《Reincarnated As A Dragon Vol.1: A New World, A New Life》Chapter 25: The Darkness Lurking
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I just finished a job that wanted me to murder my own species. I, a dragon, got a mission to kill another dragon.
Long story short, Girmold gave me a mission that he didn't look at himself. Although he said, "I got you a mission one tier down so you could have a break from yesterday," He didn't realize that he gave me a mission to kill other lesser dragons a quarter-hour flight away from the town. I was conflicted but remembered that my kind fight each other for territory and because of different families. So if they kill just for that, it won't be a big difference if I kill them for justice... Right?
Makes me question what the hell justice is.
It's supposed to be an intermediate-class mission, but they made it low-challenging because of the distance away from the guild and how much I had to travel through the forest. That means I've cheated the system by flying.
How hard is intermediate and challenging class again? That's a lot of info to remember... I need to start remembering classes by their tier instead.
The dragons found me flying first and tried to murder me in cold blood, and that settles my inner turmoil on whether to kill them or not. There was two adults and probably four others who are their children, who are also already triple my size. They didn't have any magic so the job was a breeze. I brought their horns and teeth as proof.
When I came back, I vented on Girmold on how the job he gave me made me question my morals and he was absolutely oblivious to what he did, which made me even more frustrated. I eventually gave up when the maniac laughed when I explained that he got me a job to kill my own species.
He then told me to fill up the mission paper, trying to not repeat the rookie mistake he missed last time.
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I was waiting in the treetops for Girmold to tell me how I did at my job. But then when I saw him come out of the guild, he was still holding a piece of paper, but both bags of proof were gone. I slithered down the tree and met him.
"What happened? Did I do something wrong?!"
"No, not really. I just forgot to tell you about filling this paper up," He said while handing me the paper again. That's when I knew why there were empty parts of the document whit 'Name: ' and 'Date: '.
"I'll fill it up for ya," He said while pulling out a bottle of ink and a feather-pen.
"Wait, I wanna try something," I said as I dipped a claw into his ink.
"What're you doin-" He paused as I started writing my new full name, Troy Everard, but paused on the date.
"What date is it?"
"13th of June, year 214."
I wrote that down and looked at my writing. Shit, it's fucking ugly.
I looked at it for a second time and realized that this is my signature handwriting. Handwriting which only I can read. My handwriting has always been shit. It never improved since I was 7. And looking at my handwriting again gave me nostalgia.
Girmold snapped me out of it, "Next time, let me write it. Your handwriting is close to the worst I've seen."
I gave him a look of 'Don't you dare', "AHAHAHAHAHAHA no. This is my handwriting, was my handwriting, and always will be my handwriting." I said that a bit too proudly since my writing was probably close to a doctor's writing except that it is just bad, not professional.
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"Then I damn well do hope that your handwriting gets better for your own good," he said while taking the sheet of paper back. I could see by the look on his face that he still wants to write it down instead of me, but I couldn't give a flying fuck right now.
*~*~*~*~*~*(it's both the end of flashback and a timeskip)*~*~*~*~*~*
Another relaxing day at the spa. I have my friends Bob and Dave by my sides. We ain't gay. We just chillin' around like the bros we are.
Hey Bob, cheers! I clanked my rock glass against his. Mine has some berry juice in it while his was empty.
Dave, how's life been?
Of course, this is all happening in my head. If anyone else saw this, I would be relaxing in my spring on top of my cave in between two humanoid rock sculptures with only half their torso and their head out of the water.
Damn, I'm weird as fuck, and yet I'm proud of it. I can't help but chuckle to myself, that is until something abruptly ruined my relaxing moment.
I suddenly felt a wave of unease and fear jolt through me as my instincts tell me to run, yet I stay rooted to my spot and slowly looked around for any clue where it came from.
That's when I noticed that birds have been squawking for a few seconds along with the distressed sounds of other animals. I looked in the direction my sharp ears told me to and saw some birds flying away from a spot to all directions.
That's when I went to investigate.
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As I stepped through the portal I made, I hear grass and leaves crumple under my feet as the sweet scent of wood and nature tingles my nose. In my nation, such a habitat wouldn't isn't common and will never be as lush as this forest.
As I take in the view that I would cherish, I see my faithful partner, Toras. For a death deer, he is very intelligent. I'm grateful I have such a great partner, and I do hope he feels the same.
"Toras, great to finally see you again."
"Firaun, I have waited quite long."
Typical Toras... "Not every mission I have should be with you."
I and Toras have created a bond between us that allows telepathy between us. Although, I'm currently speaking vocally.
"Lead the way, Toras," I said, transferring the information of my mission from my head to his. He started leading me towards the town.
The forest had a beautiful cacophony, but it started to annoy me, so I decided to give my surroundings a taste of fear.
Toras flinched as the wave of fear passed through him too and all the animals in earshot ran from the terror they would never know about. "Was that really necessary?" I just chuckled and shrugged.
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I flew from above to see two figures, one of them a quadruped, and the other a...
IS THAT A DEMON?
O-O..OOO
I just glide, dumbfounded. He's just like a human, but with crimson-coloured skin, black eyes with a red ring, black horns, and a tail with a forked end! He has hair that you would expect from someone like Justin Bieber. He's wearing an attire that looked like a warrior and a businessman merged together.
Holy crap, he's attractive! That's something I would call a...
AYO MIND, I'M AFRAID I HAVE TO STOP YOU RIGHT THERE.
I then noticed something familiar right next to him. What is that death deer doing here?
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When they started walking together in a single direction. I stalked them far enough that they would have a hard time seeing me but close enough for me to keep track of them.
The more I walked, the more the surroundings got familiar. They're heading straight for town!
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I was walking, when my partner broke the silence, telepathically, "Firaun, I do think someone is stalking us."
I also answered telepathically as to not alert our possible stalker, "Allow me to check."
I quickly did a spell that checks for any magic in a fixed radius, to find a dragon... a lesser dragon? With quite a lot of magic essence to boot!
"Yes, I can detect it. It's a lesser dragon. Probably just curious, nothing to worry about."
"A lesser dragon? There's only one I know in these woods..."
I looked at him in surprise, "You've encountered this one?"
He telepathically sighed, "Yes, and be careful with him. He's much more powerful than he might look. I suspect it has something to do with his purple scale colour."
I smirked, "Nothing that would kill me though."
Toras blabbered something vocally before saying, "Probably not."
Something in my guts tell me there is something he isn't telling me something, but I decided to not ask as I was already putting a plan in motion.
Not long later, we arrived at a peacefully bustling town with the roads nearly full of people and carriages. I put on my illusion to look human, told Toras to stay there and mark his position for teleportation, and went in, looking for either the envoy or the mansion.
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Goddamn.
If there's one thing that could happen, the thing that would annoy us officials the most, sudden arrivals of importance.
I was just enjoying some orange juice when someone knocked on my office door. "Come in."
Fulimos came in, looking a bit out of breath. "Hmm? Never heard of you visiting..."
"Gracius, I have some sudden news."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now I'm the one out of breath.
Am I supposed to look regal? Business-serious? Normal?
Choosing clothes has never been so stressful.
Apparently two representatives of Welisia is currently on the way here, claiming that they want to discuss an urgent matter. Which then I vented to Fulimos the problems of being the closest town to the border between two countries include this.
As for now, I'm just waiting for the time I would go out and greet these officials.
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Right away, I have a bad feeling when the demon camouflaged to look like a human with what I assume to be magic, and then slipped into the foot traffic. The death deer then conjured something up.
That deer can communicate, can it? I think he was talking with the demon.
I slowly approached him. He saw me, and took on an aggressive stance. "I mean you no harm," I communicated telepathically. Almost immediately did his posture dropped and he looked at me with an expression of what I could only assume is surprise.
"You're sentient?" He blurted out.
Blunt as fuck, dude... "Yes, I'm also sentient," I said, making sure the annoyance in my voice is clear. Then I tilted my head towards the crowd, which we could barely see from this distance. "What's he doing?"
The death deer frowned, "That's none of your business."
"Are you guys involved with the humans?" I asked, keeping my human background secret.
"Not now, but don't be surprised if there is a war here between two empires in the next few days."
That was enough for panic to seep into me as a bolted away back to the mansion, vowing to keep the family safe.
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Fear started showing in the dragon's eyes, then he suddenly bolted away. I instinctively started looking around for a threat, but found none.
Huh, must've been something I said.
I then started waiting. In my boredom I started wondering which part of what I said could spark such fear and why. I remembered the fear right after I mentioned a war. But I did say "a few days" as a warning for him to prepare, a lot of time for a creature like him. I continued pondering.
......
SHIT! He's with the humans!
Should I warn Firaun?!
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As I sprinted, there's only one thing on my mind: Besley's in trouble, and so is his family, and maybe the whole town!
I arrived at the mansion panting as I frantically looked around for people, only to sigh in relief as I found Lord Gracius on his seat. Although he was visibly confused on my sudden appearance.
So I then started patrolling around the mansion, only to stop as I saw the same demon, disguised as a human under the shade of a few tress, nearly being fully hidden. I actually wouldn't notice if he didn't start kicking his right leg around while leaning on a tree.
I slunk towards the forest, slowly sneaking closer to him just in case he decides to do something alarming, which I'm 99% sure he will due to what the death deer said.
Not long later, I saw a carriage with two high-looking people(in the social pyramid, not drug or weed high-). When they started to get off, Lord Gracius came out of the mansion to greet them.
They were talking for a few seconds before I heard Lord Gracius inviting them in. The demon's hiding spot was right at the angle where they won't see him coming if he does.
Suddenly, as I hear the doors closed by the guards, I see two tiny tendrils of white smoke trailing from the shadow where the demon is. It was coming towards the guards, and before I knew it, they started yawning and slumped to the ground, sleeping.
The demon came out of his hiding spot, only to look like one of the visitors! In a split second, everything made sense. The different clothes, the fast greetings, they're officials from Welisia(probably)! He's trying to disguise as one of the envoys and maybe kill a family member, most probably causing a war!
OH HECK NAH I'M NOT HAVING ANY OF THAT.
As the demon came out of the shadows, I did the only thing I thought of to stop him from this distance.
"What are you doing?"
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"What are you doing?"
I whirled around in surprise and started looking around to see the same small dragon I sensed following me in the forest.
"Was that you, little lizard?"
"I asked first, I get my answers first."
I gasped in surprise. The audacity of this mortal... I won't tolerate.
I spread an aura of fear just enough to reach him. I can see him shiver a little. "Say that again, you filthy mortal?"
"I said, what are YOU doing?"
"I think you don't know who I am. I am-"
"The demon I followed in the forest along with a death deer," he cut me off. He cut me off!
"Look here, dragon, I admire your bravery of staying here, but if you keep distracting me, I'd have to do to you what I'm going to do to the mansion's inhabitants." I started walking away. But then the dragon flew above me and stopped just a dozen feet away in front of me.
"I was just wondering if you want to answer or not. I know you want to murder a person in that mansion in the middle of a talk between two representatives of two empires and frame one of them as to create a war. Well, you'd have to go through me first."
Now where'd that come from?
He knows my plan! Having the ability to telepathically communicate would also allow him to foil my plans too. I can't allow that.
"You want to die? I'll happily comply~"
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