The next day was also a holiday for the magic academy, so I came to the Evil Dragon's Cave with Hinata and the residents of her village to collect the remains of the villagers killed by the evil dragon.

　We were there to collect the remains of the villagers who were killed by the evil dragon.

　Probably, Hinata's parents' bones are also here.
　Yesterday, she also told me the story of her parents.


　Since the cave was inhabited by an evil-tainted dragon, demons will frequently occur until it is cleansed.

　If they waited for it to be purified naturally, it would take hundreds of years.

　Furthermore, due to the magical power of the evil dragon, which was originally an attribute dragon, the highest B-ranked demons were appearing.

　There is no resident in Hinata's village that can defeat a B-ranked demon.

　That's why, when I stayed in the village, I decided to help collect the remains as much as possible.

　I brought about twenty villagers with me, including Hinata, but it would be impossible to move all the remains of several hundred people in one day.

　However, if you bring more than 20 people with you, it will be difficult to protect the inhabitants from the demons.

　I have a shadow dragon to escort me, but since we don't know what's going to happen, we limit the number of people coming to the cave to twenty.

　Because of the danger, I really didn't want to bring Hinata along with me, but she insisted on following me, so she's coming with me here on condition that she doesn't leave me.

　All of the clothes and other items of clothing on the bodies were torn apart by the miasma of the evil dragon, so it was impossible to identify which remains were who.

　Therefore, there was no choice but to take out all the remains and make an offering.

　The villagers were at a loss for words when they saw the pile of human remains.

　The devastation was so great that only a few were able to shed a tear or two.

　After that, everyone went to work in silence.



　When we were working on that task...

Yeah, chief!　Mr. Lysin!　Ta, it's bad!

　A resident of Hinata's village ran to the cave.
　This is the girl who brought food to me a few times during last night's feast.

　I was going back and forth between the deepest part of the cave and the doorway, carrying out the remains, when the girl came to me just as I was outside.

'What is the matter with you?　So much hurry.
What's going on?　

''And the strike force, the evil dragon strike force is coming here!

　The girl who ran in, out of breath, said so.

'A strike force?　If it was an evil dragon, I would have defeated it.

That's why it's not good. People outside of our village have taken the liberty of asking the Adventurer's Guild to defeat the evil dragon!

"What, what?!

　The village chief's face changes color.

What's wrong with that?　Since the evil dragon is no longer there, why don't we let the strike team leave immediately?

It's...

''Liuxin-sama, if you are making a request to the Adventurer's Guild, you will need to pay for the request at that point. Since the request is for the defeat of an evil dragon, you'll need a ridiculous amount of money.

　The village chief explained.

　Hinata's village and the four surrounding villages have always operated as one community. When a powerful demon appeared, the five villages would pool their funds to hire adventurers to defeat it.

　That communal promise was still in effect as an ancient contract.

　Since the contract was made using a magical contract, the promise could not be broken.

　Even if Hinata's village claimed that the Adventurer's Guild hadn't submitted a request to defeat the evil dragon, they would still have to pay the request fee. Even if they didn't need to pay the defeat fee, it was easy to imagine that the funds it would take to bring in someone strong enough to defeat the evil dragon would be ridiculously expensive.


''Even worse, our village has almost no funds. What we do have is...''

　The village chief looks awkwardly at Hinata and the girl who came running.

　Could it be.........

There are more young girls (onago) in our village than in any other village. For a long time, we have been asked by other villages to send them girls in exchange for financial support and in the worst case scenario, we will have no choice but to give them away as wives.

　Of course, the village chiefs are also going to work, but the amount of money they can earn from that is very limited.

　This was because most of the young men who could earn from physical labor had been eaten by the evil dragon.

　It is said that Hinata is especially popular with the other men in the village, and they are willing to help her with a significant amount of money if she were to marry them.


　When I looked at Hinata, she had a very dark look on her face.

　''Huh, don't be silly!

　You're not going to let my favorite girl peddle to me!

　The evil dragon was about to kill you and I saved you from it!


Hey...

'Ha, yes. Mr. Lysin, how can I help you?

　I spoke to the girl who came to inform me of the approaching strike force.

''Do you have any idea how many people are here for the strike force?''

Wow, there were three of them I saw. My aunt said they were probably just a reconnaissance detachment.

　The advance party seemed to be on their way here, having men from four villages to guide them.

　The girl who informed them of this knew the shortcut between Hinata's village and this cave.

　The cave is farther from Hinata's village than from any other village, but it seems that this shortcut is the fastest way to get there.

　That gave me some time to think about it.

'Thanks for letting me know. I'll take care of the rest.

　As he said this, he patted the girl's head.

''Master Liuxin, what do you intend to do?''

I will tell the men in charge that I have defeated the evil dragon and I will declare Hinata's village under my control. And I will declare Hinata's village under my control.

　There's no way you can recover the funds from a town under my (Black Dragon's) control without going through me.

''Well then, won't Ryushin-sama be attacked by a strike force?

　Hinata was worried.
　I'm so happy to hear that.

"Don't worry," he said. ─ Don't worry, I'm very strong. You saw that, didn't you, Hinata?

　Right now I can defeat the evil dragon with a punch I threw as a check and balance.

　Even if there is a force that can defeat the evil dragon, I have no desire to lose.

　And besides...


If we leave in this shape, I think the strike force will escape.

　I'm the black dragon.

"Oh!
This is ... this ... what a heroic thing to do.
...cool.
Master Liuxin, it's amazing!

　Hinata, the village chief and the villagers who were around cheered.

　It feels so good.

　When I'm around Harut, no one is surprised that I've become a black dragon.

　When I get this much praise, I get excited.


'Everyone hide in the cave. I might lightly intimidate you, just in case.

　I want to show Hinata a good thing for a moment.

　It may not be necessary, but let's scare the guys in the defeat team with our roar.

''Ryushin-sama.......please don't do anything dangerous, okay?

Oh. I'm fine.

　I'd do something a little crazy to protect Hinata, but...

　But it'll be okay.

　There's no one who can beat me as a black dragon.

　There are a few exceptions, but that's because they're not human, they're monsters.

　You can't get away with it because you're not an adventurer yet, so there's no way that monster would come here as a strike force.

　So don't worry.


　Hinata, the village chief and the others hid near the entrance of the cave.

　There are no demons near the entrance, and just to be sure, the shadow dragons are on alert for the surroundings.

　Come on, strike team, if you want to come!





"Harut-sama, that was...
Yeah. For all intents and purposes, that's him, right?


　What?　Why? !

　A monster that can beat me to pieces with his bare hands is walking towards us.