Al’s eyes went round. He broke into a wide smile, his hazel eyes glittering. “I had faith you would say that. Gladly!”
Menel shrugged. “You sure you want to accept that easy?”
“That’s rich coming from you, Meneldor. You’re planning to follow him no matter what happens! You’re not fooling anyone!”
“He’s learned to defend himself.” Menel laughed and gave him a nod. “We’re against a dragon, so numbers aren’t gonna help. And we can’t spare too many people who could defend the villages, either. We’ll take you, me, Will, and someone who knew the mountains two centuries ago to show us the way.”
“I would—”
“No, I will go.” Ghelreis, the dwarf with the scar, stopped Grendir as he tried to volunteer, and he put his own name forward.
“Ghelreis, you—”
“I can’t leave this to someone without a will to live. Besides, you have a duty to unite your fellows.” I noticed that Ghelreis’s clothes weren’t dirty. It looked as though he had managed to stay out of that frenzied fight and hadn’t taken Al on, either. “I will guide you.”
“Thank you very much.” I was thankful to have someone composed.
So we had me, Menel, Al, Ghelreis…
“And me.” Reystov appeared from behind a building. “I’ve packed already.”
I chuckled. As usual, Reystov wasn’t one to let a challenging foe pass him by.
“Very glad to have you on board. Looks like we’re decided.”
“So us five men are off to pick a fight with demons and a dragon. It’s not gonna be a pretty trip, that’s for sure.” Menel laughed. “Do we have some kind of winning strategy?”
“No,” I said definitively. I may have been undecided for a good number of days, but I hadn’t been wasting my time doing nothing. I had been giving my magical equipment a check-up, turning the pages of my spellbooks, and moving my body as I remembered my training with Blood. And as I did all this, I thought of all kinds of plans. As a result of all that thinking, I was forced to a single conclusion. “There’s no surefire way to kill a dragon.”
They weren’t so easy that you could do something about them with a cunning plan or unusual item. That was what made them dragons. But, at the same time, this world was real. It wasn’t a computer game with systems like levels and hit points. It was possible to get unlucky and be easily killed by something much weaker than yourself, and conversely, it was possible to get lucky and kill something stronger. At the end of the day, a dragon was a living being with a body of flesh, and if its head was chopped off or stabbed through, or its heart was impaled, it would die. As low as the probability of victory was, I was certain that it couldn’t really be absolutely zero, no matter what the god of undeath said.
Of course—
“The odds aren’t good. Will you still come with me?” I looked around at everyone.
“Yes, sir!” Al was the very first to nod. His eyes were clear and earnest.
“That’s where honor and glory are.”
“There could be no greater satisfaction for a warrior.”
Reystov and Ghelreis spoke calmly, with the dignity of seasoned warriors.
“I’m used to having to deal with your craziness.” Menel shrugged his shoulders, and so it was settled.
I declared it anew—
“Let’s go. To slay the dragon and take back the mountains!”
Everyone who had come to see what the fuss was about joined the dwarves in raising a huge cheer.
Sometimes, when you finally make the decision to do something and start the ball rolling, unexpected good luck can follow. This was one of those times.
With our departure looming, I penned letters to the bishop and His Excellency, brother to the king, in which I explained all the details of the situation and humbly requested for them to take care of things while I was gone.
After that, I went out to my yard and was inspecting my equipment there when a red blob came hurtling towards me. I caught it in a hug, and within a moment we were holding hands and spinning around.
“Wa-haaa!!” She let out a cheerful squeal of laughter. I hadn’t heard this voice in a while. “Heheh. It’s the one and only… ME!”
“Bee! Long time no see!” Clutching my hands was a playful halfling troubadour with ears pointed like leaves and red and curly hair — Robina Goodfellow! “I haven’t seen you for months. Where were you this time?”
“Hehe. Grassland to the north. I started at the Fertile Kingdom, then I went around the coast visiting the Allied Kingdoms to the west. And now I’m back!”
“That’s amazing!”
Most of that area, I only knew through books and rumors. She traveled to so many more places than me. The circumstances of this unstable place had me running around so much that I hadn’t even managed to cross to the northern continent at all yet.
“Was it cooler in the north?”
“Yeah, but listen, listen!”
“What?”
“A dragon roared, right?! You’re going off to kill it?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“Then I can make it into a story like we promised before?!”
“Of course. Be my guest.”
“Yahoo!” Bee did an excited little dance while still holding my hands. I ended up being spun around in the yard again. “It’s a troubadour’s dream to be able to make a new dragon-killing saga.” Bee laughed. “I’ll start by spreading around a prologue for you. You need one, right?” This smile was mature.
“Yeah, I really do. Thanks.”
Simply spreading that I had headed off to slay the dragon would do a lot to calm people, and the power of songs and stories was indispensable for that. They were this era’s media.
“It’s no problem. Just don’t give me a sad ending, okay?” She raised her eyes to mine as she said it.
I nodded. “I’ll work hard to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“Yep. Do your best. ’Cause tragic endings are not popular right now!”
“The audience reactions are what you’re worried about?!”
As Bee and I laughed and talked nonsense to each other, Tonio came following after her.
“Bee, you’re in too much of a rush. Please don’t leave me behind.”
“Haha, sorry, sorry!”
“Will, I’ve secured you a full suite of everything I thought you might need, including provisions, travel gear and clothes, mountain equipment, and so on.”
Tonio didn’t disappoint. He was quick to prepare. Too quick, actually. I only just decided I was going…
“You went ahead as if I was definitely going?”
“Yes. In fact, I was very anxious that I might not make it in time for your departure. I was constantly expecting you to burst into action at any moment. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you are very quick to act once you know you have a battle on your hands.” Tonio laughed. “I’m not sure if you were deliberating or merely biding your time, but in any event, I confess myself relieved.”
“Imma make it so he was biding his time. That way’s cooler!”
“Don’t build it up like that! That’s the reason ‘Sir William’ is turning into this massive brawny man loaded with ingenious tricks!”
I’d happened to hear a poet who wasn’t Bee reciting a story about me on a street in Whitesails, and he was using phrases like “a towering giant of a man”
and “eyes of profound wisdom.” Sure, a little bit of embellishment couldn’t be helped, but I thought that people around where I hung out made too big a deal of me.
“I hesitate like anyone else. I don’t want to die or get hurt or anything.”
“But you’re going, right?”
“Yeah. It’s a precious oath I made to my god.”
Bee smiled softly when she heard that. “I’m stealing that for my story. O