<…>
The voice was interrupted.
Renya, who judged that she probably hasn’t died, turns his consciousness back to reality.
Just as he does, he hears the sound of wings cutting through the wind.
The wind pressure that was suppressed to a certain extent by a sorcery barrier, makes his forelocks sway.
After having been in deep thought, Renya looks down at the thing he’s currently sitting on.
It’s night time and the moon in the sky is faint and small.
Under the moonlight that barely functions as a light source, he couldn't grasp the colors very well. But if he were able to look at it under proper illumination, he would be able to see that it was a dragon that was covered with green, vivid scales.
Its size is around two sizes bigger than Drkun over at Liaris'.
It seems to be a species called emerald dragon, but Renya doesn’t really care.
Since Croire was flustered after seeing it at first, he didn’t think anything except that it’s most likely a famous species among the elves.
It’s the dragon that Drkun introduced after having asked him to lend him a dragon as he wanted to go somewhat far away. “Originally it’s a species that doesn’t live at our group's dwelling”, Drkun explained.
When Renya asked where they lived then, he was told that it’s a species that inhabited the northern continent.
It was completely unknown how it had heard about Renya, but information about him had been circulated to the northern continent by one of the dragons among those living on the human continent and several individuals, who got interested, came to make contact with Renya through Drkun.
It seems that this emerald dragon accepted becoming Renya’s temporary mount as a member of said curious group of dragons.
For some reason not only Drkun, but even Croire stressed the point that it’s only a temporary arrangement, but Renya doesn’t know why they did so.
“I was brooding for a bit.” (Renya)
Being told that, Renya looked down towards the ground from atop of the dragon’s back.
He has no idea at what height they are flying, but there’s only pitch black ground depicted below. He does see things that might possibly be lights at spots all over, but he absolutely doesn’t understand what they are doing and in what state they are.
It looks like the allied forces have already passed the border and entered the Trident Principality, but although Renya wanted to actually have a look at how many people they have, he can’t see the military forces' condition at all since they chose to travel at night so that they won’t receive any attacks, and moreover, they are flying at quite a high altitude.
“Is this the Holy Kingdom’s allied army below us?” (Renya)
It appeared that the dragon could see the military forces below with its dragonic eyesight, even while flying at such a height within complete darkness .
Of course there’s no way for Renya, who's no more than a human, to see something like that with his eyesight.
I guess it can’t be helped, Renya gave up immediately.
“I can’t do anything about things I can’t see. Pay attention to our altitude, okay? After all we might get attacked if we are discovered.” (Renya)
When they brought up this topic over at Liaris’ place, she proposed the strategy of mobilizing the dragons living nearby by asking Drkun and having them reduce the Holy Kingdom’s allied forces to ash.
They were about to literally burn them to cinder in reality, but Renya put a stop to this.
As expected, even Renya felt hesitation towards the act of causing a large amount of people dying in the vicinity.
In Renya’s eyes, the death of soldiers didn’t matter at all.
If they don’t want to die, they shouldn’t have become soldiers.
If there’s a draft system, it would be best for them if they they took actions to abolish such system or if they defected to a country without it.
However, I can't say for sure that, given the large amount of people dying, some souls among them haven't grown up to the extent of possibly not returning to this world while holding onto their resources and disappearing.
It would be meaningless if I produce souls, which would lower the amount of resources by escaping from the circle of reincarnation, even though I came here especially to replenish the lacking amount of resources.
If not for that, the way of eradicating 100,000 soldiers, while trying my best, is a simple matter.
For Renya there are various methods to make that possible.
“Pay attention to the height. That hero owned a range attack as well after all.” (Renya)
There’s another reason why he rejected their annihilation due to the dragons.
It’s very likely that the hero possesses powers that allow him to defeat dragons easily, Renya expected.
One way or another, the hero doesn’t posses many good traits, but if it’s limited to his combat abilities, according to what I sensed during our little match in the Holy City, you can call them quite extraordinary, is Renya’s opinion.
I don’t know what will happen as long as I don’t try to fight him myself, Renya believes, but I think he possesses combat abilities which allow him to easily hunt down dragons at Drkun's level.
Rather, if he doesn’t have at least this much of a combat ability, I’d like to know how he intends to fight with someone like the demon king? He wonders.
And, the existences called dragons possess strong powers and bodies if compared to humans.
In other words, in case the humans were to be killed by the dragons after having gathered to a certain extent at this location, he has to again worry about the possibility of those souls escaping from this world while taking their resources with them.
However, if it comes to worrying to this extent, next he would have to even worry about the hero's soul, who became a resident of this world after being summoned.
There’s no reason to revise the matter of defeating the hero.
Last time Renya believed that it wasn't that big of an issue and thus stopped after making sure that the hero couldn't indiscriminately put his hands on women. But the situation after that has developed to go as far as war.
If I had killed him at that time, it wouldn't have turned out like this.
Renya considers this to be likely his own error in judgment.
Therefore it was necessary for him to properly bring it to an end this time. But if the defeated hero's soul escapes to another world while holding onto its resources, that in itself will become a problem as well.
Well then, what would the best option be here? Renya was troubled.
Even if he knows how to cut people, it’s not like he knows how to cut something as ambiguous as a soul.
I guess it'll be best just to think about killing him for now and worry about that matter once the time comes, Renya switches his way of thinking.
Assuming he did escape while taking the resources with him as the worst case scenario, it would be okay to consider it as inevitable.
“Well then, can I have you hurry up a bit?” (Renya)
The emerald dragon flaps its wings once.
With just that motion, the large flying body gained even more speed.
Renya was sitting directly on the dragon's back without even using a saddle, but he endures the speed-up by while holding onto one of the dragon's scales on its back.
“I suppose it’s a matter of my feelings. Or perhaps I should say that I somehow won’t calm down unless I do something.” (Renya)
Compared to the suddenness of the acceleration, the impact received by Renya’s body was extremely small.
Considering his rider, the dragon is protecting Renya's body, but for Renya it seems to be hard to settle down if he doesn’t somehow grab onto something when he feels the sensation of the sudden acceleration.
The emerald dragon’s flight speed was so high that it couldn’t be compared to that of Drkun's and the other's.
The emerald dragon that appears to be of a superior race when compared to Drkun’s group, arrives at the destination that ought to be quite far away in a mere two hours once it flies seriously.
Upon the dragon’s thought, Renya strains his eyes into the darkness ahead.
Over there is a huge city that is surrounded by high walls. He can see a castle with several high spires in the centre of the city.
Because the city itself is bright due to the lights all over, even Renya’s eyes were capable of perceiving its existence, albeit only vaguely, even as they fly while maintaining a reasonable altitude.
The dragon proposed to try descend at a slightly distant place out of consideration, but Renya ordered it to plunge into the city just like that.
Normally, that's something Renya will try avoid doing by all means, but as the Holy Kingdom is the enemy nation in the current war, there’s absolutely no necessity for him to consider their circumstances.
That means I might as well use the opportunity for a nice dive.
“Eh? Your breath? What’s this about?” (Renya)
“… Rejected. Enough of the poison stuff.” (Renya)
Renya ponders for a bit.
Due to the dragon’s thoughts being partially transmitted to me, I have a feeling, similar to a desire, of “Let me attack, please let me” appearing and disappearing, but I guess that’s probably just my imagination.
Come to think of it, seeing that dragons don’t visit human habitations very often, dragons rarely do something like mercilessly releasing their breath upon human cities after all.
If something like that happened frequently, I’m pretty sure that the human’s habitation range on the human continent would be limited to a far smaller sphere.
Considering it like that, the experience of spitting breath at a human habitation without holding back might be something precious even for dragons which they can only seldomly experience.
Having thought about it, Renya decided to give the emerald dragon permission to attack.
“Can you keep it to the level of destroying the walls and several spires? Make sure to not hit the people’s houses.” (Renya)
A short answer.
The dragon opens its mouth while flying unhindered. Green light, which is clearly visible within the night’s darkness, leaks from its mouth.
“I wonder whether I need something like anti-flash protection?” (Renya)
At the instant Renya answered the dragon’s thought with a light chatter, a brilliantly green laser light gushed out of its mouth.
Just as it was ordered by Renya, the dragon destroyed several of the castle’s spires, and then, after flying past above the residential area, it crashes into a part of the wall surrounding the city.
The wall at that spot was blown away without any showy explosion.
“I guess dragons are amazing.” (Renya)
The dragon says to Renya, who muttered that calmly, while looking displeased.
The dragon's body, with Renya on top, descended towards an open space that seemed to be the castle’s courtyard.
The Holy City’s side was surprised and flustered.
Once they realized that it was a dragon that suddenly came flying down from a high altitude, they partially fell into a state of panic, but that dragon went even further and blew away a part of the city’s wall, and shot parts of the castle with its breath.
Moreover, the dragon didn’t fly away either, but is about to land in the castle’s courtyard.
If it was the hero, he still might have somehow handled it, but the hero is in the middle of an expedition while leading the army in a far, distant place.
And there’s no way that the soldiers remaining in the castle would be able to stand a chance no matter what kind of dragon flew in.
In the end they couldn’t do anything besides watching the dragon, which didn’t take any action other than gently landing seemingly unbefitting of its huge frame, and the figure of the person standing up on its back.
“Holy Kingdom, I have business with your king. Bring him here!” (Renya)
Renya shouted while looking down on the soldiers crowding around in the surroundings as he stands on top of the dragon’s back.
Grasping that there’s a human on the dragon’s back, the soldiers got their weapons ready.
Renya, who watched them while looking bored, lightly taps the back of the dragon.
As if upon command, the dragon threatened the soldiers that had set up their weapons by growling deeply and loudly.
With only that, the soldiers ended up sinking down to the ground due to their knees giving way and at the same time letting go of their weapons.
“I’m telling you once more. I have business with your king. Hurry up and bring him here. You are free to resist me. But make sure to come at me after having resolved yourselves, as the earlier breath will be fired right into the centre of the city without holding back this time, okay?” (Renya)
While feeling mentally worn-out a bit, due to his own lines being just like those of a villain, Renya has a hunch that it will take quite a lot of time for the king to come since it’s the middle of the night right now.
As he listens to the voices calling for the king resounding all over and while he prays that there are none among the soldiers who are going to attack out of a pointless sense of duty, Renya wonders just how fast the king will get here as he waits on the dragon’s back.