"I am so, so sorry!!!"
"Hahaha... It's fine, it's fine. I mean, it's a pretty common story, honestly."
It turned out the dragon crashing into the hot spring was also a first for the inn.
The dragon was apparently an endemic species that normally lived in the mountains outside of town. It had been twelve years since one had wandered into the city, and this was the first time anyone had ever gotten into this particular inn's hot spring.
Well, duh. You couldn't exactly run an inn where dragons kept showing up in the hot spring every other day.
The main cause seemed to be the bandits — they'd scared away all the people, and the guards had gotten slack as a result. Still, I forgave the bowing, half-dead-looking inn staff with a smile.
Accidents were par for the course for Hunters. I'd experienced lost dragons, lost cyclopes, lost treasure halls — I had no gaps in my experience. My luck had just been terrible.
Sometimes I even had this ridiculous delusion that things kept getting drawn toward me.
If the guest hadn't been a Hunter, this could have ended in fatalities. But nobody had actually died, so as long as they were more careful going forward, that was fine.
Having taken down the dragon without a scratch, the only thing I was worried about now was Tinno's mental state.
Even after getting dressed, Tinno still had that hollow, exhausted look in his eyes. I called out to him a few times, but he didn't respond with his usual smile.
The fight had broken out with zero warning, so being completely naked was unavoidable, and I'd tried my best to avert my eyes the whole time, but someone Tinno's age was bound to be pretty shaken up by that.
Liliz didn't care about that kind of thing at all, so I'd forgotten what it was like to have normal sensibilities.
"Oh, I know! Let's have Boiled Dragon for today!"
"Huh!? You're going to... eat the dragon!?"
Citry clapped her hands together with a beaming smile, and Tinno — who had been looking thoroughly dejected — raised his head.
Dragons weren't exactly a common food. They were rare, and every part — blood, meat, bone — sold for top price.
But our Party wasn't exactly focused on profit, so the day we took down a dragon, it was tradition to eat part of it right then and there.
I couldn't remember how the tradition started, but since our little pack of wild children would eat absolutely anything — centipedes, spiders, you name it — a dragon was actually mild by comparison.
"Hey, Klye-san. You like dragon too, right, Klye-san? Today is Tea-chan's first dragon!"
Citry chirped brightly, steering the conversation Tinno's way. His eyes went wide in panic.
It looked like a strategy to shift Tinno's attention to something positive and make him forget the bad memories. Or maybe she was just being genuine. Either way, I was fully on board.
"Mm-hm, dragon is delicious. I'm looking forward to it."
Citry's cooking was amazing no matter what the ingredient, and honestly, I appreciated that we didn't have to camp out in the wilderness when we could stay at an inn — but I wouldn't mention that. And I wouldn't mention that she probably didn't need to cook here either. I'd just let the compliments pile on.
"Tinno, you were really strong. Great job, seriously."
"Th-that's... very kind of you."
Tinno looked down, answering in a small voice. Embarrassed, but also happy. One more push and he'd be fine.
Citry, getting into the spirit of it, piled on further encouragement.
"Fighting a dragon with no weapon, no armor, in nothing but your skin — Tea-chan was so incredibly brave, wasn't she?"
"Mm-hm, totally... wait, what?"
"......!!"
Tinno, who had been starting to recover, started shaking all over again. He hunched over, his face turning beet red up to his ears, and shuffled away from me.
No, I wasn't looking. I wasn't looking, I swear. Besides, with the dragon thrashing around, I didn't exactly have the luxury of sitting back and enjoying the show. I hadn't let it show on my face, and I hadn't done anything to stare, but in that moment, I had been panicking.
Citry flashed me a knowing wink. I wanted to protest, but Tinno was right there, so I swallowed it with a quiet sigh.
"Wait... a dragon showed up in the hot spring!?"
Liliz returned from her search and, upon hearing the full story, went wide-eyed.
She'd gone looking up in the mountains, but apparently came up empty. Yet a dragon had appeared right here while we weren't even looking for one. Life really didn't go the way you planned.
Tinno sat in seiza on the tatami mats in the room, hunched into himself, stealing glances up at his master with a wary expression.
He looked nervous — did he think she was angry about losing the kill? Liliz wouldn't do that.
Liliz had been listening to my account with a serious expression, but the moment she heard that Tinno had won a fierce battle against the hot spring dragon while completely naked, her face bloomed like a flower into a radiant smile, and she pounced on the seiza-sitting Tinno.
She grabbed him in a hug, ruffling his head with rough, affectionate scratches.
"Yaaay! Congrats on your first dragon, Tinno! You're officially a 'Dragon Slayer' now too!"
"Huh? Wha—?"
"We have to celebrate with dragon meat today! Right, Klye-chan?"
"Mm-hm, definitely."
"Huh? W-wait — is that... is that how it works?"
Tinno looked to me in total bewilderment at his master's enthusiasm. I had no idea this was a thing, but if Liliz said it, it must be a thing.
Liliz was in the best mood she'd been in for ages. She was probably bursting with pride at her disciple's growth. And that growth reflected well on her as a master too.
She slapped Tinno on the back with a few hearty whacks, then frowned a little.
"But I really wish you'd done it while I was there. It's such a milestone moment, and I missed it —"
"If you were there, you would've killed it yourself! We've slain so many dragons by now, it's old news."
...Well, she wouldn't have been able to hold back, and if she hadn't killed it, we probably wouldn't have made it home alive...
The way she said it made it sound like she'd deliberately held back to let her cute disciple have the kill, and Tinno's eyes went wide. But Citry was probably just talking off the top of her head.
She was meticulous about almost everything, but she wasn't the type who enjoyed straight-up brawling. In every fight up to now, Luke, Liliz, or Anthem had always been up front when Citry engaged. She was a backliner at heart.
"Aww. Klye-chan, let's go back to the hot spring together! I wanna fight a dragon too!"
"Nope, not happening."
They'd said they were going to beef up security across the whole city, and besides, a second dragon probably wouldn't show up anyway.
The main bathhouse had taken massive damage and would be closed for a while, so we'd have to make do with our rooms' private baths for the rest of our stay. If a dragon showed up in someone's private outdoor bath, it'd really be over.
As if I'd ever agree to fight a dragon just because someone asked — but Liliz pouted at me anyway.
"Heyyy!? It's so unfair how you're favoring Tea-chan lately! Klye-chan, aren't you being way too nice to just Tea?"
"!?"
"He's right, you know... Klye-san, which one of us matters more — Tea-chan or me? You have to answer honestly!"
"!?"
Tinno looked between Liliz, whose head was clearly stuffed with dragons, and Citry, who was stirring up trouble with a grin, and utterly lost his composure.
If he could put it into words, it'd probably be something like, "Huh? Wait — I'm being favored?" Letting yourself get swept up in high-level Hunter logic was a dangerous thing...
But fortunately, he was starting to perk up a little. Best to forget bad things and move on.
Then Liliz suddenly looked suspicious and peered down at her disciple.
"But wait — was Tea strong enough to beat a dragon barehanded? Don't tell me you were slacking off during my training?"
"!?! N-no, Lady Liliz! I mean, um, well..."
That was something I'd been wondering too.
Tinno had talent, and he'd been put through training that bordered on torture under Liliz. But he was still Level 4, and this was his first dragon.
The title of "Dragon Slayer" had stuck because dragons existed on a fundamentally different level of power.
The dragon in the hot spring had a ridiculous name and was probably the lowest tier of dragon, but even so, it wasn't something you could beat while naked without real strength.
Tinno's lips trembled for a moment, then he cautiously looked my way and spoke in a small voice.
"Um... well, ever since the mask — Master's mask — took control of me, my body feels lighter, and... I think I understand how to move it a little better, maybe?"
Seriously? That mask was supposed to draw out latent potential, but it could do something like that too?
Now that he mentioned it, Tinno's movements while wearing that mask had been extraordinary. He'd actually gone toe-to-toe with Liliz — even if only temporarily, when normally she'd demolish him completely. He'd been conscious during it, so it wasn't impossible that Tinno remembered how his body had moved.
Hey, don't screw around. Draw out my latent potential too. Show me what you've got.
Finally, Tinno shrank into himself and said, almost as if pleading for forgiveness.
"I-I don't... want to wear it again, though... No."
"Ohh. So it has that kind of effect? Klye-chan, let me try it too!"
"!?"
Same old Liliz — her appetite for strength was insatiable.
I handed over the mask — the Evolving Ogre Mask — without resistance, since it had been rolled up and tucked away. Tinno's eyes went wide as Liliz examined it with great interest, then unhesitatingly pulled it on.
The mask's tentacles stretched back and anchored to the back of her head. Citry watched the whole process with keen curiosity.
Liliz went silent for a while after putting on the mask, then let out an exaggerated sigh and ripped the tentacles off with brute force, yanking the mask free.
She handed it back and shrugged.
"Can't use it. Apparently it boosts abilities beyond approved limits, so they told me it can't be distributed for security reasons."
"......!! Oh, now that you mention it, Master said something about that too —"
Tinno looked at me in sudden realization, but no — it was the exact opposite.
You saw how half-hearted those tentacles were when I wore them, right? Total night-and-day difference compared to how aggressively they'd latched onto Liliz.
So there was a minimum and a maximum. A trickier Treasure Weapon than I'd imagined. It really was meant for Tinno alone, wasn't it.
Just then, Citry clapped her hands together twice and announced with a full smile: "Let's put the mask aside for now and focus on the celebration! The inn is in our debt, so they'll probably let us use the kitchen and go along with just about anything. Boiled dragon, everyone! Boiled dragon made from a hot spring dragon!"
It was almost as if the dragon had been boiled in the hot spring...
But I had no objections. When something bad happened, you overwrite it with something fun — that was the Hunter way.
Looking at Liliz, who was in high spirits over her disciple's growth, and Tinno, who seemed to be lost in thought, I stood up with a relaxed feeling.
"What's the matter?"
"I'm gonna go grab Hairo and the others. A dragon is way too much for just us to eat, and celebrations are better with a bigger crowd, right?"
We hadn't exactly been on great terms with Hairo and his group since leaving the capital. We hadn't shared any meals, and I'd barely run into them around town.
They were criminals, and there were probably circumstances I didn't understand behind why they'd been following us, but they'd driven us all this way. The least I could do was show some appreciation at the end.