The very first thing I thought, with my limbs caught in tree stems.
'This is fucked to hell, huh?'
I'd tried to show off in front of Erman for no reason and picked something that sounded like proper magic, so why on earth are plants growing out of the ground? Did I misread the description?
I clung to a tree trunk and barely got down. What's more, right in front of me, Erman, caught up along with me, was wedged between the stems with Titania wrapped in his arms. Ah, seriously.
"Sorry. Take my hand. Can you get out of there?"
"Y, yeah."
I barely managed to pull him free, staggering, and looked around. Hard, tough stems had grown twisted together, tall enough to block out the sky. In Erman's hands, Titania finally unfolded her curled-up body.
<Just how much Spirit did you use?>
"......The minimum cost was 15, so without thinking, about three times that."
<You used 20 when you put Estan half-dead, and now you used 45? On one incantation?>
"Isn't that okay?"
<Albion. You're either insane or out of your mind, one of the two.>
"Thanks. I hear that a lot."
<Kyah!>
Titania got irritated, but Erman was still dumbfounded. Ah. I've got to stop spouting meta information like this in front of Erman.
"Sorry. You must've been startled."
"N, no. But what is all this? What kind of magic did you use?"
"Magic that reveals what's hidden. It exposes lies or makes the truth known, or brings out what a place or a person's been concealing."
"Why that of all things?"
"I can't exactly fire off a curse in every direction out of nowhere."
"Ah."
<What do you mean, 'ah'? Little human? What on earth did you think was hiding in a forest like this? Gold or jewels? Or a hidden assassin?>
"That's...... what we're going to look for now."
Dodging Titania's barrage of nagging, I edged over toward the tree stems. Erman apparently didn't want to bear the small fairy's fury alone either, because he quietly kept his distance and started helping me search between the stems.
And so we rummaged through the grass and heaps of dirt for a while.
"Albion, I think I found it."
"What?"
I hurried over, and what Erman thrust out was.
"......A coin."
"The tree stems must've pushed it up out of the ground. Someone passing by probably dropped it. Maybe nobody's found it since then?"
One grimy silver coin. Looking at the coin, part of it tarnished black, I stared at Erman without a word. He looked back at me too.
So, the price of using 45 Spirit, saying an embarrassing spell out loud and making some monster of a tree shoot up was just one silver coin that looked like someone had dropped it ten years ago.
No. I guess you could call this hidden too, if hidden is what you're after. But this is a bit much.
......Isn't Archmage an even more useless class than I thought?
***
There wasn't much to do on the journey to Tintagel, so I only logged in once in a while and devoted myself to reworking my incantations.
Every time I went in, Erman kept asking if I wasn't sleeping too much, if I wasn't sick. Dodging it over and over was a nuisance and it grated on me, so in the end I had to soothe him by saying 'I'll tell you why I sleep so much when the time comes.'
He'd seen Titania too anyway, so wouldn't it be much easier to come clean someday? No, to begin with, where on earth is there a game that's this stingy about connection time?
Grumbling to myself like that and moving my feet diligently, before I knew it we'd reached Tintagel.
And we gaped blankly at the biggest construction site we'd ever seen in our lives.
"Whoa......"
"They said it was a coastal city that isn't built yet, but it's swarming with people, surprisingly. It's worse than Puil's market street."
Pidrin was right. Huge pulleys and levers, murmuring laborers, and the stalls and racket of the merchants who'd followed the laborers.
But wasn't this a little strange? Even if founding a city was big construction, would people really flock here this much? Anyone would think they were moving the capital here.
Passing through the unfinished streets of Tintagel, I looked around at the people full of energy. Besides construction workers and merchants, there were quite a few small children and women too. Children running through the crowd with sticks were singing a song.
The iron chain goes clink, the axe goes flash,
The dragon of old cried, they say.
Once with the chain, twice with the iron stake, three times with the sword,
The great dragon was caught, they say.
The magic fell asleep, the starlight faded too,
Only the dragon was left alone, they say.
When night comes, clank, clank,
The dragon asked, they say.
Who will set me free? Will a fairy come?
No one knows, they say.
The iron chain goes clink, the axe goes flash,
The dragon of old cried, they say.
"Hold on."
"Albion?"
Without time to think of anything else, I followed the children. In the midst of it I seemed to bump shoulders with a few people, but I had no time to apologize either.
Leaving the bustling street for the edge of Tintagel, and on toward the very edge, oddly, the people only grew more numerous. And then I reached a place where a familiar view, the blue coastline and white clouds I seemed to have seen right when I started the game, spread out like a painting.
'......This is.'
The excited roar of the crowd.
Layers of chain clanking without rest, just as in the song. Stakes fixed firmly in the ground. Blood soaking the ground dark red. Soldiers blocking the people, long swords at their waists. The foul stench and smoke given off by black scales and burning flesh.
What they guarded was a creature that could do no more than wrap its huge trunk in tattered wings and bury its head in the ground.
"It's the dragon! The dragon of Tintagel!"
"I heard that one knocked down the castle walls any number of times."
"They say His Majesty Calhog came by and captured the dragon alive!"
"Tied up like that, it doesn't look scary. Look there, all its strength is gone."
"They said it's the fairies' watchman. Well, in times like these, where's your magic and your fairies anyway? It's a strange sight, though."
"What happens if that dragon dies? The scales are pretty, anyway. I wish I could peel off just one and sell it."
All sorts of whispers and shouts crying out the dragon brushed past my ears, but none of it properly registered.
Drive off the dragon, it said? It's on a rampage, it said?
I'd thought we'd arrive to find Tintagel in pandemonium, and I'd just buff the team I'd gathered and smoothly subdue the dragon. Isn't a plot like that textbook for an adventure story? That's what a game player should be doing, isn't it?
But this, what I'm seeing now.
"What a relief the dragon that broke its chains and ran got caught again. Now they can build the castle again with peace of mind."
"Well, they say those phantom beasts sizzle and burn when they touch iron? Dragon or not, it won't beat a chain made by humans."
"Hey, they say if you grind up dragon scale and drink it in liquor it's great for restoring your vigor. Is there no way to get even one? It's a beast that's going to die soon if it's left like that anyway."
"It'd be hard while it's alive. How could you peel off a scale unless you're a guard? When it dies, before that whole bulk rots, on the sly......"
"You never know. The dragon's eyes or tongue might have benefits we don't know about too......"
It was a world that had moved on as it pleased while I was gone, a dragon dying in chains without any need for me to tame it, and a swarm of ants gathered to tear at its corpse.
Unable to overcome the pain of the chains that had pierced its scales and dug into its flesh, the dragon raised its head. Exclamations rang out here and there as if at a marvelous trick, and a guard shouted something, drew his sword and thrust it into the dragon's neck again and again.
New blood pattered onto the ground. Not fresh fluid, but half-congealed blood. People cheered and clapped at the guard's brave display. A sword wet with steaming blood. The sight began to turn my stomach.
And at that moment.
"A, Albion, why did you run off by yourself like that?"
Someone tapped my shoulder. Erman. He must have run after me; catching his breath, he turned his head past the shouting people.
"Is that...... the dragon? The one you told me about?"
"......Yeah."
For a while we silently watched the helpless dragon and the people in front of it.
"It looks badly hurt."
"I guess so."
"It's dying."
"I know."
"Didn't you say you came to Tintagel to catch the dragon? But the dragon's condition right now."
"It's on the brink of death even if I don't lay a finger on it. I know. I know, so you can stop talking."
Here a problem arises.
In the Albion quest, 'Albion' has to drive off the dragon. Tame it, complete the quest that way, receive the reward and move on to the next quest; that's the standard.
But what happens to the quest if the dragon dies on its own without me laying a hand on it? When the dragon's cause of death is processed as something like 'natural causes,' what happens to the dragon in my quest?
Normally, in a game with reasonable settings, however many times the dragon died, a new dragon would respawn soon. It'd have to, so the player could clear the quest. But in this game? In a world where NPCs use their onboard AI to think and reason for themselves while the player's away, what happens?
Could a dragon suddenly appear? Would the system generate a suitable chain of cause and effect for a dragon to show up? Or is it quest failure? Should I turn back time with a save file? To when? When is before the dragon ended up in this state? What if I have to start over from the first quest?
"Albion."
I have to tell Calhog there's a dragon again, go to Puil, meet Erman, give him a buff and level up the Ogham skill? Do all that again? Seriously, where do they get off with this ridiculous talk? I can't understand for the life of me being told to do it all over again when I can't even skip that boring trip of walking and walking after leaving the castle, and after I went to the trouble of threatening Pidrin and Daren into being guardians? If I load an old save file, won't my skills, those skills I raised with all that fooling around, all disappear? Are you kidding me? If this is how it's going to be, why set up the timeline in this crappy way? They could at least tell me in the quest window there's a time limit. Then I'd have hurried at least a little sooner, wouldn't I? A dragon that's obviously going to breathe its last any minute, and in front of everyone no less, how on earth am I supposed to drive it off and tame it......,
"Albion, the dragon's pitiful."
"......Huh?"
"It's pitiful, you know. The chains have dug into its body. Swarms of flies are gathering on its wounds. An ordinary beast would've died already."
"What are you trying to say?"
"Can't we save it?"
Has Erman gone crazy?
For a moment I was at a loss for words, looking at him. But Erman's blue eyes were as bright and clear as ever. It was enough to make a hollow laugh come out rather than anger.
"Save the dragon? The dragon? Someone said earlier. That it tried to undo its chains and escape. What if that happens again while we're saving it? What if that bulk goes to the busy district and crushes people?"
"We just have to make sure that doesn't happen."
"So how on earth?"
"Well."
A small hand quietly took hold of my sleeve.
"Albion, you're the most amazing mage I've ever seen. Don't you have magic to calm a dragon or heal it? Magic like what you did for Daren."
"Hey! What do you think I am, a box that gives out magic when you shake it?"
"I got to see a dragon for the first time today thanks to you, but."
Erman looked at the bound dragon again. At that scene of the guard proudly raising the sword wet with the dragon's blood.
"I'll never see such a sad being again."
"......"
"In books, dragons were described as either evil or sacred, one of the two. But that dragon looks sad. Neither sacred nor evil. Just like a poor beast tied up on a rope."
"What kind of kid has so much sympathy......"
"Please, Albion. Can't you save the dragon? With your magic."
No, no, no. Saving it is a whole different dimension.
My quest is to drive off and tame the dragon. But if I save the dragon, what does that make me? Are you telling me to give up the money I'd use to help you? Do you know all this trouble is to help you? Whatever I buy at the Chipping Market goes back to you, you know?
My mouth twitched for a long while, but Erman's face was desperate. The hand holding my sleeve showed no sign of letting go either.
I glared at him for a long while, and in the end let out a big breath.
"......If the guards catch us, I'm going to report you as the prince right away and run."
Fuck. Better to save something, even if I fail, than to fail the quest and let a dragon die too.