“No way…?!”
“T-t-this is…!”
“Unbelievable…?!”
“W-what is that thing!”
The villagers and mercenaries were utterly terrified.
Well, of course they would be.
They never imagined that those Strider women they had looked down on could hunt a Fire Drake.
They must have thought women were weak, women were inferior.
But, you know, the only monsters ordinary citizens ever see are goblins at best. They’d never have the chance to see a huge monster like a Fire Drake in their lives. Monster encyclopedias aren’t exactly sold to the general public either.
But, you can tell just by looking at the size of this monster that they took it down, right…?
If they saw this display of power, this easy-to-understand indicator of strength, and still acted the same as before… that would be amazing, seriously.
Well, watch this…?
“H-h-hehe…! S-Strider-sama, w-what a wonderful job…!”
“T-that’s right! A-as expected of Strider-sama! Right, right?!”
“Y-yeah! That’s right, that’s right!”
Yep, just like that.
It’s awful, isn’t it? Do they have no pride?
…You might think so, but pride is actually a luxury item.
In a world where you’re struggling to find food for the day, dignity is sold off pretty casually, you know… sadly…
So the villagers, well, the carpenters who seemed to be workers, were blatantly fawning over them.
I’m saying all these bad things about them in my mind, but that’s just because I’m prioritizing the opinions of my friends in the Blue Comet, the cute girls, and taking their side. These guys haven’t really done anything wrong. It’s just the average level of scumminess in this world.
Or should I say, “survival skills”…?
“Tch, what’s with those guys~! They were saying bad things about us and peeping while we were changing!”
Shio, a proud member of her tribe, pouted, but… that’s not good.
Since they’re not going to become enemies, it’s better to just ignore them.
“Stop it, stop it! They’re just desperate to survive,”
I cautioned her.
“But still~! They’re men, you know!”
Oh, gender theory.
This is truly the Middle Ages…! The harshness of the imposed gender roles is nothing like the modern era.
LGBT people would be persecuted just for mentioning it in this world.
“Okay, okay, I understand, I understand! Okay?!”
“Muu~!”
I hugged the angry Shio to calm her down.
“…Tickle tickle tickle.”
“Ukyah?! S-stop it… Ahahahaha!”
And then we flirted a little.
…Well, in any case, the villagers and mercenaries shouldn’t be rude anymore.
Now we can finally rest in peace.
The Fire Drake was dismantled in front of the village and loaded onto the Blue Comet’s carriage.
They couldn’t possibly take the whole body back, so they were going to skin it and take all the valuable parts like the leather and bones.
So everyone chopped off the limbs, skinned it, removed the bones, and washed them in the river.
As for the meat… it was from yesterday, so I guess we can’t eat it. They’re going to scrape it all off and burn it.
We need to secure the blood too. It’s not a pharmaceutical material, but if you mix it in when making ironware, it becomes a first-class metal called dragon iron.
…The reward from Count Missgancia will probably be in the tens of millions of Lido. But if we take this material back, it’ll be worth over a hundred million Lido. That’s a huge side income.
Probably, the original contract was for tens of millions of Lido just to cull the monsters, and on top of that, they could take whatever they hunted.
Hmm, but even if we had such a contract, it would be impolite not to give this much loot to the Lord.
Katrina is probably planning to present the best part of the fangs or a magnificent skull to Lord Missgancia to win his favor.
She really is like that.
Even if the contract says “this is how it is!”, the emotional aspect is separate… that kind of thing.
Mixing public and private matters is normal for the powerful people in this world.
This land originally belongs to God, and is entrusted to the King by God. And then, it’s entrusted to Count Missgancia by the King…
Land, industry, everything is the private property of the powerful, so there’s still no concept of separating public and private expenses.
That’s why we need to be considerate as much as possible.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say we should grovel to the powerful, but a little something is necessary.
Or should I say, “survival skills”…?
So, for the time being, the entire Blue Comet will be doing the dismantling work…
…Hmm?
That’s… the mercenary group that was guarding this village, the Jigoba Mercenary Group, right?
Why are they trying to leave the village when they’re supposed to be guarding it? And they’re lightly equipped, sneaking around…
Suspicious…
“Andrews!”
Oh, it’s Commander Katrina.
“What’s wrong, Katrina?”
“We found out during the dismantling that this Fire Drake is female. And… the swelling of the tail and the rusty, iron-smelling pheromones. It’s a spawning season individual.”
“Spawning season! That’s when they’re the most agitated!”
“…I once heard during my training as a Royal Knight that there used to be a tactic of luring monsters and throwing them at the enemy army. Like stealing the eggs of monsters during the spawning season.”
Ah… yes, yes, yes.
I’m starting to understand.
I pointed at the mercenary group.
“Aren’t those guys… trying to escape?”
At the mercenary group that was moving stealthily.
“…As the commander of the Blue Comet, I take full responsibility. Capture them!!!!”
Whoa, that’s loud!