Chapter 322: [Jiltry]
Jiltry.
It’s a border city on the edge of the Mitra Kingdom’s Stalim ducal territory.
It’s the only city that connects the rest of the Mitra Kingdom with the Stalim territory on the border. Although it’s technically a city belonging to the Stalim territory, given the fact that half the city lies on the other side of the border, it’s also not necessarily correct to say that it completely belongs to the Stalim territory.
In the past, there had been numerous conflicts between the Stalim family and the neighboring Laksdi marquis family over the ownership of this city, to the point where there had even been several small wars over it.
In the end, due to the fact that Stalim is a ducal family and the fact that their position and status within the Kingdom was far higher than a normal marquis family, the Kingdom had granted this city to the Stalim family. However, due to its rather difficult location, the neighboring Laksdi marquis still have not given up on it even now.
This issue could actually have been easily solved just by redrawing the territorial borders.
For example, if they were to simply hand the entire territory around the city to one of the nobles in question then such issues would no longer happen.
However, since neither the Stalim nor the Laksdi families were willing to give up their own land to the other, this particular issue simply continued on to be a major source of headaches for the Kingdom.
The royal family had complained quite a bit about this issue as well as just what those people in the past were thinking to have drawn up the territories like that and caused such an issue. However, no matter how it came to be, the matter had already been set. Thus, the issue of just who the city of Jiltry belongs to continued to be unresolved, and it simply remained that way the entire time.
However, it’s also for that exact reason that Jiltry’s defenses were far stronger than that of normal cities. The Stalim ducal family’s second knight order is based here, and their captain is the head of a knightly viscount family who are vassals to the Stalims. Said family head is level 79, only a step away from being a level 80 powerhouse, and is one of the strongest knights serving the Stalim family.
However, on this day, this powerhouse was instead looking dully into the sky with absolute incomprehension along with the rest of his knights, and even his weapon had slipped from his hands to drop to the ground.
No, it wasn’t just these knights either. Even the citizenry of Jiltry were looking up into the sky with terror, screaming out in fear, and running about every which way.
The entirety of Jiltry had instantly descended into chaos.
And up in the sky, an enormous black figure was slowly descending.
“Roar-!!!”
A terrifying roar blasted down as physical waves of sound, kicking up waves of dust while also shaking the entirety of Jiltry like a sonic blast.
That horrifying sound along with that terrify figure made all the knights shake in terror. They were on the verge of breaking and running even.
“Dragon!”
“It’s a dragon!”
“Oh gods!”
“A dragon has come!”
“A dragon is attacking Jiltry!”
The citizens around them weren’t nearly so strong, so they were screaming while running about in terror.
The captain of the Stalim ducal terrory’s second knight order – Terrance – looked upon this sight with a sickly pallor.
“How is this possible…!?”
Why?
Why did a dragon show up?
Aren’t dragons supposed to be the rarest demonic beasts? Weren’t there no appearances of them for several hundred years now?
Especially an adult dragon. In the mortal world, they’ve already become as rare as hen’s teeth. Why has one suddenly appeared here and is attacking the city now?
“No, now’s not the time to be thinking about something like that…!”
Before that, he has to first form up a defensive perimeter to prevent that dragon from descending upon Jiltry.
Otherwise, Jiltry may very well be turned into an inferno via dragon breath, creating a terrible disaster.
“Quickly! Raise the barrier!”
Terrance acted with all his might and loudly shouted out orders.
Jiltry is a very special city. The city is equipped with a very high level barrier. Originally, it was there to deal with a Laksdi army that may be sent against them at any time, but now, it’s instead being used to deal with a dragon.
“Buzz!”
The walls of Jiltry shook before suddenly forming up a barrier of magic power, covering the entire city within it.
With this barrier, they should be able to block even the dragon breath which is said to be able to pierce all defenses at least once or twice, right?
“Quickly! Gather all the archers and mages here! Hurry!”
Terrance anxiously shouted out, constantly ordering his men about. All he can do is hope that they’ll be able to properly fight against and slay the dragon after the barrier is broken.
“It’s alright. This dragon might have just reached adulthood. That’s probably why it ended up recklessly running over to a human city…”
If that’s the case, then this dragon’s level shouldn’t be too high.
An adult dragon’s level will certainly have reached 80.
If this dragon is merely level 80, then Terrance feels like, given the strength of himself and the Second Knight Order, they should have the ability to subjugate said dragon.
Unfortunately for them, reality is cruel.
“Roar-!”
Up in the air, the black dragon seemed to have gotten angry with the sudden barrier, so it let out a roar, opened its maw wide, and started gathering a terrifying amount of magical energy there.
The next second, a blazing hot breath blasted out into a wave of flames from the sky, striking Jiltry’s barrier.
“Bang!”
The barrier wasn’t able to last for even a second before it was utterly shattered by the blast of dragon fire.
The dragon’s dragon breath then transformed into a brilliant display of fireworks, exploding out all around, heating up the air around it.
“We’re done for…”
Having withnessed the high leveled barrier protecting the city being shattered in just a single strike, the hope in Terrance’s heart completely vanished, leaving nothing but despair in its wake.
That dragon is no recently matured adult dragon. No, instead, it must have been mature for a long time, a terrifying demonic beast of level 90+.
A demonic beast of that level could easily destroy a city on its own.
Terrance could see it in his mind: The scene of Jiltry turning into an inferno under the dragon breath and becoming a destroyed ruin.
Just at that moment…
“I told you we can’t just ride the dragon right into the city, right? Now look! Look what has happened now!?”
“… They really are making a big deal of nothing. It’s just a dragon about to land in the city. What’s there to be afraid of?”
“I say, you wouldn’t happen to be talking about a situation that would only appear in your territory in the demon world, would you?”
“Yeah. In my territory, every city would greatly welcome any dragon’s arrival. They even have exclusive field for dragons to rest at. Every time a dragon flies over them, the people of the city would always cheer loudly like it’s a celebration.’
“That’s only something that would happen in your territory! This is the mortal world here!”
“Huff… The mortal world really is troublesome…”
A conversation like that suddenly rang out from up on the dragon’s head, making the despair Terrance stop for a moment.
Until…
“L-look! There’s people on top of that dragon!”
A sharp-eyed knight was the first to widen his eyes, point up at the dragon up in the air, and gasp.
That gasp was first met with everyone’s disbelief. Then, everyone else started to also widen their eyes one after another.
It’s because there really did appear several figures up on that dragon’s head.
“My gods…”
“There really are people…?”
“Someone came riding a dragon?”
“I… I’m feeling faint…”
Everyone who saw that felt like they the scene they’re looking at was just plain unrealistic.
Terrance was the same. He was completely stunned, not reacting to anything for some time.
At that moment, those figures up on the dragon leaped and jumped on down.
Their landing spot was the space right in front of Terrance.
“Be on your guard!”
Terrance shook before shouting out unconsciously.
The knights all around immediately reacted, hurriedly raising their weapons and spreading out.
In this situation, those figures landed on the ground, right into the knights’ encirclement.
Only now did everyone finally manage to clearly see those figures.
It was a formation of one man and two girls.
The man is a youth of around 20 years old. He had a sword at his waist, but he was dressed rather commonly. From a look, he seemed like a completely unremarkable adventurer without the slightest point of note about him.
The girls were rather stranger. One is a little girl hugging a pillow, while the other is a girl dressed as a maid. A contrast of small and large, the only similarity between them being their unusual beauty.
For such a group of one man and two girls to jump down from a dragon and show up before everyone was something that everyone found unbelievable.
However, that was in fact the reality, so it’s pointless no matter how much one might want to deny it.
“Are you the one in charge here?”
The youth in front quickly picked out Terrance from the crowd and focused on him.
Terrance tensed up.
Although he had no idea who the other person is, the youth was able to pick him out form all these people and guess that he was the leader. Just that ability was already enough to prove that the youth was nowhere near as average as he looked.
“I’m the captain of the Stalim ducal family’s Second Knight Order. At the same time, I’m also the head of the Georgi viscount family. My name is Terrance Georgi.”
Terrance stepped forward and spoke up with a deep tone while staring intently at that youth.
“Who are you? Why did you try to enter Jiltry while riding a dragon? Is that dragon actually your mount?”
Terrance asked several questions in a row.
However, that youth didn’t answer him at all. He merely raised an eyebrow upon hearing that Terrance was the captain of the Stalim family’s Second Knight Order before his expression turned amused.
“First of all, I’m very sorry about trying to enter Jiltry on a dragon without consideration.”
The youth apologized.
Then, he said the following.
“I’m Shien. As you can see, this dragon is my mount. This here is my maid and my… Cough, little sister. Please forgive us for any alarm we might have caused.”
The youth named Shien spoke with a smile.
“Shien?”
Terrance frowned.
He kept feeling like he has heard this name somewhere recently.
Rather, next to that youth named Shien, the cute little girl who’s hugging a pillow suddenly frowned.
“Little sister?”
She seemed to be dissatisfied with that designation.
Could it be that even those designations were fabricated?
Terrance’s guard rose.
Instead, however, that youth named Shien simply scratched at his cheeks.
“Well, let’s first lower our weapons.”
Shien showed a smile.
“Then, let’s have a chat.”