Chapter 238 - Ryuushin's Retainers

“—Huh?”

The evil dragon fell to the ground, never moving again.

Eh…Did it d-die?

Se-seriously?

That flying fist attack was just a feint move, and yet it butchered a dragon — that’s a dragon, the most powerful among the monsters in this world, and he’s also a superior one considering he’s an attribute dragon.

Not only that, he’s a fallen one that turned into an evil dragon.

Those who turn into an evil dragon lose their capacity to think coherently, but their strength, stamina and flight ability would rise, and they wouldn’t die easily.

Their scales that would be soaked in evil wouldn’t repel most physical attacks and any magic other than the light attribute ones.

Even if you managed to deal a fatal blow, an evil dragon could still revive around a thousand times.

The only way to subjugate an evil dragon is either purification of its soul with an overwhelmingly strong light magic, or just beat it up with a thousand lethal blows.

I didn’t even infuse any sort of magic into that lump of mana and just sent it flying to smash him.

If he died because of that, then that means my flying fist attack was enough to kill the evil dragon a thousand times over.

Eh, then that means I’m stronger than I think?

Well, I’m a dragonoid-slash-colored dragon trained by Halt the Bakemono, so it’s not really surprising that I became stronger.

I killed the scum dragon with a single blow, so that means I’m pretty powerful.

Yeah!!

I’ve become super duper powerful, hear that!!

I feel pretty good.

But this girl doesn’t seem to be that way.

“W-What on earth did you do!!”

“Eh?”

The girl scolded and threw a death glare at me.

“If I become the sacrifice, everyone else will be safe! A-and yet —”

Large beads of tears dropped from the girl’s glaring eyes.

“I already defeated the evil dragon now, didn’t I? What’s wrong with that?”

“...That scum stationed his dragon underlings in our village to keep an eye on us. They’re the reason why we couldn’t even ask for help, much less escape.”

“Those dragon underlings would attack your village, is that it?”

“That dragon said so! If we attack the evil dragon, he would set his underlings at us and annihilate our village!”

I see.

That’s quite a dilemma, huh…

“Gotcha. I’ll also save your village.”

“...Eh?”

I release my mana.

I infused it with dark attributes and summoned small dragons from my shadow.

Shadow Dragons — they’re the Kokuryuu’s retainers made out of shadow and darkness.

20 Shadow Dragons gathered in the shadows around us.

“Master, did you summon us?”

“—Hiii!”

One of the Shadow Dragons showed his face from my shadow.

The girl was shocked by his sudden appearance, so she shrieked.

“The Evil Dragon’s underlings are controlling the villages around here. Kill them all.”

“As Master commands.”

The one who appeared was the leader of the Shadow Dragons.

He concealed himself back into the shadows after receiving my command.

The rest of the Shadow Dragons also dispersed after receiving the order.

Those guys weren’t attribute dragons, but they’re pretty strong.

They could move quickly inside the shadows, and they would kill their opponents without a sound.

That’s why the attribute dragons’ retainers wouldn’t stand a chance against them.

Even if the evil dragon’s underlings noticed that he died and went on a rampage, my Shadow Dragons would definitely defeat them all before things get out of hand.

Even if there was damage, I’ll borrow Ryuka’s power.

This should be enough in the meantime —

“Those guys would defeat the evil dragon’s underlings. Is there any other problem?”

“W-What on earth are you?”

“Oh, right, I haven’t introduced myself yet! I’m Ryuushin of the Dragonoid Tribe.”

“D-Dragonoid!?”

She backed away from me as if trying to put some distance between us.

Her foot got caught in the rock, so she fell on her butt.

She was really afraid of me…

Well, there’s no helping it. Their lives had been controlled all this time by that scum dragon, so it’s no wonder that she’s terrified of anything related to dragons.

Besides, dragons and dragonoids are probably similar in her mind.

The population of dragonoids is quite small, so our existence isn’t really widely known.

I held a hand out to the girl sitting on the ground.

“I’ll also protect your village.”

The girl hesitated for a bit before timidly grasping my outstretched hand.

“Alright, once again, I’m Ryuushin. And you?”

“I-I’m Hinata.”

“Hinata, such a cute name. Nice to meet yah.”

“N-Nice to meet you.”

Hinata is quite cute being shy.

But I didn’t have the time to relax with her.

I had to check whether the trash dragon’s underlings had been properly defeated.

“Hinata, let’s go to your village. I’m counting on you to guide me there.”

“Y-Yes! I got it!”

Hinata tried to dash off, but she tripped on her own feet and fell.

That scum dragon had toyed with her, so her entire body was covered in wounds and she didn’t have enough strength.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the magic to heal other people.

But if it’s carrying her, then I can do that much.

I’m the Kokuryuu.

The scum dragon’s cave was large enough for me to fly from the innermost part to the entrance with no difficulty.

The fastest way for us is to carry Hinata on my back and fly.

The only problem is that Hinata might be scared if I turned into a dragon, but —

“S-So beautiful…”

Hinata touched the scales on my face as Kokuryuu.

Not sure if she’s comparing my scales to that of that scum dragon that had turned dull because of the evil mana?

Don’t lump me with that guy, please.

Dragon scales are naturally beautiful enough to captivate people.

These flawless scales are actually my pride.

Well, I’m glad that Hinata praised them.

“Hinata, let’s go to your village. Ride on my back.”

She didn’t seem to fear me, so I decided to fly while carrying her on my back.

Hinata crouched, preparing to climb on my back.

“I-is really alright for me to ride you?”

It was said that dragons wouldn’t carry just anyone else on their back except for those they recognized.

I didn’t care a single bit about that, though.

“Yup. It’s fine, so hop on.”

“I understand…then please excuse me.”

Hinata climbed on my back and sat on it.

A girl’s butt, on my back—

Well, it’s touching, but since the scales don’t have sense of touch, I couldn’t even enjoy the softness and stuff one bit.

$@%#...

Well, it’s fine.

One thing happened after another, and here I am now carrying a girl on my back for the first time since I was born.

I’m a bit happy.

All that’s left now is to protect Hinata’s village, and ask for a date as a reward.

I’m looking forward to it.

…Hinata, do you still remember our promise?