NOVEL NEXT chapter 10
10 – Dragon Hunting Dragon (6)
“Why do you have that kind of look in your eyes?”
“hehehe… Eruga-nim…”
Liana smiled and sat close beside me.
“Let’s go find the wyvern nest.”
“The wyvern nest? Why? What’s the reason?”
In response to my question, Liana looked at me as if wondering why I found it surprising.
“Don’t you know? Wyverns collect gold trinkets in their nests. They like shiny things.”
“What are you talking about right now?”
Wyverns don’t collect shiny things.
Liana must be confusing griffins with wyverns.
“Sorry, but wyverns don’t collect treasures. That’s griffins.”
“What? No, that’s not true. I learned that at the Holy University.”
“They teach about demons at the Holy University?”
“Our holy maidens support not only the temples but also wars and adventures. Don’t you know about battle maidens?”
“I don’t know. But if we go to the nest, won’t two wyverns come out at the same time?”
Wyverns always travel in pairs.
The one that attacked the mercenaries earlier was a male wyvern.
The fact that the male wyvern constantly appeared in a specific area and diligently hunted meant that there was a female wyvern and a nest somewhere.
Now is the time for them to lay eggs as winter approaches.
There must be a female and eggs in that valley the guy went to.
After hearing my words, Liana looked at me with a strange smile.
“If it’s Erga, wyverns like that are just…”
“No, I can’t. I told you I can’t transform recklessly.”
“I understand. Anyway… Would you like to come with me?”
Why is everything so chaotic like this?
But Rianna’s proposal was quite attractive.
Apart from the treasures and everything, there are Wyvern eggs in the Wyvern’s nest.
When a Wyvern hatches from an egg, it considers the first thing it sees as its mother.
So the female Wyvern never leaves the nest and stays inside stubbornly.
If we handle it well, we might be able to tame the Wyvern and ride it.
Since there is a restriction on flying in the transformed state, such a means of transportation would be very useful.
Of course, there is also a way to suppress the adult form with the ‘Roar of the Dragon’, but that’s a bit too risky.
“Alright. Let’s go together.”
“What?! Are you crazy, Hyung?”
Baphelt, who had been eavesdropping, grabbed my shoulder and shook me in surprise.
“You saw the Wyvern and went crazy, didn’t you? Are you going to the Wyvern’s nest in the middle of the night?”
“It’s dizzying. And I’m not going crazy.”
Although he let go of my shoulder, Baphelt still looked at me with a crazy expression and said,
“You don’t even know where the Wyvern’s nest is. Why the hell are you going there if there’s no treasure or anything?”
“For various reasons.”
“You’re insane, seriously… But how are you going to find that nest?”
“There are many ways. Don’t worry too much.”
Dragons survive by devouring monsters from the time they are born from eggs until they die, which can be thousands of years.
Because of this, they have a deep understanding of the ecology of most monsters.
Moreover, since they clearly saw us heading towards the valley, it’s like they’re blatantly telling us where their nest is.
“Well, there’s no other choice. But for now, let’s stay here until sunrise. We can’t make it to the wyvern’s nest by staying up all night.”
“Well then, let’s endure a little longer.”
The shepherds kindly provided me and Riana with a thick sleeping bag.
“This belonged to the guy who died in the wyvern attack last time. Sorry, but this is the only one we have.”
“It’s okay. It doesn’t matter.”
Riana went inside the sleeping bag first and patted the space next to her.
“Come in, Erga.”
“It’s okay. I don’t get cold.”
“I’m cold, so please come in quickly.”
Unable to resist her insistence, I squeezed into the sleeping bag and barely found a spot.
Riana trembled from the cold and buried herself in my embrace.
“Because you’re a dragon, I believe you won’t do anything strange.”
Strange things, huh. What on earth is she talking about?
It seems like she’s talking about something like rape.
Well… I don’t know if that’s possible even with a polymorphic body… Oh dear…
As Riana’s soft chest pressed against my body, a strange change occurred in the lower part of my body.
Perhaps because I transformed into a human, it seems to be a reaction to a human female…
Hmm… This is a bit awkward…
To avoid it reaching Liana, I had to slightly step back.
“Erga-nim…”
“What? Why?”
Startled, Liana asked with a wrinkled nose.
“The smell of blood is really strong. When we get to Yeongju City, we must stop by an inn to take a bath.”
“That’s a good idea. You also have a strong smell of urine…”
“eeek!”
Liana let out a sound and fiercely punched my chest.
* * * * *
It was still early dawn, the sun had not risen properly yet.
As I opened my eyes to a hand shaking my shoulder, Bafelt was kneeling down and looking at me.
“The dawn will break soon. It’s time to get up and prepare.”
“Thank you.”
Liana was completely dazed, drooling at the corner of her mouth.
“Liana. Liana. Wake up.”
“Ugh…”
“Get up. It’s dawn, time to move.”
I forcibly pulled Liana out of her sleeping bag to wake her up.
“Ugh… It’s really freezing… What is this again…”
She murmured as she brushed off the frost that had settled on her hair and face.
“Hyung, take this.”
Baphelt put various things into my bag.
What he gave me was a matchbox, a small utility knife, and a leather pouch containing some jerky and water.
And he tightly tied the blankets for Rihanna and me on both sides of the bag with sturdy straps.
“Is it okay to give me this much?”
Rihanna asked in surprise, and Baphelt smiled bitterly.
“It’s fine, Your Holiness. These things belonged to the dead guys killed by Wyvern, so it would be a waste to throw them away. Take them and make good use of them.”
“Thank you, Shepherd!”
We packed our bags and left the campsite, escorted by the shepherds.
* * * * *
They pointed to the distant Mount Sicherman against the backdrop of the night sky in navy blue.
“Let’s go in this direction. We might be able to find the nest around the vicinity of that valley over there.”
“Sounds good. I was thinking the same thing.”
Side by side, we walked towards the valley still shimmering with starlight in the western sky.
“But, Erga-nim, I have a question.”
“What is it?”
As we walked, Rihanna asked.
“What about your wings, Erga-nim? Since they’re black, are you a Black Dragon?”
“That’s right.”
“Hmm… But I’m not sure if it’s because I don’t know much… I’ve never heard of a Black Dragon before.”
“We live on an island in the middle of the Southern Ocean, not on the continent. So, we wouldn’t know.”
Liana, shaking her head, asked another question.
“I see. But why do you, Erga-nim, wander around here alone?”
“To live a free life.”
Perhaps it sounded like a whimsical remark, but Liana remained silent for a moment.
“What is a free life like?”
“We dragons build nests and live in them. It’s like a home for humans, you could say.”
“I know that. You pile up treasures and all sorts of rare objects, right?”
“Well… yes. But that nest can be a natural cave, a deep valley in the mountains, or even just a regular brick house.”
“Huh? A brick house can be a dragon’s nest?”
“It’s not necessarily a place where a giant lizard covered in scales can crouch, but rather a place where you can comfortably rest.”
Liana nodded as if she understood.
“So, Erga-nim, you’re going to build a house in the city and live freely, right?”
“That’s right. It would be even better if I can have fun and eat.”
“Then Erga-nim will have to earn money.”
“Seems like it. Without money, there’s not much you can do in the human world.”
Liana smiled as if she found it amusing.
“A dragon earning money. That’s really funny.”
“Well, there are even saintesses who dissect corpses, so it’s not particularly strange.”
“It couldn’t be helped. There was no immediate way to escape the desert empty-handed.”
“I understand. I’m not trying to say anything about that.”
“hehehe.”
Liana chuckled awkwardly and muttered to herself.
“But… what do we have to do to have fun and eat?”
“I don’t know either. We’ll find the answer when we go to the city. Do you know anything?”
“Well, I’m not sure. I just got expelled from the Sacred University after recently getting in.”
We walked in silence for a moment before I suddenly remembered and asked.
“By the way, speaking of which. If there happens to be a treasure, what would you do?”
“What do you mean, what would I do?”
“We would have to share it, right? You’re not planning to take it all for yourself, are you?”
“No, of course not! I’m not that heartless!”
Liana quickly raised her hand as if she was stung and said.
“Then should we split it equally, fifty-fifty? If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have come here, and if it wasn’t for me, you would have definitely been killed by a female wyvern.”
Liana, who had been thinking for a moment, readily accepted my proposal.
“Okay. Let’s divide it in half. I was thinking the same thing.”
“Alright… I’ll trust you on that.”
“Really?!”
“And while I’m at it, the things we obtained by looting the slave merchants.”
Liana frowned and pulled a bag with a gold clasp with her hand.
“Is this mine…?”
“If it wasn’t me, wouldn’t you have been able to have it?”
“If it wasn’t me, Erna would have just left without taking care of things like this, right?”
“That’s right. Then let’s split it fifty-fifty.”
“Profit… really…”
In the end, Riana and I agreed to convert the gold coins and divide them in half when we arrived at the Lord’s Castle.
As we walked diligently, we could reach the valley by the time the morning sun shone brightly behind us.