Chapter 160: I can’t stand frustration! (4)
Despite the esoteric and comical nature of the situation, Deidros’ face was deadly serious.
No matter what this perverted dragon was like, a normal dragon had to be extremely careful when revealing its true name.
And a mage who wielded the power of the dragon would be born.
Deidros realized that both this dragon and Zetto’s friend, the woman named Yuri, needed to be investigated further.
“Before that…Flesh?”
[Flesh?]
“If your soul is here, your body should remain.”
Deidros scratched his head in frustration.
[Aha, flesh… I see you’ve become curious about my magnificent body, perhaps after hearing about me…]
The orb trailed off.
Apparently convinced that he wouldn’t break it, the orb continued in a much more relaxed voice, her earlier ramblings gone.
[…Are you in heat? Hmph…Alas, we are not of the same species.]
As the orb continues to laugh, Deidros slams the desk next to it.
-Boom!
The sound, followed by the attention of Zetto and Yuri in the hall, reaches Deidros’ ears.
“…Answer only when asked.”
After letting out a sigh, Deidros straightened his hair and spoke in a calm voice.
[Take the joke, take the anger…I’m a red dragon]
“So where is your body?”
[In the nest, I suppose.]
“Where’s the nest?”
Deidros asked again, trying to control his anger at the orb frustrating way of asking questions.
[North of Mount Keltanos. There is an abandoned castle there.]
“A castle…? Is there a mad dragon nesting in the castle?”
[As a golden dragon, I thought you would understand my desire…Mating in a luxurious castle. Isn’t it beautiful to hear?]
“…Wait, Mount Keltanos…”
Deidros casually dismisses the orb nonsense, cupping his chin as if he’s onto something.
“Who found you first?”
[That was…]
The dragon reminisces about the time when her soul entered the orb.
…After turning into the orb, no one came to visit for a while.
It was an abandoned castle, so it was an off-the-beaten-path place.
The dragon was content to let it be a quiet place to make love but when the soul entered the orb, it was a different story.
She would not be visited by a passing dragon in the midst of her revelry. No, she didn’t want her kind to see her like this, and so many other thoughts raced through her head, desperately waiting for help, whoever it might be.
It was then that a stranger’s voice was heard near the entrance of the abandoned castle.
‘An abandoned castle, that’s awesome.’
‘Hey, Leon. Be careful. It’s in pretty good shape for an abandoned castle. Someone must have taken care of it.’
‘There’s nothing to be careful of in an abandoned castle. You’re too much of a worrier.’
The dragon thought he’d run into an ordinary party of adventurers: they weren’t his kind, so she wouldn’t be able to ask for help, and her body was still intact, so the mere sight of the dragon’s form from afar would send them fleeing in terror.
But contrary to the dragon’s expectations, they were not frightened at all.
‘Hey, Hubert, there’s a dragon lying here with his paws out! I’ve spotted a dragon in a strange position!’
“What do you mean, it’s…… real.’
They didn’t run away, but came closer and studied the dragon intently.
The first to approach the oddly positioned dragon was a young man with blond hair and ruddy red eyes.
‘Is he sleeping? He’s not moving. Funny.’
‘A Red Dragon…’
‘It’s probably best not to touch him.’
‘It’s okay. It’s already dead.’
‘What? Dead? There are no wounds?’
‘…Yeah, no cause of death, which is strange, but what is this…?’
A man holding a magnificent golden spear held up the orb containing the dragon soul.
The dragon was somewhat perplexed, but there was nothing she could do now that she was an orb.
“What is this…Cerys, Hubert has found something strange again.
‘Is this…the dragon’s orb?’
The blond youth rushed over to the woman in white robes, while the man with the golden spear peered into the orb and examined it more closely.
‘Ferocious power… It must contain the mana of the Red Dragon. It might be useful in the future. ‘
The dragon’s memory ended there and the next thing she knows, she’s a giant golem in some sort of temple.
[They… they… leered lewdly at me as I lay there in my climax…!]
“…”
[Now that I think about it, I might have gotten a little excited…]
Her bullshit followed as soon as she was done talking but Deidros couldn’t care less now.
“……was that you?”
Deidros asked, finally sounding incredulous.
[…well, what do you mean…?]
The orb stammered, sensing that something was amiss with Deidros’ behavior.
“Leon… Hubert… Cerys… Ha…”
Deidros recalled the names from the orb story. If the orb had a head to scratch, it would have scratched it.
Leon, the Hero, Hubert the Sage and Saint Cerys were the ones who found her body.
Deidros winced at the sudden headache and spoke up.
“It seems that it was the Hero Party that found you… At that time, the demons and humans were at war. I’m sure you’re aware of that, but once, out of the blue, the remains of a dragon were found and distributed as food to the humans. They don’t normally eat dragons, but…well…They were at war… ”
[…Wait, I don’t understand…]
The orb struggled to deny reality.
[…really…are you telling me that my body was once food for hungry humans?]
Deidros nods faintly at the orb’s question.
“At least you died doing good.”
[I’m not dead yet…! Then what did the other dragons do until our kind was eaten by mere mortals!]
“When did we ever care about our kind, we just laughed it off as a dragon giving away.”
[ …… ]
The orb grew quiet.
‘…Still, she lost her body, so maybe I was too harsh with my words.’
Just as Deidros was thinking that, the orb spoke up.
[I guess aerial copulation is out of the question… I’ve always wanted to try it…]
“…Crazy bitch.”
Deidros curses and all his remorse’s were gone.
“Whoa… so what’s next?”
[ When I woke up, I was a giant golem in a temple or something, and I couldn’t see a way out, so I just sat there with nothing to do, and every once in a while, some guys in black uniforms would come by and I’d beat the crap out of them. I’d kill all that came at me, or so I thought, but sometimes they’d come back at me after they died, so I knew I’d lost my mind.]
“You must have become the core of a Golem in the Labyrinth.”
[I had no idea it was a labyrinth, and then I saw Zetto outside.]
“Come to think of it, why didn’t I connect with Zetto? It was obviously possible since it seems like the orb belonged to him in the first place.”
The orb begins to vibrate once more at Deidros’ question, and Deidros’ brow furrows at the unnatural vibration.
[You…you don’t know……the madness behind those bandages…]
“What do you mean?”
[I mean…me, when I was a golem. My body was designed to be defeated by magic and I’ve fought enough battles to know that instinctively. Those who came with blades were no match for me. There weren’t many ‘guests’ to begin with, but warriors, mages and paladins all fell to my fists. I’m not bragging, but it was a cakewalk for this body, and then along came a very handsome man in bandages…As soon as I saw the sword in his hand, I knew that he would not defeat me.]
For some reason, the orb was very proud of her time as a golem.
‘She went from being a dragon to a mere golem but she didn’t even care about that and she was fighting in the Labyrinth…? Should I call it optimism or call it stupidity? She must have had a talent for combat, since she beat a mage with a physical body that was made to lose against magic…’
Deidros marveled at the orb attitude and how much it went with the flow.
“In any case, you were defeated.”
[Yes, it was a defeat. I still can’t forget it. The smile, filled with the madness of the blind man, that took so long to crush my flesh…]
The orb clattered to the ground.
“…”
Deidros opens his mouth and stares at the orb, wondering how that vibration thing works…
[This male was far too terrifying to be my master, after all. Hmmmm… If anything, I was looking forward to a forced mating, since I couldn’t possibly mate with my master.]
“…”
Feeling dizzy from listening to the orb nonsense, Deidros tilted his head and stared at the ceiling.
He needed to organize the situation or a stupid dragon in a masturbator and a mage who needed the power of that dragon.
The only way to avoid having to hide the truth would be to transfer the soul of the stupid dragon in the orb elsewhere, but looking at the internal structure, that seemed unlikely.
“I wonder how they made it such a complicated structure…”
Deidros clicked his tongue as he examined the orb.
[Still, my friends say it works pretty well and they love it.]
“That’s the problem.”
When you’re dealing with humans or demonic monsters, you’ll have no problem but if that battle is seen by any of the dragons…If the day comes when she finds herself facing off against a dragon it will be quite a comical sight.
There is also the possibility that the lie will be discovered since the last name behind Yuri’s name is Clementine.
She was said to be the heir to House Clementine, one of the continent’s four great elemental families.
If it turned out that the young lady of such a famous and noble family, among many, many humans, was carrying around a dragon’s masturbation device…
‘…I’d hate to think of the repercussions.’
However, unlike Deidros, who was full of worries and concerns, the dumb orb was optimistic and spoke with a nonchalant voice.
[…So what, dragons aren’t that common, and what business does my master, who is still only a cadet, have dealing with them?]
“…Haven’t you already met me?”
[That’s right, this Zetto guy is weird, and what’s your connection in the first place? How did a dragon get friendly with a human…?]
“That’s not something I’d say to a dragon whose soul is trapped in a shitty tool.”
[…Uh, it’s extremely rare for a human to meet a dragon until the end of their life anyway, you know that well, don’t you?]
The orb changed the subject impatiently, knowing full well that she could never win a battle of words.
“Well, it’s undeniably true. It’s not like there’s a bunch of dragons in the back mountains somewhere….And this was a special case…”
[Yeah, what’s the harm in that?]
Deidros sensed an unspoken reluctance, but the facts did seem to indicate that the odds of encountering a dragon in the middle of a battle that revealed the orb, or of slaying a fierce dragon by accident, were extremely slim.
‘So let’s just say the device is still an ‘orb’…’
The next step.
“…You said you would tell me your true name. What is your purpose?”
The promise to reveal its true name meant that the dragon would make a kind of ‘contract’ with Yuri outside.
What does the red dragon want in return for sharing its power?
Yuri would have to answer that question anyway, but Deidros, wondering if she would ask for something outrageous, asked.
[The purpose…? You mean the terms of the contract?]
Deidros nods and the orb immediately responds.
[There is only one thing I want.]
The orb’s majestic voice echoes in Deidros’ head.
‘Still, a dragon is a dragon.’
The orb’s majestic voice continues, leaving Deidros relieved that for once, it was truly dragon-like.
[I will eat Zetto with my master…!]