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Mary and the woman who silenced Keith stood next to each other. They were standing over a pit in the ground. It looked like a field of crops had been dug up by their roots and transported away. There was a trail of dirt clumps indicating the direction where whatever was in the field had gone. “This is the only point of interest the scouts found,” the robed woman said. “Judging by the dampness of the soil, this area was recently dug up. Unless there’s dwarves or other large creatures around, this was done by the work of a dragon. If we follow the trail of soil left behind, we should be able to locate one; as for whether or not that dragon is Grimmoldesser, we won’t know until we get there.”
Mary squatted by the pit and scooped up a handful of dirt with her gauntleted hand. She brought it close to her face and took a sniff. Her hand flipped over, and she dropped the dirt onto the ground. With a few shakes of her hand, the remnants that clung to her gauntlet were flung away. “We’ll follow the trail,” she said and stood up.
The robed woman stared at Mary with a raised eyebrow. “Did you discover something by smelling it?” She glanced at the dirt, tempted to smell a handful of soil herself.
Mary nodded.
“Was it Grimmoldesser?”
Mary furrowed her brow. “How would I know if it was done by Grimmoldesser by smelling a handful of soil?”
The robed woman shrugged. “You sounded so sure about following the trial. If that wasn’t it, then what did you discover?”
“It smelled like dirt,” Mary said.
“Right,” the robed woman said after seeing that Mary wasn’t going to elaborate. “And from that, you concluded…?”
“That it was dirt.”
“…I see.” The robed woman nodded. “And that’s related to following the trail, how?”
“Why do those two have to be related?”
“I guess they don’t,” the robed woman said and scratched her head. “Never mind, forget I asked.”
***
Gren stared at her grandchildren, her expression unreadable. Behind them, there were a group of humans lying on the ground with their arms and legs bound. There wasn’t anything blocking their mouths, but none of them let out a single peep. They didn’t dare to meet her gaze either. After examining the humans and her grandchildren, Gren grunted and said, “Not bad. The two of you did well.”
Ramon’s and Gloria’s eyes lit up. Before they could say anything, Gren snorted. “But don’t do it again,” she said and glared at them. “Humans are carriers of diseases. Who knows what illnesses are festering inside of their bodies? Did you wash your hands after handling them?”
Ramon looked down at his front legs. His eyes shone with a silver glow, and a white light washed over his paws. “Yes,” he said and looked at Gloria with a smug smile. “I did, but Gloria didn’t. You should punish her.”
Gren lightly tapped Ramon’s head with her paw. “Don’t advocate for punishing your sister,” she said. “As siblings, you should be on the same side. Instead of wishing for her to get hurt, you should be protecting her.”
Ramon stared at his grandma with a dumbfounded expression. This time, he was in the right, and Gloria was in the wrong, so how come he was the one that got punished again? Something wasn’t right! Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t brave enough to confront the injustice. He lowered his head. “Yes, Grandma. I understand.” He trudged over to Gloria’s side and purified her front paws as well.
Gren nodded. “So, other than these humans, there are more outside? And their goal is to kill Grimmy?”
“That’s right,” Gloria said and bobbed her head up and down. “But these humans don’t want to kill Daddy. They were forced to help a mean woman named Mary; if they didn’t help, then they’d be killed.”
Gren rolled her eyes. “That should be true for some of them,” she said. “But the others? They definitely joined for money. You can’t underestimate human greed. They’ll die for riches.”
Gloria turned her head towards the group of humans. She frowned at them. “Is that true?”
Keith bobbed his head up and down. “Danielle, Joseph, and I were coerced by Mary, but the rest of these guys were hired by us. They’re mercenaries. They knew the dangers but chose to come regardless because the pay was high.”
The mercenaries glared at Keith with bloodshot eyes. One of them sat up as straight as possible and bowed at Gloria. “The Dragon Slayers have a terrible reputation. If you don’t help them as a mercenary, then they’ll smear your group, making it impossible to find a job in the future!”
Gloria turned her head back towards Keith. “He’s just saying that because he doesn’t want to get punished,” Keith said. “As an SSS-ranked party, why would we have to resort to dirty tricks to get people to join us? They think we’re successful in everything we do, so they jump at the chance to help us. You can’t believe him.”
“Stop,” Gren said when Gloria turned her head to look at the mercenary. “It doesn’t matter who’s telling the truth. They’ll all end up in the same place anyway.”
Gloria tilted her head. “What are you going to do with them?”
“Exterminate them.”
Gloria’s eyes widened. “What? Why?”
“They’re pests,” Gren said. She snorted upon seeing Gloria’s unhappy expression. “There’s no need to feel bad for them. When there’s a rat infestation in their homes, what do humans do? They get cats to kill them. When there’s a wasp nest nearby, they burn it down. If they discover termites eating the foundations of their homes, they’ll exterminate them. They’re humans, and we’re dragons. As long as they don’t bother us, we won’t bother them.” Her eyes narrowed at the humans trembling behind Gloria. “But if they want to kill us, then isn’t there only one thing we can do?”
“Can’t we keep them and raise them as pets?” Gloria asked with a furrowed brow. “Look at how cute and obedient they are. Can we keep them? Please, please, please?”