171 Lesson 41: The Golden Empire (1/2)
”Nice to meet you, Dragon Slayer. My name is Katya.”
That was the first voice of childhood taming in Ilia.
The location is the rooms on the top floor. It's a room that Ilia and I used to stay in. In that room, we heard the story from a girl named Katia.
I didn't realize it when I looked at it from a distance, but Katia was obviously shriveled (soggy). Though she is deceiving with dark makeup, her eyes are dimmed, her cheeks are peeled, and her voice is blurred to speak.
I prioritize ease of movement, or I put my brown hair together in a dough behind my head, but there's no way to tie it, and it hurts to look like the girls of my age.
”As you can see, I am one who serves the God of the Law. When I was little, I lived in the same village of Merte as Mr. Ilia.”
As Katya turns her attention to Him and Ilia, the cleric warrior of ”The Sword of the Falcon” nods snugly to affirm Katya's words.
I had guessed from the chest seal (emblem) that Katia was a former member of the A-rank party Silver Star. He reunited with Ilya, who had gathered information about the king of beasts (Behemoth) in this city, and told him about me from the mouth of Ilya.
Katia, who eventually found out that the Dragon Killer (I) was visiting Berca again, was waiting for me to come to Ilia regularly. That is what led us to today.
The problem is that Katia wanted to see me, but, well, this doesn't have to be interrogated. If you are a dragon killer, the demons of the desert are not enough to fear. It is easy to imagine what Katia would have thought.
In fact, the next word that came out of Katia's mouth was what I expected.
”Dear Dragon Killer, please help us search for our fellow Silver Stars! The untouched area is the deepest part of the Catalan desert, where the King of the Beast (Behemoth) has been witnessed in the past. I think it is also in line with your purpose!
That's how Katia bows her head with a desperate face.
If you ask me, they say it was the leader of 'Silver Star' who freed Katya from her slave status, and this girl feels deeply beneficial to the leader. Perhaps he also has more emotions than benevolence to observe from his disgrace.
I hear that the leaders of ”Silver Star” were out of the news months ago. After just enough time to be treated like a public death, Katia is running for her former companion.
The situation surrounding the girl in front of her, referred to as the situation she had fallen into slavery since childhood, was worthy of sympathy. I can't be ruthless enough to put that kid's desperate wishes in front of me and say, ”I'm sorry I worked for free”. You're right, we're going to the desert to find the king of beasts. It's not a big hassle when it comes to it.
The childhood taming of Ilia and Lars would naturally be familiar to both Priest Saila. I had no intention of refusing to cooperate in that sense either.
- To briefly state something like that, Katia brightened up her face and said, ”Thank you!” I've bowed my head many times.
To Katya, I'll say ”but”.
”Exactly forever, so I want you to understand that”
For example, if a king of beasts (Behemoth) is found outside the untouched zone, I will defeat the king of beasts (Behemoth) there and return to Ishka. Even after defeating the King of the Beasts (Behemoth), he cannot remain in Berca to search for the Silver Star.
I didn't even intend to continue my search by turning over the horn of the king of beasts (Behemoth) to Pope Noah before turning to Berca. Whatever it is today that went missing yesterday, I can't find any significance in a long search in the circumstances after months.
Bad for Katya, but the members of 'Silver Star' are probably dead. The body was also buried in the sand or eaten by demons, either way, it would be difficult to discover.
If I left without a lid, I wouldn't be cooperating to find the Silver Star, but to make the girl in front of me feel better. As it stood, Katia kept running in hopes that there would only be, because she finally thought she would fall down forcefully.
... when it did, it did. So, maybe it's what Katia wants.
I sigh small to avoid Katia noticing me in tears in my eyes. ”Silver Star” was also likely to be another troublesome seed, in a different way than ”Desert Eagle”, which had teased him with his presence.
”Um, thank you for Katia...”
In the room where Katia leaves, she bows her head with an irritable salute.
Seeing such Ilia, I faintly narrowed my eyes. Unlike Lunamaria and Miroslav, Ilia remains a Class VI Adventurer still belonging to the Ishka Adventurer Guild and a member of The Sword of the Falcon (Hayabusa).
When I stayed in Belka earlier, after eating my soul in Ilaria, I left Ilaria in Belka and headed to Kogashima. It is true that I was just a little concerned about what Ilia's attitude would be like to be away from me for a long time. In fact, it also considered the possibility that Ilia was disappearing from Berca.
But this is how Ilia remains in Berca.
- Hmm, apparently there's no problem. Well, if you tried to make Ilia, who was exposed to Hydra's death poison, you wouldn't have been able to leave me in order to get the antidote, so you wouldn't have had a choice but to obey.
Hiding those insides, I responded to Ilaria.
”It doesn't matter. As I said to her, the king of beasts (Behemoth) has priority. But we were talking about childhood tampering in the village, but how did we meet again? Did you just face each other in the temple of the law?
”I don't know... I heard someone was gathering information about the king of beasts (Behemoth) and he came to see me from the other side. That's when we noticed each other.”
”Right. Have you notified Lars yet?
It was a question I didn't care about, but Ilia chewed her lips and nagged when she heard this.
”No, Katya stopped me. I'm not going back to Merte Village anymore, so stop letting me know about myself.”
I heard that. I put my arms together. If you had been freed from slavery, you would have been able to return home at any time. Even if you couldn't leave Berca because of circumstances, it's not hard to let your family know you're safe.