Chapter 22: Chapter 22: Double kidnapped

It doesn't take long for me to find Arana sitting on a bench on the same plaza from before, and it seems like she's alone, did she find someone who could take care of that girl?

"Oh, Luna! You look like you've been having fun, did I miss something?"

I thought that I could pretend that nothing happened... am I really so easy to read?

"Uh... no, nothing unusual happened"

"Then what have you been doing all this time?"

"I was... taking a look around the town, you know, tourism"

"Yes, of course"

She doesn't believe me, does she... let's change the topic.

"And what about you? Did you find someone who could take care of that girl?"

"Well... that depends on how you define 'finding' and 'taking care of' "

Uh... I have a bad feeling about this.

"Ara... what did you do?"

"Me? I didn't do anything I was just going to take her to the lord of the town, I even had prepared a very convincing story about her being a noble from the Agua kingdom who had been kidnaped and taken away from home by a terrible villain"

"I hope that your 'terrible villain' was not inspired by any actual person"

"Of course not, don't be silly, but it's not like I even had the chance to tell anyone about it, for some reason, she ran away at the first chance she got"

"She ran away!? Why!?"

Arana shrugs her shoulders.

"I don't know, I was not expecting that she would want to escape when we were on our way to letting her go"

Yeah, that doesn't seem to make much sense, did she think that Arana was not really going to let her go?

"I followed her to this plaza and found her talking to a dragon, I could not hear what they were saying, but he grabbed her and then flew away"

"Eeeh!? Why didn't you stop him!?"

"Luna, it's a dragon, what did you want me to do about it?"

"Oh right... but don't just tell me that she got kidnapped by a dragon as if it's not a big deal!"

"Don't worry, she's already got the experience of being kidnapped once, the second time is always easier"

"I did not kidnap her! And I am worried, we need to save her!"

"Oh, well then, I believe that he took her to some ruins not far away from here, it seems like this dragon has been living there for some time now, do you want to go?"

"Of course, let's go there right now!"

I made myself responsible for her safety when I decided to take her with me, I cannot just pretend that this is not my problem.

---

 

The ruins seem to be hidden in a small valley, but since we already know the way, or rather, Arana knows the way, it doesn't take long before we make it there.

Still, I cannot help but notice that I'm strangely calm for someone who is soon very likely to get into a fight with a dragon. My way of thinking has changed a lot since I found out about my level, normally I should be thinking of a way of rescuing that girl and escaping without him noticing, I should also be terrified of the possibility of being found, but instead, I'm not planning to hide at all, if he tries to attack me, I'll just deal with him, a dragon is normally between level 180 and 200, so it should not be too difficult for me to beat him... yeah, this is not even close to what a normal person would be thinking right now.

I wonder what these ruins used to be before, all I can see now is the remains of a bunch of walls, or maybe it would be more accurate to call them 'piles of rocks', I think this was originally a group of several buildings rather than a single large one, but even that is hard to tell.

There's a sign just before arriving that reads 'Caution: Active traps', and indeed, I can see the faint glow of a magic circle buried in the ground, when I throw a small stone at it, a large spike made of rock emerges from the ground and quickly retracts once again, just how long have these traps been here? If people know that they are here, you'd think that someone would have gotten rid of them by now, these ruins seem to be at least a couple centuries old, maybe I should remove them myself later..

"This place seems dangerous, Ara, make sure to be careful around here"

"I don't think traps of this level can really hurt you, I'll just follow your footsteps"

"Don't just use me as an elf shield! Actually, you just gave me an idea"

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I summon my imps and make them walk in front, the truth is, I actually do know one thing that they are good at, dying, going ahead of us they activate every single trap without fail, they get impaled by spikes from the ground, pits open up dropping them into spikes, a spike shoots from a wall and pierces the head of an imp... whoever made all of this must have really liked spikes.

There's also a lot of holes around here as if someone has been digging looking for something, who would do such a thing in a place this full of traps? I wonder if there's anything valuable buried around here, is that what the traps are protecting?

By the way, I've actually found every single trap before they got activated by my imps, there's always something out of place around each place where a trap is hidden and I've not failed to notice any of them, and now...

"I just got a skill called 'trap detection'... how?"

"Oh! It seems like your ability to notice every single small detail also extends to noticing traps, but even if there's something you can do, it doesn't become a skill until you actually do it"

So I can find traps? I guess that's a good thing, but I can't help but feel like that makes the sacrifice of my imps completely redundant, just when I thought that I had found something they were good for...

Well, I'll just say that they're extra insurance, I'm not going to stop using them now.

---

 

I found the dragon, he's digging a hole in the ground and doesn't seem to have noticed me, is he also the one who made all the other holes around here? He's not as big as I thought a dragon would be, not counting the tail and wings his body is only around five meters long, the large wings are what makes him seem bigger than he actually is. It seems like his level is 260, so he's rather strong even by the standard of dragons, maybe I should be a bit careful about this.

Arana is standing a bit away from me and is giving me a thumbs up, shouldn't she be hiding somewhere?

First of all, I will summon around 200 imps and make them attack the dragon, needless to say, I'm not expecting them to accomplish much, but this will allow me to learn about his fighting skills and help me figure out how to deal with him.

When the imps start attacking, the dragon takes a look at them and breathes fire, incinerating all of them instantly.

...

That didn't tell me anything about his fighting skills, nor did it help me figure out how to deal with him.

"Heh!? Who is... there?

He turns around to look at me, but he seems a bit taken aback when he sees me.

"Humpf, you must be rather brave if you're trying to use an intimidation skill against a mighty dragon such as me"

Did he just call himself mighty at the start of a conversation? Something about the way he said it just rubs me the wrong way...

"I didn't use an intimidation skill"

"Liar! You think that someone as perceptive as myself would not be able to tell?"

He did it again! Now it was 'perceptive', does this guy just like to compliment himself? Also, he clearly is not able to tell, because I did not use it.

"Where is the girl that you took here earlier today? I'm here to take her back"

"The girl? Why would I have to give her back to you?"

"Because you cannot just kidnap anyone you want just like that!"

"That's right! Luna kidnapped her first! The girl is hers!"

Arana is yelling from the back, I almost forgot she was there.

"I did not kidnap her!"

I wonder if she's trying to turn 'I did not kidnap her' into my catchphrase.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but that girl should be honored to be allowed to assist me, I did not kidnap her"

"Hey! Don't steal my catchphrase!"

Both the dragon and Arana are tilting their heads, oh right, for a second I forgot that's not actually my catchphrase.

"Anyway, tell me where the girl is, you cannot keep her here"

"Humpf, I should burn you down for your insolence, but I'm willing to forgive you if you go down to your knees and beg"

You know... I don't think anyone has ever made me angry just by talking to me, even being insulted doesn't bother me much, but somehow, this guy is actually managing to make me lose my patience.