nature, the terrain was harsh.
Every time they pushed aside a giant leaf, a massive spider web or an insect-type magical beast would appear. When they forced their way through waist-high grass while climbing a steep slope, they often ended up with poison working through their arms and legs, and the streamlets that appeared at random intervals made the ground slippery enough that they lost their footing again and again.
Fortunately, ordinary beasts and insect-type magical beasts posed no threat to the Varzian knights.
Slash!
“Whoa, this one’s a leech beast. If it keeps sucking blood for more than fifteen seconds, you could croak, so if your legs feel heavy, make sure to check ’em!”
Casio neatly cut a leech magical beast in half where it had latched onto his leg, then shouted brightly to his comrades.
At almost the same time, cries of “Ack!” and “Gah!” rang out from all directions, followed by the sound of more leeches being cut off.
Because another stream ran nearby, leech magical beasts had begun crawling out of the muddy ground and latching on.
“Ugh…… Sir Casio, since these are magical beasts too, can’t you do something with beast control?”
“You want me to focus on leeches? My mental strength isn’t infinite, boss.”
Like spirit tamers, beast tamers were ability users who spent mental energy. As Casio said, since they never knew what might leap out next, wasting beast control on leeches was out of the question. Accepting that, Airen drew his sword and stabbed through a thick, clinging leech just as it was about to attach itself to him.
The only one who remained perfectly calm without fighting leeches in the slightest was Seherbian, who kept moving at the very front with his donkey.
But how long had they been walking like that?
Jingle.
With a faint chime from the silver bell hanging from the donkey’s neck, Seherbian came to an abrupt stop.
“Priest?”
“Please stop for a moment.”
When Seherbian raised a hand, Airen froze as if nailed in place. Tension rippled through the knights behind him.
“What is it this time? The ground isn’t muddy, so it can’t be leeches.”
“It’s about time for an animal-type magical beast to show up.”
“Still, this is manageable, isn’t it? Better than a wyvern, anyway.”
It was just when someone tried to ease the tension with a joke.
Kirururuk?
An ominous sound drifted from somewhere in the brush.
“Just now……?”
It was far too clear to dismiss as mishearing. Worse, the cry did not stop with one call.
Kerrrrr.
It sounded a little like a child laughing, yet it also brought to mind birds chirping. A strange, unsettling cry.
The atmosphere among the Varzian knights, which had still been more or less friendly, dropped as if someone had dumped a bucket of cold water over it.
“Priest Seherbian, could it be……?”
“Yes.”
Seherbian gave a light nod to the question thick with tension.
The moment Airen reached for his sword with a grave expression—
Rustle!
A large leaf was pushed aside, and a small shadow popped out.
“Kirurak?”
A body covered in green scales, almost like camouflage.
Broad wings.
A slender, snake-like pupil visible between huge round eyes.
A long snout lined with sharp teeth!
With the sole exception that it was smaller than the donkey, it was unmistakably the shape of a wyvern, just as everyone knew it.
The little wyvern that had suddenly burst from the brush looked around with eyes full of curiosity, then waddled over to Seherbian’s feet.
“It’s a baby wyvern.”
“……!”
Seherbian scratched under the little wyvern’s chin as it approached. The wyvern, tail swishing and neck stretched out, spun around in a delighted circle on the spot.
“T-That’s a wyvern hatchling?”
“More accurately, it’s around the juvenile stage. Judging by its growth, it’ll be fully mature by the year after next.”
The eyes of the knights, who had never seen a wyvern this close before, all went wide.
Especially Casio, the beast tamer, who pressed both hands together reverently and stared at the baby wyvern as if spellbound.
“Beautiful……”
“Hey, Sir Casio.”
“Damn, I think I’m losing my mind. How does it walk with that much grace?”
“The one losing his mind is your eyesight, mate.”
The baby wyvern, spinning in circles to catch its own tail, was in no way graceful, no matter how he looked at it.