Chapter 50
#50. The Hot-Spring Town's Guardian Deity
"You filthy monster bastard!!"
Galad of the Sky, a Mithril-rank adventurer.
Red aura slowly seeped from his body, which was clad in nothing but a single towel.
In broad daylight, in the very heart of a peaceful inn governed by the Grand Duke, a human was being skinned in a gruesome spectacle!
Galad kicked off from the bath and charged toward the body scrub room.
"Take your filthy hands off him this instant and let him go, orc!!"
Galad shouted so loudly that the bathhouse rang.
He wrapped aura around the edge of his hand. Just as he was about to bring it down on the orc's neck,
"……W-What, who are you?! What is all this commotion all of a sudden!?"
The man lying facedown on the bed and being butchered glared at Galad with a face flushed bright red.
He looked utterly dumbfounded.
It was not an expression one would expect from someone being rescued, at the very least.
"Hey, young man. No matter how urgent it is, you need to wait your turn!"
Galad stopped.
The sharp aura gathered at his fingertips lost its way and scattered into the air.
"……My turn?"
"That's right! I was in the middle of getting a nice, vigorous scrub, so what's all this ruckus!"
The middle-aged man clicked his tongue and lay facedown again.
Galad stared back and forth between the man's back and the object clutched in the orc's hand with a dazed expression.
What he had thought was a terrifying butcher's knife was merely something resembling a towel.
Though red aura was indeed swirling around it.
'……Getting a scrub?'
It was a term he had never heard before.
"Guest. Don't get in the way while I'm working. And if you run around dangerously, you'll get hurt."
The orc calmly said this while wiping away large beads of sweat.
It was speaking the human language.
And quite naturally, too.
"……."
Only then did Galad look around.
Orcs neatly dressed in blue employee uniforms. Orcs moving naturally among the guests, carrying towels and organizing baskets.
Not a single person was screaming or running away.
Rather, they were merely looking at Galad with pity.
"Ah, aah……."
Galad's face flushed with shame.
Only then did he begin to see objectively what he looked like, charging in while emitting aura with nothing but a towel wrapped around him.
'Ah, so that's what this was……. They're slaves. Slaves.'
Galad deliberately cleared his throat.
He had heard plenty about the rumor that Kylan Winterwald, the Monster Grand Duke of the North, had held off five thousand orc warriors.
Surely he had tamed the ones captured alive back then and put them to work at tasks like this.
But Galad's keen eyes soon picked up on something strange.
"……Hey. You there, if you're a slave, why don't you have a slave brand?"
When Imperials used orcs or other races as slaves, it was common practice to carve a brand into their foreheads or the backs of their necks so they could not rebel.
Unless it was a special case like Galad's mana contract with his wyvern.
No matter how immense the Monster Grand Duke's mana was, binding each and every captured orc with a contract would surely be far too cumbersome.
Yet the skin of the enormous orcs before him was covered only in scars.
Even after searching with his eyes, there was no trace of a brand anywhere.
In response to Galad's interrogation, the orc giving the scrub replied curtly.
"I, Karak, am no slave. I am a proud citizen of Winterwald."
“Whaaat? A citizen?”
Galad stared blankly at the orc for a moment.
"Pfft…… Puhahaha."
Galad burst out laughing.
"You sure are a funny one. A slave calling himself a citizen."
After chuckling for quite some time, the corners of Galad's mouth slowly began to droop.
Soon, every trace of laughter vanished from Galad's face.
"……An orc, of all things. How dare you."
A monster, a citizen of the domain?
Treating himself, a Mithril-rank adventurer from the South, like a fool was one thing, but this was too much.
"How dare a filthy monster try to pass itself off as a human!!"
Startled by his shout, the people inside the bathhouse began gathering one by one near the body scrub room.
Domain residents, merchants, and even adventurers who had been soaking in the hot bath.
Naked men gathered around, covering only their private parts with towels as they murmured among themselves.
"Good grief! Let's wash in peace, shall we!"
"What in tarnation's going on?"
"What's all the fuss? Did someone pee in the bath or something?"
Orc employees in blue uniforms also came thudding over.
Only then did Galad look at the expressions of the people surrounding him.
A Mithril-rank adventurer who had rescued innocent people from rampaging orc slaves whose brands had somehow come off.
Naturally, he expected to be met with admiring and respectful gazes.
'Ohhh! Great adventurer, you protected us from those rampaging orcs!'
'We love you, Sir Galad of the Sky! Sir Galad the Wyvern Warrior!!'
Galad had even prepared himself to modestly raise a hand in anticipation of the cheers that would pour forth.
But.
"Tsk tsk, must be some country bumpkin from the South. How dare he make trouble for the orc bath attendant?"
"I've been waiting forever, and that lunatic completely ruined the mood."
"Hey, young man! Don't shout in someone else's place of business; just get back in the bath!"
There was no respect for a hero in the crowd's eyes.
They had the look people gave to some nuisance who had gotten drunk and caused a scene in broad daylight…….
Like the eyes of people looking at a pathetic fool.
As the people continued voicing their irritation, Galad stood there dazed.
'W-What is this……! How dare they treat me, a Mithril-rank adventurer, like this……!'
What kind of treatment had he received in the South?
He had been a guest of the highest order, one whose arrival at a guild would send the guild master rushing out to greet him.
And yet he was being treated like this at some backwater hot spring in the North!
It was then, as Galad's face trembled with humiliation.
"Hey, guest. Calm down for now."
Some hulking figure approached from behind Galad.
[Bath Attendant Krok]
The employee's name was even helpfully embroidered on his clothes.
Krok extended a large hand to calm the rampaging Galad and lightly placed it on his shoulder.
"Everyone comes here to relax. If you shout, you'll scare the other guests."
What an astonishing sight—the orc was teaching a human about public etiquette!
But Galad's rage was too great for such common-sense words to reach him.
'Goddamn it……! How dare an orc try to teach a human!?'
In a momentary loss of reason, Galad released red aura and struck Krok's arm hard.
"Let go, you monster bastard!!"
A blow from a Mithril-rank adventurer infused with aura.
The attempt to calm him proved futile; Krok grunted and was sent staggering backward.
Crash!
Krok's enormous body rolled across the slippery tile floor.
The bath baskets and chairs piled up beside him went tumbling as well.
"Gasp!"
"M-Mr. Krok!!"
"This lunatic actually hit a person… no, an orc!?"
The bathhouse instantly descended into chaos.
The orcs rushed over to help Krok up, while the people pointed at Galad in horror.
Galad glared at the fallen Krok, huffing angrily.
"H-How dare an orc lay a hand on a Mithril adventurer! If you get on my nerves one more time, I'll really skin you……!"
It was at that very moment that Galad gave a living demonstration of what a nuisance customer was.
Ruuumble─!!
The floor began to shake noisily, as though an earthquake had struck.
"W-What is it?!"
"Was there a landslide nearby?!"
People screamed and dropped to the floor.
Swoooshhhhh!!
Along with the roar of rushing water, the hot-spring pool began swirling violently.
Before long, the hot-spring water surged into the sky like a waterspout.
[Gwooooooooooh!!]
The column of water began taking shape, and soon became a gigantic water dragon.
The Water Dragon that legend said slept somewhere in the South.
It had revealed itself at a hot spring in the North.
"Yongyongi!"
"The Great One is angry!"
"You're dead now. Mr. Krok and the Great One are so close!"
The guests who had come to enjoy the hot spring shouted excitedly, but Galad could hear nothing.
"H-Haaah……!"
Galad's breath caught in his throat.
Its enormous size. Its resounding roar.
The sturdy aura Galad had honed over his entire life scattered with ridiculous ease.
- Kyaaaaaaaah!
- W-Why is there a dragon…? We paid the tribute on time!
His hometown engulfed in flames. The screams of the people.
And the eyes of the dragon that had looked down at him with a savage expression.
The trauma of that day, which he had believed he had overcome, resurfaced the instant he faced the gigantic Water Dragon before him.
No matter how hard he struggled.
The despair of knowing that, even if he bet everything, he could never win.
Galad of the Sky, the Mithril-rank adventurer, had reverted to the weak little child he had been back then.
"D-Damn it……! A dragon… Why is there a dragon!?"
His voice cracked pathetically.
Saliva and tears ran down his face.
Galad backed away trembling, stepped on a patch of slippery soap foam rolling across the floor, and slipped.
"Aaaaargh!"
Galad landed hard on his backside and flailed naked on the floor.
That was when it happened.
- Eeeeeeeeeeeek!
The cry of a wyvern rang out inside Galad's head.
His crisis had been conveyed through their mana link.
A short while later, a huge shadow fell over the bathhouse.
The appearance of Zephar, Galad's soul partner and the ruler of the southern skies!
"Z-Zephar!"
Galad approached his partner, trembling all over.
Zephar, who had once led a pack of wyverns, could carry Galad away and escape the Water Dragon's attack.
"Kieeeeeeeeeek!"
The wyvern opened its jaws wide and roared threateningly.
But Zephar's valiant appearance did not last long.
[Grrrrrrrr…… How dare you cause a ruckus in my territory.]
The Water Dragon began absorbing not only the moisture in the air but also the hot-spring water in the nearby inn, causing its body to grow larger.
Zephar was by no means small.
At first, it seemed as though he might be able to hold his own for a while.
But as time passed, the situation began to tilt more and more one-sidedly.
- Sssssssss.
The Water Dragon grew large enough to completely cover the bathhouse, then exhaled and looked down at the wyvern.
"……W-Whine?"
Zephar's pupils shook as though an earthquake had struck.
The moment he locked eyes with the gigantic Water Dragon, his wings began to tremble, and he tucked his tail between his legs.
Then he flattened himself against the floor, belly down, like a dog waiting for its master.
"Whiiiiine…….(Please save me…….)"
"……Z-Zephar?! You crazy bastard! How can you lie down now?! Fight!"
Galad shouted, spitting as he spoke, but Zephar merely turned his head away to avoid his master's gaze.
Master or no master, obeying a dragon was the survival law of monsters.
"Ooooooh!!"
"The Great One has subdued the wyvern that invaded the bathhouse!!"
"Hoorayyyyy! The guardian deity of the hot-spring town!"
"Long live Yongyongiiii!!"
A naked nuisance adventurer trembling in fear, a wyvern prostrating itself in submission,
and a gigantic Water Dragon looking down upon them both.
The people went wild at the exhilarating sight and shouted Yongyongi's name until their throats were raw.
The reputation of Galad, once known as the Wyvern Warrior, plunged through the floor and into the earth that day.