Chapter 92: The Impoverished Viscount’s Second Son Searches for Eyes 14
*
I was surprised at myself for thinking it was perfectly normal for the ground to shatter under my step, sending the Jewelhead Dragon—with a physique the size of three carriages—flying.
Before confirming that the Jewelhead Dragon had crashed into the ground, snapping trees and raising a cloud of dust, I deactivated the Magic Circle on my back.
This is getting ridiculous, how little control I have.
My body isn’t responding properly at all.
I grit my teeth, remembering the moment I slashed at the Dragon’s neck.
I had intended to sever its neck. I didn’t think that would be enough to defeat it, but even for a Dragon, losing its head would take time and a considerable amount of Magicka to recover.
Despite that, I couldn’t pull it off.
The instant I swung, the Jewelhead Dragon formed thick, jewel-like Scales to protect its neck.
Normally, I should have been able to avoid them even at the last second and land the blow.
But because I aimed for certainty and focused on power, I lost fine control.
Damn it! It’s no good if all I can manage is snapping the Dragon’s neck just because it thickened its scales a bit.
At this rate, not just my master, but even his friends would laugh at me.
Against a Dragonkin of this level, they’d lop its head off with a smile.
I bite down on my own incompetence with my back teeth and calm my mind.
From the start, I’m just someone who can only swing a Sword and can’t use magic.
I never thought I could win elegantly against a Jewelhead Dragon from the beginning.
My plan was always to wear down the Dragon’s Magicka until I could defeat it; getting covered in mud and dirt was a given.
Forget for now that my skills are far from ideal. If there’s something you want, detours and shortcuts don’t matter; just ignore the path and go straight for it.
The point is guts. Right, my Theory (Erica) hasn’t crumbled.
I follow the presence of the Jewelhead Dragon as it moves, hidden, rustling the thick undergrowth.
I tried psyching myself up again, but the situation hasn’t changed.
Behind me, I can sense the Bearded Man, Ezz, and Pal struggling desperately to do something about the carriages.
In other words, they’re still stuck.
Things never go as planned, I thought, the corners of my mouth lifting into a smirk.
Is it trying to buy time? I wondered, seeing a Scale the size of a human head flying towards me.
I swat the Scale to the ground.
You can’t kill me from a distance, you know?
Well, not that I, who can only use a Sword, can do much either.
My sarcastic remark must have provoked it.
Right after I knocked the Scale down, the Jewelhead Dragon revealed itself from within the forest.
Though ‘revealed’ isn’t quite right—I stared dumbfounded as the Dragon charged towards me, scattering clumps of earth spectacularly.
“A thoughtless charge? Use your head a little, you idiot!”
Should I warn the guys behind me?
No, impossible, there’s no time.
Damn it, I messed up my positioning! Completely messed up, damn it!
Cramming curses into the span of a single blink, I sheathe my Sword.
I’ll do it. Yeah, I’ll do it. I’ll take it head-on.
I once again constructed the second Magic Circle.
*
Ezz was terribly confused by the fact that there was a human capable of fighting a Dragonkin single-handedly.
That was something from a distant world.
It was a story as far removed from reality as the dreams a child might have before falling asleep.
In short, such beings existed in reality, but he couldn’t imagine ever becoming one himself. That’s what they were.
And now, one was fighting a Dragon right before his eyes.
And that person had told them to do their job.
That must be why he wasn’t running away and was still working.
The carriages were miraculously tangled and Run Aground; wheels had come off, and a displaced axle had, just as miraculously, jammed into another carriage, rendering them completely immobile.
It was obvious that the correct course of action now was to abandon the carriages and flee.
But the reason he didn’t just drag the clients away was because he understood that losing the carriages was the same as telling them to die.
Ezz hadn’t become an adventurer at sixteen for nothing.
Due to overlapping poor harvests and Monster damage, he and his childhood friend Pal had been half-abandoned and sent to Hecate to reduce the number of mouths to feed.
For country bumpkins with no connections, becoming an adventurer was about the only profession available.
He’d become an adventurer because he had no choice.
But still, he admired them. He had admired them.
Even when mocked as a Scrap Hunter, he admired the figures of those who mocked him risking their lives to fight Monsters.
Because he wished even one person like that had been in their village, he knew he had to become one himself.
Abandoning the Merchant here and now would be the same as abandoning the self who had arrived in Hecate that day with Pal, faces etched with anxiety.
“What do we do, Ezz! The horses won’t calm down!”
Pal was working with the clients to try and calm the horses, but with a Dragon rampaging nearby, the horses showed no signs of settling down.
His bearded colleague was trying to do something about the axle, but the carriage loaded with Magic Tools was too heavy; the man’s Physical Enhancement couldn’t move it.
Ezz deeply regretted how underdeveloped his own Physical Enhancement was.
His adventurer master had taken on many apprentices, so while kind, he wasn’t the type to teach individually.
It was no excuse, but Ezz wished he had been more eager to ask for instruction.
He had grown complacent because he could make a living as a Scrap Hunter.
He understood now why they were mocked as Scrap Hunters in Hecate.
No, even in Faltar, where Scrap Hunters were said to be respected, a Scrap Hunter like him would probably be ridiculed.
If what you desired was cheap, you should quickly wash your hands of a job as thankless as being an adventurer.
“Damn iiiiiiiit!”
Ezz yelled as he pulled on the displaced axle with all his might.
It was a cry of remorse directed at his past self, who had been overjoyed just buying a carriage to transport Magic Stone Fragments.
That wasn’t it, was it?
And then—Ezz saw it.
A miracle that his own Physical Enhancement could never achieve, no matter what he put on the line.
He saw the figure of Shin Longdagger meeting the Jewelhead Dragon’s charge head-on, and furthermore, lifting it high and throwing it aside.
Startled by the tremendous roar—a sound no human body should ever make—everyone stared at the sight.
No one could comprehend the scene before their eyes.
Only one person, the Bearded Man, seemed merely dumbfounded.
“Not bad, Masked Man,”
he muttered.
Ezz thought that, even when surprised, he wanted to become the kind of adventurer who could at least say something like that.