Kathe’s Testimony
PAGE 2
I had been an Adventurer for a decently long time .
And even I had never encountered such a thing as these machines .
They were clearly incredibly rare .
“Kathe . Were there many of these, uh, magic machines?”
“Yes, there were . ”
“How many?”
“There were at least thirty that I could see . But I’m sure there are more . ”
“Thirty…”
I wasn’t sure if that was a lot or not .
It would depend on how strong an individual machine was .
Were they equal to a goblin or a vampire?
“Do you know how strong they are?”
“I was surrounded by all thirty of them, and I destroyed twenty . ”
“Oh? Very impressive, Kathe . And yet you still retreated?”
Kathe did not look particularly wounded .
If she could destroy twenty, it seemed like she should be able to destroy the last ten .
I asked her this, and she began to fidget uncomfortably .
“What is it?”
“…I am sorry . I lied . I only destroyed one of them . ”
“Why would you lie about that?”
“…To keep up appearances . I am sorry . ”
“…I see . I understand . ”
I couldn’t blame her harshly, seeing as how sad she looked after this confession .
Everyone wanted to look better than they actually were .
However, saying you had defeated twenty when the reality was just one? That seemed a little extreme .
I would have liked it if she had at least destroyed fifteen if she was going to tell such a lie .
Kathe did not seem to understand restraint .
“So, if Kathe could only defeat one… They must be very strong . ”
“We might need a whole party of ranking Adventurers to defeat a single machine . ”
Shia and Serulis muttered gravely .
Shia, Serulis, Nia and Grulf had seen me and Kathe fight .
And so they knew how strong she was .
“Yes . They were very dangerous . ”
“How? Specifically?”
“They are very hard . My fire breath did not seem to be very effective . They were moving just fine after being hit by it . ”
We had experienced Kathe’s breath ourselves . It was very powerful .
Most monsters would not survive it .
Even a Vampire Lord would be hurt .
“…They were moving just fine?”
“Yes . They looked completely unhurt . ”
They would have to have incredible resistance to fire in order to come out of such an attack unscathed .
I would have to avoid using fire magic if I ever fought them .
“Kathe . What about your claws and fangs?”
“I could not kill them with one hit . I had to strike numerous times . ”
“…That’s incredible . ”
Obviously, Kathe was very strong . Her claws and fangs were sharp .
Most monsters would die from a single hit .
“Alright, I understand that they are terribly tough . What about their attacks?”
“Hmm . They make a loud sound and unleash something very small . ”
“Small?”
“A small something made of metal . They are so fast that I cannot even see them . ”
“Huh…”
“It really, really hurt . ”
And with that, Kathe pulled up her sleeve and showed me her left wrist .
“Look here . ”
“Hmm? It’s a little red . ”
“It has swollen up… This is the result of the ferocious attack of the magic machine . ”
“…Uh, how shocking . ”
To call it a little scratch would be an exaggeration . It wasn’t even a mosquito bite .
She looked nothing but completely unharmed .
Perhaps Kathe was just very weak to pain .
As a dragon, you were generally the strongest creature around, and so it would be very rare to feel any pain .
“These machines were so vicious in their attacks . And hard on top of that . And so I decided to run away, once the Vampire High Lords started attacking me too . ”
“I see . Vampire High Lords have Charm, which is very troublesome . ”
If Kathe was controlled by them, the damages could be enormous .
“Hmm . Well, it is not as if I couldn’t resist the Charm of a mere High Lord!”
“I see . ”
Kathe said confidently .
But there was a possibility she was doing it for appearances again . It was probably best to take it with a grain of salt .
“Still, I’m surprised you were able to enter the city . What did you tell the guards?”
“Guards?”
“At the gate?”
“Ah, I went over the wall . I didn’t pass through any gate . ”
The walls around the royal capital were very high . They were about five times the height of the average man .
It would require much physical strength to scale it .
“And then you started stealing food right after that?”
“No, not at all . Locke . You must listen to my excuse . ”
“I’ll listen . ”
“I was following your presence and on my way here . But then I noticed a delicious smell . ”
“And?”
“Wouldn’t you be curious? And so I followed the smell to its source and stared at it . ”
It was probably some street stall .
“As I watched, the man said, ‘What do you think, miss? Want to try it? It is the best . ’ And as he was very kind, I readily agreed to eat as much as I could . ”
“I see . Kathe . There’s something I should tell you . ”
“What?”
“I’m sure you understand it now, but what he really meant was that he wanted you to eat it after paying him money . ”
“Humans do like to shorten things, don’t they? It is quite horrible . He did not say a word about money . ”
“…Yes, what a misfortune for you…”
It seemed that I would have to explain to her about how humans lived .