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The Ungoverned Dragon Rider
A clan is a party of adventurers who are independent of the adventurers’ guild.
Clans do not receive benefits from the guild, but instead, they are not bound by the guild’s rules. The guild also can’t take a commission from the rewards of their client’s quests either.
From finding quest clients to securing the rewards, doing everything on your own takes a lot of work. However, if you succeed, the reward will be much higher than if you were working for the guild.
Because of that, it was not rare for a well-known party to leave the guild and form a clan.
The proof of that is from just the streets of Ishka alone, you can easily find almost a hundred different clans.
Although half of that- no, around 70 percent of those clans wait and wait and get no business.
The remaining 20 percent or so turned into jack-of-all-trades businesses to make a living, and some have even turned to crime. Only 10 percent of the total clans manage to stay as a clan of adventurers.
The large-scale adventurers’ guild that operates beyond the border and across the main continent has overwhelming amounts of talents, many types of intel, and many deep connections to all kinds of influential powers. Their long history and the built-up trust they have are incomparable to developing nations.
There’s no way that adventurers who have been simply fighting and following orders from a guild can imitate running one.
It was normal for the adventurers who broke off from the guild because they weren’t happy with how the guild took a commission from their rewards to crawl back to them in less than a year with their heads hung in shame.
Now then, my plan of “starting shit peacefully with the guild (Prelude)” was to clear the “preserved” quests that the massive organization known as the guild could not clear, making their clients question their ability, and thus stealing them over.
Of course, it doesn’t end there. If that was all of my plan then I wouldn’t have called it the (Prelude) in the first place. If there’s a “Prelude”, then there’s going to be a “Turning point”, and a “Climax”.
To begin with, the clients that I have snatched from the guild were only a handful. On top of that, the guild will only think that “losing the clients of the preserved quests isn’t really a big problem.”
From their point of view, it doesn’t hurt them at all. If anything, they would be thankful that I did that.
However, no matter how few people that is, they are people who chose us, the clan- “Blood Spraying Sword” instead of the guild. That is the important part.
Going from “0” to “1” and going from “1” to “2” are both “Increasing by one”, but the meaning is different.
Same as anything else, starting off is the hard part. Once you manage to get through that, the effort needed to keep on going is no big deal.
On top of that, I have several ideas in mind on how to go from “1” to “2”. One of them is –
The dirt road connecting the Titis forest and the city of Ishka.
The hard ground that formed from the many years of adventurers and hunters walking on it was something that I was familiar with as well.
Although, the situation is a bit different right now.
My eye level is many times higher than usual. *Shud*, *shud*, every time the heavy vibration shook my body, my vision shook as well.
The people who passed by were all staring with their eyes and mouth opened wide since some time ago. Heheh, all of their eyes were on me, all of them.
It was no surprise. The sight of a human riding on a wyvern’s back is not something you’d normally see.
Everything was going as planned–except for this one thing that I did not account for.
「Ughh…S-stop shaking, this…!」
「M-master…Um, I don’t feel so well…ah」
On the saddle, there was me and Ciel, who was crying out with her arms tightly around my waist. Lunamaria, who has been walking on the ground since the beginning, then spoke to us with a composed expression on her face,
「Wyverns are creatures that specialize in flying. It’s natural that they wouldn’t be too good at walking on the ground」
「I understand that but aesthetically speaking…riding it like this is-Oww?!」
「M-master, are you alri—Oww?!」
When the two of us on the saddle bit our tongues from the shaking, Lunamaria smiled.
「I’m glad that you guys get along so well」
「Ah, should we fly until we get a little closer? But if we get too close we might be attacked by the rampart’s ballistas and catapults…」
If we got too close without permission, they might mistreat us as a demonic beast attack from the forest. We will become war criminals if we’re not careful and try to land in the city forcefully.
Because of that, we were walking to Ishka with us on the wyvern’s back from a distance like this, but-
「When we went to Mount Skim and lake Toya, we basically flew every time. To think it feels this uncomfortable to ride it when it’s walking…」
*Pugiii…* The blue-winged beast hung its head as if it were apologizing to me when I randomly grumbled.
Ah, oh no. This little guy is surprisingly sensitive.
「Oh no, don’t worry about it since you’ll get better at this from now on! I mean, You’ve gotten a lot better at flying compared to when you first started too!」
「Pui?」
“Really?” The wyvern tilted its head as if it were asking me that. Yes, really really. That’s why be confident, you’re a wyvern that can do it if you try.
Ah… don’t breathe out fire even if you’re overjoyed. If people see that from the rampart we’ll really be seen as intruders.
When Ciel saw me soothing the wyvern like that, she laughed and said,
「I knew it, this wyvern can understand your words, master. Then how come it doesn’t respond to my words? I wonder」
「There’s probably a hierarchy to it. Like I’m the most important and itself was second and so on」
「Ah, I see. So I’m treated as someone lower than it, huh? Like “The newcomer should stay quiet!”」
When Ciel nodded as she looked convinced, Lunamaria added to my comment.
「Aside from the people the wyvern is accustomed to, other people are only viewed as their food. Other than master’s words, perhaps it doesn’t even try to understand what other people say to it」
「If we assume that…Ciel’s words might have sounded like a fly was flying past its ears」
「I-isn’t that analogy a bit too harsh? Ah, but…I did notice it looking at me with a dangerous look in its eyes from time to time…」
Ciel’s body trembled and she hugged my waist harder. She probably thought that she would get smashed by its tail if she’s unlucky.
A smile naturally formed on my face from the elastic feeling that was pressed against my back.
Ah, this won’t do. It’s not time to think about night time stuff yet. I have to watch myself.
With that, my train of thoughts switched to the stuff that I do at night. However, I wasn’t thinking about the erotic stuff, I was thinking about eating souls.
My current level is “8”. I hit it after I defeated the gryphon.
But what came after that was awful. I had the delicious souls of the scylla and werewolf, and I was also eating Lunamaria’s soul every day. But I still didn’t level. If I was an ordinary adventurer, my level would have exceeded 20 by now considering the way I was eating souls like there’s no tomorrow.
It only took about a full glass of souls for me to level up at first. Then, it was a bucket. After that, it was a full barrel, continuing to multiply like that every time.
As I thought, Lunamaria alone was not enough to support me on souls every night. Ciel has never done me wrong, so she’s not a target for me to feed on. As for Iria, it seems that preparation will still need more time.
Coming in contact with Miroslav in this point of time will create all kinds of danger, so I will have to refrain from that as well.
I wonder if the adventurer’s guild would even send an assassin at me.
I’ve heard rumors about there being a secret service sector within the guild. I wonder if they have female assassins. Because if they send those, I could devour them with no concerns like I did with Miroslav before.
Now that things have gotten to this point, should I change my way of thinking?
No matter how much I want to eat souls, there’s no way that I will prey on innocent people. That fact will not change.
However, even if the person has no ill intentions towards me, It’d be okay to eat them if they were guilty of a crime, right?
Precisely speaking, I mean scoundrels such as bandits or people who became criminal slaves after they committed a serious crime. I won’t be blamed by my conscience if I ate such people’s souls. My reputation will also go up if I get rid of those villains, so wouldn’t that be killing two birds with one stone?
An ancient magician once said that villains have no human rights. How would the soul of someone who’s guilty from the bottom of their heart taste? Slurrp
Suddenly, while I was deep in thoughts about it-
「Y-you lot there, stop!」
A warning in a slightly frightened voice hit my ears. Before I realized it, I was surrounded by the city gate’s guards at a distance.
It was obvious that we were the ones being warned. However, no one was actually pointing their weapons at us probably because of the existence of the blue winged beast.
They were more wary about the affiliation the beast has rather than its strength.
The dragon rider corps who ride wyverns are Canaria kingdom’s main force. Not only were they warriors who can each match thousands, but they were also high-class nobles as well. The captain of the riders, the “Thunder”, should be the head of the house of duke who’s leading the royal family. Wait, or was it the next head of the house?
Regardless, since the dragon riders are such an elite group, they are probably considering the possibility that I was one of them.
Some of the guards might know my face, but it seems that they aren’t really paying attention to my face because of the intense pressure of the wyvern.
When I was ordered to stop, I pulled on the reins and jumped from the saddle to the ground.
It was quite high from the ground, but I landed safely. Then, I faced the guards.
「I’m Sora, the leader of the clan, “Blood Spraying Sword”. I wish for permission to enter the city」
「B-before I can permit it, what is this dragon? D-do you belong to the dragon rider corps?」
「No, I’m not related to them at all. I found this wyvern injured in the Titis forest the other day. It became attached to me after I saved it. I brought it along with me today in order to register it as my familiar」
「I-isn’t there a danger of it going on a rampage?」
「Do you think a wyvern that is hostile to humans would let a person ride it? If you aren’t recklessly hostile to it then there’s no problem. Yeah, just don’t ever point your spears at it」
I told the guards around in a loud voice. It was funny seeing all the usually strong guards tremble.
Also, a familiar is as the name suggests, a demonic beast that obeys a person. Captured demonic beasts or wild beasts can be trained with a carrot and stick method, or in some cases, magic can be used as well.
I heard that the examination is very strict regarding familiars…Well, it doesn’t matter to me if they acknowledge it or not.
My objective was already complete the moment I exposed the indigo wyvern to the public like this.
If stealing the guild’s clients and making a clan was the “Prelude” of my plan, then making the fact that the leader of that clan is an ungoverned dragon rider known to the public would be the “Turning point”.
The news of the existence of a dragon rider who has no lord will spread in Ishka in a flash, and then throughout the entire Canaria kingdom.
They will also find out that this dragon rider was expelled by the guild, and then he started to form his own clan.
If that happens, the ignorance of the guild master who missed this gem will become known by the whole world.
…Actually, I was expelled only because I violated a guild rule. And at that time, I was a piece of shit. However, If Elgart makes that claim, it would only be seen as an excuse to the people who hear it.
The guild masters from other cities will probably ask Elgart to take responsibility for it. He should have taken any means necessary to secure a dragon rider for the guild- This is nothing but a blunder.
The adventurer’s guild is not a charity, so there’s nothing more valuable than battle power to them. If they have a dragon rider, not only can they ignore the terrain restrictions such as dense forests and high mountains, but considering a wyvern’s speed, they could also carry out emergency rescue missions.
The adventurer’s guild of Ishka had let that potential go.
The more active I am as a dragon rider, the more foolish the adventurer’s guild will look for overlooking me.
…Suddenly, I remembered the words of the receptionist, Lidelle.
“Regardless of being an adventurer or part of the guild staff, as long as the person belonged to the guild, they have to always bear in mind the fact that they have the duty to work for the city of Ishka”
Her exact sound words. Even though I was already expelled from the guild, as a resident of Ishka, I still fulfill my duty of working for Ishka.
As a result, those girls won’t mind even if my actions do not benefit the guild. Why? Because they too have an obligation to do what’s best for Ishka.
For their own faces and benefits, there’s no way that they can afford to be seen as they are trying to hinder me.
There’s no way they can do such shameless things.
――Heheh, my throat trembled slightly.