The Fire Dragon's Child

The duchess appeared to be in a good mood.

It seemed she truly had taken a liking to the merchandise.

She'd applied a small dab of the perfume to her wrist and was enjoying the scent.

As I watched her, I held a cup of tea and drank from it, but I couldn't taste anything. It was undoubtedly a luxury blend, but…

I was so tense I didn't even realize it myself.

"As promised, I'll purchase everything. I'd been looking for just the right gift for a tea party."

"Thank you very much. I'm glad they're to your liking."

The house steward brought over a bag filled with gold coins.

Given the amount, it was quite heavy.

This was the biggest deal I'd made recently.

Silver was the dominant currency in the Empire, but for large transactions like these, gold coins were still the standard.

The imperial gold coins bore a magnificent lion crest of the national flag.

On the reverse was a portrait of the current emperor.

"Do come again."

"Of course. If you place the request through the Adventurer's Guild, I can arrange it promptly."

We didn't normally reside in the Empire.

But the Adventurer's Guild spanned the continent, so we could receive the order as a quest through them.

I drained the last of my tea.

Azu and the others had finished theirs too.

Orleans was a little behind, but she'd just now emptied her cup.

No telling what could happen if we lingered.

Best to take our leave while the duchess was still in high spirits.

"Well then, if you'll excuse us."

"Leaving already? Merchants are always so busy."

The duchess nodded as if impressed.

I was relieved she didn't try to keep us. Honestly, the gap between our stations was so vast I wouldn't even know what to talk about. This was the smart move.

I stood, bowed my head, and had just turned to leave when the door banged open.

"Lady Lecreune!"

It was a soldier. He looked quite flustered.

"What is the meaning of this?"

The house steward admonished the soldier.

"A young Fire Dragon has been spotted approaching the estate. The duke was informed, and he wishes to hear Lady Lecreune's opinion as well."

"My."

At the soldier's words, I instinctively glanced at Orleans.

Her face, which had been impassive through everything, was now visibly shaken.

"I'll go see my husband at once. I'm sorry, this is rather sudden."

"No, not at all…"

Young or not, a Dragon was still a Dragon.

No matter how small, its threat level was off the charts.

For the moment, getting out of this room was the priority.

We all left the room, and soldiers were rushing about.

Orders had already been issued, apparently.

We exited the duke's manor and retrieved our carriage.

The amount was too large to be carrying around.

Once we passed through the gate, I could finally breathe.

"A young Fire Dragon near the estate, huh."

"Think it's related to that mural?"

"No idea… but even a juvenile can probably breathe fire."

Breath attacks. Dragons harbored immense magical power within their bodies, and simply releasing it with their breath was enough to devastate humans.

If it was a Fire Dragon, a single blast of fire breath would spell catastrophe for an entire army.

"Um, Master…"

Orleans addressed me hesitantly.

I had a pretty good guess what this was about.

"I know. We'll deposit the gold first, then head to the area near the estate."

"Thank you."

Orleans bowed her head as she said it.

If anyone asked, I'd just say I'd heard about it during the trade meeting and got curious.

Not that we could actually do anything about it…

I decided to deposit the gold coins at the Adventurer's Guild.

There was no interest or anything, but they would hold an adventurer's money.

We couldn't enter the duke's estate armed, so we had left our weapons in the carriage.

I had Azu and the others gear up.

"We're ready."

"Good. Let's go."

We had our adventurer identities, after all.

We should be able to at least go check out the situation.

The carriage, now unloaded, moved along briskly.

I ate some cookies as a meal substitute.

They were loaded with sugar and butter and delicious.

I could eat as many as I wanted.

We'd bought a fair number of them, but with five people even that wasn't enough.

Gradually, the estate came into view.

But after we got close to a certain extent, the mule stopped and wouldn't move no matter how much I urged it.

"It must be frightened by the Dragon's presence."

Alexia soothed the mule.

"We can't even see it yet."

"We can't see it, but there's definitely some kind of pressure coming from the estate's direction. I can feel something."

Azu had apparently sensed it.

The mule wouldn't go any further, so I had it wait tied to a nearby tree.

If I tied the carriage to the tree, it shouldn't run away.

It looked like we'd have to go on foot from here.

With Azu in the lead, we approached the estate.

When we got quite close, the situation came into view.

The soldiers who had been patrolling the estate had gathered in one place.

They held spears and swords, but they were clearly terrified.

Beyond them was a young Fire Dragon.

It was roughly the size of our carriage, but even so, it was covered in magnificent scales and looked formidably strong.

Its entire body was a beautiful red color.

Unable to fly yet, it wandered near the estate with its immature wings spread.

From what I could see, it hadn't approached with hostile intent.

But it showed no signs of leaving, either.

They couldn't provoke it carelessly, but they also couldn't abandon their duty and flee.

The estate soldiers must have felt like they were on a bed of needles.

"Um."

Orleans tugged at my sleeve.

"What is it?"

"This is…"

She held out the pouch containing the Fire Elemental Stone.

"It's glowing."

"It sure is."

The crystal was reacting far more intensely than usual.

The Fire Dragon's attribute was fire.

It wasn't strange for it to react with a Fire Elemental Stone, but…

The young Fire Dragon looked in our direction instead of at the estate.

It seemed to have noticed the Fire Elemental Stone too.

In the mural where the crystal had been found, a girl with a crest on her back, like Orleans, had been depicted offering prayers to a Fire Dragon.

There had to be a connection.

Then, the young Fire Dragon began running toward us.

Not good.

We hurriedly moved away from the estate.

The Dragon's legs were faster than a human's.

It circled ahead and cut us off before we'd gotten far.

The one saving grace was that the estate soldiers weren't coming over here. Their legs had probably given out.

The young Fire Dragon stared fixedly at Orleans.

I stopped Azu, who had been reaching for her weapon.

Provoking it would be bad.

After observing us for a while, the young Fire Dragon let out a quiet cry and then returned to its mountain den.