The Wrong Hero

Chapter 47 - Off by 16

It was a few days later. Dante walked through the village with Sadeena, Raphtalia, and Reiko in tow. As they headed toward the camping plant that was made into Rat's lab, they turned many heads. A few of Dante's party saw them and started following too, that being Eclair and Keel. Eclair's expression was rather distraught, but Keel seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood.

When they entered the lab, Dante went to a large table that was set up. It had a few tools on it, but there was more than enough space.

Rat looked over at their approach. "Lord. I see you brought...back..."

She watched as Dante set a large egg on the table. That itself was noteworthy, but there was something more apparent about the four of them. Dante turned to her, a simple tunic covering his normally bare chest.

While still at a loss for words, Dante brought up his hands and placed them on his covered chest. They wrapped around two mounds that weren't there before.

"Rat, I grew tits. Can you fix this for me?" He asked in a higher pitched voice than normal.

It all started when he made it to Gaelion's new home. An alchemist had made his home in one of the nearby settlements. He'd heard that a dragon had come to one of the unoccupied islands and learned of the demi-human child he cared for. After learning Gaelion's movement pattern, the alchemist hired mercenaries to take Wyndia. In exchange for her survival, the alchemist used Gaelion for parts of his body. While a dead dragon could provide a large heap of magical components, a living one was better for a steady supply of blood.

Incidentally, while Gaelion wasn't exactly pleased to hear one of his more draconic children had died in his old home, it was still expected. That dragon opted to stay behind, so it was of no real consequence.

After hearing the situation, and getting a layout of the island the alchemist was on, Dante decided this would be a stealth mission with force. For that, he took with him Raphtalia for her illusions, Sadeena for her raw power and detection ability, and Reiko as a backup illusionist. Dio and JoJo could have used smaller forms and been made invisible, but neither one particularly wanted to help a dragon, even under these circumstances. Dante had enough strength with just the four of them anyway.

Raphtalia and Dante scouted the place the alchemist had set up in. The one guard they saw on watch wasn't particularly high leveled, but there were a number of foreign monsters that were active. Seeing how they seemed to be nocturnal creatures, a better time to move in would be during the day.

When it came to the attack, they first made sure Wyndia was safe. The alchemist hadn't bothered to get a slave seal on her, so that made things easier. Once Dante had Wyndia protected, the others set upon the guards. However, in addition to being crazy enough to steal from a dragon, he was also a collector of rare and obscure trinkets. One such item he boasted would cause confusion among his enemies, allowing his guards and monsters to finish them off.

When he activated the item, nothing seemed to happen. Dante's party was able to kill all the guards and monsters in short order and apprehend the alchemist. It was then that Dante realized he was made shorter. He thought his age had regressed again, until Sadeena changed back into her demi-human form and he saw how she had changed. Thankfully, Wyndia wasn't a target of the effect.

In the end, they brought the alchemist to Gaelion, bound and gagged. Not only did the alchemist learn that casting spells is impossibly difficult with his mouth gagged, but he also learned what the inside of a living dragon's stomach looked like. As a reward, Gaelion gave Dante one of his eggs the alchemist took, along with a number of jewels and accessories to use or sell.

That brought them to Rat's lab, who had a hand over her face after hearing the explanation.

"Why are heroes such a problem?" Rat lamented.