It was magic of the Tenth Circle, capable of reading the thoughts of any human being if one so desired.
‘Get a grip. No matter what happens, I must not open my mouth.’
Zengart first studied the other man’s appearance. With dazzling white hair that could hardly be thought human and a handsome face, the other party looked unmistakably like a dragon. Realizing that calling the guards would be useless, Zengart desperately steeled himself. The silver-haired man, who had been staring at Zengart, frowned.
“I’m not going to eat you, so there’s no need to be so frightened.”
The man withdrew his gaze from Zengart and turned his head to look at the gold chests piled nearby.
“So he really did come here. Leaving without a word… What a petty bastard. If not for the detection magic I put on the gold chests, I might not have been able to find his trail at all.”
The man repeatedly venting his anger was none other than Cartroi. After being hunted by Damon’s group and, through various twists and turns, becoming his neighbor, he had come all the way here. Cartroi glanced at Zengart, who kept his mouth tightly shut, and let out a faint laugh.
“Do you think I won’t be able to find his trail just because you keep your mouth shut? If I examine the traces left on the magic circle, I’ll know where he went in no time. At least when it comes to magic, I stand above that fellow.”
When Cartroi tried to approach the magic circle, Zengart turned deathly pale. He tried to throw himself forward, thinking he had to stop him no matter what, but before he knew it, he was dangling helplessly in midair. Cartroi had acted a step ahead of him. After examining the magic circle closely in that state, it did not take Cartroi long to determine where Damon had gone.
“He went to Penslutt. I can’t afford to miss him, so I’ll have to hurry after him.”
Cartroi was about to gather mana when he stopped and looked at Zengart. With a single wave of his hand, he released the spell, then scowled and growled.
“I’m telling you this out of concern, but don’t worry. I’m not following him to harm that black magician. Not that he’s the sort of fellow who would ever fall to me, anyway. I merely intend to accompany him for the completion of my amusement. Do you understand?”
Having finished speaking, Cartroi executed a warp without waiting for Zengart’s reply. His body was soon enveloped in radiance, and a moment later, only Zengart remained there. With an expression that said he had no idea what had just happened, he could only roll his eyes about. After a while, he finally managed to utter a single sentence.
“I only hope nothing happens to Lord Damon…”
Having warped to the outskirts of Penslutt, Damon was leisurely walking along the road.
“That coordinate booklet was worth its hefty price after all. At least the coordinates were set properly.”
Perhaps for safety’s sake, the coordinates had been set over a river, but that posed no problem to Damon. Falling into the river and getting one’s clothes wet was something that only applied to low-level mages…
Walking at a leisurely pace, Damon idly looked around.
“Roaming the jianghu alone, huh… This may not be the jianghu, but walking alone does have a certain different flavor to it.”
The mountains in the distance still retained traces of green. It was a scene quite different from the North, which had been a world of white snow and ice. Far away, the capital of Penslutt, Cordo, came into view. Perhaps because it was the capital of a powerful nation, Cordo was a splendid city of considerable scale.
Damon suddenly frowned.
“Now that I think about it, parting with that Mitchell fellow is a little regrettable. If I’d known this would happen, maybe I should have built up his internal energy a bit.”
Although the mercenaries had made remarkable progress, they still had a long way to go before catching up to Mitchell. Mitchell had reached a level close to the absolute peak. Damon guessed that Mitchell would become a Sword Master in the near future. Although the internal cultivation method Mitchell had learned had a relatively slow rate of refinement, if Damon gathered mana and infused it into him, Mitchell had the ability to fully digest it as his own. However, Damon had no intention whatsoever of doing so, simply because it was bothersome. Even though he had grown somewhat attached to him over the year or so they had spent together in the North.
“Well, someone of his caliber will easily stand out even among Penslutt’s royal guard knights. Since we’ll be parting soon enough, I should stop worrying about him. At any rate, that girl Juliana will be rather bored. Her easiest target is about to disappear.”
As he muttered to himself like a rain-soaked stone monk, his face suddenly stiffened. It was because of the mana presence emanating from behind him.
“T-this presence is…”
The energy he felt was the sign of spatial movement, and judging by the degree of mana rearrangement, it was by no means at a human level. Greatly alarmed, Damon hurriedly opened Increcia.
“It’s a dragon. Was there another one that woke early?”
As he turned around tensely, an incredulous look appeared on his face. The being that had appeared was indeed a dragon, but it was by no means an enemy. The one who had arrived by spatial movement was none other than Cartroi. The white dragon Cartroi, with whom he had built a certain friendship while staying in the North, had followed Damon here. Having achieved his objective, Cartroi glared fiercely at Damon.
“You petty bastard. Leaving without saying a word?”
Damon silently closed Increcia, and a smile appeared on his face as well. However, the words that came out of his mouth were anything but pleasant.
“You lunatic. Then am I supposed to report every single thing I do to you?”
“Still, you bastard. If you were leaving, shouldn’t you at least have sent word that you were going?”
“Why? So you could follow me?”
“Yeah, you bastard.”
Hearing Cartroi’s answer, Damon’s eyes widened.
“You’re saying you’re going to accompany me?”
Cartroi nodded without the slightest hesitation.
“That’s right. When my research subject is leaving, what reason would I have to stay cooped up in my lair? I have already resolved to deeply study the mystery that is the human being. Therefore, no matter what happens, you cannot shake me off.”
Hearing Cartroi’s words, Damon looked utterly dumbfounded.
“This is driving me insane. Do you think it makes any sense for a dragon to be part of a dragon slayer party?”
Cartroi thought for a moment, then replied.
“When you hunt dragons, I intend to step aside for a while. I cannot take part in hunting my own kind, after all. At all other times, there should be no problem with me following you, right?”
“…”
“I was getting bored anyway, so this works out well. I’ll follow you lot around and finish the amusement I couldn’t complete last time.”
Cartroi already seemed firmly resolved. At that sight, Damon was left speechless.
‘This bastard started hanging around me, and now the way he talks has turned completely into that of a back-alley thug. At first, he did have at least some solemnity to him…’
During their time together in the North, Damon had never once treated Cartroi as some supreme race. Speaking informally to him was a given, and he would sometimes smack him while hurling all sorts of curses at him. But he had never dreamed Cartroi would be influenced by that. Cartroi’s manner of speech changed by the day, and now there was practically no difference between it and Damon’s own. Since the curses Damon had hurled at him were now being returned in full, even Damon could only be dumbfounded.
‘Damn it. In any case, dragons really are an incomprehensible race… I should never have associated with this guy from the start.’
His head beginning to ache, Damon spoke curtly.
“Follow me or don’t, do whatever you want. But I’m warning you—don’t even think about interfering with the dragon hunts. If you get in the way, I’ll hunt you down too.”
“Don’t worry. If we come face to face with a dragon, I’ll quietly disappear without interfering.”
Having achieved his intended goal, Cartroi wore a triumphant expression. As Damon watched him, a strange thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
“By the way, how did you find me? Don’t tell me you…”
Cartroi smiled broadly and nodded.
“That’s right. I tracked the detection magic on the gold chests. Well, I didn’t put it there with this situation in mind. I cast it long ago just in case, but it turned out to be a great help in finding you. Anyway, you really do have an impressive loyal retainer. He looked like he was ready to face death for your sake…”
Damon’s gaze suddenly turned cold.
“Don’t tell me you laid a hand on Zengart.”
Cartroi hurriedly waved his hands.
“I swear I didn’t lay a finger on him. I did cast magic on him for a short while, but I released it right away, so nothing will have happened.”
A voice dripping with killing intent leaked from Damon’s mouth.
“If anything happens to Zengart, I won’t let you off.”
“I’m telling you, I really didn’t touch him.”
When Cartroi flinched back with a look of being fed up, Damon’s expression relaxed in satisfaction. If he was going to drag him along, he had to firmly establish the pecking order. Only then would he not get uppity.
“Good. I’ll believe you.”
Sensing just how wretched the dignity of dragons had become, Cartroi let out a deep sigh.
‘How did the great race of dragons end up in this state?’
Cartroi shook his head and then, as if something had occurred to him, looked at Damon.
“By the way, where did the others go? They didn’t come with you?”
“They’re walking, so it’ll take them a few days. I came ahead because I had business to take care of.”
After speaking, Damon let out a long sigh.
“Anyway, this is a problem. I was thinking of womanizing a bit for the first time in a while, but now that you’ve stuck to me like a leech, I won’t be able to.”
“Womanizing?”
“You idiot. You don’t even know what womanizing is? Well, I suppose creatures without male or female distinctions wouldn’t understand the profound principle of the harmony of yin and yang. Shut your mouth and follow quietly.”
As if he had nothing more to say, Damon started walking. Cartroi, who had been pondering deeply over what the harmony of yin and yang meant, hurriedly followed after him.
It was not long before a group of people blocked the path of the two, who had been leisurely walking toward Cordo.
“Brother. Halt your steps for a moment.”
Five men with rather murderous appearances surrounded the two with graceful movements. From the way they twirled their sharply honed daggers, it was obvious at a glance that they had plenty of experience with this sort of thing. It seemed they had gathered with Cartroi as their target. Unlike last time, Cartroi was dressed like a young nobleman, so at a glance, he looked like nothing but a wealthy mark. A rather grim-looking man with a splendid mustache made a threat.
“Brother. By any chance, are your pockets heavy? We thought we’d show mercy and lighten the weight of those pockets for you.”
“…”
As Cartroi merely blinked, not understanding what was going on, the man’s expression turned vicious.
“Tch. You’re a fellow with no sense of romance at all. I’ll put it simply so you can understand. If you want us to disappear quietly, take out everything in your pockets right now.”
“Why should I take out what’s in my pockets?”
Seeing Cartroi ask back stupidly, the men were left dumbfounded. His clothes looked the part, but judging by the way he spoke, he was nothing but a complete fool. One short-tempered man rushed forward and pressed his dagger against Cartroi’s neck.
Shhk.
Penslutt was a country with extremely solid public order. If they did not want to be caught, they had to rob their target in an instant and vanish like the wind. Thinking of that fact, the man hurriedly gestured to his companions.
“The guards might come, so hurry up and search his pockets. Ugh!”
The man, who had been speaking confidently, was startled. It was because a chill suddenly surged from the hand holding the dagger. The man stumbled backward, his eyes wide with shock as if they would tear open.
“H-how can this be…”
The hand holding the dagger was frozen solid. No, to be precise, his hand was encased inside a block of ice. When the man looked back at his companions to ask for help, he felt a chill run down his spine. All of his companions had ended up in the same state as him. An expressionless voice reached his back.
“I understand now. You people are thieves.”
Though they had no idea what was going on, the men realized that things had gone wrong and immediately tried to throw themselves away. They had instinctively realized that they had picked someone they should never have touched.