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Dragons’ Cry Genesis (Part 20)
Everything had basically been decided on, and I had placated my family. Of course, Nier took more effort to settle. Next, I was setting out with Dragon Mom. Everything was prepared, so the next step was to begin our search for the dragons.
I didn’t have the foggiest idea as to where the dragons were located. In saying that, I already knew they were roughly where the villagers were. Honestly speaking, I never thought the villagers of the dragon village were on the street where I met the prophet. Those villagers initially relied on hunting and selling simple handmade crafts, such as rattan baskets. There was no land nearby for them to plant crops; therefore, the town nearby had to supply them with paddy and the sort.
It was said that the villagers of the dragon villager were oftentimes able to acquire grains of gold, which allowed them to get through winters. That was strange, for the dragon’s village wasn’t a gold mine. Even if they did, they didn’t have what it took to produce gold. Freya had investigated the village for some time and obtained a fair amount of information. The village wasn’t a village that specialised in gold manufacturing. Rather, it was a village that manufactured low quality handmade goods. It was a primitive village without anything valuable.
The inference that could be derived from that was that the dragons supplied the gold. After all, dragons had a habit of collecting gold. Therefore, they should be on good terms with the dragons or, at least, close enough to have the dragons help them. I didn’t know why they helped the villagers, but since the dragon race was willing to get along with the anthropoid villagers, they should be able to get along with us.
Dragon Mom and I arrived at the street in question. The street was still as dead as it was last time. I paid particular attention to my surroundings to ensure I wouldn’t miss anything. I didn’t see the prophet. I hadn’t seen him since I last parted with him on the street. It seemed as though I’d only get to see him if he wished to be seen. It didn’t matter, however. It made no difference with or without him. I doubted he was a prophet anymore. After all, he couldn’t hear God’s voice anymore.
Mommy Vyvyan was to blame there. There was no more so-called God anymore, because Mommy Vyvyan killed him. That prophet shouldn’t be of any use any longer. I just missed him a little, I guess. He did save my life, after all.
We spoke to the village chief. They were notified of my visit beforehand. Hence, once I finally saw an open door between the stone walls. There were two people waiting for me. They greeted me courteously. Although I didn’t know what the people relied on for their livelihood, their lives looked decent. The North could afford to feed freeloaders. I hoped they could find appropriate jobs.
The stairs were relatively dark. Dragon Mom looked at the narrow stairs with concern. She grabbed onto my cloak. I knew she was unlikely to be afraid of the place; she was worried somebody would ambush me. I didn’t think the people here would harm me. It was just that it was relatively gloomy. I didn’t think they were related to me in any way, as I had never done anything to them. There was no point in them killing me.
We entered a room. It was a standard room you’d find in any building. Because of the gloomy street, the room had fires lit during the day. I peered inside. There was a young individual sitting at the redwood table writing a letter of some sort. Honestly, I was very surprised to see that. I had no idea the village chief was young.
“Normally, village chiefs are old, aren’t they? Why is this village chief young?” I wondered.
My footsteps caused the floor to creak. The young individual looked up at me.
I still had trouble processing the appearance of anthropoids. I figured the individual was a rabbit. It was the first time I saw somebody with a leaf-shaped mouth and red eyes. He looked at me and chuckled. He then stood up and extended his hand toward me: “I am very glad to see you, venerable King. I am but just an ordinary villager. I am honoured to meet you. We were mere commoners in the Northwest. I never thought such a day would come.”
I laughed: “To be frank, I thought the village chief was an elder. I didn’t think you were so young.”
“In terms of human age, I am older than you. I just have a longer lifespan, allowing me to maintain my youthful appearance for longer. I may look young, but I am actually getting on with age,” responded the village chief. He placed his pen down and then rubbed his hands together. He looked at me with his eyes narrowed as he laughed: “Honestly, we are honoured to learn that you are so interested in our village. What did you want to know? I will tell you what I know. However, what I can tell you is limited to our former village, for it is no more.”
I nodded: “I want to know about your erstwhile village. I want to know if you are acquainted with the dragon race. You must have received their help before, correct? Based on what I know, it doesn’t seem plausible for you to have found gold. Only the dragon race would’ve been able to find gold and pass it to you.”
The village chief folded his hands and interlocked his fingers: “Mm, we did indeed obtain gold from others, but we do not know if they were the dragon race. There is a legend in our village that says that if we place a large volume of meat from our hunt at the valley entrance, we will find small bits of gold the next day. Therefore, as opposed to saying that we hunted for ourselves, perhaps it would be better to say that we put forth our best efforts all year for that one day.”
I nodded. Dragons were carnivores. It appeared that dragons couldn’t bear the winters, either, thus had to trade gold with the villagers to obtain food. That wasn’t a good thing, though, as it seemed that the dragons weren’t willing to interact with the outside or world and had remained in the valley.
While the villagers weren’t certain, I could say for sure that the creatures they spoke of were dragons. Only dragons would exchange gold for meat. The description matched the exact needs of dragons.
“Have you seen them, then?! Have you seen huge figures flying in the sky?! Did you ever see wings or some enormous creatures?!!”
Dragon Mom slammed the table and leaned in to look at him before I could speak. She appeared to be very excited after hearing news of her dragon kin despite the news being unconfirmed. Based off Dragon Mom’s level of excitement, it was pretty much guaranteed that they were dragons. Perhaps there are precedencies of dragons and elves trading in the past?
Somewhat startled, the village chief responded, “Ah… That… I am not sure about, myself…”
I tugged Dragon Mom’s hand. She realised what she did, so she gently cleared her throat in an awkward manner. She then stood back behind me and stopped speaking. I smiled cordially and apologised: “Sorry, My Mom was slightly emotional, because she is eager to see the dragon race.”
“I-I see… I do not know if they were the dragon race, though…” awkwardly stammered the village. “That said, I believe you will find out if you go. I shall provide you with a map. This is our village’s map. This is now an old map. The new map is vastly different to this version. I am not sure if you can still locate it or not; however, I would not think the change is too drastic.”
That was easily solved. I just needed to compare the old and new maps. I took the map he passed me. The map had existed for some time. I felt as though I saw the map during my battle. With that said, the map I used during the battle didn’t have the location of the particular small village marked on it.
The village was located at the foot of a snowy mountain as we predicted. There was a valley there, as well. It was rare to see a valley with this shape. Both sides of the mountains made the centre an empty circle shape. You could probably construct a city inside. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were dragons in there.
I replied, “This is enough. My visit today was just to confirm the existence of the creatures this time. Now that I have confirmed it, I shall head there.”
“I see. I hope you successfully find what you were after, then. Although I am not too sure what you are searching for, if you really can locate the dragons and ruins of our village, please come back to tell us how it is. I have an old friend that greatly misses the place.
“Old friend?” I repeated
The village chief nodded, and then picked up the sheet of paper on the table. He explained, “He was a foreigner who found our village. We are not that close, having said that. He later on vanished in that valley. When he came out from it, he brought a fair amount of gold with him… He wrote a book that sells very well. It is the children’s book, ‘Dragon Journey Chronicles.’ He always asks us lots of things, so we are considered good friends now, I guess.”
“You mean the author of ‘Dragon Journey Chronicles’?!”
“Yes.”
While I was startled, I was pleasantly surprised at the same time. It was a children’s book to them, but it was a true story to me. It was true the author met with dragons, which meant that there were definitely dragons residing in that valley! The dragon race was there!! There were dragons there!
“Understood. Thank you very much!”
I quickly grabbed Dragon Mom and excitedly left. Dragon Mom was oblivious to the situation, so she was dumbfounded. I turned my head around to look at her and joyfully exclaimed, “Mom! It’s confirmed! It’s confirmed! There are dragons in the valley! In fact, there should be a horde of dragons!! They’re your dragon kin, and I know where they are!! Let’s go there! We just have to go there! Mom, what you want is at the valley!”