Chapter 166. Conversation
“Hey, Elan, you used to be an adventurer, right? Have you ever hunted any powerful magical creatures?”
Finley’s subordinate, a soldier nad Stefan, asked Fran that question, his curious eyes fixed intently on her.
If nothing unexpected happened, this Stefan would be the one going into the knight duel alongside Fran as Finley’s attendant.
Fran thought for a mont. She could not exactly say that she had killed an Earth Drake in seconds, so she thought of that adventurer party she had once argued with and replied with a smile,
“If we’re talking about powerful magical creatures, then it would have to be an Earth Drake I helped hunt not long ago with an adventurer party.”
“A creature like that isn’t necessarily sothing even three knights working together could defeat.”
Fran deliberately used a slightly exaggerated description to emphasize just how powerful an Earth Drake was.
In truth, while an Earth Drake was certainly strong, it was not like a human. It could not coordinate skillfully or use tools with real finesse.
If three knights knew how to deal with an Earth Drake and how to handle its attacks, then the drake would probably have no choice but to flee.
Of course, if it were the first ti those three knights had ever faced an Earth Drake, then they would probably be beaten badly.
“It’s that strong? Is that just how monsters with ‘dragon’ in their na are?”
Stefan exclaid in surprise, while also urging Fran to continue with the rest of the story.
“At the ti, I joined that party only temporarily. They’d already fought the Earth Drake before, so they had plenty of experience.”
“At the sa ti, they had also bought a powerful spell scroll. That scroll was so huge it took three people just to transport it…”
“When the battle began, they first went up and provoked the Earth Drake, enraging it and luring it into the trap we had set in advance.”
“Then we used the scroll imdiately. It was such an enormous scroll that just spreading it open took us a full seven seconds.”
“When we activated it, the entire scroll shone with a blinding light, and then countless vines sprang up beneath the Earth Drake, locking its movents in place.”
“Once we cut off its escape route, we threw everything we had at it—smashing its scales with pickaxes, bleeding the exposed flesh, and unleashing specially prepared substances at its head…”
Relying on her imagination, along with a few details borrowed from other things she had seen and heard, Fran vividly described how she had taken part in the Earth Drake subjugation.
The soldiers present marveled one after another. At the sa ti, each of them wished he had been the hero in that story instead, able to take part in the hunt for such a monster.
Finley listened carefully from the side. As Fran spoke, he nodded from ti to ti, and the last bit of doubt he had about her gradually faded away.
As a real knight, he knew very well what so-called monsters were like and what adventurers actually did for a living.
And Fran’s description matched his impression perfectly. The details were especially convincing.
Real adventurers always tried to use everything they could against magical creatures, including, but not limited to, poisoning their food, disguising themselves as their young to reach vulnerable parts of the body, or contaminating their water source.
By comparison, the party Fran described, which had even bought a first-tier spell scroll specifically to restrain the Earth Drake’s movents, could almost be called environntally conscious.
And Finley also knew what a true first-tier spell scroll looked like. They really were large, cumberso things that were difficult to carry.
“So he really is an adventurer,” Finley thought.
“What happened afterward? Didn’t you use the Earth Drake’s materials to make any weapons?”
Stefan asked curiously. Since childhood, he had heard stories of adventurers using materials taken from magical creatures they hunted to craft equipnt. Gear like that was supposed to be harder than steel.
Fran paused for a mont before complaining in a perfectly convincing tone,
“Now that was my bad luck. I didn’t get a single piece of the Earth Drake’s materials.”
“Originally, even though I hadn’t contributed much to the party, I still did enough that I should’ve gotten at least one piece of Earth Drake bone—enough to forge a weapon.”
“But the problem was that the hunting job we took had been specifically commissioned by a mage. She needed all of the Earth Drake’s materials and said that not a single part could be missing.”
“So in the end, I only got a little money. I didn’t even get one scale from the Earth Drake… That damned mage. I’d wanted to keep one piece as a trophy.”
Fran’s performance imdiately struck a chord with the soldiers present, and they all began chiming in.
“Those mages really are bastards. All they know how to do is use the money they conjure up to trick other people into risking their lives.”
“Exactly. I heard that not long ago, in so town, a mage barged into one of our garrisons, killed more than ten people, and ran off…”
“Those mages spend all day collecting corpses. They don’t look like decent people at all. Last year I even saw one eating flesh off a corpse. It disgusted so badly.”
Fran fully imrsed herself in her role and joined the soldiers in cursing the mages.
Mages had never enjoyed a very good reputation in the Antir Region. Their standing was nothing like that of knight lords—if soone insulted a knight lord, that knight lord might actually go and cut him down.
Mages, on the other hand, only ca to the Antir Region from ti to ti, and each ti it was a different group. Whenever they ca, their work was either collecting corpses or using spells to assist with sieges…
With no one speaking in their defense, it was hardly surprising that the mages’ reputation was so poor.
Even Finley ca over and tossed in a few complaints of his own.
He had long been unhappy with mages. Those people always seed to receive preferential treatnt from his superiors.
They got to stay in noble castles, while knights like him had to make do with living miserably in tents.
And on top of that, this knight duel would be overseen by a mage, who would inspect whether the knights’ preparations were in compliance with the rules.
That only made Finley even more dissatisfied. He was one step away from saying in front of everyone that those mages did not know a damn thing about knight duels.
Could those mages tell whether soone’s armor was non-compliant? Could they detect whether soone had hidden a small spell scroll in so concealed spot?
At this mont, Finley still had no idea just how lax the prohibited-item restrictions were this ti. The things he had ntioned were not even worth bringing up.
That was not really his fault. He had never before participated in a knight duel under Duke Theodore, so he had never imagined that the knight duels here allowed people to bring in so many things.
Just then, a soldier hurried into the temporary house where Finley was staying and knocked on the door.
“Sir Finley, the grouping list for the knight duel has co out. Please have a look.”
After Finley examined its contents carefully, he let out a dispirited complaint.
“How did Eric and Cliff end up in the sa group as ? The two of them are extrely close. They might join forces and eliminate us first… I’ll have to find another knight to ally with.”
And when Fran heard the na “Eric,” a brilliant smile spread beneath her black robe—one that no one else could see.
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