Charles felt a bit guilty as he tried to explain the drake's odd behavior, making sure never to mention that it was he who convinced the drake to let the nuns pet it last night, which led to its current state.
Adelan's expression twitched a couple of times, clearly struggling with a sense of agony. But in the end, he decided to maintain his composure. "It's probably just been through too much. After fighting demons for so long, it's not uncommon to pick up some madness…"
He was still trying to come up with an excuse for his battle companion, but as soon as he spoke, the drake turned its head.
Seeing its master awake, it quickly rolled over, sprang upright, shook off the dust, and held its great head high—regaining in an instant the proud, noble, and aloof demeanor that Adelan knew so well.
Charles: "…"
Adelan: "…"
Now he was certain—his drake hadn't gone mad; it had just… undergone a peculiar transformation.
In other words, after just a single night, the drake had already taken on the same temperament as these nuns.
A feeling of loss swept through Adelan, as if something he cherished had been ruthlessly plundered from him—but when he recalled the image of his drake being played with by those nuns, a strange sense of excitement secretly sprouted in his heart…
...
After that, it was a full day of travel.
Because of the incident with Adelan, Anno was in a sour mood all day, repeatedly venting to Charles about how those companies only ever put their own interests first and lacked any sense of broader vision or social responsibility. Even with demon lords invading the material world, they remained so shortsighted, which made her rage.
In her mind, Liberl Port was the only hope of fulfilling her ultimate dream—world peace—and naturally, the city's safety came above all else.
Charles could only comfort her, reasoning that this was human nature; after all, Adelan was hardly a major decision-maker, more just an operative or scout. He'd likely signed confidentiality agreements, leaving him unable to explain the details to outsiders.
Besides, the Golden Dragon Bank had its reasons—they weren't just representing themselves but, after all, acted for the interests of the vast Golden Empire across the sea, on the world's distant eastern edge. Charles believed that the true gold dragonborn would have a strong sense of responsibility and would, in the right way, make the necessary news public.
He tried his best to reassure Anno, but it wasn't particularly effective. She kept grumbling that if the Seinites were still in charge such things would never have happened—a nation created by silver dragons and aasimar would always put public safety above all else...
At this, Charles could only smile wryly. For a moment, he couldn't even tell whether Anno sincerely believed this, or whether it was just because he was a Silver Kin that she had a favorable bias toward the Silver Dragon nation north of Liberl Port…
Well, given the usual worldview of paladins, it was likely the former…
In any case, their casual chat made the day's journey fly by. As they were already familiar with the route, and with the help of Goodberry, the warriors and nuns were able to maintain a nearly forced march.
As a result, before sunset, they made it back early to the dwarven headquarters, to the entrance of the vast underground mine.
However, there was a bit of trouble getting Adelan into the tunnels: the drake's arrival caused quite a stir, and with the help of the dwarves' thunderous voices, it didn't take long before word had spread throughout the headquarters—a heavily wounded Drakewarden ranger and his drake had arrived.
The dwarves were terrified the drake would suddenly go out of control and strongly objected to its entrance, while the drake itself disliked the cramped tunnels. After all, a tunnel dug for dwarves was hardly a comfortable fit for such a large beast.
Finally, Charles had to take charge, using his connections with the dwarves and calming the drake, so that both Adelan and Zach were allowed in and provided with a safe place to rest.
Once everyone was settled, the next day brought some good news for the travel-worn group.
First, after so much haggling and back-and-forth, a draft agreement had finally been completed to open dwarven outposts.
The dwarves remained rather conservative—they only allowed Blackstaff Tower certified adventuring parties to use their outposts for resupply and rest, and if any conflict arose, Blackstaff Tower would bear responsibility.
Besides this, the dwarves spelled out a thick stack of rules that anyone using the outposts would have to follow, a testament to the hard work of their clerks in recent days.
Still, the first written draft was done, and Anno could now bring it back for the higher-ups at Blackstaff Tower's review.
If no further issues arose, once signed, their people would have full access to the dwarven outposts and supply routes, which would greatly speed up fiend-hunting efforts in the mountains.
Second, the dwarven higher-ups had finally turned covetous eyes toward Charles's Ion Beam Emitter and started asking about purchasing it.
Charles was secretly delighted—his mission for the blue dragons was as good as complete. Outwardly, he made a show of being only mildly interested, saying he could introduce them to the generous Blue Dragon Prince Rahman, from whom he had bought all these weapons.
He made sure to appear not as a salesperson but merely as a connector, which eased the dwarves' suspicions and paved the way for them to place orders without hesitation.
With that, Anno's and Charles's tasks were both fully accomplished—this foray into the mountains could be called a complete success.
Afterward, Anno would bring the agreement draft to Blackstaff Tower's leaders, and Charles would lead the dwarves to Rahman. The two quickly decided to set out at once for Liberl Port to take care of these matters.
But just as they were preparing to leave, the still-healing Adelan came to them, begging to join them for the journey back to Liberl Port…
...
Elsewhere in Liberl Port, at a secret outpost of a shadowy intelligence network.
Daevyl Starsong sat on a sofa, poring over freshly gathered intel, his brow knitted in thought.
Heavy footsteps sounded from afar. A tall, strong half-orc woman, Yagra Stonefist, carried over a steaming mug of coffee, placed it before him, and then sat beside him, pressing close against his side. "What are you looking at?"
Daevyl smiled, unconcerned that his bodyguard could glimpse such top-secret information. "I'm reviewing intel on that priest Charles. Hah—there really are a lot of interesting things about him."
Some people, after all, do have their quirks.
At the mention of that name, Yagra's eyes brightened, and her lips split into a toothy grin, showing the fierce tusks in her mouth. "I remember him. He rescued me once, and he helped save a lot of my kin at Rockseeker's Outpost too."
She was a typical half-orc of the Stonefist tribes, maintaining ties with her kin while making her living as a mercenary in Liberl Port—a good life, all things considered.
Her tribe had many just like her; naturally, the Mountain People among her kin resented this, and the most jealous were her half-orc relatives from the rival Chimera tribes.
"I'll have to find a chance to thank him properly," she said in her deep, gruff voice. Daevyl simply kept smiling, flipping through his documents. "Hah, he's always surrounded by beautiful women—I doubt he'd take much notice of a half-orc like you."
Yagra didn't care. "I never intended to sleep with him. But why are you studying him so much? Are we planning to make a move on him?"
From her experience, whenever her master focused this intensely on someone, it meant plans were already in motion.
Half a year ago, he'd done the same digging into the Xanathar's Guild Commander Kendrz, and to the Amazon executive Porter.
Daevyl shook his head slightly. "No… There are no immediate plans to act against him."
"But, when it comes to intel, you always gather it first. Who knows? In the future, it might come in handy…"
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