Chapter 795: 795: More Stalkers

We were on the way to the inn that the Adventurers Guild had told us about.

Fran stopped.

『Is stalking children the new big thing in this town?』

(Three. They seem pretty big?)

『Probably dragonkin. They've got clear hostility too.』

(What do we do?)

『We can't have them following us to the inn... so I guess just catch them like we usually do.』

(Okay.)

Fran suddenly turned off the road and went into an alleyway. If they got suspicious and stopped following her, I'll just have Urushi track them instead.

『They're still following us.』

(Their footsteps are loud. Amateurs?)

『Well, they don't seem to have any scouting skills.』

Even your average thug had a skill or two to hide their presence, but these guys showed no sign of using such skills.

『I guess we can figure out why after we take them out.』

「Nn.」

A few seconds later.

「Hey! You there, little girl!」

「What?」

「I heard you have meat!」

「W-We're sure of it! Hand it over to us!」

「......Can you pay?」

She asked just in case. There was always the chance that they were just terrible at negotiating.

「You want money? We don't have any money!」

「Just give us the meat! That's a lot of meat...... Too much for you adventurers!」

「That's right! It should be given to us dragonkin! The meat deserves as much!」

「Indeed! If we present it to Dragon King-sama, he will surely add us to his personal guard!」

「So hurry up and bring out the meat! Now, girl!」

They were just fools. Anyways, "Dragon King"? The country of the dragonkin is long gone, so there shouldn't be a king anymore, right?

「Dragon King? You mean Trismegistus?」

「Don't be stupid! That fool is no king!」

「Yeah! That's right!」

So it's not him. In other words there's a dragonkin who named himself king and these guys are working for him?

『Let's just beat them up and see what they have to say.』

「Nn.」

These dragonkin were incredibly weak. Their stats were decent because of their racial bonus, but they barely had any skills.

They must be sleeping on their abilities and not training at all. These were very similar to the appraisal results I got from power leveled noble kids.

From the looks of things, they didn't have any guts either, so it was unlikely that they would put in any significant training effort.

And yet, they don't have the slightest idea that they will lose to Fran. Sucks to be them.

『Go easy on them.』

「Don't worry, I won't kill you.」

Fran seemed a little irritated.

She was having a good time at the guild party, but they just killed her mood.

『As long as they live, I can heal them.』

「Nn.」

Three minutes later.

「I-I'm so sorry!」

「I was just trying to be cool!」

「F-Forgive me, please......」

Fran didn't even need to pull me out or properly attack them. All she did was glare and unleash her killing intent.

That's all that it took for the dragonkin to clutch their tails between their legs, shaking and pleading for their lives.

「Are you the Dragon King's subordinates?」

「Well, I mean, we're not really working for him.........」

「Be specific.」

「Yes! We're not his subordinates at all! We only wanted to join him!」

「I've never even met him!」

When we asked them for more details, we found out that they were nothing more than a bunch of thugs.

In this continent of Gordicia, dragonkin were treated in a special way.

Knights and soldiers were told to treat the dragonkin with respect, so they often overlooked their small displays of arrogance.

Adventurers also tended to ignore small annoyances by the dragonkin, because it would get them in trouble if they got into a fight.

As a result, many of the dragonkin misconstrued that respect towards the race as a whole for their superiority as individuals.

「Don't the dragonkin live in the reservations next to each port and hunt antidemons there?」

「Well, I don't see why we should have to pay for the sins of those guys from long ago......」

「Oh yeah. They kept trying to make us train crazy amounts to become warriors.」

「What's wrong with living a fun life!」

I guess these dragonkin thugs got fed up with combat training and fled to Nocta, where they could just barely make a living by hunting low-ranking antidemons.

I can agree that descendants shouldn't have to atone for the sins of their ancestors. In a sense, they were victims, too.

Had they not committed a crime just now, that is.

「Where is the Dragon King?」

「I-I don't know.」

「W-We've only heard rumors......」

There's someone claiming to be the Dragon King somewhere, but these guys had nothing to do with him.

They just had a shortsighted idea that they could get into his good books and get cushy jobs as his subordinates.

And their ticket to doing so was the meat they were trying to steal from Fran.

How stupid can you be? Even Fran's hostility towards them was replaced with contempt. She had lost the will to kill them.

(Master, what should we do?)

『Hmmm, maybe we should just leave them to the Adventurers Guild. They might be willing to pull some strings for us now that we've given them the meat.』

(Okay. I'll try it.)

Dragon King, huh? I'm not liking the sound of that. Probably someone we should avoid as much as possible.