A Benevolent Evil Dragon

"I may have lost my composure…"

I at least do my best to look remorseful at Edith's unamused expression. She thankfully stopped emptying her stomach, and even better she did not do it on top of anything important. I ended up going straight to devouring the bastard, half from anger, half from hunger, which didn't really help Edith's unstable emotions. In my defense, despite having the element of surprise, I got hit enough times to dull a patch of my scales. If they were just a bit more organized and prepared I would be bleeding out right about now.

"It's alright… If these bastards can do something good as food then go ahead… It's just… Sorry, but the smell and sound and everything else is horrible…" Right, death is only pretty out on the big screen, yet I kind of forgot.

"Understandable. Oddly enough I do not feel your revulsion. All this smells like food and fear. Well, this one smells like food, the others smell like rough meat. If they were in contact with mana, it didn't take hold. I can still see some in their cores, but it's barely anything and it is quickly going away."

"That's their souls." she says, almost in a whisper as she sits down. "Only strong sorcerers and priests claim to see them… but dragons are said to see all of mana so I guess you can too."

The fuck? I look her way, dropping the body I was chewing, then look at the tiny colorless mana clumps as they disperse. For a moment I focus on one of them, trying to order it to move towards me, but it instead reacts explosively by "bursting" into a very thin spread. The other clumps of mana don't react, but they would vanish quickly if I did nothing so I crack open a cold one and eat the core straight away. I try to taste the mana but it's too fleeting, too aimless, the only thing I get even after focusing is a single picture of swinging an axe and then it's gone, as are most of the other mana bits. The only one that still has something usable is that of the leader's. It lost more than the others held, but it still has a decent bit inside. I rip his torso apart and cut open the core, getting a teaspoon of finely crushed water mana crystals for my effort. He clearly had some mana and maybe could cast a spell or two, but not enough to even be called a magic user.

"So much information and knowledge stuck in such a small form? How does the record of their entire life amount to so little…" I frowned, confusion clear in my inhuman tone.

"I don't know. I wasn't the best at listening and we didn't even have a proper priest so we never really learned much about the gods…" She answers my blank stare with a dawning realization. "Right, you know even less… Gods handle the soul stuff… I think… They make the souls, they deal with afterlives and reincarnation and whatnot… Or one of them does? I'm not sure. Anyways, it shouldn't bother you…"

"I… supposedly have one of those and I think I just ate a soul. Actually I think I ate a bunch of souls… Oh my... I've been eating magic animal souls…"

At least I now understand where the unique feelings of mana came from. They were souls that didn't even have time to escape… Damn…

"I wouldn't worry about that, dragons don't have souls." Once again, her casual facts are met with a frozen yet pointed look from me. "I need to remember you're one year old… You talk like an old man…" Rude. "... so I keep forgetting you're extremely young. Anyways, it's a bedtime story, but mom was very insistent that it was a real one… I'll say the short version." It seems the break from butchering helps her catch her grip, settling into the role of storyteller.

"An infant god once wandered the land, looking for new and interesting creatures. The infant god was loved by animals so it thought all of them would be kind, even the giant lizard that walked on two legs. However, what the infant god didn't know was that this lizard ruled the other animals in his territory and was stronger than most any beast out there. Some called it the king of all animals and could eat even an angry bear in one bite…" Wait, this is starting to sound like a dinosaur… "It was also cruel so many called it the tyrant lizard king…" It's a goddamn T-Rex… "...and it didn't like when the young god tried to control it with magic. The tyrant ate the god whole, gaining its powers and immortality, its wisdom and intelligence, but was ultimately cursed with a misshapen body that only alluded to his past appearance. When the gods found out, they took the tyrant's soul, planning to kill and punish him, but despite not having a soul anymore the tyrant remained alive, now an immortal like the gods. He was also mad about their attempts to murder him, so the tyrant made dragons and lesser dragons in his image to fight against the gods, sparking a war that is still fought today."

I take a moment to absorb all of that in, realizing that apparently I'm not supposed to have a soul, there's a whole war between my kind and the gods, I've been devouring souls and this all started with a T-Rex eating a magic baby. Honestly, not even the weirdest myth I've ever heard.

"We have very different definitions of what a bedtime story is supposed to be. Still, I was going to attempt to tackle all that, but I feel like my head has been left over the flames for a few days in a row so I will take that all as truth until I can afford to question it. At least it seems that you have calmed yourself, so please look through the things. I don't know much about the economy of the kingdoms but the rugged equipment of these bandits and whatever that wagon has would earn quite some coin, don't you think?"

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Edith suddenly looks at me, then back at the corpses. It's clear she doesn't like it, but she nods, going for the spearman whose head I bashed in, starting to strip him. Everyone is wearing mostly thick cloth, but that's still going to be a decent haul. I did my best to not make things too bloody… Ignoring the two bodies I tore apart in my attempts at eating souls, but what can you do? I am the size of a bear and while I managed to kill the scouts by cutting their necks cleanly with my tail blades, the others were too aware for me to do anything better than claw them with my venom or bite their heads off. I could have gotten slightly better kills if I fought in the open, but that would have resulted in me being wounded and I simply can't afford that.

"Just help me with the stripping process, I will deal with the corpses myself." I may have dexterity now, but it's still not easy to deal with all these buttons and belts and…

"Can we… not strip these ones..?"

I am confused for a second, then look her way only to see the wagon. it was a rather simple thing, really. Looked like the kind my grand uncle owned, back in the countryside. This one just had a thin mesh of cloth on a simple skeleton to cover from the sun. Right next to the wagon there is a man in his 30's with an arrow in his head and another in his throat, with a boy that looked about 14 laying over him. The boy had a hole in his back, probably from a spear. Inside the fallen wagon however, clearly visible as the cloth was torn and tattered were the bodies of a woman embracing her girl that couldn't be older than nine. I sigh, then nod. The woman's work dress is anyways ruined by the blood. Not worth bothering the corpses over it.

"I'll make a spot. We don't have a lot of wood on hand, but we can still burn them." I wait to see if people have any other rituals around these parts, but she seems fine with a pyre so that is what I do.

I can't feel sad as I look at these innocent people laying dead at my feet. I know how I used to feel just hearing about such things, yet here I am unable to… no, that's unfair. I haven't even processed my own problems yet, I don't have the bandwidth for these people on top of all my stuff. I've avenged them, that's the most I can do right now.

At least once I finish moving them out of the way we have the ability to properly assess what's available. Turns out this family was carrying a few interesting goods, like a barrel of brandy, an actual glass bottle of wine, some wool, butter and cheese. There's also some textiles, a bit of food that I am guessing was meant for the family, and a change of clothes. Edith gets to try on the woman's spare work dress and it seems to mostly fit. She seems happy to get some proper clothes at least, but still keeps the cloak.

I keep looking through their stuff and only see some silvers and coppers hidden in a seemingly empty jar. I rip a large chunk of the canvas covering everything, then drop all the equipment we stripped from the bandits in there, keeping it from dirtying the other merchandise even more.

By the end of it all, I see Edith looking exhausted, which is understandable. She rushed on as little sleep as she could, and then had to fight for her life. I nudge her, then point at the wagon, speaking as softly as I could.

"Get some rest. I will see if there's anything useful in their camp, then return. We should go to the river and wash out the blood as well as we can, then head for the town.

By the time we are done with everything it is already the middle of the next day. We burnt everything aside from the heads of the brigands. After my nap I realized that there's really no good way to explain a lone girl going around with all of this haul, so, hoping against hope that the existence of these bandits was at the very least known about, I decided her best cover would be to act as exactly what the leader was thinking she was, a strong mercenary. I should have interrogated him better, but I can guess that mercenaries with supernatural capabilities aren't odd. In history they were highly trained, sometimes specialized bands of warriors so it makes sense that in a fantasy world they would have at least some magical talents.

Either way, their horrified heads are now in an old sack, just barely starting to rot. Best case, she gets a reward for dealing with the bastards. Worst case, most of our stuff gets confiscated. That, and the fact that I actually need it, is why I am carrying our money in a pouch around my throat. They did not have as much coin as I had hoped, but I found a handful of tiny gold coins, half the size of normal ones. Apparently they're pretty stingy in gold around here. Well, that, plus one small water mana crystal, one for air and the dust I collected from the leader's core means I have a bit of normal mana at my disposal. This is hardly enough for my needs, but with the coppers and whatever the silver does, I should be able to make a stockpile for rainy days.

"Can't you go any slower?!" I am pulled out of my musings by Edith's shouts, noticing her barely holding on to the wagon. "I've never been on one of these and it hurts way more than I thought it would!"

I slow down, letting go of the wagon tongue, funny word, as I look back at the vehicle. "Huh, right, no suspension and wooden wheels on top of that… No wonder…"

"Suspenzon? I don't think I've heard that word before.." I shrug, looking at the rather rudimentary craftsmanship of the wagon, then go back to pulling.

"Don't know if there's a word in Vernian for it. It would reduce the effect of the road on you, but this one is a cheaply made wagon, so there's nothing we can do. Put on a lot of soft things and sit on them. I need to be fast. When I sleep you need to pull this, you know."

"Right… sorry. I'll just… Hey, Heart- or whatever you want to be called… Thank you for rescuing me back then. I thought for a second…" She doesn't get to continue as I speed up.

I try to say something, but it seems she doesn't hear, so while letting my body go mostly on auto pilot I focus on the feeling of mana, the bit dangling from my neck and the quantity being saved in my chest. I breathe out a cloud, making it follow, then peel away all the relevant mana types and form a localized version of my sound rune, one that sacrifices volume and efficiency in order to have better control and targeting of the source of the sound.

"You're welcome." Whispers the magic straight into Edith's ear before the spell vanishes in thin air.