Chapter 242: Ryuushin's Motive

The academy was still on vacation the next day, so I took Hinata and the rest of the villagers to the lair of the evil dragon to retrieve the remains of the people he killed.

The bones of Hinata’s parents were probably there, too.

She also told me about her parents yesterday.

A dragon wallowing in evil lived in this cave, so monsters would spring out here until this place was purified.

It would take several centuries if they waited for it to be purified naturally.

Moreover, the generated monsters would be B-rank at best because of the influence of the evil dragon, which was originally an attribute type.

Nobody in Hinata’s village could defeat B-rank monsters.

That’s the reason why I decided to help collect the villagers’ remains as much as I could whenever I’m in the village.

I took around twenty villagers with me, including Hinata, but it would be an impossible feat to carry the bones of several hundred people in just a single day.

Still, it’d be difficult to protect the village from the monsters if I took more villagers with me.

I also had the Shadow Dragons protect them, but there’s no saying what might happen, so I decided to limit the number of people going with me to twenty.

It’d be dangerous so I truthfully wanted to leave Hinata out of it, but she insisted in coming along, so I agreed on the condition that she wouldn’t leave my side.

The toxic miasma of the evil dragon had already shredded the clothes on the remains, so it was impossible to tell which remains belonged to which person, so the only thing we could do was to bring all of them out and carry out a memorial service for them.

The villagers were dumbfounded when they saw the sight of the mountain pile of bones.

They were totally shocked because of the devastation that only a few of them could cry.

Afterward, all of them wordlessly started to immerse themselves into the job.

While we were working —

“C-Chief! Ryuushin-sama! W-We’re in trouble!!”

One of the villagers came running towards the cave.

It was the girl who brought the food to me several times during the feast last night.

I had been doing roundtrips between the innermost part of the cave and the entrance while carrying the remains, and she came just right when I was outside.

“You’re in such a hurry, what’s the matter?”

“Did something happen?”

“A s-subjugation team, a subjugation team for the evil dragon is coming here!”

The girl who just rushed towards us explained while gasping for breath.

“Subjugation team? If it’s the evil dragon, I already did away with it.”

“That’s the problem. The other villages arbitrarily submitted a request to the Adventurer’s Guild for the subjugation of the evil dragon!”

“W-What did you say?!”

The blood drained from the village chief’s face.

“What’s wrong with that? That scum dragon’s no longer here, so the subjugation team will just go home right away, right.”

“That’s…”

“Ryuushin-sama, clients needed to pay the Adventurer’s Guild appropriate fees based on the commission requested. The commission this time is related to the subjugation of the evil dragon, so…it would require a tremendous amount of money.”

The village chief explained.

Hinata’s village and the four surrounding villages had been working together collectively as a single community for centuries. When powerful monsters appeared, the five villages would pool their funds in order to hire adventurers who would defeat it, apparently.

This communal arrangement was a time-honored pact and was still in effect even today.

They used magic to form the contract, so they couldn’t void it.

Even if Hinata’s village claimed that it wasn’t them who commissioned the subjugation of the evil dragon, they still had to pay the fee. Even if the reward for defeating the dragon wasn’t necessary, just imagine how huge the amount of money needed to gather people that were strong enough to defeat the evil dragon was.

“What’s worse is that our village does not have any capital. In that case —”

The village chief awkwardly glanced at Hinata and at the girl who came running.

D-Don’t tell me…

“We have more young maidens than the other villages. Previously, there were times when the other villages would urge us to hand over our maidens in exchange for capital. Worst case scenario, we would have to give them away as brides.”

Of course, the village chief and the other residents could work, but they could only earn so much.

That’s because the evil dragon had already eaten most of the youth and able-bodied people who could work hard labor.

Hinata was particularly popular among the men of other villages, and they said that they would willingly compensate quite handsomely if she was given as a bride.

Hinata was very dark when I looked at her.

D-Don’t mess with me!

As if I’d let the girl I like to be sold just like that!!

I saved her from the evil god when she was on the brink of death, you know!?

“...Hey.”

“Y-Yes. Ryuushin-sama, what might it be?”

The messenger girl who told us about the subjugation team approaching responded.

“Do you know how many people they have in that subjugation team?”

“I-I saw three. Granny said that they were probably the vanguard scouting the area.”

It seemed that the vanguard were being guided by the men of the four villages as they headed towards us.

This girl knew a shortcut from the village to this cave.

This place was a bit farther from Hinata’s village compared to the other villages, but it’s possible to arrive here first even if they were coming from there by using that shortcut.

Thanks to that, she was able to buy some time to consider our move.

“Thanks for letting us know. I’ll do something about it.”

I patted the girl on her head while saying so.

“Ryuushin-sama, what do you plan to do?”

“I’m going to tell the vanguard that I already defeated the Evil Dragon, and I’m also gonna declare that Hinata’s village is under my rule now.”

There’s no way they could collect the fees from a village that was under my, the Kokuryuu’s, control.

“W-wouldn’t the subjugation team attack Ryuushin-sama then!?”

Hinata was worried about me.

Ah~ I’m so happy.

“No worries. I’m quite strong. Hinata saw it too, right?”

The punch that I dealt to the evil dragon was meant to be a feint, but it crushed him, instead.

I don’t think I’m gonna lose, even if that team was strong enough to defeat an evil dragon.

Besides —

“If I went out in this form, that subjugation team might even run for their lives, don’t you think?”

I morphed into Kokuryuu.

“Whoa!”

“H-How heroic!!”

“...Cool.”

“Ryuushin-sama, y-you’re a-amazing!!”

Hinata, the chief and the surrounding villagers all cheered out.

It felt really great.

When I’m with Halt, nobody bats an eye even if I turn into Kokuryuu.

I was getting more fired up because of their praises.

“Everyone, hide here as a precaution. I might intimidate them, just in case.”

It might be unnecessary, but I’m going to make them pee in their pants by my roar.

“Ryuushin-sama…please don’t do anything dangerous, okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

If it’s to protect Hinata, I’m willing to go all out.

Oh well, I guess it’ll be alright.

There’s no one who can win against me when I turn into Kokuryuu.

Oh, there’s an exception, but yeah, that’s not a human, that’s a Bakemono for crying out loud.

By the way, that Bakemono isn’t an adventurer yet, so I don’t think he’ll come all the way here to join the subjugation team.

That’s why it’s fine.

Hinata, the chief and the villagers hid near the cave entrance.

No monsters would appear here if they stayed within the vicinity, and I also dispatched the Shadow Guards as lookouts just in case.

Alright, come here, subjugation team!!

“Halt-sama, that’s —”

“Yup. No matter how I look, it’s that guy, alright.”

—Eh!? W-Why!?

The Bakemono that could beat me black and blue with his bare hands was now heading towards me.