I’m a humiliated, incompetent person, but I alone can talk to dragons, so I can choose all the SSS skills and loophole items I want to. I’m going to become famous and respected, so, to the people who humiliated me – Go die in a ditch - Chapter 16
Translator: Jasper Kadowaki | Editor: NovelMultiverse
The next day, when I was relaxing in the living room alone, a sound of someone knocking at the door echoed through the house.
The dragon shed was the main building on the property, and although the house for humans wasn’t much, it was large enough for four to five people to comfortably live in.
Since I was all alone in this big house, any little sound would always clearly echo through the rooms.
I stood up and headed to the entrance.
When I opened the door, there was a man standing there.
“I’m sorry to bother you in the middle of the night. Would you happen to be Cyril Larose?” he asked.
“Yeah, that’s me,” I said, “And you are?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. My name is Roland Flory,” he said.
“Roland-san,” I muttered, searching my memory.
I was sure I hadn’t met him before, and his name didn’t ring a bell.
“Actually, I was hoping to ask for your help on a job,” said Roland.
“A job… Well, that’s fine, but why did you seek me out, specifically?” I asked in response. I was a little bit suspicious.
This man had come to my house in the middle of the night, identified me by name, and asked for my help out of the blue.
I wasn’t on the same level as someone from the Lindworm Guild or some other A-rank dragon knight, so the fact that this man was asking for me, specifically, was incredibly strange. This alone was cause to be very cautious.
“I was referred to you by Lady Moriniere,” said Roland.
“Moriniere…?” I asked. Again, I searched my memory. I did remember hearing this name. After a moment, I suddenly remembered.
“Oh, yeah. You mean Princess Katrina,” I said.
“Indeed, sir,” said Roland.
Katrina Moriniere.
She was a princess from a noble family that I had met on one of the jobs that I had gotten through a City Hall posting.
She was in love with a baron, and they exchanged letters with each other. My job had been to deliver a love letter from the princess to the baron as quickly as possible. While it would have taken most dragon knights three days to complete this mission, I was there and back in just one.
With the completion of that mission, I had earned a good reputation with the princess.
“All right,” I said. “I’m sorry. Please, come in.”
“Thank you,” said Roland.
Once I knew that the princess had sent him, I decided to hear him out and invited him into the house.
☆
Roland and I sat down in the living room, facing each other.
“So, let’s start over… What’s the job?” I asked.
“A certain guild failed to complete a ‘suppression’ mission,” said Roland.
“Ah…” I said. I felt my own expression grow grave at Roland’s response.
Suppression was, among all types of missions assigned to dragon knights, the most dangerous type of mission. Because of that, however, it earned the highest return as far as payment and reputation went.
Usually, it required suppression of a good number of monsters that cropped up in a group somewhere, and though it was called “suppression”, what it actually meant, more often than not, was combat.
Of course, combat meant danger.
As a result of that danger, there were times when these missions resulted in casualties for dragon knights and their dragons.
“When you say they failed, what exactly do you mean?” I asked.
“They all perished,” said Roland.
“What did you say?”
“Front line troops… An entire vanguard battalion was, as I said, completely annihilated, sir,” said Roland.
I said nothing. I was at a loss for words.
It was nearly unheard of for an entire battalion of front-line troops to be killed in an attack.
Something like this hadn’t happened in at least five years.
“We would like you to recover the deceased dragon knights’ belongings,” said Roland.
I understood, now. The situation had become clear.
“The mission may sound easy enough, but I don’t have the kind of defenses necessary to infiltrate the territory of an enemy that destroyed an entire battalion of front-line troops,” I said.
“That should not be a problem. In order to save some of their dignity, the guild has agreed to supply another organized Suppression Team to fight the enemy. While they are busy with combat, they need someone to collect the wills of their fallen soldiers,” said Roland.
“I see.”
The guild wanted to save face. Well, that was easy to understand. In that case…
“We are willing to compensate you with 5000 reals,” said Roland. “What do you say?”
“I accept,” I quickly replied.
Five thousand reals was such a large sum that it allowed for no hesitation.
“We are truly grateful for your help. As long as you can get us the soldiers’ wills, you can collect any other items you may find for yourself,” said Roland.
“Ah…”
☆
The next day, I set out to the city of Boisrussel with Louise, Colette, and Emma.
Our destination was a place called Danzig Valley, which was a two days’ ride from Boisrussel.
That was where the previous team of dragon knights on their suppression mission had been wiped out. [Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]
Since this was a major mission worth 5000 reals, all members of “Dragons First” were called to participate.
“Hey, master,” said Louise.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“What did that guy mean when he said we could collect any items that we might find?”
“So you were listening in on yesterday’s conversation, were you?”
“Dragons have better hearing than humans, you know.”
“Oh, yeah.”
I smiled, bitterly. That meant that even when the dragons were in the shed, all of my movements could be heard, and I had no real privacy.
That was… Well, I didn’t really like it.
I was thinking that something needed to be done about it, but there wasn’t time to think it through, now.
“This doesn’t only apply to our situation, but for the most part, battlefield sites are gold mines when it comes to finding valuable stuff,” I said.
“A gold mine?” asked Louise.
“Soldiers that go off to battle are usually equipped with 10 times, or even 100 times more valuable equipment than the average person. Just because the soldiers die, doesn’t mean their items lose any value. That’s why, ever since the beginning of warfare, people have gone to battlefield sites to collect items left behind and sell them for a profit.”
“Humans… They do stuff like that, too, huh?” asked Colette, sounding disgusted.
“They do,” I said. “Well, those people do so because they desperately need to.”
“What do you mean?” asked Colette.
“Some kid looking for some pocket change might come along and pick up an unused magical item, and then just by touching it, they could trigger it and be killed by its effects… Those kinds of stories aren’t uncommon,” I said.
“That’s terrible,” said Colette.
“Yeah, it is,” I said, sadly.
I continued, “And most dragon knights and dragons usually have equipment that’s even more valuable than a regular soldier’s.”
“So that’s why that guy included the rights to collecting those items as part of our payment,” said Emma.
I nodded and said, “That’s exactly right.”
☆
It took us three days to get to the Danzig Valley.
It would have normally taken two, but in order to maintain Louise’s sleep schedule, we arrived one day later.
We had used the guild map to find the exact location of the battlefield site that Roland had told us about.
The place was… an absolute scene of carnage.
There were twenty human bodies scattered about, and upwards of thirty dragon remains.
With no exaggeration, there were heaps of bodies and streams of blood.
“Emma, do you sense any enemies around us?” I asked.
Emma was a Zmei-type dragon. These dragons were known for their combat skills. They were good at fighting of course, but they also had a keen ability to sense when enemies were afoot.
Emma looked around and swept the horizon with her line of sight.
“We are all right, sir. I sense no enemies around us,” said Emma.
“Got it,” I said, nodding.
As I continued nodding, I turned around to face Emma, Louise, and Colette.
I took out a small locket from my breast pocket.
“I want us to split up and search for these. According to the information I was given, every one of these troops is required to be in possession of a locket like this containing their will at all times,” I said.
“Yes, sir,” said Emma.
“All righty,” said Louise.
The two of them accepted their orders and got to work, immediately.
“This job sucks,” said Colette, unwilling to help.
“Hey, I’m sorry for asking you to do something this messed up. If you really can’t handle it, then you can sit this one out,” I said.
“C-can’t handle it? I never said anything like that,” said Colette.
“Really?” I asked.
“I just said that this job sucks. But a job’s a job, so I’ll do it,” said Colette.
“All right… Thanks, I appreciate it,” I replied, petting her head. Since dragons’ scales were so thick, I was basically hitting her when I pet her.
“Psh, whatever,” said Colette, turning around and starting her search of the dead soldiers.
With the four of us working together, it only took us about five minutes to collect the soldiers’ wills.
“That’s all of them,” I said. “Colette, hold on to these, will you?” I handed her the twenty lockets.
“All right,” said Colette, swallowing all of the lockets, and saving them in her Mushkhushushu-type belly.
“Okay, let’s go home,” said Colette. “I don’t want to hang around here much longer.”
“Ah, hold on. I want you guys to help me out with one more thing,” I said.
“There’s more?” asked Colette.
“Yeah. Let’s give the dragons here a proper burial,” I said.
All three dragons looked back at me with a puzzled look.
“Did you say a burial, sir?” asked Emma.
“Yeah. We can’t…” I looked around us. There were fallen dragon remains all around us, lying in the field. “We can’t just leave them out in the field like this. It’s just too sad.”
“Master?” asked Louise.
“Hm? What?” I asked.
“Do you mean we’re going to make graves for these dragons?” asked Louise.
“Yeah.”
All three of them grew even more bewildered, and were shocked into silence.
“Master…” said Louise.
“Yeah?”
“You’re weird, aren’t you?”
“Maybe I am. Sorry for making you put up with such a weird guy,” I said.
“No, no. You’re weird, but… You’re a good person,” said Louise.
“Yes. Thank you very much, Cyril-san,” said Emma.
Louise and Emma seemed truly happy.
The fact that they wouldn’t have to leave their dragon brethren, especially those of the same type and family as themselves, out in the open field seemed to raise their spirits.
We split up the work among ourselves, and buried the dragons… We ended up burying the soldiers, too.
While we were burying the dragons, the guild card lit up many times. We ended up accruing quite a lot of experience.[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]
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Love how burying the soldiers is after thought