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Chapter 59: Fearful Gazes
Mid Evening - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan "I'm sorry my liege!!" A young and youthful voice unfitting the man's body rang out.
-Who is this guy?- Looking him up and down, he was clearly quite young, but his body was toned like a top-notch bodybuilder and his aura was tempered and calm.
"Lawton, please stand up." Oliver gave an embarrassed look as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I'm sorry my lord." Finally standing up, he wore a shy look.
"How many times have I said you should just call me Oliver."
"I wouldn't dare call my benefactor so casually!"
-Benefactor?- Seeing how Oliver wanted him to speak casually, I started getting curious about who he was. "So, who is this?"
"Oh right, you haven't met him. This is Lawton Keen, Kaelallans strongest and youngest Nation Rank adventurer."
-Yeah, I'm not too surprised...- Although the amount of aura he had was significantly less than Michaels, it was immensely more ‘worn and tempered’. -It's really impressive for a humanoid...- “But what are you apologizing so aggressively for?"
"Because I failed at my job to protect the lord... again." Lawton’s face was washed with guilt.
"Again?"
"Well, the last time you were the one to protect him, it was during the meeting with that… mage." He glanced over at Michael with a distasteful look.
Oliver was quick to ease Lawton's anger though. "We have confirmed that Michael is uninvolved, so try not to hold a grudge. Plus, aren't I fine?" Oliver showed an oddly fatherly smile to Lawton before turning away. "In any case, now isn't time for small talk. Since you were missing during that fight, go order the knights to start screening everyone in the plaza."
"Yes, sir!" His shyness instantly vanished as he gave a deep bow and turned to the group of knights. "Alright! Everyone sift through the civilians and question them. If something seems off about their answers, put them into one group, if they are clean, let them go!"
The huge contrast from his shy personality around Oliver to the one he used with the knights was like night and day, reminding me of a certain someone. -At least his alternate personality isn't a crazy one...-
Finally realizing I was getting off-topic, I turned back to Oliver. "So where do you want me to 'lock up' and interrogate the halfie?"
"Ah, I assumed it was too hard to move and figured we would just tie it down here."
-I mean, I could just drag her somewhere else, but that works too..-
"I have already sent knights to retrieve several artifacts to tie it down so-"
"Don't worry about it." I was quick to cut him off when I saw an opportunity. "I have a... ‘more secure’ method."
Oliver looked at me quizzically as I hopped off the platform and walked towards the halfie.
Without bothering to delay it, I gripped onto her jaw and pulled, but her body barely moved. -Damn… I forgot how heavy dragons are…- After casually using a mix of earth and wind magic though, I got her moving.
*Skksshhh*
The sound of the halfie being dragged over the rubble caught the attention of everyone in the plaza.
Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch me nonchalantly drag the huge and heavy creature across the plaza until I finally got to the middle and set her down. -Now for the fun part!-
Although it was going to consume a huge amount of mana to create, I decided to use steel to clamp her to the ground. -It's really overkill, but I need to move some mana around after using all those small-scale spells recently.-
My plan was to create a few U-shaped rings to clamp her body to the ground and connect them to a mesh of steel underground. -So if she wants to break out of it, she has to either break through the thick steel rings or rip up the entire plaza!-
As I started moving mana to make it though, everyone who could feel mana nearby paled.
The rubble covering the ground and dust floating in the air steadily disappeared as colossal amounts of metallic metal seemed to sprout out of the ground.
It was a sight that could make even the most naive of people jump to conclusions about my identity.
Just by the looks people wore, it was clear they thought I was either some monster or some deity with no in-between, but their assumptions meant nothing to me.
After taking around an hour to finish my little setup, I backed away with a look of satisfaction.
It felt genuinely incredible for my reserve to have room to flow.
The thing was, when my reserve was full, my body would still continue to naturally absorb mana which created a slightly uncomfortable pressure in my reserve.
It was nothing I couldn't get used to or ignore, but with my reserve at around 90% full, that pressure was completely gone. “Haah…” -That feels much better…-
Quickly double-checking to make sure I was completely done with my steel contraption, I made my way back over to Oliver who was now comforting Lucy.
Seeing Lucy's pale face, I assumed she got scared by my mana and covered her in a bit of my aura, but Oliver got caught up in it as well.
After a short moment, their heart rates started to level out, and the color returned to Lucy's face.
"Do you feel a bit better now?"
Although I was talking to Lucy, Oliver was the one to snap out of his trance and respond. "Ah yes… Sorry for staring…" He was quick to bow his head.
"Haha, it's alright, I've gotten used to it."
Although at first, I resisted my draconic instincts in favor of my past life’s human morals, as time passed, my entire psyche shifted. At this point, humans had fallen to be as low as animals, with very few being placed above them. -To think I used to have sympathy for such weak creatures…-
Feeling something brush against my leg, I looked down to see Ilios looking up at me with a proud look.
During the fight, he was sitting on the railing and watching, but no one seemed to notice him since I stole the eyes of everyone around.
"Sorry for stealing the spotlight, buddy." Leaning down, I gave a little apology and scratched his head.
"Hhoouu.." He let out a noise of satisfaction as I scratched behind his ears.
-Hehe…- Feeling the warmth in my chest grow, I couldn't help but smile. -He's so cute...- Finally realizing the tense atmosphere, I stood back up and looked at Oliver and Lucy. "Sorry for scaring you two."
Almost immediately, Oliver broke into a slight panic. "We were not scared of you! Please don't think that!"
"Haha, it's fine. It's fine. It is totally normal."
My words of comfort were followed by a short silence before Sarah's familiar voice rang out from behind us. "My goodness, just what did I miss?"
As I turned around, I saw both Lewis and Sarah walking up together, staring wide-eyed at the dragon pinned to the shattered plaza.