297 – The Closing of Negotiations

“―It seems the previous dragon-god passed away in the abyss nest.”

After tying up Nagrom, the discussions proceeded favourably.

Bella relayed everything I told her pretty much as-is. They seem to have always been a tight-knit community, so they all listened in serious silence.

“Then, so, up to now, why have we…”
“…Nagrom used our anger to incite us.”

Once Bella’s explanation has finished, they start intermittently sobbing as they talk.

“Still, if Hibi had told us all this when the village fractured, then…”

Someone grumbles their resentment. But Hibi wouldn’t have been able to do that. The split happened right at the peak of the turmoil over the manticore. If the support for the sacrifice order were to crumble, then it would have ended up worse then the village just splitting in two.

A dark atmosphere covers everyone, but no one is directing hostility towards me.

“It’s bullshit! It’s bullshit!”

…No one, that is, other than Nagrom, who is yelling despite being tied up with rope typically used to tie up large monsters.

『Hey… Shouldn’t we kill him after all? No one would complain if we killed him now, I think.』

…N-no, I don’t want to go down the path of making them comply through force. I don’t want this place to become a breeding ground for future problems, so I don’t want to rampage here… Let’s leave the petty old man alone. His crimes can be settled peacefully between the Lithovars.

“…Hey, what should we do with Nagrom?”
“I can only blame myself for jumping on the splitting of the village, but… I can’t overlook how he hit Bella-sama.”

P-peacefully…

“I only tried to silence her because she was deceived by the dragon-god, so there wouldn’t be this chaos!”

Nagrom yells, his face bright red.

“Can’t we let bygones be bygones?”
“No, that won’t do. In order for that village to be not wary of us, it would be better if we had his head. As long as we have his head, they shouldn’t have any reason to be suspicious .”

……

“It’s bullshit! It’s all bullshit! You are all being deceived, how can you not see that!?”

I can’t bear to watch, so I lightly flick his head with my tail. His body jolts, and his head hangs forwards limply. This should quieten him for a while.

“…It might be better to keep all this from everyone in that village.”

Baron says quietly from my back.

“…Baron-dono, you don’t seem to be very upset?”

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Bella asks, and Baron calmly nods.

“…Even if the previous dragon-god only ate abysses as food, there is no mistaking that our ancestors were protected by it. The previous dragon-god saved the village in countless times of crisis… Whatever the case, there are plenty of reasons to pay respects.”

As I listen to what he says, my heart aches. I feel shame at having worried I would be branded an evil god and killed if I revealed I wasn’t the dragon-god.

“But, I don’t know if everyone will accept that. Much less now, when time is of the essence… If they aren’t told well, there’s a risk of misunderstanding. So for now, we should hide the matter of dragon-god-sama and prioritise reconciliation and cooperation.”

I nod in approval. Anyway, it’s important to quickly build a cooperative relationship now. They can assume that I persuaded them and corrected their distorted way of thinking.

“Once the preparations are complete, let’s go rescue that village. For now, we should free the three that were imprisoned in the cave under Nagrom-sama’s…Nagrom’s orders.”

Th-that many tried to oppose him? If I’d only opened their eyes back then, this talk could have gone smoother.

I wonder while looking at Bella, and she panics slightly, thinking I have something I want to say. She chants the incantation and closes her eyes.

『I-Is something bothering you, dragon-god-sama…?』

Eh? N-no, it’s nothing like that… Th-this girl… Compared to Hibi, she’s a bit more faint of heart. It might be because Hibi was trained thoroughly to be the current miko.

C-come to think of it, why were those three imprisoned?

『Akanai was arrested for opposing Nagrom’s methods. Tatark was guilty of trying to free the sacrifices…』

Tatark… Aah, the person who came to the cave and tried to get everyone to escape, the guy who cut the rope binding my partner’s arms. Even though I safely killed the manticore, he got caught in the end.

『Yarg kept trying to persuade Nagrom to trust the dragon-god, so he was imprisoned in the cave.』

Eh…? Yarg did that? I was sure he’d hold a grudge after losing all the fingers of his hand.

Well, he’s the one who personally saw me and my partner kill the manticore. Even when he was taking her to it, he seemed more concerned about catching and sacrificing a traveller than about his fingers, so he didn’t seem to be a fundamentally bad person. The fact that there were so many people who were unexpectedly positive towards me was probably thanks to him.

『But I won’t forgive him.』

…Please don’t eat him when you see him.

『I plan to explain to everyone that’s not here, gather medicine and weapons, then head to the village, is that okay?』

…If you come with too many weapons, won’t it make an commotion? There should be plenty of spears there already, so don’t get caught up over-preparing. I don’t know when the enemy will be coming, so I’d rather you hurried as much as possible.

『…Under Nagrom’s orders, we were preparing a strong version of the morz poison, as well as an antidote in case of accidental injury. As a weapon, it should be stronger than anything that village has.』

I-I see… That’s reassuring to hear, but that poison was probably made for the purpose of stabbing me to death. W-well, it’s how it’s used that matters in the end, right. If I’m there, they should be able to trust them, too.

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