No wonder the Magic Dragon's reputation was getting worse and worse. Lance's expression darkened.
The previous owner of the tower, the infamous Black Dragon, had at least been understandable. He had recaptured the tower ten years ago, and since then, aside from the regular livestock offered by the king as daily food, he hadn't been stirring up trouble like the Black Dragon had.
Of course, the brave adventurers who sought to challenge him were an exception.
The reason these adventurers continued to challenge him after the Black Dragon disappeared was probably due to those who had been using the name of the Magic Dragon to commit evil deeds all this time.
Anyway, since he had unexpectedly ended up at the foot of the mountain, Lance wanted to find out exactly who was using his name to cause trouble.
Lance didn’t care much if his name became more tarnished, but a tyrannical Magic Dragon would attract even more adventurers to challenge him.
While Lance did enjoy collecting adventurers’ swords, it was merely a leisure activity when he was bored. For the Blue Dragon, studying magic was the only true path.
Moreover, Mira was still living in the tower. If adventurers came during this time, it could cause unnecessary trouble.
Lance felt his reasons were ample—at least more rational than his fiery-tempered cousin, the Black Dragon.
"You want to handle things here?" The middle-aged man was somewhat surprised. Mages didn’t leave a good impression on adventurers. They were often seen as a bunch of bookish nerds who couldn't wield a sword or carry a shield. Even if they could cast fireballs and water waves with a wand, it didn’t change the fact that they were generally disliked.
However, adventurers had to admit their strength. When they used to accept missions, having a real spellcaster in their party was often a sign of their strength.
Lance looked at him.
"Can you provide useful information?"
"Information always requires payment," the middle-aged man said flatly. As a retired adventurer due to injury, he no longer took on adventure missions, but he ran a small business in this town near the Magic Dragon’s tower.
He collected and sold information, most of it related to the Magic Dragon. He sold this information to adventurers who came to challenge the dragon. Though he didn’t make much money, it gave him some pocket change and a chance to interact with other information brokers from surrounding towns.
They exchanged information, slowly building a fairly large intelligence network in the eastern kingdom.
Lance knew the man was referring to money. He didn’t have any, though there were plenty of treasures in the tower, but they clearly wouldn’t solve the current problem.
"Payment?" Mira tilted her head. She thought of the gold in her ring, the large gold ingot the king had given her.
"What price?" Mira asked.
Lance glanced at her, his eyes stopping on the flashy large ring on her finger. Just earlier, he had told Mira that the magic used to create this ring was elementary space composition magic.
The middle-aged man spread his fingers wide. "This much."
Mira made an 'oh' sound, rubbing her right hand over the finger with the ring on it, and a heavy gold ingot appeared in her hand.
It was really heavy, and Mira was startled by the sudden weight. Her wrist sank, and she had to place the ingot on the ground.
She looked at the ingot, clearly more than what the middle-aged man had asked for, and asked him, "Can you divide it?"
The middle-aged man's eyes widened. He had been an adventurer for decades, so of course, he recognized that Mira's ring was a storage magic item. But when she took out an ingot larger than a fist from it, he was still shocked.
He couldn’t ignore the girl following the mage anymore. She seemed ordinary, yet she could casually pull out so much money.
Everyone on the road knew: never display your wealth, or it would invite endless trouble. Didn't this girl know such a simple rule?
Was she a poor mage deceiving the daughter of a wealthy family?
His gaze moved between Mira and Lance, recalling the girl's clumsy lie earlier.
She had referred to the injured blue-haired man as "Sir." She claimed they were part of a merchant caravan, but in reality, caravans rarely passed through here due to the presence of the Magic Dragon’s tower.
The town was mostly self-sustained, and occasionally, information brokers disguised as traveling merchants would arrive. But the primary goods they traded were information, and the items they carried in their carts were just secondary.
"This might be impossible, miss," the middle-aged man turned to Mira, his tone now different.
Lance didn’t want to hear any more of this nonsense. Humans always liked unnecessary formalities, and the middle-aged man's gaze kept lingering greedily on the gold ingot—something a Blue Dragon couldn't miss.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Lance picked up the ingot, channeling his magic into a sharp blade, cutting off a corner and tossing it to the middle-aged man.
The gold ingot rolled on the ground with a dull sound.
The middle-aged man followed the line the gold ingot traced with his eyes until it stopped. He reached down to grab it and pinched it with his nail.
It was real.
Lance, as though not noticing the small motion, said coldly, "Now you can tell us what you know, right?"
The middle-aged man smiled faintly and tapped the table in front of him with his cane.
Soon after, the elderly woman who had been sent to fetch water earlier came in.
She placed a stack of papers in front of Lance and Mira, then retreated.
"This is the first time they’ve kidnapped people in this small town," the middle-aged man’s gaze fell on the papers. "But this kind of thing happens frequently in other towns."
"At first, they didn’t openly kidnap people like this," the middle-aged man raised his chin, gesturing for Mira and Lance to look at the information on the table. "The nearest town, three years ago, started seeing people disappear. Children who went to play by the water, young men sent on deliveries, men returning home after markets, and hunters living alone by the forest. The age range varied, but they all shared one thing: they were men."
Mira recalled the scene from the scouting spell. Indeed, the carts had been filled with young, strong men.
"Do you know where they were taken?" Mira shifted her gaze from the information on the table to listen carefully to the middle-aged man’s words.
"Miss, that’s a separate piece of information," the middle-aged man replied. Having spent so long as an information broker, he had lost some of the heroic spirit that adventurers were supposed to have.
Mira slightly tilted her head, and Lance understood his meaning. He sliced another piece of gold from the ingot and tossed it to the information broker.
He returned the remaining gold to Mira and said, "Put it back." Lance’s cold gaze swept over the information broker. The meaning was clear: don’t be greedy.
Being warned by a mage was clearly dangerous.
The information broker straightened up, and only after putting the new gold away did he continue, "This contains all the information you want. It’s the most complete up to this point."
Lance furrowed his brow.
The elderly woman had already placed the information on the table in advance, and the middle-aged man had asked for money twice.
Lance narrowed his eyes.
Mira reached out to stop his hand on his arm.
"We should leave," she said to Lance.
Lance lifted his head slightly, and Mira gently shook her head.
They shouldn’t argue with an information broker. The important thing was to complete the transaction, to quickly investigate where these young men were being taken, and what all this had to do with the Magic Dragon.
Had they been scammed? If it were any other time, Mira would have taught the scammer a lesson. But now wasn’t the time. There were more pressing matters.
Mira gathered the information and helped Lance stand.
"Thank you," she said to the middle-aged man, then, with Lance, left the house.
After walking a short distance, Lance suddenly spoke.
"He no longer has the soul of a hero."
"The soul of a hero?" This was another term Mira hadn’t heard before.
"For an adventurer, hatred of evil and selfless bravery are the most important qualities. But greed for money destroys those virtues."
"But the heroes who hated evil and were selfless… all died at the hands of the Magic Dragon." Mira looked at Lance, giving him an answer that surprised the Blue Dragon.
The girl with a sharp mind and an unexpected response.
Lance realized that this was indeed true. Those adventurers who sought to protect justice, who made it their mission, were always poor. And their endings were rarely the traditional good ones.
Many adventurers had challenged Lance. He didn’t take their lives, but he kept their swords as trophies.
It was a dragon's hobby—a collecting obsession. But what he truly treasured was the adventurer’s hope for justice.
Lance didn’t know what to say for a moment.
Although he had traveled the world, he had walked through desolate, uninhabited places.
He suddenly had the feeling that the Blue Dragon was trapped in the tower. And the girl who had entered the tower had, while walking into that prison, freed the Blue Dragon who had been trapped there.
"Let’s do something good," Lance said to Mira. "Let’s do something good with magic." He took the information from her.
"Learning magic requires practice. If we stay in the tower all the time, we won’t create a second tower."
Mira was drawn to his suggestion and nodded repeatedly.
"Shall we go back and study this? Or should we stay here for a while?"
Lance smiled, "Didn’t I just say? We shouldn’t always stay in the tower."
Mira understood what he meant. "Then let’s find a place to stay first. I have plenty of gold." She touched the ring, lowering her voice. "A lot."
There was only one inn in the town, and it was used to accommodate dragon-slaying heroes.
Lance and Mira made their way towards the inn. Lance's legs were not functioning well, and he couldn't walk fast. Mira supported him as they slowly walked past a street in disarray.
The wailing cries continued incessantly, and some people had begun trying to pick up the scattered items.
Conscription. This was the reason given by the bandits. They wore soldier uniforms and carried the king's orders, arriving in the town like a storm, sweeping away the husbands and children from the townspeople.
From what the information dealer had said, Mira knew these people were not soldiers. But the townsfolk were unaware of this information.
The two entered the only inn in the town, which was also in chaos. A girl, about seven or eight years old, was moving the tables and chairs that had fallen to the ground.
Mira let go of Lance and went up to help her lift the heavy table.
The girl tilted her head and looked at her.
"Are you here to stay?" she asked, her face full of worry. She seriously told Mira, "My dad's not here. He said he went out to get supplies and won't be back for a few days."
Mira immediately understood the meaning behind her words. After a moment of thought, she decided not to expose this kind lie.
"Can we stay for now? And when your dad comes back, we can talk about the rest?"
The girl showed a confused expression, clearly not having been told by her father to let anyone stay other than sword-wielding customers.
Mira glanced at the disorganized environment around them.
"I can help you clean up these tables and chairs," she offered.
The girl still seemed a little cautious. Before her father left, he had told her to close the shop unless someone with a sword came. She wasn't supposed to serve anyone else.
While the girl hesitated, a woman walked in from outside.
"Karo, what happened?"
Mira turned around and was surprised to see a familiar face.
It was the kind-hearted owner of the rice shop, the woman who had patiently answered all of her questions. Mira remembered the sad look on her face the last time they met.
Now, as the woman appeared here, after a brief shock and surprise, her expression quickly turned to one of anger and resentment.
The woman screamed hysterically, and her voice drew the attention of the nearby neighbors. They gathered around, asking each other what had happened.
The rice shop owner pointed at Mira, her finger trembling. Her face turned bright red, and tears streamed down her cheeks.
"It’s her! It’s her!" she gritted her teeth, accusing Mira of the crime. "I know her. She’s the princess’s maid. It’s her master who caused us to lose our families!"
"It’s because the king wanted to conscript soldiers that we lost our families!"