The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

"This is wonderful, Loren."

Loren promptly took out a tent and some other stuff from his luggage to start preparing for their stay, but Lapis was mesmerized by the treasures under Emery's belly. She picked them up one by one while kneeling on the ground, and letting out a sigh of admiration.

The preparation itself was not particularly urgent and did not require much effort, so Loren figured he could let her do whatever she wanted as long as Emery did not mind.

"My warehouse has some pretty cool stuff lying around, but these are even cooler."

Lapis said with a hint of excitement in her voice. She was holding a palm-sized, transparent, shiny gemstone. It must be a priceless item, but Loren didn't know anything about gems' quality. He looked at her hand without much interest as he continued to work, and Lapis puffed her cheeks in displeasure at his indifference.

"You're not surprised?"

"I'm sure it will fetch a high price just for its size."

If they could take it out of Emery's nest, it would become a fortune. He lacked intention to try though: It was unlikely that the dragon would allow such a thing, and Loren had no desire to steal a treasure from a being willing to share with him a part of her nest.

"It's a feast for the eyes, Loren. You can't even see such a rare thing in the treasure room of some royal castle."

"Is that so?"

"It's a diamond. Have you ever heard of a diamond of this size?"

Loren looked into Lapis' hands again.

The magical light that Lapis had launched to illuminate the nest had already passed its duration and disappeared, and their sources of light now were just the lamp they had pulled out of their luggage and the fire burning with the wood Emery had offered. The colorless and transparent jewel shone in such a way that it attracted the eyes even in such a poor light, and Lapis' eyes shone just as brightly as the jewel as she was holding in her hands.

"I think its value would rival the annual budget of a small country."

"I think it's too big to adorn a finger or a neck."

It was so big that Loren was sure your finger would feel like breaking under the weight if you were to use it as a ring, and your shoulders would stiffen if you were to wear it around your neck.

Lapis puffed her cheeks even more after hearing Loren's pragmatic remark. But from Loren's point of view, no matter how many gems there were in this place, it was all meaningless as they couldn't take any out. He just couldn't understand why Lapis was so excited.

As Loren continued his work, he felt something tapping on the shoulder of his jacket, thumping on the surface of his jacket. Turning his attention to the spot, Loren saw Nig, who had made Loren's shoulders its home, tapping on his shoulder with its legs. He knew that he was being asked to do something but not knowing what exactly, and he wondered if it wanted to be feed.

Come to think of it, Nig hadn't eaten anything since this morning. As a living creature, it would need to eat, and it was natural for it to ask for food when hungry.

A normal spider would probably eat insects, but Nig was hardly one. Still, he had to give it something to eat, so he took out a small piece of dried meat from his luggage, tore it into even smaller pieces, then offered it to Nig. The spider took the dried meat from Loren's hand with its legs, dexterously wrapped it around a thread to create a cocoon-like structure, and put it in its mouth. Then it became motionless once more, but it somehow seemed content.

As Loren was about to resume his work, he suddenly noticed that Gula was not there.

"Loren, this! A treasured sword from the time of the Ancient Kingdom! It doesn't seem to have any notable magic on it, but it has all these exquisite decorations! A masterpiece, which I'm sure will fetch an unthinkable price on the market."

"Hey, where's Gula?"

Ignoring Lapis' excited comment as she pulled out a sword from the treasure pile, Loren asked. Noticing Lapis making a dissatisfied face again, he turned his eyes to the sword she brought over, but his impressions were that the decoration was too obtrusive for it to be used as a weapon and the blade was too thin to be considered sturdy. It didn't have much use.

"Gula? You can find her over there."

Lapis pointed to a corner of the large nest, where he saw Gula running around chasing something. Looking more closely at the things she was chasing, Loren could see that there were several of them scurrying on the ground on four legs, all about half his height.

Gula seemed to have fun chasing the giant-lizard-like creatures around. Eventually, she picked up one and ran back towards Loren and Lapis with a happy look on her face.

"Loren! I caught something edible!"

"No, wait a minute."

The creature was being held up by Gula, and Loren leaned in to observe it more closely. It looked a bit more angular than lizards, and the claws on its toes look pretty sharp. In addition, the protrusions on its back looked like they could grow into wings. Although it had lizard-like eyes, there was a hint of intelligence in them, and the way it looked at Loren seemed like it wanted to be saved as soon as possible.

"Is it from here?"

"Yeah! There were about ten of them. If there are more, should I go get them too?"

In this rocky mountain, they had seen no other creatures besides Emery. As Loren pondered about the identity of the lizard-like creature found in her nest, he suddenly noticed the dragon staring at them. He gently took the lizard-like creature from Gula's hands.

"Could it be…"

"IF YOU'RE GOING TO EAT THAT, YOU'D BETTER BELIEVE YOU'RE GOING TO WAR WITH ME."

In response to Emery's subdued voice, Loren gently lowered the lizard-like creature in his hand to the ground. As soon as its feet touched the ground, the creature scurried away and dove into the pile of treasures under Emery's belly.

"Hey! After the troubles I went through to catch it!"

"Idiot! If you're suicidal, do it by yourself!"

Gula raised her voice in protest at Loren for letting the lizard-like creature to escape, but he immediately shouted at her and brought his fist down onto her head without restraint. As a rather loud and dull sound echoed, Gula wordlessly crouched down on the spot and began twitching.

Loren didn't even bother to help her - he just loosened his fist and sighed. The lizard-like creature that she had chased around and caught should be Emery's offspring, and the dragon seemed to be looking at them with an air of dismay.

"Is that what a baby Ancient Dragon looks like?"

The dragon whelp that Loren had released as well as the ones that hadn't been caught by Gula were peeking out from here and there in the pile of treasure under Emery's belly, watching their group. He didn't know how long it would take for them to grow up to be worthy of being called dragons, but he hoped they wouldn't come to take revenge for what was done today.

"TO BE CORRECT, THEY ARE DRAGON WHELPS. DRAGONS GROW INTO BEINGS CALLED ANCIENT DRAGONS OVER THE YEARS. WOULDN'T IT BE STRANGE TO BE CONSIDERED ANCIENT FROM BIRTH?"

According to Emery's explanation, there was no such thing as an Ancient Dragon race. Dragons that had evolved over the years were called Ancient Dragons, and her children were just dragon whelps.

Emery said, even though dragons were considered to be the most powerful magical beasts, not many were able to survive until they reached the state of being an Ancient.

"LIFESPAN, INJURY, DISEASE - THERE ARE SO MANY FACTORS THAT CAN KILL YOU."

"What do you mean by lifespan? Can't you just continue to live if nothing happens?"

"IF THAT WERE THE CASE, THE POPULATION OF ANCIENT DRAGONS WOULD HAVE BEEN MUCH LARGER. DRAGONS THAT JUST LIVE WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING WILL REACH THE END OF THEIR LIFESPAN IN ABOUT TWO HUNDRED YEARS AT MOST."

Loren thought that it would be enough to live that long, but it seemed that to become an Ancient Dragon, it wasn't.

"So, how long have you lived, Emery?"

"PROBABLY MORE THAN A THOUSAND YEARS."

Emery said that in order to evolve into an Ancient Dragon, a dragon had to live for at least five hundred years, because she herself evolved around that time. Loren believed that since an Ancient Dragon herself says so, it must be correct. In other words, you can only become an Ancient Dragon if you can somehow stay alive for more than twice as long as you would have if nothing happened to you.

"Amazing, isn't it? Ancient Dragons are amazing."

"Living for over a thousand years, does that mean you know a lot about the Ancient Kingdom?"

Lapis, who had been rummaging through the pile of treasures, suddenly became curious and asked such a question. She seemed to hope that Emery, who had lived for a thousand years, would know a lot about the destroyed Ancient Kingdom that she had been hearing about since she started working as an adventurer. But Emery's answer, spoken through a downturned mouth, was not what she had expected.

"THE LARGE COUNTRY THAT PROSPERED IN THE HUMAN REALM ABOUT THREE-HUNDRED YEARS AGO? I'M SORRY, BUT I'VE ALWAYS STAYED HERE, AND I HAVEN'T BEEN TO THE HUMAN REALM MUCH."

Information in different habitats varied, and it seemed that Emery had not been to the human realm very often.

Lapis looked a bit disappointed, but the dragon added:

"I DO HAVE SOME INFORMATION ABOUT MY KIN WHO LIVE IN THE HUMAN REALM."

"Is it alright if you tell us about it?"

"IT'S FINE. BUT YOU SHOULD BE CAUTIOUS WHEN YOU MAKE CONTACTS. FOR YOUR OWN GOOD, DON'T EXPECT THEM TO ALWAYS BE WILLING TO TALK TO YOU. NOT EVERYONE IS A DRAGON LIKE ME."

Emery said and skillfully used her claws to pull out a rolled-up sheaf of paper from the treasure pile underneath her. She untied the string binding the sheets with the tips of her claw, took out one, then rolled it up again and re-tied it with the string before carelessly pushing it back into the treasure pile.

"DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO WRITE WITH? I'LL SHOW YOU WHERE IT IS AND YOU CAN MARK IT."

Emery said, and thrust the paper at Lapis. As Lapis took it and looked at the content, she let out a small whistle.

"A map of the continent? This…. It is a little different from what I know."

The mention of a map of the continent was enough to surprise Loren, but he was twice as surprised by Lapis' words. In the human realm, there was no such thing as a map that described the entire continent. This was because none of the human countries had enough information to create such a map, but it seemed to be common for the dragons and demons.

"IT'S AN OLD MAP, SO THERE'S NO SURPRISE THAT IT'S A LITTLE DIFFERENT. THE TERRAIN MAY HAVE CHANGED A BIT, BUT AS LONG AS YOU KNOW THE GENERAL LOCATION, YOU SHOULD BE FINE."

As Emery began to explain while pointing at the map with her claw, Lapis listened, pen in hand - she had brought it out from her luggage - and wrote something on the map. He left it to Lapis and went back to make preparations for their stay, Gula still crouching down at his feet, twitching with head in her hands.