A Dragon’s Curiosity

 

 

Nisha was quite surprised by the nonchalant attitude of Miss Thana in regards to death.

Because of her own early experience with her beloved grandfather and the trauma following that, the elf was quite sensitive when it came to matters related to death.

Nevertheless, it was just that her own viewpoint was yet as mature as that of her counterpart.

“That serious?“

Seeing the girl mumble to herself with a troubled expression, the old priestess had a gentle smile on her face.

Although she could not read the girl‘s mind, priests and healers all had to get through their own apprehensions once they started to treat patients and officiated ceremonies, or their conscience would eat them from the inside out.

It was impossible to force someone to mature either, as too much force had the same consequences as too little guidance, it was up to the person in question to think it through.

Still, if it could help the girl, the older lady did not mind offering some of her own experience.

“It‘s actually not that rare that someone perishes while attending the academy.

Every other turn, there should be a child that unfortunately passes away, yet way more of them are saved at the same time and find out that they might not be suitable for their chosen calling.

Think about it, no matter how much you train, if a young warrior freezes in the face of a real monster and fails to defend properly, an unfortunate injury from a claw or teeth is as dangerous as any blade.

Some get treated in time and can make it past their apprehensions, while others never pick up a weapon again.

The most pitiful are the very few who do not make it in time for treatment despite all the preparations.“

Seeing that her words had a serious impact on the elf, Miss Thana picked up her cup of tea and enjoyed the strong and sweet flavor straight from the piercing desert sun.

Fortunately, the dragon had a proper initiation to the cruelness of the Wilderness, where only the strongest thrived and preyed on the weak, hence it did not take that long for her to move on from hearing that most likely a student had died.

 

“Don‘t think too much about it, you can slowly get used to it in the future.

All things follow the natural law, so life and death is not as scary as you might guess right now.“

Seeing that the girl had formed a preliminary resolve and forced herself to appear strong, the priestess found her quite adorable and directed the conversation back towards the incident that brought her here.

“The [Royal Academy] usually spends quite some effort to ensure the student‘s safety too, so it‘s rare to have accidents.

The overall procedure should not have changed much, they were already quite stable when I was serving as a healer back then.

First, the Adventurer‘s Guild will screen the regular missions for large scale monster extermination suitable for the rank of the class.

In your case as first turn students, it should be around the lower half of the second rank, right?“

Miss Thana had long since stopped paying attention to worldly affairs.

She was willing to befriend a much younger girl and enjoy tea with her solely because the old priestess appreciated their mutual interests and the extraordinary air that set apart the elf from the mundane world.

No matter how much donations to the temple and other favors other places spent, the Hall of Life and Death might not let them agree to bother an esteemed senior like her, whereas Nisha could almost enter and roam around unimpeded.

There was no harm without comparisons, perhaps those ambitious people that spent their capital in their social circles to connect with the influence of the church would spit a mouthful of blood if they found out.

“That‘s correct, we faced [Mad Stonetooth Boars] and [Starved Shredder Hatchlings] this time, between the early and middle second rank.

With our groups, it‘s not too difficult to take care of them and the academy rewards us with plenty of points when we trade the materials back.“

Since the old lady was part of the system before, Nisha did not hold back and revealed the details straight away.

They were no big secret in either case.

 

“Let‘s not mention accidents and similar regrettable circumstances.

The instructors in charge of the trip all have methods and protocols to deal with smaller incidents, so it won‘t turn into bigger trouble.

To alarm so many teachers and injure many young warriors, there has to be a bigger reason behind the scenes.

Strictly speaking, most of the external factors are unlikely to make such big waves.“

Tapping her cane with a steady rhythm, Miss Thana pondered on the information she received from the elf.

Although she had personal experience and went on such outings quite often, both as a healer and to train members of the Life and Death Hall, it was still very unlikely to reconstruct the exact causes and consequences without more details and inquiring about the official resources.

Nevertheless, with age comes wisdom for some people, and the old priestess‘ guesses should be very close to the truth at least.

“There have been cases where the possible heirs for noble titles hired bandits and assassins to go after their enemies in the past, as the security is not quite as good as the capital.

Sadly for them, the combined might of the [Royal Academy] and other noble families that got implicated in such incidents had been far more ferocious than expected and basically everyone involved in these plots ended up dead.

It‘s just not worth it to go against the prestige of the royal family, so the gains do not make up for the losses and most mercenaries now refuse to take up work even slightly related to this.“

Before taking action against an underling, you had to take a look at who the master was first!

If the royal family allowed anyone to take wanton action against their forces, it would not be long before the country fell into chaos.

Small tricks generally were overlooked as long as their impact was not too big, yet an attack against the academy would elicit a strike of far greater ferociousness.

 

“Since the instructors have many ways to turn big matters into small matters, and small matters into nothing, there has to be a combination of circumstances to cause a big scene.

I have not been there in person, so I can only tell you some speculations, don‘t blindly believe in them.

As long as you make some inquiries, you can figure out everything, especially since the academy will also give the students some kind of answer.

Still, it‘s also good to know where you have to pay attention to avoid a repeat of a tragedy.“

Usually, when the elf visited, the two of them chatted on relatively even ground and exchanged their opinions freely.

Currently the old priestess took the lead and the role of a teacher, giving earnest advice to her student and spoke most of the time, whereas Nisha obediently sat to the side and committed all the information to memory.

She also felt fortunate to have an acquaintance that was willing to share her experience forthrightly, it was difficult for the girl to learn these lessons on her own and would have to pay a painful price to acquire them.

“Once the location and mission is determined for an outing, the academy will send some of their stronger instructors first so that they can determine the site firsthand and make a preliminary sweep to confirm the details and whether the location is suitable for the trip.

They drive out all monsters and the occasional beast above the level the students can handle and scout for dangerous spots.

Here, the first mistake can happen.

When something becomes a routine, people tend to overlook small details and get sloppy with the execution.

If the instructors don‘t pay close attention, it‘s easy to mistake the species of the mission target or overlook the existence of an overlord among them.

[Starved Shredder Hatchlings] and [Mad Stonetooth Boars] should not have leaders that go above the late second rank, but it‘s not an ironclad rule.

An [Insane Irontusk Boar] looks very similar to a [Mad Stonetooth Boar], yet it went through a qualitative change after purifying its bloodline and exceeding the rank limit, making it vastly more dangerous.

If it can reach the late third rank, it‘s easy for students to fail to defend themselves in front of a higher rank enemy.“

 

Miss Thana quickly moved her hands with a speed belying her age and added more tea leaves and water to the pot, adding some mana to the formation to bring the water to a boil again.

Even when imparting her thoughts to the girl, she never neglected their drinks and made sure that Nisha never had an empty cup in her hands.

Other people might have felt heartache at the thought of the dwindling amount of tea leaves left in the packet, which cost several gold coins, yet neither of the two ladies in the pavilion paid particular attention to wealth.

Still, the dragon also brought high grade tea as visiting gifts from time to time when she visited to repay the favor, where the thought counted more for the old priestess than the price.

“On top of that, some monsters are harder to spot than others. An earth golem looks like a scattered group of stones and does not move for moons on end, so without an attack that threatens to break its defense, no one will know that a monster is resting there while looking like a natural background.

Fortunately, most of these well camouflaged threats are also rather sedate, so they won‘t take action as long as the young warriors on the outing pay some attention and follow the rules of an expedition in the Wilderness.“

Nisha agreed with this opinion, unless provoked, several species of monsters the dragon knew would rather not bother to fight and laze around instead.

While not exactly common, these lax individuals were not particularly rare either.

Even if they were more powerful and belonged to a deeper area of the Wilderness, they would not move until forced to do so.

“To trouble the instructors and have them fight in earnest, the monsters they faced should be at the fourth rank at least.

Which also brings me to the second possible problem.

According to my guess, it should have been a single monster or beast that took action, instead of a large group.

You can probably guess why if you think back on the first point.“

Enjoying her own cup of tea, Miss Thana gave the elf some time to ponder over the reason and deduct the cause on her own.

 

It did not take Nisha long to reflect on the contents of their conversation and her eyes soon lit up when she thought of a possible reason.

“Right! If the instructors already swept the area before the students arrived, then it‘s unlikely that they missed a big gathering of more powerful monsters.

After all, the destination would not be called suitable if we could not defend ourselves against the majority of the enemies there.“

Personally, the elf and her two friends would likely have the war potential to contend against a group of third rank monsters.

Lisa would have to focus on defense and rely on her group, but Nisha and Unico had both been concealing some of their trump cards and peak strength, the dragon more than the boy.

Ultimately, they fought above their rank and were the odd one out with such a small group size compared to the other students in their turn.

“Indeed, a good deduction.

To take the academy by surprise, it should be a single intruder, which has the strength, speed and rank to overwhelm the students and elude the detection of the instructors.

That‘s the third problematic area.

Once the students arrive at the destination for the outing, a portion of the adults set up a base camp, where healers are waiting to provide treatment and the spoils of war can be handed in.

The majority of them go on patrols and overlook the battle situations of the young warriors.

I guess you already noticed some of them, given your description of the incident, so I won‘t bother concealing their existence.

It‘s better for the mentality of the students if they do not know of that layer of safety, or their mentality will not grow if they are always aware of stronger fighters around.“

Unconsciously, Miss Thana already excluded the young lady from the warriors of the same generation and treated her as one of her own.