Surviving as a Broken Hero

We had killed the dragon, yes, but we hadn’t actually figured anything out.

Not to mention that the tattoos were still active on our wrists and were like ticking time bombs that could go off at any moment.

{{Quest: Discover what happened to the dragon of the City on the Edge.}}

The dragon wasn’t demonic in origin, it had been corrupted by demonic energy.

It was just a guess, but I had a feeling that the dragon had made a deal with the demons like the lord of Karfana had.

I wasn’t sure what demons could possibly offer a dragon, but that just went to show how strong the demons actually were.

Multiple encounters with demons and I was still no closer to finding out information about any of their leadership or plans. I had only encountered byproducts of their deals and their minions.

I was hoping that the dragon’s castle would at least have information somewhere so that I could start proactively moving against them.

Rhil was still somewhere in the mountains, and the dwarf at the city Association building had seen Bernard and Velle pass through, though I had no clue where they were.

Wandering around aimlessly looking for them would be useless, and the demons had proven themselves to be a potentially catastrophic threat, so I could at least be proactive in getting to the center of what they were planning.

In the process, I might just find Rhil, Bernard, and Velle as well, not to mention the family that I had long since given up hope on seeing again. The snowy mountains were largely unexplored and could be host to any number of dungeons holding people from the Merge captive still.

While we didn’t find anything within the dragon’s nest, the lord’s desk was probably the next best bet.

After all, if I were a dragon, wouldn’t I want to keep valuable information easily accessible and within eyesight?

The crumbling desk had a small slide-out cabinet under the surface.

Upon pulling on the ashy wood of the cabinet, the hinges of it crumbled under my hands, revealing a black gem that radiated with hints of demonic energy.

Multifaceted, it would have been as beautiful as a ruby or other precious gem.

Actually, it was kind of beautiful to look at as it was, as black as a moonless midnight sky. The gem almost seemed to even suck in the light around it.

Koise had to have had a tracking ability of some sort, right?

‘How else could he have tracked my exact location across the snowy mountains?’

I knew that he had a guild to get back to, but I also knew that he loved a challenge.

“Hey, Koise…”

Koise looked over at me from where he was examining the broken enchantments on the wall next to the lord’s lounging area.

“You find something?”

“Yeah… You have a tracking ability, right?”

It was somewhat taboo to talk about the details of class abilities.

After all, if you revealed your abilities to other Awakeners, they would be able to figure out a way to counter you.

He thought about it for a moment, his tongue briefly flicking out to lick his lips.

“Yeah, why?”

“This crystal… I think it might be the source of the dragon’s demonic energy. If we can track the energy of whoever made the crystal…”

The sentence hung in the air.

“Then you think we can find them? Who’s to say that the dragon didn’t just kill someone for the crystal?”

“Would your ability let you track someone who’s dead?”

Apparently, it wouldn’t, as Koise had no reply.

He strode across the room and took the crystal from my hands, concentrating on it briefly while pulses of mana radiated from him.

“…”

His eyebrows furrowed in concentration, and the mana pulses increased, becoming a palpable energy in the air.

Finally, the pulses suddenly died out, and Koise let out a long breath.

“It’s old… But I think I can track it.”

We wouldn’t set out for it directly, but at least we had a next goal in mind.

As for what we were going to do about the city…

“Why would they believe you?”

We were back in the castle itself, inside a large conference room with a table in the center that had a map of the region.

If I were to hazard a guess, I would guess we had found the war room.

“All you have for evidence is an aura that nobody else has sensed, a dark crystal that you could have made yourself, and a dead city lord.”

Koise didn’t know that we also had the relic, as he had been unconscious during our escape from the dungeon.

“I think it could work…” Lein said, “I mean, we don’t really have much attachment to the lord here, and people have tried to kill him before. It’s a dragon, after all. If anything, I think people might even be grateful to not have to worry about the dragon’s oppressive aura lurking over their shoulders.”

When given a choice between a leader who could incinerate you at any given moment and a leader who couldn’t, most people would probably pick the one who couldn’t.

What we had in our favor was that people had no love for the deceased dragon.

“So we tell them we killed the dragon and say that it was corrupted with a strange energy, then what? We just claim the city for ourselves? There are only three of us, it’s not like we have the resources to actually do anything.”

He had a point.

Unlike what most might have expected, the System had no means of governing a city. Instead, cities were ruled the old-fashioned by people who had the money to bankroll everything.

We wouldn’t actually have any authority over the city if we claimed it unless we had a guild to back us up. We could pay people with the items found in the dragon’s nest, but then what was to stop them from just taking it for themselves if they knew it was there?

“We could claim it for the Lion Guild…” Koise said, thinking of the guild he was from.

I was somewhat hesitant. I hadn’t had the best experience with their members to that point, not to mention I didn’t believe that Koise could have completely dropped any animosity towards me. I had killed a few members of their scouting party, after all.

“Absolutely not. The last thing anyone here would want is a guild watching over us. Most people dealt with the dragon and the tattoo thing because this city is good for outliers and the unaffiliated. In fact, the tattoo was even viewed as a positive aspect.” Lein interjected.

“And what would you have? Absolute chaos? Every man for themselves? The city would fall apart in weeks and you’d have a vigilante city where crime runs rampant.”

“And a guild controlling every aspect of the city would be any better? Taxes for anyone that isn’t a guild member, entry restrictions for people of opposing guilds, exclusive housing for guild members…” Lein went on to list on his fingers how a guild would be oppressive for the city.

“What if a neutral party owns it?” I asked, joining their conversation as the two started to get heated.

“What do you mean ‘a neutral party’?” Lein seemed interested, but the frown on Koise’s face made it evident that he had been hoping to claim the city for the Lion Guild.

“It sounds like most of the people here want to stay neutral, right?”

There had been large numbers of elves, dwarves, and orcs mixed in with the humans I had seen on the streets. Everyone had a common interest of wanting to be able to go about their own business and explore the snowy mountains while using the city as a base of operations.

Granted that many had a goal in the dragon’s quest, what if we had someone to give out quests to keep them busy and to keep their sense of exploration alive?

…A neutral party that wouldn’t interfere too much with Awakeners while keeping the city in order and managing guards for those who wanted a quick coin or were down on their luck.

“The Association. We could partner with them in running the city. By doing that, we would have a large organization backing us up that’s known to be neutral. What’s more, the Association representative here is a dwarf, whose race is pretty well-known as a neutral party in trading cities.”

All of my years of listening to Awakeners in the Association building were finally paying off in some way, at least.

“That’s true… I don’t think many would complain about it if the Association headed by a dwarf was placed in charge of running the city…”

Being ruled over by some Awakeners that had killed the previous lord was one thing, being ruled over by a party that was widely known to be fair and neutral was another.

“But the Association here isn’t even real…” Lein said.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s real or not. The fact that it bears the name of the Association and that it was used to hand out neutral quests here is good enough. Lein, did the association here ever take sides?

“No, it was really only used for the occasional quest…”

I remembered the mostly blank board we had seen upon visiting the Association building there. That would have to change if we wanted to keep people preoccupied, but it looked like we had a way to make a proper city of it yet.

“Okay, then I guess it’s time we paid a certain dwarf a visit…”

Koise’s scowl still stuck in my mind.