Hero Without Blood or Tear 41
[41] A swindler who seeks the property of a dragon. (2)
Of course, it was natural of Schwarzertoyel to turn down my offer. If it was me, even I would be sceptical. Imagine, a suspicious person, or rather someone you just fought with, suddenly gives you a naturally suspicious offer. Would you really accept it?
Since the very beginning, I knew the offer didn"t make any sense, all that mattered was to bring out the idea.
Now, I could stay in the mountains without retreating. It was all because Schwarzetoyel showed me some leniency. This dragon may be a villain, who has killed countless humans, left and right, but he was quite good when it came to making deals. I had just guaranteed my life in exchange for the prophetic dream. I was safe until I was the one who attacked him first.
“Stay put or get out.”
Despite such warnings, nevertheless, I went to him when I was bored and also tried to impress him. Encouraged by his reactions I continued to follow him like a religious man inviting him to a cult.
“Believe in the Spirits and be blessed. Saving you from death….”
“Ah! Why do you keep coming! I don"t need such trickery!”
“Haha! I didn"t know that the money would come walking to me in the near future. Foolish….”
“Ay! You son of a b.i.t.c.h! Don"t speak nonsense and f.u.c.k off!”
Saying that the dragon shut me off, but I didn"t pay much attention. Sometimes when I wasn"t annoying him with my salesman skills, I"d wander around in the mountains in the search of a few elixirs. In this huge mountain, every nook and corner had a lot of unrefined medicines that were growing. In particular, the infamous Mandrake.
“Goodness! this is a 500-year-old mandrake!”
Mandrake was famous for its roots being human-shaped. Young Mandrake is mainly used as a testing agent for wizards but is cla.s.sified as a spiritual medicine after it"s matured for about 500 years.
It was quite a treasure, so the herbalists would take all day to delicately pull out its small roots, but me having no patience without any hesitation, I uprooted it in a go.
Khachak!
I just ripped it open.
Aahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
The human-shaped roots shrieked.
Tap, tap, tap.
Nevertheless, after shaking it roughly I chewed them alive(?).
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
An ugly cry rang out in the mountains. The red juices from the mandrake flowed down my mouth, reminiscent of human blood. I wiped the essence of my mouth and smiled contentedly.
“Nothing more to say. It was quite heart-warming.”
I went in search of another mandrake. Exactly five hours later, my diligence wiped out all the mandrakes off this mountain. I found 10 mandrakes from around 500 years old.
“Philly, do you want some?”
In any case, I could use the same medicine only once. So I was going to sell and earn some money, without forgetting to give one to Philly as well.
If someone saw that this treasure like medicine is being used to feed a horse, they would be surprised. I would too because this little plant could sell itself for 100 horses. But, of course, my Philly was different.
Nomnom!
Philly chewed the mandrake like a carrot.
The effects were immediate.
“Heavens! my Philly is so pretty.”
Hugging the horse, I said "Eat well and stay healthy." and while enjoying the moment I heard a shout from behind.
“Hey! You crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Who would feed a 500-year-old mandrake to a horse?!”
“Oh? You"re here.”
It was none other than Schwarzertoyel. When I was wandering through the mountains, it seemed that he couldn"t stand missing me. The old man dressed in black was fuming.
“Hey! Why are you so crazy about messing up someone else"s mountain?!”
“You"re exaggerating, do you think a mountain could be ruined by pulling some gra.s.s?”
“Hey, how many mandrakes did you pull out? There"s nothing left in the mountains!”
“I, really, and here I thought you had it all.”
“No, so what is it?!”
I shook the dirt off my palm and gave him a remark.
“I don"t think we have much time left, so it"s better to go.”
“Who says I"m lagging behind?!”
Recently, there has been way too much ongoing bickering like this, that now this villainous dragon was nothing more than a stale old grandpa, not worthy of my time.
“By the way, what is the source of your necromancy? It was quite different from what I"ve seen before. You may not have accomplished much but the accuracy of the technique is topnotch.”
That"s the power of the Dark Lord, the one who is still curled up in the tomb. But I couldn"t tell him that because it was an important secret.
“If you build a city, you"ll eventually know.”
“Huh! You want to squeeze out all my fortune yet you won"t reveal your own cards. What a stingy fellow!”
“You"re not the only one who is hiding things in the darkness, okay?”
And, like this our conversation always came to an end, with a line, both didn"t want to cross. So, we never formed a friendly relationship.
A few days later, I went to his nest again, even though he was rambling, I could hear the serious note to it.
“Wait.”
Schwarzertoyel"s face stiffened.
“What"s the matter?”
“Shut up!”
He hurriedly threw magic created images that were moving into the air. The video was similar to that of the Grossglockner shot from an airplane. This mountain was enormously wide.
I was admiring the majestic view when Schwarzetoyel suddenly began to enlarge certain parts. Then, there appeared, what looked like a group of people at the foot of the mountain.
“Oh no!”
Now that the video was clear, we could see who appeared in the mountain. He was such an unexpected big shot.
“Isn"t that the third-ranked demon, Odgarsh?”
“You know it well.”
Schwarzetoyel"s voice was solemnly firm. The number of demons who were arriving on their horses counted up to a hundred. I couldn"t control myself and so, I asked.
“Are they your enemies?”
“They came earlier than I expected.”
That was unexpected. I thought there would be no problem for the next few years. Moreover, I didn"t expect it would be Odgarsh, the third-ranked demon, who would be the one to seek Schwarzertoyel"s life. I wondered, why this extremely strong dragon died, but now, with this demon here he would really have a hard time.
“I didn"t think he"d break the deal.”
An agreement. It was something I didn"t know. I"ll have to dig this up later.
“Can you handle them?”
Schwarzertoyel"s power was known to all, but Odgarsh, the third-ranked demon, too, lived up to his name. I was so terrified, even I could hear my own teeth-rattling, I was grieving at my decision to help Schwarzertoyel.
Odgarsh was basically a half immortal. The possibility that he could be killed was extremely tricky. And for that reason alone, it was next to impossible even for a competent guardian to deal with it alone, rather it would take several heroes to get it done right.