The 5000-year-old Herbivorous Dragon Chapter 12

Translator: Luk2048

"Please wake up, Evil Dragon Lord."

When I was sleeping soundly like a log next to the weakly glowing campfire, Rēko unexpectedly whispered into my ear. While rubbing my cheeks on the gra.s.s in my drowsiness, I asked:

"What's up Rēko? It's still dark, should be a while till morning."

"I'm sorry. It's probably a trivial matter, yet I still wanted to confirm the Evil Dragon Lord's wishes, just in case."

"It's the middle of the night, something worrying you?"

"No, it's not really a worry of mine—"

Rēko turned her head and looked around us. When I followed her movement and cast my gaze at our surroundings, I noticed wavering in the darkness...o...b.. of flame encircling us. Startled, after waking my drowsy self by blinking a couple of times, I immediately understood the true ident.i.ty of the flame orbs. Slowly but steadily drawing near us was a group of carrying torches humans on horses.

"It appears to be a gang of bandits. What should we do with them, Evil Dragon Lord? Disposing of them is a simple matter, however if you're set on forming an alliance with humans for the sake of Demon Lord's subjugation, if we bring about an incident here by causing an excessive bloodbath, it might just breed future problems."

"R-right, even you've that much of a common sense."

"Naturally, that's why if I may be so bold, I would like to propose a plan of not leaving behind any corpses by completely erasing their very existence."

"Please don't."

I strongly dissuaded Rēko. Otherwise she'll just do something which cannot be undone.

"Hey there, you woke up. La.s.s, you're surprisingly sharp. To be adventuring at this age, one can't lower his guard."

Floating a vulgar smile while urging the horse forward and contracting the encirclement, was a bearded middle-aged man with a hood pulled over his head. Most likely the customary nomadic clothes work as a camouflage, helping them with avoiding alerting people. If they pretend to be a travelling nomadic tribe, they can move from country to country without raising any suspicions, and it also allows them to search out places where the novice adventurers are out camping. Or perhaps they really lean towards nomadic lifestyle as their core business, and switch only to being robbers when they find an easy target like us.

"— Bandits, right? I'll give you a fair warning; you guys should obediently pull back. I presume you don't want to lose your lives in vain."

I didn't say it as a bluff, I really meant it. If by any chance there'd be someone who will shot his bow at me, Rēko would probably instantly take action and finish him off. And in the meantime I'll be dying with an arrow stuck in me.

At least I'd like to cancel the medicine's effect. If I'd turn back here to the form of one known as the Evil Dragon Rēvendia, I could make them back down with my intimidating air alone. However, my size now is that of my youth. After dinner I've drunk a proper dosage of one drop, so the efficacy will still last some time.

"Oh! That's rare. Here I thought how the girl has some incredible first-cla.s.s equipment, but that dragon can speak human language. Both of them should yield a good price."

"That's right, aren't you guys lucky? We also don't want you to "lose your lives in vain". Since at any rate, as corpses your value would lower."

"What happened, young la.s.s? You're too afraid to move? Don't you worry, though we may look like this, we're gentlemen."

As a matter of course, it's not that she can't move. It's simply that she doesn't feel any necessity to move. In reality, Rēko's expression didn't waver one bit. She was quite naturally emitting an aura of complacency, as someone who's able to kill everyone here if she just wanted to. I was now really worried about the bandits lives.

"Boss, once we seize them, let's soon transport them along with the ones at our hideout to the market. Although the others will at best go cheap, sold as vulgar low-grade slaves—"

"Wait."

It was a word carrying an arrogant undertone with it, that's why it cut off the small fry man and shut his mouth. However, when the bandits exchanged glances and followed the voice, they found the one who said "wait" was the young girl they recognized as their prey - Rēko.

"Haa? La.s.s, if you're gonna beg for your life, you should do it with more respect."

"You humans holding slaves in contempt. From the ones who become slaves sought is a sense of service without any compensation along with excellence in all arts. It's not a work anyone can do. Take it back."

She narrated that quite abruptly. It was the same when she was a sacrifice, but it seems her fixation on her own duty is really excessive. The att.i.tude of looking down on the slaves' duties has probably pulled on her heartstrings as a former slave herself.

"Take back? Haha, I should take it back, right? What do we do, boss? She says some cute things, that girl."

"Yeah, you're right. You should take it back. After all we're merely selling off the slaves; we've no clue about these things. It seems like this lady is quite educated on the matter, let's have her pa.s.s her knowledge to our slaves."

Those were clearly sarcastic words, but Rēko pondered over it nodding her head and turned to me.

"What should we do, Evil Dragon Lord? Despite these being the words of our enemies, I believe they are worth considering."

"What are you saying?"

"It appears there are a large number of people at their hideout who are aspiring to become slaves. Formerly being one myself, I could ascertain their apt.i.tudes and point the ones unsuitable to some other occupation."

"If you'll be the standard criteria of comparison, I don't think there will be anyone fit to be a slave."

But it certainly would be nice to help the captured humans. I don't consider my sense of justice to be especially strong, however if despite knowing of the prisoners' existence I'd turn a blind eye to it, it'd leave a bad aftertaste.

Well, in reality it's not like I can do anything.

The one who has the strength to somehow resolve this situation is Rēko, so since she's saying she wants to help people (let's forget about the nuance), the least I can do is to back up her wrong a.s.sumptions.

"Very well. We can do it as you want. But you've to promise me one thing."

"What could it be?"

After my words, when Rēko turned her head towards me, the bandit's boss apparently got impatient and cut in.

"Hey! How long do you intend to keep whispering? You guys, quickly tie them up! Watch out, they might resist a bit."

The men carrying curved blades jumped nimbly from their horses and came at us all at once. For a moment I got surprised by the vigour of their all-out offensive and opened my eyes wide, but somehow barely managed to pa.s.s a few words to Rēko.

"Killing and causing serious injuries is off-limits."

"Understood."

The following morning.

Among the brightly illuminated by the sun gra.s.slands. While carrying a bunch of bandits on my back with their heads hanging low, there was a figure of Rēko, who kidnapped herself, brazenly advancing forward to the bandit's hideout.