I wasn’t quite sure what Kathe meant by that.
It seemed unlikely that dragons would know my name.
But maybe she recognized that it was the same as the currency.
“So you are the one and only Ruck!”
“What Ruck?”
“The Great Philosopher, Our Saviour and Great High Sorcerer, Grand Duke Ruck Franzen!”
“How did you know my official title…”
“It’s common knowledge. Everyone knows.”
She said as she slapped her tail on the floor.
“So even the dragons know about Ruck.”
“That’s wonderful, Ruck!”
“Your accomplishments have spread out far and wide.”
Eric and Goran looked quite pleased.
“Why are you talking about it as if you two aren’t the cause of spreading it?”
I complained. But they just nodded in approval.
And so I left them and returned to Kathe.
“Look, it’s something that I’m trying to keep a secret for now.”
“I know! Yes, a secret!”
Kathe said seriously.
“Ah!”
She cried and then ran away.
Kathe quickly returned with a board that was big for me but small for her.
“Ruck, I would really like to have your autograph.”
“…I don’t mind, but…”
“Good! Could you also write, ‘to Kathe’?”
She looked very happy. I felt conflicted.
I signed the board and handed it to her.
“Thank you! I shall hang this up somewhere…”
Kathe held the board preciously and went off into a back room.
She quickly returned and said,
“It all makes sense now. That’s why you are so strong. You even beat me.”
“I see.”
“Yes. I don’t really mind losing to The Great Philosopher, Our Saviour and Great High Sorcerer, Grand Duke Ruck Franzen. It cannot be helped.”
Kathe said with satisfaction.
And so I said to her,
“By the way, Eric is the Hero King and Goran is the strongest Warrior ever.”
“Ah, the follower Hero and Warrior who were with Ruck. I see, so that is why they are so strong.”
Eric and Goran were not my followers.
Actually, Goran and I were Eric’s followers.
“No-”
“I am honored to receive such high praise.”
“Indeed, it makes one rather bashful to be praised by such a great dragon!”
I tried to deny it, but Eric and Goran looked very happy.
“Why are you two so… Kathe, the followers were actually…”
And so I explained to her that it was really me and Goran.
“Hmmm.”
Kathe replied indifferently, as if she had not quite understood me.
It was no use, and so I decided to start cleaning up.
Once we were sure that there were no more enemies, we had to clean the place up.
“Let’s do it quickly.”
“Yes. It’s our duty as Adventurers.”
“I don’t hate doing it.”
And so the three of us started working.
“There are a few small magic stones here.”
“Goblins. Kathe, there were goblins too, weren’t there?”
“Yes. There were.”
They must have died in the first fireball I unleashed.
Goblins only left the small magic stones, and so I picked them up.
Counting them would allow me to know how many of them were here.
Which would give us an idea of the enemy composition.
“Isn’t this one from a lesser vampire?”
“Hmm. Oh, that makes sense.”
“But it looks too bright for a lesser vampire…”
“Really? Oh, you are right.”
Goran and Eric inspected the magic stones as they gathered them.
Kathe seemed to have no idea what to do with herself.
She was holding her tail in both arms and wandering around.
Whenever we would start to talk about something, she would stand next to us and mutter in agreement.
“What should we do about the magic machines?”
“They don’t have any stones in them.”
“But surely we can’t just leave them here?”
They might be used by the enemy. I didn’t know how they could be used, but there were fifty of them.
“I will take one back with me to show to Philly. Is that alright?”
“Yes. Perhaps the others should be taken to the palace…”
“Kathe. Do you have any requests regarding the machines?”
Goran asked. Kathe began to think.
“Me? I…hmm…”
“It might be a very rare metal.”
“Then I shall keep just one of them.”
And so Kathe began to carefully inspect the magic machines.
“This one is the least damaged and looks very nice.”
“That’s good.”
And then Goran took the Evil Dragon corpse.
He wanted it to be analyzed back at the guild.
“It looks like my fireball didn’t do much.”
“I am very scared of fires. And so we have to take measures against them. Still, my furniture was burned.”
“Really?”
“They did not burn when I used my own flame breath…but it looks like your fireball was too much, Locke.”
“Well…I’m sorry about that.”
Apparently, the dragons had great fireproof technology.
When we were finished cleaning up the interior, we went outside and looked at the fragments of what was once a door.
“Is this steel?”
“It is.”
“I would have expected the door of a dragon palace to use orichalcum.”
“But it is just a door.”
“In any case, it must be repaired. Or they might get in again.”
“…That would be very bad.”
Kathe said in a troubled voice.
“So we will repair it then.”
“However, won’t it be very difficult to carry such a large metal door to the top of the mountain?”
“Indeed. Well, I could just put it in the magic bag…”
As I thought about this, Kathe slammed her tail onto the ground.
“I know! I had a similar door in the back.”
So saying, Kathe ran to the back and returned with a large metal door in her arms.
Kathe was very strong.
“I can use this.”
“Yes. It’s a good thing you had a spare door.”
“This is not a spare door. It’s my toilet door.”
“…I…see.”
It was an emergency. The front door was more important than the toilet door.
With Kathe’s strength, the door was installed and I cast some protective magic over it.
“Now vampires and other enemies will not be able to enter.”
“Thank you, Locke!”
Kathe said happily.