Chapter 281: Dragon Bigotry. [Release Version]

Edit: Small change to how the elven vampire woman's goodbye words to Hestia. Small change, but very important.

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“Are you kidding me, who cares what that damn dragon does, huh? She’s a damn dragon and you think you can actually trust some people working with those things?”

“Moment it sees an opening, it’s gonna burn us all down! None of you read how their god is called the Black Tyrant?”

“Yo, shut up! You celebrating here means I can do the same! Wroooooooooh! Fuck this place!”

“… Fuck.”

Those “thugs” Haruka talked about didn’t look like I imagined them at all. I thought she was talking about some alleyway idiot too violent for their own good causing some trouble. Easy to manage, I thought. But, what I saw when I went outside the building was a bunch of tough-looking adventurers.

“Haruka?” I turned around to her. “How did this happen?!”

“I-I not so sure how this all happened…” Haruka cowered, looking nervously at the group of those “thugs.”

Equipped with leather or metal armor made using monster materials, these battle-scarred and highly trained men were what you would expect a bunch of adventurers would look like if you never met one. Some were beefy and carried larger weapons to show off their high Strength, while others had an unkempt and roguish-look which came from a life of traveling and sleeping outside.

Still, it wasn’t like these muscle-freaks were dumb. The longer you survived in this line of work, the more you had to become smarter. It didn’t mean they were exceptionally cunning, but they knew enough to choose the fights they could win. Which was surprising to me now, as I saw a large group in the middle of the crowd, denouncing the shop and me.

“Excuse me, but you are—” Nishio, standing in front of them with Kazumi and Kohaku, tried to calm them down, but one of those “thugs” interrupted him by drowning him up with his louder voice.

“HEY! We told ya, we ain’t leaving! We go where we like and we stay where we can stay, and I see no guards stopping us here, eh?”

He was right. Looking around, I couldn't see a single guard around for some reason, despite the large crowd. We didn’t order any guards to come over, as we thought we could handle it by ourselves. If somebody caused trouble within our shop or bistro, we would simply kick them out.

The problem was that we couldn’t do anything if they harassed people on the streets.

“Yeah! Glass-eye, you ain’t getting us away from here when it’s clear you are just here to spread your damn influence in our city! We have no need for your damn dragon!”

“Hear, hear! Dammit, all you Estralians should be ashamed of supporting this damn dragon. Manablood or not, the bitch is still a fire-spewing dragon! She can kill us all if she wants to, you damn idiots!”

“Yeah, where the hell are the damn senators, huh?! Big threat like this and nobody does shit about it? But you saw those damn senators going up and dining with the lizard! They are conspiring with it!”

Now they are throwing insults at me?! Why am I an ‘it’?!

“Assholes!” As I was flabbergasted at the hostility they showed me out of nowhere, Kohaku pushed herself forward, speaking down at the taller men. “Who gave you the right to speak like that about friend, huh?! What are you man-childs trying to accomplish here?!”

Kazumi, too, moved in front of Nishio, supporting her friend to defend me. “Yeah, this here is supposed to be a happy day where you get some food and enjoy yourself! And, what is your problem with Hesti-chan, huh?! She’s a good person!”

“ ‘Good person,’ my arse, girlie!” However, none of her words got to them. They kept on arguing. “Tell me she’s a good person after she burns down a village or swoops in and kidnaps a kid for lunch! She’s calm now ‘cuz those cowardly senators suck up to her like the pompous princess she is, but you anger her, she is about to reduce us all to ashes! Don’t you all realize this shit?!”

His loud voice and how he waved his arms around caught the crowd’s attention. The customers we just sold our pastries too were beginning to frown and look back to the shop, where they noticed me standing. Immediately, they snapped their heads around, hiding the suspicion in their eyes.

Scheiße!

This was not good. Reputation was everything for an idol, as I was a people’s girl. I honestly expected this reaction in Griffonpeak after everything occurred, but I guess the king managed to maintain my good image by telling everybody about me being the hero of the city and how Eshe supported me. However, for another country, all that influence wasn’t here to help me.

I have to do something!

We did far too much and put in too much work to make this opening day perfect. I wasn’t about to let these people ruin it just ‘cause they had some pre-existing concept on who I was before they met me. The customers we had today also didn’t know me very well, and I could understand their opinion swaying around.

As such, I had to stop them no—

““Shrisk!””

But as I was starting to move through the crowd, Shay and Beth hissed before spreading their wings, taking to the skies as they sped towards the adventurers.

“Uuuurgahhhaaaa!”

At the same time, three men flew out of the bistro door, crashing hard on the ground. As they laid on the ground groaning, I noticed bruises and blood on their faces. It looked like somebody resculptured their heads.

I stopped walking and turned back to Haruka, remembering that she was acting as a temporary handler with Misaki to accept the Quest commissions for today. Haruka did mention people made a mess inside the bistro, too, but I forgot about it once I saw the mess in front of the shop.

“Wow. Pretty disappointing. Spitting out insults, but all you can do to back them up was leaving your broken teeth and blood on our floor. Yes, wow, now we have to clean the place.” With her spear tip relaxing on her shoulder, Yorshka came out from the bistro. Fresh blood could be seen on the blunt side of her spear shaft. “Alright, so, how about repeating it again, yeah? What did you say about my daughter and little aunt, again, you freak?!”

Yorshka grabbed one of the men at their collar and pulled them up. The outer layer of her scales loosened and began floating above her before their edges began pointing down at the three men like an army of archers readying their bows. While they didn’t dazzle like Mother’s diamond-like scales, Yorshka’s still shined like pristine silver.

“Yorshka!” I called her out, noticing some bloodlust in the tone of her voice. “We can deal with them later. First, that!”

I pointed at the men causing the mess in the front, drawing Yorshka’s attention to them. She let go of the near unconscious man and retrieved her loosened scales back to her body. They were still loose, but she could use them like silver dust for now. Later on, she will have to shed them.

“Shit! Look at this, people!” One of the men began to flap his gums, again. “Look at them kicking out—”

“Oh, shut up!” Finally having enough, I shouted with [Aerokinesis]. “You’re an adventurer, so man the fuck up!”

The crowd made space for me as I moved through them with Haruka and Yorshka. Knowing they were watching me intently, I knew I couldn’t cause too much of a mess if I didn’t want to scare people away. With how thorny this sorta situation could be, I shouldn’t be too antagonistic.

“My name is Hestia. I’m not the proprietress of the Olive’s Garden, but I am one of them for our Bistro Aurora,” I announced, causing the adventurers to frown, squinting their eyes as they assessed what their next moves were. “Haruka. Yorshka. Could you tell me what happened inside the bistro?”

Haruka began to explain how the three men Yorshka kicked out suddenly began to make a fuss inside the bistro after they finished up their dishes. Haati tried to calm the situation down, but her attempts were ignored and he continued acting like a ruffian. He didn’t hurt anybody, but it clearly annoyed the people around them.

Haati went on to inform Tamae, who went to inform Haruka about it to send in a guard or two to help out. Understanding the situation, she left the reception to Misaki and went to get Shay or Beth. On the way, she noticed the mess outside and everything afterwards was the past.

Meanwhile, Priscilla, believing she could calm the men down as she had to do it in the hunter’s guild, jumped out of the kitchen to stop them. But, for some random reason, the men spat on the floor and insulted her about being a dragonewt, even calling me out for being a dragon awaiting her time to destroy the city.

They pushed Priscilla away from them, crackling with wide, smug grins as they “decided to leave” without paying anything. But, that smugness disappeared the moment Yorshka stood in their way, having entered the bistro to get Farron’s lunch. Without letting them say anything in their defense, Yorshka pummeled them, stating this was how adventurers did it, and threw them outside.

“If you want proof for what I said, how about asking those people who were just inside the shop?”

Yorshka pointed at a few men and women coming outside the bistro, saying stuff like “Hey, didn’t you beat them up too much?” and “Fuck that, they threw some of that curry at me, I would have done the same.” When prompted by Yorshka, all of them complained how those three ruined their meals by acting like insufferable brats, shouting and talking without showing any consideration for the people around them.

“… Yorshka, could you call the guards for me?” My decision was to leave the rest to the guards.

“H-Hey, wait!” But as if they were like fish flowing along a river, the adventurers before us suddenly panicked. Two men closest to me moved forward, holding their hands out in an attempt to grab me, but without letting them take that one step, my companions reacted in time to show them their place.

““Kriiishaaaah!””

The twins roared as they moved in to defend me with their wings, while Kazumi and Kohaku drew their blades, threatening them from coming any closer. Flustered, they flinched back at the sudden hostility we showed. It made them silent enough for me to speak.

“Now, to you six. I don’t really care what you people think I am or what I can do, but saying it all right in front of the shop I’m sponsoring is a bit too much, no? Yes, I am a dragon. I think I made that clear enough when I began singing and dancing, no?” I asked around, causing multiple people to nod and agree with me.

I continued, “Even if it isn’t illegal to actually cause a mess in front of the shop, we can still hand you six idiots into the guards for disrupting the peace around here. This is my last warning. Leave now and let people enjoy themselves! You six are unwelcome around the building.”

“Tsk!” The armored man who looked like he had a berserker class clicked his tongue as he moved up, undaunted by the Kohaku’s rune sword pointing at him. “You think you can do whatever you want in this city, lizard?!”

“No, but I think I can at least give people some yummy food to eat,” I countered, further aggravating the man.

“Grrrk! You really think this is all just a game for you, right, dragon?! You’re a monster! A beast! We’ve seen your wyvern kin kill and maim people before without any remorse! Leaving villages desolated cuz you felt like hunting! The moment we leave our guard down, that’s when you arrogant lizards will burn everything down!”

The man’s veins pulsated like crazy as I could feel an immeasurable amount of anger inside his eyes. His arm suddenly jerked, reaching for the giant greatsword strapped on his back and unfurled the cloth holding it. The motion he made suggested he was about to land an upper swing at me.

It was predictable.

[“Don’t move, please.”] I told everybody the moment I noticed his intention, stopping Yorshka and the twins from killing him.

The upper layer of my scales shed and flew into the air, forming a shield before me as they took the hit from his sword.

“What?!” The man called out in surprise, noticing how his sword didn’t even leave a dent on my scales. This was ‘cause of [Draconic Barrier].

I recently learned from Mother that this draconic ability wasn’t restricted to protecting my body only, as it was also connected with my scales due to the mana inside of them being mine. As long as I controlled my scales or even scale-dust, I could apply [Draconic Barrier] on them to prevent them from being too flimsy. Another lesson I probably would have learned earlier if I knew I could control my scales like this.

While the man was still flustered, I threw some [Corrosive Fire] at the sword and quickly turned the flames into corrosive slime. Morphing it into a hand, I had it grab his sword and pulled it out from his grip despite his struggles. Due to the motion, he fell onto his knees in front of me.

Kneeling down, I asked him one simple question, “If I were a normal girl and I were to see you in an alleyway during the night… What do you think I would think from a burly, armored man with a giant greatsword? Hmm?”

“Grrr… I am no fiend like you, monster!”

“I am a priestess of Goddess Aurena. I don’t kill things for fun, you musclebrain. Especially not people who just want to live their lives without much trouble. I’m a dragon, but I’m not an idiot.”

“You say that now! But I know you are just like any other wyvern and monster! The moment something happens, that’s when you go on a rampage! You aren’t a priestess! That damn white robe is a fake!”

“Heretic!”

A man’s voice suddenly pierced through the crowd. Standing back up, I saw a group of people dressed in white robes slowly approached us. People I should very much know as they belonged to the religion I technically was a part of — the church of Aurena. The local temple was here.

“Heretic, how dare you call a champion of Aurena a fake!” Leading this group was the bishop I met at the temple.

Why is he here?

Not noticing what I was thinking, the man continued talking, admonishing the barbarian as if he was a child. “This young woman here is one of pure heart. If the Goddess had deemed her worthy to make her a champion, then does that not mean she is worthy to be our champion, my fellow humans? Goddess Aurena is our patron Goddess! She is our protector! This woman is very much qualified to be a priestess, for she is one capable of granting us a blessing not even I can ever dream of granting to everybody!”

The bishop’s statement and praises caused the crowd to rile up again, commenting on what he said about me.

“Hmm? Even stronger than the bishop? Well, she is wearing a white robe meant for a noble, right?”

“I guess, if she’s a champion, she should be able to cast some strong magic.”

I remembered I hadn’t told anybody I was a champion of Aurena. I didn’t think it was necessary here, as I wasn’t treating it as my usual concerts. However, maybe that was my mistake. I thought people didn’t follow Aurena that much in this city due to the relatively small size of the temple, but being aligned to an Origin God still gave you credibility. Well, all of them outside of Shiterno, probably.

Understanding what I had to do now, I raised my arm up into the sky, forming a giant white circle in the sky before beginning the singing chant of [Prayer]. The bishop and priests instantly accompanied my singing followed by the voices of a few citizens around us. Once the chant was finished, I cast the spell, pouring white rain onto everybody around the area.

<[Blessing of the Goddess of Light (Major)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>

Every single time this thing happens, I have to use this spell. I began to wonder if I should just use [Prayer] on every person I met. It seemed to cool down situations like these pretty easily.

“Oooh, shit, this feels amazing! Is this what everybody gets all the time in the Aurena temple?”

“I feel stronger and even faster? Wow! This really had to be a miracle from the Goddess!”

“Oooh, thank you, champion Hestia. Not only once, but now twice! You have granted us your blessing twice now!”

“Ehehe…” I laughed reluctantly before turning my attention back to the adventurers under the cheers of the people around me. It was too loud for me to speak softly, so I had to raise my voice. “Now, leave. I don’t want to see you six ever again! Actually, take those three other idiots with you. The guards probably won’t want to deal with this.”

And with that, the men walked away in shame from the constant booing of the people around them. I didn’t know if they actually were trying to stir things up against the shop or Aurora — it could just be they hated scalekins, in general — but I was glad we solved this almost without any issues.

In fact, if they were trying to cause trouble for us due to some very paranoid suspicions of mine concerning our competitor — Senator O’Bloom — then we just reversed the situation. Were we already making enemies in this city? Probably. Was I liking the fact we were doing it? Not really.

It meant more things I had to deal with and I was beginning to understand what the senators on the second floor were talking about.

I turned around, looking up on the second floor, having noticed somebody was looking at me all this time. It was Reajaen Resclave. All this time, she had been watching our actions through the window. Was this her doing, then? Or why was she smirking?

I didn’t like the mystery of these people at all.

Wanting to return back into the building, I had to push myself through the crowd of people wanting to meet me. Some even asked me for a “white grace” for their injuries, and it wasn’t like I could reject their requests now. No fee for today, just to make them like me even more, and I could see the bishop and priests approving it.

When I asked the bishop why he was here, he told me he learned of the opening of my shop only today and was planning to come over to grant his blessing. Seeing as how he handled the situation, I had to thank him for doing so. Him being here really helped me, even though I once again forgot to ask him for his name before he left.

Meh, I’ll meet him again, I think. Gotta remember it by then.

Leaving Nishio, Haruka, Kohaku, and Kazumi behind, I headed back into the shop with only Shay, Beth, and Yorshka accompanying me. Once inside, Rajah jumped back into my arms. I had left him in the shop since I thought it might be too crowded outside.

“Hestia.” Yorshka stopped me before I went back upstairs, handing me three metal objects with a design I was quite familiar with. “Those three had them on them. I grabbed them while I was pummeling them, so I thought you would want to know about it.”

The object was the same emblem as the one Saori and Tasianna were looking into right now. The emblem belonged to that one alchemist shop. Once again, this emblem was in the hands of thugs who wanted to cause me trouble. This could not be a coincidence.

“… I need to talk to Saori later on. Rajah, if you find them before I do, tell them I need to talk to them about our future steps. I think we really need to start investigating those senators.”

Like Reajaen said, the wealthy controlled this city and each senator was like a ruler for their own area of investments. Without a doubt, one of these senators must have been the reason for all of this to happen. If I read between that fox woman’s words and used it with Saori’s intel on the cartels, then each senator had to have a hand in a criminal organization.

Which meant, one of those senators was planning on using us to attack an opposing cartel. Was the one with this medical snake emblem innocent in this, or were they waiting for us to track down their enemies and attack them. Cleaning up their business.

In any case, we were being used. We were being used from the moment we entered this city.

“Oh, now don’t you all look very suspicious inside your own shop. Something in your mind?”

I turned around, noticing the blond haired high elven woman from before coming towards us. Her pink eyes felt entrancing once again, but due to how focused I was on our current matter, I didn’t feel I needed to listen to my instincts.

“Vivi, yes?” I spoke to the woman. “I didn’t manage to ask you this before, but how did you know I was promoting the shop with my singing and dancing? You couldn’t have guessed I would come to you or be interested in knowing about your sister’s opinion. Or, are you the best guesser ever?”

“Ehehehe,” the woman giggled, closing her eyes as she somehow found amusement from my question. Once she opened them up again, her eye color returned to that bright red from before. “Call me a bit of a seer, Meoschaera. I have my own ways of looking at things.”

I narrowed my eyes, feeling more suspicious of this woman. Noticing it, she waved her hands in front of me.

“No need, little one. I don’t think I’m your enemy really. However, seeing as how busy you are right now and how much you must assess your situation, I don’t think you can meet up with my sister just yet.” She then asked me to return her the piece of parchment and I obliged. “You won’t need to come meet us now; however, probably, we will meet again later on. I can assure you that. But, until then, enjoy the surprise, Meoshaera Hestia. Oh, and, please grant my thanks to that waitress of yours. Svena, was her name, I believed? Although I didn’t speak with her, she still managed to bring my order without any trouble.”

And just like that, I let her go. I didn’t stop her. I didn’t want to despite how ominous her message to me was. Something inside of me told me this was the correct decision.

[“Hestia.”] But, almost like it was to say my decision was correct, Yorshka spoke to me through telepathy. [“That elf there… she’s a vampire.”]

[“Huh?!”] I looked at her in shock. [“H-Hold on, how is that possible?! Vampires shouldn’t be able to go around in the sun! How do you sound so sure?”]

[“Hestia, I don’t know what sort of fairy tales the people in your world talk about about vampires, but those in Peolynca are fully able to walk around in the sun. They are only weakened since their realm is the dark of the night. This is their gift after being born to Vivachel, the first vampire,”] she explained. [“The reason why I think she’s a vampire is because of the bloody smell around her lips. It’s similar to when Elrick is finished drinking blood.”]

[“Wha—?! Elrick?! Y-You don’t mean—”]

[“Yes, Elrick von Karstein, a knight of Aurena, is a vampire. That is my blackmail on him.”]

Hold up, what?!?!?!?

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“Speak.”

A soft female tone echoed through the room as a man struggled to free himself from the shadowy bindings holding him to his seat. No matter how much he screamed for help, nothing would escape the wind bubble around us.

The ice spears grew in size.

[“MY BODY! HOW DID YOU GET A HOLD OF MY BODY?!”]

As he wouldn’t talk, my garms, Uno and Song, started becoming impatient. They growled, baring their fangs at the man to intimidate him. He cowered, looking even more frightened, as they wouldn’t let him rest. Such a sight made me question if this person really was the leader of a local cartel or not, considering I knew of Eithalr.

“Haaaa… Looks like I need to work. Tasianna, could you, you know?” Gael tried to move Tasianna aside, but our fairy friend had her eyes locked on our captive. The ice spears surrounded him like an iron maiden’s needles.

“Speak,” she said once again, pulling up a small mana battery for the man to see. “This was made using a spirit’s mana! The onnikais warned me to not trust you human scum!”

Small glowing orbs surrounded Tasianna as she began her interrogation of the man. These weren’t fireflies, these were onnikais — the dead version of a lesser faefolk. They were essentially zombies, in a way.

“Wow… Tasianna is hot, damn. She acts more like a girl boss than you, Segawa-san,” Asaka commented, causing me to really question why I was trying my best to tolerate this damn girl.

“… Let her have this, Hanazawa-san.”

“Mhmm. I guess you're right. The more information we get, the more these damn fenrir souls will calm down.” Asaka smacked the catalyst she had on her belt, agitating the four black onnikais inside it. I could hear them telling me to “Avenge our kind” but I ignored it.

“Elrick, how do you feel about this?” Meanwhile, Asaka asked her trusty knight behind her, ominously looking down at the cartel boss we captured.

“… Sinners must pay.”

Hestia, I wish I was in your position now.

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“Please, please! Thank you very much for accepting this Quest! Thank you very much!”

[“Ellaine, Ellaine. Always so nice and knightly! How chivalrous, my dame~”]

[“Shut up, Klea.”]

I shook my head and then turned around to Tatsuya and Kyouya. All three of us were still slightly tired after finishing five D rank Quests. But after hearing our Quest givers ask us for our help, as the hunter’s guild recently canceled the Quest as nobody could fulfill it in time.

“Are you two still up for more?” I asked the two and they gave me the thumbs up.

“This is the reason why we opened the company. Let’s go, Ellaine.”

“Yeah, there might be something interesting there. Sightings of ghosts sounds like a horror story come true.”

To the east of Gleisvale, there was a small village surrounded by a large forest. Recently, ghosts have been sighted there, but none of the hunter’s were able to fulfill it as no one returned alive to confirm the details. It eventually was raised to B rank, but even then, nobody wanted to accept it.

Now, these people were coming to Aurora for aid.

And Aurora will answer in kind.