The cave was dark, damp, and dim. We crawled at a snail's pace. I felt my heart beat in my chest. Thump thump. Thump thump. It took everything I had to bite down my fear.

As I kept walking, the cave got warmer. My terror increased. We were getting closer to the dragon.

Then the cave widened. It turned into a grand cavern with a massive pile of gold, steel, silver, and all sorts of metals in the center.

A massive, red-scaled creature sat on top of the pile. It was so big that it made elephants look like small convertible cars with their tops down. Its four legs were like redwood trunks. The thing's wings made jumbo jet wings seem puny. I looked at its claws. Even greatswords couldn't hope to match their size.

There was a gash on its front right leg. Poisonous blood welled up on it, a pool of the liquid on the ground below.

To call this dragon a monster was a mistake. This thing was a kaiju.

The dragon raised its head. It turned it towards me. I was hit head-on by its hot breath. I felt like I was being roasted alive, and it hadn't even breathed fire.

Then, the dragon spoke with a voice as deep as the sea.

“Humans dare enter my lair?”

Its serpentine eyes fixed on me.

“More fools who seek my treasure.”

I was so scared I couldn't even breathe. I struggled to push it down enough to talk.

“That’s right, I seek your treasure,” I admitted. “Because I can use that to help you get more treasure.”

"Get more treasure?" the dragon seemed perplexed.

"Yes! This is my chance!" I thought.

I said, “Yes! O’ great dragon, with your wealth, honor, and strength, we can start the world’s biggest insurance company!”

The dragon gazed over me. It looked at the rest of my group. Then, the creature seemed to relax.

"it is vewy good that you are not being here to hurt me or steal my tweasure," its voice suddenly became incredibly high-pitched. "It has being a while since I've had guests, ja. My mountain is not the most gooding to climb up, ja."

"What the fuck?" I thought.

"We're truly honored to be your guests. I am Saint Gustav von Blitzburg, and these are my companions: Lord Dimitri, Lady Joanna, Dr. Minos, Astrid, and Joachim," I said.

"It is vewy nice to meet you vewy fine folk. I am the great, powaful dragon, Cinnamon. I am being vewy popular with the ladies. My tweasure horde has been being rated in the top 5 of dragon hordes for 200 years running. Is vewy nice, ja," the dragon stated.

Every single bit of fear I had vanished completely. The moment the dragon opened his mouth, he lost whatever intimidation factor he had.

"Cinnamon, I noticed that you were injured. I could heal your wound," Joanna offered.

"You should not be worrying about that. For a dragon as great and powaful as me, that is nothing, ja."

Cinnamon then turned to an alcove on the cavern wall. He unleashed a blast of fire into it. Then, the dragon pulled out a roast cow and plopped it in front of us.

"I should be providing food for my guests. Humans wike cooked food, wike us dragons. Is vewy nice," he said.

Stepping over to the cow, I contemplated how the fuck I was supposed to eat it. I decided to just grab a chunk of the cow, use magic to increase my strength, and tear it off. Then, I bit into the flesh of the chunk. It tasted like burned meat.

"This is very good," I stated. "You're an incredible cook."

"I am thanking you. That is vewy nice of you to say," Cinnamon replied.

"We should get down to business. I came here to make you an offer," I said.

Glancing at my companions, I saw that they had dumbfounded expressions on their faces. Dimitri opened his mouth, but no words came out. Even Johannes was frozen in shock.

"It looks like I'm on my own for this," I thought.

"You still have me," Dʰéǵʰom said.

"Don't dragons not give the faintest shit about what gods think?" I asked.

"That's right. They don't," he answered.

"Then it looks like I'm mostly on my own for this," I thought.

Dʰéǵʰom chuckled. I did the same internally

"So, what advice do you have?" I questioned.

"I'd say that you should remember that large dragons think of humans the way you think of mice, but it looks like you found an exception. You should probably emphasize how working with humans could benefit him."

"Ah, yes, I'd wove to hear your offer. Be sitting on the wock there," Cinnamon said.

He pointed to a rock. I took a seat, trying to look as dignified as I could.

"What is your offer being?" Cinnamon asked.

"You'll be one of the top executives of an insurance company serving merchants," I answered.

"What's insuwance?"

"People periodically give you money. Then, if part of their property is destroyed, you pay to have it fixed or replaced. If you have enough people giving you money, you'll get more gold than you have to pay. In this case, the property is the contents of a merchant caravan," I explained.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

"That is a vewy intewesting offer, but human mewchant caravans get destroyed all the time," Cinnamon pointed out.

"An astute observation," I said. "That's where the second part of my plan comes in. You'll travel with a merchant caravan and act as a bodyguard. I'm certain most monsters will run from a great and powerful dragon like you. And if something does attack the caravan, it won't stand a chance against you."

The dragon pondered that for a moment.

"That is a vewy good idea, but I have to stay near my horde. Someone might be trying to steal my tweasure," he stated.

"Dʰéǵʰom, help me out here," I thought.

"The Raven Knights run a banking system. It's a lot like what the Knights Templar did except the Raven Knights don't just hold money for pilgrims," the god said.

"They're risking suffering the same fate as the templars, but I doubt any king would mess with an organization that holds Cinnamon's money," I thought before speaking. "That is where the marvel of human ingenuity comes in, great and powerful dragon. We humans have an organization called the Raven Knights. They serve the gods and protect our wealth. I understand that gods mean very little to you dragons, but they mean everything to us humans."

The dragon nodded.

"I have been hearing of the Raven Knights. They are being very honorable religious folks. I know I can twust them, ja," Cinnamon said.

"I'd recommend dividing your horde into different Raven Knight chapter houses when you have them store it for you. That way, if something happens to one house, the rest of your horde will be fine," I replied.

"And how long would it be taking them to get my horde back to me. I am needing to be ready for mating season."

I pondered a moment.

"How long is it until the next mating season?" I asked.

"Last mating season just ended, so it is being 10 years," Cinnamon answered.

"As long as you start getting it back within a year or two of mating season, you should be fine," I said.

"It looks like I'll have to make some adjustments to my plans. If the dragons have their mating season every 10 years, that's a year when they won't be able to guard merchant caravans," I thought.

"Oh, that is being very good," Cinnamon stated.

I then gave him a wide smile.

"And this is your chance to see many wonderful things. You're already able to talk to people enough to buy livestock. Imagine how much easier that will be if you're being paid to protect humans. Just think of going to the Holy See, the most beautiful city in the world, and talking to people about the city's history. You could also go watch a play, a type of human entertainment. And that's to say nothing of all the things you could buy," I said.

Excitement flashed over Cinnamon's face.

"Oh, ja, you humans are making vewy nice things. I am wanting to get lots of them," he grinned.

Then, Cinnamon's smile faded. Apprehension came over his body. I tensed up. What was going on? Did Cinnamon think I was trying to trick him?

"I am admitting that your offer is vewy good, Saint Gustav. But I have been having business wentures before, and they all failed. How am I knowing that this one will work?" Cinnamon asked.

"The law of supply and demand," I answered.

"There's a law saying I should be demanding supplies?"

I thought a moment. How could I explain this to a dragon? No one in this world has a concept of laws outside of the legal sense, and he isn't even a human.

"It's not a legal rule but a pattern," I explained. "This pattern is so common that it might as well be mandated by law."

"What is that law being?" Cinnamon said.

"The more people want something, the less of it there is. And the less people want something, the more of it there is. Caravan guards get paid a lot of money because there aren't many of them, and none of them are willing to travel too far. And since you're a dragon, you're able to do their job better than any of the guards can," I stated.

Then, I gave him another smile.

"And the rarer something is, the more valuable it is. You can provide a service that'll be in high demand and that no one else is providing."

"Oh, so things being wawer makes people want them more?" Cinnamon asked.

"Yes," I answered.

"That is explaining why my last business wenture didn't go so well," the dragon said.

"What was it?"

"I was selling cow manure by the side of the woad."

It took every last ounce of self-control in my body to suppress a facepalm.

"Why did you try selling cow shit?" I questioned.

"I was being bored and decided selling things like humans do might being fun," Cinnamon stated.

"That wasn't even remotely what I was asking," I thought before speaking. "So, are you going to accept my offer?"

The dragon pondered for a moment before speaking.

"I am going to be trying it out. If things go well, I will be all-in on this."

Yes! Yes! Yeeeeesss! This was going so perfectly! Cinnamon would become one of the heads of the insurance company, and..."

Dʰéǵʰom's voice interrupted my thoughts.

"Gustav, we've got trouble," he said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Armies from Greenrivers, Vandalland, and Weltai are converging on the same location. It looks like there'll be war."

Sweat poured down my brow. My body heated up. My hands and feet shook.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Why is Weltai even involved? They don't have any disputes with Vandalland or Greenrivers!"

"The Lost Treasure of Captain Omen was found. It's in disputed lands between Vandalland and Greenrivers. Dalv probably wants to claim it too."

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" I shouted.

"You need to get over there now. This is a mission from me. I know you'll go there anyway, but it's important that you're doing it on my behalf."

I stood up and bashed my head against the cave wall. Sharp pain flashed through my face, and blood trickled down my forehead. I ignored it. Sheer heart-pounding terror overtook my body.

"Why are you being upset?" Cinnamon asked.

Sheer confusion covered his face.

"We're all fucked!" I answered.

Everyone else broke out of their stupor.

"Gustav, what's going on?" Joanna questioned.

"Dʰéǵʰom contacted me. The Lost Treasure of Captain Omen was found, and Greenrivers, Vandalland, and Weltai are going to fight over it!"

"That's horrible news," Dimitri said. "We'll be at war with each other."

I shook with fear.

"Dimitri, that's not what I'm worried about. If anyone gets the Lost Treasure of Captain Omen, we're all fucked!" I stated.

"It is being a big treasure. You humans should be wanting it. You could get lots of ladies, ja," Cinnamon replied.

"We'll have more to worry about than getting laid if anyone gets that treasure! All the gold in the world will become worthless to us humans! It'll destroy the economy!" I declared.

"How would more gold destroy the economy? Wouldn't it just make things better?" Dimitri questioned.

"There's no time to explain! I need to stop this war, fast!" I said before thinking. "Dʰéǵʰom, how long would it take me to get to the battlefield?"

"If you fly on Cinnamon, only taking breaks to get water, you'll get there in 3 days. That'll be just in time."

I took a deep breath in a desperate attempt to calm myself.

"Cinnamon! We're fucked if I don't stop this war! Please! Please! Please fly me to the battlefield! Dʰéǵʰom can give us directions," I said.

The dragon replied, "I am not knowing about that. Flying you humans around is not for great, powaful dragons like me. It's for the little manure-headed runts."

"Listen, you want to buy stuff we humans make, right?" I asked.

"I am wanting to do that," Cinnamon answered.

"Right now, you could buy all sorts of things by spending a little bit of your horde. If the Lost Treasure of Captain Omen circulates into the economy, you'll have to spend your entire horde to buy just one thing."

The dragon's eyes widened in shock.

"Okay, I will be flying you, Saint Gustav. I weally hope you can be stopping this war," Cinnamon said.

I jumped on his back as fast as I could. Cinnamon ran out of the cave. Then, when we passed the rocs, his massive wings beat. A storm of wind blasted around him as we took to the skies.

"Go Southeast," Dʰéǵʰom directed.

I relayed his words. Cinnamon flew Southeast.

And that's how the most painful flight of my life started. Three days of riding on a dragon's back, only stopping to get water. I started to realize why people used platforms and never rode dragons bareback. Their scales chaffed my skin like hell, even through my clothes, and there was no wind protection. I wasn't able to get even a moment's sleep. And, worse still was my constant conversation with Cinnamon.

"Are we being there yet?" he asked.

"No," I answered.

"Are we being there yet?" he asked.

"No," I answered.

"Are we being there yet?" he asked.

"No," I answered.

This went on for the entire flight.