Chapter 7 - Territory's Intruder
In a vast office, different from Rene's, sat Thione who was thinking of various things. Mainly, on the mystery that revolved around Tarvan's newly recruited healer, Rene. Sometimes, when he tried to ask Rene of her origin, she only evaded the question by changing the topic most of the time.
There was also the case about the strange flower that had been on her head. One time, he even thought of pulling it off while she was asleep. Strangely however, the door which led to Rene's office won't budge even by a little, despite being unlocked and pushed with extraordinary force coming from Thione.
Unbeknownst to him, the door was in fact being held back by the plants within the room that had sensed his mildly malicious intent. And yet another thing that slammed Thione with more curiosity.
"Maybe... I should just talk to the monster and see the reason why..."
After Rene had walked away from the Red Ward, Thione couldn't locate her whereabout and decided only to stroll around in the castle, until he heard Rene's thoughts.
"Talk to the monster? Wait, does she mean THAT dragon?!" he thought.
Before being able to interfere her decisions, Rene already walked away from the courtyard while Thione was staring at her blankly. After a while, he decided to check the Library in order to find out about Rene.
In the library, he tried to search for books on clues regarding Rene, mainly through the hint of the flower's existence on her head. To his dismay, much couldn't be found that could be directly related to her. There were a few books that did say something peculiar, however.
"On the day the Yggdrasil falls, a descendant of the Yggdrasil shall appear. Carrying Yggdrasil's power and instincts, they may interfere with the world on their own accord. For the world, are their kingdom."
"White hair, and green eyes. White hair, and red eyes. The two are not much of a threat to the world, but should the third eyes awakens, the world shall meet its end."
"T-these are.... no, it couldn't possibly be.... but still..," Thione trembled from fear after looking at the books.
"..... Just who are you, Rene?"
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"T-THE PRINCESS OF NATURE? IMPOSSIBLE! SHE IS SUPPOSED TO BE IN LIZENDRA!"
The dragon that had landed before took off once more in fear after hearing Rene's claims. Furious, it flapped its wings to create a massive turbulence within the air space, blowing off almost everything within the area. Rene herself however, simply stood there as if nothing happened, all the while the rest of the soldiers were now piled up against the walls.
The dragon also tried to breathe fire and burn Rene to crisp, however as if bending to Rene's will, it formed a protective fiery barrier around her instead the moment it touched her. The recent turbulence that dragon created had caused a temporary sandstorm to occur, blinding the soldiers, thus indirectly allowing Rene to hide her identity.
"You.... you dare attack me? Very well," she thought.
"Listen to my will, fallen one. Rise. Rise and bloom, once more."
With a thought, two massive blue sphere appeared on top of Rene's hands. Pointing toward the sky, she shot the spheres into mid air, and soon enough exploded. The result was a beautiful blue rain, diving down upon the dry desert ground.
In mere seconds, plants began sprouting out of nowhere and grew almost instantly, forming a dense forest of what the desert used to be. The dragon on the other hand, was stunned to look at Rene's performance.
Utilizing the chance she had, Rene manifested and shot multiple paralyzing metal needles at the dragon's abdomen, causing it to fall on the land forcefully. Quickly, the vines within the area tied the dragon on the spot while being on the ground.
As Rene approached the dragon slowly, she created a dark metal spear, specially made to penetrate dragon's skins. The dragon watched Rene as she prepared herself to strike it down at point blank range. It knew that its time was coming to an end.
Mustering up every strength it had, the dragon said, "Please, save my daughter," and closed its eyes.
Suddenly, Rene stopped and just stared at the dragon.
"I have proven my status as the Nature Princess by displaying only a part of my power," Rene said.
"So, do well not to make me mad unless you want to die, ok?" she continued while smiling as her eyes gradually became green.
Slowly, it opened up its massive eyes and looked at Rene before replying, "...... I AM SORRY FOR MY PREVIOUS DISPLAY OF DISRESPECT. I COULDN'T SIMPLY TRUST ANYONE CLAIMING FOR BEING THE PRINCESS OF NATURE."
It began being enveloped in white light before dissipating, revealing its humanoid form, "My name is Luvan, a dragon obviously. It is such a pleasure to actually be able to meet Nature's Princess here. Will you listen to my story?"
"Well sure, but first thing first. Let's find an inn for you to stay, and also clothes for you as well."
Facing her palm toward Luvan's direction, she focused to create clothings for him. In the end, she used Thione's brown robe as a reference as she was not used to making complex things like clothings, despite her possessing the ability to do so.
Walking toward the city's entrance, Rene signalled Luvan to follow her. At first, Luvan was reluctant, but walked toward her in the end while looking at the piling soldiers against the walls, that looked like corpses.
Pointing his finger to the unconscious soldiers, he asked, "What about those guys, won't they compromise your identity?"
"It's fine, it's fine! Notice the mist and the sandstorm you created before? Who can identify us in a place like this?" Rene replied while dispersing blue orbs from her palm to the soldiers for healing purposes.
Holding the whistle dangling on her neck, she blew it. In a matter of minutes, a carriage soon enough arrived with Raviol as the coachman.
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"We're here, Rene!" Raviol claimed.
"Thanks for the assistance, Raviol!" Rene replied.
Stepping out of the carriage, Luvan followed her behind while Raviol stared at him.
"Also Raviol, please notify Thione that I don't think I'll be back for tonight, but I'll be doing so tomorrow."
"You sure this is a good idea? I mean... a girl like you and a man like him, you know?"
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With an oblivion face, she thought about it for a while, before suddenly blushing as she realized what he was talking about.
"I-I'll be fine! Now, move along already!" Rene said while pretending to push the carriage.
Witnessing her cute act, Raviol couldn't help but laugh before saying, "Hahaha, very well. But please, do be careful," and then gave Luvan a sharp stare.
Not understanding what he was trying to say, Luvan followed behind Rene's back as she entered the inn. Raviol soon enough left with his carriage, heading back to castle.
The inn's ground floor was filled with customers, mostly having dinner for the night. Various people was there, adventurers, merchants and more. Standing in front of the counter, Rene was greeted by a lady who wore a simple red shirt with a white scarf.
"Welcome to Felia Inn! Do you wish to spend for the night here?"
Manifesting three bronze coins, Rene handed it over to the innkeeper and said, "Two days for him, and one night for me."
During this time, Rene was able to avoid unintentional attention by paying for the exact amount to stay in the inn because she had read about it within her own library. If she hadn't, she would already be placing a gold coin on the innkeeper's hand, thus causing her jaw to drop.
In this world, the value of one gold coin is equal to 1000 silver coins, where 1 silver coin is equal to 1000 bronze coins. Depending on the inn, they may charge differently, where in this case, Felia Inn only charged 1 bronze per night.
"Should I make it individual?"
"I'll.. have my own room," she said while remembering what Raviol said.
"Very well, please follow me to room for both of you," the innkeeper said as she took a key and went out of the counter.
The inn was small, but despite of that fact, it had consisted of three floors in total, and Rene's room was within the second floor while Luvan's was at the third. Naturally, Luvan knew of the way on how human works, so he took a bath, ate and did everything a human would, normally.
On the other hand, Rene took a quick bath since being drenched in water for long would make her feel sick due to the water overload within her body. Eating wasn't exactly what she preferred, or rather, she avoided it completely.
The only way to satisfy her hunger for now was only through absorbing sunlight. Additionally, she couldn't eat her own kind, which includes fruits and vegetables. For meat, she may rarely nibble on one some time, just because of her old human habit.
In the middle late of the night where everyone were asleep, Luvan began talking with Rene on the rooftop of the inn.
"So.... what happened that made you attack this country?" Rene asked while sitting on a chair, drinking some tea.
"Well you see, you know right how every dragon have their own humanoid form?"
Every dragon had their own humanoid form, possessing every single human natural characteristic except for their eyes which resembled that of a cat's. Luvan explained how dragons' strength become considerably diminished whenever they entered the humanoid form, so it was less likely that they would use it for combat purpose.
His daughter, regardless, had a strange preference to hang around within the dragons' nest in her humanoid form. Since it was only around the dragons' nest however, they allowed her to do whatever she wanted.
But then one day, a group of people intruded Luvan's territory. They wore armors that had some sort of crests engraved on them, but Luvan was not able to focus on that, as he was engaging against them.
They did not exactly pose a threat to Luvan, only as if delaying time. Suddenly, they began retreating for no reason. Confused, Luvan stood there in his defense stance, guarding his territory, until he saw his daughter unconscious, in the hand of the intruders.
Filled with rage, he flew in order to save her daughter before it was too late, but then they simply teleported away.
".....CURSE YOU HUMANS!" he screamed furiously.
Ever since then, he tracked the trail of mana left behind from the teleporting and thus, end up being in Tarvan. He tried to enter it through peaceful method, but soon enough the guards discovered his true form by looking at his eyes.
Confident, he turned into a dragon and started attacking Tarvan, but he did not know that their defense was equally good, and could survive better with the Medical Sector backing them up. The day that he saw Rene, which was today, became the turning table as he was able to easily enter Tarvan now, with her assistance.
"As such, I truly want to express my gratitude, however, I have no method of doing so, not in the way I am now," he said.
"It's fine, I'm doing this because I wanted to anyway. But I have been wondering, why don't you just bring the whole dragons' family to attack Tarvan? Well, I'd be stopping all of you anyway, but still, I want to know," Rene replied.
"To take on the whole dragons' race alone.... anyhow, that would be quite problematic, as we would be leaving our home defenseless. Also, I wanted to take this on myself, looking at how I was the cause for my daughter's kidnapping."
"Hmmm... just so you know, I'll be assisting you. Who knows, they may have something up in their sleeves, plus, I'm bored anyway!" Rene stated while chuckling.
"I truly appreciate your assistance. For now, how about we get some sleep? I haven't been sleeping for weeks thanks to the soldiers."
"If you say so then, good night!"
Entering her own room, Rene casted a self protective barrier on herself as there were no plants that could protect her within the room. She proceeded to lie on her bed, played with her mana orb and soon enough, felt asleep.
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Author's Side :
I thought I'd put yet another cliffhanger here but avoided as I thought I should refrain from using too much of it.
Also I am sorry for not being able to reply for latest chapter, I truly have became somewhat busy, but I will still try my best to update chapters at least once in three days.
In respond to GreyDragon0's comment in previous chapter, I am trying my best to prevent on hitting a Hiatus status, but it will all depend on how I fare with my real life (schools mostly). Also, I would prefer to avoid taking ideas from readers directly, but the story does get affected indirectly through comments.
In any case, thank you for reading and hope you enjoyed. :)