บท 6: City of Everlight
Swoosh! A silver dragon flew high in the sky. The creature carried two people on its back, Lucian and Rita.
It wasn't long before it had recovered from its wounds but now its body overflowed with power.
"...T-this is awesome!" Rita couldn't help but express her excitement, feeling the sensation of the wind on her face, seeing the clouds passing by, and beholding the world from that height.
Rita used her thin and delicate fingers to clutch awkwardly to Lucian's coat. From the look of it, she was indeed excited but also scared of being in such a high place while moving at such a high speed.
"…" Lucia didn't say anything to her. Although he used his power to reduce the pressure of the wind as they moved, it looked like Rita didn't notice such a thing. Indeed, she still had a long way to go, Lucian thought.
Since Lucian had deemed her to have the potential to become one of the keys that would ensure the success of his plan, he decided to watch her evolution up close.
Of course, he didn't intend to become her mentor or teach her anything. He expected her to evolve by herself, otherwise, it would be meaningless.
He didn't make any promise to help her bring back someone to life, and she wasn't under his protection as his woman. When the time comes, when he finished his observation, he would determine what kind of human she was and decide what would he do about her.
But for the time being, his goal was to reach the City of Hope, Everlight.
"Here," Lucian muttered.
"Groar." As if it understood Lucian's intention the dragon let out a grumble and landed on the ground, inside a forest.
They were still far from the city but Lucian knew that the dragon shouldn't get too close to human civilization.
It should have taken them more than a week to reach the capital if they still traveled with the carriage, but by riding the dragon, they crossed that distance in just a few hours.
"T-thank you. Mr. Dragon," Rita said, bowing her head.
"Grrr." The dragon reacted to Rita's words. It looked like its intelligence had increased after the mutation.
Lucian looked at the dragon and the dragon looked back at him. Even though Lucian's eyes were covered by a piece of black fabric, they managed to establish a form of communication. "Now go."
After hearing Lucian's words the dragon spread its wings. It looked majestic. Then, it flew to the sky rushing toward a certain direction, probably where its former territory was located.
Rita looked at the dragon's figure as it disappeared beyond the clouds. She never expected to ride a dragon in her life.
"Ah..." Now that they were alone together, Rita felt a little bit awkward. She didn't know what to say. Then, she remembered something.
Everything that happened during that night came back to her mind. She wanted to thank Lucian for saving her. She also wanted to ask Lucian various questions.
However, before she could say anything, Lucian said, "Don't ask useless questions. If you don't understand something, ask yourself what is that you lack which prevents you from understanding, and begin from there. Observe, think, and learn."
After that, Lucian told her to rest, and didn't say anything much since then.
She didn't even have the chance to look at her friends' bodies.
She hadn't completely understood Lucian's intention or his words, but at least, she understood that something would change if she continued to observe him.
This time too, Lucian didn't say anything, he turned and started to walk, not even looking at her.
'I thought he had become more talkative,' Rita thought to herself as she walked beside him. 'Well, he is always so mysterious. I can't tell what he is really thinking about all of this.'
*****
After Lucian and Rita left the place where the ruin of a village was situated, a group of armored people, certainly the knights affiliated with a nearby kingdom, gathered there.
But among them, four individuals stood out from the rest.
"Can you repeat? What happened?" A knight asked. His name was Laurence. His flaxen hair was pushed to the back, and the dark circle under his eyes gave the impression that he was always tired.
Laurence and the four other knights were different from the regular knights. Their armors were made of Stellarium and a red cape was attached to it. They were part of an exceptional group of knights called the Red Lily, working directly under the Emperor despite also being adventurers. They were all powerful relic users.
"My apologies, sir. As I said, not a single of us can remember anything. We managed to find the creature but… We don't know what happened after that," one of the regular knights answered. Compared to the armor made of Stellarium, these regular knights wore simple steel armor.
These fifty or so regular knights had pursued a dragon and were close to subjugating it, but suddenly all of them had lost consciousness.
"You said that there were two civilians, right?" From the look of it, there were four bodies.
"Yes, but we don't know what happened to them. It was strange for all of us to fall unconscious like that, to begin with. I suspect that it was the work of relic users. These blue stones were not there when we arrived," the leader of the regular explained.
"What do you think, Garcia?" This time, Laurence turned and looked at a woman. She was also a knight that belonged to the Red Lily.
Garcia was examining the blue stones and the bodies. From what she could see, the blue stones had just emerged from the ground and there were four bodies but only three of them were burnt.
Among the dead bodies, she took a look at a woman who had surely died because of a wound on her head. She also looked at the trace of blood on the wall.
Moreover, one body, a male, was missing an arm.
Looking around the area, she could also see the remains of a burnt carriage. These people were surely traveling together, but it looked like when the dragon appeared they began to fight among themselves.
But some traces were showing that someone fought the dragon. Garcia was looking particularly at a trace of burn on the ground that was shaped like a V. This showed that someone was blocking the dragon's attack and succeeded in doing so.
"There were at least two other people here. It's possible that one of them was a relic user, but why would they render unconscious the knights who were coming to save them?" Garcia didn't answer Laurence's question directly. She was just talking to herself. "Was it because they didn't want them to witness something?"
"That's her, right? Garcia Silverblood?" Looking at her, the other regular knights began to whisper behind her back.
"How can such a beautiful woman exist? If only I could marry her."
"Don't talk too loud. She is beautiful, but she is a hundred times stronger than all of us. You will die."
Garcia was indeed beautiful. Her long glossy silver hair fell smoothly on her back, and even though she was wearing armor, one could tell that she had white almost translucent skin and apparent womanly body curves. But the most enchanting was her face, with her unusual golden eyes.
That said, one should not be tricked by her appearance. She was also the leader of the five knights that were dispatched to investigate the matter related to the dragon.
It was clear that this should have been the work of the hunters and not of an adventurer who was part of a legendary group such as the Red Lily.
'Why does he continue to keep me away like this? I have already proven myself worthy to stand beside him, haven't I?' No one could read Garcia's expression, but she was frustrated.
Nonetheless, she continued to do her job.
"What should we do?" Laurence asked, looking a little bit worried about Garcia. He and the four other knights under Garcia were loyal to her despite being treated as recluses by the other members of the Red Lily.
"Let's return to the capital," Garcia answered, standing up and walking to her horse.
"But…"
"The dragon must be already dead. If it was still alive, all of these men would have been eaten by now. It didn't even eat the burned bodies. It seems like this mysterious relic user had done something, but they didn't want to leave any kind of trace. The power of relics is hard to predict. And even if the appearance of these stones was just a pure coincidence, we must report this immediately. These stones are extremely dangerous," Garcia replied.
She knew that there were people who possessed power beyond imagination, and she was acquainted with some of such individuals. And now that all of those people were invited to gather in a single place, it wouldn't be a surprise if a powerful relic user happened to pass by and killed the dragon.
'Still, I feel like there's something that I missed." Garcia thought.
If there was such a powerful relic user, why didn't he save the others? Or was he the one who killed them? She couldn't understand the motives behind the actions of this mysterious character, but...
'But I can use this as an excuse to return to the capital and eventually participate in the Raid,' Garcia thought. The face of a certain man appeared in her mind, the one who made sure that she was stuck to this kind of work despite her strength.
"Prevent anyone to approach this area until experts from the capital arrive," Laurence ordered, looking at Garcia who was already riding on her horse.
A lot of people were heading toward the capital, and there were powerful relic users among them. It was not an exaggeration to say that they were humanity's strongest.
For all of the to gather in a single place. Laurence just hoped that Garcia wouldn't do anything reckless.
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