CH 103

Characters in this chapter:

Sapphiras Perfectio, 2nd son of the Earl of Aldridge

Percival Belisario, 3rd son of Margrave of Vanderwall on the Eastern Frontier

Gideon Harvard, 2nd son of the Marquess of Wagner

Gabriel McMillan, Commander of the Order of Magicians

When I looked into the bush where the suspicious man came out from, the surrounding undergrowth was trampled. Clearly, there are traces that something was done around here. Was he setting a trap to catch beasts?

“What was that man doing here……!”

“Sapphiras!”

As I walk while looking at my surroundings, I suddenly lose my feet and my body fell down. The next moment, my whole body shuddered at the sensation of my stomach being lifted. My unconsciously stretched out hand is grabbed by a strong force. The fall stops with a thud as my entire weight rests on his right shoulder.

“……Uu, wa!”

I couldn’t see it because it was hidden by the undergrowth, but there was a hole the size of a well. Without noticing it, I stepped boldly into the hole.

A cool breeze blew up from below. Hanging in the hole like a piece of smoked meat, I fearfully looked down and saw an endless darkness, the bottom of which I could not see.

“Sapphiras, are you alright?!”

After being pulled up and rescued from the hole, my body safely landed on the ground and I breathed a sigh of relief.

It was Percival who grabbed my arm when I was about to fall.

“……Percival, you saved me. Thank you.”

“No, really, be careful. You’ve really chilled my liver.”

“Sorry, sorry.”

My carelessness is as usual, but with Percival, I think I can manage to survive in any situation.

“Sapphiras-kun, I’m not surprised, you really need to be careful as Belisario-kun says……but then again, there was an abyss here.”

The four of us surrounded the abyss. If I miss my step again, I’ll be seriously scolded this time, so I carefully looked into the hole. The nasty wind blows up as usual, but on the contrary, it’s so ominous that I want to see what’s at the bottom of the hole.

I try to go down as far as I can.

“Huh?”

I thought I saw something shining in the middle of the hole, so I leaned forward to get a better look, and Percival grabbed me by the collar1.

“If you lean forward any further, you’ll fall.”

“But I saw something shining in the middle of the hole.”

“Oh, really?……Under the law of the Goddess, I exercise my power. Illuminate the darkness.”

When Gabriel-san chants, a light like a western lantern slowly descends into the abyss. As expected of the Commander of the Order of Magicians, the degree of magic is exquisite.

When the light has descended about two meters, something glows again.

“That’s it.”

“Pick it up.”

When Gabriel-san chanted, the light came close to the thing there and wrapped around it as if to suck it in, and this time it swooped up. When I try to reach for it, Gabriel-san stops me.

“Wait. It might be dangerous. Don’t touch it recklessly.”

“Oh, I see.”

The light picks up the mysterious object and disappears quickly as it falls to the ground. What was left behind was a black object shaped like a large, thin petal. I bend down to get a better look at it, which is glossy, and involuntarily leaned back.

“Ugh……!”

“Sapphiras?”

Thanks to Percival’s support, I barely managed to keep from tipping over.

The black thing has lost its colour and is about to become transparent, but it’s definitely a dragon’s scale. Moreover, no matter how you look at it, it is the scale of Insania Metus, the Black Flame Dragon of Calamity. Why would such an object fall into the depths of the royal capital forest?

“O-oi. What in the world is it……that you make a face like that? Is it something that bad?”

The redhead let out an anxious voice. It’s not bad, it’s insanely bad. It’s a calamity-grade thing. Depending on where these scales come from, the badness could be beyond imagination.

“Because redhead said some ominous things……”

“Eh? M-me?”

“What’s wrong, Sapphiras-kun? What’s wrong with this?”

Even Gabriel-san doesn’t know what this is? Certainly, I’m the only person in this era who has directly experienced the demonic energy emitted by Insania Metus. Once you are exposed to that magical energy, you will never forget it. It was indescribably hideous. I can certainly feel the same thing, albeit faintly, from these scales.

“I think these are the scales of Insania Metus.”

“Eh……?”

“The scales of the Dragon of Calamity……?”

“Th-That can’t be true! The dragon of Calamity was defeated a long time ago!”

Redhead says it best. I’m a 14-year-old Sapphiras, so it’s not at all persuasive to say that I confronted Insania Metus.”

“I can only say it’s my intuition, but……anyway, take these scales back and examine them.”

“Ye-yeah. Understood.”

Gabriel-san wraps the scales in a transparent sphere. Amazing, perfect defensive magic. With this, it seems that the magic will not leak out.

As for the aftermath of Insania Metus’ skeletal remains, some kind of record remains around the royal castle’s forbidden library, but I can’t sneak into a forbidden library I’ve never been to, so I’ll have to leave the rest to the experts.

If the previous outbreak of magical beasts was caused by these scales, it is highly likely that the magical beast disasters in the royal capital and Vanderwall were caused intentionally.

Insania Metus, the giant dragon that suddenly appeared and plunged the continent into crisis.

The demonic energy that envelops the dragon causes the magical beasts to go mad in large outbreaks. It uses powerful magic and hard scales that are almost impenetrable to man-made weapons. The vicious dragon, which rampages around with its huge body, destroys towns and eats the flesh of living creatures, was quite difficult to defeat even with my magic.

Even if the dragon and I, as a human, were evenly matched in magic, there is a clear difference in size and power. It was a battle to see who would run out of power first.

Without the help of my fellow Weathervane, I don’t know if I would have been able to defeat it.

After I had narrowly defeated Insania Mettus, I ran out of strength and collapsed. I slept for a few days and left the guild and the country to deal with the dragon’s wreckage. In the first place, I accidentally died before the demolition was finished, so it is correct to say that I had no way of knowing how the material was handled.

But more than half of it was burnt to charcoal. Considering the damage received from the Calamity Dragon, the amount of materials that could be recovered was probably small. I was also desperate, so I didn’t have time to think about the materials.

It would be fine if the scales were just the relic of a dragon, but it would be troublesome if they were the resurrection of the calamity dragon. Defeating him is no mean feat. Moreover, I am much weaker than I was in my previous life. When it comes to a long-term battle, I’ll be at a disadvantage.

……No, but wait.

Suddenly, I remember the wand on my waist. Now I have this tricorn staff. If I have this, maybe I can defeat it easier than last time? If that’s the case, then I’m not afraid of the calamity dragon. If you want, I don’t mind if you show up right now. If it does appear, it would be a good opportunity to see how powerful this wand is. Rather, if he appears, it will be a good opportunity to find out just how much power this wand has.

As I was secretly bubbling with anticipation, the second bark of Cu Sith roared through the forest. It seemed to be hunting down its prey. Cu Sith makes three barks when it captures its prey. The third bark is a signal that the prey is finally being hunted down.

“O-oi. That’s his voice, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I think he’s about to catch his prey.”

Seeing that Cu Sith, who was expected to return soon, has not returned, it seems to be enjoying chasing the suspicious person a lot. A person who evades the chasing of phantom beasts can’t be a person who just wandered into the forest.

I told Cu Sith not to kill. If he was here planning something, there is a great possibility that he will commit suicide when he is caught, but I am sure it will be able to catch him.

In light of this situation, it is certain that the scales and the cloaked suspicious person are somehow related, but no matter how you look at it, it doesn’t seem like a very good relationship.