Chapter 6 : The Dragon’s Favor

[Do not be afraid. I am not a being you should fear.]

Jonan barely managed to hold onto his sanity, struck by the majestic voice in his head.

Do not be afraid.

‘That being’ was saying that.

Jonan immediately understood why he was told not to be afraid.

‘My legs, without me noticing.’

Jonan was sitting down, looking up at ‘that being,’ who was looking down at him. The fighting spirit he had tried to ignite towards the red bear had long since disappeared, like a gust of wind.

‘Rachel… Sophie… so…’

He tried to move, calling out the names of his family, but his body was as stiff as stone. It was as if the rightful authority of his body had been deprived by ‘that being.’

Only the command [Do not be afraid], left by his voice, dominated his mind. Soon, the tension that remained in Jonan’s body was swept away like the tide.

Jonan felt a sense of alienation in his abnormally calm mind in front of a being he had never seen before.

“······Who are you······?”

Such a question flowed out of his slightly open mouth. Jonan momentarily felt foolish for questioning a non-human being, but he was relieved when an answer came.

[One who can place the sky below and simultaneously use the sea as a blanket. One whom nature follows, and one who can wisely teach the lord of all creation.]

Jonan could not assess ‘that being’s’ introduction as arrogant. His blue eyes were as deep and rich as if they actually contained the sea and the sky, and the glimpse of his form was more beautiful than any living creature.

At the end of the introduction, ‘that being’ called himself ‘Dragon.’

“Is that your name···?”

[This refers to my physical body, not my mind and soul.]

‘Is it a species, not a name?’

Jonan had a hard time understanding what the dragon was saying. But that wasn’t an important issue for Jonan.

“Did you bring me here?”

[Yes.]

“Why······.”

[Because my benefactor is your family.]

“·········What?”

‘Suddenly a benefactor········· Could it be?’

Suddenly, Jonan thought of his lovely daughter waiting for him at home.

Could it be Rachel?

When he raised his head and looked at the dragon with that thought, Jonan realized that his thoughts were correct.

Rachel had escaped the forest that day and met this dragon.

As soon as he realized that fact, Jonan quickly lowered his head. The opponent was a being who had torn apart the incredibly strong red bear without lifting a finger.

The dragon’s favor towards him and the fact that he called Rachel a benefactor seemed reassuring, but Jonan approached cautiously.

“I apologize for my daughter’s rudeness.”

Jonan began to treat him as if he were adding him to the dragons he had heard about in stories.

‘Those damn dragons don’t bother you if you don’t bother them. So······.’

This benevolent dragon would probably not touch his family. Jonan thought so. And that thought was correct.

[Rachel has committed no sin. She is the first human I encountered after descending into this world, and a noble person who treated me with kindness.]

“May I know what my daughter did?”

[Nothing much. I saved her from falling off the cliff, and she gave me food in return. A child who recognizes the return for a good deed is sufficient in itself.]

“············.”

[Stay here until dawn and then return to the village. No one will be able to touch you.]

With those words, the dragon began to enter the sea.

‘That dragon said Rachel showed kindness······ but that’s not it.’

Rather, the dragon first saved Rachel from falling off the cliff. Rachel only gave a reward for that.

‘And he even saved me.’

The father and daughter were both saved by the dragon.

Jonan no longer felt hostility, vigilance, or strangeness towards the dragon. It was disrespectful to feel such emotions toward a being who had bestowed grace.

“W-Wait a minute!”

This cliff is the dragon’s territory, so if he stayed here until morning, he would be able to return to the village without any problems. The dragon also seemed to be disappearing as if the conversation was over, so Jonan no longer had to deal with the dragon.

But Jonan didn’t.

“If you wish, I would like to offer my meager help!”

Jonan wanted to somehow repay the kindness the dragon had shown to his daughter and him.

Okay, it worked.

When I turned my head back, there was a man sending a look full of goodwill. It’s good that I practiced my speech and gaze in my spare time for a few days.

It’s the first time that coming from liberal arts has helped.

When I spoke in an antique tone and treated the man kindly, all that vigilance naturally faded. It seemed that the first button was fastened properly.

[Help.]

“Yes, just as my daughter gave you a return, I too, though meager, would like to be of help to you.”

The man’s Adam’s apple moved greatly as he said that. It was a sign of tension from the thought that I might ask for something strange.

But that tension is a luxury.

I don’t want sacrifices or treasures.

Knowledge of this world.

That’s what I needed most right now.

[There is only one thing I need now. About this world. Especially······.]

I subtly shift my gaze to the man’s back. When the man also hurriedly turned his head, he saw the corpse of the red bear.

[I need knowledge about those.]

Oh, and I really want to eat that. Isn’t it essentially a bear skewer?

But I was trying to restrain myself for the sake of my dignity.

“Oh, come to think of it, the first time we met······.”

The man, muttering something, looked at me as if he had made a big decision.

“Yes, I will tell you as much as I know. Oh, my name is Jonan.”

Thus began the story of the man, no, Jonan. The story that started when the moon was overhead continued until the moon disappeared beyond the horizon.

Jonan’s story was very······ boring.

This guy, he looks good and has good physical abilities, but he’s terrible at telling stories. He repeated the same content over and over, and in the meantime, he was busy bragging about his daughter little by little.

Honestly, I almost fell asleep in the middle, but I somehow endured it with the dragon’s spirit.

“······This is all the information I can tell you.”

[Finally finished······ No, I see······. I listened well. It’s interesting.]

“Thank you for listening.”

[Does your daughter ever ask you to read or tell stories?]

“Yes! In fact, I was supposed to read to her today······ but this happened.”

It seems that Rachel is using Jonan to sleep. That’s how terrible Jonan was at telling stories.

Anyway, to summarize Jonan’s story:

There is one large continent in this world. Its name is the Arteria Continent, and this region is at the eastern end of Arteria.

The village he lives in is under the rule of the small kingdom of Lunan to the east, and its name is Eastel Village.

The sea where I stay is called the ‘Dark Sea,’ and it is a place where people’s footsteps have never reached due to the eternal storm.

The red creatures I killed are commonly called ‘red monsters,’ and they are animals affected by the ‘Red Moon,’ a phenomenon that appears every 10 years. Soon, the day will come when the color of the moon turns red, and from that day, it will return to normal.

Apart from that, there are also monsters and demons, which exist somewhere in the northwest of Arteria.

This was the information about this place and the red monsters.

And the next thing Jonan talked about was the number one question in my mind.

Magic exists. But it’s not common. I heard there are many in the Holy Kingdom or Magic Tower in the center of Arteria.

Dragons? Of course, they exist. A kingdom in the north is under the protection of a dragon.

At Jonan’s words, I felt my body tremble.

Yes. This was a fantasy world where magic and dragons exist.

When I learned that fact from Jonan, a person of this world, I felt a sense of fulfillment in my empty heart.

I thought that this might be a fantasy world because of the existence of red monsters.

But this was only a guess. I kept thinking that maybe I was the only such creature.

But that uncomfortable feeling disappeared. Just that alone made me feel like I wanted to carry Jonan on my back and fly in the sky.

[I see······.]

When I glanced at the forest, I realized that the red monsters were quite far away.

[Go back to the village now.]

“What? But there will still be red monsters around.”

[Even if the nearest red one runs towards you at full speed, you will already be in the village by that time. Do not doubt. Prepare and leave.]

Just as the first knot is important, the last knot is also important. For that, I maintained my dignity until the end and prepared to leave when the time was right.

But Jonan was wrinkling his face as if he was wondering something.

“Red······?”

Then he carefully asked me.

“Could it be······ that you can see the red monsters here too?”

[Even the creature that is dead behind you is still emitting energy, so how can the living ones be any less?]

“Energy···? May I ask what kind of energy you are talking about?”

[I’m talking about the red burning energy that covers that creature’s body.]

“Red burning······ I, I don’t know what that is.”

[·········?]

Only then did I notice the strangeness and look at Jonan. Jonan had the face of a person who doesn’t understand 1%, but is trying to understand because it’s his boss’s words.

“To me, it just looks like a ferocious bear. The strongest person I’ve ever met was a noble’s knight······ but he didn’t say anything about red energy.”

And only after Jonan’s words were finished did I realize the identity of this discrepancy.

“The reason we can recognize red monsters is because their eyes turn red and they become violent. Because of this, many people are caught off guard.”

··Could it be that they can’t detect the red aura?