Chapter 11 : Welcome to Cabbage Village

On the road, Aurina perched atop Richard’s head, her eyes fixed on the four sheep trailing behind.

She licked her lips and cackled, “Quack quack! Roast lamb—crispy, golden, slathered in red sauce, sprinkled with cumin.”

“Baa~!”

The four sheep bleated pitifully, plodding after Richard, resigned to their fate as future roast.

The wooden walls of the town grew distant, the tense, uneasy face of the guard fading into a blur.

Richard was chatting with Little Red Hood.

“So, you and your lady were on a holiday trip to Cabbage Village when goblins attacked?”

“Mm!”

Little Red Hood nodded vigorously.

“I have a house in Cabbage Village. The villagers are kind. I escaped, so… so I’m staying there for now. And… my lady is truly beautiful.”

Richard nodded.

“Good timing. I suspect the villagers are suffering from goblin raids too. We ran into some goblins trying to rob us on the way here. Taking them out would kill two birds with one stone.”

“What happened to those goblins?”

Richard said flatly, “All dead.”

Little Red Hood’s face visibly flushed with excitement.

“That’s amazing! You must be the legendary hero who can save a princess from a dragon’s clutches. That’s just perfect!”

Richard fell silent for a moment.

Aurina, meanwhile, burst into a fit of quacking laughter.

“Your laugh is so weird,” Little Red Hood said.

“Are you two siblings? Or father and daughter?”

“Ha.”

Aurina shot a disdainful glance down at Little Red Hood.

Tch, so short, so tiny.

A bug among bugs, barely visible unless you craned your neck low.

No wonder her worldview was so limited.

“Foolish,” Aurina said proudly.

“What siblings? What father-daughter? This king is a dr—”

“Cough, cough, cough!”

Richard interrupted.

“Quit interrupting!”

Aurina pressed on, undeterred by Richard’s coughing.

“Those goblins you mentioned? I killed them all.”

“Huh?”

Little Red Hood’s eyes widened.

“No way. You look as old as me.”

“Hmph.”

Aurina tilted her chin upward.

“Goblins are just snacks. I grab them by the ankles, slam them left, smack them right, pound them into the ground twice, and they stop moving.”

Aurina mimed a boxer’s punches, jabbing the air.

“Then three or four more snacks came at me. Left hook, right hook, an uppercut—they went flying. My natural, overwhelming majesty stunned them, and they fled, pissing and shitting themselves. You should’ve seen it. One of them was crapping as it ran!”

Little Red Hood shook her head.

“I don’t believe you. I escaped from goblins once. They were so loud, so…”

Tears welled in her eyes.

“Normal,” Aurina said.

“A tiny bug like you would obviously be scared of goblins.”

“I’m not scared!”

Little Red Hood retorted.

“After hearing you brag, I’m not as afraid anymore.”

“I’m not bragging!”

Aurina snapped.

“I’m a dr—”

“Cough, cough!”

“Stop coughing!”

Aurina smacked Richard’s iron helmet in frustration.

“Why do you always cough at the worst moment? Are you dying or what?”

Richard sighed inwardly.

Aurina, barely a week old, was every bit the naive young dragon.

She’d already forgotten his strict instructions to never reveal her dragon identity.

And his own vows prevented him from lying.

He said, “Little Red Hood, actually, Aurina is—”

“A true dragon!”

“Cough, cough, cough!” Richard hacked.

“What?”

Little Red Hood asked.

Aurina, exasperated, smacked Richard’s head again, baring her teeth.

“Why do you keep coughing? Stop interrupting this king, you pack—big cougher!”

Richard clarified, “Aurina drove the goblins off.”

Aurina nodded.

“Right.”

“Drove them off in a pathetic, fleeing mess.”

Aurina crossed her arms, nodding again.

“Right, right.”

Little Red Hood’s eyes widened further.

“Really?”

Richard spoke quickly.

“Aurina has two dragon horns, a dragon tail, she can breathe fire, she’s naturally strong, and she’s a cute little girl. You know how some people are born with draconic traits?”

“Bards sing of them,” Little Red Hood said.

“A dragonblood! You’re so lucky!”

“What? I’m not some pathetic, diluted-blood—”

Richard’s curled fist rose before Aurina’s eyes, and a phantom pain throbbed in her skull.

She remembered, despite fooling her enemies left and right, despite her reluctance to admit it… for now, he was stronger.

Just a little.

Aurina gritted her teeth.

“You gonna hit me?”

“No,” Richard said.

“I’m just reminding you of what I told you the day after we met.”

“Uh…”

Aurina counted on her fingers.

“Was it… don’t eat people?”

“No.”

“Don’t steal money from people’s pockets?”

“No.”

“Don’t take your food?”

Richard sighed.

“It’s about your heritage. You must never tell anyone.”

“Oh… was there something like that?”

“I tell you every night. Last night, you nodded and said you remembered.”

“Quack, got it.”

Aurina slumped against Richard’s iron helmet, feeling a bit shorter.

Maybe that’s why she felt closer to Little Red Hood now.

“That’s so cool, having dragon blood,” Little Red Hood said. “Dragonbloods are so lucky, even among goblins.”

Richard raised an eyebrow.

“Even among goblins?”

“Uh… there are dragonblood goblins. No one escapes them.”

Richard nodded.

“Hm.”

“Quack quack quack!”

Aurina pointed at Little Red Hood, delighted.

“You’re lying, aren’t you? Admit it!”

“N-no, I’m not lying!”

“If you met a dragonblood goblin, how’d you escape?”

“I… I heard it from the villagers,” Little Red Hood said.

“Really, I’m not lying. My lady is truly beautiful. She’s waiting in the goblin lair for someone to save her, like a princess waiting for her hero.”

Aurina, recalling a certain dragon-slaying incident that ended with a princess dying in a latrine, burst into quacking laughter again, hammering Richard’s helmet.

“Enough,” Richard said.

“Rest easy, Little Red Hood. So long as it doesn’t break my principles, I’ll wipe out the goblins and save your lady.”

“Thank you, thank you!”

Half a day later, after fending off an ambush by a dozen goblins, Richard arrived at a remote village surrounded by cabbage fields.

Sadly, many of the fields lay ruined, cabbages trampled.

The villagers, seeing Little Red Hood had brought help, sighed in relief.

They offered Richard homemade wine and a strip of jerky.

Before Richard could touch the jerky, Aurina snatched it and stuffed it into her mouth.

Left with no choice, Richard sipped the villagers’ “wine,” which was more like fermented oatmeal porridge.

After the meal, Richard asked how many goblins there were.

The villagers mumbled vaguely about “a few dozen.”

But a hunter who once lived near the woods said there were at least two hundred.

The villagers asked Richard, “Can you save the people inside?”

“It’ll be tough,” Richard admitted.

“I don’t have any techniques for killing large groups. Numbers are a problem for me. But I’ll try. First, I’ll scout their numbers.”

He then asked for a room to settle in.

Once inside, Aurina declared, “They’re lying. I can smell it. They’re hiding something.”

“Mm,” Richard agreed, kneeling to unpack his weapons from a dimensional pouch: a greatsword, a longsword, a dagger, a composite shortbow.

He also pulled out his plain armor and began preparing it.

“Lying is normal. They’re scared. And I’ve lied to them indirectly too. I didn’t tell them you’re a dragon. Or that I’m Richard, the youngest dragon-slaying hero in history, the End of the Dread Dragon. So, lies beget lies. It’s fair.”

“Oh.”

What a fool, Aurina thought.

Richard admitted he’s weak against crowds.

Next, he’d probably beg her to use her true dragon flames to clear out the rabble.

But such menial tasks were beneath her.

A pack beast should carry her properly, maybe even be clever enough to bring her gold.

So Aurina resolved to refuse, no matter what Richard said.

She watched as he donned his plate armor, hanging a fire-scale trinket at his waist—Aurina recognized it instantly as item number 8527 from her hoard!

Damn him!

Arms crossed, Aurina prepared to savor Richard’s inevitable, futile pleas.

Richard stood and said, “Remember, don’t reveal you’re a dragon. Human greed makes people do stupid things. I’ll be back soon.”

“Oh, I’m not going with you.”

“Mm. I’ve arranged with the villagers to stew lamb for you. Eat dinner on your own.”

Richard fastened his helmet and headed for the door.

“Quack!”

Aurina shouted.

“Aren’t you scared of being overwhelmed? I have true dragon breath!”

“You’re still a child. Protect yourself. I can’t stay by your side for now.”

With that, Richard pushed the door open and left.

Staring at the closed door, Aurina bared her teeth and growled, “How dare you underestimate this king!”