At the Hateyama branch of the Adventurers' Guild, the staff members
form search teams of four people, and six teams go out to work every other day.
In other words, there are 48 general staff members, plus the leader of the
branch, the administrator of the archive room, and other staff members, making
a total of over 50 permanent staff members of the Hateyama branch.
They are already preparing to patrol the mountain when Alvin and the
others start having breakfast. Their normal formation is one team for each of
the four areas in lower layer of the mountain: east, west, north, and south,
one team to observe the upper layer of the mountain with a telescope from the
Hateyama branch, and one team on standby in case of emergency.
All of them are veteran adventurers who used to be members of
high-ranking adventuring parties. It is precisely because of this that they are
able to perform the task of patrolling the lower layer of Hateyama.
Among these
tasks, the observation team with telescopes is the most "Easy",
because they never observed any major anomalies before.
Although
they have occasionally seen the giant bird "High Hawk" and the giant
carnivorous dragonfly "High Yangma", these flying monsters live in
the middle layer and rarely come down to the lower layer. Occasionally a
"Dragon" will come down to the middle layer to hunt near the top of
the mountain, but it will catch a "High Orc", a pig monster, with its
large legs and return to the upper layer. They would never come down to the
lower layer, and even said that it would be a lucky day if someone could see a
dragon hunting.
「There's
nothing unusual today either...」
「That's a
good thing. It's a sign of peace that the observation team is free」
Therefore, it's inevitable that the entire observation team would be
in a relaxed mood. The usually noisy team leader, an elderly male staff member,
did not complain, but listened to the chatter of his colleagues. The
conversation between the female and male staff members, who are in their early
thirties and relatively young among the staff members, continued.
**a
「Oh, by the
way, <Running Wolves> are visiting our branch right now, did you have a
chance to talk to them?」
「No, I
haven't. It's been a while, hasn't it? Adventurers coming to Hateyama for
training」
「Most people
say it's not worth the risk. But one of them becomes an honorary knight in
their teens, doesn't that mean they're different? Or maybe they're just
practicing in case they decide to go to Hateyama in the future」
For the staff of Hateyama, the visit of <Running Wolves> is a
big change in their ordinary days. Naturally, the staff's conversation turned
to Alvin and his friends.
Alvin is handsome, a man of position and honor, a winner in life.
They talk about how cute the girls in the party are, and so on, but they are
still monitoring the telescope. That's why the staff could notice the change.
And it's an unbelievable sight.
◇ ◇ ◇
From the
middle layer of Hateyama, relatively close to the lower layer, flames shot up
to the sky with tremendous force. The ferocity of the flames is beyond the
capabilities of the monsters living in the middle layer. As a staff of the
Hateyama branch who had worked there for more than ten years, and who had seen
it once before when he was an adventurer, he realized that the flames were
caused by a "Dragon".
「Ridiculous...!?
The Dragon's breath..!?」
"Dragon"
don't breathe fire when hunting. Because they knew that if they hit the
monsters in the middle layer with their breath, they would be too damaged to be
eaten. In the first place, the dragon's basic ability is high even if it
doesn't rely on the strongest means of attack, the breath, and it will not lag
behind the monsters of the middle layer.
Naturally, the fire breath will burn the trees. However, because of
the excessive firepower, the trees are burned up in an instant and did not
become a forest fire.
However, why is this happening? They have no idea. All they know is
that they need to contact the branch leader immediately, and their colleagues
who are patrolling in the lower layer need to return immediately.
「Dragon...!?
I didn't see any flying figure!?」
「No way,
walking on the ground! A dragon!?」
「Let's not
speculate! Contact the branch leader immediately! And signal the patrol teams
to return!」
「R-Roger
that!!」
Under the shouted orders of the team leader, the younger members of
the team began to move about hurriedly.
This marked the beginning of the commotion that would become the
biggest crisis the Hateyama branch had ever faced, but the staff members still
couldn't quite believe it. Because--
『Dragons are
monsters that never leave the mountain』
They thought that this long-lasting characteristic had never been
broken before.
**b
◇ ◇ ◇
The middle layer of Hateyama far away from the hectic Hateyama
branch. In the middle of the dense forest, there is a figure of a dragon
walking with a heavy thump, and a succubus sitting on its back.
「Ara~, I
guess walking is too stressful for you after all...♡ Maybe I've been exposed~ ♡」
The succubus muttered in a sweet voice. And with one hand holding
back her golden hair that fluttered in the wind, she looked just like she did
when she fought Alvin and the others before. She is a bewitching beauty with a
black bikini that shows off her excellent figure, large bat-like wings
sprouting from her back, and a spade-shaped tail.
She rides a dragon with crimson scales covering its entire body, a
long tail and large wings. Its black eyes are stagnant and insane because this
young male dragon is controlled by <Charm> magic used by a succubus.
The reason why the succubus in here was after she confirmed that the
evil priestess had been captured after Alvin and the others destroyed her body,
and realized that she had been defeated since she could no longer contact the
goddess of the outside world, Satin, whom she worshipped. The succubus chooses
to go into hiding in preparation for another invasion.
But, after the failure of her plan to destroy the town from the
inside by turning the residents into succubus, she changed her plan. And she
decided to attack the city from the outside with an overwhelming strength. As a
method of doing so, she turned her attention to Hateyama, home to the strongest
monster on this continent, and the dragon.
She wanted to use an ancient dragon that had lived a long time, but
it was too powerful to be charmed and she was forced to flee for her life. And
the best the monster could do was a young male dragon, but it was still a
dragon.
So, she waited for the order to be given while keeping the dragon at
bay in the upper Hateyama... and then the time came.
The Goddess Satin's command arrived and the succubus began to
descend the mountain with the dragon. The order is to burn down every town in
sight with the dragon's power.
But knowing that the adventurer's guild is watching Hateyama, the
succubus instructed the dragon to walk on the ground so that it would not be
seen until the last minute. And because the dragon normally flies in the sky,
this must have been very stressful for the dragon. Thus, while walking in the
middle layer, the dragon suddenly let out a breath of fire toward the sky.
Still, even if it is being used, the dragon is the strongest of all
the monster living in Hateyama. Even the succubus could not bind all of the
dragon and let it have its temper tantrum.
「Oh no, I
wonder what I should do... my plans have gone awry ♡」
The succubus's plan was to have the dragon walk to the lower layer
and then fly away. Then, the dragon would attack the Hateyama branch of the
Adventurer's Guild and burn it to the ground with its fire breath without
giving them time to intercept it. After all, no matter how strong the dragon
is, if it is surrounded by skilled people, the succubus herself is in danger.
「In that
case... let's make a fuss ♡」
While saying that, the succubus smiles and looks like a devil
herself. And then, in order to carry out her plan, she slaps the dragon's back.
- Hateyama, the beginning of the commotion.
- The succubus and the dragon.
- The dragon is
one of the strongest monster. They are long-lived and the longer they live,
their strength increases, their intelligence increases, and their temperament
becomes more calm. And because the dragon is younger, it is more ferocious.
