“Then go,” Borent said with a wave of his hand. “Do you really need my permission for something like that?”
“No, that's not it.” Louis licked his dry, chapped lips and glanced out at the pitch-black night beyond the cave.
The occasional howl of wild beasts echoed from the darkness.
To be honest, he was terrified.
Back when he was a traveling merchant, he would always hire several adventurers to guarantee his safety along the trade routes.
They would eat, drink, and live together.
But now...
Louis looked over at Tasha, the only woman in the party.
He certainly couldn't relieve himself inside the cave.
Glancing at the half-elf and the dwarf, who had started bickering again, he gritted his teeth and headed out of the cave.
Only after Louis had vanished into the darkness outside did Tasha turn to Borent and ask,
“Is it really safe to let him go out like that? What if he runs into danger?”
Borent, who was stirring the meat stew with a ladle, didn't even look up as he spoke.
“Runs into danger? Wouldn't that be for the best?”
As Tasha stared at him in confusion, he continued:
“We already know where the two juvenile dragons roam and the safe route back.”
“Now we just have to wait for them to show up.”
“As for our guide, if he dies, we save ourselves some gold coins. Right?”
Hearing this, Tasha nodded slowly.
“True.”
...
The magic circle set up at the cave entrance blocked out all sound, so Louis didn't hear a word of their conversation.
Walking into the dense woods not far from the cave, he was just about to pull down his pants and relieve himself when a sudden chill crept up his spine.
Louis quickly spun around to look, but seeing nothing but darkness, he let out a sigh of relief.
He figured it was just the heavy humidity of the Great Gana Forest making the night exceptionally cold.
As his pants came down, a foul stench began to waft into the surrounding air.
Boom!
A flash of lightning illuminated the sky, and heavy raindrops began to pelt Louis's face.
Looking up at the flashing, thunderous sky, he cursed his luck. Of all times, it had to start raining now.
Another bolt of lightning flashed. Behind Louis, the silhouette of a massive beast was momentarily outlined.
Its golden eyes gleamed exceptionally cold in the brief glare of the lightning.
A deliberately lowered voice rumbled from the beast's maw:
“Are you here... to take a dump too?”
Louis's eyes went wide.
He turned his head with trembling slowness. Under the flash of the lightning, he beheld a hideous, black dragon head.
In the next instant, without even pulling up his pants, he scrambled to his feet to run!
But a scaled claw shot out from the side with blinding speed, clamping firmly over his face.
It all happened in the blink of an eye. Louis didn't even have time to let out a scream.
Another unfamiliar voice whispered in his ear. The owner of the claw spoke in perfect Common Tongue:
“Don't move. Move even an inch, and I'll twist your head off.”
The voice was soft and sweet, yet it carried an absolute, chilling intent to kill.
The icy rain pelted Louis's body, but his heart felt even colder than the rain.
...
Five minutes later, under the dual intimidation of Daviel and Irene, Louis spilled everything.
He laid bare the entire situation from start to finish, along with everything he knew about the strength of each adventurer in the party.
“So they really are after us,”
Irene said, sorting through the extracted information before casually crushing Louis's throat.
“So, are we going to make a move?”
Daviel was already itching to fight, the black dragon blood in his veins continuously urging him forward.
Irene fell into deep thought, her gaze piercing through the dense forest toward the cave.
“They have three Silver Ranks and one Bronze Rank. Although they aren't too strong, they are still a threat.”
“Acting rashly carries risks, so let's wait and see if a better opportunity arises.”
“What is there to fear?!”
Daviel's eyes burned with endless violence and battle lust.
“They are mere ants. With a single hand, Emperor Daviel can obliterate them!”
Irene stared at her younger brother as if he were an idiot.
Over the years, under her influence, Daviel had picked up many terms from Earth.
He had gradually developed a bit of a chuunibyou phase.
Granted, given a dragon's lifespan, Daviel was still just a baby dragon, which was the perfect age for a chuunibyou phase.
Still, hearing such words come out of a black dragon's mouth felt incredibly out of place.
Thwack!
Irene brought her fist down hard on Daviel's eager head.
The blow knocked some sense into the disoriented little black dragon, reestablishing her dominant position in the family.
Daviel was about to cry out in pain when Irene clamped his maw shut.
He wanted to struggle, but Irene suddenly grew serious, pressing a finger to her own lips.
“Shh...”
She gestured with her eyes toward the cave where the adventurer party was.
Daviel immediately understood. Dragging Louis's corpse behind him, he slipped back into the darkness alongside Irene.
...
A few minutes later.
Splash, splash, splash...
The sound of footsteps splashing through water approached from a distance.
It was the half-elf ranger, Alvin. He had been sent out to check on Louis.
Since the man had been gone for so long, Borent suspected he might have been carried off by a passing magical beast.
While they didn't particularly care whether the greedy merchant lived or died, they still needed to confirm his status.
The moment Alvin stepped into the dense woods, he grew alert.
His sensitive nose caught the faint scent of blood lingering in the air.
As an experienced ranger, Alvin quickly deduced that Louis had likely been attacked by some forest beast or magical beast.
He didn't suspect a dragon at all.
Those self-proclaimed noble creatures would never deign to launch a sneak attack.
Whenever a dragon appeared, its Dragon Fear would precede it, instantly commanding everyone's attention and making it the star of the show.
Therefore, if a dragon had attacked, the commotion would never have been this quiet. They certainly would have noticed.
After all, they weren't very far from the cave.
Looking around, Alvin couldn't find any other traces.
The soil in the rainforest was already damp and soft, and the rain had turned it into a muddy bog.
Any tracks had been completely washed away.
With dark clouds blocking the sky, visibility was poor. Alvin accidentally stepped into a puddle.
Looking down at the mud stains splattered across his clothes,
he spat in disgust.
Giving up on the search, he turned to head back to the cave.
“Greedy bastard. It's better off if he's dead.”
The rain continued to pour. Perfectly blended into the darkness, Daviel opened his golden eyes.
He slowly opened his maw, aiming an acid breath directly at the half-elf not far away.
Rate on N.U.
