This is bad. What is Citry thinking?
I sprinted through the wide, spacious corridor. The escorting knights were putting up a solid fight — several Chil.dragon corpses lay scattered across the floor.
Among the imperial guards were mages as well. The emperor's personal guard were said to be the elite of the elite, handpicked for their abilities given the current emperor's temperament.
In terms of dungeon exploration, they might not match up to hunters, but they should have had plenty of training in VIP protection.
On the third floor, at the far end before the emperor's chambers, a fierce battle was raging. Over a dozen Chil.dragons swarmed before the door, where several knights had taken up positions to block their advance.
But the enemy had numbers on their side. The agile Chil.dragons evaded swords and spears alike. The cold aura they emanated sluggish people's movements, and even blocking the long-range ice breath with shields, the residual chill alone sapped one's stamina.
I stopped for a moment at the sight, and couldn't help but groan.
"It seems His Majesty has about as much luck as I do."
"Is that really what you should be saying right now?!"
"Comfortable Vacation" was nearly devoid of defensive power, but it offered remarkable resistance to environmental changes. Being hit by a chunk of ice would kill me, but cold air alone? Easy. I was glad I'd worn it.
Still, I never expected to find another man swarmed by dragons. The Chil.dragon I'd encountered years ago had been more numerous and larger, so this time was comparatively better, but I still felt an inexplicable sense of kinship.
One of the knights spotted us and called out in a strained voice.
"About time! Deal with these things! There are more inside!"
Easy for you to say...
Cruse was exhausted, and my combat power was zero. They were managing to hold their own, so I hoped they'd keep at it.
Panting heavily, Cruse pointed his twisted long staff. Almost simultaneously, a red mass shot past right beside me.
"Kirukilu, Kirukilu, Kirukilu...!"
It was a veritable crimson whirlwind. The Killnight Version Alpha, entrusted to me by Citry, rushed toward the Chil.dragons at incredible speed — without anyone even operating the controller — and as the Chil.dragons faltered at the sudden intruder, it swung the great sword gripped in both hands downward.
"You don't need orders, huh."
The knights gaped at the berserker's intrusion, but I simply gave a broad nod, unfazed.
As expected from what Citry had entrusted me. If Citry was the one who'd sent the Chil.dragons, it made perfect sense that the Killnight could overwhelm them.
The Killnight was outfitted in what looked like heavy knight's armor, but its fighting style was more akin to a wild beast.
It charged headfirst through the ice breath, using its body to send charging Chil.dragons flying the other way. Even for a vitality-bursting heavy warrior, taking on a dragon in a head-on collision was no small feat.
Cruse and the escorting knights were both dumbfounded. The Chil.dragons were probably just as stunned. The ones that had been persistently trying to force their way into the room shifted their targets to the Killnight. Massive chunks of ice slammed into its armor, freezing the leg plating white. Yet its movements never slowed.
Even wearing armor, the cold should have been eating away at its body, but it acted as though it felt no pain whatsoever. Astonishing endurance.
"Wh-where did you bring this thing from?" Cruse asked me.
"Hm? Well... it's like a connection, you could say."
I'd need to feed it plenty of raw meat later.
The knights, snapping back to their senses, reinforced the Killnight and took down the Chil.dragons one by one, carefully. Cruse, through sheer willpower, cast fire magic to warm the air.
It didn't take long for the Chil.dragons that had been swarming the room to be eliminated.
A battered knight confronted me — the one who'd done nothing this entire time. Trembling at the thought I might be scolded, I was met with his desperate plea.
"Protect what's inside. We'll hold this position to the death. Those things will come through the windows."
"Wait... we agreed I was just on support—"
"Is that really what you should be saying right now?!"
Cruse grabbed my arm, and we entered the room.
The room prepared for the emperor was more than twice as large as the one we'd been given. Fine furnishings, a bright chandelier — the interior was that of a noble's mansion, though it was now in complete disarray.
His Majesty was in the bedroom. He was surrounded by over a dozen knights, including Franz, with Chil.dragon corpses strewn everywhere.
The terrace-facing window had been shattered, and a barricade had been constructed from the king-sized bed, but the room was so spacious that the gaps couldn't be fully sealed.
Franz spotted my face and called out in a loud voice.
"Finally... what the hell is going on out there?!"
"...Sorry, sorry. There are tons more outside too. I don't know exactly what happened, but next time we should book an inn with barrier wards."
His Majesty appeared to be unharmed, though his entire body was splattered with blue blood. On his back, he was shielding a familiar-looking girl — the emperor's daughter who'd tricked me at the white-sword gathering.
Noticing my gaze, the emperor furrowed his brow and showed me the sword in his hand.
The blade was wet.
"I cut down three. It's been a while since I swung a sword, but it seems I haven't lost my touch."
"!?"
He cut them down? His Majesty? Dragons?
...He's clearly stronger than me.
A dragon slayer.
Do I really need to be here after all?
Through the gaps in the barricade, a Chil.dragon lunged, and a barrage of magic from the imperial mages struck it. Bolts of powerful lightning reduced the Chil.dragon to charred remains as it fell. Truly worthy of the emperor's personal guard — formidable skill. Do I really need to be here after all?
Franz asked in a rough voice.
"Hey, when is this attack going to end?! We've finally thinned their numbers, but is it over?! A flock of Chil.dragons appearing in the middle of town — that's impossible!"
"Um... could it be a curse?"
"Don't be ridiculous! What kind of curse could do this?!"
This incident was Citry's doing, but the Crimson Dragon from before had been something else entirely. Having things happen one after another like this, you'd think we were cursed. It had to be me, didn't it.
Then I had a good idea. I put on a somber expression and nodded sagely.
"This is the fox's doing. Without a doubt."
"...How is the dragon being controlled?! Is it magic?! What about Stillwater?!"
"Calm down. Their numbers are dwindling, aren't they? It should be ending soon."
Even for Citry, gathering this many Chil.dragons in such a short time should have been difficult.
No sooner had I said that with confidence than one of the knights watching from the window let out something like a scream.
"Bad news... C-commander... an incredible number... are coming."
"What?!"
I rushed to the window.
Black dots had spread across the sky. They looked like a dark fog, but instead of descending on the town, they were heading straight toward us.
A flock of Chil.dragons. Not a hundred or two hundred. Citry, this is way too many!
Individually, they weren't that strong, but with numbers like that, an inn like this would be reduced to rubble in an instant.
The emperor's expression had turned grim. If it were me, seeing this for the first time, I'd definitely be throwing up — but for the ruler of a great nation, his composure was something else.
"So it... wasn't over yet, Thousand Transformations?"
"You did it again, didn't you, you lying human?!"
"...Easy, easy, calm down."
How was I supposed to know if it was over or not? Should I have announced that a massive flock was coming? Huh?
Franz, however, didn't press me further and instead issued orders to his subordinate knights.
"Prepare His Majesty's evacuation! There should be a passage underground!"
"Bu-but, the Chil.dragons are still outside—"
"Better than facing that flock! Thousand Transformations — if it comes to this, you'll have to earn your keep too!"
"...Of course."
I didn't want to deal with it, but I couldn't slack off now that it had come to this.
Besides, my odds of surviving were better with everyone than alone. After all, I couldn't do anything.
Even the Killnight would struggle against a flock that large. Cruse had gone quieter than usual.
Now, how to proceed — the flock of Chil.dragons descended upon us like ants drawn to bait. They were already within my visual range. Fleeing on a carpet probably wouldn't help anyway — it never listened.
As I put my brain to work for the first time in a while, Franz spoke to me.
"Thousand Transformations — can you handle those?"
"Huh...?"
"We'll escort His Majesty to the underground shelter. You — draw their attention as much as possible! Understood?!"
Ugh...
Could I do it? No — could I do it?
I mean, judging purely by level, I probably did look like the reliable one, so maybe it was a reasonable call, but the sheer audacity of it made me laugh.
I can't do that. I mean, sure, I couldn't escort the emperor underground either, but facing that flock was completely out of the question.
"Wh-what are you laughing about—"
Without reading the room, I couldn't help but crack a smile. Franz approached me with a stiff expression.
I was about to take a step back from the sheer pressure when one of the knights who'd been checking outside the window let out a short cry.
Everyone's gaze turned that way. Franz's expression changed completely.
"What happened?!"
The massive flock of Chil.dragons, which had been approaching at high speed, had frozen completely in midair.
Open jaws, large wings, gleaming eyes — all held perfectly still. It was nothing short of a miracle, as though time itself had stopped.
The knights leaned out the windows to look at the sky. As if waiting for precisely that moment, the flock of dragons dropped all at once.
But instead of hitting the ground, the falling dragons were caught by a membrane of water that had suddenly spread across the air.
Cruse trembled, watching the spectacle with rapt attention.
"Large-scale... offensive magic...!"
!!
Large-scale offensive magic — I'd heard that the wider the area offensive magic covered, the greater the difficulty. In this entire Dark Pot party, there was only one person who could deploy large-scale attack magic on this scale capable of taking down dragons.
Franz trembled, his face pale, and whispered the name.
"Stillwater... w-what... is this magic?"
That's right. Term Apocris of Stillwater. Our party had a level 7 mage.
I wanted to pat myself on the back for adding Term to the Dark Pot. I'd narrowly escaped death. I let out a sigh of relief.
"You're finally here. Honestly, you're too slow."
For once, I really thought it was over. I wiped the cold sweat from my brow.
"Already... you had it in place... you'd made arrangements... you read all of this?"
I'd have liked to look cool and say something like "I read everything perfectly," but unfortunately, I hadn't read a thing.
"No, I didn't make any arrangements. I just... believed in Term."
Pretty hard-boiled, right?
Cruse shouted through tears.
"You weakling, cut it out! Tell us in advance next time!"
"Ahaha, ahahahaha..."
The membrane that had caught the Chil.dragons writhed, compressing into a massive water sphere containing all the dragons within.
Without stopping, it began to slowly shrink. The Chil.dragons trapped inside thrashed about and screamed, but their movements couldn't halt it.
The water sphere compressed everything within. The once-transparent sphere grew streaked with green blood as flesh was crushed and bones shattered — the sounds were so gruesome you'd want to cover your ears.
A terrifyingly brutal spell, hard to imagine from Stillwater's epithet. Everyone was transfixed by the savage magic.
And just like that, the Chil.dragon flock that had tormented us so thoroughly was wiped out as though it had been a joke.
*** "I heard dragons were coming, but I never expected that many... At level 8, everyone sure knows how to work people hard."
"Ukekekeke..."
Term returned, bringing Kechachachka along, who had been absent. It seemed they'd been fighting elsewhere — their black robe was stained with green blood.
Despite their words, their expression showed no sign of fatigue. The magic had looked incredibly powerful, but I supposed that was what being level 7 meant. They moved with a spring in their step, looking less than half my age.
"...Well done, Stillwater. It looks like that was the last of them. Thanks to you, no one died."
"Don't worry about it. You specifically requested me, after all... but the real problem starts now."
At Franz's words, Stillwater shrugged.
A nice middle-aged man, definitely. He should have been the leader from the start.
The commotion had finally settled down. The Chil.dragon corpses and rubble had been cleared away, and the room was empty again. The injured were receiving treatment.
Stillwater turned to scan the faces of the party members and continued.
"The Chil.dragons targeted this inn first — they were clearly being controlled by something. No one died only because we were lucky. If this scale of attack continues, people will die."
"...I can't very well miss the summit. However, Your Majesty... I agree with Stillwater. If we're concerned about your safety, there is no option to continue as planned."
Franz addressed the emperor with a resolute voice.
I quickly raised my hand to interject.
"W-wait a minute!"
"!?"
The emperor fixed his gaze on me. Franz and even Term were looking my way.
Admittedly, Term's reasoning was sound. Franz's judgment was perfectly natural for an imperial guard.
But I had one piece of information they didn't. Personally, I agreed with them and wanted to return to the capital, but it wasn't that simple.
Citry was behind this incident. If we pulled out of the summit, it would mean Citry had succeeded in forcing the cancellation of a critical meeting with another nation.
I wanted to avoid that. That would make Citry a terrorist.
Citry was a good kid. This was just a slight misunderstanding — normally she'd never do something like this. If I explained things to her, she'd never do it again.
Pressing my aching stomach, I spoke with as much hard-boiled composure as I could muster.
"We shouldn't cancel. If we pull out of the summit because of this, it means the terrorist who sent the dragons has won. We should press on. A flock of Chil.dragons? That was just a light jab. As you can see, no one died, and in my assessment, we have more than enough combat power. If you absolutely insist on canceling... then regretfully, I'll follow the client's wishes."