The men arrived at dawn, but it was by nightfall that Black Pig Pitt faced the amputation that, in a grim twist of fate, crowned him the world’s fastest weight-loss champion.
A dubious title, to say the least.
By the time Richard had rescued Black Pig Pitt from the jaws of Dragon’s Mouth, roused Aurina from her stupor, and trekked back to the subterranean kingdom Pitt called home, midnight had settled over the world.
The scene that greeted them was chaos incarnate, a clamor of disorder begging for structure.
Richard, hoisting Pitt’s bulk, ordered every contract burned to ash.
Some opportunists tried to snatch spoils in the confusion, but Aurina stood sentinel, her presence a wall no thief could breach.
Not a single copper slipped through her grasp.
Those who dared fish in muddy waters soon found themselves plundered by the greedy red dragon in turn.
Richard made a vow to the slaves: follow his lead, and he’d see to their future.
They trusted him, and under his steady command, they restored order, tidied the mess, secured the gates, and settled into Black Pig Pitt’s underground kingdom for the night.
As the hour grew late, weariness tugged at Richard’s bones.
He’d been at it all day, yet the work was far from done.
In Pitt’s sprawling bedroom, two candles flickered, casting frail light that danced across the man’s ashen face.
In less than a day, Black Pig Pitt had fallen from underworld monarch to a legless prisoner, his face a mottled canvas of bruises—gifts from a chestnut-haired man who, heedless of his own wounds, had landed two furious punches.
Richard sat behind a desk, his gaze locked on Pitt.
Aurina, meanwhile, perched cross-legged where the bed once stood, gleefully scrubbing gold coins with flame, stacking them meticulously on the floor.
Each coin, pilfered from Pitt’s treasury, gleamed under her touch.
“Speak,” Richard said, his voice low and unyielding.
“After you gained the dark god’s aid and Aurina dragged you off—what happened?”
Pitt, slumped and hollow-eyed, looked as though frost had withered him.
At Richard’s words, he jolted, terror flashing across his face.
“No… I-I can’t relive it. I’ve lost everything—my legs, my flesh. In that moment, I swear my soul was torn from me. Have pity, I beg you. I’m nothing now, just a harmless, legless husk.”
“I’ve little mercy to spare,” Richard replied coolly.
“Finish your account, and you can sleep sooner.”
“Then kill me,” Pitt muttered, defiance flickering faintly.
Aurina, tilting her head, bit a coin to test its worth.
Her brow furrowed—it was false.
Her shark-like teeth glinted in the candlelight, and Pitt’s sweat-slicked face quivered.
He forced himself to steady, croaking, “Water. Give me water.”
Out of basic decency, Richard handed him a cup.
Pitt drank deeply, then spoke, his voice slow and halting.
“When we got there, I… I thought she wanted to… you know. It’s not unusual. Little Lily, the one I captured that morning—she was so desperate by evening, clawing through boards because I hadn’t time for her.”
Richard’s face darkened.
“She’s a child.”
Pitt snorted, a bitter edge to his voice.
“A child? Cute, maybe, but she’s a dragon.”
A dragon.
I told her to shift back to human form—she wouldn’t. She stalked toward me, slow, deliberate.
I opened my arms, ready to embrace her.
Then she lunged, jaws wide, and knocked me flat.
Her teeth sank into my thigh, right at the root.
One rip, and my leg was gone.
“She stood over me, cauterized the wound with her fire, then roasted my leg. Holding it in her jaws, she let the flames lick it, slow and careful, hissing as she savored it. One bite, two, three—the crunch of bone, so crisp, so… pleasing.”
His voice faltered, a shuddering gasp escaping.
“I’m more Pink Pig Pitt now, aren’t I?”
Richard’s stomach churned, repulsed by the man’s depravity.
But then the scripture etched in red on his armor flared, burning without flame.
He tore the holy emblem from his chest, chanting the name of the God of Justice.
A white glow pulsed from the badge, and the unnatural flush on Pitt’s face faded, leaving a pink mark branded on his forehead.
“You’re beyond saving,” Richard said.
“Yes… yes, I am,” Pitt whispered, his ears twitching, grown grotesquely large.
“That sound—the snap of bone, the grind of her jaws. It was… beautiful. No, no, she was devouring me, eating me. I shouldn’t feel joy, shouldn’t…”
His voice broke, and he toppled from his chair, clawing toward Aurina.
“Please, dragon! I still have arms, a skull—look at me! No, don’t eat me!”
“Disgusting,” Richard spat.
For the sake of the young dragon’s mental well-being, Richard hauled the legless Pitt away, dragging him to a small chamber once used to break and bind slaves.
Now, it was Pitt’s cage.
Richard planned a public trial, so Pitt had to live—for now.
Too many outside wanted him dead.
“Holy Paladin,” Pitt called as the door loomed, “I’m harmless now, aren’t I? I could… share information.”
“Your unburned evidence betrays you plenty,” Richard shot back.
“Please, I have hidden treasures, secrets! Think—how many in this town owe me favors? Why does the knight-lord back me? So many powerful men need me. If you want to root out evil, you need me. Give me a chance to atone—”
“Let you live longer, and you’ll ruin more innocent lives. I won’t risk it.”
The door slammed shut, muffling Pitt’s pleas.
Richard glanced back, worry creasing his brow.
Aurina, oblivious, counted her coins with dizzying speed, arranging them into a gleaming bed on the floor.
She sprawled atop it, curling contentedly.
The interrogation, Pitt’s wretched display—none of it had drawn even a flicker of her attention.
Her eyes might have grazed him, but she didn’t truly see him.
As Richard approached, Aurina’s tail swept the coins beneath her belly, her golden eyes blazing.
“These are my coins, all of them!”
In her draconic world, Richard stood out like a beacon.
“I’m not here for your gold,” he said.
“Good,” Aurina replied, smug.
“You’re learning, little bug. You’d be nothing without me. All the wealth—3621 coins, to be exact—belongs to your king.”
“No, you’ve got it wrong,” Richard said, a wry smile tugging at his lips.
“We’re still splitting it fifty-fifty. I’ve got debts to settle. And don’t forget your reflection for tonight…”
Aurina’s eyes snapped shut, her cheek pressed against the warm coins.
A few clinked and spun across the floor.
“A growing dragon needs her sleep,” she murmured.
Within seconds, her breathing steadied into the rhythm of slumber.
“Let it wait till morning,” Richard sighed.
He returned to the desk, pulling a thick stack of letters and ledgers from a drawer—seized evidence, brimming with proof of the knight-lord’s ties to Pitt, alongside countless records of unnamed clients and their debaucheries.
The task of setting Yodel Town right loomed vast and daunting, a challenge that weighed heavily on his shoulders.
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