Surviving as a Broken Hero

“Bullshit.”

The dwarf cut in as soon as we started talking about how we had killed the dragon.

“I just saw it a few days ago, and you expect me to believe the three of you…”

He paused to look us over. I had found better clothes in the castle that fit me, and Koise and Lein had managed to clean themselves up and find clothing in the castle that was an acceptable fit and not stained in blood or ripped all over.

I wore some piecemeal sections of leather armor we had found in the armory over my vital areas such as my chest and thighs, and I had cut my hair, which had grown to an uncomfortable length.

Koise wore only a leather chestpiece and the vambrace we had looted over a long jacket and pants, a basic longbow that we had found in surprisingly good condition within the armory slung over his shoulder. He hadn’t changed his ponytail at all, and his clothes and gloves covered his still-injured hands.

Finally, Lein wore a long winter jacket he had found in the castle, and his hair was pulled back behind his ears.

We looked somewhat respectable, but I admit that one probably didn’t see us for dragon slayers just by looking at us.

“Killed a dragon?”

Rather than angry, his tone was incredulous and even somewhat mocking.

There was no point in arguing with him, it was clear that the dwarf would need proof to be persuaded, and while slipping past the guards watching the entrance to the castle had been fairly easy when the guards had only been looking for intruders and not for people leaving the castle, sneaking back in again would be more difficult. Then again…

‘Do we even need to sneak back in if he’s with us?’

The dragon usually spoke with the dwarf in private, right? I didn’t think it would be too out of the ordinary if he paid a visit to the castle.

I doubted the dwarf would be willing to personally visit the castle and risk the dragon’s wrath without some sort of evidence that we had actually killed the dragon.

Luckily, I had already predicted that to be the case.

“Koise?”

“Yeah, got it.”

Koise reached into his item bag and pulled out the mushy eye of the dragon, which seemed to still radiate with a bit of the dragon’s pressure and demonic energy.

“Is this proof enough for you, or do you need to see more?”

The dwarf took a step back in shock.

“What the hell?!

He even stumbled over his own feet and tripped into the wall in his attempt to get away.

“You guys are fucking serious? You really killed the dragon?”

He looked around the empty Association building like there was some risk that we could be overheard.

“Well… that changes things. But why are you telling me?”

He rubbed his bearded chin for a moment in thought.

“Ah, you need me for something, right? You can’t just announce that you killed the dragon to the city and try to peacefully take over without someone challenging you. Is it that you want me to explain the situation and that, rather than you killing the dragon, the dragon left and placed you in charge?”

The dwarf sat on his stool behind the counter again, lost in his thoughts as he reasoned with himself.

“No, that can’t be it. People would still question you either way. Then… could it be that you want to hide the dragon’s death and have me give your orders like I usually do for the dragon anyway?”

It wasn’t really a terrible idea, but even that would have its limits.

“Actually, we want you to manage the city for us.”

The dwarf’s eyes narrowed.

“So lord in all but name it is, then? What’s in it for me?”

“Rather than that, we have other things to do. We can’t get dragged down with trying to manage a city, and we figured if you ran the city with the Association’s name behind you…”

The dwarf nodded. “Then nobody would dare challenge me for fear of provoking their wrath… Alright. I’ll do it. Mountain knows, I can probably run this city better than that dragon did anyway. What about funding?”

“You won’t have to worry about that.”

We didn’t really even want our names connected to the dragon’s death at the moment. If demonic agents were still around, announcing that we had killed the dragon would just put the demons on guard against us.

They were probably already on guard anyway. Rapid incidents where they were rebuffed in Karfana, the tunnels under the mountain ridge, and at the City on the Edge within a short period of time would look fishy, even to me. One or two incidents could probably just be written off as bad luck, but for three plans to fail in close proximity one after the other?

I would probably conclude that someone was purposefully interfering.

After that, the next step would be to deal with whoever it was as quickly as possible.

If we could track them down and strike before they could fully plan out their next moves or figure us out…

We left the dwarf to plan out the details as we met back up in the inn.

There was still one more thing to worry about before we set off for wherever the demonic energy had come from.

“I can’t go with you.”

Lein and I were discussing matters privately in our rooms after he had taken me aside before eating.

“What? Why not? You saw what the demons were trying to do, right?”

I was referring back to when he had taken the Relic and seen what would have happened to the City on the Edge if the demons had gotten their hands on it.

“Yes, of course… but I have things to take care of here first, debts to repay, and now that the dragon is dead… Look, we just met a few days before all of this. We may have gone through a lot together, but there are still things I need to do. As far as I’m concerned, we dealt with the threat.”

I could get his line of reasoning of course, but I couldn’t help but find it a bit disappointing.

“And if the threat returns?”

He punched his fist into his hand as he replied, ‘Then it can be dealt with. It’s not like it’ll be as hard as killing a dragon, right?”

I was worried that it could actually be worse than that, but it was only a fear.

“Okay, fine. You stay and help the dwarf get the city going properly, but what about the Relic?”

We couldn’t just leave it in his item bag forever.

“What about it? It’s perfectly safe, see?”

He fished it from his item bag and held it up for me to see, its golden radiance illuminating my face and making it hard to look at directly.

I reached out to touch it, but he pulled it away.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Remember what it did to me?”

“Right…”

The Relic had taken him to an alternate timeline and shown him what would have happened if the dragon had gotten its hands on the Relic.

There was also the quest that I still had to deal with the snowstorms and return the city to its former glory. It hadn’t vanished with the death of the dragon, so it was still possible.

“From what I can tell, the Relic will be just fine where I’ve kept it so far.”

“We can’t just leave it in your item bag forever, Lein.”

“But why not? Nobody knows it’s there, nobody can access it, nobody can track it. It’s probably the safest place for it.”

“We don’t even know what it does, it could be a ticking time bomb for all we know.”

He pursed his lips. He knew I had a point, but I could tell he just wanted to leave the Relic out of sight and mind.

“I’ll investigate it while you’re gone then.”

It was better than just leaving it untouched, and it would have to be enough for the moment if I didn’t want to get into a heated argument.

We returned to the tables and saw food waiting for us.

***

Koise and I left the city after some short preparations and before the dwarf could even finish his plans for how he was going to announce the death of the dragon and continue as the city’s leader.

“So he didn’t want to come in the end?”

“Lein? He said he had some stuff to take care of.”

We were just outside the city gates, double-checking that we had everything in order before we set out in earnest.

“He’s not the type to enjoy a hunt anyway.”

‘Alright…’

I already knew he was somewhat crazy as well with the way he constantly went on about hunting, the hunt, hunters, etc.

“Your class is pretty inconvenient, you know.”

He looked me over.

There was a large backpack slung over my shoulder, a waist bag dangling from my belt, and pouches stuffed with food and supplies strapped across my body.

He still thought it was a class limitation that forbade me from using magic-imbued items.

“Yeah, well, you’ve seen what I can do, right?”

He didn’t have any counter for that.

“What do you feel when you track the demonic energy anyway? Is it just a general direction, or do you have any sense of distance or location?”

I was wondering if we were starting a trek across the world for all we knew.

“It gets stronger depending on the distance, and after a lot of practice, I’ve learned how to use that to judge the general distance.”

“So how far away do you think we’ll have to go then?”

He stopped and looked over the snowy plain into the mountains for a moment.

“If I’m right…?”

He extended his arm and pointed.

“Just over those mountains.”

That would probably take us a week at most, even with us having to scale the cliffs.

Not very far at all.