When I come back, Atna enthusiastically greets me and asks about my trip, but I don't really want to talk about the sad stuff, so I just talk about my mother and little sister, how I felt it was annoying being denied entry to their home, and how cute my little sister was.

"So the cutest girl in the world you mentioned?"

"My little sister Vella of course"

"You're not planning to take her as your wife, right?"

"Huh? I mean, I never heard of a brother marrying his sister before." I was just about to ask what was wrong with her, but it may be something not unusual to this world.

"Well, I guess it is uncommon outside... the royal family. It is frowned upon as it doesn't strengthen the ties between families and communities. Only the royal family do it, since their house was deemed too powerful and were forbidden from marrying outside it in order to cut down on their alliances" she says.

Her pause must be because she has a brother married to one of her sisters, or that her brother wants to marry her. I kind of don't want to poke into that, sounds complicated. But what I do want to ask so bad is if it doesn't cause genetic defects, but I really don't think DNA exists here, since literal trees and people can have children together. I guess that would also somewhat lessen the stigma associated with such practices.

"But no, I have no such plans" It is at least impossible with me and my ideas of incest as a weird thing ancient Egyptians did to preserve some non-existent divine blood or whatever.

A few days later, as I return from my morning run, and get ready to wash the sweat off and head to the association, Bosir's loud voice rings through the entire building "Everybody meet up!"

And so a few moments later everybody is gathered in the main hall, sitting around the two tables, waiting for Bosir to speak.

"An emergency request is dispatched. A dragon whelp has appeared in a dungeon two days’ march from here, and in approximately a week, an entourage from the capital will pass through here, picking up any one who will participate. Remember, there are always casualties in these things, so how many will join?"

I put up my hand without question. I am going to become a great person that will influence the country, and if I shy away from a fight with a dragon. I sit at the front to Bosir, so I turn my head in order to see who's in or out. There are only two people with their hands down. One of them is Sirgut, and to my big surprise, the other is Atna.

She always seemed so prideful, so I was sure she would join. Part of me wants to ask her what's the matter, but at that point I feel like I am pressuring her to join, and if she did happen to be casualty, I would probably feel terrible, so let's ignore it.

"As expected" Bosir says with a wide grin, somehow seeming proud of us. "I know Bern, Kamas, Mynie and I have fought a dragon before, but anyone else with experience?" He asks. The rest is Asger, Caper, Toben, Larn and I. None of us reply.

"Great, now I am going to explain how it's going to go. First off, to fight a dragon is unlike any monster you have met before. Even if they are a youngster, they are as tough as azurite, capable of powerful magic, fast as hell, especially in flight. These fights usually go the same way, first"

And thus follows a long explanation of fighting dragons. First we are split into pairs of two. Since the dragon is so hard, conventional weapons can do little to harm it, so pairs of two are armed with a stake and hammer. One runs up and holds the stake, while the other tries to smack it with a hammer. It has to work in unison, go fast and not harm the stake holder, so we will have to practice.

Secondly, it is nigh impossible to deal with a dragon in flight, so it is almost always dealt with inside the dungeon. Luckily for us, as long as no one provokes it, it seems it rarely comes out. All of its food and all the treasure it will start to accumulate will be in the dungeon anyways.

Thirdly, the team will split into two. One will stand by the entrance, while the other goes inside. This is done because dragons, once they detect a massive amount of opponents, they often try to run. So much for my idea of them being exceedingly proud creatures. Since it will almost inevitably know the dungeon better than the party coming to subjugate it, it will often make it to the entrance, engaging with the second group.

Fourth, the general attack plan is to form as much of a circle around it as possible and attack simultaneously. It will almost always choose to attack instead, since the option of running has been cut off, and whoever it attacks is usually regarded as an unavoidable casualty, a matter of chance. Suddenly, this feels analogous to playing a low-odds game of Russian roulette.

Luckily, Bosir has three sets of dragon slaying tools from his last experience, so he only needs to procure one more, and we can start training immediately