“Yeah.”
Evelyn gave a quiet response.
“Adventurers, huh?”
She thought for a moment.
The deeper reaches of Blackbriar Forest were filled with danger, and magical beasts roamed everywhere. Intelligent races rarely came this far in.
Even traveling merchants who passed through the forest moved as quickly as they could and never stayed longer than necessary.
As for what might actually attract people this deep into the wilderness...
There was really only one obvious answer.
Dragons.
It didn’t take much imagination to guess why this group had come here.
Their target was either Selvira...
Or Evelyn and Darrien.
And compared with their mother, Evelyn strongly suspected the adventurers were after the two younger dragons.
Selvira was a fully grown black dragon at Gold Rank.
Her physical strength and mastery of magic had long since reached an absurd level.
Trying to kill a dragon like that would be comparable to attacking a small nation.
At minimum, it would take a proper army supported by multiple Gold Rank experts, perhaps even one or more Legendary figures, to have a realistic chance of bringing her down.
Capturing her alive would be even worse.
Unless someone possessed overwhelming power, no sane person would attempt it.
If anything went wrong and the dragon escaped...
The survivors could look forward to revenge for the rest of their lives.
Chromatic dragons held grudges.
Deep ones.
And because dragons were long-lived creatures, they were very good at simply outliving the people they hated.
After that, they could move on to the offender’s children.
And grandchildren.
And whatever other relatives were still around.
The Draconic Inheritance even contained a story about a red dragon named Roderick.
A human mage had once stolen a few gold coins from him.
Roderick hunted the thief for an entire century.
When the mage eventually died of old age, the dragon dug up his corpse anyway and repeatedly blasted it with Dragon Breath.
Then he had the ashes forged into a sword.
He named it Fire’s Delight.
That was the sort of creature people risked angering when they targeted a dragon.
Evelyn lifted her head and looked toward the direction the adventurers had gone.
“My stupid little brother, I think these people are after us.”
Grind. Grind.
Darrien ground his teeth.
His golden pupils narrowed as he stared ahead.
He might fall for Evelyn’s tricks more often than he would ever admit, but he wasn’t as dim as a white dragon.
And after spending years together, the siblings understood each other well enough that he immediately grasped what she meant.
“Then should we wake Mom up and have her wipe them out?”
“No.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“With Mom’s personality, she won’t care as long as they don’t interrupt her sleep.”
Darrien opened his mouth to argue.
Then paused.
That sounded annoyingly accurate.
“So what do you want to do, dear Evelyn?”
Evelyn narrowed her eyes.
“First, we find out how strong they are.”
“If they’re much stronger than us, we lure them toward the dragon lair.”
“If they wake Mom up...”
She gave a faint smile.
“Then they’ve chosen a very bad way to die.”
“And if they’re weaker than us?”
Darrien asked.
Evelyn didn’t answer.
Instead, she raised one claw and slowly drew it across her throat.
Darrien understood immediately.
A wicked grin spread across his face.
“Heh heh heh...”
...
Time passed.
The sun gradually sank toward the horizon, while occasional howls echoed through the forest.
After searching for an entire day, the adventuring party had found nothing.
No young dragons.
Not even dragon droppings.
Disappointment had begun to show on everyone’s face.
Talia looked up at the darkening sky and raised one hand.
A small fireball appeared above her palm, casting warm light across the tired faces around her.
“Captain, it’s getting too late. We should find somewhere to spend the night.”
“Blackbriar Forest gets much more dangerous after dark. We shouldn’t keep searching.”
Garrett glanced at the sky and stopped walking.
“Yeah. We’ll use that cave we passed earlier.”
Then he looked back at Lucas, who was already panting heavily.
Compared with the trained adventurers, the traveling merchant’s stamina was clearly much worse.
Even Talia, the party’s only woman and a mage at that, still looked fresher than their guide.
Garrett clicked his tongue quietly and led the group back.
Before night completely fell, the five of them reached the cave they had discovered earlier.
A Dire Bear had originally lived there.
It had tried to ambush them when they passed by.
The adventurers had killed it without much trouble.
The moment they entered the cave, Lucas dropped straight onto the ground.
The day’s journey had nearly worn him out.
His merchant work often involved traveling from dawn until late at night, but that was usually on horseback.
Walking through Blackbriar Forest on his own two feet was a completely different experience.
The adventurers, however, immediately got to work.
Talia began setting up a magical formation near the entrance, designed both to warn them of approaching danger and to keep sound from carrying outside.
Bruno went to gather firewood.
Elliot sat down and began maintaining his bow while repeatedly glancing toward Bruno outside the cave.
The disgust in his eyes was obvious.
Garrett, meanwhile, reached toward a ring on one finger.
A moment later, he pulled out an iron cooking pot.
Then the corpse of the Dire Bear.
Lucas stared at the ring with naked envy.
A spatial item.
A Storage Ring.
Even the cheapest Storage Ring, with only a single cubic yard or so of space inside, cost around ten gold coins.
Once I get paid for this job, I’m buying one too.
Lucas silently made the decision.
The campfire was soon burning.
Garrett skinned the Dire Bear, cut off several bone-in steaks, tossed them into the pot, added salt, and started making a simple meat stew.
While they waited for it to cook, Garrett looked around at the others.
After an entire day without finding their targets, morale had clearly dropped.
He thought for a moment, then clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention.
“Hey, everyone. Once we catch those two young dragons, we’re going to be rich.”
“What are you all planning to do with your share?”
“I’m definitely buying my way into the nobility.”
That immediately got their attention.
A dragon’s entire body was valuable.
As apex magical creatures, dragon blood, bones, and scales were all top-tier magical materials.
Dragon blood could even transform someone into a Dragonblood, granting a longer lifespan and greater physical power.
The problem was that dragons were terrifyingly strong.
Most people never saw one in their entire lives, much less captured one.
There was even a story in the Eastern Kingdoms about someone who had once presented a newly hatched dragon to a noble court.
In return, he had been granted the title of Viscount.
With land.
That alone showed how valuable a living dragon could be.
Bruno rubbed his hands together.
“If we really capture those two hatchlings, I’m getting a holy flail forged entirely from mithril.”
“And I want the whole thing covered in top-grade magical gemstones.”
“Hah.”
Elliot snorted.
“A brute like you really does have the smallest possible dreams.”
“You...!”
Bruno’s eyes widened.
He grabbed his holy flail and looked ready to teach the half-elf some manners.
Garrett immediately stepped between them and held him back.
Elliot continued anyway.
“If we catch those dragons, I’m going back and proposing to Lady Nicola.”
Bruno shot back immediately.
“Long-ears, that dream is even more pathetic than mine! No woman could ever compare to a mighty mithril warhammer!”
“You filthy dwarf! Don’t insult Lady Nicola!”
“Enough!”
Garrett cut them off.
If he let this go on, the two idiots were going to start fighting again.
“Um...”
An awkward voice suddenly interrupted them.
Everyone turned.
It was Lucas.
Garrett looked at the guide.
His expression had already darkened thanks to the two troublemakers in his party.
“What now?”
Lucas shifted awkwardly.
“I need to take a dump.”