Arc | Chapter. 79: The Water Paladin (Patreon)

Chapter. 79: The Water Paladin

Next thing we knew, we found ourselves in a private room with the Guildmaster. A lady with blonde hair that seemed to be in her forties, she had green eyes and a stern looking face. Though right now her expression was one of astonishment. The Dragon of Water had been seated in front of the desk, while everyone else was made to stand around.

“So…” the Guildmaster began. “What brings his esteemed holiness here?”

Malz raised her brow, and Regis’karr chuckled. “Never thought the Dragon of Water had his own church.”

“Well, to be fair it’s not like much is known about what he does,” Faral said, crossing her arms.

“Should we even care though?” Malz asked.

Meanwhile I just stared as the Guildmaster immediately got promptly irritated by the interjection from the other dragons. Meanwhile Meika seemed surprised at their casual demeanor.

“Enough,” she said gravely. “This is a conversation with the Water Paladin.”

“If you didn’t want us here, you could’ve just told us so,” Malz said offhandedly.

The Guildmaster frowned, but at that moment the Dragon of Water spoke. “It’s fine, don’t mind my friends, they are just like that.”

Malz frowned but said nothing, and the Guildmaster nodded, doing a light cough to resume her questioning.

“As I was asking, what brings you here, holy Water Paladin?”

There was some silence as the Dragon of Water got stared at. “Some personal commitments have me here, I don’t wish to talk about it. Right now I’m helping my.” He coughed. “Friends.”

Well he had said mostly the truth. We weren’t his friends, but the other part was entirely accurate. The Guildmaster on the other hand seemed to nod.

“I see, so everyone here is your friend.” She nodded once more before giving Malz a glance. “I hope you can talk with your friend over there about the ruckus she caused yesterday.”

Did the Dragon of Water had any idea of what it was?

“Will do,” he agreed without a second thought. “Can we accept the request? That’s what we are here for, nothing else nothing more. My personal commitments don’t allow me to spend too much time on this.”

The Guildmaster oddly enough jolted for a moment before hastily nodding. “Oh right, I will personally process the request.”

With those words, she stood up and left the room, much to my amusement.

“Huh, so she just dragged us here out for your popularity?” I asked the Dragon of Water.

“It would seem so,” he agreed simply. “Apologies for causing trouble.”

“It’s okay.” I thought for a moment. “How did things go with Thomas.”

“They went somewhat well, there was a lot of stuff he refused to agree to.” The Dragon of Water shook his head. “Regardless, it doesn’t matter too much.”

“I see, yeah it doesn’t.”

And with that, we just waited. Meika was looking at all of us with astonishment but we chose to pay it no mind, meanwhile Ceylon was just standing awkwardly around. Hopefully, the Guildmaster wouldn’t be gone for too long.

* * * * *

Orline had been the Guildmaster of Rivas’ Adventurer’s Guild for some years now, and while she had seen and met incredible S Tier adventurers, this was the first time she had met an adventurer with such wide renown⁠ or status.

It was the Water Paladin, the leader of the church of the Dragon of Water. While the church was located in another continent, it was known to generate vast wealth. That said, she never expected to meet one of the most prestigious and fabled adventurer’s in the world. It was said that the Water Paladin had been an S Tier adventurer for over three centuries.

She hadn’t even lived that long in the first place!

Orline’s heart was beating, even though she herself was an A Tier adventurer she couldn’t believe she had met the Water Paladin out of all people. The last time she felt excited was when she met Jake the Weapon Master not too long ago, but before that… nothing like that had happened.

Though she did wonder.

Was Jake stronger than the Water Paladin? There was a chance. It was said that the man was at the precipice of SS Tier, something that was unheard of in current times. Then again, considering how ancient the Water Paladin was, perhaps there was a chance the man too was extremely close to the fabled SS Tier as well.

To think she had met two people whose strength was unfathomable to her, all in such a short and close time period. It was something she never expected. That said⁠— she was also on edge about the woman friend of the Water Paladin; the raven haired one. She was strong, undoubtedly so, but didn’t seem to be an adventurer, and her clothes were strange.

Orline didn’t really understand what she was, or what her role in society was. And perhaps she’d never find out. Perhaps she was a high ranking member of the church of the Dragon of Water. Out of all the Grand Dragon Elders, it was the only one known to have a church after all.

Though Orline did wonder why the other dragons never bothered to establish something like that. It did seem to have a lot of benefits, especially in terms of loyalty and keeping secrets, plus having a territory and the like.

Not like she would ever get the answer to that.

Shaking her head she took the information and took the adventurer tags from the receptionist. Instead focusing on what mattered the most in her mind, which was: The Water Paladin. The man that had true renown at the world level, a holy entity who bore the name of the Dragon of Water everywhere he went.

Someone of such prestige was in her office, waiting for her. Someone of that caliber. Someone that amazing.

Orline smiled as she opened the office door, watching all eyes make contact with her except for the dignified Water Paladin⁠— and she paused seeing what was at his neck.

“Is that… a slave collar?”

And everyone inside the room turned to the Water Paladin.

* * * * *

Meika couldn’t believe it. How hadn’t she noticed it⁠— how hadn’t she recognized the Water Paladin?! She looked at the shining collar at the man’s neck, Arc and Ceylom seemed suddenly uncomfortable, the red-haired boy seemed to sigh, the other two women seemed to just look with interest into what would happen.

What was… And the Water Paladin opened his mouth.

“It is not, it is an ornament of servitude to show my loyalty to the Dragon of Water and by extension the Dragon Queen of Frost.”

Arc froze, Meika raised her brow⁠— since when was the Dragon of Frost female? Meanwhile the Guildmaster seemed to nod.

“I see that is very interesting, yeah.”

She didn’t even acknowledge the oddity in what was being said, but Meika was aware of it.

Didn’t this mean the Dragon of Water was now a subordinate to the dragon queen?

Huh…

* * * * *

Well that had turned awkward for a bit, even Malz stifled a chuckle when the Dragon of Water mentioned he was under my rule. But thankfully, no other information had been disclosed from it.

Instead, we just stood there as the Guildmaster seemed to do whatever she needed to do with our adventurer tags, and after a few moments she nodded and handed back the black tag to the Dragon of Water, before handing me mine and Regis his.

“While normally I wouldn’t approve this mission with just four registered adventurers, given the Water Paladin is present I can make an exception,” she said, letting out a breath. “That is all.”

“Thank you,” Meika said in a low voice.

The Guildmaster nodded at her, and shortly after we left the guild, with dozens of eyes on us, now focused on the Dragon of Water instead. Ceylon had asked for a copy of the request which was nice. As soon as we exited the building I turned to Meika.

“How far away is the dragon?”

“Oh.” She blinked. “About twelve hours away by foot, and shorter while running⁠— so not too far away actually. We can rent horses and get there in a few hours.”

“Huh, yeah that’s not too far.”

I thought for a moment, I still didn’t want to talk for that long or take such a long journey. Perhaps it was because I had quite literally grown to love the life in the city of Rivas, and by that I meant indulging in whatever worldly pleasure I wanted, but I was apprehensive to travel for twelve hours for no real reason.

At least I didn’t consider⁠— well…

I did consider Ceylon to be worth the twelve hours of travel, but in this case it could actually be avoided. So with a smile, I turned to the Dragon of Water.

“Well I’m sure the Water Paladin ought to have a movement skill that could transport all of us and make the journey trivial.”

The Dragon of Water blinked and thought for a moment before shaking his head. “I don’t wish to reveal my secrets to… the girl.”

Meika blinked, given the sudden attention that she was given. I didn’t expect this, though well perhaps that made things easier. She hesitated.

“I wouldn’t tell it to anyone.”

“I just don’t want you to see it,” the Dragon of Water said firmly.

“Right…” Meika was put in an awkward position in just a moment.

Then Malz spoke. “If she’s okay with it I can use a skill that would block all sight and hearing, it will be like going to sleep pretty much.”

Meika blinked. “That is… if it’s harmless then I think I can agree to it.”

The Dragon of Water nodded. “Alright, then let’s go outside of town.”

Well that had resolved itself extremely quickly. And being honest, I was glad.

In half an hour we found ourselves outside of Rivas, already entering a nearby forest given our somewhat brisk pace. Then finally Malz turned to Meika.

“Alright, are you ready?”

The girl nodded. “Yeah I am.”

Malz nodded and raised her hand, Meika seemed to be ready to flinch, but all Malz did was flick her fingers. In an instant, Meika fell to the ground unconscious. It was… a bit weird and odd to look at, also not flashy like I expected.

“Alright, well, now we can go,” Malz let out a breath.

“Yeah,” I nodded, turning to the Dragon of Water. “So, while I want to ask you to turn into a dragon and take us there, it’s probably better to…” I turned to Regis’karr. “Use you instead.”

“Ha…” He sighed. “Yeah I expected that, I guess.”

With that we set off.

* * * * *

Meika didn’t understand what had happened. One moment she was standing and the next one she was in a deep slumber. She hadn’t even had the chance to resist what had happened, in the end she was surrounded by darkness. Even though she was aware of it, time seemed muddled and the atmosphere was relaxing.

The darkness around her was… comforting.

She felt mild movement, mild shuffles of her body, but nothing that disturbed her. It just added to the experience. At the same time she was still mildly conscious, and she was… surprised. Malz’s skill had such an effect on her, and she herself was B Tier. It was interesting, but also given what she felt… it was nice.

Like being embraced by a mother almost…

At this rate, she felt like she could actually sleep. That her consciousness could fade and that she would be at peace⁠—

And the darkness burst. Meika jolted on a grassy ground as Malz raised her brow.

“Huh, that was fast, you almost died.”

“Wait what?” Meika blinked.

Malz shook her head and didn’t explain anything. It was… weird. But when she looked around, there were mountains surrounding them, and they were in the middle of a forest.

This was…

“Well now we are here,” Arc said simply. “One hour versus twelve, isn’t that great?”

“Indeed,” the Water Paladin agreed.

Oh. Meika had a hard time processing it, but they had already made it to their destination, that was… strange. Then as she blinked, the other people were already heading forward. Arc turned to her and the Water Paladin.

“We’ll go ahead, you two can stay behind to do whatever you want.”

“Oh…” Meika blinked. “Wait I’m not ready yet⁠—”

“It’s fine, we can catch up in a bit.” The Water Paladin said, shaking his head. “Not like they are in any danger anyway.”

“They aren’t?” Meika asked skeptically, and she was just met with a nod.

It was an S Tier adventurer saying it so it had to be the truth… She swallowed, deciding to not worry about Arc and the group, instead choosing to focus on preparing herself for the fight of her life. All while the Water Paladin stood around, just seemingly waiting for her.

It was weird… but upon seeing the collar again Meika couldn’t help but do a double take, it looked so realistic…

“Are you sure it’s not a slave collar?” she asked jokingly.

The Water Paladin didn’t smile, instead just lowering his head. “It is a slave collar, and I’m not even the Water Paladin but the Dragon of Water himself.”

Meika blinked. “What?”

And the man smiled. “It’s just a joke, let’s go.”

He waved and stepped forward, all while Meika couldn’t help but just watch.

“Right…”

What kind of joke was that?