‘Say, since you didn't know what to do earlier, how do you usually decide on where to go?’ Fafnir asked as we descended on the outskirts of the town that I had randomly chosen. Which has been reacting poorly to her presence given that she was a dragon.
We did our best to look as peaceful and harmless as possible, but in retrospect, we probably shouldn’t have circled the village in order to announce our presence the first time around, because doing so was probably similar to how a dragon scouts its food when they find prey.
Oh well, nothing we could do about it now.
“Usually? I have a schedule,” I say with a shrug, “Before you, I used to go on this flying carriage full of supplies, which also has a coach guiding it and the guy knew what to do most of the time so all I really needed to do is sit back and wait for the door to open and when it does, taking out a bag full of stuff and giving it to the people,”
‘I don’t see a bag on my back, nor do I see a large number of them.’
“We don't really need it,” I kept a close eye on the ground as Fafnir started to descend, unecessary but I want to keep doing it just in case she gets shot down or something- that is my only reason for doing so, nothing else.
Anyhow, her getting shot down is actually pretty unlikely but you can never be too sure. Also, she looked confused so I decided to elaborate, “The bags aren’t really needed since I already did a seed run the past week, which means that everyone here has been growing crops, all I really need to do now is make they grow to maturity using Light.”
‘Good to know,’ I smiled down at Fafnir, ‘so you do this weekly?’ I nodded, ‘that's a bit too much, even for a princess, where do you even get the funds to do this?’
“Eh, this is my own monthly budget,” which is actually pretty large because the Everlast Family doesn’t just get their money from taxes, but also from the items and tech being imported out of our city.
She gave me a weird look and I shrugged, “I don't really know what to do with it since Dad just gives me anything I ask from him anyways. And every time I try to save I just stare at the cash in front of me and think ‘wow, don't I have too much? I should probably spend this before my room is full of money three days from now,’.” That was an actual thing that happened, and I was forced to promise to everyone that I will never hold physical currency ever again, "and that's why I buy food and other stuff for the people below Everlast.”
‘... you don't hoard?’
We descended and I looked around while thinking of a reply, we were a few ways off to the town that we were suppose to help but that's exactly the point, I didn't want us to land in the townsquare and get battered by pitchforks, thrown torches, or arrows that can possibly hit me so we decided to land in a remote place.
We started walking and I decided to reply to Fafnir's distasteful comment for my money squandering-
I scoffed, “of course not, you think I'm some sort of dragon? And besides, with the way I use Light, I can pretty much never go hungry. Ever.” I admitted, “I can just grow crops or hunt for food when I'm nowhere near a city or if I am near one, then work as a Slayer and earn money, then buy food and lodging. Cleaning myself isn't really a problem either, since I have Techniques for that.”
‘Goddess you humans have so much to worry about, I thought it was just food and water, not homes, hygiene, and whatever else you have going for you, clothes, I suppose count as well.’ Fafnir sighed sadly, ‘I now pity you poor fools.’
“Oh- haha- good joke you overgrown lizard- oh, there's a mob in front of us and I'm pretty sure its your joke that caused this,” Fafnir rolled her eyes as I raised my hand, both to stop Fafnir from walking forward and to signal the mob that the dragon had a human companion, they stopped walking and I put some Light into my throat and used it to amplify my voice, “IT'S ME! NEOPHYTE! SEND SOMEONE OVER AND CONFIRM IT!”
From the distance, I could see that the villagers looked at each other before they started to bicker, only to stop when some guy walked forward and started making his way towards me and Fafnir.
When he arrived, I immediately recognized him as the first born son of the mayor? Hmm… I forgot-
I cut that train of thought and greeted the guy with a smile and a wave, “Zaden! How have you been?!” I exclaimed with a grin, “how's all those stuff-” what did I give these guys last week again? Other than the seeds, that is. And I needed to remember just in case someone talked to me about it, “- that I gave you last week! Which I totally remember. Yep.”
“N-Neo? It's really you?”
“In the flesh!” I did a superhero pose before giggling. I ignored the way his cheeks turned red and continued, “so, how have you been?”
“Y-you have a Dragon!”
I blew air out of my nose, “pfft- this gal? Don't get fixated on her! I'm talking to you here!”
“An ado-adolescent Dragon!”
‘Neophyte, I don't think he's thinking straight,’ pointed out Fafnir and I snorted.
“He's fine, he's usually like that when he talks to me, all stutter and no words.” I grinned.
‘He likes you romantically?’ I gave a nod but didn't say anything, no need to lead the guy on, or let him be aware that I know he likes me, he’ll find someone else and forget me eventually. ‘Well I guess… the red cheeks did say that out loud didn't it?’
“Yeah…” I trailed off while scratching the back of my neck, “... that happens. Too. Which is pretty loud.”
Honestly I don't know how to deal with this. This is why I avoid romance damn it!
“Neophyte!” The mayor? What is he called? Whatever-
“Baron Polt!” I grinned, “how have you been?!”
Unlike his son, the man actually managed to answer my question and not just stare at my Dragon.
I locked eyes with him, yeah, that’s right, my eyes are down here, not up there, “I'm doing well! No thanks to you, that bag of medicine you gave to our doctor last week has really helped us.” He laughed before facing Fafnir, “and who might this be?”
“Fafnir!” I called and my dragon leaned her head downward before placing it on my own head, she was heavy enough that I had to use Light in order to keep my neck straight, “she's a good guy so you don't have to worry, I know because I made a Pact with her earlier this noon-”
“THAT WAS YOU!” The son of Baron Polt- he didn't correct me so clearly that's his father’s title, - yelled out as he pointed at me with widened eyes, “EVERYONE FELT IT AND IT WAS YOU!”
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"Yeah? And?” I replied dismissively, “I do things like that all the time.”
‘No you don't, I would've felt it if you did.’
I patted Fafnir's lower jaw, “sarcasm, Nir. Sarcasm.”
‘I do not know what that is.’
“Sucks to be you,” I retorted.
“You're talking to her right now?” The mayor asked and I nodded, “so a telepathic Dragon. I never thought I'd ever see one. You guys do exist after all.”
“Yeah, she's unique like that.” Her telepathy is an open secret by this point and as for just how unique that is, everyone who played Everlast back in my world knew that the animal pet “Fafnir” is unique in a sense that it has dialogues for some reason or the other. Hell, the Dragon will talk to the player character if you do something as simple as turn to it and press the interact button.
No other animal/pet ingame does that.
I clapped to grab everyone's attention, it's about time I cut the slack and do what I came here for, “so, do you guys have any crops for me to grow?”
The work that had been cut out for me, in the end, was standardly simple and expected: I followed the Baron to a massive field of crops and I was asked to make them grow quicker, and since that is what I came here for, I used my Light to give the town an early harvest, which the people appreciated- shown when a large number of them ran out and started cutting the crops like there was no tomorrow.
I rode Fafnir out of there after that and as we took to the skies, my Dragon asked me something that none of my past carriage couches dared to say, ‘aren’t you giving them too much?’ Her voice was concerned, ‘not that I am against it but you are giving them more than they could possibly consume in a season, and that’s not mentioning all the other problems that aren’t just spoiled food, things such as taxes, trading, and the like. You’re affecting the economy are you not?’
“Eh, they’ll probably get fat eating it all in a week tops, they’re bored and having nothing better to do but eat.” I smiled warmly, no kids or teen can dare looking malnourished on my watch, “but about the economy thing, I want you look down,” Fafnir did and I followed it up with another question, “what do you see?”
‘I see a bunch of humans harvesting crops, what else?’ She replied naturally.
“What else- Fafnir, is that all of them are harvesting it on their own. For their own.” I pointed out, “those crops aren’t owned by anyone, not even by me and my fellow aristocrats, but in a sense, it’s also theirs.” I smiled warmly, “and I’ve always told them that they can grab whatever the hell they want the moment that I grow those crops, and they do.”
‘Aren’t there problems related to that as well?’ I shook my head, ‘what?’
“Yeah. No problems there, only at the start. Those guys know how to avoid each other and to not let their children go into the fields during their “harvests” and they’re not really stealing anything from each other when there’s so much of the stuff.”
‘Huh. That’s…’
“Over reliant on me?” I finished for her.
‘I was gonna say efficient but yeah. That’s bad, isn’t it?.’ I smiled wryly, is Fafnir pessimistic?
“I don’t think so,” I said, though I know that it’ll be bad in the long term, but if it works now then what’s the harm? Things will always be bad on the long term, that isn’t a question, and besides, Everlast needs a fighting force against the eventual horde of Demons that’ll come here when the schoolyear starts, and keeping the citizens fed and healthy would give us a better fighting chance now that the Hero is gone.
“If it works now, then we can worry about the little things later,” I smiled softly, “now come on, we have a few more villages to go to and we need to reach them all by the end of the day,”
‘How about this,’ Fafnir started to say, ‘I can do a flyby and then you can just grow their crops, simple, effecient, and we would be done helping the two territories in just under two hours because of it,’
I hummed in consideration before shrugging, “sounds like a great idea,” I grinned, “lets do it.”
And that was how we spent our early afternoon, going around all the villages found across the Fauna and Flora territories and helping them grow their crops.
By the end, I got a rough estimate on the amount of power that I got from my Pact with Fafnir because even after going through miles’ worth of farmlands, my power was only exhausted a little over halfway through.
That’s around what? 3x in growth when it comes to my Light reservoir? Pretty big difference.
“I wonder how everyone else would react to me when I tell them that?” I said to Fafnir with a self satisfied grin, we were now flying back up to Everlast and leaving behind a group of no doubt confused villagers, “I was already powerful before our Pact but now? I’m pretty sure I can fight Bismuth and win even without using Light.”
Oh, and I guess It’ll make it easier for me to reach my goal of reaching the maximum output of the gravity well of my training room too. I know that I should be happy about it but it just feels like I’m cheating for one reason or the other.
What’s that term again? The one where people don’t think they deserve what they have? Imposter Syndrome?
‘I don’t think they’ll even react to my presence,,’ Fafnir said, ‘hours have passed since we made that Pact and I assume word has already spread,’
I frowned, Baron Polt was surprised but… by now… ugh- “You’re right. I hate it. But you’re right.” My dragon chuckled, “well, whatever, I can probably still parade you around and make everyone else eat dirt for not making a Pact with an adolescent Dragon.”
‘Arrogant,’ Fafnir huffed, ‘I cannot believe that I made an unbreakable, lifelong Pact with you.’
Come to think of it, why did she do it? I felt uncomfortable talking about why she was so willing to do it back then but I also want to know why she wanted to do it so readily, and eventually, curiosity did win over so I patted my dragon’s neck and with a sigh, braced myself for the upcoming conversation, “why did you immediately make a Pact with me?”
Did I sound accusing? I hope I didn’t sound too accusing.
‘... It just felt right, I suppose,’ she replied while keeping her eyes on the sky, we broke through the clouds again and this time, with her leveled position, I managed to react calmly when the wetness of the clouds struck my skin, ‘I don’t know why, but I mistook your presence for the Hero back when you entered the stables,’
I smirked, “uhuh,” I replied, “Isn’t the Hero’s presence meant to be unique when felt by every magical being in this world?” How the hell could she mistake that?
‘As I said, I mistook it, presumably because of the amount of power that you possessed at the time made me do so,’ she supplied and I felt satisfied enough to leave that subject be for now, also partially because I felt a bit guilty, she probably doesn't know what the Hero's presence feels like because the guy died early on, ‘so when I opened my eyes and saw that you weren’t him, I thought you were the rumored Saint instead but…’
“I also wasn’t,” I said with a wistful smile, “I’m just a workaholic who wanted to repent for what she did, so I worked hard and continued pushing myself even when I was puking blood.”
Really, if I knew that guilt can override my own natural instincts to stop exercising, I would’ve killed someone in my past life and immediately started exercising. If I knew that I wouldn’t stop pushing myself because I already felt like shit- if I just knew that I can continue working hard because of my past actions- just to let myself feel anything other than heart wrenching guilt and not cry tears of pain-
‘I guess…’ I broke out of my thoughts and focused back on Fafnir’s telepathy, ‘but you were powerful enough that I… wanted to give my original purpose another chance so for once, I stopped brooding and stood up, and as I heard your apologies, I thought that maybe the world isn’t doomed after all.’
“Thanks,” I hugged the dragon’s neck, guess bracing myself was uncessary since her reason was as mundane as it was heartwarming, I grinned, “are you regretting your decision?”
‘After what we just did?’ Fafnir moved her long neck and turned her head towards me, she showed me a half-faced grin full of fangs, ‘I’m thinking that I was right,’