The Thief

A whole day without any treats was terrible, but I was able to get through it.

I was even able to cheat a little because everyone wanted to thank me and celebrate my return.

In the off time I had from playing with the tiny friends, I realized I can still use my barrier ability from the demon world, but it reacts with the Mana in the air, so it's much weaker and it dissolves after a short time.

I still want to try out a spell to miniaturize myself, thinking maybe it wouldn't be as uncomfortable as a full transformation.

But I'm not showing that to Ria yet because it will just reinforce the little sister treatment.

I'm not getting attacked with cuddles as much as I used to. It really seems like Ria is doing a lot of what Gramps used to take care of.

Doesn't look like she's having trouble getting them to do what she says anymore, though.

Judging from how quickly they get in line, she probably told them her 'little sister' would eat them if they didn't be good. Such a mean thing to do.

She uses every excuse to hover around me, like trying to overfeed me or make me take a bath.

I can keep myself clean just fine, thank you very much. Scales don't even get that dirty.

The world doesn't agree with that, since today it starts raining.

It's actually not that bad, the rain hitting me is kind of like a massage, plus the sounds are nice.

The most uncomfortable part is actually just Ria whining that I'm going to get sick.

I'm not...

Being the idiot I am, I covered her up with my wing so she wouldn't be getting sick.

I already know her. Now she's going to come to me every time it starts raining instead of going inside.

A few more boring days passed. Extremely boring days.

There wasn't anything for me to do. I'm too big to really play aside from giving rides, or watching some friends try to wiggle away when I grab them.

Even if I transformed I still have combat sense, so I still easily win any physical games.

I used to have fun with hunting but now Ria is yelling at me and not letting me do that anymore because she's overprotective.

So I just sit there with my head on my forelegs and snort at the nose boops I get for being too close to the ground.

I was going to fall asleep when something new finally happened.

There was an outside visitor in the village.

Everyone told me it should be fine not to hide myself, but I still chose to just hide and watch anyway.

He looked pretty ordinary, if not a bit slim of build.

I'd say he looked above average but he wasn't necessarily handsome either.

He seemed to be specifically enthralled with the statue of me in the square of the village.

I started wondering what he was going to do, or if he really just came to stare at it like that.

Those thoughts were interrupted as he utters a spell and shatters my statue to pieces-- for some reason.

Ria boils furiously at the sight and I bite her collar so she doesn't go get in trouble. It's best to just let the weirdo do his thing instead of getting in a conflict.

"AHH! Sister, stop! You're putting holes in my shirt!" She squeals.

"You don't need to get hurt over a statue. I'm right here." I refuse firmly while being muffled with the shirt in my mouth.

"I know you're scared, little sister, but I'm strong enough to protect you now! Put me down!" She continues fussing.

The hell? Why would I be scared?

She knows very well that I've faced much worse than some random vandal destroying a statue. I'm sure she just wishes I was scared because she wants to console a scared little sister.

She keeps struggling vainly until she finally uses a spell to teleport away, appearing farther away in an exhausted state.

Last time I tried a teleport spell it took almost everything out of me, even though it was a long time ago there's no way she has enough power left to cause trouble.

As for the vandal, he seems to have upgraded himself to a thief.

Apparently, that lump of Orichalcum we used to absorb Mana in the village was hidden inside the statue. I don't know how he knew that, but he's definitely got hold of it.

That's fine. I don't need it, even if it's valuable I'd rather him just take it instead of activating some kind of super explosion spell or something in the village while trying to kill me.

Not everyone shares that idea, though.

Mino doesn't waste time in confronting him with a sword drawn.

The thief doesn't appear to even have a sword on him.

"Drop it, thief!" He commands.

The thief seems to have more sass than sense.

"It's not wise to stand in my way. Move aside if you don't want to eat dirt."

The thief doesn't care about Mino's sword and simply starts walking to pass him.

Mino slashes to keep him back, but he doesn't even stop.

"<Mana Armor>, <Strength Amplification>!" The thief casts before it reaches.

If I had a drink I'd be spitting it out right now-- multiple spells in a single sentence is insane!

Instead of dodging, or even blocking, the thief literally reaches up and grabs the sword with his left hand.

He simply smirks at Mino as he grabs the handle with his other hand and snaps the sword in half with brute strength.

Mino is thrown off balance after the thief pulls his arm forward and slams him into the ground.

He was about to pick up the valuable metal he had dropped in the process when Ria was charging at him recklessly.

Damn it, now I really need to get involved.

"Stay away from my friends, you evil criminal! <Flame Prison>!" Ria explodes.

The torrent of fire that ensues is incredible and truly an accurate depiction of her rage, even though she shouldn't even have had enough power left to do this much.

It puts fire breath to shame, but my Mana perception is more than clear enough to see how her Mana takes a draconic shape when she's casting fire spells and it makes me cringe.

I can't imagine anyone stopping this much fire head on, but it was jinxed as soon as I thought that.

"All flames heed my command; <Pyrokinesis >!" The thief casts and sends all of it into the sky, where it dissipates into smoke.

What is this guy, a grand mage?

It's my turn now, so I jump and try to get him with <Shock Spear>.

I'm not very creative when it comes to non-lethal spells, but as long as it works as intended I don't need to be creative.

My sneak attack doesn't seem to work, nor does he seem surprised to see me.

I guess I wasn't really concealing myself well earlier...

He looks back and counters with a simple <Cancel >, though I'm not sure why he thought he would be able to cancel a dragon's magic? Let alone both the god authorities I have.

He seems to think quickly, though, since he raises a barrier almost as soon as he notices that it didn't weaken.

Multiple, actually.

The purple spear pierces through the first barriers, and should have been stopped by the third, yet it seems to have... ate through it?

I asked for a simple non-lethal spear, not artillery! And why is it purple in the first place? Is my demonic magic power contaminating my magic?!

The attack did get through the barriers, but he barely had enough time left to dodge out of the way instead.

Now he tosses the Orichalcum into a weird rift beside him and trudges through it for a second before pulling out a pitch black sword. That must be some kind of magic inventory.

"I didn't think I would be using this so soon." He says forebodingly.

Last time someone pulled out such a fancy sword on me I barely survived, so I'm finally nervous over what the deal is.

"Nocturne, <Absorb >!" He casts and holds the blade out.

I can tell through Mana perception that the sword is sucking Mana out of everything around it, even me.

It's starting to make me visibly uncomfortable by disrupting the delicate balance of my Mana and Arcana.

I have to stop it before it gets worse!

Instead of wasting time on a spell, I try to go straight for fire breath.

I was hoping it would be back to normal now that I'm not in the demon world, however it still released purple flames which weren't very hot.

He is still surprised and jumps back just from seeing it, so it worked as a bluff at least.

"Still able to cast magic, even through the effects of a dragonslayer?" He mutters to himself as if thinking.

"Nocturne, <Release >!" He follows with another spell as he swings the sword upwards and creates a huge blade of Mana in my direction.

It's so fast I don't even have time to utter any spell, so I reflexively created a barrier like I did many times back in the demon world.

The barrier cracks, but it holds up.

"Magic without a chant? What the hell are you?" He observes, surprised at my otherworldly magic.

Everyone was starting to gather around the commotion, and he didn't seem to like that one bit.

"I have the feeling I'm going to be seeing you again, dragon. <Long Teleport>!" He says with a slightly pissed off expression on his face.

I sure hope not! I don't want to see you ever again!

Thankfully Mino was the only one that took any damage.

I'm happy Ria is just tired from running out of magic.

I like it better when she's hugging my leg trying to fall asleep.

Even though I failed to save the Orichalcum, I'm getting thanks from everyone except for Ria trying to scold me for doing anything.

Ria thinks I'll disappear again every time I try to protect anyone.

Then she starts complaining about her shirt because of the fang marks in it.

--- Vesper

Vesper was panting from the use of <Long Teleport>, teleporting such a large distance was not easy.

He ended up leaving with what he wanted, but encountered bigger future problems that left him with nothing to do but think.

If it were just an ordinary dragon it would have been no big deal, but <Cancel > should have had at least some effect on a dragon that young, and no way should it have been able to ignore an absorption-type dragonslayer, let alone create such a barrier without a chant.

Not to mention the purple tint of the spell it used, and only after the fact did he realize how off the dragon's Mana felt.

As someone who's read history books and had a good enough memory to recall them, he was well aware of the 'hero dragon' that was supposedly raised in that village.

To even consider that they could be one in the same after all this time was crazy, but if you've gone into history books old enough to suggest how godly powers change hands it all starts to make sense.

Vesper knew that if it defeated the demon lord, then it could have gained his power.

He couldn't tell why it took years to return, or why it isn't older, but it was the best theory he had.

He decided the best course of action was to just take indirect jabs at it to keep it busy until he gets stronger.

As for his next goal, the last pages of his grimoire provided a spell to locate the other grimoires.

All he needed was a map, which was to be laid on the ground as he threw something sharp into the air. The spell would then guide the blade to land on the map where he needed to go.

Looks like his next destination is the dragon kingdom, but he has some detours to take first...