“Say, is there a specific reason why it’s called Dracons?” Utarou asked as he stared at the sky ahead.
“Yep.” Henrek sighed, unsheathing his sword.
“And it’s related to what I think it’s related to right?” Utarou clarified as the dark figure in the distant skies began to elucidate itself.
“Yep.”Henrek sighed again, raising his blade up to the small wyvern that was charging towards Utarou and his convoy.
Dracons was a small and isolated province within the kingdom of Oldser, it was royal land and was only a part of the kingdom of Oldser thanks to it being surrounded by more important provinces.
It was named Dracons due to all the Dragons that nested in the province. The people who lived in this province were few and far between, mostly living in small villages hidden in thick forests or heavily fortified castles on the few open plains this province provided.
Henrek had grown up in this land, and as such, he’d spent much of his childhood aiming for a specific ability. The Tier 3 skill, Dragon Slayer.
He leapt off his horse as the Wyvern swooped down, in one smooth motion he sliced off its head and kicked its body hurtling off the narrow mountain path, landing in front of Utarou and Hope with a cocky smirk on his face.
“Henrek…” Hope gasped.
“I know, I know, this is what-”
“NO BEHIND YOU!” Hope hissed, quickly leaping off her own horse to pushed Henrek to the ground, before a disguised rock Wyvern spat out a ball of fire where he’d been standing.
“Hoho! My turn!” Utarou exclaimed, trying to jump off his horse, but getting stuck and falling to the ground, getting his face crushed by the spooked horses.
Henrek chucked his sword into the rock Wyvern’s head, killing it instantly.
“T-thanks, you can get off of me now.” Henrek requested looking up at Hope, whose investment into Cattish Hearing had just saved Henrek’s life.
“Hmmm, maybe in a bit.” Hope cooed, nuzzling against Henreks chin while Utarou was stomped into a bloody pulp just behind them. Henrek sighed and pushed the girl off, grabbing his sword from the rock Wyvern’s head and walking over to save Utarou from the horses.
“Settle down, settle down.” Henrek sighed as Hope walked over in a huff to help him.
Eventually the pair managed to settle their three horses down, it was a fairly narrow mountain path that led to Henrek’s village of Dryholm, and the first they’d seen of any kind of Dragon.
“Thasncks gushes.” Utarou muttered as his face slowly reformed back to its usual self.
“You gotta stop trying to jump into battle Utarou, you just don’t have the skills for it.” Henrek sighed as he grabbed the broken mess that was Utarou’s hand, by the time he pulled Utarou up to his feet, his hand had cracked back to normal.
“I don’t get it! I’m an isekai protagonist! I should be able to do crazy ninja stuff by default!” Utarou whined.
“Urgh, look I’ve got this Dragon Slayer ability yeah? You know what it lets me do?” Henrek interrogated, annoyed at Utarou’s complete inability to take things seriously.
“Slay Dragons?”
“Yes, but look here.” Henrek placed his hand out, opening up his Skill Tree and clicking on Dragon Slayer.
“Allows the user to perform the necessary aerial combat with sufficient strength to slay dragons in one go…” Utarou read out, sighing in despair as he looked at his own menu, still woefully lacking in options to upgrade too.
“Guess what, all you get is that one skill, nothing more, nothing less!” Henrek explained firmly, closing his Skill Tree, but managing to give Utarou a glance at Henrek’s legacy skill.
“Run away? Perfect for a cat girl. I knew putting you two together was the right idea!” Utarou declared, causing Henrek to groan.
“I was hoping you wouldn’t see that… C’mon get it out of your system, I don’t want you to be talking about weird stuff when we meet my mum and sis.” Henrek sighed as he got back on his horse.
“Will your dad be there as well?” Hope asked, nervous about meeting Henrek’s whole family already.
“Nope, he died a long time ago.” Henrek explained stoically.
“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
“Eh, it happens.” Henrek said dismissively as his eyes lingered on the rock Wyvern he hadn’t noticed.
“They aren’t normally any of those bastards outside of the caves…” Henrek thought, quickly shaking the thought away from his mind. Wyverns did weird things sometimes, nothing more to it.
…
“Oh my son! My beautiful son has returned with a wife!” Gertrude, Henrek’s mother, said with great enthusiasm as she hugged her boy.
“S-she’s not my wife!” Henrek blustered.
“Yet.” Hope added with a cheeky smile.
“Eloping! Oh my goodness Henrek I raised you better than that, poor girl, did he even ask for your fathers hand in marriage?!” Gertrude asked as she hugged Hope, who tensed up and got quiet.
“I don’t have a father.” Hope whispered.
“My goodness, come come! I’ve been cooking all day.” Gertrude declared as she hobbled, slowly, towards the kitchen.
“Sorry, she's just like this.” Henrek sighed. Hope shook away the thoughts and smiled up at Henrek.
“It’s fine, she reminds me of my mum actually… So where’s your sister?” Hope asked, quickly changing the topic as she entered Henrek’s family home. It was a small cottage that used to be attached to a pig barn, but ever since Henrek left they’d converted it to a chicken coop.
“She’s just at the dinner table! Henrek honey can you help me serve, I wasn’t expecting you back so I might not have enough for everyone!” Gertrude said before hobbling all the way into the kitchen.
She was very slow.
“I have to go actually mum, I just wanted to say hi and introduce Hope before Utarou said anything-” Henrek began before being interrupted by a booming voice coming from the town’s center.
“HERE ME HERE ME! I AM OFFICIALLY DECLARING THIS THE NEW CAPITAL OF DRACONS!” Utarou shouted through a makeshift megaphone in the middle of Dryholm.
“- said anything like that.” Henrek sighed as he quickly ran off to see what Utarou was doing, as did many of the other villagers, who looked baffled at this strange man.
“I intend to make Dracons great again! We will be investing into the necessary upgrades to create the foundations for a glorious monster girl utopia!” Utarou explained as the more able bodied members of the village hobbled out of their homes to listen to what this mad man was saying.
The village was in a deep valley, surrounded on all sides by mountains with a thick forest canopy blocking much sunlight, and more importantly, Dragons.
Utarou had stood in the small central gap in the treeline, lighting him up as if he were some holy messenger.
If that message was about monster girls anyway.
Henrek snatched the megaphone, just a simple piece of parchment Utarou had folded, and clarified.
“Yes I can confirm, the province of Dracons has been given to… This man.” Henrek sighed, pointing at the glistening Utarou.
The small crowd that had formed began muttering to themselves.
“He has decided to begin the restoration effort here in Dryholm. This man is a Blessed Being and came from another world, King Oldsman himself personally appointed him as Duke of Dracons!” Henrek explained in an attempt to reassure the crowd.
“Though he did have to beg for the privilege, screwing over everyone else with that new trade arrangement.” Henrek thought nervously.
“Fantastic work. Now as my first decree as duke!” Utarou said, snatching back the megaphone.
“SHOW ME EVERY PREGNANT WOMAN IN THE LAND!” Utarou shouted, pointing his finger into the sky as Henrek face palmed, already regretting putting his faith in this man.