A Benevolent Evil Dragon

Edith walks out the door, seeming annoyed. She snaps her fingers in the direction of the only guard keeping watch on this whole floor, who seems startled at suddenly being acknowledged.

"I know you got these for cheap but I paid a whole gold and the damn thing breaks this quickly? At least go clean up that bloody mess." She plays it a bit too hard, but it doesn't seem like the man is too keen on being the next thing Edith "breaks", so he rushes over…

"What the… Why is this place so dark?" The man almost reaches for the club at his hip, but Mareha is faster.

Despite the angry rumble behind her or the terrifying size she can just feel, she doesn't dare turn around and instead she clutches the sword in her hand, dashing out of the magical darkness, sinking it deeply into the man's throat. She watches as he chokes on his own blood then spits on his dying form, whisper shouting at him as he fades.

"I told you I'll watch you choke to death, you bastard! This is for what you did to Eglesa and all the other girls before her."

Her only friend after they got caught up in the empire's war. Her only friend as they had to run through the wilderness, fighting off wild beasts because no matter which side found them, their end would be the same. Her only friend as they were caught by a group of brigands and changed hands thrice over. Her only friend here, the only one keeping it together properly for the younger boys and girls… The one that volunteered the last time Mareha was chosen by this guard in his drunken rage…

She then took his keys and stepped over him as he finally died, then went to handle her own duty as the monster behind her began moving. She didn't care what it was, or how it got that girl to work for it, if it meant this place would go up in flames and she could free the other captives just like Eglesa dreamed of, she would gladly sell her soul to a devil.

She unlocked the door where the others were kept, being met by a few surprised yelps, mostly at the sight of blood. She is just about to say something when she feels anger behind her. The low roar that follows makes her shiver and wonder if maybe a devil would be less terrifying than whatever she met.

To my surprise, Mareha is not only more than down to get her pound of flesh, but also to follow orders to the letter. Despite welcoming her in my bubble of darkness, she didn't even glance my way with the corner of her eye, which is all the better.

Ah, this is my turn. After she finishes off the man, she grabs the keys and goes with Edith to take the people locked up. I, on the other hand, need to go into the few other occupied rooms. Two in particular interest me. They're not powerful, but they have mana and a constitution similar enough to what I've seen before to be sure that these are sorcerers. About as strong or stronger than Roland, so I at least know that they're some minor nobles at best. I don't really bother being silent, all I need is to make a wall of sound blocking magic right where the door is and no screams escape. After all, the rooms are already soundproof enough that I didn't even notice them at first.

I don't dwell too much on the things I see, it's not something I am too surprised about. It's as if something makes people in power want to hurt the most vulnerable people they can… I shake that thought off as a 70 something year old man looks my way in surprise. He quickly shouts a chant and wind blows my way, seemingly attempting to blow away my shadows. It might have worked in other situations, but this is not normal darkness, but rather a wall that forces light to only move in a certain direction, so he wastes his magic and is rewarded with the bricks in the floor flying out and pummeling him to death. He simply can't chant fast enough. The boy hides in a corner, looking at me with abject horror, but I simply move on to the next.

All in all, two nobles and a soldier, if the armor was anything to go by. Turns out at least a few of them are in this business as well so a certain four letter acronym remains a truth here as well. I already feel drained just from the magic and the knowledge that so much messed up stuff is happening in this forsaken piece of the world that I cannot even imagine what happens in those faraway lands where dragons and demons are commonplace.

I look over and see that Edith and Mareha managed to gather everyone. If I add in the ones above… Well, it's a bit much, but everyone should fit into the wagon if they don't mind sitting on each other. Everyone is looking my way with terrified eyes, but trusting the women they step past me and follow Edith to the exit, while I remain with Mareha, right by the stairway up to the brothel. I frown at the wooden steps, clearly built to be cheap rather than sturdy, which meant I wouldn't be able to climb on them… Oh well, the ceiling was just stone and wood. I almost tell Mareha to head up, when the ratty man comes in.

"Oi Fre- what the hell?" His eyes bulged out as he saw a woman that was supposed to be tied up or dead holding a sword and looking directly at a cloud of unnatural darkness. Much to his appearance, he ran away before I could even sling a spell his way.

"Go up. I will need you to rescue the working ladies." She followed without question, but seemed to startle for a bit when I jumped straight through the ceiling, clawing my way out like a devil from hell. Nobody was right on top of me, but plenty of people all around saw the floor breaking apart right before a cloud of darkness poured out so suffice to say anyone around was mortified.

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The hired muscle just came in from the back and was startled to see me having been just a moment quicker. He screamed something about a monster, then threw a wooden mug my way, before trying to run past me and out the door. A single breath was all I needed to scorch him and the door he tried to use.

Mareha came out, blade in hand, and ignored the scene instead heading for an older woman that was serving some drinks before the chaos broke out. My focus was on something different. There wasn't any other noble client here, just common townsfolk, a few people that seemed less than pleasant going by the fact that they were already armed with long knives and a handful of soldiers.

My focus was somewhere else, however, as I saw the madam, terrified, seemingly checking for ways to get to the coin and escape. Thankfully I didn't even need her to find it, there was enough valuable stuff in a single spot to be obvious to my sight, so instead I just needed her to talk. I went in close, the floor groaning under me, the old hag almost breaking into tears as she was singled out. I use magic, knowing that my voice would clearly make everyone go into a panic, realising I'm a monster. Instead of my raspy tone, a suave voice, somewhat inspired by Jan's kid rings out.

"You just had to get into the trafficking business." Her expression falls, especially as she realizes where I came from. "It's amusing, really. If not for that, I wouldn't have given this place the time of day. I can't fix every messed up thing around, I can't check every single place for what is abuse and what is just a group of people doing what they can to live another day. But you just had to be a greedy old hag." She trembles and I hear and feel as people are moving about behind me, but the woman takes priority for now.

"But I am not heartless, so I will give you a chance." One truth, one lie. "Where's the ones doing this? The kidnapping, the smuggling. Sell them out and I'll leave" Well, not even a lie, technically. "No thinking time, five seconds and I will crush your skull."

"Old meat shop! Whole area burnt down a while back, nobody cares about that whole street anymore! Guards don't even check there! Uhm.. uh… It's a square building with the roof just gone, it's over in the south-east!" I shift the darkness a bit, making it seem like I am angled towards Mareha who seemed locked in a stand-off with the knife wielding men. I weave a simple nature spell. All it does is move something made out of wood fast, so the table next to me suddenly crashes full force into a man, turning him into a pile of broken bones and bleeding bruises, wheezing on the floor. Mareha looks at me, then realizing what I want she nods.

"It sounds about right.. sir…" The men that were just about to attack her to find out an escape suddenly looked very terrified my way. Good. The evacuation is…. basically done. I could make sure everyone here burns… But there's clearly people here that knew nothing about the people in the basement or the conditions of the girls here. There's of course those that knew and turned a blind eye too, but I can't judge everyone here right now, so instead I slash the madam's throat with one tail blade, then use a quick fire spell to raise the temperature of the wood around, igniting it. People run for the windows, Mareha is the last one to go down the stairs.

I stay behind, heading off to the little place where the madam hid her coin and anything precious. It's not a huge haul, compared to what we have and since it's basically all copper, silver and miscellaneous items. I will likely just leave it for everyone here. They need it more than either me or Edith, courtesy of Jan. I do wrap a few bits of proper jewelry with gold and small beast core crystals to keep, but everything else I shove into a nearby crate and run off as the place begins to break down.

In the end, everyone that could be saved was now in the wagon. I pass on the coin to them and the few bits of jewelry to Edith. She wishes me good luck before riding away. I take a moment to breathe in the scent of ash, then jump up and take flight. I feel the exhaustion building up, mostly from the constant use of magic. I wish I could take a break, sleep it off, but I bet they'll run away after seeing the mess I made here, so at least I need to take care of this place and find out the location outside the walls and the other brothel that they used. I don't delude myself into thinking I can save everyone from every noble mansion in the city, that'd be too much even for me, and the last thing I need is a dragon hunt being called on me.

I shake my head as I see it. Only ten minutes of flying and I see the square building missing its roof. I go down to land on a nearby building, seeing people standing around, clearly keeping watch. I wait for a moment when there's nobody looking and I slip in, getting inside… only to be met by a lot more men than I expected. Despite that, though, I only hear two voices. There, in the middle, I see a man with a stubby beard talking to a woman wearing proper knight armor, flanked by soldiers. They seemed to be doing some deal when suddenly the woman throws a knife my way, which just barely slides off my scales.

All eyes turn towards me as the woman gets up. Someone nearby swings at me with an axe, I step back and prepare to breathe out fire towards him, but then another knife from the knight attacks me and makes me flash my defense, which sends it bouncing straight into another man's throat, but it also ruins my shadow veil. I hear shouts, curses and sounds of surprise. The knight however flashes a dangerous smile as she takes out a warhammer and a shield.

"Well, would you look at that. You didn't tell me you smuggled a dragon." She speaks, laughing at the man holding a sabre of sorts, who does not seem amused at all.

"Because I fucking didn't! Who in their right minds would?! How'd your idiots miss a whole horse-sized lizard!?" He whistled at the guys near me, but they did not seem eager to do anything at all.

"It sneaked in here. Smart for one so small. Doubt it'd need to pass by a checkpoint at all. Either way, that's that, this is this. I doubt it'll take nicely to you so how about you-"

"If you kill her I will leave you alone." All eyes turn to me fully again. "I came here to eat her heart. You lot are less magical than dirt, and as such, less filling. I'll eat her heart, take the gold in her pouch, then leave you to your worthless lives."

They all look at me, then at the woman. Then back at me. Feeling the tide begin to shift, one of her soldiers grabs a handaxe from his belt and attempts to lob it at me, only for it to slow down and stop in midair as I quickly form the nature spell. "Throw wood fast" is proving to be a very valuable spell already as it once again claims a victim by sending the axe handle first through the soldier's head.

"My offer only lasts so long."