Arriving at the Royen sea area, we quickly unpacked our simple luggage. I wondered if there might be a lodging facility nearby, but since there were hardly any buildings left standing in Royen, we had no choice but to pitch a tent.
“Wow, the sea breeze is strong.”
As I stared blankly over the sea, pretending to look for something, the Dragoness Zane quietly approached. Of course, the Cardinal also followed along, clearing his throat.
It seemed that the stagnant atmosphere shattered with that cough, making Zane frown.
It looked like she was starting to dislike the mere existence of Cardinal Theocender now. Tough love, I guess.
“Is this your first time at the sea?”
“No, I see it too often. The academy I attend is in a port city.”
“Oh, I see.”
The Dragoness nodded lightly. She seemed like she had something to say, but she was hesitating, so I casually spoke up again.
“But every sea has its own characteristics. Here, the waves are really strong. The sea smell is stronger and saltier too.”
Elgrid, known as a trading city, didn’t really have that much of a sea vibe.
Maybe because it was so developed, it was only at the coastline that you could smell the briny air a little.
“Is that so? Each sea has different features… I really want to experience that.”
Maybe feeling a bit more comfortable talking, Zane tried to speak cautiously with a faint smile on her face, but Cardinal Theocender interrupted from behind.
“Explain why you came to the Royen sea.”
“Cardinal!”
“Lady Deity, we must clarify this. You came seeking to ask him the same thing, didn’t you?”
“Well… Even so, one must choose the right time to ask. Plus, doing it forcefully isn’t good. He’s our guest. Don’t lower the dignity of the Dragonkin.”
“He is not a guest. He has sinned, and he is only here to make amends.”
“Ha…”
Maybe thinking we were talking past each other, Zane sighed and pressed her hand to her forehead. Her eyebrows creased as if she had a headache.
“I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s okay.”
Zane awkwardly forced out her apology. Honestly, it didn’t hit me. If anything, I felt it was interesting that Dragonkin had to spread their fingers when placing their hands on their forehead due to their horns.
“So you were asking me to explain why I came to the Royen sea?”
“Yes, the pirates attacked Royen first, and then they hit Salammedan, before going back to Royen again.”
“Indeed.”
While the saying that hitting a sore spot makes it more painful might apply to humans, it didn’t really resonate here in a place like this.
Everything that could break was already broken; another attack on Royen wouldn’t yield much at all.
They were just killing the Dragonkin and leaving.
“Why didn’t they head towards Salammedan? From the pirates’ movements, it seems they were more likely to attack there this time.”
It’s not like this was a chess game, where one thought of attacks like turns. But the Cardinal continued explaining to support his opinion.
“Pirates won’t come to Royen anymore. They’ve already come twice and confirmed there’s nothing left to gain. They wouldn’t bother coming for a third time.”
“That’s uncertain.”
“You’re being unreasonable!”
The Cardinal laughed dismissively, warning me not to say anything weird. Regardless of what I said, he’d probably just raise his voice and not believe me anyway.
“Well, you’re not interested in stopping the pirates; you just want to confirm whether they really are humans. So you’re safely rummaging through a place that’s already been finished.”
“…”
“So, did anything come out of it?”
“Cardinal, please stop.”
Finally, the Dragoness’s threatening voice silenced the Cardinal. Trusting in the deity, she seemed quite different from the paladin I knew from Batian.
“If it’s okay, could you please explain?”
The Dragoness, a bit shy but embarrassed by her rudeness, reminded me of our saint Lucia, but with a slight difference, so I started speaking.
“There are two reasons. First, I think, unlike the Cardinal, the pirates will return to this place, Royen.”
This had been the conclusion reached by Eve, Sen, and me while discussing on the carriage to Royen. Mostly, I contributed ideas and got them to examine their rationality.
“The pirates attacked Royen twice. The fact that they came again after completely demolishing the town during the first attack is noteworthy.”
“…What does that mean?”
“It means it was a totally useless action for the pirates.”
No matter how you think about it, there wasn’t anything to gain.
Even Sen, who was from the Chokugen Faction, and Eve, who had extensive knowledge, couldn’t see any merit in the pirates raiding a place they had just plundered.
Royen was a kind of divine fruit.
It was tough to pick but didn’t taste very good.
Since they had already attacked once, and the Heretic Inquisitors were spread all over, they wouldn’t have been able to gain anything.
At best, maybe supplies from the Inquisitors?
They’d be better off docking in other sea areas and raiding nearby villages, where there would be a lot more advantages.
The reason they didn’t do that…
“Now, we think there’s absolutely no reason. No gains to be had. Yet, the pirates still chose to attack Royen again.”
I gazed at the rebuilding town.
The tired expressions of the people worn out from consecutive attacks and the strangely abundant presence of Heretic Inquisitors and guards.
“Fortunately, we have the answer ready. Just look at the town and think about it. I believe the results the pirates desired are right in front of us.”
I felt like a teacher.
By now, Zane and the Cardinal were listening a bit blankly to what I was saying. So, I declared as if waking them from a dream.
“They wanted more soldiers to come to Royen.”
“What? Why?”
The Dragoness reacted immediately.
To be honest, there were some points that clicked, but I couldn’t say them now.
At least, it had to be somewhere the Cardinal wasn’t present.
This detail didn’t come from our deductions; it stemmed from the information Lin provided during the second round and my own experiences.
“Who knows?”
So, I smiled and lightly deflected.
The Cardinal scoffed and made sarcastic remarks, but Zane seemed to sense I was hiding something.
“What’s the second reason?”
She took the natural segue, thinking I wasn’t going to talk about it.
“It’s to find hidden pirates.”
This part needed action to demonstrate, so I quickly turned my body. By now, Sen was probably busy running around searching.
During the second attack on Royen, they’d been caught off guard by the interconnected pirates hiding inside.
If that was the case, the same would likely happen this time.
And I believed those were the Dragonkin.
“Humans or other races hiding in Royen would be too risky. They would probably be hiding as laborers who came to support the reconstruction.”
At that moment, Sen, like a child following her dad into the workshop, was running around poking at the Dragonkin.
Since they had a natural tendency to look down on and ignore humans, they threw a few insults here and there, but the sharp eyes of the former Chokugen member continued to chase the truth.
Following her closely was Eve, panting after her.
As soon as Sen realized I had arrived with Zane and the Cardinal, she stopped right in front of me and nodded.
“I found four of them.”
“Four? That’s fewer than expected. They might be hiding in other places too.”
“There might be some who are completely hiding just in case they get caught.”
Nodding in agreement, Sen pulled a dagger from her pocket.
“I’ll take care of two, so Daniel, you handle the other two. One is a Dragonkin with a red cloth around his neck, carrying wood near the watchtower, and the other is a bald guy building defenses just opposite him.”
“Got it.”
“You there! What are you doing?!”
Seeing Sen gripping a dagger in each hand and me slowly resting my hand on my sword, the Cardinal rushed in and got angry.
But mere shouting wouldn’t be enough to stop us.
Sen’s dagger flew in.
Simultaneously, I twisted my body and headed towards the watchtower.
Gak!
Uughh!
With a thud, the sound of two Dragonkin’s booming screams echoed from their direction, as if the daggers had hit their mark. The two hadn’t yet grasped the situation, and they stepped right into our range.
Time stopped for them.
What came next was easy.
Just subdue and carry them off, and that would be the end.
To prevent any potential ruckus, I poked them with my sword a couple of times, and though they groaned in pain, they raised their voices in protest.
“Why! Why are you doing this to us?!”
“What is this! This is how we get treated after working hard?!”
“Ugh! This is so unfair!”
“Is it right that we’re treated this way by humans?!”
With four Dragonkin shouting like they were about to tear the workshop apart, the others started to glare at us too.
“If you can’t provide a valid reason, your pathetic lives end here.”
Especially the Cardinal, who seemed like he had finally found a chance to pounce on us with a fierce glare. However, Sen, undeterred by the lava-like killing intent, explained.
“Most pirates live on the deck, so their skin is much darker. Plus, they have fewer scales than the other Dragonkin.”
“Is that really all…?!”
The Cardinal tried to cut off Sen’s words, but she continued as if she hadn’t heard anything.
“They have a strong sense of camaraderie. When they ride the same ship, they etch unique marks onto their bodies, which signifies family. Each one has the same markings on their soles, shoulders, calves, and palms.”
Upon hearing this, the Cardinal rushed over to check the Dragonkin’s bodies roughly. They tried to endure, but indeed, they had the same mark on their bodies one by one.
Sen pinched her nose and slowly pronounced the final reason.
“Lastly, the smell of blood is too strong. They say it’s been ten days since Royen was attacked, yet the lingering scent remains. I heard that Dragonkin and pirates detest washing, but they should have cleaned up a bit more.”
Dragonkin hated water, and pirates just lived in their raw state.
Even the scent-sensitive Dragonkin couldn’t pick up on it, honestly, I couldn’t either, but it seemed Sen, who had lived in a blood-scented world, sensed it.
“And this is a personal matter, but…”
Blocking her nose, Sen slowly approached the bald Dragonkin I had brought.
She gripped her dagger backward, looking down at him as she asked.
“Why do you have the side effects of the special drugs used by your comrades?”
“…”
“Your emotions seem dead, making it obvious that you’re acting. Did you intentionally shave your head because the color faded, or were you just short on time today? It’s grown a bit, huh?”
She delicately plucked the newly grown hair. It was a colorless white hair.
“I’ve never heard of a Dragonkin being in the Chokugen Faction.”
In an instant, the killing intent that poured out was enough to astonish even the Cardinal nearby.
The pirates in front of us were terrified, but the only one Sen pointed at silently looked up at her.
“Please, I hope you won’t use the torture methods you’ve learned.”
With a menacing glare, Sen became the assassin she once was again.
