Two days after Heinz led his packhorse down the mountain, three men came up the southern road.
I was the first to find them.
As I was flying low outside the village on my morning patrol and circling the edge of the forest, I saw figures among the trees. The man in the lead had a bag hanging from his shoulder, and two men carrying a sword and a spear were walking behind him.
They didn't look like merchants.
I didn't fly over them, but went down to a grassy area a little way from the village.
By the time I landed and folded my wings, the villagers at the entrance had also noticed the three of them.
"Someone we don't know?"
Lina looked south from inside the fence.
"If Val's back, then someone must be coming from over there."
Dario also came out.
He had a bow, but no arrow on the string.
When someone unknown came, first ask their business at the entrance.
That was something the village had decided after hearing the rumours Heinz brought back.
As if the three of them understood that, they stopped a little short of the fence.
The man in front looked to be in his thirties.
Although he was dressed in well-worn travel clothes, he wasn't carrying merchandise on his back like Heinz. While the two men behind him kept an eye on the surroundings, the man himself was taking a careful look at the state of the village.
The repaired fence.
The field.
The livestock pen.
And me, outside the fence.
His eyes stopped when he saw me, but he didn't cry out or run away.
"This is Rue Village, correct?"
the man asked.
“Yes.”
The village chief came to the entrance.
"What is your business?"
"I'm from the manor at the foot of the mountain. My work is to check on the reports coming in from the surrounding villages and the things that happen along the road. My name is Elmer."
The manor.
It wasn't an unfamiliar word, but I didn't know its relationship to this village.
Judging by the fact that the village chief and Dario weren't surprised, it seemed they had considered the possibility of him coming.
Elmer returned his gaze to me.
"A peddler told me there is a dragon near Rue Village. The man who lent out the packhorse told me the same story."
"And so you came to check?"
"Yes."
Elmer took a writing implement and notes out of his bag.
"It doesn't attack people, and it's the protector of the village. It also understands human language — that's what I've heard."
I was a little surprised.
It seemed that had been conveyed from the start.
"I wouldn't have believed it if it were only a rumour."
Elmer continued.
"But when you hear the same story from different people, you have to confirm it."
“As you can see.”
said the village chief.
"There's a dragon."
"I can see well enough that he's here."
Elmer looked inside the village, not at me.
The man who had been feeding the livestock went on working, though he kept an eye on us. Some villagers weren't letting their children leave their homes, but it wasn't as if all of them were frightened and hiding indoors.
I was outside the fence, and I hadn't entered the village without permission.
Elmer asked after looking at all of that.
"Since this dragon came, has any villager or animal been attacked?"
"No."
The village chief answered immediately.
"Is it forcing you to hand over food?"
"That's not it either. When he killed a magical beast that attacked the village, we shared the meat with him, and we promised to give him food when we could spare it."
"And in return he protects the village?"
"If he finds danger, he tells us. If it's something he can drive off, we may rely on him. However, we don't tell him to fight what he can't beat."
Elmer wrote something on his notes.
He looked at me, just outside the fence.
"Val — is that your name?"
I nodded.
One of the guards widened his eyes slightly at that, but Elmer’s expression did not change.
"Do you understand what I'm saying?"
I nodded again.
"Do you have any intention of making the village your own?"
I shook my head.
Elmer didn’t ask me any more testing questions.
"It seems true that we can communicate."
He murmured that, and this time looked at Dario.
"Do you have any other arrangements with the village?"
"He won't attack villagers or livestock. He won't take things from the village without permission. He won't treat villagers who go into the forest as enemies. In return, we don't enter Val's den without permission."
"His den is outside the village?"
"Yes."
"You're not letting him come and go freely inside the village, then?"
"For now."
Elmer wrote briefly again.
Apparently he wanted to check not only that there was a dragon, but what state things were in.
"Is it true that bandits came?"
The atmosphere in the village changed a little.
“It’s true.”
The village chief answered.
"They came in through the fence. Some villagers were injured as well."
"And the dead?"
"One among the bandits."
Elmer's pen stopped.
"The dragon?"
I nodded myself.
The two guards behind him looked at me openly this time.
Elmer didn't judge on his own; he asked the village chief.
"What was the situation?"
"Hans."
A young man came forward when he was called.
This was the man whose arm was cut because I couldn't protect him.
He was already walking normally, but he still shielded the injured arm a little.
"I got cut."
Hans showed his arm.
"Val knocked him down once, but the bastard still had a dagger. He slashed my arm, and when he tried to strike again, Val stopped him."
"And that's when he died?"
"Yes."
"He wasn't chasing down someone who was running away?"
"No. Even when the other bandits ran, he didn't chase them."
Elmer wrote down Hans's account.
The fact that I killed someone doesn’t change.
However, there is a difference between cutting out only that fact and reporting it, and leaving in everything that happened.
"I'd like to see the traces of the attack as well."
Elmer said.
Dario guided him.
I didn't follow.
The place where the fence had been breached could be seen from outside. There were still traces of the repair, and the part that had been blocked with bundles of firewood had been reinforced compared to before.
Elmer looked at the ground and the fence, and had one of the guards check something as well.
When he returned, his expression was a little softer than before.
"At least it doesn't look like a village occupied by a dragon."
"I've said so from the beginning."
The village chief answered.
"If I decided on talk alone, there'd be no point in coming this far."
Elmer was matter-of-fact.
"I wanted to see it for myself."
I didn't dislike that way of thinking.
Don't assume something is dangerous just because it's a dragon.
Don't believe it's safe just because the villagers say so.
See it yourself.
"What else has changed recently?"
This time it was a question for the whole village.
The village chief talked about the eight people who had fled from the other side of the mountain.
Elmer looked at the unfamiliar people near the storeroom.
"Eight of them?"
"Yes. Rock Apes wrecked their village and they fled. They're staying here for the time being."
"What are the chances of them returning to their original village?"
"I don't know at the moment."
Elmer also asked the adults among the eight about their situation.
Rather than asking detailed questions about who came from where, he confirmed that the village was no longer usable and that they had come here carrying children and injured.
"I'll report this to the manor as well."
The village chief frowned.
"Will that cause trouble?"
"It's not something to be decided here and now."
Elmer shook his head.
"I'm only passing on what happened."
There was no discussion of taxes or anything of the sort.
At least today's purpose didn't seem to be to squeeze the village.
Afterwards, the sacks of grain Heinz had brought, and the road that had been repaired so packhorses could pass, were confirmed as well.
"How wide was the road made?"
"Enough for a horse to pass."
Dario answered.
"Bandits came recently, so we haven't widened it more than necessary."
“That’s fine.”
Elmer turned his attention to the southern road.
"There's no point making it easier for bandits to get in for the sake of moving goods."
It seemed we thought the same way.
After Elmer finished looking around the village, he came back to me.
This time it was a little closer than the first.
Even so, he never came near enough for my claws to reach.
"Val."
I looked up.
"I'll report to the manor."
Those were the words I had expected.
"I'll write that you haven't attacked the village, the agreement you made with it, and that you drove off bandits. However, I won't hide that you killed one man, or that you can fly."
I nodded.
I don't want the inconvenient parts simply erased.
"It's not for me to look at that report and decide what happens next."
the village chief asked.
"Is there a possibility of a subjugation?"
Elmer thought about it for a while.
"I can't say it's zero."
Lina's face stiffened.
"But they're not going to move soldiers on rumour alone. At the very least, I'm going to write what I saw here."
"Just because he's a dragon?"
"That isn't for me to decide either."
He was a man who didn't fudge things.
"However."
Elmer continued.
"From here on — if his attitude towards people or livestock changes, if he begins leaving the village and approaching places where there are people more often, or if he starts behaving clearly differently from before — if you notice anything like that, report it."
The village chief nodded.
“I understand.”
“Val can hear it too.”
I nodded as well.
"That's fine, then."
The conversation ended there.
I was never asked about the sudden increase in my size, or about the mechanism of evolution.
There was no need for me to explain.
In the first place, even I didn't fully understand why I had evolved into a 《Juvenile Dragon》 under those conditions.
Elmer and the others decided to leave the village a little after noon.
The two guards didn't let their guard down until the end, but they no longer simply stared at me the way they had when they arrived.
Before leaving, Elmer put what he had written into his bag.
There were records about me in there.
Protecting the village.
Killing one man in a fight with bandits.
Being able to understand human language, and to fly.
It wasn't just one thing.
What Elmer saw and heard here would go down the mountain together.
“Well then.”
The three of them called out to the village chief and started walking.
Lina came close to me.
"Val, are you all right?"
I didn’t answer right away.
I don't know what kind of person the lord is.
I don't know how many soldiers he has, or what he thinks about dragons.
So there was no reason to nod and say, "It's fine."
As I silently looked down the road, Lina didn't ask me anything more.
Dario folded his arms.
"We can't stop the reports from going out."
That’s right.
If we accept merchants and have grain and salt brought in from outside, the village can't conveniently hide itself from the outside world.
Eventually, the three figures disappeared behind the trees.
The bag on Elmer's shoulder disappeared from view as well.
The notes inside it were being carried to a lord I knew nothing about.
I still didn't know whether what came up the mountain next would be only a reply.
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