Chapter 30
In the forest southeast of the royal capital of the Ridill Kingdom, Glen Dudley walked briskly.
Every so often, he stopped to look around, then cupped a hand around his mouth and shouted in a ridiculously loud voice.
"Dragon! Dragon! Come out, come out!"
Even after listening intently for a while, all he heard was an echo calling back, come out, come out... No dragon cries or wingbeats could be heard.
Glen lowered his shoulders with a sigh.
"Ugh, they're so hard to find... They come swarming out whenever I don't want them to."
Just as he was tilting his head, wondering whether he needed to prepare bait or something, he heard a rustling sound from the bushes ahead.
Could it be a dragon? Glen braced himself, but a human hand shot out of the bushes and then fell limply to the ground.
"...Is someone there...?"
It was a person. Glen hurried to the bushes, grabbed the hand lying on the ground, and pulled.
Like yanking a turnip from the ground, a young man in his mid-twenties popped out of the bushes. He was dressed for travel and had a sword hanging at his waist.
The young man's dull golden hair swayed as he looked up at Glen with vacant gray eyes.
"Ah, I'm sorry. Could you... spare me some water...?"
"Water? Sure thing!"
Glen took out his waterskin and pressed it into the young man's hand. The young man thanked him in a hoarse voice and took only a tiny sip. He was such a reserved young man; he could have simply gulped it down.
On closer inspection, the young man's clothes bore embroidery in the Imperial style.
Though he spoke fluent Ridillian, he might have been from the Empire.
The young man who seemed to be from the Empire drank a little at a time, then sighed and returned the waterskin to Glen.
"Thank you. You saved me. A dragon slashed my waterskin to pieces on the road, and I've been having a difficult time."
"A dragon!? There was a dragon around here!?"
At Glen's shout, the young man looked taken aback and gently calmed him in a mild voice.
"Yes, there was a dragon, but there's no need to worry now. Um... it seems to have fled far away already."
"Whaaaaaat!? It got away!?"
The young man looked puzzled by Glen's disappointment upon hearing that the dragon had fled. He had probably thought Glen was afraid of dragons.
"Is it a problem if the dragon gets away?"
"I'm looking for a dragon..."
Glen tousled his golden-brown curls and frowned.
There was a reason the butcher's son, Glen Dudley, was searching for a dragon.
"Actually, I recently passed the novice mage exam."
"That is quite an achievement for one so young."
"So when I told my master, he said, 'Then go hunt a dragon right away.'"
"............What?"
The young man pressed a finger to his brow, his face filled with confusion.
"Um, my apologies. I thought I had a decent command of Ridillian, but perhaps I didn't hear you correctly... Um, after you passed the novice mage exam, your master..."
"When I told him I'd passed, my master said, 'If you've passed the novice mage exam, then how could you not hunt one or two dragons?'"
The young man widened his gray eyes and was left speechless.
Naturally. Glen had been speechless the first time he heard it, too.
At the outrageous statement from Glen's master, the traveling young man said in a deeply serious tone, "Good heavens..."
"I had heard the mages of the Ridill Kingdom were highly capable... but I had no idea they had all overcome such harsh trials."
Of course, Louis was about the only person who would say something that absurd.
Dragon subjugation was generally carried out by several mages and dragon knights working together.
However, if someone individually subjugated a dragon with a bounty posted on its head, they could receive a reward from the local lord. As a result, there were also specialist hunters who made a living slaying dragons on their own. Apparently, Louis had made a fortune doing so in his younger days.
Dragon scales and fangs were highly valued as materials for magical implements. Scales shed by living dragons, in particular, fetched a higher price than those peeled from a corpse.
"My master says, 'It doesn't matter if you can't defeat a dragon; just bring back at least a fang or a scale,' but I can't seem to find one."
"I see... So that's how it is..."
The young man murmured, "I've done something wrong," under his breath. It sounded more like a soliloquy than words meant for Glen to hear.
What was he so concerned about? As Glen wondered, the young man rummaged through his clothes, pulled something out, and held it out to Glen.
It was a scale about the size of a child's palm. It was a dull brown, but translucent like crystal, and looked orange when light struck it.
"If you don't mind, please accept this as thanks for the water."
"Whoa!? This is an earth dragon's scale, right!?"
"Yes. I picked it up when I was attacked just now. Since it was shed by a living dragon, it should be high quality... My master should be satisfied."
The young man's offer was welcome, but this was far too much in exchange for some water.
Glen vigorously shook his head.
"I can't accept something this fine for just some water!"
"However, this is about all I have to offer."
"In times of trouble, we help each other! So come on, put it away!"
The young man looked troubled by Glen's insistence, but then his expression brightened as though he had thought of something, and he made a proposal.
"Then I'll give you this scale, so in exchange, could you guide me? I'm unfamiliar with the area, and, shamefully, I've gotten lost..."
"If that's all, easy peasy! Where are you headed?"
When Glen thumped his chest, the young man looked relieved and said, "The Albright family's residence."
The Albright family. Glen felt as though he had heard the name somewhere before, but where? He tilted his head in puzzlement.
"Hmmmm, the Albright family... The Albright family... Um, I feel like I know them, but... who were they again...?"
"I was told they are famous in this country. Apparently, the one who lives there is... a curse mage, or something..."
At the words "curse mage," Glen finally remembered.
In this country, the first name that came to mind when one heard the words "curse mage" was Ray Albright, one of the Seven Sages, the 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉.
And Glen had once been helped by this 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉.
Two years earlier, when the cursed-dragon incident occurred in Duke Laneburg's territory, it was the 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉 who treated Glen's curse. In other words, he was Glen's lifesaver.
"I remember now! The purple guy!"
"...Purple? Um, if you don't mind my asking, what sort of person is the 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉-dono?"
To tell the truth, Glen had never had a proper conversation with the 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉.
The 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉 had finished treating Glen while he was asleep, and whenever Glen tried to speak to him, he would hurriedly leave for somewhere else.
A year and a half earlier, at the Supreme Council, the 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉 had also helped by holding Louis back. But even then, Glen had never met him directly.
That was why Glen knew the 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉 only as "Monica's purple-haired friend."
Naturally, he had no idea what kind of person he was... but then something occurred to Glen.
Louis had once told him about the 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉, hadn't he?
"I remember! My master said he's the kind of person who corners any young woman he makes eye contact with and asks, 'Are you in love with me?' without discrimination!"
At that moment, the back of Glen's neck prickled. He rubbed it with his hand, unnerved by the mysterious chill.
The traveling young man had a hand on his sword hilt and was muttering something. It was a language Glen did not know, presumably the language of the Empire.
When Glen tentatively called out, "Um...?" the young man slowly raised his face. His expression was extremely grim.
Until moments ago, he had seemed vaguely helpless, but now his gray eyes were narrowed fiercely.
Glen knew that look. It was the same look Louis wore in battle.
"...It seems I had better hurry. I realize this is presumptuous, but may I ask you to guide me there as quickly as possible?"
"R-right, understood."
Glen instinctively straightened his back and nodded.
Only then did he remember that he did not know the young man's name.
"Er, traveler, what's your name? Oh, I'm Glen Dudley, by the way."
After Glen introduced himself, the young man bowed deeply and gave his name with the deference one would show a lord.
"I sincerely apologize for taking so long to introduce myself. I am Henrik Blanke. Though I am still young, I serve as the Margrave of Valmberg."
Behind the young man, on the other side of the bushes, lay the corpses of three earth dragons.
Their massive bodies were each considerably larger than a full-grown cow, covered in sturdy scales that deflected blades and magic.
At the only vulnerable spot between their brows, all three bore wounds made by a sword.