"Hoho, it seems like I slept too deeply last night." Berko scratched his balding head with a nervous laugh.

‘I doubt an earthquake can wake him up.’ Seth didn’t say anything to him as he watched Celia and the twins approach the villagers.

"It's okay, Dad. We all beat up the bad guys, meow." Berko patted Orion's head as they sat on the caravan's front seat.

The sun began to rise on the horizon, casting a soft, golden glow over the village.

The Demon King Worshippers, who had lost their leader, scattered and ran away while the villagers were aimlessly wandering around and looking at their broken homes. It was Celia and the children who told the villagers that the barrier that had trapped them for several years had been removed and they could leave.

‘I want to help them, but I can’t even guarantee my safety. Maybe I can tell the marquess about the situation, but I can’t be too obvious, or else they will investigate me. Ugh.’ While he was lost in thought, the twins came back to him.

"Are you bringing us with you?" They looked at him with eyes full of hope.

"What I said last night is still valid." He smiled. "We have the Invincible Cloak, so use it with you when we reach the capital. I'm sure that my father will accept you both."

"What if he doesn't?" It was Leon who was skeptical.

He and Noel hardly ever saw anyone outside of their servants, and their siblings, who were born of different mothers, were also cruel to them. His perception of other people was, of course, that they would not be kind to him and his sister.

"Then I'll think of a way," Seth replied confidently, but inside, he was worried. ‘Isn’t it considered treason to hide the children of the royal family?’

Noel bit her lips. "I can be a servant."

"M-me too! I heard that only if you work will you get to eat."

Seth was momentarily at a loss for words. ‘Since they are members of the royal family, I expected them to be haughty or demanding, but the novel did, if memory serves me correctly, mention that they suffered abuse at the hands of their own siblings and servants while Maline was away. That’s one of the reasons they would rebel against the king in the future.’

"That's something that we will discuss once we arrive at the marquess’ estate."

The twins nodded their heads simultaneously.

Seth walked to Celia, who had just finished healing a wounded villager.

She smiled and asked, “The children are joining us?”

“Yes.”

“What will happen to them once we arrive at the capital?”

“Maybe they’ll stay with me. If it’s not possible, then I’ll bring them to a safe place.” Seth watched as the children played with the orange cat, Orion, on the caravan.

Celia smiled bitterly. “I’m sorry that I can’t be a lot of help to you.”

Seth looked at Celia with confusion. “What are you talking about?”

‘She had helped me plenty of times throughout the journey.’

“I can’t heal the dragon, and I also have to leave Noel and Leon to you.”

In the novel, the dragon, the twins, and he shouldn’t have met Celia this soon. It was his actions that changed the course of events.

“Celia.”

“Yes?”

“You don’t have to worry too much.”

Celia laughed a little. “Yeah, maybe I worry a lot.”

…

“Why are you following us?”

“You think too highly of yourself. I’m not following you.”

“Then why are you here?”

The caravan rumbled along the dusty road. Seth was seated at the back, his legs dangling off the edge of the caravan. In the confined space inside, Isaac sat with his eyes closed and one leg propped up.

Celia had overworked herself by healing all the injured people as much as she could, including Isaac, so she was sleeping with the twins across from him.

Isaac opened his eyes and glared at Seth. "I can't allow you to torture the dragon, so I’m monitoring you."

Seth gave him a side-eye. "The dragon doesn't need your monitoring. What can I even do against an ancient creature? If he is a monster, he would be ranked as an EX-grade monster anyway."

Above the SSS-grade monster, there was an EX-grade, which would be given to a monster that had no rival. But it was sporadic to appear.

"You're acting like a nanny."

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Isaac glared at him, but he didn't let out any bloodlust, so Seth wasn't intimidated.

"You saved my life, and I helped you beat the cult leader, so we are even now. I don't want to be indebted to anyone." Seth said with a sigh.

"Hmph. How do you know about the dragon?" Isaac asked.

"Anyone would notice something wrong with the village since it had been going on for several years. But it was only a coincidence that the horse that pulled the caravan fell sick, and we stumbled there. After asking around, I heard that there was a dragon, so I checked it out."

Although his story made sense, there was too much coincidence.

Isaac narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “And you suddenly thought about saving the dragon?”

“Yeah, why not? You did the same thing to me. You brought me to the village chief and Celia.” Seth said it nonchalantly. "What about you? What's your connection to the dragon?"

"It's just exactly like you." Isaac turned his face away as he was lost in thought.

‘No, I was planning to save the dragon but you were planning to kill him.’ Seth was speechless for a second.

There was a moment of peaceful silence.

Orion was sleeping next to Berko. Berko pretended that he didn’t exist as he listened quietly to the conversation at the back of the caravan. It was surprising that he was able to be near a mighty existence like a dragon. Like, wouldn’t a swipe of that paw be able to obliterate all of the people in the caravan?

Berko took a glance at the sleeping mighty creature, but he didn’t say anything about the dragon, afraid that he would offend him.

Isaac broke the silence as he looked at the blonde-haired man grimly. "In any case, do you know what will happen to you? The demon nobles wouldn't let you go."

"They wouldn't be able to do anything too serious to me once we arrived at the capital," Seth replied calmly. He was actually worried, but he didn’t show it on his face.

The demon nobles would be foolish to attack him hastily because there were several strong people in the capital.

"Are you relying on the Hero?"

"No. Why would I? I have my sister."

The Hero and Seth had a bad relationship. He wouldn't think about protecting him.

Seth caressed the sleeping dragon in his arms. The dragon's scales were colored dark brown and silver. There were also two horns on his head. It was a very beautiful dragon. Being able to touch the dragon made him feel like it was worthwhile going through all that debt.

Unfortunately, the body was marred with old and new wounds. The dragon’s tail was short as it had been sliced off for the Demon King Worshipper’s experiment, and his legs were also broken.

‘After getting revenge, I'll lead a peaceful life. As for the threat of the Demon King? I’ll leave it to the Hero and his comrades. I’m the protagonist. I used up all my luck in this life by saving the dragon.’

Isaac gave him a strange look before he turned his head and closed his eyes.

It would take four days to reach the capital. When night fell, they set up two tents beside the caravan.

Seth asked Celia and the children to wait near the tents while Isaac and he went to find wood and hunt some animals. Berko was already sleeping. Since he was old and already drove the caravan, Seth felt like it was rude to ask him to join them.

The fruits were different from the ones on Earth. There was a round purple fruit the size of a peach.

Seth opened the fruit with his hand. The inside was colored black, but it was juicy and smelled sweet. He was about to take a bite when Isaac spoke up.

"The fruit you picked is called Demon Plum. It's poisonous."

The name itself was ominous.

"Oh." Seth was embarrassed and quickly made up an excuse with a haughty face. "I'm a noble, so I've never gone to eat in the wilderness."

‘Reading the novel didn't mean you knew everything about the world either.’ He quickly threw away the fruit and followed Isaac into the woods.

Isaac was good at finding edible fruits and gave it all to Seth to stuff into his space-dimension box. He felt like it was getting fuller, and there wasn't a lot of space left.

After a while, they saw a normal-looking deer who was sniffing and chewing on the grass. The two of them hid behind the bushes.

Seth looked at Isaac and waited for him to show his move. Isaac looked back at him. They stared at each other for a few seconds until Seth spoke.

"Why are you looking at me?"

"What?"

"Aren't you hunting the deer?"

"I'm a close-range fighter. I can't attack it without scaring it off."

Seth was speechless for a moment. He felt a little pity for the deer, but he also wanted to eat meat.

He raised his hand like a gun and aimed it at the deer. The deer seemed to notice that something was looking at it. As they both made eye contact, Seth immediately cast a magic bullet and hit the deer right on the head. The deer fell to the ground.

"Wow, headshot." He pretended to blow the smoke from his imaginary gun. His finger was throbbing. Isaac ignored him as he examined the deer and carried it away.

‘My first hunt was successful. When did I ever hunt before? I was only a modern person who only needed to work and purchase food from the grocery store directly.’ Seth was proud of himself.

After gathering some wood, they returned to the makeshift tents. Celia and the children had finished setting it up.

Isaac went to skin and cut the deer, while Celia and Seth tried to make a fire. Seth grabbed one rock at a time and tried to hit the rocks together. After several tries, it was still not working. It was pretty difficult to live in a medieval fantasy world. Celia stared at him quietly.

"What is it?"

"We have a match."

"Oh."

The twins tried to hold back their giggles.

Celia pulled out the match from her bag and lit up the woods on fire. The children went closer to the fire to get warm. At night, the weather was chilly.

‘Even in this world, there are still mosquitoes... my sworn enemies.’ Seth swatted the vile insect from his arm.

Celia suddenly held his hand and healed his finger, which was turning into a bruise after he used it to hunt the deer earlier. Even though he didn’t want to trouble her, she still noticed.

“You should tell me if you’re hurt.”

“Hmm…”

Isaac returned with the deer cut neatly.

Seth was disturbed as the lifeless eyes of the deer looked at him. "Throw away the head."

"Why? We can still eat it."

"You are eating that?"

The others looked at him strangely. Seth fell silent.

He ate the other parts of the deer. It wasn't as bad as he thought. But he missed the modern foods that taste better. ‘Oh, I missed grilled lambs.’

On the second day, they saw an enormous centipede trying to pick a fight and ate the centipede meat during dinner.

On the third day, they saw several knights with horses.

Seth finally met his sister.