~ Chapter 26: Pertiko and the Paladins ~

[Seryanna’s point of view]

 With the light of the sun grazing my skin, I opened my eyes and cast my gaze upon the sleeping human holding me in his arms. A smile appeared on my lips when I moved closer to him, and he tightened his embrace around me. If I had a tail, I would have wrapped it around him, but since I didn’t, I made do with playing with his hair.

Alkelios was sleeping peacefully, and I felt strangely relaxed and happy to wake up like this, in his arms. There was a small flutter in my heart, and I couldn’t stop smiling. This sort of feeling was a first for me, and I liked it! I wanted to wake up like this every day for the rest of my life!

But he’s a human… so maybe only another 60 years at best? I thought as I gave him a kiss on the forehead.

[Alkelios’ point of view]

 I woke up to the sweet scent of my redhead dragoness. I was holding her in my arms, nuzzling up to her chest, and she wasn’t pulling back, meaning that yesterday wasn’t a dream or an illusion. It really did happen, I confessed to her and she to me. We became a couple, and now I was holding her in my arms.

Our relationship was still at the beginning, so I wasn’t trying to rush it by jumping in her pants already, although my thoughts steered in that direction several times. I couldn’t help it, she was beautiful, and I was attracted to more than just her captivating dark-brown eyes and red hair. I was a man even if I was only 18 years old.

When I opened my eyes, I saw her lips, and I moved in to capture them. The kiss was gentle and soft, but the moan she let out was very cute. I gave her another kiss, and my right hand moved slowly on her back, my fingers searching for those sensitive hidden scales of hers.

“Hm~?” a certain dragoness showed me a big wide smirk.

Before I had the chance to make another move on Seryanna, I saw Kataryna looking at us like a spectator at the movies.

“Ehehe… Good morning.” I said with an awkward smile.

“Good morning, Alkelios. Please don’t stop because of me, it’s getting interesting.” she said.

“Good morning…” Seryanna said with her face red from embarrassment.

“Mou! You ruined everything!” Kleo poked the silver dragoness in the cheek.

“Ow! Stop it!” she swatted her hand away.

“What are you two doing?” asked Seryanna as she glared back at them.

“Nothing, sister! Nothing at all!” Kleo smiled and pulled back.

“We were staring at you two love birds.”

I had a feeling Kataryna dumped all of her skill points into her bluntness instead of her subtlety skill.

“Jealous?” the redhead asked with a grin.

“Nope! I’m just waiting for the right time to strike.” she shook her head and then pulled back.

“We’ll be downstairs. Don’t break the bed!” Kleo shouted as she walked out of the room.

After the two left, we both let out a sigh.

“Sorry…” said Seryanna.

“What for?” I asked and pulled her closer into my embrace.

“My sister being a jerk… She wasn’t always like this…” she looked away.

“Something happened, didn’t it?” I asked.

“Yes, but let’s forget about that… Should we… change?” she asked and looked down a bit embarrassed.

Seryanna was wearing a rather sexy nightgown. It covered everything, but it did nothing to hide her sensual forms. I looked down and then smirked. With a hand around her waist, I pulled her over me and then gave her a big kiss.

“Let them wait a bit, besides, I actually enjoy being close to you and holding you without fearing of being splattered on the floor.” I laughed.

“Me too…” she said with a blush and then kissed me again.

A little while later, after we had our breakfast, we packed our things and left the town of Dertan. With a clear sky above us, it looked almost as though the only purpose for that rain was to keep Seryanna here until we reached her. My 100 Luck was probably to blame for this, and I sincerely apologized in my mind to anyone who met any sort of bad luck during this time.

Surprisingly though, when I suggest using my [Speedy Rooster] skill and summon Gragh’jaggar to take us to our next town, I was outvoted by all three dragonesses. I honestly didn’t see what was wrong with this mount. It belonged to the Royal Rooster species, and we all had a fun time riding it.

The alternative to Gragh’jaggar was the Khosinni. We rented two of them. One was for me and Seryanna and the other for Kataryna and Kleo. The beasts were big enough to carry our bags too, but one of us had a [Purse] ring, so we didn’t need to.

Six hours later, we stopped to let the Khosinni rest, and we grabbed a bite to eat. There was no reason to start the fire because we didn’t plan on cooking or roasting any meat. We had a bunch of cheese, some vegetables, and smoked sausages. It was more than enough to fill our bellies until we arrived in Pertiko.

Two hours later, we packed up and continued our journey. At our current speed, we would arrive in the village by nightfall, so there was absolutely no reason for us to camp out in the middle of the plains.

Technically speaking, it would have taken us at least two days if we traveled with normal horses and not these six-legged monstrosities. To be fair, if we traveled by foot, it would have taken us more than three or four days.

The mounts on this continent were very fast and powerful, but since I didn’t have the chance to visit any of the other continents, I could only presume they were among the best. Anyway, I had nothing to complain about because Seryanna was guiding the Khosinni, and I was sitting in the back, enjoying the scenery.

Both Dertan town and Pertiko village were located in the Elmendyar Plain, which spread as far and wide if not more than the Bărăgan Plain. It was beautiful, but probably far better maintained by the dragons. So far, I had yet to see fields of corn and grain spreading as far as the eyes could see; tall grass didn’t count. Given enough time, the dragons could probably clear out the monsters around here and start cultivating this steppe plain.

Looking up at the sky, I could see a couple of dark clouds gathering ahead of us, but it didn’t smell of rain yet. Maybe they were the remnants of yesterday’s storm? Either way, we would get to the village before we ended up drenched by the rain.

“I can see the village!” announced Kataryna, who was riding at a distance of about ten meters ahead of us.

“Erm… is it supposed to be on fire?” I asked after I squinted my eyes at the horizon.

“No, but I hope it’s not a bandit raid.” replied Seryanna.

“Maybe someone tried to cook and burned down his house?” I shrugged.

“Even so, I really doubt there’s no one there who knows a water spell. No, this fire was left to burn.” said Seryanna shaking her head.

She was right though. In a society based on magic with children playing ‘catch the fireball’ in the middle of the street, it was impossible for someone around them not to know how to put out an accidental fire. Even if they didn’t have a water spell user, they could just dump a pile of dirt on top of it and get it over with. Yes, it would have been messier, but also a good alternative.

If I remember right, water isn’t the best thing to use to put out a fire because it evaporates and turns into hydrogen and oxygen, basically fuel. Something with a gelatinous consistency is far better. At least, that was what certain articles on the net said. I thought as I remembered when they were trying to put out the fire caused by bandits at Brekkar’s mansion.

Back then, the dragons who came to help used spells that didn’t allow the water to evaporate so easily. It stayed there until the flames died out. At least, some of them did, the others just poured down the Niagara Falls and hoped for the best. I would have used sand.

Looking from afar, the village of Pertiko was rather small, spanning only up to a quarter of Dertan’s whole surface and maybe half of Tomeron’s. The biggest building there was probably the temple, and it most certainly didn’t have a Guild Hall. Speaking of which, I was determined to get my registration as an adventurer as soon as I reached the capital. My only concern was whether or not it would reveal the fact that I was a human. Getting surrounded by an angry mob of fire-breathing dragons wasn’t my idea of a cozy welcoming party.

I was expecting to see a wall surrounding the village, but there was no such thing. At best, only a few houses had a big fence around them, but that was it. Maybe the monsters here were weaker than those in the forest? Tomeron was rather close to the Seculiar Forest, which was regarded as dangerous even by a certain God-like entity.

A few minutes later, we arrived at the entrance. Two guards greeted us with their spears pointed at us. Both of them wore thick leather armors, a rather simple defense when compared to Seryanna’s shiny steel enchanted armor. In terms of looks, one was a blue-scale, the other was a green-scale, and both had anthropomorphic characteristics, but with human-like faces instead of reptilian ones.

“Halt! On the order of the Paladins, no one may enter!” shouted one of them.

When she heard the name, Kleo glared at the guard, but didn’t say a single word. It was Kataryna who spoke.

“The what of the who now?” she asked raising an eyebrow.

“The Paladins? What are the Paladins doing here?” asked Seryanna as she pulled her Khosinni closer, ignoring the silver-scaled dragoness’ confusion.

“I do not have the authority to answer this question!” declared the guard.

Seryanna let out a sigh and rubbed her forehead with two fingers as if to point out her disgruntle at dealing with the likes of him.

This could be fun! I giggled in my mind.

“My name is Seryanna Draketerus, a Royal Knight. If you think you have a higher authority than mine, then do tell so I can properly inform her Highness, The Third Princess of the Dragon Kingdom Albeyater, Elleyzabelle Sojourn Seyendraugher.” declared the redhead.

The two guards gulped and looked at each other. They certainly did not have such an authority and even daring to state otherwise could grant the Knight the right to deal with them as she saw fit. If I knew this much, then certainly they did as well.

“Pertiko village has been dealing recently with an influx of zombies from the nearby dungeon. The Paladins have been dispatched by the Temple of Light to get rid of them and prevent further casualties. We are led to presume this may be the work of a recently awakened dragon necromancer. So far, there had been six deaths, including the village elder and his youngest son. The Paladins ordered us to keep anyone from entering or leaving the village until they can determine who is the real culprit behind all of this.” reported the guard.

My eyes sparkled when I heard about Zombies and Dungeons, but they turned into a squint when I heard that this may be the fault of a dragon necromancer. While it was interesting to know that I could go Dungeon Exploring in this world, facing someone similar to Kleo made me wonder just what was the relationship between all of the ‘classes’ of this world.

In the past, I played plenty of games where a necromancer was seen as the bad guy but played the good guy’s role. It was rather odd from one point of view, but I always remembered that Paladins were usually their mortal enemies. I wouldn’t have been surprised if this was the case for these dragons as well. The only problem was that in my games, human Paladins were famous for their toughness.

This reminds me of that one MMO where if you had a PVP match between a Paladin specced on Heal and another similar to him, the match would end up as the longest in PVP history. Hit. Hit. Heal. Repeat. Worst of all, they could Overheal, so when they reached something like 20% life, they could go back up to 100%. Well, any other healing class was similar, but the Paladin had shields and other defensive buffs that reduced incoming damage to below the minimum healed value. I thought.

On the same note, the Paladin’s high defense was also his weakness because the class gave up on massive damage. If the same applied to these Paladins, all we had to do was do more damage to them than they could heal.

“Maybe we should take a detour?” asked Kleo all of a sudden.

Looking back at her, I saw that she was a bit worried about meeting these Paladins. Seeing how she was a necromancer and all, it was highly likely that they saw her as their enemy.

Seryanna looked at her for a moment and then let out a sigh “Sure… We’ll take a detour.”

“Thank you…” the black-scaled dragoness replied.

Kataryna didn’t comment, and I didn’t feel like this was my place to drop my opinion. I for one wanted to see these so-called Paladins, but not if it meant pushing Kleo into the tips of their swords, no perverted jokes implied.

“Who goes there?” somebody shouted at us.

Please tell me this isn’t that cliché situation where we meet the one who brings us inside… I thought and looked towards the new guy.

It was a dragon with glistening white scales and wearing a heavy steel armor. Thick armor plates engraved with strange runes protected him from attacks. He was a walking tank with a tail and a pair of wings. A shield on his left hand and a drawn sword in his right hand gave him a more intimidating look, but unlike I often saw in games, this guy was actually wearing his helmet.

Me and my blasted luck… I grumbled in my mind.

Getting the girls and through extension me into trouble wasn’t my idea of ‘good luck’.

“Seryanna Draketerus, Royal Knight of The Third Princess of the Dragon Kingdom Albeyater, Elleyzabelle Sojourn Seyendraugher!” she identified herself.

“What of the rest?” he asked pointing his sword at us.

“I don’t feel like giving you my name, but I’ll tell you this. I’m not someone to mess with!” Kataryna warned him with a chilling smile.

“I’m… er… what am I exactly?” I asked as I tilted my head.

Seryanna sighed and shook her head.

“They are with me. None of them pose any danger to you or this village. We heard your situation and understand it. We will walk around the village and be on our way!” she declared.

“If you are indeed a Royal Knight, then by no means will we force you to go around the village! I offer myself as your guide until you pass through!” declared the Paladin as he sheathed his sword.

We looked at each other for a moment, but seeing how he offered himself like that, it would have come out as suspicious or rude if we declined. Kleo gave us a small nod, and we passed by the two guards.

“What brings you to these remote parts, Sir Seryanna?” asked the dragon.

She didn’t reply, only gave him a long look almost as if she was intending to crush him under her foot.

“Ah! Pardon me! My name is Blake Merchant. I’ve been a Paladin for six whole years now. A pleasure to meet you!” he said, stopping and bowing like a real gentleman.

Only then did Seryanna averted her glare.

“I’m simply returning from my grandfather’s home. Last time I passed by this village, it didn’t seem to be under any sort of threat. When did the zombies start attacking?” she asked coldly.

She’s a real ice queen… Glad I’m here to warm her up! I smirked in my mind, seeing how my hands were resting on her waist.

“About two weeks ago. The dungeon to the north of here started to act strangely, and an entire wave of zombies popped out. They were taken out with ease, but they kept coming and coming. From time to time, a dullahan or a group of skeleton warriors would try to attack the village, but we managed to push them back.” Blake explained while guiding us through the village.

At first sight, I thought we were walking through a ghost village, but upon a closer look, I noticed the frightened eyes of the villagers peeking at us from behind their windows. No one was outside except for those brave enough or the Paladins. There was quite a number of them too. So far, I counted sixteen of them and about eight villager guards.

“When did you suspect that this might be the work of a necromancer?” asked Seryanna.

Speaking of which, Kleo was hiding her face and clinging tight on Kataryna’s back. This was definitely a clear sign that she didn’t like the presence of these armored folks.

“Four days ago, when some of the villagers who disappeared returned as flesh-eating zombies.” he replied.

“Is there a difference?” I asked curiously.

“From those spawned by a dungeon? Certainly! The ones spawned by dungeons can’t leave its territory and are far easier to kill. Reanimated corpses, on the other hand, need to be chopped up into pieces and then burned down to make sure they stay dead. Of course, Paladins are capable of casting [Repel Undead], [Holy Light], and [Release Soul]! With these spells, no necromancer can stand in our way!” Blake declared proudly.

“Yet, if your power level is smaller than that of the necromancer, you will fail in your cast and at most only injure their creations.” snorted Kataryna.

“In the end, chopping them up is the best option, huh?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

“Ahem! Yes, for the non-Paladin, it is so.” he refused to admit defeat.

“So the fire we see over there?” asked Seryanna pointing at the pillar of smoke to our right.

“Corpses burning, nothing more.” Blake replied shaking his head.

We continued to walk on the main road through this village, while looking around curiously at both the villagers and Paladins who patrolled the area. I was starting to guess that they were preparing for something bigger, especially giving their numbers and diligence.

All this time, Kleo didn’t utter a single word and continued to hide herself between Kataryna’s wings. Maybe she could also hide her necromancer energy behind hers as well. So far, the Paladin next to us didn’t seem to have noticed, but if one were to, I had to wonder if they were going to attack us or not.

Going by the order of things on the scale of stupidity, they will see Seryanna as an Unawakened and brush off her authority. Kataryna will most likely defend Kleo, and I certainly won’t stand around to watch them get attacked by these dragons. Worst comes to worst, I’ll summon Gragh’jaggar to take us out of here, and Jophiel to clear our way. Or better yet, I’ll test out [The Effect of Tzuika] and [Super Chihuahua Style]. Somehow the second one sounds more like a side effect of the first. I thought while looking at these Paladins.

When we reached the center of the village, we saw the signs of a recent battle here. There was blood splattered on the ground, a broken sword laying down next to a well, now plugged with earth, and a lot of slash marks on the nearby buildings. Other than that, the village didn’t seem to have suffered any major damage, meaning the attackers were most likely lured here, where there was enough space to fight.

Looking around, I spotted a group of four Paladins coming towards us. One of them had a better-looking armor, with more shiny things on it, so I was guessing he was the top dog/dragon around here. Either that or an overzealous rich noble.

“Paladin Blake! Who are these people? Why did you let them in?” the man in the shinier armor asked furiously.

“Great Paladin Baltros! She is Sir Seryanna Draketerus, and these are her companions. I let them in because I thought it would be rude of me to tell them to go around the village.” he reported after he saluted by placing his right hand over his heart and making a small bow.

“I understand. So, Sir Seryanna, what brings you and your companions to these parts of the country?” Baltros asked while taking a long look at each one of us.

“Personal matters, Great Paladin Baltros.” she replied coldly.

He looked into her eyes and then over at me. I gulped and hid behind her.

“It matters not, please be safe on your way out of this village. As you can see, we have our hands a bit tied up at the moment with our current zombie problem.” he spread out his arms in reference to the whole village.

“I see. We will be on our way then.” Seryanna replied.

“Understood!” he nodded.

It was then when one of the Paladins behind Baltros stepped forward.

“Wait!” he shouted.

Seryanna raised an eyebrow at him.

“Paladin Iolaus, what is the meaning of this?!” Baltros demanded, shooting a glare at his subordinate.

“Great Paladin Baltros, if she is Sir Seryanna Draketerus, then the one behind the silver-scaled dragoness is none other than Thraherkleyoseya Draketerus!” he declared.

WOW! Not only did he remember her full name but also knows how to pronounce it?! was my first thought before the rest of my brain woke up and understood the danger this moron was putting all of us in.

“And?” Baltros asked.

“Thraherkleyoseya Draketerus is a black-scaled dragoness necromancer. She may be the one who conjured up these zombies and disturbed the dungeon!” he declared.

“How dare you accuse me, you no-good cheater!” shouted Kleo.

“Cheater?” I asked confused.

Seryanna sighed and rubbed her forehead with two fingers.

“I am not a cheater! If I had known what you are back then, I would have never said those words!” he shouted back.

“Sir Seryanna, is what my subordinate saying true?” asked Baltros as he placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.

“About him being a cheater?” she asked a bit confused.

“The other thing…”

“Even if it is, you don’t hold the authority to take down my sister. If you dare to, you will have to pass through me.” she threw him an ice-cold glare and placed her hand on the hilt of her sword.

“I’m afraid I do! I was tasked by the Prime Minister himself to eliminate any and all necromancer scum who pass through here under the suspicion of being the cause of the plague that has befallen this poor village! If I let this… thing go, then I might as well leave these poor folk to their faiths!” Baltros declared and unsheathed his sword.

“Erm, can’t we just talk about this?” I asked, hoping to calm them down a bit.

“All those who side with a necromancer are the enemies of the Temple of Light and as such, the enemies of this kingdom as well!” declared Baltros quickly.

Blake pulled away from us and unsheathed his sword, while the rest of their comrades followed suit.

“He’s not listening, is he?” I asked.

“Nope!” Kataryna said with a giggle.

“Question, Paladin Baltros!” I shouted.

“That’s Great Paladin Baltros for you!” he corrected me.

“Great Paladin Baltros then. Has any of you surpassed power level 500 or achieved an Awakened Breakthrough?” I asked him with a smile.

The dragon narrowed his eyes at me. To be clear, they all looked similar in terms of what their Awakened form looked like, meaning humanoid head with a few scales, dragon eyes, a long tail, wings or no wings, depending on the individual.

“What do you mean? What if we haven’t?” he asked.

“Then you can’t defeat EITHER of us. You will all die a miserable death as we break your bones and grind your muscles into paste!” I smiled “There won’t be even a spec of dust left behind if we go all-out on you. Heck, she can sneeze, and you would all die an agonizing death!” I laughed and pointed at Kataryna.

I was half-bluffing and half-hoping this would scare them enough not to try and seriously attack us. They weren’t the bad guys, just misguided fools, but if they tried to kill us, they were dead misguided fools.

“If this isn’t enough, then Brekkar Draketerus will make sure you will die for touching his granddaughters.” I shrugged, dragging the name of the famous general into the pile of threats.

“The old general has been struck by an incurable illness! Everyone knows that!” he tried to put off my words.

“Is he now?” I showed him a wide smirk.

“The kid cured him, so not anymore.” Kataryna backed me up.

“So? What will it be? A battle to your agonizing and painful deaths or…” I said with a smile, but before I had a chance to finish my words, someone came screaming.

“The zombies are coming! The zombies are coming!” he shouted and ran right between us.

It was a simple anthropomorphic dragon villager.

We all looked at him as he passed by and went to hide in his house.

“Erm…” I looked back at Baltros.

He narrowed his eyes at me and then sheathed his sword.

“Sir Seryanna! Do you swear on the name of her Majesty the Queen that your sister is not the culprit for this disaster?” he asked.

“I swear on the name of the Queen that Thraherkleyoseya Draketerus isn’t the one you are looking for!” she declared.

“Very well then, I’ll believe you. MEN! To your posts! We have a zombie army to send back to their graves!” shouted Baltros and then looked at us “Since you are all here, your power might be needed in this battle. You wouldn’t leave one of her Majesty’s villages to suffer from this sort of attack, would you?” he asked.

“Of course not! Me and my companions will lend you a hand in eliminating this threat. This way, I will prove to you that we are not your enemies!” Seryanna declared and unsheathed her sword.

“Wait, a swear was all it took for him to back off, seriously?” I asked a bit confused.

“The swear of a Knight on the name of their King or Queen should never be taken lightly.” Seryanna told me as she dismounted.

“Dragons! Tonight, we fight for the Light! Let us prevail against our undead foes!” shouted Great Paladin Baltros as he charged towards the zombies together with the rest of his comrades.