The Retired Supporting Character Wants to Live Quietly

Chapter 130 - A Slap for Every Penny Found (12)

"Uwaaaah! It\'s a dragon!!"

People were thrown into a frenzy at the sight of the massive White Dragon, and they all fled inside the lord’s castle in terror.

"Damn it! That bastard was a dragon all along?! No wonder something felt off!"

"Get to safety, my lord!"

The retainers dragged the lord, who was furiously shaking his fist at the dragon, back inside the castle.

When the enraged dragon slammed its tail into the ground, the entire castle shook, and chunks of stone from the ceiling began to rain down.

"Stop! Stop it right now! The castle will collapse for real!!!"

As cracks began to appear in the ancient walls of the lord’s castle, the lord ran back outside in a panic.

"Agh! My lord! It’s too dangerous!"

The retainers threw themselves at him, desperately trying to hold him back.

[Graaaaagh!!]

The dragon\'s roar, designed to strike fear into lesser beings, echoed through the air, and everyone around it fell to the ground, trembling in fear.

But Dian, standing right in front of the dragon, didn’t even flinch.

Angered by the sight, the dragon lifted its foot to stomp on Dian.

"No!!! Brother Dian!!!"

Scala grabbed a fallen crossbow and dashed forward.

She aimed for the dragon’s head and fired.

But as the dragon stomped, the ground shook violently, causing her to lose her balance, and the quarrel missed its mark by a wide margin.

"Scala! Stop it!"

Her brothers pulled her back as she loaded another quarrel.

"But Brother Dian…!"

"There’s nothing we can do! No one can stop an enraged dragon!"

At that moment, far above the castle, right above the dragon’s head, a portal opened, and Dian came falling through it.

In his hands was the greatsword that the nameless swordsman had been using.

"It’s Brother Dian!"

As Dian’s greatsword struck the dragon’s crown, its scales exploded off, flying in all directions.

"Whoa! Get inside, get inside!"

When one of the enormous scales, about the size of a person, embedded itself in the ground, Scala’s brothers grabbed her and fled into the castle for safety.

Crash! Boom!

"You bastard!!!"

As the scales rained down like a storm, smashing the outer walls of the castle, the lord lost his mind, frothing at the mouth.

"You bastard! I’ll peel off all your scales and sell you at the fish market!!"

"My lord! Just because it has scales doesn’t mean it’s a fish!!!"

Meanwhile, Dian had climbed onto the dragon’s head and was now making his way down, slashing the greatsword as he went.

Head, neck, shoulder, collarbone, arm, chest, stomach, thigh, calf, tail.

Then he climbed back up its spine and hacked away at its wings, piece by piece.

Like a butcher tenderizing meat, Dian struck the dragon systematically, one blow after another, while the dragon howled in agony, pleading for mercy.

[I was wrong! Please, forgive me!]

But Dian showed no mercy, and soon the dragon could no longer withstand the punishment and collapsed to the side.

Thuuuuuud!

The top of the castle’s tallest tower crumbled, sending a massive cloud of dust into the air.

"Brother Dian!"

Scala broke free from the mercenaries holding her back and ran into the cloud of debris in search of Dian.

She wandered through the thick dust for a while before finally spotting a figure in the distance.

As she got closer, she saw it was Dian, standing with his arms crossed.

At his feet lay the greatsword, now broken in two.

And in front of him, a naked man was kneeling, bowing his head.

But something seemed off about his head… the top was completely bald…?

Just before he transformed, he had a full head of hair, so how…?

Could it be when Dian struck him with the greatsword earlier, the scales that flew off were from his scalp…?

In that moment, Scala felt a strange sympathy, beyond anger, for the dragon that had attacked Dian.

"Ah, Scala. This bastard was a dragon."

Dian said, smiling casually when he noticed her.

"I did think he was too strong to be human."

"Y-yeah… but his head…."

"The ransom’s off the table now, right? Isn’t that right?"

"Yes, absolutely!"

The dragon Tarkanik, his head bowed, shouted desperately.

"And in addition, I’ll fully compensate the mercenaries who were injured or killed during the territorial conflict!"

Dian nodded in satisfaction.

"Good. And you’ll cover the repairs to this castle too, right?"

"Of course! I’ll take the riches from my hoard to restore the collapsed tower and the damaged outer walls!"

"And the two doors that got destroyed."

Tarkanik hesitated for a moment, looking confused.

"Th-that wasn’t me who broke them…."

"Hmph. You captured the prisoners, which forced me to come here, and that’s why I had to break down those doors. So in the end, it’s your fault they were destroyed, isn’t it?"

"Ah… I see your point. You’re absolutely right!"

Tarkanik bowed his head even lower.

At this point, Scala couldn’t make sense of what was happening.

She knew Dian was strong, but she had never imagined he’d be able to beat a dragon into submission, force it to revert to human form, and make it kneel.

Even Sir Linus couldn’t do something like this….

Just who on earth was Dian…?

# # # # #

Everything had been settled.

The nameless swordsman who had crushed the Reblanc Mercenaries and secured victory in the territorial war with his overwhelming strength was, in fact, the White Dragon Tarkanik.

He was from the same clan as Hindrasta, a young dragon who had only recently reached maturity and emerged into the world.

His goal had been to gather wealth for his own independence.

Once dragons grow into adulthood, they leave their clan’s nest to claim their own territory and live independently.

Over time, they fill their lairs with gold and treasures.

Tarkanik, after much deliberation, had come up with an idea inspired by Hindrasta’s activities in the human world.

He had decided to polymorph into a strong mercenary to gather gold through contracts and ransoms, while enjoying a bit of fun on the side.

"What if you ended up getting banished like Hindrasta?"

"Hindrasta wasn’t banished just for entering the human world, sir. It was because she brought shame to the clan by losing to a human."

Ah, so that was the reason. If Hindrasta hadn’t run into me and Linus, she wouldn’t have ended up trapped in a human body for a thousand years.

The cost of repairing the lord’s castle was covered by granting ownership of the dragon scales that had fallen off Tarkanik’s body.

The lord, who had been about to tear out the rest of the dragon’s hair in a fit of rage, was instantly relieved upon hearing this.

Overjoyed at the prospect of saving his ancestral castle, he immediately paid me the fee we had agreed on for getting rid of the nameless swordsman.

He was so happy to have his castle saved that he didn’t even care that I had been the one to take down the dragon.

The Reblanc Mercenaries were sent back to their base for now.

Hindrasta and I would be heading to Tarkanik’s lair to collect the compensation owed to them.

There had been talk of ripping off a few more of Tarkanik’s scales once we got there, but that idea was dismissed.

A dragon’s scales are like armor, and they’re incredibly valuable. It takes a long time for them to regenerate.

Tarkanik wasn’t keen on losing any more scales, and the mercenaries, who needed cash quickly, decided they’d rather take gold or other valuables instead.

"So, let me get this straight, the Head Professor fought alongside Sir Linus in the war, now he beats dragons into submission, forces them to kneel, and is about to head into a dragon’s lair—a place no human has ever entered—just to make sure he doesn’t get stiffed on the money…."

Orendi muttered to himself as he opened a portal, he shook his head in disbelief.

"And now it’s almost confirmed that he’s a secret prince from the Demon King Slaying Special Forces? I mean, seriously, this is ridiculous…."

But where’s Hindrasta? I haven’t seen her since earlier.

Oh, there she is.

"Hey! Hurry up!"

"Don’t rush me…!"

Hindrasta approached slowly, walking stiffly with her legs squeezed together and her upper body hunched over.

It looked familiar….

I couldn’t help but glance at her skirt.

Her thighs were wet, and her socks were soaked too—she had definitely wet herself again.

Why does she keep doing that?

"Um, does anyone else smell something… weird, sir?"

When Hindrastar came, Tarkanik asked, covering his privates with the broken hilt of the greatsword.

"Shut your mouth, you bald-headed freak!"

"What are you getting so mad about? And what do you mean, freak?"

Tarkanik retorted.

"Isn’t it you who’s the freak? What kind of dragon goes around as a big-breasted, pink-haired, pigtail-wearing girl?!"

"Alright, enough. Don’t fight. You two are from the same clan, after all."

Just as I separated the two bickering dragons, Orendi finished opening the portal to Tarkanik’s lair.

"I’m coming too!"

As we were about to step through the portal, Scala came running over.

"Shouldn’t you be heading back to the base?"

"I’m going with you."

"Will that be alright?"

Dragons typically don’t allow anyone to enter their lairs.

Hindrasta and I are exceptions, though.

"Can she come along?"

"Of course! No problem at all!"

Tarkanik answered enthusiastically.

And with that, we all stepped through the portal, heading toward Tarkanik’s lair.

On the other side, the first thing that greeted us was a fat, stupid-looking ogre sitting on a small rock, scratching his belly.

He was using a wooden club, the kind ogres usually carry, as a backscratcher.

Beyond him, a massive cave entrance loomed—it had to be Tarkanik’s lair.

"Gah?! An ogre?!"

Scala, the last to step through the portal, gasped and instinctively grabbed the hilt of her sword, but Tarkanik stepped forward.

"Don’t worry, he’s one of mine. He’s harmless."

"What?! You keep an ogre as a pet?!"

"Dragons usually have a few monsters guarding their lairs."

Scala looked around.

"But I don’t see any others…."

"Well, I’ve been gone for a while, so the smarter ones probably ran off. This guy’s too dumb and lazy to bother leaving."

The ogre didn’t attack us or anything, just muttered to itself while scratching its belly. I had never seen such a non-aggressive ogre before.

"Come on in."

We walked past the yawning ogre and entered the lair.