Book 4: Chapter Second Tactic of Slaying a Dragon: “A Powerful Steed”
Book 4: Chapter Second Tactic of Slaying a Dragon: “A Powerful Steed”
Iacchi said that after the unicorn freed itself, the entire city went into lockdown mode with only a few small passageways for human entry, so the unicorn had definitely not escaped out of the city yet. However, for some reason, even though searches were conducted meticulously throughout the night, the unicorn still hadn’t been found.
To prevent the situation from dragging on for too long, which might lead to the escape of the unicorn or the capture of the unicorn by someone else who might smuggle it out of the country, the Adventurers’ Guild had decided to offer five hundred gold ducats as an award to whoever managed to capture the unicorn. The only restrictions were that the unicorn could not be killed or allowed to come to serious harm.
I started contemplating Iacchi’s information, but no matter how much I thought about it, I could only conclude that the first thing I needed to do was catch the unicorn before anyone else.
Time is of the essence! I immediately asked the others, “Where is my equipment?”
Hearing my words, Sybil and Yuna exchanged glances with each other. The former then very reluctantly removed a badge, gazing longingly at it for quite some time before placing it in my hand.
I looked at the badge in my hand. It was about the size of my palm and was made of metal, but a very strong dark element shrouded it. I had to make quite an effort to distinguish the metal element characteristic of metals from the enveloping dark element to make out the actual shape of the badge.
The badge had a motif embossed on it, simple lines forming a very imposing-looking… animal.
For a moment, I couldn’t remember what kind of animal it was. I probably hadn’t encountered it very often before. Still, the badge looked very familiar, so it should be mine.
I waited a bit, but neither of them made a move to give me any other items. Surprised, I asked, “That’s all? I don’t even have a sword? Where are my clothes?!”
Although I was wearing clothes right now, they consisted only of a simple white shirt and brown pants. My instincts told me that these were not my clothes, and that I needed to get back my original clothes no matter what happened… Those weren’t cheap knock-offs!
“You’re a cleric. Clerics only use staves, not swords.”
Yuna gave a detailed explanation. “Your old clothes can’t be worn anymore either. We found you in the forest, and at that time, you were surrounded by burnt trees and grass. Your entire body was burnt, your clothes blackened and ripped, and your staff… Sorry, but I think that it must have been consumed by the fire.”
Consumed by the fire… Why don’t I feel even a little sad over that fact?
This doesn’t seem quite right, since that should be something very important to me, right? Yet I don’t feel even a little sad over it. If I think about it, maybe it’s actually not something that can be consumed by a fire?
Guess I can leave that to the side for now. I continued asking. “Is there really nothing else?”
Yuna and Sybil both shook their heads.
Really? I touched the area in front of my chest. I still feel as though I should have something else with me… Oh well!
“Alright! Now, the first step is to capture a female virgin…”
“You really want to capture a virgin?” Igor blurted out, shocked. He then glanced at Yuna miserably again before turning to me. “You can’t tell who’s a virgin, so how are you going to catch one?”
I answered matter-of-factly, “How about catching a little girl? After all, when we’re done luring out the unicorn, we can just drop her back at her home!”
“Capturing a little girl? That doesn’t sound very good…” Woodrow replied, somewhat troubled.
“Of course it’s not good! We absolutely cannot do that!” Yuna stared at me very angrily. “We can’t ever do that, or else you’ll definitely regret it. You’re a cleric of the God of Light. Everyone knows that the clerics of the God of Light are the most kind-hearted people around. If you regain your memories after going through with this, you’ll definitely be remorseful for the rest of your life!”
Remorseful for the rest of my life? I froze. Am I…such a nice person?
“Why are you so anxious?” Iacchi snickered. “We don’t need to capture a little girl; we can just hire one!”
He nodded his head, and knowingly said, “We can look for a poor family’s young daughter. For ten copper ducats we can hire her for an entire day. But we must be sure to look for one that’s young enough, or else she might not be a virgin anymore. There’s no helping that, since we’re talking about a poor family’s daughter after all! Ten copper ducats are enough to hire her for an entire day, no matter what you want her to do for you, hehe…”
“Iacchi!” Yuna scolded loudly.
Iacchi shrugged his shoulders, and stopped talking.
I fell silent. After listening to Iacchi talk, I felt a little uncomfortable… Maybe Yuna is right, and I might not actually be a bad guy. If I captured a little girl, I might truly feel remorseful for my entire life… But! Since we can hire one, it should be fine.
No need to capture a little girl, yet the mission is still open to us — I can face my own conscience as well as my love for money this way. It’s really the best of both worlds! I definitely have a lot to learn from Iacchi in the future!
After making up my mind, I smiled at Iacchi. However, for some reason, he only gave me a very sly smirk in return.
“I understand, you can go hire a girl,” Iacchi said. He shook his head, first giving me a look that seemed to say that I was hopeless, then giving me a sly look as he winked his eyes at me. Finally, he muttered, “Bro, aren’t I so nice to you? Whenever you heal me, be sure to put in more effort!”
…Maybe I should not learn from him after all.
“No way!” Yuna immediately opposed that suggestion and decisively said, “Sybil and I will go hire the little girl.”
“Alright then!”
Woodrow immediately agreed and proceeded to split the tasks. “Yuna and Sybil will hire the girl; Iacchi, you’ll continue gathering information. I will go and prepare some equipment for catching the unicorn. Igor, you and Grisia can go off and start the search.”
I looked at Igor and politely said, “Lead the way.”
“No problem, comrade!”
Igor slapped me hard on the shoulder, and then with three parts gallantness and two parts solemnity, said, “Come join me in sending my sword and leather armor off for repair, then we can go have a drink!”
“Huh?” I stopped and asked uneasily, “But the search…”
I looked toward our other teammates, but they had all left one after another, presumably to fulfill their own assigned task.
Igor matter-of-factly answered, “We can always look on the road. A tavern’s also a great place to gather information!”
I stopped short, turning to look at Woodrow who had already walked to the door. Woodrow also turned around and smiled at me, explaining, “Don’t be so nervous. Gathering information isn’t a warrior’s responsibility. I just want him to keep an eye and ear open. I don’t really mean for him to gather information. Also, gathering information isn’t a cleric’s responsibility either. Since you’re accompanying Igor to the tavern, go ahead and get a meal! You slept for such a long time, and even though we fed you syrup, you should be quite hungry, right?”
Clerics are supposed to stay at the back and enjoy the cool air… The sentence suddenly flashed through my mind, although I kind of doubted if this was also “general knowledge.”
“Let’s go! Grisia, join me for a drink…” Igor stopped speaking, looking at me doubtfully before he asked in hesitation, “If we drink a cup or two, you won’t fall drunk, right? You don’t look as if you can hold your liquor.”
Woodrow, who had already walked out of the room, stuck his head in through the doorway again and warned, “Igor, if Grisia can’t hold his liquor, don’t force him to drink. Being a little tipsy is fine, but you can’t get him outright drunk. You know the rules.”
“Fine, how disappointing…” Igor murmured discontentedly.
Wine!
After I heard this, I could not help licking my lips… Maybe I wasn’t someone who couldn’t hold his liquor well after all.
Igor and I walked out into the streets. Even though it was nighttime, the city was still bustling with activity, and throngs of people were moving about. Both sides of the streets were crowded with stalls, and there were various types of items being sold. Different elements of all types merged together, so I had a hard time piecing everything together. However, when I did manage to piece something together, I felt a great sense of accomplishment.
“Grisia!” Igor yelled suddenly.
Bam!
The scene before my eyes turn dark, my forehead hurting so badly that I could only squat down and hold my head with both of my hands…
“My god! Such a big pillar, and you can still slam into it without blinking an eye?” Igor said, stunned. “What the heck are you using your large eyes for?”
So I hit a pillar, no wonder it hurts so badly… I growled furiously, “There’s too much stuff here, so I couldn’t piece things together in time!”
“Piece what together?” Igor asked blankly.
“Ow, it hurts a lot, ow…” I cradled my head and whimpered. This hit really felt as though it had split my head open.
“You hit the pillar hard enough that the pillar even cracked. There’d be something funny going on if it didn’t hurt.” Igor chided me, “You’re a cleric, heal yourself, and when you’re done let’s hurry up and leave. Everyone’s already staring at us.”
Heal myself… After waking up, even though I knew I was a cleric, I had yet to use a healing spell. I wonder what the first step is?
“Minor Heal!”
I blanked out, but holy element had already surrounded me, and then it transformed into a different element before all of it burrowed into my forehead; the more it burrowed, the more the pain lessened.
Oh, so this is the way to perform a healing spell!
An unfamiliar voice started guffawing, saying, “Haha! Igor, I thought you were already very stupid. I can’t believe your friend is even more of an idiot. He even managed to crack a pillar.”
“What? I’m not stupid enough to run right into a pillar… Also, Grisia isn’t stupid!” Igor roared. Halfway through, he noticed his mistake and hurriedly turned his head and explained to me, “Really, you’re not stupid. It’s just that your heavy injuries are barely healed, so your reaction is a bit slow. That’s why you didn’t even notice the pillar, and ran into it just like that.”
…If you hadn’t explained, I might not have even cared, but once you did, all I want to do is grab your head and ram it into the pillar!
“Are you alright? Did the healing spell just now completely heal your injuries?” A rather gentle voice sounded, but unfortunately, it was a guy’s voice.
Before I had the chance to answer, the unfamiliar voice that had called me stupid before started up again.
“Kylie, why do you want to waste another healing spell?” He snappily said, “Even though it’s just a Minor Heal, you can only cast it up to five times a day.”
The man who had such a gentle voice that it could give people goose bumps, Kylie, spoke again. “It shouldn’t be a problem. For the next few days, we won’t be going out of the city, so there’s no need to use Heal.”
I stood up, examining the others. Even though only two people spoke, in actuality there were four people in the group; they looked like a team. The person who had first started talking with Igor seemed to be a warrior, as his wind element was rather high, probably because he focused on speed. The person who had healed me, needless to say, was of course a cleric. His body, naturally emitted the holy element, though it wasn’t as strong as mine.
Does this mean I’m stronger than him?
The guy was facing me, but he questioned Igor instead, “Igor, he isn’t one of your teammates right?”
“Of course he is; he just joined us. Grisia is a cleric.”
“Cleric?” He sounded a little surprised, confusedly asking, “Don’t you guys already have Yuna, a warpriest?”
Igor bragged to him, “Grisia is a cleric of the God of Light, just like the sissy from your team.”
Who’s just like a sissy…
The sissy Kylie gasped, “So you’re actually a comrade from the Church of the God of Light?
“A cleric from the Church of the God of Light? You’re not pulling our legs?”
Igor immediately said, “Of course he is, and Grisia’s healing spells are even very powerful!”
“Really?” Kylie sounded somewhat pleasantly surprised as he said, “You look very young! Being so powerful when you’re this young, that’s really an accomplishment. What level are you at?”
Level? I felt lost. I had absolutely no idea what level I was as a cleric. That I am a cleric was even something others had to tell me, and the fact that clerics have different levels was something that I had heard of only now.
“Grisia doesn’t need to say any incantations to cast Heal!” Igor curiously asked, “Sissy, what level do you think he’s at, huh?”
“Doesn’t need to say any incantations?!”
Kylie shrieked with a resounding voice, making everyone around him jump.
After some time, he finally stuttered out, “This, this… Normally incantations are needed, but if it’s Minor Heal, if it has been used often, maybe the incantations might not be needed! The Cardinals might be able to do it…”
“Cardinals?” I asked. “What are those?”
Kylie fell into silence, barely able to say, “The Cardinals are the four bishops just beneath His Holiness the Pope in rank… You… are you really a cleric?”
“I don’t know either,” I honestly replied.
“You don’t know?” The four people of the other team all widened their eyes.
Igor hurriedly added, “That’s because Grisia lost his memories.”
“Lost his memories?”
They all had a stunned look on their faces. Their reactions were exactly like Woodrow’s and the rest of the team’s when they had first heard this.
After quite a while, the sissy doubtfully said, “Grisia? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a cleric by the name of Grisia!”
Hearing this, I really felt a little disappointed. If there were someone who knew me, then I should be able to find my teammates even faster. But I still politely answered, “It’s alright.”
“I’m very sorry I couldn’t be of any help.” Kylie gave me a very apologetic look, and said, “Maybe you ought to try to go to the Church. For someone who stands out as much as you, there will definitely be a lot of people who know you. However, the Kingdom of Kissinger doesn’t have a branch of the Church of the God of Light, so I’m afraid that you’ll have to head back to the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound, or maybe the Kingdom of Moon Orchid that you’d need to pass through might have a few branches of the Church.”
I nodded and said, “Thank you for the information.”
I lifted my head, pouring an entire bottle of wine down my throat before I was satisfied enough to wipe my mouth.
Beside me, Igor stared at me in astonishment and yelled, “Grisia, stop drinking! You’ve already drunk three bottles! Damn, damn! If Woodrow finds out that I let you get drunk, he’ll kill me for sure…”
I swiveled my head to look at him, and articulately said, “A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked…Who’s drunk again?”
“Alright…You’re not drunk.”
Igor scratched his head, stood up and said, “Continue drinking then, but don’t you dare to get drunk! I’ll head over first with my sword to the weapons shop next door. Also, I’ll help you pay for your drinks for now, but afterward when we finish our missions and you get your share, you’ll have to repay me!”
“If so, then I’m not going to drink anymore!” I shouted aloud with surprise.
“…”
After walking out of the tavern, I indignantly grumbled, “Can’t you even pay for just a little wine?”
“You’ve already drunk three bottles, that wasn’t just a little wine! The wine you ordered costs a silver ducat each…”
Even though I wanted to say that it was just three silver ducats, I couldn’t so much as speak the words out loud. A bottle of wine actually costs a silver ducat! I had just downed three silver ducats… I hadn’t even received my share of the mission’s rewards, yet I had already incurred a debt of three silver ducats!
Unicorn, where are you?
My hundred gold ducats, where are you?
At this time, Igor started laughing loudly before saying, “However, I really didn’t expect to see you hold your liquor so well! Since we have a mission to complete at the moment, I can’t join you for a round, but some other day when we have no missions, let us men drink to our hearts’ content!”
“You’re paying?” I eagerly asked.
“…You really aren’t a normal miser. You love money even more than Iacchi, and he’s a rogue!” Igor finished mumbling, and then said boisterously, “The one who gets drunk first pays, how about that?”
“No problem!”
As I had lost my memories, I had no idea exactly how much wine I’m able to drink, but I had a strange sense of self-confidence… If it’s a drinking competition, I definitely won’t lose to anyone!
“Here we are.” Igor stopped in his tracks and turned his head around, telling me, “You have no interest in weapons, right? If you feel bored, the street opposite this one sells staves; you can go ahead and choose a new one. The team will pay for it first from our team fund, although in the future we’ll deduct it from your rewards… Geez! Your expression is saying, if you have to pay for it out of your own pocket, you won’t buy it?”
I vigorously nodded my head.
Dumbfounded, Igor said, “The cleric of a team can’t go around without a staff. Forget it! Join me here first, and later we’ll go to the staff shop together. You don’t have your memories right now, so I’m afraid that the owner there will cheat you… eh! Even though that’s not really likely, since you love money so much… So much that it’s as if you can even forget that you had lost your memories.”
“What! I really did lose my memories,” I grandly proclaimed.
“I really can’t tell. You don’t even seem to be worried at all!” Igor chatted with me with his head turned while stepping into the weapons shop.
I shrugged my shoulders and answered, “I just feel that there’s nothing to worry about, and that my comrades will most definitely come and look for me.”
“Guess so…”
The minute we stepped into the weapons shop, the owner immediately stepped forward to greet us, his eyes sweeping in both me and Igor. Immediately, he started attending to Igor, completely ignoring me. Should I say that he has an eye for money-grubbing or a good eye for warriors? With merely one look, he immediately determined that I wasn’t someone who uses a sword in his profession, thus he didn’t even bother to greet me.
Seeing that Igor was talking enthusiastically with the owner, I could only walk around the weapons shop on my own. As far as I could see, the shop’s weapons were still skewed toward swords and knives. Weapons like swords sounded very familiar to me, but staves sounded completely foreign… Do I really use a staff?
Unable to stop myself, I picked up a sword and skillfully waved it around. It feels familiar; maybe I really do use swords… Eh! Where’s the sword?
Confused, I stared at my empty hands. Wasn’t I holding a sword in my hands just now? How could it have disappeared after I merely waved it around twice?
“Ah!” Igor suddenly shouted aloud, and then there was a clanging sound of metal hitting the floor.
I looked back. Oh! So the sword had flown out of my hands, and had squarely hit the back of Igor’s head… Luckily it’s the handle that hit him!
“Grisia, what did you throw at me… Damn it!”
Igor painfully rubbed his head, turned around, stared at the sword on the floor, and then looked at me disbelievingly. I immediately made the world’s most innocent expression to face him, and then I used my most sorrowful tone and repented, “I’m sorry, my hand momentarily slipped.”
“Your slip-up almost took my life… Cleric! You’re not allowed to touch any swords.” Igor unhappily warned me, and then he turned his head back to continue his bargaining with the shop owner.
I walked over, lifted up the sword and put it back at its original place. After that I didn’t dare touch a single weapon… Maybe my weapon really is a staff after all!
At least, if a staff slips out of my hand and hits someone, it won’t cause someone’s death.
Not being able to touch anything really bored me. Looking at Igor who was still in a heated debate with the shop owner, I thought they would probably still have to haggle about the price for a long time. So I yelled, “Igor, I’m going to head over and look at the staves first.”
“Okay, but don’t buy any yet!” Igor didn’t even look at me when he replied.
“Alright.”
After I promised him that, I walked out of the weapons shop and did a search. Immediately, I discovered that opposite the weapons shop was another shop that had a fake wooden staff hanging on each side of its door. That should be the shop that Igor had mentioned earlier.
I started crossing the street, but suddenly, I felt my sleeve being tugged… Who is it!?
It really shocked me that someone could suddenly appear close to me… I could see in all directions, so no one should be able to come so close yet be unnoticed!
I turned around and faced the person, but because of that I could no longer keep my guard up. The person who had tugged on my sleeve only reached my chest in height, had a round face, had hair reaching the waist, and wore a long skirt… It’s obviously a little girl!
Maybe I had been too fixated on searching for the staff shop opposite the street, so that was why I hadn’t noticed her!
I lowered my head to look at her, and in a gentle voice asked, “Hello, what’s your name?”
The little girl shyly replied, “Scarlet.”
Scarlet? What a strange name. I continued asking, “Did you want big brother to do something for you, Scarlet?”
“Big brother… Come with me!”
Scarlet suddenly stopped tugging on my sleeve, instead using both hands to pull my right hand, and just like that she began dragging me off with her forcefully. I quickly explained to her, “Wait, wait a minute, I’m waiting for my comrade, so I can’t just go off with you.”
Yet Scarlet didn’t give up, and wholeheartedly pulled me along. At the same time, she continued exclaiming, “Come with me, come with me…”
Of course I couldn’t just be dragged along by a little girl; even though I may be a weak cleric, I’d never allow it! However, Scarlet was very determined, so the two of us were stuck in this stalemate for quite some time. Finally, Scarlet’s eyes that were brimming with the water element managed to defeat me successfully.
I could only bring her along to the weapons shop. I poked my head in. Igor was still bargaining with the shop owner, and it looked as though that wouldn’t end for quite a while. I yelled to him, “Igor, I’m going off first. Let’s meet later at the staff shop, alright?”
“That’s fine.” Igor again didn’t even bother turning his head around to reply, and continued arguing with the shop owner.
After getting his agreement, I hugged my chest with both arms, looked down toward Scarlet and said brusquely, “Alright then! Now I’m yours, so you can take me to wherever it is you wanted to take me, happy?”
Scarlet immediately smiled, and the water element in her eyes also vanished without a trace.
I was dragged along the entire way by Scarlet, and we turned at a countless number of street corners. Luckily, I noticed that my memory seemed to be quite good. Even when we turned left three times, turned right five times, and then walked through a five-way intersection’s third street from the left, I could still remember the entire way.
Even though I remember the path, it won’t do if I walk too far, as I still have to look for the unicorn… No, I mean I have to look for Igor!
I curiously asked, “Scarlet, where are you taking me to?”
Scarlet let out a tinkling laugh like silver bells and pulled me along to turn into another alley, before finally stopping and pointing to the front. She said softly, “See for yourself, big brother!”
I turned to “look” toward where Scarlet pointed… Even though there was still some distance between us, I saw what Scarlet wanted to show me clearly. Although I had lost my memories and had no idea whether I had ever seen such a thing before, when I looked at it I almost immediately knew what it was…
It was a unicorn.
It was just in the basement of a house, and the holy element radiating off of it was so strong it was startling. Even though there were a lot of different elements separating us, I could still clearly see its form. Its shape indeed looked like a horse, but it was somewhat finer and more elegant than a normal horse.
The most obvious difference between it and a regular horse was the horn on its head. The holy element from the horn was so strong that I had a feeling that I couldn’t “look” at it for long periods of time, and the shape was also a bit blurry.
Then, it suddenly lifted its head and looked in my direction… No! It is looking at “me.”
It looked at me, just like how I was looking at it.
After quite some time, I finally recovered from the shock of seeing a unicorn for the first time. I lowered my head and said, “Did it want you to look for me? Scarlet… Scarlet?”
There was no one beside me.
I blanked out, but I didn’t feel particularly surprised. After all, I was currently someone without memories. There were too many things that I didn’t understand. Maybe being able to conjure a little girl is actually a special ability of unicorns.
I walked toward where the unicorn was and stepped into a house. The interior was quite ruined, with debris everywhere and cobwebs on almost everything. The floor was also covered in a thick layer of dust, as if no one had come here for a few hundred years. No wonder no one had thought of coming here to look for the unicorn, but… How had the unicorn gotten down into the basement?
As I could already “see” it, I knew it was originally sitting on the floor. But the moment it noticed me walking toward it, it stood up and kept walking around in circles in the basement, looking as if it was very excited.
I quickened my steps even more, found the stairs leading to the basement, and ran toward where the unicorn was in one dash.
It’s just in front of me, just five steps away… No, it stepped closer by two steps again.
Although I couldn’t even determine whether Sybil was pretty or not, I knew that this unicorn before my eyes was definitely extraordinarily beautiful, and that it should definitely be a snow-white animal of elegance.
Wait a minute, snow-white? I still have some memory of snow — it should be something formed from the condensation of water — but what is “white?”
At this moment, the unicorn suddenly stepped forward again, standing before me, even nudging its head against me.
“You like me, don’t you?”
I smiled at it, and even stretched out my hand to stroke the side of its neck. It arched its neck, looking as if it was enjoying it a lot, and then it even lowered its head to lick my hand…
“That tickles, don’t do that, hahaha! Don’t you only like virgins? I’m not a…” I stopped short. Wait a minute…
Could it be that, I am a pure, innocent… virgin?!
The unicorn then even more intimately started rubbing its head against my chest, its entire head nestled against me.
“Stupid horse, go away! I’m not a virgin!”
The unicorn however, started licking my face… Bastard, am I so pure that you’re willing to lick me?!
“I know! Maybe I’m only eighteen.”
I suddenly thought of this and mumbled to myself, “If so, then it wouldn’t be surprising if I am a virgin… That’s it! Definitely, I’m only eighteen, no! I might only be sixteen even!”