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nThe Red Wyvern

nOne of the two leaders of the wyvern flock was a giant wyvern with red scales and gold horns. Its huge face was right in front of Hikaru’s eyes. It didn’t open its mouth to speak, only making sounds instead. Hikaru didn’t sense hostility in its words.

n「My name is Hikaru. I’m an adventurer.」

nThe wyvern took a breath through its nose, causing a cloud of dust to rise, rippling Hikaru’s cloak.

n「So, an adventurer has finally made it here.」the creature said.

n「Are you a wyvern?」Hikaru asked.

n「As you can see. Heed my advice: leave this place.」

n「Why? Because the gold causes people to go mad?」

n「So you are aware of its effects.」

n「The gold’s emitting fishy-looking mana.」

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nHikaru took a necklace from his pocket. It emitted the same kind of mana as the rest of the gold.

n「Is that from this village?」the wyvern asked.

n「Yeah. A survivor from this village lives in the town at the foot of the mountain. He asked me to retrieve it.」

n「So there is a survivor.」The wyvern narrowed its eyes, making an inexplicable expression that seemed both relief and resignation.

nOkay, not sure I could read a wyvern’s expression.

n「You should leave, then.」the wyvern said.「A small object like that should not have any effect on its owner.」

n「No, wait a minute. What’s going on in this village? What happened?」

n「Surely someone who can see the mana from the gold can imagine what happened. Your guess is mostly accurate.」There was exhaustion in its voice.

n「Then tell me about you guys.」

n「About us?」

n「Why are you here? This village was supposed to have a repellent for wyverns.」

n「Hmm. You are one strange human.」

n「It’s Hikaru.」

n「Yes, of course. Hikaru. I suppose I can share our story before we are gone.」

nIts words bothered Hikaru, but he decided to simply listen.

n「We knew that there was a settlement here」the wyvern began,「but we instinctively avoided going near it. As you said, there was magic that kept us away.」

nIntelligent wyverns like this red one were rare, but even the blue one could apparently speak as well. They also had a good understanding of magic.

n「Humans are foolish creatures.」it continued.「The gold corrupted their minds and they killed each other. A woman who hid to avoid the fighting survived, but she fell ill. She passed not long after.」

nOnce the magic items that warded off the wyverns were destroyed, they came to the village and looked after the remaining survivor. Whether that was surprising or not, Hikaru couldn’t tell. They watched as the village’s last flames were extinguished.

n「But the wyverns were just as foolish. Or should I say, conceited. We stayed here, overconfident that we would be fine, and we too fell to the gold’s magic.」

n「You guys too?」

n「Yes. As such, we cannot leave this place. Our minds are bound to this village. The young ones hunt food for us, but soon they will not be able to move either.」

nUnlike humans, however, the wyverns didn’t kill each other. Simply being around the gold made them happy.

n「Why’s there mana in the gold?」Hikaru asked.

nIf the gold itself contained mana, the same phenomenon should be happening in the Gordon Mine, but so far, there was no problem there.

n「Is there something about this place specifically?」

n「Hmm. You understand much already, yet you do not know?」

n「I don’t. Do you know why the gold has mana, then?」

n「Of course. Why do you think we never approached the village?」

n「Probably because of the magic items placed all around the village」Hikaru expanded his Mana Detection, then he realized something. The layout of the buildings. Each structure served to amplify magic. Hikaru couldn’t tell exactly how it worked, and he had never seen the kind of sorcery applied.「So the spell uses the whole village itself.」

n「Correct. The key to its activation was that broken magic item right there.」

nIf the magic on the pillar at the entrance was broken, the spell would fail to work, like how electric appliances would not turn on if the switch was broken, despite having the battery.

n「It was a peculiar kind of magic. While active, it absorbed mana from the atmosphere. Over time the gold accumulated all that mana. The spell then altered its properties slowly.」

nIt all makes sense now, Hikaru thought. The village had been collecting gold for a long time, yet there were no riots. Little by little, like drops of water in a bucket, the mana accumulated in the gold and consumed the hearts of the people. Eventually, their minds broke down. Old man Hoya must have been able to escape just before he fell victim to the tragedy.

n「Hikaru, if you stay here for too long, your mind will be corrupted. You should leave before that happens. In another hundred years, the mana will be gone. Then you can do whatever you want with the gold.

n「What about you guys?」

n「The foolish will perish. Such is the law of nature.」The wyvern lumbered away.

nHikaru shivered as a dry breeze blew past. His body was freezing.

nHikaru went back to the girls and explained everything: about the gold, what happened in the village, and the wyvern. After discussing matters late into the night, they arrived at a conclusion.

nThe next morning, after taking what was practically only a nap, Hikaru and the girls headed to the village. Many of the wyverns were awake. They looked at the humans, but quickly turned their heads away as if they had lost interest. The lesser wyvern Hikaru had encountered in Forestia were smaller, but fierce. The experience highlighted just how abnormal these wyverns were. They had more important things to do than catching prey: feeling the mana from the gold.

nThe wyverns seemed to be just laying around, living idle lives, but they had become addicts. The red wyvern had given up because they could no longer leave the village.

n「This is incredible.」Lavia said.

n「It is.」Paula added.「It feels like I’ll lose consciousness if I lost focus.」

nHikaru put three points on their Mental Strength. Since they already had their Willpower section unlocked, they only consumed three points each, leaving 17 points for Lavia, and 28 for Paula.

nNoticing Hikaru’s arrival, a weary red wyvern appeared.

n「What are you doing here?」it asked.「Did you suddenly want the gold?」The wyvern gave a puzzled frown at Hikaru’s return.

n「It’s true that I want the gold.」Hikaru said.「But that’s not at all.」

n「What?」

n「I wanted to fight back. How’s it look, Paula?」

n「It feels like psychological damage, rather than drug addiction.」Paula answered, observing the wyvern.「Since it’s not physical, I’m afraid normal healing magic won’t cut it.」

n「Did you think you could cure us?」The wyvern let out a low growl.「Bwahahahaha! Absolutely amusing. A puny human, attempting to do what we could not? Don’t you think you are being presumptuous?」

n「Presumptuous?」There was an edge to Hikaru’s voice.「Let me ask you this: Is it humble and wise to just accept death because it’s the law of nature, or fate at work?」

nMaybe it was the mana inciting him or maybe it was something else—perhaps it was the fact that Lavia was behind him, watching him. After experiencing death once, Hikaru came to this world and was immediately forced into a kill-or-be-killed situation. Even Lavia quietly accepted her destiny.

nBut Hikaru would have none of it. He refused to let destiny toy with him. He firmly believed that you make your own destiny.

n「Law of nature, my foot.」he added.「Humans created the magic items, not nature. Besides, if it’s the law of nature at work, then you should have the right to fight back.」

nThe wyvern’s eyes grew wide. Perhaps Hikaru’s words stirred something in it.

n「We will fight back.. So don’t get in our way.」

nHikaru turned his back on the red wyvern.

nThe red wyvern did nothing after that. It spent the rest of the day lying down and eating animals brought in by the younglings. If one of them didn’t want to eat, he would force it to. As leader of the herd, it had the responsibility to do so.

nThe other leader, however—the blue wyvern—snickered when it saw the red wyvern. It had long given up on the herd, accepting its fate. It felt that there was no point in trying to survive. Since the blue wyvern didn’t move as much as the red one, its feet were already buried in the sand. The mana in its scales prevented dust from piling up, though.

n「Fight back, huh?」

nHikaru’s party came to the village during the day to try something, left for a while to avoid getting their minds corrupted, then returned again to test things. The sun had set, and they were camping in the distance.

nI wanted to leave the village too, but I didn’t have the strength left. I couldn’t stand hearing the villagers dying every day.

nThe wyvern recalled the words of the last female survivor. It felt like she mentioned her name once, but it couldn’t remember it.

nThe one who locked me in the basement said there was going to be a big fight in the village that day. I holed up in the basement for three days, and when I came out, everyone was already dead.

nThe woman coughed violently, spewing out blood. The wise wyvern knew then that she didn’t have long.

nTolua, Erb. You best leave soon. Unlike me, you have wings. Go somewhere far away from this gold.

nMemory stirred. Tolua and Erb. Old words in this village that meant red and blue. It was the woman who gave them the names. They had only been with her for less than a month. Perhaps that’s why it forgot.

n「It was too late.」the red wyvern muttered.

nIt thought the mana only affected humans. Its fellow wyverns insisted on turning the settlement into a nest, and even Tolua, who tried to convince them to leave, fell to the mana’s corruption.

n「If she were healthy, would she have fought back?」

nThe next day, Hikaru’s party came again, but they made poor progress on the cure. The three peered at the snoring wyverns from above.

n「It looks like mana addiction to me.」Hikaru said.「Then again, I barely have any knowledge of healing magic.」

n「I’ve used every healing spell I could think of.」Paula said.「Shall I try other spells one by one?」

n「Maybe it requires mixed magic.」Lavia said.「I learned a few. Would you like to give it a try?」

n「If we include mixed spells, there’s gonna be a lot, but I guess we don’t have much choice. Let’s try them one by one, while I observe the mana inside them. We analyze the ones that have the greatest effects… I wonder how long that would take.」

n「We’re going to run out of food.」Paula said with a wry smile. But she wore a cheerful look.

nHikaru had decided to take on an absurd task deep in the mountains, and the girls went along with it.

n「Okay, let’s give it a shot.」

nThey spent the whole day testing out spells, but nothing worked. At nightfall, Hikaru and the girls turned back.

nTolua watched them silently.

n「Today’s our last chance.」Hikaru said.「We need to have food on our trip back.」

nThe girls nodded.

nThere was something different that day. When they arrived at the village, the red wyvern was waiting for them.

n「Heal me first. It would be easier if you could talk to your subject.」

n「Well, that’s a switch. Besides, you’re too big—」

n「Tolua.」

n「What?」

n「That is my name. Call me that.」

nHikaru and the girls exchanged glances. They had no idea what brought this change, but the red wyvern—Tolua—seemed willing to cooperate. That day, they started over from basic spells and gradually moved to the advanced ones, all the while talking to Tolua.

n「Not bad.」Tolua grinned. Its face looked terribly ferocious.

n「Really? A shame, though.」

n「What? Why?」

n「We have no more food, so we’re leaving today.」

n「We will share our food with you. Hang in there a little longer.」

nHikaru and the girls looked at each other.

n「Seriously, what happened?」Hikaru said.「You went a full 180.」

n「Do not worry about it.」

n「I’m curious.」

nThere was a pause.「I wanted to fight back too.」

nTolua brought the humans a deer caught from the forest at the foot of the mountain. Claw marks marred its body, and its head had been ripped off, but the meat would extend their stay for a few more days.

n「Oh. Humans need to cook their food」Tolua muttered. It was nighttime. The wyvern was watching Hikaru’s party from a distance as they roasted meat somewhere near the village. It couldn’t go too far from the gold.

n「You were with the last survivor, right?」Hikaru asked.

n「Yes. Though I do not remember her name.」

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nJuices trickled down as Hikaru nibbled on the meat. Deer meat had a strong iron taste, but it was tender. He savored the fresh meat he had had in a while.

nWithout them asking, Tolua told them the story about the woman. It felt like it really wanted to share it to someone.

n「In short, she was a very wise human. But sadly, she… What is the matter? Why are you looking at me like that?」

n「Sorry. I just realized something」Hikaru felt something off with his story.「Why was she all right?」

n「Hmm? I told you. She was trapped in the basement.」

n「I’m not talking about the killings.」Hikaru put down the venison in his hand and stared at Tolua.「You made it sound like the mana didn’t affect her. How was she really?」

nTolua’s eyes widened.「Th-That is exactly right. Why? Why was she unaffected?」

n「Was there anything special about her accessories?」

n「I do not know. We do not know much about humans. Oh, there is a gravesite for her」

n「Show me.」Hikaru stood up.「There may be a clue there that will help us dispel the gold’s mana」

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