A Benevolent Evil Dragon

The man whose name I chose to not learn spilled everything the second I tapped my venomous claw against his neck. The base out in the woods, the other brothel, even names for every noble that bought from him. He told me everything about their origin in the empire and how they used the various wars, be they between vassals or between the empire and nearby kingdoms to catch fleeing people and sell them either as labor slaves or to high buyers with particular tastes.

I was more and more disgusted by the moment, and when he finally thought that I was done, I pulled away, only to slash his legs with the knight's sword, afterwards stabbing him in the neck with it. I didn't even feel good about it. It just felt like throwing out trash, a chore only I was around to handle. Looking around at the mess, I decided to arrange a few things before the authorities arrived. I dripped my venom on his saber and used it to stab the knight's corpse, tainting it with her blood. I then went around, finishing off anyone that was still breathing with whatever weapons I had about.

Finally, I moved to the basement, only to stop as I stared at a few pairs of eyes peeking over from below. They quickly ran down and I followed. Huh… The guards stationed downstairs apparently tried to come up and ended up dying swiftly, falling back down and dropping their keys. Downstairs there were….a lot of people… 30? 40? Kids, adults, men, women… There were even two beastmen, one seeming like half an ox sewn on a burly woman while the other one looked like a thin harpy of sorts, at least he's more symmetric than either the ox woman or Ayrah. And more magical than either.

I shake my head and look at the scared and curious eyes that were all pointed my way. Finally it is a girl, maybe 15 or 16 years old, that speaks out. She is clearly one of the ones that watched me up above and she does remind me a bit of the kid… she could be his sister.

"T-thank you!" Her little voice is met with surprised looks from those around, but the ones that were clearly looking and watching seem to nod fearfully.

I open my mouth and cough out blood. Feeling death rotting away at my flesh, I channel a bit of chaos and blow out a puff of colorful false fire towards the stone stairs underneath me. It scares the people a bit, but I clear my throat and try to look a bit more dignified than my bloody, weak visage would warrant.

"Not safe yet… Guards are heading this way. I don't have the time… or energy… to ferry you all away to safety. Additionally there's just… so much more…" I cough again, shaking my head. My voice is tired and hoarse. I hate being weakened.

I look around, my middle eye shining as I find it. It's not anywhere near as much as I would have hoped, but there's decent coin in here. I go to a particular barrel in a pile of many, open it, then dump it on the ground, the grain on top spilling on the floor, only to be followed by coins. I take the thirty or so gold coins and a few crystals that look like witchbeast cores and eat them. Eating metal is upsetting to a degree, but it does give me a much needed boost. I look back and luckily nobody seems to say anything, just waiting for me.

"It's a bet… but I do not think the entirety of the guard is responsible for this. So I hope they will help you when they come to answer the distress signal. All I ask is that you do not reveal my existence. I ate the chunks they ripped out from me, masked my blood as well as I could and the place above looks like a fight between the smugglers, the knight and her soldiers, and maybe even some rival gang. Just paint it as a fight between them that ended wrong for everyone involved. The sight of all this coin should mellow the guards out anyways. They're unlikely to admit that their knight was making deals with them, however, so don't push that point." I gasp for air, looking at the confused people. I need to leave, but first I look at the people clearly not from here and I speak in my rough understanding of the language.

"Boy feather. Horn daughter. Life here… safe?" They look startled, speak between each other for a bit, though I don't really understand more than a few words, then the harpy man turns to me.

"Us captives. Rugged man. Shiny shell. All same." I nod, glad that he dumbed it down as much as he could. I make a sign with my head for them to come over, but I see their limbs still bound. Looking at the people clearly all free, then at their ring of keys… The older woman holding the keys at least has the decency to look ashamed. I narrow my eyes at her and she rushes over to free the beastly people, though clearly afraid, almost jumping back like they might bite her hand.

"All same… All same…" I agree, receiving a stony look from both of them. I then turn to the rest of the people here, switching to Vernian. "Some of the people that were taken from here are now at a rugged old church, some way away from here, in the slums. Go there if someone you know is missing. Also, I am guessing you all heard what the man above said?" I am met with about ten people nodding, which is good enough for me. "Good, tell that to the guards… I am leaving now. Please don't do something stupid. I am not here to hurt people, but I will if my life is threatened."

I walk away, followed by the tribal duo… nevermind, tribal couple, going by how close they are. The man's wings are hurt, so he's taking a ride on the ox woman's back, kissing her neck as we walk. Going from stonecold to affectionate in a moment seems to be a common trait between Ayrah's people… Oh well, got stuff to focus on. I concentrate on my ears now that I am above ground and I hear horses nearby. We have barely a few minutes to run away from here, so I activate my spell, darkness and light being the only elements I haven't used in my fight, then take them over to a different run down building, three streets away. I leave them hidden down below while I go to the roof to have a vantage point.

I see torches coming closer and sigh, my eyes trailing over to my ruined wings. It was ultimately a good idea to use them, I would be bleeding badly by now if I didn't, but it still sucks to get my limbs mangled. A part of me is angry that I didn't even manage to get something worth this trouble. I didn't even have the chance to eat the knight's core since I needed to make it look like the smuggler killed her.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

A different part of me is glad I did this nonetheless. I don't know what they will do from here on out, but I gave them a chance to live. I did a good thing. Even if it means I'm now sitting in a ruin, bleeding all over as I watch armored men come in and inspect the situation. I listen in, digging my claws into the stone balcony I am sitting on as I wait for them to betray me…

It never comes. Not one person, not even the kids end up mentioning me. They stick to giving as little info as possible and paint the information as something they got over time rather than as a final confession at clawpoint. I let out a sigh of relief and finally relax once they are taken away, entire carts having been brought to help with moving them.

Then, as only a few guards stay behind to investigate the bloody scene, I see Edith coming in through side alleys, clearly giving a wide berth to the soldiers. She stops somewhere well hidden from them and seems to look around for me. I gather as much air mana as I can, transmute it to sound and…

"Hey…" I don't have much, even with the gold digesting in me. Most of the mana from it is turning into chaos, so not exactly overly useful.

"Heart?" Edith whispers, looking all over at the rooftops. I raise a mangled wing and she notices, gasping. "What… What happened?"

"Knight. Three elements. About as much mana in her as Jan. Easy fight if it was just me and her. It wasn't just me and her." The rune falters and I reduce its volume to make up for the cost. "Low mana. Coming to you. Have two like Ayrah with me."

The last bit surprised her, but she nodded. I went down, nodded for them to follow and we snuck over to the wagon. Once inside I let the spell fall and I just crumpled. The two beastmen look over at Edith as she peeks in. She just looks at my body, worried, though she seems a bit scared to look the other two in the eyes. Seriously, a world so diverse and humans are still assholes to humans. I let out an involuntary rumble, when the Ox woman finally speaks.

"Yours?" I look at her, tilting my head, then shake it. I attempt to say friend but I realize I don't have the word for it…

"Damnit, I should have learned more from Ayrah… Uh…. Shit…. Tribe..?" That surprises the woman for a bit, then she nods.

"Tribe. Good." Is all she says, embracing her lover protectively and curling up on the other end of the wagon. Suddenly the place is sorta cramped.

"Anyways… Edith, we must leave the area. They will inspect the surroundings soon enough. I don't want them to link us to this." She nods and starts us on the road.

"You did good, you know?" She mentions after a bit. My head peeks out and I smile as well as my long toothy snout can smile.

"I know. It doesn't erase how bad it feels, but I know I did a good thing. And now I just need… rest…" I closed my eyes and fell into my library before Edith could say another thing.

I am lucky that I have this library, and not just because of the memories inside. Because I go here when I fall asleep, I don't dream. I don't have nightmares. I wonder if I would see all the faces of people I murdered if I were to ever sleep properly. I know they deserved it… but still.

Ah, I am feeling too emotional, even with my sensitivities blunted. I go over to a wall and see a door forming in it. Once inside there is nothing, just an empty room, but then there's no longer nothing. Statues of marble rise, taking on the forms of people I killed. Some are blurry, some are maimed beyond recognition, some are masked… Still, all the faces I know are here. I will probably need to turn the room into an auditorium if things keep at this pace… But still, I do at least make this as a way to remember. I don't want to keep on going while ignoring how many lives I take. Even when they deserve it…

Finally, I am done so I open my eyes… And I frown. I find myself buried in cloths and grain barrels. I use my mana sense, but I don't get an outline of Edith or the beastmen anywhere. I check my body and aside from the annoying feeling of fresh scales, I am quite alright.

I carefully scoot over, slithering my head out from the pile and out the wagon, only to see the horses grazing peacefully. I focus all around and we're just out in the wilderness somewhere. I frown, finally crawling out fully. I look at my wings and they're good as new, which does make me feel a bit happier about the whole situation.

Focus. I feel mana flowing through me a bit easier than before… which is surprising since I didn't eat anything particularly nice. But it does make it easier for me to take to the skies, air and lightning mana wrapping around me. I survey our surroundings and I see the city in the distance, maybe half a day away by carriage at full speed. I also look around at the forest we're in and I see… well, just the remains of a camp. I land back down, not being able to see any details due to the thick tree tops, then I investigate the long dead fire.

I smell Edith and the two tribesmen. I follow a trail of their scents, then notice a moment where the harpy's trail went up towards the trees, and became lost. I follow nonetheless… It would be smart to guard the carriage, but at the same time Edith went with strangers into the woods, which is never a good sign. I follow and follow, run as fast as my feet hold, and finally I see something large in front, hearing an angry roar.

There's no clearing, rather it is even thicker than other parts of the woods, to the point where even the light is quite weak, but I see perfectly as the ox woman stomps repeatedly on a very dead man in metal armor. Well, the flat, mushy thing that used to be a man, at least. She's clearly taking out her frustration on him. Possibly because everyone else is already paste or burnt.

Finally, I notice Edith looking over… Holy hell.

"Ah, good thing you got here!" She smiles and waves me over towards the large piles of coin. "I think one of these guys was the ringleader of the smuggling operation, because we found these guys running with a lot of stuff on them, and then these two exploded in a rage and kind of ripped them apart. Ah, the bird man is… I don't know, rushing down the one guy that escaped?"

It's nowhere near as much as Jan had… But around a hundred coins and at least a few proper mana gems looks like a good haul, especially on top of all that silver and… Are those ingots?

Well damn, never thought I'd ever get to properly say this, but… Thanks, karma!