There was a jingling sound. In his claws, Valacirca had scooped up some of the countless pieces of treasure scattered all over the room. He looked at it lovingly and with great enjoyment.
“I have my own motives, of course. I will demand a considerable price.
But fear not. I have no intention of deliberately butting heads with a champion of your caliber.”
The dragon laughed as he demanded treasure.
It was by no means a bad offer in the short term. The power of a dragon was vast. He would be a great asset to have on our side. However—
“In fifty years’ time, you’ll kill me, destroy everything, and shift your loyalty to someone else,” I told him dryly. The beetle-demon had been killed, squashed like a bug. “I’ve seen how you do things.”
The foul-dragon was silent. His body trembled. Just as I braced myself for an attack, he roared with laughter.
“Very good, very good! Exactly!”
His laughter slowly died down. He tilted his head, and a sinister grin spread over his face.
“But don’t you agree? It’s still a good deal… ”
I fell silent in spite of myself. He had a valid point.
If I maintained the strength to pose a risk to Valacirca as I protected him as part of our forces, it would give the dragon a reason to team up with me. He might serve me relatively loyally, relatively lazily, at least to the extent that he wouldn’t be hostile. In that case, was there actually a need to engage in a fight right now with desperately low chances of victory? After all, the god of undeath had said that my chances of winning would increase with time. Wouldn’t it be better to leave this in the hands of my future self?
“Let me ask you. How much of a reason do you really have to fight me?”
It was like the devil was whispering into my ear. It was easy to tell that Valacirca had probably made this suggestion fully understanding the effect his words would have on me.
“Have I personally harmed anyone close to you? No. Are you a man of
such greed you would go after my treasure? I doubt it. And I can see clearly
that the fame of slaying a dragon means nothing to you. When I started to
awaken, you came here with determination in your heart and a spear in your hand because you thought me a threat to innocent people. Didn’t you?”
Valacirca whispered.
“You see? The threat is gone. I will bow my head to you…”
None of my allies could say a thing. This development was so much to process, they couldn’t even gather their thoughts to speak. My mind too was overloaded. What was this? What the hell was this? In some part of my mind, I’d been thinking of Valacirca as a creature on a rampage with nothing more to him than his strength. Did that describe me more than him?
“Now choose, Faraway Paladin, hero of the modern age.”
A shiver ran down my spine. His golden eye pierced me.
“Will it be peace… or else, battle and death?”
As hot miasma hissed out of both corners of his mouth, the question posed by
Calamity’s Sickle echoed throughout the Great Cavern and filled it with dread.
I’d planned to fight the dragon. But the dragon was trying to bow its head to me.
“Well? What are you waiting for? Does my history with the dwarves
bother you? Certainly, I held the demons as my masters, fought the dwarves, and gained treasure from it, but that is the way of hired work, is it not? If my new masters say that they cannot restore the mountain while poison fills the air, then I will gladly move elsewhere.”
He was scheming, of course. He spoke rationally of the risks and costs, and occasionally a malicious smile crossed his face and he said things including:
“You are a hero, are you not? Show you have what it takes to handle me.”
This utterly unanticipated development had my mind on the verge of chaos.
Logically speaking, what the dragon was saying made sense. It sounded correct from the viewpoint of efficiency and risk management. If I avoided battle with the dragon and took him under my umbrella, we would be safe for the time being, and I could also increase the strength of our forces. But I had a bad feeling about this. I had the feeling I was being tricked, but I didn’t know exactly how. What was it? What was I overlooking?
“I am not known for my patience. Choose swiftly.”
The dragon chose that moment to pressure me. My mind spiraled faster towards chaos. Should I reject the dragon’s words? But that would be the start of a desperate battle to the death. Then should I accept them? But that would be just what he wanted me to do. The same thoughts spiraled around and around inside my head. I was trapped in an endless circle.
I’d felt this somewhere before. It was my previous world. I had the feeling that I’d done something similar while huddled up in that dark room.
I let out a small groan. Memories flashed through my mind: a dark room, the light of a monitor. Myself, unable to take that step forward. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. Restlessness burned my chest. Time was being frittered away. I still didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I groaned. I shed tears. I was still squandering time. What could I do to find salvation? What was I supposed to choose? What was I meant to do? I didn’t even know that anymore.
Someone, someone, anyone, please…
The memory of having come to an end without making a choice accelerated my panic. Something black and sticky started to crawl out of a pit deep inside my heart.
What do I do? What? What? What—
My breath became shallow. My arms and legs were cold and stiff. And yet my back was clammy with sweat. I had reached peak confusion.
That was the moment. I felt as if someone had placed one of their small hands softly on the top of my head.
My neck jerked back to look upwards. Of course, I couldn’t see anything there. There was just the dark roof of the cavern. But whether it was coincidence or inevitability, looking up made me take deeper breaths. As I breathed deeply, oxygen entered my body and raced through my blood. Refreshing air blew into my blunted mind, and as my senses began to function once again, her words came back to me.
— The oath you made that day belongs to the two of us.
Of course. I was already given salvation. By her. And I had sworn an oath to her, an oath that was more important to me than anything else.
— Fear thou not, for I am with thee.
My heart thumped loudly.
— Be not dismayed, for I am thy god.
My hazy thoughts started to become clear.
— I will strengthen thee; I will help thee; I will keep thee with my flame.
Heat once again surged into my body, which tension and confusion had made sluggish and cold. It was like a warm flame had flared to life within my chest. If the thing called courage could take a form, perhaps this was it.
“Oh…”
Sparks of insight fired inside my head. It was fascinating how fast my mind was ticking now. Logic pieced itself together.
Using his powerful presence and pressure to cause me to lose my cool and make bad decisions was all part of the strategy of Valacirca’s offer. As long as I didn’t succumb to that, the rest would be easy.
First, I turned around.
“Menel, Al, Reystov, Ghelreis.”
Menel had already nocked a mithril arrow onto his bow. He’d recovered most of them in the hall. Al also had his halberd in hand, and his stance showed he could spring into action at any time. Reystov’s hand was resting on the handle of his sword, poised to unsheathe it at lightning speed. And the sight of Ghelreis’s sturdy body and massive shield was very reassuring.