21 Dragon-chan, bandit groups, and ingredients

••• Gate Guard's PoV •••

"Hey, Eli, are you daydreaming on duty again?" (Garret)

My name is Eli, I'm a guard for the coastal town of Colette. Not that I do much nowadays, there's been a group of Kraken living just off of the coast for the past month or so, so we can't fish, nor can we do any trading with merchant ships. Bandits have moved in on two of the three main paths out of town. Therefore, nobody comes to our town anymore. We've actually put a ban on E, D, and C ranked adventurers entering due to them having a tendency to get worked up when they hear how bad it is here, then killing themselves attacking the Kraken or bandits. My overly-serious partner Garret is more inclined to follow the rules than to admit that nothing has happened in weeks.

"No, I'm just bored. Nothing has happened, not so much as a squirrel getting chased by... a... Dragon..." (Eli)

"Wouldn't it be more like one getting chased by a dog or a Wolf?" (Garret)

"Dumbass. Look at the skies over the road! There's a small DRAGON there!" (Eli)

"I... It looks like it knows exactly where it's going, and it's not chasing or running from anything. Is it being guided by a rider or something? No, it's not big enough to have a rider..." (Garret)

"That's not the thing to be thinking about right now. What color is it? WHAT THE-?! IT'S FAST!!" (Eli)

"That's a Purple Dragon we have here... wait... the hell? It's... Gold-bordered... and it's landing in front of us... no rider, no collar, nothing. It's a wild Dra... gon?" (Garret)

I don't believe it... a Gold-bordered Purple Dragon... A God Dragon... and it just turned into a cute cat-eared little girl in Dragonscale armor...

"Hey, mind if I come in?" (Girl)

"I... I... I... I... I... I... Can SOMEONE PLEASE tell me what the hell just happened?!?!" (Eli)

"My name is Nene, I'm a C ranked adventurer. I'd like to enter this town. Could I do so?" (Nene)

"Sorry, new regulations make C ranked adventurers unable to enter without a pass" (Garret)

"How does one get a pass then?" (Nene)

"One might get it from an escort quest heading here, or by being a resident of this town and getting a pass from the adventurer's guildmaster" (Garret)

"Huh. So, what you are telling me is that I'm not allowed to do the quest I came here from the capital to do? That really sucks... I really could use that Kraken meat... and the reward for it is nice too..." (Nene)

"I'm sorry? I don't think I heard that last bit right..." (Eli)

"I'm sorry, but you can't enter. The rules are the rules, I can't do anything about that" (Garret)

"How about this? I'll wait here until your shift ends, and you can keep an eye on me as I get permission from the guildmaster to be in the town. If he or she doesn't give me permission, I will leave the town and not return until after I reach rank B or the regulations change. Is that OK?" (Nene)

"Sorry, I cannot do-" (Garret)

"Garret. Come here a moment... she's a god-damned God Dragon... Don't make her mad. She could be much, MUCH worse for this town than the Kraken are if she felt like it. Besides, Dragons are known for never breaking their promises, if they swore on their pride as a Dragon, so if we take her up on her offer of a promise, she will either get a pass from the guildmaster, or she will leave and not return. Either way, we don't have anything to lose by doing it, unlike the chance that she'd destroy Colette if she didn't make any promises" (Eli)

"You know, my ears are not just for show. My hearing is several orders of magnitude better than an ordinary person's hearing" (Nene)

Shit... She heard me...

"I wouldn't rampage in the town I was asked to save, even if someone were to be rude enough to tell me to get out before I got in. However, I would have trusted my employer, Sanya, would back up my decision to sneak in to talk to the guildmaster here, even if it breaking some regulations, as, you know, I'm here to deal with the reason for the regulations existing in the first place. Besides, I'd expect that not everyone is as wedded to the rules as this guy... Garret, right? If you don't want me to enter, I'll just come in over the walls... I mean, I can fly and all that. I can also use {Gate}, and, like, every other spell known... and I mean EVERY spell" (Nene)

"So, you are saying that you can sneak in at any time and in several different ways?" (Garret)

"Correct... But, I swear that, if you let me in to speak with the guildmaster, I will leave this place immediately while trying to avoid any fights with the Kraken or the bandits, if the guildmaster does not grant me a pass, and I will not come back until I am allowed to do so under the regulations in effect at the time. I swear this on my pride as a Dragon, may the one who breaks this oath become worse than a lizard" (Nene)

"Well, that settles that. I will guide you inside once my shift ends" (Eli)

"Eli! That is not your decision to make! The rules state that-" (Garret)

"I'm doing this because it's the only way to uphold the intention of the rule, as opposed to the lettering of it" (Eli)

"I... fine... but I'm coming along" (Garret)

Less than an hour later, our shift ended and we guided her to the adventurer's guild. She went in back soon after saying and showing something to the receptionist which made him surprised and run to the guildmaster's office, and then, a few minutes later, she came out. As she didn't have a pass when she came out, Garret immediately grabbed her and pulled her out of the building and out of town, not letting her say anything at all.

"I'm not going to let you say anything, as you don't have anything left to say, right? He didn't grant you a pass, so you will leave and never return. That is what you promised, on your pride as a Dragon, RIGHT?!" (Garret)

"{Feel Pain}" (Nene)

"GYYAHHRRGG!!!" (Garret)

"I did promise something like that, but there were a few conditions... HOWEVER. HOW-EV-ER! He did intend to grant me a pass. He sent me out to get the receptionist to add a pass to my card, and you pulled me out before I could do so. I will return, as doing so in such a situation is not in violation of my oath" (Nene)

"I have trouble believing that, and even if it were true, that still wouldn't justify using magic on me to cause me harm against my will (Garret)

"No, but using magic to cause pain without injury to remove one obstructing me from carrying out the orders of two guildmasters is something well within my rights. If I wanted to, I could get you fired for this, actually. But, I'm in a good mood today... though you seem hell-bent on changing that" (Nene)

"You still don't have the right to-" (Garret)

"ENOUGH. If you still won't accept the fact that I would have a pass if you didn't interfere, I will just go with the other out I put in my oath: the part about not coming back, UNTIL I AM ALLOWED TO DO SO UNDER THE REGULATIONS IN EFFECT AT THE TIME. As I am allowed to under the current regulations, I am coming back in, and that is also not in violation of my oath" (Nene)

"Now hold on, you are a C rank adventurer without a pass. Therefo-" (Eli)

"Ah, right... I know I said I'm rank C, but... Here's my other card. Ah, first... {Five Minute Title Restriction Release: 1, 2, 3, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21} {Five Minute Seal Restriction Release: All} {Five Minute Name Restriction Release}... Good lord... what Chuuni... Still, this should be enough to show you I mean what I said" (Nene)

She handed me a guild card, which I took absentmindedly while thinking about what she could be talking about when she said that she is allowed to enter under current regulations… Just then, Garret fell to the ground next to me, so I jumped back while drawing my sword on instinct.

"Well that's quite an overreaction to your partner just being surprised... you could have at least ask me what happened before you look at me like you want to kill me..." (Nene)

Just being surprised? That's a little more than just surprised... wait... what's there to be surprised about? I looked around, until my gaze fell upon the card in my hand... Holy Hell... Rank S, Wyvernslayer, Kraken Killer, Dragontamer, Hero of the Drachen Empire, Hero of Alayzard, Hero of Erufanica, Empress of the Drachen Empire, the Seal of the Drachen Imperial Family, the Seal of the Royal Family of Erufanica...

"Well... it looks like you really do have the skill to kill the Kraken, and you are allowed to enter under current regulations... uh... please forgive my idiot partner's blunders, and my drawing my sword on you" (Eli)

"Nah, you are fine when compared to him. He's also suffered enough due to my spell... he's going to be fine though, it's pain with no physiological reason for it, so it'll vanish within a few minutes" (Nene)

••• Normal PoV •••

After dealing with an idiotic guard who wasted an hour of my time, I went back in and got that pass. Afterwards, I went to the cliffs overlooking the ocean, where I could already detect seven Kraken within my range, including two near the outer edges of it. However, as it was now well after dark, I decided to go bandit hunting first. I put on my old cloak, walked along the northern path with a light magic stone, set into a bracelet, lighting up my path. I had night vision, but this wasn't for my ability to see, it was for drawing out bandits by illuminating myself. Sure enough, it worked. I had three men block my path, with four more behind me, after I had been walking for only about half an hour.

"Hey, didn't you know? There are bandits that come out around here. It's not safe for a lone little girl to travel at all, let alone at night. Why don't you come to our camp? We'll protect you, and see to it that you don't come to any harm at all. What do ya say to that?" (Man A)

"Sure, take me to your place... I really appreciate this" (Nene, in a cuter and more childish voice than normal)

I could almost hear them thinking something like "Ohh... this is too easy. This girl is so naive" as they brought me to a cave hidden by some vines while arranging themselves around me in a way that they probably thought wasn't supposed to tip me off that they were more worried about me running away than they were about defending me. I used a light bit of Wind magic to make sure there wasn't any backdoor to the cave, which there wasn't.

"OK, we're here. Welcome to-" (Man A)

"The bandit's den? You even brought me to my destination too! Thank you! Now then... urg, this is hell on my voice... Now then... {Earth Wall}" (Nene, whose voice went back to normal halfway through)

"... Huh? What..." (everyone in earshot)

"Who else but a bandit would be walking around at night in a bandit-infested area in group of seven, with more in their camp, and have three of them invite a lone girl while four stayed out of sight for the entire trip in positions more suited to keeping the girl from running than to protecting her? It doesn't take a scholar to figure that one out... and who else but an adventurer confident in her skills would walk around in a bandit infested area and instantly say yes to a group of men inviting her to their camp?" (Nene)

"You seem to have miscalculated. We have the strength to beat even an A rank adventurer part-" (Man B)

"You seem to be behind on the news... You see, my name is Nene, the adventurer who won the tournament this year, even despite wearing a blindfold, tying my hands behind my back, using my opponent's weapon of choice, even element of choice when against a mage, and other self-imposed restrictions like those... also, I ought to wrap this up here and get you back to town, I have another bandit group to bust tonight" (Nene)

I did as I said I would, finishing up in less than five minutes, rescued the captive women, and brought all of them back to town in under two hours since I left. I then went to the other known bandit haunt, again with a light at my wrist, but this time, I had Lapis and Rubel flying above me in miniature form, and when we got to the abandoned barn that served them as a hideout, I just had them fly in through a window and grow to a larger size, about 10 meters from nose to tail, as I chucked a ball of light inside, after I dealt with the group that brought me there.

"A DRAGON?!?!" (Bandit A)

"Wha... wha... what... WHAT IS A DRAGON DOING HERE?!" (Bandit B)

"RUN!!!" (Bandit C)

"You can run, but you won't get very far... {Draconic Invite: Eye of the Storm}" (Voice from the roof)

"Who said that?!" (Bandit B)

"I did" (Nene)

I used {Gate} to move inside the building after using Draconic Wind magic... You know, I never really used Draconic Magic outside of lessons before... Anyways, I used it to prevent them from leaving, though it was overkill, and then...

"Why am I not surprised you dealt with the other bandit group too? All that's left are the Kraken, but even you... No, you might be able to beat one of them and scare off the rest..." (Guard A)

"The original reason I embarked on this trip was to obtain the materials of as many Kraken as I could, for my restaurant. I'm not going to scare them off. I can handle them all, and my only payment is the materials" (Nene)

"There're more than just one or two. We know of at least five" (Guard B)

"There are at least eight, from what I could tell. Don't worry, the difference between a group of five, which I killed before I was seven years old, and a group of eight to ten is nothing. I'll be fine for sure" (Nene)

"You say that, but... you look like a poor girl from the slums in that cloak... Also, five Kraken at age seven... I don't believe it..." (Guard B)

"It's what's under this cloak that matters... See? Besides, that's how I got the Kraken Killer title" (Nene)

"Dragonscale armor? Kraken Killer title? Well, it looks like you might be able to do it after all..." (Guard A)

"I can, but... I'll wait until tomorrow morning, when I can see what's going on better. Could you please tell people to not even go fishing from the shore tomorrow? The sea will be... different... for several hours. Don't worry, you will be able to go back to fishing, even from boats, the day after tomorrow" (Nene)

"I think that, as people depend on fishing to get them from one day to the next, it'll be hard to get them to agree... sorry, but you'll have to think of another way to deal with the Kraken..." (Guard A)

"Alternatively, tell them to go to the adventurer's guild to get some food, I'll drop by and leave them with some Wolf and Orc meat. I have, like, WAY too much with me" (Nene)

"Wouldn't it spoil if you have it in your item bag?" (Guard B)

"I don't have an item bag, I have some magic that functions like one that is much bigger and also stops time for things stored within it" (Nene)

"... Why am I not surprised? Oh right, it's you. Nothing about you makes sense. You are 12 years old, have earned the Kraken Killer title, among others, are rank C, have Dragonscale armor, have Dragons as summons, and take out bandits by letting yourself get caught by them so they would take you to their hideout" (Guard B)

"There's more, but... I neither need nor want to point it out, and I would like to sleep now... though I really only need two or three hours a night" (Nene)

The next day came and went, I managed to give away a few dozen Wolves and Orcs, and I managed to muzzle everyone who knew about my taking care of the bandits, having them all say that it was "An S rank adventurer who was passing by and wants to remain anonymous" just like with the monster horde near the capital. At dawn on the day that nobody was supposed to go fishing, I used magic to create over a dozen large, boat-shaped icebergs, which were being moved around by my Dragons. When they were all getting attacked by the eleven Kraken that were there, I used the same trick I had used earlier with the group of five, namely, using {Niflheim} to freeze the ocean surface, and then killing them with lightning magic while they were stuck. I then put their corpses into my Horde, went back to shore, and used {Muspelheim} to melt the ice, including the ice ships I'd made. It only took about half an hour, and I then went to the guild, before people started to fill it up, and got my request to kill the Kraken marked as completed. I decided to ask about any other towns nearby, to see if there was somewhere that might be useful to be able to use {Gate} to get to. There were three towns along the road north, past where the bandits were, and beyond the third one there was rumored to be an even larger group of bandits... or more accurately, the northern group I took out was an offshoot of that large, main group. Well, looks like I may have reason to take out more bandits...

I went to each of the towns on the way, and in the last one, I learned that a B ranked adventurer party was headed to deal with the bandits, one that left that town about half an hour before I got there, but as an A rank adventurer had already vanished when he went to deal with the group, there wasn't much hope that the party would do much. Let's go help them. No reason not to, after all... well, not unless the members were all scum of some kind, but... I mean, how likely is that? (Ah, some of you idiots think that's a flag, but... you see, I know what happened. I'm just telling you this story from the perspective of me as I was in the moment... for the most part)

I left the town soon after that, at a speed that is within normal human limitations, but not one that people would expect to see from an adventurer, not unless they were running for their life from a Dragon or something. However, for me, this was nowhere close to my top speed. Honestly, the limiting factor on my speed is that my cloak might try to rip itself apart at high speeds. If I wore nothing but my scales, well... the limiting factor would be the strength of the earth under my feet. Anyways, within five minutes of leaving town, I saw the group of five adventurers in the distance, so I slowed to what a normal person would have called a run, not a sprint, and caught up to them within another five minutes.

"Oh? What do we have here? A little girl? Where might you be going at such a run?" (Adventurer A)

"There are bandits past here. You should turn back before you run into them" (Adventurer B)

"I know there are bandits here, that's why I'm here" (Nene)

"What, you got a death wish? Turn back, please. I don't want to see you get hurt" (Adventurer C)

"No, I'm an adventurer. I came here because I was asked to come here. I'll take care of the bandit problem. I would actually like to ask why you are headed into an area with bandits" (Nene)

"We're adventurers too, also asked to deal with those bandits. What's your rank? D?" (Adventurer D)

"I'm rank C, but... I-" (Nene)

"Then we're coming along too. All of us in the [Five Colored Swords] are B ranked, so you should be happy to have us take care of you, if you do insist on going. My name's Gray. What's yours?" (Adventurer A, AKA Gray)

"Let me ask you all a question first: If your group of five were to go up against Astra in the tournament, even 1v5, would you be able to win? Would you be able to do so without losing any of your {BDT}'s magic?" (Nene)

"No to both, but the same is true for you. That question has no relevance to the present situation" (Gray)

"Now hold on there, I heard that Astra lost to some kid this time, who went on to win the whole thing. I think her name was Nene? She was a D rank then, but she'd only been an adventurer for a few weeks" (Adventurer E)

"Forest, that sort of rumor shouldn't just be believed like that, nor brought up at a time li-" (Gray)

"That's no rumor, it's a fact. My name is Nene, the [Draconic Empress]. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Here's my card, if you were wondering. The reason for my title is threefold: First, there's these scales, second, my summons. Lapis? No? You asleep? Come on, time to wake up..." (Nene)

I showed them what my cloak was hiding, dumped Lapis out of my hood, thus waking her up, and showed her to the group... by having her grow to about 15 meters, from nose to the base of her tail, with an extra 5 meters of tail. Sadly, she was a bit grumpy about getting her nap interrupted, despite knowing that it would have ended soon after in any case, due to us fighting the bandits. Because she was grumpy, she was just glaring at everyone, but... almost anyone would get scared when a God Dragon is glaring at them... the others are me, and people who are crazy or want to die.

"So... you wear a Dragon, you can summon a Dragon, do you also turn into a Dragon?" (Gray)

"You're the first to guess that. Yes, I can turn into one. Would you like to see?" (Nene)

"I'd like to see tha-" (Forest)

"NOPE! I'M GOOD! I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO CHANGE MY UNDERWEAR!!!" (Adventurer B)

"So... What's the third reason? Where does the [Empress] part come in?" (Gray)

"That... that's somewhat private... few people besides dragons know the reason for that part... Mostly three guildmasters, the King, a few of his advisors, half a dozen of my friends, and that's about it. What I will tell you is that the Dragons under my command call me Empress, if they don't call me by my name, and that wild Dragons, ones that aren't extremely young, sub-Dragons, or crazy due to illness or old age, tend to follow my orders and act as if I were an Empress among Dragons. The reason for that is, again, private..." (Nene)

"Still, that doesn't answ-" (Gray)

"Gray, don't pry. She doesn't want to say it, and it's a breach of an unspoken rule to pry into the past of other adventurers. Everyone has a story they don't want told. Remember Tayuya?" (Adventurer C)

"Ruby, you promised you wouldn't bring her up! I see your point though... Sorry about that, Nene" (Gray)

"So, should we get moving and subjugate those bandits? I'd like to get there when there is good enough light to see their faces when they see Lapis at her full size" (Nene)

"Please refrain from that while I'm here..." (Adventurer B)

"I won't. It's the most efficient and reliable way to disable all of the bandits without harming the potential hostages, and thus it also means the bandits can't harm them either" (Nene)

"The do it while I can't see it... My heart wouldn't be able to take it if you did it otherwise" (Adventurer B)

We started to move again, and I led them to the hideout of the bandits... or what I assumed was the hideout, based off of the reactions of my detection magic finding several dozen humans... about 80 or 90, actually. As there weren't any more villages or towns along this path for several days by foot, I figured there was only a miniscule chance that it was anything other than the bandit group, so I went on ahead, found them in a large area with steep cliffs on three sides, and so I sent Lapis in (in miniature form) as I stayed hidden.

"What's that? It looks like a small Dragon... Capture it! It can be sold for a lot to some nobles!" (Bandit A)

"Boss, it's out of reach... But, it looked like it had Gold-bordered scales. It's an Ancient Dragon!" (Bandit B)

"No, Gold-bordered Blue would be a God Dragon... Heh, looks like we have ourselves enough money here to let all of us retire comfortably... DON'T LET IT GET AWAY!" (Bandit Boss)

"Lapis, time to shine! Full size!" (Young girl's voice from the top of the cliffs)

"Who said tha- WHAT THE HELL!?!?!?" (Bandit Boss)

When I said that, Lapis grew until she was fully 50 meters long, with 20 more meters in tail. She filled up most of the sky above the bandits, and then I changed into my full size (10 meters long, with 5 meters in tail) and flew down to shepard the bandits who could still move out the main entrance, where the B ranks were waiting for them. I then flew up above Lapis, shifted back to my humanoid form, landed on her back, and had her shift to the size I had her at when I showed her to the adventurers. Once that was done and I was riding her as one would expect, she glided down to land in an empty space, at which point I got off, had her return to my hood, and tied up the 60 or so bandits who had lost consciousness while assuring the captives that everything was going to be fine... wait... Well, I now have reason to hate these bandits more than I already did... I pulled out a large number of wolf pelts for the two dozen or so fully naked women to wear until we could get them some better clothes to wear while sending Lapis to block the entrance, as they didn't need more men to see them like that. After they were more or less covered up, we brought them, and the bandits, to the nearest town. As one might expect, they couldn't handle 94 live bandits, so I brought them through {Gate} to an area just outside the capital, and sent a message to Sanya (via the magic stone I gave her) explaining that I had a large number of bandits in tow, which I would need to release into the custody of the guards, but... I didn't want to panic and otherwise disturb the people who would be waiting to get in or out of the capital, so... Sanya asked the gate guards to send out 30 guards to bring the bandits in. I didn't fully trust that they wouldn't try to run due to outnumbering the guards on them 3 to 1, so I asked the guards if my summons could help keep them in check until they were in their cells, and when they said yes, Lapis, Rubel, and soon after, myself, (in miniature Dragon form) started flying around the group. Nobody tried to run. One has to wonder, however, why there were so many bandits in one place... there shouldn't have been enough traffic for them to raid to sustain that many bandits... Not my problem, however. The [Five Colored Swords] should be enough to deal with the rest, right?