Chapter CLIV - Ice Cream (part 1)

Well, that was heavy…

I never guessed that there are actually some good 'faithful' dragons out there, and the fact that they are runaways. 

It's sad to know that they still want to kill us humans. If they didn't, they could have formed a dragon civilization somewhere on the mountains here and probably make an alliance with humans. Having a dragon kingdom to back us up is definitely a plus against the demons, right?

A fake dragon god… huh? Never heard of that title before, but it sounds cool.

I simply placed the guilt from killing the dragon into the pile and went back to everyone. They all looked confused when I tried talking with the dragons. 

Because to them, the dragon isn't talking at all, instead it just moved its mouth and mumbled without saying anything comprehensible.

Does that mean I speak dragon language now? 

How does this keep happening? I kept on finding out things so bizarre about myself.

Whatever, let's just enjoy everything. Don't question good things, or anything that is simply unanswerable.

Those two things are what I learned after coming to this world. Sometimes, not thinking about the things you really wanted to know can give you happiness. And I'm glad I forgot about them, because I was able to live carefree and ignorantly.

We decided to shove it off and leave the mountains. But before we managed to reach the path down, we met a group of adventurers along the way. If I remember correctly, that guy is called Emlar, the person who was with us during the Yellow ranked dungeon raid one and a half years ago.

He seemed to be a high ranking adventurer now, because he is leading quite the group here.

"Fran. Is everything okay?"

Emlar stepped forward to ask, but Fran nodded.

"Yeah, everything has been cleared. Let me guess, the Office sent you guys as backups?"

Emlar turned to the other adventurers. There were two groups in total, and they all looked quite rich and strong. Must be the new generation of high ranking teams.

"Well you got us all right. But are you sure? Miss Keila said this place is a dragon raid."

"Yeah, it was. But we killed them all."

"F-For real??"

Fran turned to me, and I shook my head.

"Well, don't underestimate your White ranked adventurers."

After Fran said that, Elmar chuckled and cursed himself for being worried. Everyone then went down the mountain while some of them stayed behind to have a little look.

Our group went to the village and looked for the driver. We found the driver in his carriage, eating a watermelon he bought at a nearby fruit stall. 

He immediately dropped his watermelon to the ground when he saw us walking and started panicking.

No… the watermelon…

"I heard the explosions all the way from here… Are you guys all right!?"

Seeing that none of us got hurt, the driver looked very confused. Though Fran got burn marks on her brown leggings, there were no real wounds at all.

"We are. Can we go back now? We have something to attend to."

Fran said to the driver, and he immediately nodded. We headed back to the kingdom, leaving this area.

Along the way, Fran told me about a lot of things that I missed. I told her that Hod already told me some, but she told me some specific ones.

Such as… What happened to Cane.

"Cane has… he changed. He is no longer the dumbass that we know from two years ago. He has been like that ever since…"

"Ever since… what?"

Fran's face turned gloomy. I can tell that everyone else felt heavy about this too. Fran let out a sigh and answered.

"… Ever since his teammates died."

I can feel my soul get smacked really hard.

I… can't believe it.

"T-That's a lie... Right? Brian, Gen… They may be weak, but the twins, they…"

I stopped my sentence after seeing Fran's expression. 

She is not telling a lie.

Now I know why Hod didn't say anything.

Now I know why Cane has changed.

I tried swallowing the saliva that felt like rocks on my neck while looking down. Fran knows that I have met Gen and Brian before. We even did a mission together despite it being a super long time ago.

To think… they are gone now…

I turned my gaze back to Fran, but I couldn't look her in the eye.

"How… did it happen…?"

Fran told me the whole process. She is there during the event, so she knows almost everything.

It was during the first wave of the dragon raid, more than a year ago. Cane accepted the mission to scout the area, but his teammates insisted on coming. Not wanting to disappoint his teammates, he let them come.

That's when the incident begins.

There were over thirty dragons on the spot, and the raid was led by a higher White ranked, nearly evolved regular dragon. One tier away from being the strongest monster known to man, an elder dragon. 

When the group spotted them, they tried running away. But in the end, only Cane managed to survive.

Everyone dies except for him, but Fran mentioned that if only he came alone, Cane would have been the dead one instead. There are over thirty dragons, and there is no way he escaped by himself.

He cursed himself heavily for the deaths of his friends. When the news got to his ears that the dragon raid would reach the village he was staying at, he made the decision. He stayed all by himself in the village, waiting for the dragons to come while everyone else evacuated.

That day, he killed over twenty dragons by himself. 

All twenty of them, including the nearly evolved regular dragon, a higher White ranked disaster.

"The Office gave him the rank of White ranked adventurer as a way to calm him down, but he is already too lost. He took every single mission regarding dragons, and he killed nearly every single one of them, all by himself.

Every time there's a new mission regarding dragon sightings, he was always the first one to arrive on the spot. Last week's massacre happened simply because he was already at another spot, and he was at that spot because that spot was the very first area to be spotted than the other.

The people gave him a new nickname. 'Dragon Slayer Cane'. That's what they call him now, but that nickname is probably the only good thing about him."

Fran explained to me with a sorrowful voice, but then she turned her sharp and grim stare back to me.

"I'm warning you, Rize. He is strong, unstable, and possibly the most dangerous man in the kingdom. That person is fucked up, right now."

Holy…

Hell.

My entire body is shivering.

That was… really painful to listen to. To even imagine experiencing. To actually… experience it firsthand.

Cane went through so much pain from failing to save his friends. He ended up selling his soul to the devil and became the dragon slaying devil himself.

Slaying twenty dragons, including a higher White ranked dragon… he was never that strong before in the past. Not even close.

He… sold his soul to the devil, didn't he?

The stupid and unfunny Cane that we all know of has gone, replaced with a darker and vengeful Cane.

After hearing Fran's story, I have no idea what to say to Cane later if we meet. He must be distancing himself from everyone now while the guilt is eating him.

I now understand why Hod kept this a secret from me.