Chapter 237: Ryuushin and the Sacrificial Maiden

“Hm…Ygou are…a dragon? Ygou…smell.. like mee.”

The evil dragon called me out.

He might be a fallen one, but it looked like he still had a bit of consciousness left.

“...Name’s Ryuushin, a dragonoid.”

“Gha, gha…trash tribe, huh.”

That ticked me off.

There were guys among the colored dragons and the attribute dragons who looked down on dragonoids.

This evil dragon was a former attribute dragon, while I’m a Kokuryuu, one of the colored dragons.

In short, I got the upper rank here, dude.

It’s just that dragonoids who could dragonize into colored dragons were extremely rare, so there’s no helping that he was looking down on me because I’m a dragonoid.

I heard that those who turn into evil dragons will become really strong, but they’ll become brainless in turn. Well, honestly speaking, I don’t think they’re not a big deal at all, now that I was facing one.

Ugh, this won’t do.

If I looked down on my opponent, then I’m not any better than this guy here.

Besides, didn’t I study the mantra that ‘it isn't good to be overconfident about one’s power’ to the point of barfing, right?

Even if the enemy looks weak, I should never lower my guard.

Even if they don’t seem like they have any hidden power, there’s a chance that they’re just tricking this ability of mine.

That Bakemono with a harmless mask from our class had beaten that truth to my very core

That’s why I would never lower my guard.

I didn’t even come here to defeat an evil dragon, in the first place.

“Gwell, dat’s still one ob the dragon spezies. Besides, I’b in a good mood. Let’s juzt Gwelcome you. Come.”

The evil dragon went back to his dwelling place, the depths of this cave.

I followed him in, hoping to find some of the gemstones that this dude created before becoming an evil dragaon.

Well, even if he didn’t drop any gems, maybe this guy still had the ability to create one despite being an evil dragon.

It might be worth trying to negotiate with this dude.

But I regretted that decision right away.

The worst scene ever spread before me.

“— What the heck is this?!”

Bones were piled up like a mountain inside the deepest part of the cave. They’re probably human bones from the looks of it.

The visible ones could easily pass more than a hundred people.

The rotten stench was really horrible.

“Gyou don’b look like gyou’d tasted humans before, huh.”

“N-no way I’d do that!”

I was trying to suppress the urge to barf while the evil dragon looked down on me as he spoke with a creepy smile.

Dragonoids eat the same food as humans.

Dragons get their mana from the air, so there’s a lot of dragons who don’t even eat.

However, they are also monsters, so it’s given that some of them would also target people. Be that as it may, there’s only a few who would crave for human flesh.

Dragons are basically a lazy bunch.

They can still live even if they do nothing but sleep, so there’s actually no need for them to go out of their way to hunt for food.

But that’s not the case for this one. I bet this rotten guy hunted humans to eat them, for sure.

If he targeted the adventurers who attacked him, then that would make sense.

If it’s in order to live — like, he took revenge on the people who came to kill him and ate them all up — then there’s nothing I can say about that.

But —

“Gugugu, hit the jackpot with dis sacrifice.”

He pinched something lying on the floor and held it up.

“—What!?”

It was a girl with both her hands and feet bound in chains.

“Dasty, izn’t it?”.

That scum dragon forcefully pulled the chain on her hands, exposing her body in front of me.

This rotten dragon was probably toying with her.

Her entire body was covered in wounds.

“..................”

She reacted a bit when she saw me, a guy with a human appearance, but her eyes looked dead, as if she’d already given up on living.

“...Are you getting live sacrifices from the surrounding villages?”

“Yeah, juz once ebry fibe yearz, doh. I got to eat more in the past, I got eighd, but it’d be mezzy ib a strong abenturer came.”

This scum dominated the five villages around this cave, and he required human sacrifices once every five years from them apparently.

Not only that, he deployed his underlings and stationed them within those villages so that they couldn’t escape.

In the past, there were eight villages, but three of them had already been entirely eaten by this rotten dragon.

This trash dragon was quite talkative, spouting stuff on and on.

He’s probably not ecstatic just because he got his hands on his prey after five years.

“...You’ve thoroughly explained a lot of things until now, so you’re probably thinking of killing me, right.”

“Gugigigi, smart of you. I hateb gyou guys even way back den. You’re juz a bunch of scum, but your getting carrieb abay.”

The scum dragon threw the girl towards me.

I caught her as gently as I could.

She’s reeking of blood.

“Gyou like hubans, right? Can’t hide ib from me. Then… go proteb that thing.”

…I see.

This trash wants to play with me, huh.

It was probably boring to just eat the sacrifice that he got after waiting for five years. That’s why he hurted this girl to this extent.

Even so, he wasn’t satisfied. I happen to come to this cave, so he decided to lure me in to toy with me.

Gotcha.

Fine. Let’s grant your wish.

But before that —

“You’re the sacrifice, right? I’m going to beat that guy and send him flying to save you, so will you go on a date with me once we leave this cave?”

“...Eh?”

This is my chance.

If I save her life, she would probably grant this small request of mine, right?

Of course, it’s impossible for her to agree to go out with me or marry me right off the bat, but a simple date would be fine, wouldn’t it?

“How about it?”

“Ah, uhm…I’m —”

She was about to reply, but the evil dragon released his Breath on us.

He seemed angered by what I said.

“Beat me, gyou said!? Stob mess —”

“Shuddap!!! I’m talking to her right now, so shut your trap!!”

I dragonized my right hand and sent a flying fist attack just to shut him up and put him in check.

Yeah, put him in check — that was the plan.

I wanted to block his Breath and send him flying to buy me some time to talk to the girl.

“GugyahhhHHHH —”

My flying fist attack pulverized the scum dragon’s head.