Late Afternoon - Late Spring : Central Sirathan Mountains

"Cleric Liv Sigmond greets noble dragon!"

The air turned cold and my pupils dilated the instant she spoke.

*Cr-r-r-r-r-r-rACK*

*CR-R-R-R-R-UUNCH*

The eavesdroppers who I had been ignoring were instantly turned to clouds of blood as they were each barraged with dozens of steel marbles.

*Crumble*

Hearing the noise of someone moving I turned to see someone darting down the mountain in a panic. -There's the other one..-

Casually raising my hand, several steel marbles formed in my palm before instantly vanishing

*Cr-r-rACK*

*CR-R-RUNCHHH*

Although the cleric didn't get to see what happened to the eavesdroppers on the mountainside, she got a front row seat to this one.

Her calm composure was quickly washed over with fear and panic as she watched the remnants of the person's body tumble down the mountain.

Seemingly frozen from fear, she didn't budge as I reached down and grabbed her by the neck.

"Ack!" She grabbed my wrist as I lifted her off the ground but quickly stopped fighting.

My eyes were oozing with the intention to kill. "How did you know that?"

Her eyes were filled with pure fear. "Y..your eyes.. g..great.. lord.."

I instantly knew what she was talking about, but my intention to kill her didn't change. -Even if she knew my eyes were a dragon’s though..- "How did you know dragons could take humanoid forms?"

Just before she could answer several beams of light were shot past us and into the forest.

*BRRRMMM-BRRM-BRRRMMM*

Each beam cleanly incinerated everything it touched leaving nothing where it passed through.

-I guess Ilios found a few other eavesdroppers..-

As if not even noticing the beams, she was quick to continue. "It is common- ugh.. knowledge t..that dragons can c..change their f..forms.."

My body instantly filled with a deep disgust before I could continue. "If that's the case, then why do hunters hunt dragons?"

"Ack... It is.. p..prohibited.. to hunt t..the.. intelligent.. ones..."

-The intelligent ones?- Confusion quickly mixed in with my disgust. -So that means..-

*Thump*

Dropping her to the ground, I squatted and looked her in the eyes. "In that case, do you know what this insignia is?" I pulled out my ID and pointed to the Bahamut Insignia.

"Hah... Y..yes.." She held her throat as she caught her breath. "It's the i..insignia of t..the strong.."

-It's the same thing that the notebook said..- "And where did you learn that from?"

"W..while in schooling.. within the capital.. m..mighty one.."

-What? Is it like one of those legends school kids learn about?- "Tell me everything you learned about it."

"It wasn’t.. a lot... We were just told to t..treat.. those who carried it.. with utmost respect and honor. We were told those who h..eld it were the s..strongest in the world.."

-What? Did dragons sneak in those rules?- Although I couldn't be completely sure, it made sense as to why they would do it. -With adding just a few vague parts to the schooling curriculum, they could make a safe haven for dragons and halfies… But why would dragons need something like this when there’s Bahamut?-

Glancing up the mountain towards the cave, my chest tensed up with disgust again. -It clearly didn't change much either..- "Tch.. alright that's enough."

As I reached down and set my hand on the back of the woman's head, she broke into a panic. "MIGHT ONE, PLEASE SPARE ME!" As she finally looked up, her pleading gaze was met with my cold and uncaring look.

"Why should I?"

Her eyes lost a bit of their vitality after my heartless response. "No one will ever know what happened here! I will take anything other than death!"

"Anything?"

"Yes, anything!!" Seeing a spark of hope, her pleading, tear filled eyes lit back up.

"Hm..” There was a short silence as I thought to myself. “Alright, in that case you'll be my guinea pig."

Almost instantly, a yellow glow emanated from her head. "H..huh..?" Her concern deepened once again before the light finally faded. "What did-"

"Dont worry too much about it!” Without noticing, a subtle smile crept onto my face, but it didn't last long. “Just know that if you go to tell anyone I am a dragon, you will die. As long as you don't, you should be fine."

To Liv, my subtle excitement probably seemed terrifying, but she simply gave a quick nod in response.

"If you understand, you can go ahead and leave."

As she shakily stood up, she gave a deep bow. "Thank you.. for sparing me, mighty one! I'm sorry for causing you trouble!"

"It's fine, things ended up working out." Seeing her get up and get ready to dart off, I gave her one last message. “Before you go, remember to not come back here.”

Her once horrified eyes were now just slightly more relaxed. “Of course!” She continued standing there for a moment longer before finally darting off.

“Haah..” I felt an unusual anxiety as she ran off. -If that spell doesn't work and her experience with me gets out, I'm in trouble… Thankfully I didn't tell her my name though so even if it does, I should be able to escape implication somehow..-

Watching her dart down the side of the mountain, I considered simply killing her but I let her off in the end.

After she finally made it to the bottom and darted into the forest, I double checked to make sure no one else was around and changed back to my dragon form.

Ilios was quick to uncloak himself next to me as I did.

"Haah.." As I leaned down to rub my head against him, thoughts raced through my mind. -To think the cleric in that notebook still killed the halfie even with all that knowledge..- As I thought more and more about it though, something Liv said kept replaying in my mind.

'It's prohibited to hunt the intelligent ones.'

It was a statement that weighed on me more than it should have. -The halfie that was killed was clearly old enough to have intelligence so.. why did she kill it..- It made me feel curious but disgusted at the same time, a truly odd sensation.

But, much like everything, it didn't last forever.

With a bit of help from Ilios, I quickly got distracted and turned my focus to more productive things.

"Well, shall I finally go for a swim?"

- Liv Sigmond ~

It had been several hours since I split up with him at this point and I was still laying in my tent about 5 kilometers away, completely unable to sleep.

*rustling*

Looking down towards the entrance, I saw a familiar hand push aside the cloth entrance. "Are you doing alright now, captain?" It was a demihuman man named Sten. In short, he was the newly appointed vice-captain after I became the captain.

"Hah.. what constitutes 'doing alright'?" It was refreshing to see his face, but it didn't make the uncomfortable sensation go away.

"What's wrong then? Didn't the medics say there was nothing wrong?" His concern was deep, but it didn't help.

"Y..yeah, but just because they didn't see anything doesn't mean nothing is wrong.." What I felt was a nearly indescribable fuzziness in my head.

It didn't hurt or feel good, but was instead just this uncomfortable fuzz that I felt whenever I thought of anything related to dragons which, currently, was all I could think about. -Was this what he did to me?-

'If you go to tell anyone I am a dragon, you will die.'

It was a threat I assumed meant he would come kill me if I said anything, but the more I thought about it, the less it made sense. -Did that threat really have to do with the magic he casted? It wasn't an oath rune but that's what it sounds like..-

Although I was tempted to test it, if it really was a type of oath magic that I simply didn't recognize, I would die on the spot.

-In any case, even if this sensation never goes away.. It's better to be alive… I should just think of this as my punishment for being so uselessly confident...-

"Captain?" Sten gave me a worried look as he closed the entrance to the tent again.

"Huh? Sorry, what did you say?" Without noticing, I had zoned out for quite a while.

"Haah.. Squadron 1 leader is outside wondering what our plans are to find the mystic beast corpse."

-Oh, right.. the mystic beast..- It was the sole reason we came all the way out here but I had already forgotten about it. "That man said it was 9 kilometers southeast from where we were, so we will go find it in the morning... Tell everyone to get comfortable for the night."

"Haah.. alright. I'll let you know if there is anything else." As he stood up, he carefully set down a bowl of hot soup on the table next to my hammock and walked back outside.

Although I would normally be thankful for the kind gesture, it somehow made me feel irritated.

"Haaah..." Sitting up in my hammock, I picked up a bottle of wine and used it to flush out my thoughts and numb my mind. As I sat there with the half empty bottle in my hand, a single thought resonated through my head. -Why did I think that was a good idea...-