Chapter 19: Refugees and Unwanted Dragons
After that, Dion, Luna, Mei, and Sheila strolled into the village, while Gina transformed into her large form to haul the giant tusk boar inside. As Dion walked through the settlement, which had been utterly deserted and derelict the last time he was here, he noticed countless people peeking out from inside the houses.
Their faces looked dreary, worn out, and haggard, and their clothes were hardly typical villager attire. Seeing all this raised a huge question mark in Dion’s mind. He stopped in his tracks and turned back to face Luna, Mei, and Sheila, who were chatting behind him.
"Sheila, what are you doing in my domain?" Dion asked directly.
Sheila looked at Dion with a puzzled expression, then glanced at Luna and Mei, who seemed to instantly understand what Dion was asking.
"This land... your domain?" Sheila asked.
"Yeah... this is Baron Oswald’s domain. My domain," Dion answered.
"Ooh... I thought this land was completely abandoned, hahaha!" Sheila said with a laugh.
"How long have you been here, Sheila?" Mei asked.
"Hmm... about a year now. I fled from Northgard," Sheila replied.
"Fled?" Luna asked, confused.
"It’s a long story, I’ll tell you later," Sheila replied, her tone dipping into melancholy.
"Then who are these people?" Dion asked, gesturing toward the residents hiding inside the empty, hastily repaired houses.
At Dion’s question, Sheila glanced around. It was clear as day that the villagers were staring at her with an unsettling mix of sheer hope and overwhelming fear. Sheila turned her gaze back to Dion.
"They’re freed slaves... Over the past year, I’ve been pretty busy liberating slaves from Thetor and Eredor... I also came here with a few slaves from Northgard," Sheila explained.
Dion surveyed his surroundings. The villagers had begun trickling out of their homes, gathering around to gawk at the massive Gina and the tusk boar she was dragging along. It seemed it was their very first time seeing a dragon like her. Naturally, Gina looked visibly uncomfortable under all the stares; she shrank back down to her tiny form, fluttered over to Dion, and landed right on his head.
Looking at the diverse group of people, some fair-skinned, some tan, others olive, yet all wearing the same tattered, ragged clothes, Dion realized they truly were freed slaves. Naturally, they didn’t have fresh clothes, and merchants never bothered visiting his domain since it was written off as a desolate wasteland. As Dion pondered the situation,
"You’re not planning on kicking me and these people out, are you?" Sheila asked, her hand drifting back to grip the handle of her battleaxe.
"Hmm... that’s not it. Their clothes look like they haven’t been changed in ages, and they’re living in broken-down houses... I’m just thinking about how to make them comfortable here," Dion answered thoughtfully, his eyes staring off as he processed the logistical nightmare without even looking at Sheila.
As Dion’s words hung in the air, a sudden silence fell over the crowd. Sheila let go of her battleaxe, her face completely frozen in shock. She turned to Luna and Mei, who also looked utterly stunned by what Dion had just said. After a moment, Dion broke the silence.
"Ah, whatever. We can worry about that stuff later. What matters right now is processing that Giant Tusk Boar, we’re eating like kings tonight!" Dion said with a bright smile.
Hearing that, Sheila instantly lunged forward and creak! snapped Dion into another bear hug, lifting him clean off his feet. Gina, who was resting on Dion’s head, barely managed to flutter up into Luna’s arms just in time.
"Aaah... I told you... my ribs!" Dion shouted, squirming in pain.
"Thank you, Dion! Thank you so much!" Sheila cheered joyfully.
Watching Sheila wrap Dion up in a bone-crushing hug, Luna and Mei simply exchanged smiles, their expressions silently conveying, "Yep, that’s Dion for you," without needing a single word.
"Help meeee!"
Dion yelled out in agony as he struggled to break free, but he was blatantly outmatched by Sheila’s sheer muscle. Meanwhile, Luna and Mei began instructing the freed slaves to start butchering the Giant Tusk Boar for a communal feast. The villagers looked immensely relieved and deeply grateful, smiles breaking out across their faces as they immediately got to work.
***
Meanwhile, at that exact moment, inside the royal palace of the Lutherias Kingdom, Cleo stood in front of King Alexius’s desk in his private study, staff in hand. It appeared she had just finished delivering her official debriefing.
"So... even though you were present at the scene, all you witnessed was the explosion itself?" King Alexius asked.
"That is correct, Your Majesty. I did not see who caused the blast, as everything unfolded in an instant before I could even process it," Cleo answered firmly.
"Are you absolutely certain, Cleo?" asked a nobleman standing beside the king, who appeared to be a high-ranking court member.
"I am certain, Count Mateo," Cleo replied loudly.
Silence descended upon the king’s study once more. Alexius’s expression darkened slightly as he rested his elbows on the desk and propped his forehead against his hands, clearly weighed down by heavy thoughts. After a moment, he raised his head.
"Then what about Gemmeth’s seal?" Alexius asked.
Cleo paused briefly, appearing to carefully weigh Alexius’s question. In reality, she was simply trying to keep her composure.
"I inspected the site... the seal is gone," Cleo answered.
"Hah... gone?! What do you mean ’gone’?!" Alexius blurted out, caught completely off guard.
"There is no seal left in that valley... it was not broken, nor was it resealed... it simply vanished," Cleo stated, as that was technically the objective truth.
"That should be physically impossible! That seal has stood for over a thousand years, and we have maintained it every ten years without fail! That was the entire reason our realm’s founder established this kingdom!" Mateo added, lost in thought.
"Yet that is precisely what occurred, Count Mateo," Cleo reinforced coolly.
An uneasy quiet fell over the room once more as Alexius and Mateo, who served as the kingdom’s chief advisor, sank deep into thought. Cleo remained stoic, letting the two men deliberate without offering another word. But suddenly, blam! the study door swung open. A royal guard rushed inside and dropped to his knees before the king’s desk, right beside Cleo.
"Reporting, Your Majesty! The overnight investigative unit monitoring the seal’s location has returned! They report sighting a massive black dragon flying north from the seal site!" the soldier announced, holding a sealed scroll high above his head.
Cleo glanced at the scroll, desperately wishing she could snatch it out of his hands, but Alexius motioned for Mateo to take it first. Mateo grabbed the scroll and handed it over to Alexius. The king unrolled it and read the contents; his face instantly drained of all color. He then passed the report to Mateo to read, whose face turned just as pale as the king’s.
"Very well. You are dismissed," Alexius instructed.
"Understood, Your Majesty. Excuse me," the soldier replied, bowing out.
Once the guard had left, Alexius signaled Mateo to hand the letter to Cleo. Cleo’s eyes scanned the text back and forth, her complexion turning pale as well.
"You told us the seal vanished, and now a black dragon has appeared. Care to explain? There is no way you know nothing about this," Alexius pressed, his gaze locking onto Cleo with intense authority.
Cleo froze, taking a heavy gulp. She slowly rolled the scroll back up, maintaining a cool, expressionless facade. But on the inside, her mind was screaming:
"Diooon... why on earth did you fly off on a legendary dragon that was supposed to be sealed away?! Why couldn’t you just walk?! You’re making my life an absolute nightmare!" she thought to herself, frantically trying to construct a believable lie to spin the whole catastrophe.
***
Meanwhile, back at Dion’s domain, creak! Dion pushed open the front doors of his mansion. The interior looked just as he remembered it, except for one jarring addition: right in the middle of the main grand lobby sat a massive, traditional barbarian tent, complete with an open campfire pit.
Dion slowly turned to Sheila with a dry, exasperated smile, while Sheila deliberately avoided eye contact, whistling innocently.
"You’re camping inside my house?!" Dion asked.
"Um... yeah, hahah... sorry! I just don’t really like sleeping in empty mansions," Sheila replied nonchalantly.
"What is wrong with you?! If you want to camp, use the front yard! Why do it indoors?!" Dion grumbled, exasperated.
"Because it’s a pain in the butt when it rains outside!" Sheila snapped back loudly.
Watching the two of them bicker, Luna and Mei wisely stayed out of the argument, opting instead to explore the mansion where Dion used to live, while Gina slept peacefully cradled in Luna’s arms.