Side Story 53. Dragon Slayer (2)  

Hestia laughed at my confident words. "Certainly, our brothers are strong. From what I’ve heard, the elders say that First Brother is like Father when he was young and they have high expectations of him.”

I shook my head. "It does seem like Father is considering First Brother, right? He even often says that it's not bad to compare him to himself during his childhood."

Gallahad hyung would never want to do it, but the selection of the successor was decided by our father.

Haha, let’s persuade him.

If you didn't want to do something annoying like being the chief, I mean, the village head, you shouldn't have shown enthusiasm for martial arts like I did. Of course, I’m doing martial arts because my father and Old Man Weger have been nagging me like forever.

Come to think of it, Father said that he went out of the forest at 17 and caused a big accident. So, if First Brother was 17 now, he would cause a similar accident if he left the forest, right?

"Speaking of which, will you show me the map?"

"Hmm, if I say no, will you hit me?" Hestia noona asked playfully, disgustingly pretending to be cute.

Even if it wasn't for my father, I would have given her at least a finger flick, but I endured it because I didn't want to get beaten to death by my father.

"I can't hit you, but I can make things difficult."

"Oho? How so?"

When she looked at me with interested eyes, I looked at her absurdly.

"That gaze is very unpleasant. So, how are you going to make things difficult for me?”

"Aigo, excuse me. It's not hard to make things difficult for noona. I can simply spread word about what happened a few days ago during dinner."

Hestia noona was flustered, which was rare.

"How did you!"

"Well, I happened to see it by chance. I'm not the only one who saw it. Uncle Bloody witnessed it as well."

He had gone back to the capital already, but my uncle had recently come to my father to ask to borrow some troops. My father refused, but Third Sister persuaded him and eventually sent about 30 people as support. My uncle said he would go to the Butterfly Tribe too, but I don't know if they sent their troops as well.

"Tch, I should keep Uncle's mouth shut, too." She clicked her tongue.

It was clear that jealous people would bother her if they caught word that Mac hyung, the idol of young women in the village, confessed to Hestia noona. Even if they bothered her, they wouldn’t be able to do a thing to Third Sister since she was protected by our father.

However, they would be able to do enough of the trivial and annoying things through their mouths. That's probably why Hestia noona rejected Mac hyung's confession.

Well, was it the same for Mac hyung?

I don't know why, but Third Sister was popular with young males and boys in the village. They even endured my father's iron fist and confessed.

"There's nothing I can do. Here you go. In return for showing it to you, keep it a secret."

"Yes, yes, that's not hard." I hummed and looked at the map.

All right, I have a rough estimate.

"Thanks, I’ve taken a good look," I said with a smile.

Hestia looked at me sourly. "Be prepared. Next time, I'll grab hold of your weakness."

"Ok, try your best."

"Ugh! Annoying!"

She looked genuinely annoyed.

"But what are you working so hard looking at?" I asked.

Hestia noona quickly calmed down her feelings and handed me the documents she was looking at.

"It's nothing. I was looking at the things sent by Uncle who went to the Republic and the things sent by Aunt who went to the Empire.”

The documents sent by my uncle were about the goods the Republic would demand from our village in the future, and those sent by my aunt were the Empire maps and unknown writings.

Random words were written at the bottom of the message.

At the bottom of one message, it said "cool" black beer, Bamberg Mountain, and seafood, while the other stated vinz smoke, Mother’s Grace, 4 silver coins, and only eat the middle of the three smoked sausages.

I don't know what she’s talking about.

"What's this map?"

"Oh, that? You don’t need to know yet. I'll let you know after you become an adult. Well, I can tell you right away if you want to start administrative work with me from now on."

I calmly put down the documents and pushed them toward Hestia noona.

"I'm overwhelmed just keeping up with Father's training."

"Huhuhu, I thought so. Work hard. Father said something about you taking it too lightly."

"Ahaha, I'll be careful."

I had been pretending to be working hard, but it seems I couldn't fool my father's eyes.

"I'll get going. Keep it a secret from Father that I saw the map.”

"Yeah. Well, even if I don’t say anything, he’ll probably sense it."

Certainly, my father's instinct was enough to let him know. Still, it was clearly different from being told openly and doubting it with instinct. Now, before my birthday, I had to go here and there in the forest like crazy.

Phew, my life! I can only sigh.

-o-

"Happy birthday, Youngest."

"It's your turn this time, right?”

First Brother and Second Brother smiled, placing a large tenderloin steak on the table, the most delicious part of a dragon.

"Damn birthday."

I didn't want it to come, but it ended up coming. When I appeared discouraged, my brothers laughed cheerfully and put their arms around me on both sides.

"Uhuhuhu! This is the advice from Achilles ahjussi that I heard before I was thrown in. If you can't avoid it, enjoy it!"

"Hahahaha! But you're not being tossed in blank like me! I had to heal for 8 weeks because I didn't know in advance!”

The words of comfort were not comforting at all.

"Well, as you go on with it, you can somehow manage to catch the dragon by yourself, even if using cowardly methods. Although, I would want to hunt with several people no matter what," Second Brother said.

First Brother nodded.

"If you can't catch it, the problem is that you'll be thrown in again later. I was thrown in again when I was 15. Luckily, I could catch it that time because it was much younger than the first time, but if I hadn’t caught it, I would have been thrown in again."

"I was 14 when I was thrown in, the same as Hyung, and I was thrown in again a few months ago. Well, I ended up catching it by myself, but it was terrible."

Thinking about his birthday a few months ago, Second Brother’s face distorted and frowned. He was thrown in three times, so the trauma must be severe. As I heard my brothers talk, I felt like crying.

"Are you comforting me or teasing me?" I asked.

My older brothers spoke as if it was obvious.

"Of course, we’re teasing you. When will we ever get to tease you again?"

"Isn't it natural to tease you for all the times you stabbed us in the back?"

If you put it like that, I have nothing to say.

My older brothers wrapped a birthday candle with sword aura and stuck it into the meat and lit it up. When the fire was lit, my father brought out a plate containing wheat crepes from the kitchen.

I don't know why, but whenever it was someone's birthday, he always made wheat crepes.

"Oh! Did you light the candles already? Hestia! Leisha! Hurry up and come over!"

At my father's cry, my sisters slowly came down from their rooms.

The family sitting around the dragon tenderloin steak sang a short birthday song, and the simple birthday celebration ended with me blowing out the candle.

It was nice because it was simple.

Gawain hyung put sword aura around his knife, cut a large piece of the dragon tenderloin steak, and distributed it on a plate.

"Happy birthday, Youngest. And work hard," Hestia noona said.

Leisha noona sighed in relief at that. "I'm glad I didn't learn martial arts".

What a shame. If Fourth Sister had learned martial arts, she would have been thrown in front of the dragon too.

"Let's go together. You can start learning martial arts now," I said.

Leisha noona was disgusted at that. "Are you crazy? How can I catch a dragon?! It's a monster that even grown-ups find hard to catch!"

Normally, a dragon was a monster that took at least ten grown-ups to catch. Even the battle-crazy villagers would say they were normal when they saw my father’s training.

"Isn't that too mean to say to the little brother who's about to be thrown in front of that monster?" I grumbled while chewing the dragon tenderloin steak.

Our father looked at us with warm eyes and said, “Unfortunately, Leisha doesn't have a good talent for martial arts, so the magic she’s learning now would be better. Elder Mirpa said she is talented."

I should have been stubborn and not learned it.

My father laughed cheerfully as if he had read my thoughts.

"Ahahaha! You’re not allowed. How can a brat with a lot of talent get out of it? Moreover, I promised your mom that I would raise you to be stronger than anyone else."

I protested, "If I were Mother, I would have told you to do it moderately."

"There is no such thing. Your mom always trusted me, so Youngest, you should trust me, too.”

My protest was in vain. Plan A, let’s run away!

I tried to run away with dragon steak in my mouth.

"Uwack!"

Even before I left the table, my escape was blocked as I was hit on the back of the neck by my father and passed out.

Damn it, then it's Plan B.

With that thought, my vision went dark. My precious dragon meat.

-o-

"Ohh, are you up, Youngest?"

When I opened my eyes to my father's voice, I was being carried over his shoulder.

"Ugh... Why do you carry your son like baggage?"

"Ahahaha! What can I do when this is more comfortable? Blame yourself for being too small, Youngest."

"It's not that I'm small, it's that Father is too big."

My father should think about his own size. It was unreasonable to say that I was small when he was one of the largest in the village.

I raised my upper body and rode on my father's shoulder. From what I could see from his head up high, it seemed like we were going to the place marked on the map I saw last time.

"Here you go, Youngest. Hestia prepared it for you."

My father raised his arm and handed me my coat.

"Oh, I thought I wouldn't be able to take it, but that's good."

I had kept an extra coat in my pocket space, but upon leaving the village, it takes a crazy amount of mana to open the pocket space, so I was hesitating.

I put on my coat and checked to make sure the things I attached were still properly there. 30 daggers, 5 tear gases, 5 flash grenades, 5 smoke grenades, small crossbow, and 100 short cross bolts, 2 high-frequency flutes, 10 special bombs, 5 poison bottles, 1 bundle of dragon grass, a magic wand from Elder Mirpa, and a mithril sword from Old Man Weger.

Everything was there.

"Unlike your usual clever ones, they are quite simple items."

I laughed lightly at my father's comment.

"Ahahaha, my brothers were beaten up because they were wrapped in heavy protective gear and weapons."

It was crazy among crazy to face monsters like dragons in a direct head-on confrontation. There was the saying that your body suffers if you’re stupid, but the way my brothers defended their bodies was wrong.

"Hahahaha! Is that so? Then show me your method!"

"Wa-wait!"

My father threw me in the direction of the dragon cave without leaving me any time to stop him.

As I flew, I did a somersault and quickly landed on a thick branch. It's too much to just throw me away suddenly.

I looked back at my father with resentment, but he put a strong aura on a large stone and threw it quickly into the dragon cave.

"Caooooooooo-!!"

A deep roar of anger and pain came from the dragon cave.

Then, a 300-year-old frost dragon roared and emerged.