YGDA Ch 48

Chapter 48 – In Front of Love, I Won’t be Cheap with My Effort

“This really is something……”

Renya couldn’t help muttering that seeing the spectacle before his eyes.

In front of him is a small mountain created from piling plates, plates, more plates, and even more plates. And the one who piles up those plates is the dragon incarnate, Deen. After being unconscious for a day after he fainted before Renya and the others, the first thing that Deen says after being conscious is that he got hungry.

By Elvira’s advice, Deen should be fed with a diet mainly consist of meat and anyway have a very large portion at that. With that advice as baseline, the girls all together cook an enormous amount of food that might takes weeks to finish and yet all of it was already gone inside Deen’s stomach.

What makes Renya even more surprised is that even when hastily eat all those food, Deen’s table manner isn’t the least bad at all. No, he even looks like enjoying a full course meal at a high class restaurant because of his refined table manner. He looks calm and even slow when eating yet the speed which the food disappear is really unworldly.

As expected from the species that reign over on top of this world food chain. Even Renya feel like prostrating himself before this overwhelming volume of food.

(No no no no. There are no relations between this and his species aren’t there?)

But before he really do prostrate, he hurriedly reconsider it. Renya’s mind unintentionally started to avoid seeing the truth before this illogical view.

Renya start to feel bit remorse because he said to Elvira that she can use as much food as she needs from their warehouse. If this situation continues then the party might need to stop halfway in the journey to harvest more meat.

Deen aside, they also need meat, Renya also need meat. Meat is an important consumable for growing up (?) men like him. Especially nowadays when he would have more ‘physical activity’, emergency with the food supply is a number one concern.

Renya had given up counting on Deen’s finished plate. After a while, Deen finally put down his fork and knife on top of the table. Renya already don’t count what n-th plate is this. For the time being, he remind himself that he need to re-check the food supply catalogue just in case and after keeping it in his mind, he start to ask Deen questions.

“Err…… so, did you still need more?”

“No thank you. I had my fill. Please forgive my manners. Because healing the wound burns a lot of my energy, my body craves for a large amount of nutrient in order to refill it”

‘A large amount’ is not enough to describe it in the least! Is what Renya want to shout out loud but he just swallow it and put out a wry smile instead.

In Renya side is Elvira who had done with her cooking and is now waiting the table for Renya. She looks down and has a remorseful expression.

“I’m sorry, Renya-sama. For living a normal everyday life we can be satisfied with a normal amount of food but as expected if we got wounded heavily then a dragon’s body would need enough nutrient for the recuperation process and that standard is……”

“Not calculated from a human body but from a dragon body right? It makes sense to me now”

Actually, Renya was confused. Just where did the hell all those food gone for? Looking at Deen slender body, he just can’t imagine it. Where Deen stores that great amount of food? Much less how did he digest it? But when he thinks of it a little bit more, he came to this conclusion and it all start to make sense to him.

Just on the side note, Renya had not taken his morning breakfast yet but after looking at such scene, he totally lost all of his appetite. He only had half the usual amount of food he usually eats even if the menu today which consists of meat, bread, and salad is one of his favorite. Now, he is savoring his after meal tea.

The other member deals with the clean up and after they done cleaning, they all gather together in the dining. Renya shoot a glance at Deen who had calmed down from his meal to urge him to start explaining the details about his wound. Deen meekly nods to Renya and slowly starts his explanation.

“If I had to say it directly, it was because of the foolishness of one person that the village is on the verge of total destruction”

“Total destruction……!?”

Even if the village of the dragons is just a small community of a small scale settlement but to totally destroy that is simply not a simple matter. Renya tries to affirm that by sending his gazes toward Elvira.

She just nods silently toward Renya’s gaze. And even with just that simple gesture, everyone present could feel the graveness of the situation. How could they not? Even if, according to Elvira’s story, the dragons are mostly pass everyday life with their human form nowadays but they are actually the phantasmal race that widely known as the absolute tyrant or be called as the god’s apostles. They have many kinds of description about them but those all have one similarity. All those description had the meaning of [Strongest]. And if anyone says ‘to exterminate a village of that species’, what would one imagine?

“Actually we of the black dragon tribe are guarding a certain seal. And the thing that sealed inside is something that was hated for it habit in cannibalism, something that reaches the domain of gods after devouring up many dragons that almost drive us to extinction. And that thing is, the evil dragon”

“I can easily imagine that but…… does this means that the seal has been broken?”

“No, not yet. Having the seal broken is in fact easier to handle as we already have many ways to deal with it. But what actually happened was that someone, even if he was the descendent of the guardian family that had been guarding the seal for ages, is trying to absorb the evil dragon power for himself! That bastard thinks that he can absorb the evil dragon power while leaving its body still in a sealed state”

(Ahh, this kind of coveting pattern eh…… Indeed this problem would make Deen troubled very much……)

In fantasy genre stories, this kind of sealed up evil is something commonly found. Within the usual plot, it was usually either the seal lift up because of time passage, or because of someone intentionally lifts it up using the ‘correct’ way. Against those two ‘proper’ ways, people would already have countermeasures against it because it was expectable.

But, most of the time, real life won’t always follow those ‘proper’ paths and would always provides more ‘plot twist’. And sometimes, those ‘plot twist’ would be more troublesome to handle compared to the usual scenarios of broken seal.

“But Deen-san, why did that guy suddenly covet for a mere evil dragon power?”

“Floria-sama’s question is reasonable but…… That guy is, in a bad meaning, the most dragon like guy among us. He is prideful with his power, he thinks highly of himself because of his bloodline. Anyway, he is just like the model character for dragons that would be subjugated by the human hero like in those fables”

Indeed all that present here had the same image from hearing that dragon description: the kind of dragon that meddle too much in humans affair then gets subjugated by a passing hero and dying like a dog in the end.

Deen continue his explanation while knitting his brow. It seems like this problem had given him quite the headache.

“That guy, seems to have fallen for Elvira from a few decades ago…… Well, at that time Elvira mops him to the floor without much trouble and successfully rejects his advances. And after Elvira leave the village to go on a journey to find her perfect someone, that guy also follow suit and went on a journey in search for power or so he said……”

“That guy…… was he really such an admirable person like that I wonder? I remember him screaming aloud that the three words he hates the most was friendship, effort, and defeat”

Hearing Elvira’s mumbling, Renya looks at her spitefully and says aloud in his heart ‘Oi you! Quickly apologizes to a certain magazine from my world!’ (Eros notes: I dunno what this is)

Well, put aside Renya sentimental moment, Deen, who also heard Elvira’s mumbling, continue his story with a loathsome expression.

“But it seems like his true motives was to secretly tail after us after all. Fortunately, just as Elvira said, that guy was pretty bad with our dragon tribe secret arts. He failed to detect our presence after leaving the village”

“Uwa~. So he aims for an accidental meeting with Elvira but in the end he got lost and wanders around without any clear destination for decades? Isn’t that…… how should I say a peerless retard?”

“Floria, that way of saying is really merciless. Well, not like I’m denying your opinion though…… But dragon kin have a long life span so he might just be a very patient person because of it maybe? And he was thinking somewhere along the line like if he continues his journey then he might just someday end up crossing path that kind of thing?”

But against Renya positive assumption, Elvira and Deen uniformly shakes their head denying it heartlessly. That guy is simply just someone who doesn’t think at all. It seems like there are really no salvations left for him.

“After wandering the world blindly for a long time, maybe because he already gets tired of it, he finally go back to the village just a few days ago. And when he gets back, he finally heard the news about Elvira that finally found her supposed one… Well, he gets crazy from anger that even I can’t describe how it was. In the end, he slander me as someone who can’t judge the appropriate men well and start attacking me in his anger”

“So you counter him with one punch and beat him?” (Eros: ONE PUNCH~~)

“Err…… I don’t understand what Renya-sama mean by one punch but…… yes, I did beat him back instead. If I remember right, it was already 48 years since I last saw him but, his skill is just like the old him. Like he doesn’t even get stronger in the least whatsoever. Just what did he do all this time I wonder?”

“I bet he doesn’t even do any training and just fully relying on and abusing his inborn power as dragon while in the mood to fully enjoys his trip. Every dragon kin has this inborn power to ‘hypnotize’ human and he probably abuse that to have humans serve upon him and finally drowning himself in a hedonistic lifestyle. He might even don’t remember me at all during that time”

Elvira says that with full hatred packed in her word, even cold. It is clear that she doesn’t think well about that dragon much less as an acquaintance. Renya opinion about that dragon is falling even lower hearing that. If this was stock exchange, he definitely gets bankrupt if buying that guy stock.

“And then things continued to his rampaging like I told you before. He swept aside dad who tries to stop him when he approaching the seal then he scream out crazy thing like ‘hand over your power! I’m going to be a god!’. Everyone was beyond shocked to this pitiable guy that nobody manages to say anything. His father tries to stop him because he fears something wrong would happen to the seal but at that instant, that stupid guy hit the stone pillar which was the foundation of the seal!”

And from there, the evil dragon aura that leaked out from the seal possessed that stupid dragon then creates a barrier around the seal.

The shockwave from it injuries many and creates panic in the village. Even Deen receive a huge wound because of it. Yet even with such wound that hinders him greatly, he still go to where Renya and Elvira are to inform this because he’s afraid if they would suddenly decides to visit the village in this kind of situation and get involved without suspecting anything so he takes this responsibility to pass this news to them even with his condition.

And the story continues with that bloody meeting yesterday.

“Right now, my father is trying his best to suppress the seal to mineralize it’s negative effect to the surroundings. I have done my job in conveying this bad news to you so I will immediately go back to the village to help my father”

“Wait a bit elder brother. For such an important matter like that then I’m also”

“No. This is our whole tribe consensus for not letting you help. Anyway our current situation is quite bleak and we still haven’t found any good way to solve this so in case of anything happens, Elvira, you have the responsibility to pass on the Blackford blood to the next generation so we would not go extinct”

“If it is about that then doesn’t that responsibility also valid for elder brother isn’t it?”

“No worries about that, my wife and daughter had already evacuate to other village. I must swallow the bitter pill and fight to protect them. Fortunately, the red dragon tribe managed to detect the abnormality that is happening in our village and come to help. With them helping us, we managed to evacuate everyone who are in no condition to fight”

“Elder brother……!”

“Father was happy for you from the bottom of his heart ever since he heard that you finally find a partner that you can trust. That’s why, you don’t have to worry about the village and just live happy okay?”

Deen try his best to get Elvira away from the danger that was fallen to their village. Well, that’s only natural right? He wants to protect his family so he would fight to the end for it.

But that resolution is not something ‘right’ here.

To let his race survive, Deen didn’t really choose the wrong choices in his judgment.

But, there is a god that can deny Deen’s choices here and tells him that it was a big mistake instead.

“Deen, excuse me but I can’t stand listening this farce any longer”

“Renya-sama!?”

“If it was about Elvira’s village then this problem is not something unrelated to me! It’s impossible for me to just ignore this problem and let it pass just like that”

Renya turns his face toward Floria and the other and look at them like saying ‘Isn’t that right?’, asking for their approvals.

And nobody stop him anyway.

“Of course! And to think we finally got this chance to visit Elvira’s village so we could never turn a blind eye to this danger!”

“I also would have nightmares if I just let my friend’s village get destroyed without doing anything”

“There are nothing scary with Renya-oniisan and us around desu!”

Elvira looks surprised looking at the girls who is brimming with motivation to help her for a second before she smiles and nods back at them.

She thought before that she wants to ask for Renya and the girls support to solve this danger but she discards that kind of thinking because of the danger. Thinking about it now, she somehow feels embarrassed.

If it was her, no matter how strong or how mysterious the enemy is, no matter how dangerous the situation is, if it is for the sake of her friends and soon-to-be husband here then she wouldn’t be afraid to stake her life to help them. Yet when the position is reversed now, why does she feel reserved to ask for help?

“That’s right, there’s no need to be reserved right? Then Renya-sama, I apologize for being rude but, could you please lend me your strength to save my hometown?”

“There’s no way for me to reject your request, Elvira. Anri, you should have grasped the exact location of the village right?”

[Yes, Master. From the presumed location I have managed to detect unknown source of energy and a few life sign of a dragon. I conclude that this is the location of Elvira-sama’s village]

“Then Hlidskjalf full power forward! Destination: the village of the dragons!”

[Roger that! Hlidskjalf, take off! ] (Eros: any suggestion for this kind of ship navigating jargon?)

Hlidskjalf starts cruising over the sky while slowly accelerate without even making any vibrations in the process.

Looking at the running cloud outside the window, Deen at last realizes that the place he is currently in now is an outrageous place indeed. But rather than that, there is another important thing he needs to affirm first.

“Renya-sama…… is it really alright? The opponent now is something unknown even for us dragon kin. Moreover, we don’t know how formidable this threat is and yet……”

“Deen-san, a war god is you know, neither someone who fight opponent who he already knows nor someone who fight because he knows that he has a high chance of winning”

Renya smiles brightly while saying that. That smile is a smile that comes from his self awareness as a god that has started blooming.

“Whoever or whatever the opponent is, all I have to do is to drag out my winning chance from it. That is what a war god exactly is”