an unfortunate change in genre

Part 46

It was hard to say how long the dragon had been dead.

Dragon corpses decayed differently than human ones. The last time the elves had heard from the great golden dragon was six years ago so it could have occurred any time within that span of time.

It didn't help the part of Roksu that felt like this could have been avoided if they'd come sooner.

They had no reason to believe the dragon would be in danger though and they'd only even learned he was reaching the end of his lifespan recently.

Avoidable. There was no point in ruminating whether the death was avoidable or not. But Roksu would. He would think over every factor leading up to this moment again and again and learn. He'd learn how to save everyone next time.

He'd learn how to keep the people around him safe.

It wasn't a conscious thought or effort. It was the basic state of who he was as a human being. It was why he valued his ignorance so greatly. If he didn't know about a problem then he couldn't spend years upon years reflecting about every memory burned in the back of his eyes.

Of course this situation was brought upon by ignorance.

He didn't know that there was any reason to consider the health of the old dragon. Dragons were beyond reproach to essentially all other creatures across the world. They were a step above the rest. Theoretically, all that a dragon should have to fear was other dragons in terms of strength.

And even then, it would be a close thing.

Which was why it was odd.

Roksu had looked over every inch of the scene and while the victim was gruesomely dissected, there were no other signs of a struggle. It was difficult to imagine someone having the power to kill a dragon like this.

It was impossible to imagine that a creature as arrogant as a dragon went down without a fight.

He rested his gaze upon the entrance to the lair, carefully taking in every single detail of the surrounding landscape.

Why was the dragon out here? If one were to consider that he was caught unawares, possibly asleep, wouldn't it make sense for it to be within the walls of his lair?

Dust layered the ground at his feet and he took in the unnatural patterns of it with a thoughtful frown.

There were certainly signs of something but he still needed more information to make sense of it.

Roksu approached the entrance of the lair.

"Weak human! Where are you going?!" Roksu turned in time to catch the flying ball of energy that was Raon. His distress had faded somewhat and he was looking at Roksu with wide blue eyes full of concern. "There's a lot of weird mana in there! It's dangerous!"

Roksu looked over Raon to where Choi Han had gathered up the cats and approached them.

"What kind of mana?"

Raon's expression became pinched as he thought it over. "I'm... not sure." It was an unhappy admission for the great and mighty dragon. "I've never felt anything like it."

Well, Roksu wanted exactly nothing to do with a confusing and potentially dangerous mana that had a dragon at a loss for words to describe it. He'd really like to pack up the kids, leave, and never return to this wretched place.

But the fact that anyone had hunted a dragon to begin with was still weighing heavily on his mind. The fact that putting off this trip for so long could have been a contributing factor was even more perturbing.