“I get the feeling I’m starting to understand the reason the god of undeath tried to stop me.”
The dragon had the power of ancient magic, overwhelming size and muscle, and the experience and knowledge to compensate for his own weaknesses. No wonder Stagnate concluded that I had virtually no chance of winning right now.
“Hmph. Stagnate, huh? Was it a Herald?”
“A raven came.”
Gus snorted, unamused. “It sounds like he’s taken to you.”
“Much to my displeasure.” I frowned as well.
“His thoughts are those of a god. Most of us earthly beings can’t follow them.”
“Yeah.”
“And far too ‘friendly’ for a god! No, ‘devious’ is the word I’d use! Bringing us a contract at a time when we couldn’t escape — I’ve never known such slyness! It brought me great satisfaction to tear that contract apart, I assure you!
It violated all sense and reason! You’d have thought a god could afford to be less underhanded! It’s no wonder he’s counted among the evil gods!” After getting all that off his chest, Gus sighed. “But I can’t say I’m not the slightest bit grateful,” he said, his expression sullen.
“After becoming undead and being given the opportunity to raise you, Blood and Mary, two of my very few friends, who I even thought of as a son and daughter, were able to pass on in happiness.” Gus glanced away from me. Over there were Blood and Mary’s graves. “And I, too, was given the chance to raise you,” he said, without returning his gaze. “I never took a student. My knowledge and techniques would die with me, and I would blossom brightly and scatter gracefully away. I thought I was content with that, but far from it. You’d be surprised how much regret you feel once you die and all is lost.”
“Gus…”
“Thanks to you, they’ve been carried on. I guess this is all part of the richness of life. Though I’m long dead, of course.” He laughed loudly. Then, after a short pause, he spoke again with a more serious expression. “Listen, are you sure you understand?”
“Don’t worry. I know.”
That was why I’d come alone to talk to Gus. The reality was—
“There’s virtually no room for negotiation with a dragon.”
“Precisely.” Gus nodded. “Even the gods have acknowledged that there is no greater force in this region than you. That makes this the perfect moment for Valacirca to strike.”
“I think so, too. The gods are already wary of Valacirca. ”
The god of undeath had told me that he would want to slay the dragon himself if he could manifest an Echo. And Gus had told me that whether a dragon that old and ancient sided with your forces or the enemy’s would have an enormous influence on the balance of a war. Dragons living in the current age were that much of a threat, and conversely, for a dragon to live in this age demanded he work that hard for it.
“Valacirca himself is probably aware that he’s in a situation where if he continues sleeping and becomes isolated, eventually some god will see him as an obstruction to their plans and send an Echo or one of their disciples to kill him.
Once the injury Lord Aurvangr inflicted on Valacirca’s eye heals, he’s going to need to either take the initiative to build up a force of his own or join one somewhere else and start a war.”
“Precisely. He’s like a fish who must constantly swim to stay alive. Valacirca can only live within the maelstrom of war, and because of that, he’ll never regard you, with your peaceful views, as his master. If there’s no being as overwhelming as the High King in this modern age, he’ll have to raise his own banner or join with other forces to start a great war. In any event, he has no other choice than to throw the world into chaos and make the gods focus elsewhere.”
He looked at me. “And you are the only one with any power to make him think twice.”
I nodded. “And I don’t have enough. From a dragon’s perspective, I guess he might hesitate a little, but I’m an obstacle he can overcome.”
Just as I had overcome every obstacle in my path that I thought was surmountable, the dragon would look at me in the same way, and attempt to overcome me.
“Will… You’re going to die.”
“Maybe, but I’ve decided to fight.” The warmth my god had left with me was still alive within my chest. “Leaving the dragon alone won’t help. A war will start anyway.”
“You could just run.” Gus looked at me intently.
“Gus…” While feeling grateful for his words, I gave him back a smile.
“Living and being alive aren’t the same.”
Abandoning everything and just hanging on was only ‘being alive.’ I’d learned through both of my lives that that wasn’t good enough.
Gus sighed. It was a deep sigh of resignation. “So be it.”
I switched my tone to a brighter one and changed the topic. “Oh, right, Gus.
I’ve been wanting to ask you this for a while. I heard a story about when you three killed a wyvern. Do you remember the human boy and half-elf girl you lent money and a dagger to?”
“Hmm? Oh, that takes me back. I do indeed.”
“They moved up in the world and became nobility. I heard the half-elf girl is still waiting now, even as an old woman.”
“I see…” Gus smiled. It was a lonely smile. “But, well, just look at me. I’m afraid I can no longer go to collect.”
“In that case, can I go in your place?”
Thankfully, Gus seemed to have understood what I was getting at. “Mm, please do. Collecting money is an important task, and a dead man can’t do it!”
“Right! It’s important to get people to give back what they’ve borrowed!”
Yes, I still had plenty of things I wanted to do. The odds were against me, but
I had no intention of dying.
“Then it’s fine by me.”
I could tell that “since you intend on returning alive” was implied.
“If you’re going to be my agent, then I can’t very well have you dying, can
I?” He grinned broadly, rolled up a sleeve, and clenched a fist. “The equipment used by our brothers-in-arms who took on the High King are still here in this city. Would you and your party like some new gear before you go?”
“Of course!” I grinned back and nodded.
Saying he would show us some weapons, Gus led us outside the temple. By the side of the temple, there was a small storehouse. Mary had used it in place of a shed to store things like tools for taking care of the vegetable garden.
I frowned and cocked my head to the side. I’d been inside the storehouse before, of course, and there weren’t any weapons in there then. Come to think of it, though, where had Blood been storing his weapons? I never—
“Watch.”
As I got that far in my thinking, Gus muttered a couple of Words, and at one edge of the dimly lit storehouse, in a place that I’d thought was floor, a hidden door appeared. Everyone’s eyes opened wide. It was Misdirection magic.
“I didn’t know we had a place like this…”
“We couldn’t show you where they were as a child. Especially not after the recklessness of the Mary incident.” He gave me a look. “You can’t see through the Word of Misdirection without a suspicious mind. When you came to the storehouse, you always had a purpose. You would have been so preoccupied thinking about whatever you came for that you would never have bothered suspecting there might be a Word set upon the floor.”