Laplas sent Genje on reconnaissance to the royal capital. This meant that the army lying in wait to ambush D on his way to the royal capital went undiscovered and undevoured. D, Saten and Juno had a long carriage ride. It was eventful.
D crouched on the top of the carriage with his bulletblade out, sniping the riders on top of their giant anteaters they used as mounts. The blade sped back and forth, rending apart riders and anteaters alike as they charged the carriage. Saten told him to protect the carriage, and he followed that order. Meanwhile she was clad under her clothing with light and running full speed along with the mounted attackers, taking down the mounted ranged wizards and bow wielders with Juno. Juno activated her maid uniform for the first time during the attack. The Maiden’s Made, Brutus’s prized maid outfit. Agatha back at Brutus’s mansion told her the history of the clothing, needless to say her bell skirt acted as a rocket shuttling her forward with her drill droning full blast, boring through mounted soldiers and spilling guts and blood all over the hilly plains. She circled around, making short work of the wizard types whose spells were absorbed into a heart shaped magical shield the maid outfit summoned automatically for defense.
Saten kept pace with her physical speed overtaking the anteaters, downright snapping their long noses and tongues in half as she mounted mounts and incapacitated soldiers. She didn’t hesitate as she threw a wizard under a stampeding anteater and leapt to the next without a second lost.
D from the top of the carriage activated Drive 1 Bisect to kill the faster mounts making a beeline for the carriage. The anteaters split apart bodies were gruesome but he ignored it with chagrin and concentrated on targets like it was a shooter gallery game. Without a breath to spare, he kept shooting the bulletblade. Anteater blood splattered all over the plains, riders yelling out curse words as they snapped their bones against the ground.
D knew if they stopped they would be outnumbered by the oncoming mounted horde. Saten, Juno, and D piled up corpses as a legion of bounding anteaters split ways around the fallen.
D saw Juno’s face get singed and her white ear catch on fire. A errant fireball, Juno’s stony gaze didn’t waver but D’s heart did.
“Saten, Juno! I can take care of them, pull back!” D made a decision then that he knew he would regret. There were too many soldiers after them. Why not use it? This is all their fault for trying to kill him anyways! He pouted to himself inside, debating the mass act of self-defense he decided to enact.
Juno flew back, the rocket of crimson flame from under her skirt quelling itself as she landed the top of the carriage with a determined look. D patted out the fire on her ear causing her to squint as he bisected a nearby anteater. D smiled at Juno as he called to Saten to heal her.
“I didn’t want Saten to know about this one,” D said to himself. There’s a number of abilities he didn’t want her to know about for obvious reasons:
-The adaptation one because it’s a clear excuse for her to get even rougher with him.
-The shadowflame he’s about to use to wipe out the army. He thought she wouldn’t like a spell that was so nefarious looking and turn against him. Isn’t it something a final boss would use? Appearances are very important in a romantic relationship!
-Drive 3, Castle Crusher for the bulletblade because of the scale of damage he’d seen it do. Saten worries about innocents. D did too, but him worrying about Saten worrying was worse. He also thought she might learn about the mountain he blew up. D made Juno swear to not tell anyone, that mountain just happened to be there when they fought. It’s not his fault.
-Drive 4 because Soulbreak sounded like an evil thing. Saten didn’t seem the type to like that, either.
-The Dragon’s Hoard ability because he figured that she would tease him endlessly if she found out. Especially the ‘treasure’ he gained from Saten. D cringed inside thinking of what she would say if she saw ‘it’.
-Dragon Drive because of the innocents that might end up as collateral damage.
D cramped his face, looking into the horde of anteater troops in full regalia. He’d killed a lot of them today, but watching Saten and Juno rip them apart made him feel worse. Although he couldn’t understand why he felt that way, he had to do what he had to do. Kill the oncoming mounted army with a dragon breath.
D’s stomach filled with butterflies, knowing that since he killed Lord Ros that everything had gone far past anything he expected. When he agreed to Saten’s proposal, he didn’t think it would end up like that. Even though he felt it was only the obvious conclusion of his decision. His mind flashed back to his powerful arm passing straight into his body, the fear he felt seeing the mysterious energy from the broken sword, and his eyes darted to the grisly sight corpses strew across the plains being covered in the dust of the carriage in front of him.
D looked to Juno, unsure what she was thinking but was comforted briefly by Saten healing her with her hands on Juno’s head. D watched as the burns closed up and gritted his teeth as Juno’s emerald eyes met his.
“Do it,” is what he knew she was telling him with that look. Her saying “Protect me, Master!” was his brief fantasy of what he wanted to believe she really said in her heart in that moment. Close enough, right?
This is what it meant to rule as a Lord in this world. D readied himself, the first ability he mastered and the one he hesitated to use the most. D breathed in, imagined the horde in front of him now bright with the noon sunlight cloaked in shadow, and breathed out from his heart imagining a blaze.
From D’s open mouth a torrent of dark flames whirled across the plains. The anteaters collectively leaped in shock in myriad directions trying to find a way out. Like ash from a volcano the horde sunk into the red and black mist, the fire spreading and melting the ground as it passed by fizzling into the air with shining yellow sparks. A scar across the ground was left in a massive, like the ridges of a cliff face. Burning red both the ground and the dead, like a plains tinged in the light of a sunset.
D sheepishly made a face, rubbing the back of his head looking at the destruction he caused on the top of the carriage.
“Wow, that was, ah…” D made little noises like that trying to absolve himself of his mass murder. This is war, you know? D wanted Saten to comfort him by saying something like that.
“This is war, you know?” Saten said. “Still, you never told me you could do something like that! We could have done that from the beginning!”
Saten pushed him dangerously hard and D waffled on the edge of the top of the carriage before balancing himself by spreading his wings out. He gave her a innocent look, neck craned towards her from the carriage edge. D steadied himself.
“It’s new. I’ve been, uh, reading, about dragons. Didn’t know I could do that, um, exactly, that much, at least. You told me to read, I read,” D said.
“There’s a book that teaches you how to be a dragon?” Saten’s eyes narrowed to blue slits.
D looked into those blue slits and chose to say nothing. Calm, he lowered himself into the carriage with one arm, scooted over to the over side, and pulled Juno off the top of the carriage lowering her inside with him.
Saten sighed. She would let him be. She kept secrets from him too, it’s fine isn’t it? The armies dead, that’s what matters. If she had him during that battle- Saten shook her head snapping herself out of her reverie. That battle will never come again.
Left on the top of the carriage looked out over the devastated plains that faded into the distance as the carriage made it’s way.
“He’s going to tear the royal capital apart, isn’t he…” Saten wondered. She had a few things in mind before she got the worst news possible for both of them. She pulled out the note, the one she didn’t want to show D. She knew she had to explain it, but procrastinated. Saten didn’t want to admit to him how useless she was now, when it was her request for him to become a Lord in the first place.
“If he knows, then what? Still, at this point…” We weren’t that much different, is what she wanted to say. She could run away with both of them right now. Tell D the truth her father sent her a letter explaining Saten was excommunicated and sentenced to death by the Sanctus Sancti for supporting an accused Dragon Demon Lord. That the Troll King and Dwiffking were visiting the royal capital. She didn’t know that both of them had heard about a certain mountain exploding, suggesting the location of a certain goblin prince’s weapon they sought. That just happened to be a confluence of unfortunate coincidences. Unfortunately, being unaware of that will almost get D killed.
“Dragon Demon Lord? What a dumb lie. Why’d they immediately assume that from the rumors about a ‘dragon boy’? Wouldn’t he just be a chimera to them?” Saten wracked her mind. It’s unfortunate for her, but her knowledge of what chimeras were was wrong. When the fishman told her ‘oh yeah he’s a dragon’ and she saw him in human form she assumed he was a magical hybrid, a chimera.
What she wasn’t aware of is that chimeras aren’t common at all in this world, and are hunted to extinction. Laplas herself is a chimera, so-called secret class that only the top of top warriors are tasked to hunt down and eliminate. Saten only heard rumors that sometimes chimeras pop up during her training, a result of her father being occupied with the task of hunting down Laplas himself. Her father, Koto, a strict Saint, never told her what chimeras were. Only those close to royalty like Lords or high level Saints and Paladins were allowed to know the truth. The truth about alchemy.
Alchemy, the science that produces chimeras and other far dangerous devices, is forbidden for good reason. Only the Warlock on his island is rumored to practice it, but few know that. Saten’s misunderstanding of what a chimera meant to the highest people in power put her in the worst possible position the moment she chose to support D for Lord. The lower members of the Sanctus Sancti believed that she had been bewitched by the magic of a Dragon Demon Lord. That was the official story. The truth that her father explained in the note was that D and her are targets for elimination because D is a chimera and Saten is too close to such a being. The Sanctus Sancti heard of her antics in Locos and were not pleased, but the rumors of ‘Dragon boy’ caught their most dangerous attention.
Naturally, once that information spread to the two Kings visiting the royal capital already interested in the bulletblade and the goblin prince, things got even worse. The Kings concluded they needed to set a trap for the new Lord who thought being a chimera was an acceptable race choice.
Two foreign Kings, the Vampire Lord, and the strongest dwiff who served as a trainer for a King lied in wait in the royal capital throne room for D. They didn’t know that the new chimera lord happened to have the lost goblin prince’s country class weapon. That is pure chance.
Saten didn’t know about the ambush at all. D was heading right into a trap. Saten didn’t have any standing to support him. She crumpled the note in her hand, looking to the sky. She had to tell D, but she was putting it off.
“He needs to know. I’m not running away. It’s like I didn’t have a choice. I won’t be able to help him at all…”
The plan was that Saten would support D politically in the throne room against the gathered Lords. However, only one Lord would be there, and that Lord’s aim was to kill D. Saten’s Father’s note saved her life. If she had went along with D like she intended, she had no chance of surviving the ensuing chaos of a chimera walking into a room with all of the strongest combatants of the countries allied in the war.
Currently, the Dwiff Kingdom, the Ice Troll Tribe, and collected towns of the humans loosely united under the royal capital were in a mutually dependent alliance. The royal capital’s lord, the lordmaster, acts as a diplomat communicating between the Troll Hero-King, the Dwiffking, and the human town lords. The alliance opposes the No Life King, the Goblin Empire, the Cat Kingdom of the Caves that Juno hails from, and the witch to the north in her flying castle nation. Also, there’s a Warlock with a really cool island that is playing both sides.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
It is a mess. Although the war between the two sides wasn’t officially over, it wasn’t officially started either, leading to on and off raids by both sides over many years. An indefinite state of war and alliances formed more for stability than anything else.
The royal capital, Marscione. The throne room of the main castle turned into an impromptu meeting room for the four strongest warriors on the Troll-Dwiff-Human alliance.
There, the Dwiffking, leader of the dwiffs, what dwarves are called in this world, faced down against Juro, the Troll Hero-King. A friendly spar to the death. Another dwiff and a small girl were witnesses.
“Juro, I swear I’ll get Nosebeard to teach you how to really fight one day. You just wait!”
The Dwiffking gestured with a slab of metal that someone shaped into a short fat sword to the dwiff standing near the girl. Nosebeard had a beard covering his entire head, only the nose poking out. A strange aura surrounded the dwiff, although he was dressed in plain clothes. His battle strength is regarded as one of the highest in the world.
“Train a troll? Do you think Nosebeard would listen to that request? He’s too busy training a certain dwiff,” Juro said. He was tall with brown fur and a flowing red cloak extended from his back. In his hands he had a spear and shield formed out of ice at the ready. The Dwiffking swung down his sword slab on the ice shield Juro held. Juro gained distance andthrew a spear into Dwiffking which the Dwiffking cut in half. Juro condensed the air around him into another spear made of ice. A cool breeze of white shaving shook off of the spear as Juro nabbed the spear from it’s place floating in the air around his body. A few more ice spears formed themselves around him, floating menacingly.
“Guess not. However!” Dwiffking raised his blade and knocked away another incoming spear. “I’ll crush you enough times so I won’t be able to learn anything from you anymore! Once I get to that level, Nosebeard, who’s tasked with my growth as a King, will train you out of boredom!”
Juro stopped his spear attacks and held his shield out to receive a heavy blow from Dwiffking. Unfazed he turned his head to Nosebeard.
“Nosebeard, you think this Dwiffking here will ever get above my level?” Juro pushed Dwiffking back with a sweep of his shield, unbalancing him and stabbing him directly with his ice spear. Despite a full on attack from the massive troll to the unprotected Dwiffking, the spear barely went past the muscle. Juro pulled back the spear wet with blood, and the small girl with red hair tied in twintails looked at it and drooled. A white staff floated behind her, the middle of it interupted by a floating pale blue ball and an exaggerated handleguard. The top and bottom of the staff ended in points, the staff thickening into a cone shape as it got closer to the blue ball in the middle. Nosebeard looked to the girl, his distaste beneath his beard invisible to everyone.
“This Dwiffking, reaching your level? Afraid not. Juro, if you kill him, I won’t mind.”
Dwiffking’s head swept to him, taking another spear stab from Juro to the face and ignoring it.
“Nosebeard! Can’t you defend your King? Look! I’m dying! I’m dying!”
The girl moved closer to Dwiffking, Juro noticed her and smiled to himself.
“Silva. You hungry?”
The Dwiffking’s eyes went wide as he realized what Juro planned.
“Not the vampire! Not again!”
The Dwiffking booked it as Silva tackled him and started sucking on the blood coming out of his head.
“Nosebeard, you traitor! Listen to your King!”
“You’re kind enough to feed a vampire Lord with your own blood, milord. How could I interrupt that?” Nosebeard said.
Dwiffking let out a groan uttering Nosebeards name, reaching for him fruitlessly as Silva drank her fill. She got off of the dwiff wiping her face with a long ruffled red sleeve.
“Thanks, Juro. He’s always an easy one to trick. Did he really think he could win this time?”
Juro dismissed his ice spear and shield into shavings of ice. They dissolved into the air.
“Nosebeard probably threatened him. A King that spends most of his time getting pushed around by an aide, I don’t envy him at all.”
Silva looked at the beard faced dwiff.
“Nosebeard, what do you think about the chimera Lord, this, D, this, ‘Dragon boy’? Why would a chimera seek a lordship? I have no doubt he wandered before this, a mongrel seeking a place in the world. Does he not know his place in this world is only to die?”
Even though the vampire Lord was five hundred years old, she deferred to Nosebeard’s expertise. Nosebeard is part of a line of aides to the dwiff throne, his access to the secrets of the world is beyond compare. In addition, the true extent of his combat power was kept hidden on purpose. Even the Dwiffking had seen Nosebeard’s full release only once before in a desperate battle against the No Life King. Nosebeard had no reason to lie to Silva, a Lord with her own town and the only non-human to hold the position. Except that she was a vampire. He chose to lie to Silva. His personal knowledge is better kept personal.
“I don’t know. The boy’s better off dead, for all our sakes, that’s for sure. ‘Dragon boy’ didn’t know that chimera’s are hunted down in secret and a threat to everyone, that’s only to be expected if he lived a hermetic life. Even the No Life King and his allies would not shelter something like him.”
Juro shrugged.
“Either way. I think we’re enough to take him on.” Juro looked to the white staff floating behind Silva. “That weapon will help keep the castle safe. Dwiffking can finally go all out. No matter how strong that chimera is, Dwiffking’s Busterbreak Blade and it’s soultaker magic should be enough to finish it. I’ll distract, as usual. One day, I’ll get a fancy weapon like you two!”
The Dwiffking mumbled incoherently responding in rage on the ground. They all ignored him.
“Shouldn’t we get the lordmaster involved, at least? He’s supposed to be responsible. If my ‘Penance’ magic breaks, won’t the whole castle explode if the battle gets out of hand?” Silva said. She rubbed the staff which floated behind her dutifully. It tinged a shade of red.
Nosebeard sighed out of his nose.
“He’s worthless in a team fight. Juro, Dwiffking and you will take him on together. Silva, you support with your shadow hippo kin. Once the other Lords hear I was involved, they chickened out. No wonder. Two Kings and the legendary vampire Lord that rules over humans, if they value their lives steering clear of the castle is the right thing to do. They aren’t cowards, just smart. If I need to step in, all of you need more training. It’s just a chimera.”
If any of the Lords heard ‘it’s just a chimera’ they would run. One of the requirements of a Lord was chimera extermination. Had D gotten the chance to talk with Lord Ros before he killed him, or another Lord, he would have learned of that secret duty. Chimera’s aren’t taken by anyone but Nosebeard.
“How confusing. If you’re so amazing, why don’t you take on the chimera yourself? You don’t need Juro, Dwiffking, and me, right?” Silva said.
“Please. I’m not invulnerable, Silva. You overestimate me.”
Although Nosebeard said that, Silva had suspicions it was a lie. This time, however, Nosebeard told the truth. His true value was in concealment and ambushes. The reason why he reputation was so well earned was because of the level of detail his family was taught to observe. Because of that, if they chose to involve themselves in a battle they never lost. It wasn’t a coincidence that they would flee a losing battle in an instant to preserve that reputation. Nosebeard’s other excuse was the limitations of his abilities that he wouldn’t discuss around anyone to preserve his family's power. Yet another excuse was to hopefully teach Dwiffking how to fight in a group, finally. Nosebeard had little hope that last excuse would ever go away for him.
Juro sauntered over to Nosebeard, putting an arm around him.
“Come on. Drinks on me. Let Dwiffking sleep it off. Take care, Silva!”
Juro and Nosebeard left talking amicably. They left the red haired twintailed vampire girl and the moaning Dwiffking alone.
“Can’t leave him like this… Nosebeard, did you expect me to clean up your King after you?”
Silva whined and heaved the Dwiffking over her head. The Busterbreak Blade still clutched in the Dwiffking’s hand, she carried him off to a private bed in the castle to let him rest, her staff following close behind her.
“Vrustof, please heal Dwiffking. He looks a little pale…” Silva addressed the staff, a white laser healed Dwiffking as Silva tucked him into bed.
In D’s carriage, Saten explained about her excommunication from the Sanctus Sancti and how they viewed D as a Dragon Demon Lord. Saten also mentioned chimeras and her father in passing, and that she thought the Sanctus Sancti would rule him as a chimera.
“Guess the rumors about a ‘dragon boy’ from Locos spread to them. I wish I could have learned how to hide these wings sooner…I am not a chimera! How dare they call me a chimera. Though it’s not like I can just say ‘I’m from another world and got these powers from a god’, right?”
D sighed and thought it over, laying on Juno’s lap. He was glad to see her face healed. Juno smiled down at him, and D returned the smile with a grin.
“Saten, you can’t come in the throne room with me then. It would have been nice to give them a grand show and do an over the top dragon character to fool the Lords. Have them call me an idiot so they would let me become a Lord in peace. Guess I’ll have to wing it, like usual, and prove I’m not a threat. What are chimeras, anyway?”
It was extremely unfortunately neither Genje or Laplas were there to explain or report the concept. Saten passed along a terrible misunderstanding.
“So, that’s a convenient excuse in my favor. I’m a magical experiment gone wrong, I never read about those in the history books. Must be rare. Okay, the plan now is, you two run if things get crazy. If any castle explodes, it’s probably my fault. If I can’t take whatever they throw at me, you two sure can’t. Good thing you can fly now, Juno. Saten, from earlier, you know what I mean when I say crazy, right?” D said.
“With the shadowflame? What about the people, the town?”
D balked. He wasn’t going to tell her about how he could also use Drive 3, Castle Crusher, which would probably only destroy the castle. Probably. He argued with himself briefly before coming up with an excuse.
“I’ll try to keep the damage to a minimum. It’s unfortunate, but the Lords are the one’s picking a fight with me after all!” They already sent an army after him. That was proof enough that going into this he would have a fight on his hands.
Saten smiled. It took her back, sensing that naive tone in D’s voice. All she wanted to hear was that he would try.
“In the war, I didn’t have a choice. Juno, what would you tell D to do if he needed to break a castle or two to come back to you?”
“Kill them all,” Juno replied.
“Juno, please, that’s so bloodthirsty. I’m glad you care. Hopefully, the Lords don’t cause too much trouble. I took out that army, so it should be fine, right?”
It was unfortunate that the town’s gates and their booked hotel had various thugs and countless traps planted lying in wait. Qurbur had sold the information on their carriage that they would be riding in long ago. Cruci, Qurbur, and Brutus took a later carriage to avoid the mayhem. The plan D told them was, “I’ll go first and clear out all the trouble like a magnet, when you get there you can make amends with all the Lords I tick off and befriend the ones I don’t tick off!”
Qurbur thought it quaint but he admired the balls D had to say that in the first place. Although he figured it was more out of idiocy and hope than anything else.
“So what’s the plan, Dear Cruci?” Brutus said. He summoned tea for the both of them. Qurbur usually didn’t drink tea, but this was free tea. They lounged in their carriage, watching the sun go down as D’s group fought for their lives in the royal capital. A few buildings and a certain mercenary troop were exterminated by Saten alone by this point.
“If that D survives, I’m playing this straight. I’m tired. Unlike you two, I wasn’t happy under Lord Ros. Not that I expect D to change much, but at least if he lets Qurbur run things it should be more agreeable,” Cruci said as he sipped his tea. Brutus gave Cruci a smile before turned to Qurbur.
“I’m so sorry to hear about Genje. After all those years? What will you do now?”
“Oh. Hire spies again. So expensive. Maybe I should pillage a Lord or two under D’s name. What do you two say? Up for some mischief?”
Qurbur turned to both of them, and both of them nodded. It was understood without question that if D were to fail they would all have to scatter into hiding until they could make peace with the next Lord. Until then, a nest egg would be necessary. It was just a question of who to target.
Brutus ran down the list.
“Silva is out, vampire. Nothing but trouble. Phronz, he’s too militant, even if he isn’t present in the royal capital. For an old man on the border I do envy his staying power but his love of security and likelihood to send assassins is high. Marscione, the lordmaster, he’s too strong. I don’t think he would miss treasures but there’s always the chance he wants to renew his revenge vow on Qurbur. Same for Villa. Qurbur, did you have to burn down her estate and slaughter her loved ones? Guanyi is the best target simply because he is so honorable. I doubt he would focus on anything but the war. It surprised me that I got word from my associates that he’s here. And that finally that sword girl-”
“Guanyi is fine. It’s a good chance to take him out,” Qurbur said.
Brutus looked at him.
“Qurbur?”
“If D manages to pull this off, the war effort is going to get more expensive either way. We either try to negotiate with the war hungry Guanyi, or we let D get Guanyi’s territory. If D doesn’t manage to survive, we can use that chaos to flee to Guanyi’s territory, Zion.”
Cruci gave Qurbur a stern look, Qurbur noticed and waited for Cruci to say something, but Cruci looked away.
“Cruci. That’s strange for you. No complaints about killing Guanyi?”
“I have a feeling. D’s got some sort of idiot magic surrounding him. I want to see how far that can go.”
Brutus grinned.
“Oh, Cruci, I swear I wouldn’t see the day. You’ve got your hopes up, don’t you?”
“Please. I want him to fail. Just like that young Lord girl with the curved sword I followed into war, he’ll get everyone around him killed and get called a hero. And when that happens, I’ll be there to make sure Locos stays safe. If nothing else,” Cruci sighed. He looked out at royal capital, enjoying the blaze in the night. D had caused quite a mess already, he observed. The smoke drifted into the sky, a signal of the battle to come.