Maybe It Wasn’t A Natural Disaster

A few days later.

The evacuation order had been lifted and the residents returned to the town—and so I headed towards Gaiger’s Monster Armor Shop.

While everyone had had to evacuate, the Fire Dragon never actually reached the town, so things went back to normal very quickly.

“Still, what was with that Fire Dragon?”

“Yeah. They say that it suddenly disappeared, right? …I’ve heard of dragons hiding underground after being weakened by the river, but that’s ridiculous, isn’t it?”

I heard some Adventurers talking as I made my way to the monster armor shop.

As I had not come out as the hunter, and the slimes had stored the body, it was said that while the ‘Fire Dragon usually vanished after 3 days, it had gone in just a few hours, due to going crazy.’

Even the guild was at a loss when it came to an explanation. But there was nothing they could say when there wasn’t even a corpse.

…It was a good thing they had been so slow.

Had they sent out scouts immediately, they would have seen the frozen river and understood that it had not been killed by natural means.

And so it was very convenient for me, that people thought the Fire Dragon had died naturally.

As I thought about all of this, I arrived at the store.

I had a golden gemstone from the Fire Dragon.

If I wanted to hide the fact about the hunt, I should probably hide this too–but considering how it could help me in battle, it was worth the risk of being exposed.

Besides, the Master of the shop would probably keep his mouth shut.

“Oh? Have you brought me more materials?”

He said as he looked at my face.

“Yeah. I hunted down a really big ‘lesser fire dragon’… And this unusual gemstone came out.”

I said as I handed him the Fire Dragon gemstone.

He looked at it—and his eyes bulged out.

“Wh-what is this!?”

“…It’s a gemstone from a really big lesser fire dragon.”

“So why does it feel so much more powerful than a gemstone from a Blue Lesser Fire Dragon…?”

“Maybe that just happens some times. …Uh, can you make anything with it?”

I insisted and then asked him if he could.

I would rather not tell him about where it really originated.

“Of course, I can. I can make something that will be on a completely different level than what I’ve made in the past. …However, the quality of this gemstone… Surely it’s not from a lesser…”

It looked like he had figured it out.

Oh, well. It couldn’t be helped.

“It’s from a large lesser fire dragon.”

I said again and gave him a knowing look.

And then…he seemed to have gotten the hint.

“All right. We’ll just say that it is.”

“…So, you agree to keep it confidential?”

“Of course. …Besides, no one would believe me even if I did talk about it. …Don’t worry. You’ve brought me an amazing item. I will make you the best armor with it.”

He said and then paused for a moment.

After some thought, he opened his mouth again.

“…Still, if the Fire Dragon is dead, that means the rumor was a lie.”

“Rumor?”

“There is a rumor that the guild used ‘Rainmaking Magic’ to kill the Fire Dragon.”

The guild did it…?

Well, there was nothing to even suggest that it was the case.

But then again, maybe there was a reason that people believed it.

“Is that rumor based on anything?”

“I sorcerer acquaintance of mine found traces of a rainmaking magic device near the volcanic mountain. It was apparently the same kind used by the guild. Of course, I’m not a specialist in such things.”

Traces of a magic device…

There really had been something unnatural about that rain.

If it turned out to be artificial, then it wouldn’t be too surprising.

Of course, it was definitely a lie that ‘it was caused in order to kill the Fire Dragon.’

After all, the guild was well aware that rain wouldn’t be enough to kill it.

However, I couldn’t say they hadn’t used Rainmaking Magic either.

The problem was, why would they do that…

Something about all of this…was highly suspicious.