Chapter 27: The Dragon's Quest

I was summoned by the king who greeted me casually.

"Why was I summoned?"

"Well, even though I said that you being a dragon should be kept secret, word is still spreading, so I thought to ask if you wanted an official title. It would prevent nations from trying to kill you."

"No thank you, I'd rather remain an independent adventurer."

He nodded.

"That's what I thought. In that case, I wanted to make an adventuring request."

"What is it?"

"In the kingdom of Stalaris, there have been reports of evil entities appearing. They already submitted the request, but no adventurers responded. Upon completing this mission, the adventurer's guild offered to bump you up to A rank."

"I've done so little though."

"You already completed the requirements, in addition to saving an entire nation and proving yourself as strong as the top S rank, frankly I'm almost certain that a lot think that your actions are exaggerated, because people like you normally don't just appear. Even Thalia gained reputation only because she was the sister of Calesen's king, but your reputation was huge even before that was revealed. It makes sense that many would be skeptical. Especially among those that still doubt the good nature of dragons."

"So, this is also to prove myself."

"Yes."

"I will head out immediately. Also, you don't need to keep my identity a secret. It's already out."

"I guess."

I left and went to the gate.

"I'm going to Stalaris for a mission."

"Understood, lady dragon."

Even the gate guard knew. So much for a national secret.

Well, that just means I can shift closer to town.

I got far enough away so that my shifting wouldn't hurt the gate and shifted.

"WOAH!"

People in line were shocked that the little catkin just became a dragon the size of the castle. I flew off as the guards looked at the people in line with amusement.

_

Being more than 30 times my old size, I was able to get to Stalaris with a lot of speed.

To prevent panic, I became a catkin before getting in the sight of the gate.

I didn't know much about Stalaris other than that slavery isn't as frowned upon here.

I lined up at the gate and saw most of the people in line were slavers.

The one near me was a dragonkin woman with multiple catkin slaves. It seems like she had a type.

"Well, hello there darling? Who are you?"

"A traveler visiting the town."

"That's nice. You know, it's a dangerous world out there. Dragons, Whilderbeasts, and others of the like have been spotted lately."

"Weren't the dragons called nice by both Calesen and Selethon though?"

"Yes, but you cannot trust those nations. I mean one of them is run by one of the beasts, and the other is mostly humans. Way too susceptible to hypnosis they are."

"Alright, so what's your point?"

"Why don't you work for me?"

"Nah."

She put her hand on my shoulder.

"I'm sure someone as young and beautiful as you could be quite profitable to my business."

"And what is that?"

"I run a cat café with catkin waiters and waitresses."

Half was a lie. With how those catkin behind her are dressed, in addition to their collars, it's more likely that it is involved in adult things.

"No thanks, I already have a job lined up."

"Oh, I insist."

She used sleight of hand magic, but I let her collar me. A guard walked by and smirked.

"If I let you go, can I have a go with her later?"

"Of course."

As I thought, they are disgusting.

"Well, get behind me and put on those clothes."

"Nope."

"What?"

Both her and the guard were taken aback. The contract of the collar meant I would remain independent thought, but I had to obey her orders.

Due to my indomitable skill, collars wouldn't work unless I entered it of my own will. And being purposely bound didn't count. I essentially had to make the contract myself.

"I said, put on the clothes! You are my slave now."

"Why? Because of this flimsy thing?"

I simply unlatched and took off the collar, causing the lady and guard to be even more shocked.

"I forgot to introduce myself earlier. The name's Rose Hood. B rank adventurer. I'm here on official business from the guild, so apologies that I can't be employed by you."

I did a mocking bow. The lady and guard blanched. Many around me did as well. Even a lot of the slaves.

"T-t-t-the d-d-d-d-dragon?"

I simply smiled at the stuttering woman. It seems the 'national secret' spread even faster than the king thought.

The lady immediately bowed.

"I'm so-so-so sorry. I didn't realize it was you."

"So, you'd do it for anyone else?"

She flinched. The guard realized something and smiled.

"Wait, if you are a dragon, then you are a beast. Laws don't apply here. We can legally attack you."

I nodded with a mocking consideration look.

"Yes, but that would expose you to the same fate as Falden's army."

The guard blanched as he realized that none of the stories were exaggerated. I was a monster.

"So, let me in peacefully and I'll forget this, or attack me, die, and I still get in to talk to the guild."

"But you'd get arrested."

"Why? You said it yourself. I'm a beast, the laws don't apply."

I emitted a small portion of aura in addition to my menacing smile.

"I'm sorry for my subordinate's rudeness."

An elf with a massive aura came our and slapped the guard.

"What are you thinking?! Threatening a mature dragon! In addition, she's an adventurer. We don't need her hostile, not even mentioning the guild."

The guard wilted under his superior's criticism.

"Sorry, sir. I got ahead of myself."

"No lunch for a week."

"Yes Sir!"

"I must apologize for his actions, please spare our town."

"Why would I take it out on you? Jeez, word of my identity has been spread, but not word that dragons are decent people?"

"What?"

"I suppose a long-lasting reputation doesn't just fade overnight. But yeah, I'm cool. I'd just kill that guy if he attempted to attack me."

Absolute relief went through the elf's face, but the slaver lady from earlier seemed to shrink.

"So, you'd kill me?"

"Tell you what. I'll let you off. On one condition."

"Anything, just please spare me."

"Burn all of your slave contracts and let them all go."

Her eyes widened and she was taken aback. The catkin slaves behind her had their eyes widened for a far different reason.

"I can't."

"And why not?"

"I don't have them with me."

"That's a lie."

She looked at me in fear, realizing I could easily see through her. She pulled out a massive stack of contracts. Upon pulling them out I realized that most of the slaves in line belonged to her.

She picked up a lighter and burnt them.

The collars fell off of 90% of the line's slaves.

It seems as though she was the leader of a massive slaving ring.

The former slaves cheered and thanked me.

"And there goes a lot of our economy."

The elf was as upset as the woman, but he knew that there was nothing he could do to stop me. After all, all they could report it as was a beast resulted in loss of merchandise.

When I entered the city, I saw some people giving me bitter looks. I walked over to the guild.

When I entered, it went silent. They didn't recognize me, but they did see a little girl just come in alone.

"Hey, kiddo this isn't the school."

"I am aware."

A human slave stood in the corner, serving drinks. I walked over to him.

"Who owns you?"

"The guildmaster."

"It seems as though this country is scum after all."

"Hey, kiddo, how about you shut up about our economy and go back to that café."

"Oh, well it seems as though the café lost its staff."

They realized what I was implying.

"Someone burnt the contracts?!"

Then the lady walked in with a wolfkin that I could only assume was the guildmaster based on his aura.

"There, sir, that's the wicked adventurer that forced me to burn the contracts."

The Guildmaster looked at me with disdain.

"So, kitten. It seems you've been up to a lot."

"Yes, I came here on request. And since then, I have been collared, threatened by city guard and have been given negative looks just because the lady burnt her contracts as an apology to me."

The Guildmaster glared at me.

"I will see to it that you get your punishment. You can't just act like that and disrupt a state's economy."

"Since when are lives economy."

"Since we made them so. Now, if you don't want to end up with a collar, apologize to this woman."

"I refuse."

An adventurer held his blade to my neck and others grabbed me.

"I insist you give a proper apology, or..."

He smiled, looking at me a bit too long.

The woman knew I was a dragon but was too dumb to know I could easily break out of this.

"So, you are threatening me?"

"You disrupted this country's economy by a large margin."

"Then maybe don't trade lives."

"You, take off her armor. Shame her."

The guy grabbed my shoulder pad, but he couldn't budge it. He then tried my chestplate, but once again it was too heavy.

"Wow, you aren't even strong enough to hold grammite?"

Their eyes widened.

"Grammite?"

"Yep, and even has a layer of dragon scale."

"That's obviously a lie, take off her armor already!"

I was behind the guildmaster.

"Better yet, why don't you."

Flame appeared and burnt only his armor. As it cleared, he was in his underwear, and he glared at me in fury.

"Ooh, guildmaster, that's quite inappropriate."

"What are you even doing here, kitten."

"To fulfill the request you put in."

"We asked for a high-level adventurer."

"Well, you got me. Rose Hood, B rank adventurer."

Their eyes widened as I confirmed my identity.

"You can't be Rose Hood, she's a dragon."

I tossed my guild card over to the guildmaster and he started shaking.

"I-I-I-its real."

"Yep."

The adventurers jumped back in fear, and I grabbed my guild card. I smirked and repeated.

"I'm here to answer the request to deal with evil beasts."

"F-f-follow me."