"......So, the plan has changed from seeing the dragon to rescuing it?"
Estan was so appalled he couldn't catch his breath, his nose felt clogged, and his insides were about to flip over.
Erman had definitely said they were going to Tintagel to see the dragon. Fine, that much was all right. Honestly, Tintagel's walls falling down was already a famous story, and Estan knew too that when they'd lifted out the bedrock beneath them there'd been a dragon underground.
A boy shut up in the royal castle at a young age might well itch for things like magic and myth once he heard a dragon story. That was a matter Estan, as an adult, could generously overlook.
But rescue the dragon? A dragon bigger than three houses put together?
Right now it looked closer to 'what used to be a dragon' than to 'a dragon,' didn't it?
Estan quickly shook his head and stepped forward.
"No. Absolutely not. Not till dirt fills my eyes. Rescue a dragon!"
"Could it not be done somehow, Sir Estan......?"
"No! Do you even know what a dragon is to begin with?! It's a dragon, not some little rabbit! Its teeth are thicker than your body, my prince! And the claws? One swipe and five or six people would go flying with ease, you know?"
"But is it not pitiful?"
"I'm pitiful too! Me too! I came to serve you, my prince, and ended up all the way in Tintagel, so I'm pitiful too! What about me, who went to death's door from that brat's curse, am I not pitiful?!"
As Estan raged, practically foaming at the mouth, Erman, at a loss, looked at Albion. Receiving the gaze of a scolded country puppy, Albion clicked his tongue.
"Where do you get off, a mere knight, talking back to a prince?"
"What?"
"Aren't I right? Is that how your honored father taught you? Or what, are you the next prince? Did Calhog say he'd adopt you?"
"Wh, what impudence!"
"Your father isn't Calhog, so why are you acting up? If you're told to do it, do it. Is that so hard? How old are you? You look like a guy who can't be more than twenty-five or so. How'd you become a knight with a head like that? Is there someone with a lot of money in your family or something, jeez?"
Estan's blood pressure shot straight up.
It was a reading for which a royal castle physician, had one been beside him, would surely have prescribed absolute rest, but sadly there was no one here to manage Estan's blood pressure.
"Such, such impudence, such impertinence!"
"You only know words that start with 'i'? Impudence, impertinence, and what's next? Incompetent? Ignorant? Imbecile? Yeah. That one suits you well. What kind of knight is this? Loegria's future is a dog's mess too. No need to look to know."
"Urk!"
"How can bandit guys I met on the road be more reliable than a knight of the kingdom? Hey. Pidrin, Daren. Are you going to save the dragon or not?"
Suddenly the arrow turned. Pidrin and Daren, with stupid 'Me?' faces, only stared blankly at each other.
"......Weren't we supposed to take you to Tintagel, and then you'd take out whatever that curse is you put inside me and lift the drop dead magic?"
Daren pointed at his belly. Inside it was the wood chip that wouldn't come out no matter how hard he'd strained for days.
Albion nodded generously.
"Right."
"But suddenly the goal changed?"
"You could say that."
"So you won't take out what's in my belly till that's over, huh?"
"Well, well. It's really nice how quick you are on the uptake. You read the room very well. Estan, since it's come to this, how about taking a page from a bandit? No, forget it. Just call Daren and Pidrin your seniors."
"Uuuurk!"
Albion, who'd sent Estan off in the high blood pressure carriage with just his tongue, and behind him Erman, smiling brightly and clapping. Pidrin and Daren, suddenly rated better than a knight of the kingdom, their shoulders starting to rise high.
The only loser here was Estan.
***
Having verbally trampled Estan, the only one to rebel against Erman's decision, we moved to the outskirts of Tintagel.
A spot with few people around that was less conspicuous yet convenient for going straight to where the dragon was being held.
"So, in the end, the most important thing for rescuing the dragon is."
"Pidrin, correct answer! How to deal with the guards, how to free the dragon, where to move the dragon!"
"Mm. Exactly right. Everyone, applause."
Clap, clap, clap. I gave a half-hearted clap and, with a stone, wrote on the ground the answers Pidrin had shouted, just as they were. Luring the guards. Freeing and healing the dragon. And discussion of where it stays afterward.
"You've seen it once, so you know, but the people in Tintagel are pretty interested in the dragon. There were a ton of people when we went too."
"So in the end we've got to go at night, don't we?"
"Daren's right, Albion. The construction workers will be moving from dawn, so in the end the hours we can move are limited."
Erman opened his mouth carefully.
"Then in the end we have to go at dawn, but I do not think the guards will leave their posts at dawn as well. Sir Estan, might you have some good plan?"
"......"
"Hey. Knight. The prince is asking, so answer."
"It's Estan! Estan! My name is Estan, son of Eghon!"
Estan, who'd been yelling and yelling, his pride scratched raw and sunk to the pit, twitched the bridge of his nose and, apparently unable to ignore Erman's question, at last opened his mouth.
"......Soldiers of this sort will never step aside unless fed silver. It's not as if there's an overseer who stops by often, and in the end the order they received won't be to watch the dragon but something like 'manage the foreign object for the building of the castle.'"
"Eh, what? Silver? We have to spend money to save the dragon? We've got no money now! We cleaned out the milord knight too!"
"Hear me out, bandit. That method's impossible anyway, however much money we had. You'd better not think that if commoners like you slip them money, the guards will readily step aside."
"Huh? Why? Just now you said we could drive off the guards with money?"
Pidrin pressed him, but I had a rough idea.
To spell it out, it probably meant they wouldn't readily grant such a favor to 'someone who looks insignificant.' Even a mere guard is still a soldier. They'd be the ones with spears who could threaten people.
......Here or in reality, throwing your weight around with your job or position is all the same.
"Got it. In the end we need not an ordinary person, but someone the guards bow and scrape to. Because then they'd step aside easily."
"Where are you going to find that? Then can't we just knock them out when they let their guard down? That's simplest."
"Have you forgotten, wretch, that the prince is here? When the prince returns to Puil, if a strange scandal goes around that he kept company with someone who knocked down Tintagel's guards, can you take responsibility with your life?"
"No, so what are we supposed to do then?!"
Daren and Estan started snarling at each other. Ah. What are they, a pack of dogs met in the wild?
As I looked on at the pathetic pair, Erman began scribbling something next to what I'd written.
"Erman. What are you doing?"
"Shouldn't we decide on the people before the method? For example, it'd be dangerous for me to be seen by the guards, so instead I think I could undo the dragon's chains or help some other way."
Hmm. He has a point too. That might be more productive than babbling about which method will or won't work.
"I have to go to the dragon to heal its wounds. So in the end the ones who can be the lure are Estan, Pidrin and Daren."
"Yeah. But we can't undo iron chains on our own. They might be heavy, so we need at least one adult."
"That's true. But in my opinion."
Meanwhile, the squawking voices of Estan and Daren were getting louder and louder. With a troubled heart, I made an effort to ignore them.
"......Let's not put those two together."
"......Yeah. Then should we take Estan with us? You and I are the only ones who can even somewhat control Estan."
"That seems good. Then shall we make Daren and Pidrin the lure? Those two are good at acting too."
"But how on earth can we draw the attention of the guards watching the dragon?"
This is a bit of a problem too.
One person would be one thing, but with three or four standing guard at a time, what way is there to draw all their attention at once? A middling commotion wouldn't do. It'd take at least a big impact on the level of something blowing up nearby.
After racking my brain for a long while, I suddenly looked Daren and Pidrin over. Come to think of it, those two.
"Erman."
"What is it, Albion?"
"I'm asking because my memory's going now that I've gotten old."
"? Yeah."
"Those two, didn't they say they were family?"
"Daren and Pidrin? That's right. They said they got lost together in the forest when they were little. They said they were brother and sister. But why do you ask all of a sudden?"
Brother and sister, huh. Brother and sister. Not much age difference it seems, and being business partners and family, they'd get along pretty well. That aside, there'd be trust built up between them as people too.
'Oh?'
In that instant, a good idea for drawing the guards' attention came to me.
***
"No, it'll really work with that?"
"It will. Of course. Just trust me. When have I ever lied?"
"Haven't you already done it about ten times?"
Erman and Estan had decided to hide near the bound dragon, and only Daren, Pidrin and I were walking along the quiet main road.
A dawn with a full moon overhead. Far off, the fire the guards had lit blazed in a big torch stand. It was late at night so no one was coming or going, and with no spectators but the guards and us, conditions for pulling a trick were nearly perfect.
Pidrin and Daren had been acting sullen ever since I assigned them their roles. No wonder. Because what I'd told the two to do was.
"We just have to pretend to fight?"
"Yeah. You two must've fought plenty with each other."
"Raising our voices is no problem. But I don't know if it'll really work."
This skeptical reaction. Yeah, yeah. That's understandable.
I stopped around when the guards' torchlight grew bigger and the outlines of prowling shadows came into view. Then I took both of their hands firmly.
"Now. You see how important the lure is. So I'm going to put a victory spell on you."
"A spell? Something like magic? Then we're all for it."
"One at a time, give me your ear."
I pulled Daren over and whispered in his ear.
"The innkeeper where we stayed last time asked if you two were newlyweds. Said you make a good match."
And to Pidrin.
"Earlier Daren tried to hit on a woman who'd come to do laundry by casually flashing his belly and acting all deadly. I saw him wink."
A short silence followed.
Pidrin's facial muscles twitched, and then, with a roar of fury hauled up from her lower belly, she lunged at Daren.