Chapter 75

“Dragonian?”

It was a brand new entity even for Ian. He had researched all sorts of alien races in order to study the dragon language. If this was a race that Ian wasn’t familiar with, it must be an unknown race in reality.

(There are eight in the family? That’s what I know. Simply being born with their seeds does not make one a dragonian. In fact, it is near impossible as most of them die before birth.)

Ian’s interest wavered upon learning a new fact. He had believed that it was only an expression, but perhaps, there exists ‘descendants of mixed races’ of other species?

(They take the basic human form, like you, but incongruously have their eyes, wings, and even tails. Also..... That’s right. There is somewhat of a similarity with you as well.)

“Similarity?”

(The magic of human, also known as the magic of techniques, was it? They weren’t inherited with the language of the dragons. Instead, they were born with particularly strong skills in this field. Maybe they are as strong as your present self, maybe even stronger.)

They could be even stronger than Ian?

The interest was peaking as he continued to listen.

He even found himself competing.

(At any rate, I am sure that the half dragon man refers to those dragonians. Perhaps, the saying, breathing, refers to breath. In their sad form, they even imitate it, having inherited their blood. Ah, the breath means.....)

“I know what it is, at least what breath is.”

The dragon breath.

It is an expression that often appears in story books.

To simply put it, it may equate to dragon’s lethal move?

(Of course, it is measly when compared to the dragons’ breaths. It is sad to be even calling it breath. Did you say elixir? It may just be perfect for heating up your, the human’s, flimsy concoction.)

Her words seemed to be accurate.

The hot breath of a half dragon man.

The breath of a dragonian.

Does it not fit perfectly?

‘All that has to be done is to find it.’

There was nothing else to worry about beyond that.

Wouldn’t the power of the family be set in motion?

Having sorted out his thoughts, Ian asked the Fairy Queen.

“Where could I go to meet? Them?”

(Not certain. Did I not say it before? I haven’t seen them for many hundreds of years. In fact, you, humans, should be more knowledgeable of their whereabouts.)

What is she talking about now?

Ian calmly opened his mouth.

“No way, this is the first time that I have ever heard about the entity of the dragonians, from you, the queen. If this is new information for me, and I even studied the language of the dragons then it will certainly be new to every ordinary person.”

It wasn’t an empty statement. If there ever was such an entity, it would be highly unlikely for Ian to not know of it. One of his lifetime achievements was to have studied the language of the dragons. Wouldn’t it be a dream come true to find a bloodline of the dragons?

(That’s odd. You know the existence of the fairies, how is it that you are not aware of those entities? They are a family of race that has lived and, perhaps, most closely around you, humans.)

The Fairy Queen blabbered as if she was confused with Ian not knowing of them. However, Ian felt the same as he failed to understand. The family of race that lives close to the humans?

The dragomans?

‘The alien races that live close to humans would be.....’

‘The dwarfs that built a fortress in the ‘mountain range of Broon Hill’ and a few elf races in the forest were all there were. It was so even going over the entire history, but the dragonians? It was too unexpectedly sudden at every level.

(They hold a unique world of psyche. The dragonians, that is. What would be the best way to explain it...They are even unsettled in their desire to tell the whole world how great they are? And in the process, they work hard even to protect the self-esteem of their half breed descendants? That’ right. That is the perfect explanation!)

The Fairy Queen nodded her head as if to show satisfaction at her own explanation. Then she continued to speak.

(At least it was that way until not too long ago. They had to tell their own greatness to the insipient humans. The advanced race has to directly cause enlightenment. They used to go around speaking such things in glib fashion. I believe they even went into the human world to have done something, too?)

‘Enlighten’ the insipient humans.

There was one thing that came in to his head.

‘Religion, was the name the Order of the Dragons, perhaps?’

It was one of the information that he had found from his former life.

It was the religion that worships the dragons as if they were gods.

He knew of its existence.

But, there was a problem.

‘It was a rural country religious group that was worse than a cult.’

He had sought out for a ‘religion that worships dragons’ as a way to further his studies in the language of the dragons, but unexpectedly discovered that the ‘Order of the Dragons’ was a small religious group. It was a scam that was set up in the country to prey on the poor rural farmers.

‘I reckon the dragonians weren’t part of the scammers.’

According to the Fairy Queen, they are sorcerers that possess power as strong as Ian’s. Not only do their loyalty and respect towards the dragons would be unmatched, their pride of being the descendants of such entities would also be extraordinary as well.

“When you say until recently, when exactly was recently?”

(Let me see? I reckon at least one hundred years may have passed.)

“Hah.....”

Ian let out a deep sigh.

Sure, I knew it all along.

I assumed at least one hundred years, or several hundred years if longer.

The conditions must have changed.

‘The religious order that I had sought out was either a fake.’

Or perhaps, with time, it had dwindled.

It would be at least one hundred years.

There were many possibilities to consider.

‘Something might have happened in the 20 years of time.’

It was about twenty years after when Ian began his study of the language of the dragons in earnest. During that time, the possibility for the ‘Order of the Dragons’ to have changed was strong.

‘I must investigate from the start and do it properly!’

Of course, it would be difficult to personally investigate thoroughly. There existed an intelligence organization within the Ivory Tower. However, it would not be appropriate to have them carry out a personal investigation on his behalf, so a decision was made to employee a 3rd party team.

‘The Guild of Thieves.’

Ian had, on occasions used them in his former life, rather used very often.

‘Day Break.’

The leader of that group was rather useful.

He wasn’t too likable though.

But, he is very tight lipped.

Even in that kind of world.

* * *

This is the organization that mines intelligence from the back alleys.

The people of the continent generally calls such organization as the ‘Guild of Thieves’, but the Guild of Thieves is not a single group. There exist countless guilds of thieves in every city and the majority of them are just ‘guild of small time thieves’, struggling to get by each day.

“Boss. There is a visitor.”

“Who is it? At this time.”

If there were small time guilds of thieves, on the opposite end of the spectrum was grand scale guild of thieves as well. ‘Day Break’ is the face of such a grand scale guild of thieves, having branch offices within the empire’s capitol city limits of Green-Riverdium and even in other cities.

“He seems to be a first time visitor.”

As the rough looking underling reported, ‘Crude’, the Day Break’s young leader and one of the eight pillars of the back alley world, put down the holy book that he was reading. He had unusual feet of silver.

“That’s not what I’m asking?”

The leader, Crude, inquired in surprise. It has already been a while since they have been receiving only prescreened visitors. Only by recommendations, that is, only those that have been referred by their existing clients were able to make contacts with the Guild. To become a certified client is the next step, but even the first meeting must be accompanied by the referrer.

“That, that is, he came alone.”

“Came alone?”

The process of making contacts with Day Break is convoluted. Even the required steps regularly change after certain period of time. Unless it was an existing client, or referred by the existing client, making contacts with the organization is extremely difficult, even by chance.

“Shit, information must have leaked somewhere again.”

Crude got up quickly after drawing that conclusion.

He even grabbed the two daggers that were on the desk.

The dagger looked very exquisite.

“Let’s go. I need to find out which bastard is going around leaking info.”

The main venue of Day Break’s business operation was the ‘monster arena’. It was very popular since the monsters are violent and have fighting skills that exceed human gladiators. Further, it is a legal operation. The battles are fought by the monsters, considered to be less than the animals.

“Where is he?”

“He said he would wait and take a look around. Please wait a minute.”

Several of the underlings dispersed to find the guest, rather an uninvited visitor. How long has the waiting been? Finally, the underlings brought someone from among the guests of the arena. It was a man whose head was half covered with a widely sloping brown hood.

“Is that you, sir? Who wishes to deal with us?”

Crude, the leader of the guild, asked with courtesy.

“I have come to purchase information that I need.”

The ‘visitor’ in the brown hood replied. He was holding a lot of betting tickets in his hand. It appeared as if he has placed a load of money on the bets.

“You’ve come to the right place. This way please.”

After giving a small grin, Crude led the way. He led the visitor to the 2nd floor guest room at one corner of the arena, rather than to the main office of the guild. It was a guest room in name only as the room was like a warehouse for storing junks and broken things.

“It’s a humble place, but have a seat please.”

“Where should I seat?”

historical

“Well, just anywhere you see fit. Ha-ha.”

Upon Crude’s reply, the man in the brown hood chose an old chair and sat in it. But as it was shaky, he could not sit comfortably. By now, the guest would have gotten the message, but the man in the hood remained at ease. After examining other chairs, he gave up and even showed an unusual behavior by sitting on the floor.

‘He is either foolish or full of confidence.’

Crude thought as he observed how relaxed the man carried himself. All that this man was confident about must be money. It happens often. Some people swarm around, thinking money is everything. Day Break was not an ordinary guild of thieves in the first place. Beyond selling information, they have their business tentacles reaching into many fields, through which they are raking in big bucks. So, they are not easily motivated by a person of limited status or amount of money.

‘Those who know would not act like this, perhaps, a merchant who came in to a lot of money recently?’

Crude examined the man behind the hood. As the leader of an intelligence organization, he was familiar with most of the great people. He knew most of them from great merchants, royalty, sorcerers of the Ivory Tower, to even the royal family members.

‘I would know once the hood is removed.’

Crude stopped trying to figure out the man’s identity. He signaled with his chin and his underlings shut the door with a bang. They even blocked the doorway. It was clearly a confinement. Of course the subject of the confinement was the visitor in the brown hood, rather ‘uninvited guest’ whom they believed to be a person that came, thinking he had sufficient amount of money.

“I am sure that my boys have already asked you, but how come you did not come with your referrer? It is a quite important rule for us.”

Still, let’s check it out first.

Crude asked hoping to find out.

“Because he is not of this world.”

“What?”

“The referrer, I am referring to.”

“Ha-ha, not of this world? So from what other world are you from?”

There was no need to listen any longer.

Look at this fool, talking nonsense.

It was already clear that he is panicking.

“Who did you hear from?”

Crude threateningly demanded.

He no longer treated the visitor with courtesy.

No eyes to see, nor ears to hear.

This room was constructed for such a purpose in the first place.

That is, this humble external guest room.

“What are you referring to?”

“The way to make contacts with us. Have you heard it from one of our clients, bought it with money? Stolen it? Threatened it out? Or through friendship?”

As it happens often, Crude alluded to many different circumstances. Of course, there was not an exception in any case. All of it was to be blacklisted, including this uninvited guest as well as the client that had leaked the information.

“Information, information is good. However, do you think it is sold to just anyone? If any fool says, I want to buy information ~ and throw in couple coins around would get it. Is that what you thought? You must have thought that we were just info prostitutes.”

Crude took out a dagger after sarcastic remarks. Spinning it in his hand demonstrated extraordinary handling skill.

“I am warning you in advance, just because you are not talking, that does not bring this issue to an end. What did I just say? Let’s make a deal. You could walk out that door, through there, in one piece, but if you continue to keep your mouth shut, you may close them forever. Throughout the eternity.”

Puck!

It was in a blink of an eye. The dagger was thrown towards the unwelcomed guest’s head, but missed it by a hair to penetrate the wall.

“Let me see your face first. Where have you come from?”

As a result, the man’s brown hood was pulled back. The first thing that came in to view was the brown hair, blue eyes, and the skin complexion that wasn’t friendly to the sun. Was that why? It was difficult to see him as a fully grown man. And.

“.....Uh?”

He looked familiar. Not just to Crude, but to all his underlings as well. How could they go around this world, claiming to be the Guild of Thieves, without recognizing that face?