I decided to go back downstairs since after basking in the sun for too long up in the observation tower. I wanted to ask general Denato about one lingering thought, so I went towards the command office, knocked on the open door, and stuck my head through for a quick question.

"General, does anyone in this army know why the war started?"

"Our army is just defending and counterattacking. I don't know why the other side attacked in the first place."

Considering how the highest ranking general of the army didn't know the truth behind why this war started, I figured that the people under him wouldn't know, either. I reckon I'll have to ask commander Mavuto to let me talk to the king some day in order to figure things out.

There was nothing interesting to see in Border Town, so I just wandered around aimlessly. Lunchtime was in about an hour, so I figured walking to the edge of town and back would be sufficient. It was times like these that I wish Amber was around to chat with me and help with killing time. I haven't seen her for a full day at this point, and couldn't help but wonder where she went.

I hope she didn't get in trouble or anything…

Ring-ring-ring!

Some loud ringing bell sounds suddenly rang out. I turned towards where the sounds came from, and it seemed to be in the direction of the fortress.

…Wait, was there a bell tower in the fortress? Why didn't I see it?

Ring-ring-ring!

Tweet!

Not long after, bells and whistles rang all over town. The soldiers on the streets began running around as quickly as possible. Confused at this sudden turn of events, I just stood still in the middle of the street, watching the visages of the soldiers running by.

A moment later, one of the military police came out of his outpost at the end of the street and pointed his baton at me.

"You! Human! The emergency bells are ringing! Return to your station immediately!"

"What's happening?"

"You'll be briefed later at your station! Go!"

I wasn't part of any squad or station in the first place, but I'd probably leave a bad impression if I were to stand here arguing in the middle of a declared emergency. I figured it would probably be best if I went back to the barracks where I spent the night.

* * * * *

By the time I reached the barracks, everyone had already returned indoors. The whole town was eerily quiet, its streets completely empty.

A cold chill ran down my spine as I opened the barracks door. All the stationed troops inside were standing in two lines while fully armored and holding weapons. They were all staring at me, some with quite mean looks, as if they were about to brutally assault me while in formation. My instincts told me that I should run away, but my legs refused to move out of fear. The only thing I could do was tremble in place at the door.

"Oi! Stop standing at the door like that! Get in here now!"

The commanding officer in the barracks, a minotaur wielding a greataxe, yelled at me after noticing I wasn't moving. Now that I've been noticed and given an order, I suppose I couldn't escape anymore.

I really hope the soldiers here won't beat me to a pulp…

"Y-yes sir…"

Still trembling, I nervously walked inside slowly and headed towards the back of the closest line. A heard a few murmurs from the lines that sounded like "what's wrong with this guy?" and "why's he shaking?" and saw some slightly confused looks from a few soldiers.

To be fair, the people surrounding me were fully armored and armed soldiers who were fighting against humans and giving me creepy stares. It's hard not to find this scene nerve-wrecking, so it was quite obvious that I couldn't stay calm.

The minotaur brought his palm up to his face and shook his head.

"Look kid, I know you're not part of the army, but I'm being held responsible for you since you chose to spend the night here yesterday. There's an emergency right now, so hurry and arm yourself, then get in line so I can brief everyone on the situation."

…Oh. I was holding everyone up. No wonder why people were giving me mean looks.

Having realized that I was probably safe from being beaten up, I stopped trembling in fear, then hurriedly ran to the bed I slept in and grabbed my staff, after which I got in line.

"That was fast."

"I'm an archmage. That's all the equipment I have."

After all, what else would I equip on myself? Heavy armor? Heavy sharp weapons and a shield? Of course not! Mages usually fought on the back-line using long ranged magic attacks, so armor was usually unnecessary since fellow party members would serve as the vanguard and prevent enemies from closing in, thus protecting their comrades.

I suppose some mages did wear fancy hats, robes, and capes, though. Some would say "these items boost my intelligence," or "these magical threads amplify my flow of mana," or something ridiculous of that sort. Please, if those statements were really true, then I would have studied how to become a magic tailor instead of an alchemist. Obviously these cuckoos only wanted to look cool in their fancy outfits and didn't want people to laugh at them for dressing so eccentrically.

"Alright, listen up! There's an emergency because a major enemy was spotted from the other side of the border!"

"…Permission to speak, sir!"

A soldier suddenly raised his hand to ask a question.

"Go ahead."

"Isn't everyone from across the border an enemy?"

"Yes, but from what was reported, this enemy is a dragon."

"A dragon?!"

The soldiers all cried out in unison as they heard that.

Dragons were exceptionally large creatures, most of which looked like either a giant winged lizard or winged serpent. With extremely high resistance to both physical and magical attacks, as well as devastatingly powerful breath attacks, they were no different from fast moving flying fortresses. Consequently, an approaching dragon was regarded in the same manner as an approaching natural disaster.

In terms of size, every other living creature was as insignificant as ants were to humans, so it was impossible to tame a dragon, thus it was considered an enemy regardless of what affiliations one had. Of course, even ants could be dangerous in large numbers, as they could deliver painful and potentially deadly bites at the expense of a portion of their population. Because of that, dragons usually avoided populated settlements, and would only attack when provoked.

If I had to take a guess, it was likely that someone tried to cross the border through the nearly impassable mountains, but accidentally angered a dragon there instead. This was the only known place where dragons resided, yet oddly enough they never took offense to monsters traveling across. Maybe it was because they became delicious food for the dragons. Nonetheless, this was the other reason (besides the fact that the terrain was difficult to navigate around) why people never attempted to cross the border.

Something seemed a bit odd to me, though.

"Sir, how reliable is this information?"

"Very."

"Sorry if this sounds disrespectful, but how did the information come so quickly? Don't dragons travel really fast?"

"We have a complex network of underground tunnels used for transportation and communication. There are no obstructions underground, so messages can be transmitted quickly."

That's assuming that not too many people are shouting at the same time, though now I know how they were able to spread word that a dragon was nearby.

…Wait a minute. Did Amber use these tunnels to smuggle me across the border two weeks ago?

"Now, your duties. Listen up! Do not attack the dragon if it comes, since it likely won't attack unless provoked. In the off chance the dragon does decide to land here in town and attack, then you will have to fight back."

Well, that wasn't what I was hoping to hear. I'd rather just run away to safety than fight.

"…The only weapons we have that are possibly strong enough to severely damage the dragon are our artillery cannons. You will need to follow directions in order to keep the dragon in place long enough for our artillery to land a clean shot."

At least what he said wasn't outrageous. We were in the middle of a settlement, so keeping the dragon still was necessary, otherwise missed shots would end up destroying this town or cause incidents of mass friendly fire. Even if the dragon were to eventually be defeated, there was a huge risk of getting overrun by the other army if this town's buildings and supplies get ravaged.

Everyone silently prayed for the dragon not to come, but all that hope vanished as a faint voice came out from under the floor.

"Human camp destroyed! Dragon approaching!"

Having heard that report from underground, the barracks commanding officer issued a new order.

"Find cover, and prepare to defend!"

Everyone promptly ran outside and took cover by the barracks wall that faced away from the border. In the event of a natural disaster like an approaching dragon, it was usually a bad idea to hide indoors, since one needed to see where the enemy was coming from and be able to run away in the off chance it decided to land on top of the building.

A slender shadow appeared in the sky less than a minute later. There was no doubt about what this creature was: a dragon was quickly approaching.

The shadow gradually became larger as the giant creature closed its distance towards Border Town. When it flew close enough, I could see a magnificent serpentine winged beast, about 30 meters in length. It had a yellow-green body and a large long pair of horns that had electricity arcing in between. Judging by this appearance, it was most likely a thunder dragon.

I flung my staff that had the "lightning rod" enhancement as far away as possible.