Arc | Chapter. 77: Stalking (Patreon)

Chapter. 77: Stalking

The Dragons.

They were considered the stopping force of a lot of schemes. The ultimate protectors of Arlas. The true keepers of order. The strongest faction that belonged to the world. Those were the dragons. And while few had gotten the news of their occurrences, those that received the most recent ones had been shocked.

The Dragon of Frost had been slain. Its killer: unconfirmed.

The news sent a ripple across the world. It all began with signs of magic that had never seen before and then there was silence, by the time an investigation was launched all the dragons were missing⁠, only the mangled corpse of the Dragon of Frost remained.

So many questions and so little answers existed, multiple factions were thrown into chaos pondering if to unleash their machinations upon the world, but with the growing uncertainty of things no one dared to take a step.

Someone, or something had killed the Dragon of Frost. Some theorized it to be a new form of magic, others claimed it had been the system itself, and few pointed fingers at others. However, regardless of what the truth was, something had happened, and it had the potential to send the whole world and status quo into chaos.

The myriad of questions that the world wanted to ask, were left veiled, their answers unknown to the vast majority. Few privy to more context and only one person managed to connect the dots. And that man was none other than the Hero of Sand. The ultimate warrior of the Miri-Sunre republic.

However, the realization came from pure luck rather than something pre-planned. A man had visited him; someone claiming to have information about a hero. That was the only reason the Hero of Sand had allowed a meeting between the two, however the last thing he expected to hear was that the Dragon of Shadows was accompanying this hero.

Turns out all dragons were.

Later, the Hero of Sand got the news of what happened in one of the colosseums. Someone claiming to be the Heroine of Frost had fought, and then challenged a dragon within the spectators ⁠— the Dragon of Water.

That was enough to confirm things, all of the dragons were around the Heroine of Frost, for some reason or another. And in fact it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to think that the heroine had killed the Dragon of Frost.

After all, he himself had slain the Dragon of Sands⁠— it was almost like fated match up. The dragon that was blessed by the world with their element and he who was the most talented with that element. Only the survivor could be said to be the true master of whatever element they had been assigned.

Though, normally such things took years⁠. And yet… The Hero of Sand, raised his brow looking at the ceiling.

Hadn’t news of a Hero of Frost come to be just over a month ago?

Wasn’t that a bit too fast?

Needless to say, it was an interesting thing. As some had claimed, an event that could shift the tides of the world as a whole. Though⁠— not like the Hero of Sands had any use for the information, perhaps he could sell it, but he had no interest in doing that right now.

Instead, he preferred to be a spectator, and that’s why he had no faction, just friendly relationships with some heroes.

So in the end, he was going to wait and see. Though he couldn’t help but wonder…

What was the Heroine of Frost doing right now?

* * * * *

I yawned, supervising the meeting with Thomas and the Dragon of Water. It was going just fine, I actually hadn’t needed to interrupt since Thomas expressed his concerns earlier. The Dragon of Water was handling things swimmingly adapting to what he was being told ⁠— though his suggestions sometimes were quite… questionable.

In fact, he had suggested something akin to mystery boxes, which were well rigged against the consumer simply due to numerical probability. Thomas immediately rejected the idea due to how predatory it was, also how potentially staining it could be to his reputation.

However, I just found it interesting. That said, the Dragon of Water did seem to be trying to help with his utmost capacity, while he wasn’t excited, he wasn’t sulking either. He was just working. Which I appreciated.

If things continued smoothly then I should leave the two alone… I thought for a moment before smiling. Then I can go see what Ceylon is doing.

It didn’t take too long before making that my decision. I could just go check on them and go grab a bite from a nice restaurant or something after.

I was looking forward to it.

* * * * *

Meika had followed the two women, discreetly of course. Though the guild had exploded into some chaos, and some people wanted to chase the woman for vengeance but were eventually dissuaded by the Guildmaster; who was one of the first people to fully recover from the shock.

As for Meika even as she left the guild her heart was still thumping. The first thing she did upon exiting the building was look for the two women, but it seemed like she had lost them. Pacing around yielded no results until a red-haired woman from the crowd piped up in a random direction.

“Ceylon!”

Meika looked in the direction and spotted the bystander going into a potion shop of all places. She hurriedly followed and decided to sneak looking around, only to see the red-haired woman greet Ceylon; the noble looking lady. Meika decided to listen in since it seemed like something important.

“Hey so who is this other person?” The woman asked.

Meika assumed the woman was referring to the person that had knocked out half of the guild. The black haired girl chuckled.

“I’m Malz, I’m Ceylon’s friend.”

“Is that so?” The woman sounded confused. “My name is Rory. I’m just here to turn a quest, I’m actually in a hurry. But nice to meet you Malz.”

There was a silence as something happened within the shop, before Rory continued.

“Hope we can talk a lot about each other in the future.”

With those words the woman had left. Meika thought standing on the street. So her name was Malz? She hadn’t heard such a name anywhere but the history books⁠— it belonged to one of the mythical dragons, but Meika couldn’t remember which one⁠— not like it mattered.

She shook her head and continued to observe.

* * * * *

Ceylon didn’t know why they were even in a potion shop. But Malz still asked the clerk for mana potions, regeneration potions, stamina potions and mana potions. Which could be considered to be the adventuring basics.

“I have some potions already.”

“But you don’t have enough,” Malz countered, shaking her head. “With ten of each there will be no problem.”

The clerk at that moment nodded. “Yes, for all of these potions it will be one gold.”

“See, it’s not that expensive.” Malz said with a smile before producing a golden coin and handing it to the clerk.

Ceylon shook her head, and a moment later the man behind the counter did a pause.

“Excuse me miss, but what is this coin?”

“A gold coin,” Malz said simply. “It’s quite old but it’s still an old gold coin.”

“I don’t think we can take coins from the…” The clerk trailed off reading some engraving in the coin. “Now sunken empire of Merfis, a desolate land.”

Ceylon at that moment wanted to facepalm, but before she could do that Malz looked at the man incredulously.

“It’s made out of gold, in fact it seems to weigh more than a coin of Draliz, and since it seems to be that old it’s a relic too. Are you okay?”

Ceylon immediately sighed and took out a gold coin from her pouch and slammed it on the counter. The clerk blinked, and then she herself took the coin from his hands and pocketed it before pocketing the potions into her Storage Rings as well.

Malz seemed too surprised to say anything, and so was the clerk.

Ceylon bowed. “Sorry for my friend’s words.”

And with those words she dragged Malz out of the shop. There was only silence as they walked onto the street before Ceylon turned to Malz.

“What was that about?” The dragon asked, bothered. “It’s not like I’m acting unreasonable.”

“You could’ve just taken the coin back instead of arguing…” Ceylon sighed. “Trying to negotiate with the clerk or whatever is seen to be in great distaste.”

“That is quite… dumb.” Malz tilted her head. “I guess it can be embarrassing, but did you feel that embarrassed?”

“It’s not that either…”

Ceylon wanted to explain how she was on edge by Malz’s extreme behavior on the guild and wanted to avoid such a situation again so she diffused the situation. However, looking at the dragon’s somewhat concerned look Ceylon didn’t have the heart to tell her.

At least, not right now.

Perhaps she could do it later, and gently. Last thing she wanted was for Malz to think she was a burden to Ceylon, or get angry. After all, she did appreciate Malz trying to encourage her to grow stronger, just not in such a way.

* * * * *

Meika had carefully watched and observed the interaction within the shop; it was odd, but it seemed to her that both women were of similarly equal standing to each other. Which made her question what their relationship was.

However, she needed more information, and that’s why she followed them next to an armor shop. This time trying to scrutinize more details and trying to be as discreet as possible while doing so. But after they entered further into the large establishment, Meika realized that it was too hard to keep tabs on them without going in.

She hesitated, standing in the middle of the street, but ultimately Meika knew she had to continue on.

She had been trying to observe as inconspicuous as possible, but some people had clearly noticed it given some weird glances she was getting.

She was being too hasty… but… she wanted to find out more about them.

Her request mattered to her, it was the main stressor of her life right now. Even if she had to split the income it would greatly help her. Which was why…

Meika took a deep breath.

She had to see this through⁠—

And an extremely cold hand touched her shoulder.

“Hey, I can’t help but notice you’ve been stalking my friends for quite some time now.”

The emotionless voice caused the temperature to drop. Meika felt her heart jump in fear as she turned around to look at the hand. There she met a white haired woman with crystal blue eyes that filled her with fear.

“So, I’ll ask.” The woman smiled. “What do you think you’re doing?”