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–––Ciel’s viewpoint

We won. It had been a young dragon, but it was still a powerful beast, which the three of us managed to slain. When my mind finally understood that much, I felt strength leaving my entire body.

“It’s done…”

Karin dropped down from the lifeless dragon, her sword still stuck in the immobile beast’s head, and she lay on the ground asleep, her body in wounds. Diaria and I had also taken a considerable amount of damage, but Karin was our only frontliner, so she had taken the brunt of it all. Her clothes were soaked with blood, and I could see many bruises all over her body.

“Somehow…we won…”

Diaria muttered in disbelief. Her eyes were focused on the dragon that had tortured us until just moments ago. Its mouth stood open with its tongue hanging out, rows of sharp teeth that easily cut through Fire Lizards visible in it. The scales covering its body were tough and resilient, giving even Karin trouble to pierce through them. The dragon’s body was very large, almost like a small house, while the wings it used to fly through the sky were wide enough to easily wrap around its body, but thin to not add weight. It was hard to believe that we had managed to best such a monster.

“Yes, we won. Our long and arduous training paid off.”

This was all thanks to Lapis. If we had not met her, we would have never become this strong. We would still be working on low-paying requests trying to pull through the day, just like any other average adventurer.

“We won! We’re officially Dragon Slayers!”

Still asleep, Karin raised her arms and yelled between dreams. Hearing that, the realization dawned on me. Dragons were different from other monsters, not just in strength, but in the wealth and recognition slaying one brought, which was much larger than what any other monster would grant. The debt Karin had when she met Lapis had also been paid off with the remains of a dragon. From what she told me, just the things she managed to stuff into a bag were enough to acquire many gold coins. I could hardly imagine what an entire dragon could sell for.

The prestige of killing a dragon would also have a strong impact on our lives as adventurers. The guild gave out the title of Dragon Slayers to those who accomplished the feat, which usually had much more weight and popularity than the simple Iron or Silver ranks used for most adventurers. If we worked as solo adventurers, I could only imagine the number of invitations that would rain on us to join bigger parties. And as members of the hero’s party, this ought to prove our positions as actual members and not some accessories to Lapis and a princess.

“I still can’t believe I’m a Dragon Slayer. But I really really want to rest now.”
“Agreed. I have no strength left.”

We were all covered in wounds, without any physical or magic power left. Luckily the places hit by the dragon’s fire breath were young trees, so there was no danger of a large forest fire, and the remaining flames were slowly dying out, so it was fine for us to rest a while before returning to the village. I drank all the contents of a leather bottle I had hanging on my waist, and I saw my wounds healing at a fast speed. High-quality potions really had a strong effect. Then I lied down on the ground like Karin and Diaria, groaning slightly at the pain.

§　§　§

The excitement of killing a dragon, as well as the money and fame we would garner from it had made our minds wander very far off, but it was about time we returned to reality. First off, the bodies of the Fire Lizards we were tasked to kill were gone. We tried checking the caves to see if there was any left alive, but we only found rotting remains of other animals and a lot of poop, there was not a single Fire Lizard. The five we had killed before had been all of them.

We returned to the village and tried to explain the situation, which caused a large uproar. When the villagers heard there was a wild dragon roaming near their home, they went into a panic which Komine was unable to stop. Luckily we managed to tell them we had already killed the dragon, which half calmed them down, half caused another uproar, this time everyone wanted to consecrate us as the village’s heroes. We thanked them and politely declined, instead asking them to help us retrieve the dragon’s parts after we rested.

While we had killed it, we still had the grueling task of cutting out the useful parts from the large body left. We employed the help of some villagers who offered to aid us, with which we spent an entire day struggling against the resilient beast. Regular blades were unable to pierce the scales, so Karin and Diaria had to do most of the initial cuts.

Then the next issue was how to transport everything. My Flight Magic had gotten better lately, so I could carry considerable weight, but there was still a limit to how much. A couple of Fire Lizards would have given me no trouble, but a dragon was too much. We decided the best way to transport it was by dividing it into smaller loads, which I would take in many rounds. Karin and Diaria would stay in the village while I alone transported everything. When separating the load, we took the girls’ weight into account so I could carry them as well in the last round.

“I’ll be going then.”
“Take care.”
“Don’t force yourself too much.”

As I flew into the air, the two saw me off, turning into small dots in the distance. I was fully healed and recovered, so I headed towards Surfour at full speed. It was almost impossible to run into monsters in the air, and while some would notice me from the ground sometimes, my speed would leave them behind in an instant. I did not have to worry about sparing energy for anything other than flying, so I went at full-speed, covering the same distance that on foot took us a week and a half, in only one day.

When my home city came into view, I slowly decreased my speed and altitude. Probably due to the large number of items I was carrying, the people below noticed me and began talking while pointing at me. When I finally landed in front of the gate, one of the guards that knew me well came running towards me.

“Ciel? Just where and what did you go and kill this time?”
“A dragon. I’ll be dropping off more loads like this one soon, can I get through without asking afterward?”
“A dragon?! …wait, it’s true, that’s definitely a dragon!”

After he got closer, he noticed the dragon’s skull, amongst other things. Hearing his shout, the people coming and going through the gate began making more noise. That was a natural reaction, dragons were very rare to find, even rarer ones that were killed. Adventurers were impressed, merchants looked at me with greed. With all that attention on me, I took to the sky again and headed to the guild. The adventurers there were shocked to see me land in front of the gates carrying so many things. I stood still for a while, catching my breath, while the adventurers ran inside to announce my arrival to Lapis. After a short while, she came out.

“Ciel?! What’s this?”
“As you can see, we killed a dragon. Can we let the guild take care of selling all this stuff?”
“A dragon…alright. I’ll get people ready.”

She ran back inside to get some helpers. With that, I had completed the first step. I leaned against the dragon’s skull to rest, the eyes of everyone focused on me, as I tried to recover my magic power.