Episode 8
“So this is what they call a city……? It was this grand?”
Truthfully, this was the first time Julitan had left Kione and gone to a city. If he had not met Carnelian, he might never have left Kione, that small fishing village in the northern Garbat Empire, just as most people from his hometown never did.
“What? With that ‘I’ve seen the world for the first time’ expression…… If I told you there are thousands of cities like this in Hesperia, you might faint?”
“Wh-what!”
At Carnelian’s laughter-filled voice, Julitan stood dumbfounded, as if he had heard the tolling of an enormous bell. Well, there was no need to speak of something akin to the number of stars in the universe. The scale and number of cities alone were enough of a shock for this naive country youth.
“Well, this is a place where trade goods from Isilrat on the eastern continent and Zelbander on the western continent across the sea all gather, so it is on the larger side compared to other cities. If not for that, would people gather in a place where even water and wood are precious? Thanks to that, it grew haphazardly, so it is a bit chaotic, but in terms of vitality, few places can match it. I do not know which nation this city belongs to right now, but it must be quite a significant source of income……”
Julitan did not seem to be listening to Carnelian’s words. Rather, his gaze was fixed on a certain creature.
“Wh-what is that?”
Following Julitan’s gaze toward what looked like a tavern, Carnelian spotted a being tending to tied-up horses. It was far larger than a human, with a protruding lower jaw, bluish skin like a lump of metal, and relatively long arms. Rather than frightening, it looked somewhat dull and incredibly strong, one might say…… Despite its shabby clothing, it tightened the ropes binding the horses with dexterous handiwork much like a human.
“Ah, that…… an Orc,”
Carnelian said briefly.
“Orc? What a strange beast……”
“It is not a beast. How should I put it…… an intelligent lifeform different from humans? Humans call them demi-humans. It is one of the races that possesses a fairly splendid civilization of its own.”
Julitan felt his mind growing dazed. He had heard from Steon that creatures possessing reason, intellect, and emotion other than humans existed, but honestly, it had not felt real at the time. Yet seeing one in person gave him a strange feeling he had never experienced before.
“You may not know, Master, but humans have been capturing and raising such races for quite a long time. How should I put it…… slaves?”
Her expression did not look very pleased.
“But they listen to people’s commands that easily?”
“What a foolish thing to say…… Of course they were captured by force. But as time passed, after several generations, any sense of resistance disappeared, and they came to think of themselves as human slaves and obey. Sla-vi-fi-ca-tion. Try living while hearing ‘You are a slave!’ thousands, tens of thousands of times from birth. How could they not end up that way?”
Carnelian spoke while her eyes clouded slightly, watching with an expressionless face at the Orc silently checking the ropes tying the horses. She showed particular contempt when she said the word “obedience.”
“That’s cruel……”
Julitan muttered without realizing it.
“Cruel? Wow, it has been a while since I heard that. You really are a fossil of a man. Well, anyway, besides Orcs, Elves, Kobolds, Ogres, and the like are also assigned to suitable roles, so to speak, and used as convenient tools for humans. There should be plenty of related books if you go to a library, so look them up. I do not really…… want to talk about it.”
“I cannot read.”
“How impressive.”
Carnelian did not seem to want to mention humans’ “slaves.” Perhaps it was because she kept being reminded of her own position serving a human master. Julitan’s mind was complicated, and the fatigue he had briefly forgotten came rushing in. If possible, he wanted to fall asleep somewhere with a roof…… The moment he thought that, something capricious happened that made him forget his fatigue again.
“Heavens, that enormous creature is……”
Julitan let out an exclamation. A huge four-legged beast with gray skin was approaching where Julitan and Carnelian stood. And a person was riding atop it. The word “large” did not do it justice—the expression “size of a house” suited it far better. It was so massive that if one sat atop it, one would be level with the second-floor windows of houses, and two white horns the size of an adult’s leg jutted forward, making it look heavy and oppressive at a glance. But while Julitan was captivated by the creature, he failed to notice the people around him beginning to kneel and bow their heads to the person riding that “house-sized thing.”
“Is that…… a demi-human too?”
“That is an Elephas. It is a beast. Those things are only found in the southern continent…… To think they would bring one all along here. Anyway, I do not even want to know what the rich are thinking……”
One of her trademark specialties—“looking at things askance”—activated once more. But Julitan simply stared blankly at it approaching with an expression that said, “To think such a huge creature exists in this world.” Each time it drew closer, he could feel the vibrations in the ground from the Elephas’s footsteps. And before Julitan, who watched with a vacant face, the Elephas came to a halt. Then the turban-wrapped figure riding the animal began looking down at Julitan with a rather displeased expression. It was a person with sagging cheeks like an old dog, an incredibly obese body wrapped in gaudy clothes of garish primary colors, displaying the very height of imbalance.
“Who are you to not show me respect? I am the great merchant Kudro, who enjoys the full favor of His Majesty King Preston of this land!”
“Huh?”
Julitan’s response to Kudro’s childishly flamboyant self-introduction was “Huh?” Though he did not realize it, it was quite a bold answer.
“Impudent! You must be some country bumpkin to insult me so. I shall teach you the price of insolence.”
He was quick-tongued for his appearance.
Without giving Julitan even a chance to make excuses, the massive Elephas roared and raised its foreleg, which fell directly toward Julitan. He heard screams from the people around him and thought the sky had suddenly gone dark, but he did not even think to dodge. He was a man with little talent for hitting or dodging, after all. However, the Elephas’s foreleg, which seemed like it would crush a man like Julitan without leaving a trace, stopped near his head. At some point, Carnelian had slipped in front of Julitan, and her right arm blocked the descending foreleg of the Elephas. Carnelian held up the incredibly thick foreleg of the Elephas with ease, looking quite relaxed.
“Wh-what! With such strength, you must certainly be a Ssil!”
The self-proclaimed great merchant Kudro atop the Elephas was shocked.
“You are the one who committed rudeness against my Master, you fool. For a mere merchantling to raise dirty feet against a knight…… You are the one who must compensate for this insult.”
“B-but I am not a knight……”
Julitan’s words trailed off as Carnelian glared at him fiercely. And Carnelian gave what Julitan thought was a very unsettling smile saying “Leave it to me,” and raised the sword she had been holding in her left hand. And in an instant, the Elephas was cleanly split vertically in half. Julitan had only seen Carnelian’s long black hair flutter as she leaped into the air and raised her sword for a moment. The bisected body of the Elephas, like a watermelon split in two, fell to the ground with a tremendous sound, and Kudro, who had been riding atop it, fell from the Elephas’s back into a bloody heap. The sight of the plump Kudro floundering in the pool of blood was somehow comical…… though perhaps that would be disrespectful to the dead Elephas? Anyway, the stench of the bright red blood that spilled in all directions like a water-filled balloon bursting was enough to paralyze people’s sense of smell. A sea of blood…… the words fit perfectly. Julitan wiped the blood drops splattered on his cheek and muttered words that summed up this absurd situation with a bewildered expression.
“It’s happening again……”
Carnelian seemed quite excited, if nothing else. She pointed her sword at the dazed Kudro with a face that said she had been wanting to say this:
“Now. Kneel and apologize ‘properly,’ and I shall forgive you at this point.”
Meanwhile, Kudro wore an expression that looked as if he would go mad with humiliation.
“You are a Ssil…… Why did you not say you were a knight! You planned to make a fool of me from the very beginning!”
He was rude, quick-tongued, and pathological.
“That is due to your ignorance in failing to see a knight’s dignity. To blame your ignorance on others…… how vulgar.”
A voice that sounded all too convincing. She was a master of acting.
“Dignity? He does not look like a knight at all! Where is there such a knight! For one thing, he is too young!”
Kudro too looked extremely wronged. She smiled a triumphant smile as if she had been waiting for those words and pressed on quickly.
“You fool! What do you think makes a knight a knight? Splendid clothes? A fine sword? Open your eyes wide and look at my Master. Even without such things, he is undoubtedly a knight. If you cannot see that, it is because your heart is ugly.”
“……Someone stop her.”
Julitan muttered with a dumbfounded face. Who was it that said there are clothes invisible to fools? At her words, Kudro somehow looked at Julitan with a stupid expression, avoiding his gaze out of a strange feeling of guilt. That was right. Kudro had been swayed by Carnelian’s inexplicable persuasion. Anyway, Julitan thought that while she might not be the strongest of all Ssils, there was no Ssil who could match her in brazenly insisting on something. Kudro, now convinced that Julitan was a knight, changed his manner of speaking.
“But I too possess a knighthood! I challenge you to a duel! Since you have insulted me so, if you are a knight, you will not avoid it!”
Kudro stood up and pointed at Julitan. People began murmuring, “A duel!” and the situation had now completely deteriorated into something Julitan could not make heads or tails of, regardless of how it had started.
“Me? A duel with me? N-now wait, it was not I who made your Elephas or whatever into that shape, it was that Carnelian! I never insulted you!”
“Nonsense! Where is there a Ssil who moves without their master’s command! It is because you ordered it that the Ssil acted so!”
Usually that was true.
“C-Carnelian…… say something.”
“Master. Why do you say that? I simply followed orders.”
Her acting was truly excellent.
‘I-I am going to kill her. That woman.’
At this point, he no longer had the energy to be bewildered. Despite Carnelian having saved his life, Julitan was not grateful in the least—he only felt wronged.
“I too have a Ssil, so let us meet at the royal tournament to be held in a week! I shall not run away!”
“Wh-what are you saying……”
Regardless of Julitan’s confusion, Kudro hurriedly fled the scene. No doubt he was worried that if he stayed any longer, he would lose his head to Carnelian’s blade, duel or no duel.
“Wh-what the, what the, just what! You woman! Aaagh! I am going crazy!”
It was only natural that Julitan’s irritation would explode by now.
“Aah, what a noisy Master. Do you know what those pseudo-knights’ duels are?”
Dragon Lady
Author/ Gim Cheolgon
Publisher/ Bak Seongin
Editor/ Editorial Department
Published by/ Next Level Studio
Address/ 4F, 113 Seongsui-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoulteukbyeolsi
Phone/ 070-8801-6987
ISBN 979-11-92729-25-1
This book has been published as an e-book by Next Level Studio under contract with the copyright holder.
Unauthorized reproduction of this book's contents without the publisher's permission is prohibited under copyright law.