Chapter 41 : The Dragon’s Aid

About a week.

That’s the time that had passed since Jonan handed over the evidence of the red demon. People may perceive the length of a week differently, but I, at least, thought it was short.

That’s why it was hard for me to accept that Jonan had informed me he had persuaded the Count.

“In the end, I stayed at the Count’s residence for a week with the Count’s permission······.”

No, he even said that he had already finished the work a week ago. Effectively, he completed it in a flash as soon as I mentioned it.

Was the position of Count that flimsy?

It wasn’t like conquering a village girl, A, so I wondered if he had opened his heart too easily.

But Jonan’s next words changed my mind.

“In the end, Rachel’s contribution was the greatest in solving this matter.”

Rachel helped······ Huh? Rachel?

Wasn’t Rachel waiting in the village? I was taken aback by the name that suddenly appeared.

So, I told him to explain the details, and Jonan gave me a brief summary.

“Through the healing ability given by the Dragon God, she completely restored Lady Aria’s physical strength. Only then did I realize why Rachel wanted to follow me and why the Dragon God woke me up when He called me. I was ashamed that I did not know my daughter’s ability.”

• ·····I don’t know either.

I didn’t bother to say anything and remained silent. Well, I need something to praise or brag about, but I don’t know anything.

I knew that Rachel was special, but I didn’t know she was this special…

Before the red moon event, she had come to the cliff in the body of a child, avoiding the eyes of the demons.

And when Rachel was involved, I had a vague sense that the child was special and related to me because of emotions that were inexplicably amplified.

But I had no idea that she had some kind of healing ability and could feel my energy.

[······Perhaps the Dragon God was worried that the Count might act rashly before the task was completed, so He only relieved his worries.]

I couldn’t react by doing a Hollywood-style action or saying that I didn’t know what was going on.

Instead, I performed the ‘I don’t know, but I pretend to know’ routine that I was starting to get used to, and Jonan also shed tears of emotion and knelt on the cloud.

“In the end, I ended up being helped by the Dragon God and my daughter······. Dragon, I’m sorry for being an incompetent knight.”

[Arise. It is neither your incompetence nor your fault.]

Anyway, I thought it was okay if Rachel healed Aria’s body, but Jonan’s subsequent words made me rethink.

“······The Count is waiting for the days when the Dragon God will speak. When we return to the Count’s residence for a while, he will probably go out to completely rid Lady Aria of her disease.”

Through those words, I realized that Aria’s disease had not been fully cured.

Then the investigation of the past week wasn’t in vain.

Until now, it was full of unknowns, but now I could speak about what I knew.

I, who had been listening to Jonan’s story, began to unravel my investigation results over the past week.

Actually, although I said a week was a short time for me, to be precise, it was short from Jonan’s point of view.

Given the dragon’s abilities, its huge body, and the limited space of a mountain, a week felt like a long time for me.

Even an area that would take a human all day to investigate, a blue dragon could inspect in an hour—or even less.

That’s why I thought I could finish it in three days at most.

But there was a problem. The dragon’s ability? The body? That part was not an issue.

The problem was that the limited place was too complicated.

Deep inside the problematic area, which I had thought was just a desolate mountain, there were numerous caves. At least dozens of large and small caves were scattered across the mountain, and the inner caves were randomly interconnected.

If the problem had been something like a forest or a canyon, it would have been fine.

Because I could just look down from the air and clear away the obstacles with water or wind.

But it wasn’t easy for me to investigate the caves. At that point, rather than being an advantage, my huge body became a hindrance.

There were no caves large enough to fit an 80-meter body, and if I squeezed in, there was a risk of disturbing the numerous caves and weakening the mountain further due to the landslide.

Additionally, the red demons emerging from those caves also hindered the investigation.

Whenever I used my ability to measure depth, one or two of them would show up along with the wind or water.

Then, if I dug somewhere, dozens would pour out, so later I didn’t even dig into the caves.

“There are red demons in every cave, and there are dozens of caves···.”

Jonan swallowed dryly.

Then, other than the fact that there are many caves, did you not find anything? That wasn’t the case.

Realizing it was impossible to check externally, I approached the issue in another way.

I mapped the overall area by communing with groundwater.

In fact, it was close to radar detection.

When I used the blue dragon’s ability to move water or wind, the greater the distance, the greater the delay.

And the speed of that delay depends on the composition of the substance between the object to be controlled and me.

Simply put, air is fast, and earth is slow to transmit.

Using that fact, I specified a specific groundwater under the ground, and while floating above the mountain, I roughly grasped the interior.

It was easy to distinguish because the places where the caves were located responded quickly, while the places without caves responded slowly.

The problem was there were too many caves to memorize them all, but that wasn’t important.

A huge cavity exists under the mountain.

By communing with multiple sources of groundwater, I could feel a massive underground space beneath the mountain—a cavern that rivaled the mountain itself in size.

And in the middle of that underground space, something was there.

The many caves from which the red demons poured out were all connected to that space.

If the mountain’s caves are an ant nest, then that underground space would be the queen’s room multiplied by several times.

That underground cavity beneath the mountain was where the source of the red energy related to Aria’s disease and the red demons was located.

[The knights must head there.]

For a detailed investigation, humans were indispensable.

Once the underground cavity was discovered, I couldn’t dig any further. If the mountain collapsed and affected the source, no one knew what would happen.

Therefore, the expert knights who use Aura, as Jonan had mentioned, needed to assist.

[But don’t worry. I will help.]

Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ll sit back and watch. It’s not like I have fingers, to begin with.

“Then I will convey that.”

Jonan, who heard my words, bowed his head. It was late at night, and I felt sorry for waking him up at a time when children, as well as adults, should be sleeping soundly, so I sent him down quickly.

The next day, I could sense the Count’s family becoming busy.

“An underground cavity, you say…” “It’s something I’ve never heard of.”

Count Arnus and Failer, who had received the message of the god known as the Blue Dragon, expressed their doubts. An enormous underground space to rival the northern mountains? They had never even heard of such a thing.

There was nothing like that in the records passed down in the County.

With no information at all, it was difficult to properly imagine any picture of the space. Even so, they did not disbelieve the Dragon God’s words. Rather, the Count even felt gratitude toward the Dragon God amidst all of this.

To think that Aria is connected, and you want to approach cautiously. I’m starting to realize just how good a person He is.

Having already devoted himself to serving the Dragon God, on equal footing with, or perhaps even more so than, Jonan, the Count promptly gathered his knights.

“You have heard the story, yes?”

Except for two who were away, the rest of the knights of the County were assembled. These were loyal followers who had stuck by him, even though he had been unable to look after them properly for the past two years.

At that moment, Ras Ront came to the Count’s mind. A 3rd-Class Knight who had caused trouble while going around the territory. It was difficult to handle him, as letting one more knight leave would draw unwanted attention from other nobles.

But things are different now.

He had regained his senses, and he had gained a powerful ally. Once Ras, who had been sent to Estel, the origin point of the Blue Dragon Church, returned, the Count planned to begin getting rid of him and, with that in mind, began to formulate a plan.

“Failer, you will stay in the rear, responsible for establishing escape routes and defenses….”

Count Arnus, along with the knights of the Count’s family, were companions who had experienced many battles together over the years.

Thus, the plan was smoothly laid out.

And so the County started preparations for their investigation, demonstrating greater activity than in the previous week.

“Daddy’s going to play again!”

“Ah, no. Daddy is really going to work this time.”

Jonan felt a sense of injustice.

It was true that he came to the County on assignment in the first place, but this troublesome priestess simply refused to believe his words.

Even now, there were only two members of the Blue Dragon Church, and one of them was his daughter, so he was naturally included in the investigation team.

However, this great and holy priestess kept saying that the first knight of the church was goofing off, so he could only feel exasperation.

“I’m going, Aria. I will surely cure your illness.”

“······Don’t get hurt!”

“Aria······.”

Aria and Count Arnus shared a farewell embrace.

“Daughter? Daddy’s going to a dangerous place···. Really, no hug?”

“Hmph!! I’m going to tell the Dragon that Daddy is going to play!”

“I told you, it’s the Dragon’s orders?!”

And Jonan and Rachel also said their farewells. So, the investigation team, full of both words and problems, departed from the Count’s residence.

The investigation team consisted of Count Arnus, a 3rd-Class Knight, and Jonan. The Count had forbidden any other servants from accompanying them, having confirmed the appearance of red demons.

However, as several people were moving, it inevitably took more time than when moving alone.

Thus, the investigation team, which departed in the morning, was able to reach the north mountain around sunset.

“Let’s set up camp here.”

“Yes!”

The investigation team quickly unpacked and set up a simple camp. They checked the future schedule while eating a late dinner.

“Let’s do a light check today. It seems there are caves near here, as the Dragon God said.”

“It would be good to deal with any red demons nearby early on.”

“Speaking of which, Jonan, the Dragon God said He would help us, didn’t He?”

At Failer’s question, Jonan nodded.

“But I don’t know exactly how He will help.”

“That alone is a great help.”

A little later, the investigation team moved. The Aura of different colors emanated, enveloping the bodies of the expert swordsmen.

Watching that scene, Jonan moved the water of Haeilgum instead of Aura.

Swish!

“······Is that the sword with the Dragon God’s blessing?”

“Yes? Ah, yes.”

“······It’s enviable.”

Tsk!

Jonan, who was staring blankly at the Count, who seemed to click his tongue for some reason, hurriedly followed the investigation team that was moving forward.

But as they walked along, the speed of the investigation team began to slow down.

“There are supposed to be many caves around here, right···?”

“But there are no red demons appearing yet.”

As they said, the investigation team, which had been searching the mountain for about 20 minutes, had not seen any red demons.

Everyone expressed their doubts about that fact, and a knight pointed to the ridge and shouted.

“Red demon!! Carnivorous type!!”

At those words, the investigation team quickly formed a formation. As the knight had said, a beast-like red demon was rapidly charging from afar.

It was easy for an expert-level person to deal with one red demon, but this place was full of red demons, so they carefully prepared to attack.

“Prepare to attack.”

So, everyone drew their swords and stared at the rushing beast.

Swish!

Boom!!

“What!”

Suddenly, a loud noise was heard from the darkness, and dust rose from where the red demon had been.

Startled by the situation, the investigation team waited for the dust cloud to clear.

“······What is that?”

“That’s…”

Everyone in the investigation team was stunned and released their attack posture, approaching the red demon. Jonan followed them as well.

“It’s dead···?”

“This is··· a sword?”

The red demon, which had been instantly turned into a lump of meat, was now before them. And in front of it was a blue, transparent water in the shape of a sword.

Jonan, who confirmed it, muttered.

“······This, it seems to be the help that our Dragon God said.”

“!!”

Slaying red demons with swords made of water. The sight was very intense for the investigation team, who had never seen the appearance of the god.