Chapter 25: More to Protect

It was a little after noon when three figures appeared on the southern road.

I recognized the man in front.

It was Elmer.

Two armed men followed behind him, just as they had on his previous visits.

I raised myself outside the fence.

On his way to the village entrance, Elmer glanced several times at the new section of fence extending south.

“Hasn’t this place gotten larger?”

“A little,” the chief replied as he came to the entrance. “We have more people.”

“You don’t mean the eight from beyond the mountain?”

“Four others. A whole family moved here.”

Elmer looked inside the fence.

Mark and his son were preparing the ground where they’d build their house between their other village duties.

“They came by choice?”

“Yes.”

“That’s…”

Elmer began to say something, then closed his mouth.

“I want to hear about that too, but the mountain comes first today.”

The chief’s expression changed at once.

Dario was called over as well.

I moved closer outside the fence, near enough to hear them.

“Is this about the bear-like magical beast?” Dario asked.

“Yes. I spoke to several people at the manor.”

“Did you learn what it was?”

“I can’t say that much.”

Elmer warned them first.

“Someone recognized the name you mentioned—Armored Bear. There was also one old account of a magical beast matching that description being seen deep in the mountain.”

I turned my ears toward him.

“What kind of creature?” Dario asked.

“Blackish brown, with an unusually large front half. It has tough hide from its shoulders across its back, and arrows have difficulty piercing it—that’s what I was told.”

Dario looked at me.

“Sounds very close.”

I nodded.

There had certainly been something hard from the beast’s shoulders to its back that differed from ordinary fur.

Even the brief flames I’d breathed at it had made no visible change there.

“Then can’t we just call it an Armored Bear?”

“The description is only similar,” Elmer answered at once. “The person who told that story didn’t see the same individual Val encountered. Nor can we assume there are no other similar magical beasts.”

“All right, all right.”

“That degree of caution is appropriate,” the chief said. “So, is it a magical beast that attacks people?”

“I can’t say it won’t. But there were no stories of it descending the mountain to hunt humans.”

“What does it eat?”

“We don’t know in that much detail. There are accounts of it chasing animals in the mountain.”

That didn’t conflict with its pursuit of the Rock Ape.

But that was all.

We didn’t know whether it had followed the Rock Ape all the way to the Rue Village side or had already been nearby.

“Any reports of it being seen elsewhere?” Dario asked.

“The manor hasn’t received any recent sightings around here. At least, there are no reports yet of it appearing on a road or attacking anyone.”

The chief crossed his arms.

“Then there’s no reason to search the mountain for it?”

“The manor isn’t discussing sending anyone either.”

“As expected.”

“We don’t know where it is, and no villagers have been harmed. Going into the mountain to search for such an opponent would be more dangerous.”

I agreed.

Encountering it once had been enough.

If it didn’t approach the village, there was no reason for us to seek it out.

“Do you think we should keep the mountain side closed?” the chief asked.

“It isn’t for the manor to order, but I wouldn’t go in right now.”

The chief nodded.

“Then we won’t change anything.”

That ended the matter.

They hadn’t confirmed the magical beast’s name or learned its weakness.

Still, there were beasts with similar traits deep in the mountain, and they were sometimes called Armored Bears.

Even that was better than knowing nothing.

Only then did Elmer turn his attention to the village.

“Now, about the people you said had arrived.”

“Four of them.”

“I can see that.”

He headed toward the place Mark’s family was using.

“May I talk to them?”

“Ask the man himself.”

Mark stopped working.

“You’re from the manor?”

“I’m Elmer. I review reports from the surrounding villages and carry necessary information back to the manor.”

“I’m Mark.”

After introducing themselves, Elmer surveyed the newly enclosed ground.

“You came here to live?”

“Yes.”

“I heard you weren’t fleeing anything.”

“We weren’t. We could still live where we were before.”

“Then why Rue Village?”

Mark didn’t answer immediately.

He looked at the place where he intended to build.

“When I thought about the future for all four of us, it seemed we’d have more options here than if we remained where we were.”

“Because there’s a dragon?”

“That was one reason.”

He looked at me.

“But we wouldn’t have come for that alone.”

“What else?”

“There’s work. Merchants come. We thought we could live here by working while using what we brought ourselves.”

Elmer fell silent briefly.

“Now that you’ve started living here, do you regret it?”

“Our house isn’t even built yet.”

Mark laughed.

“It’s too early to answer.”

“That’s true.”

Elmer smiled as well.

He didn’t ask anything more detailed.

When Mark and his family returned to their work, Elmer began walking through the village.

The fields he’d seen on his previous visits.

The repaired fence.

The place used by the eight from beyond the mountain.

The new southern enclosure.

The area near the entrance where merchants set down their cargo.

No building had changed dramatically.

Even so, Elmer stopped longer than he had before.

“Are more merchants coming?”

The chief walked beside him.

“Not every day. But we get others besides Heinz now.”

“People staying overnight too?”

“A few. We aren’t letting everyone in.”

“That’s fine.”

“Have you heard about the southern road?”

“Yes.”

Elmer’s face grew a little tense.

“The report that a merchant had goods taken reached the manor too.”

“We haven’t heard of anyone losing goods at that place since.”

“There haven’t been further reports below either.”

Elmer confirmed only that much.

“I hear people who use the road have started walking together.”

“It happened on its own.”

“Not a bad idea. It’s more realistic than the village posting a guard every day.”

That discussion didn’t last long either.

Then, as though remembering something, the chief said, “There’s one more strange thing.”

He went toward his house.

When he returned, he carried the wooden plaque.

“What’s that?”

Elmer accepted it.

A carving of a dragon with its wings spread and several horns.

He looked at me once, then back at the plaque.

“…It doesn’t look like him.”

“Everyone says that first.”

Lina, who was nearby, laughed.

“What’s it for?”

“Apparently, they’re selling them below.”

The chief briefly explained only what they knew.

One merchant had been told that carrying the plaque would ward off misfortune on the road to the village with the dragon.

That I would be less likely to see its bearer as an enemy.

That part of the money paid would help the village.

But another traveler had only heard that people traveling to Rue Village usually carried one.

“Even the sales pitch isn’t consistent?”

“We don’t know whether the same person is selling them.”

Elmer looked at me.

“Val has nothing to do with this?”

I shook my head.

“The village?”

“No,” the chief answered.

“You haven’t received any money?”

“Nothing.”

“Understood.”

Elmer returned the plaque.

“For now, I think it’s enough to tell anyone you see that it has nothing to do with the village.”

“What about whoever’s selling them?”

“Are you going to search for someone when you don’t even know who it is?”

“No.”

“If they start using the manor’s or the lord’s name without permission too, let us know. At that point, matters will change.”

“Understood.”

That was the end of it.

No one discussed hunting a person over a single wooden plaque.

I preferred it that way too.

I didn’t like false stories spreading about me where I couldn’t see them, but it wasn’t serious enough to send villagers onto a dangerous road right now.

Elmer remained in the village until evening.

Before leaving, he stopped near the southern fence once more.

Mia and Lina happened to be carrying a small basket together.

A short distance away, a man from beyond the mountain stacked firewood with one of the villagers.

Mark’s wife also returned from the fields while talking with another woman.

“There are more voices than before,” Elmer said.

“That’s because there are four more people,” the chief replied.

“I don’t think that’s the only reason.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Nothing.”

Elmer adjusted the bag on his shoulder.

“I’ll report what I’ve seen to the manor. That’s all.”

“Will anything become a problem?”

“There’s nothing I can decide here on my own.”

“Then fine.”

“Do you have to be wary every time I visit?”

“Is there a village chief anywhere who’s happy to see someone from the manor?”

“How should I know?”

Listening to the two of them, I snorted outside the fence.

Elmer and his companions descended the southern road that same day.

Once the sun began to lower, I spread my wings.

My body felt fine.

I kicked briefly against the ground and rose into the air.

I made a single circuit around the village.

I could see the fence bulging south.

Inside it, the place Mark’s family would use was gradually taking shape.

The original villagers weren’t the only ones here.

There were also the eight who’d fled from beyond the mountain.

The four who’d moved here of their own will.

Near the southern entrance were traces of where merchants had set down their cargo.

A little farther away, the road now used by many humans ran between the trees.

I tilted my wings.

That was when it happened.

A sensation I hadn’t felt in a long time passed through the depths of my chest.

It wasn’t pain.

Nor was it the same as the magic I sent through my wings.

When I received my name.

When I decided to protect this village.

When I evolved into a juvenile dragon.

It felt similar to those moments.

《A change in the guardian domain has been detected.》

Words appeared in my vision.

I slowed my wingbeats slightly.

《Your bond with those under your protection is expanding.》

There was more.

《One of the conditions for evolution has been fulfilled.》

Then it stopped.

My body hadn’t changed.

My wings, claws, and breathing were the same as before.

I felt no sign that an evolution was about to begin.

I steadied myself once in the air and continued circling the village.

The displayed words didn’t disappear immediately.

Below the fence, Lina and Mia looked up at me.

Lina waved.

I tilted my wings and descended outside the village.

When I landed, Lina ran over.

“Val, you almost stopped in the air. What happened?”

I thought about it.

It wasn’t bad.

At the very least, there was no immediate danger.

So I shook my head, then touched my chest once with a foreleg.

“Does it hurt there?”

No.

I shook my head.

“Then are you all right?”

This time, I nodded.

“That’s strange.”

Lina tilted her head but asked nothing further.

I lay down outside the fence.

One line remained at the edge of my vision.

《One of the conditions for evolution has been fulfilled.》

Before long, the words faded and disappeared.

I looked beyond them at Rue Village.