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Chapter 20 Part 1

Your Biggest Savior Might Have Been The Person You’d Least Expected

 

Sybilla, the Twilight Goddess, struck a beautiful yet somehow cute finger-up winking pose.

….And with that timing, the black wings on her back suddenly disappeared as she walked toward me.

 

「That was a very good pose, wasn’t it?」

 

The part where you had to say it yourself isn’t good though.

 

「…Well, if I had to choose, I’d say it was good, but why did you come back? I thought you were going upstairs.」

 

「I just remembered that there’s something I wanted to do before that.」

 

As I was wondering what on earth she wanted to do, Sybilla pointed toward the Dragon with the sword in her hand.

 

「Can you quickly dismantle the dragon’s chest for me?」

 

「….Sure, I don’t mind. 《Enchant Darkness》.」

 

I double-cast magic to wrap the sword in my hand with the dark attribute, and then I insert the sword into the gap between the dragon’s skin.

 

「….That magic is sure powerful huh. I’ve never seen such a strong dark attribute enchant before.」

 

「Ah, yeah, it’s the same with the Wind Barrier, I just simultaneously cast the same magic on top of the other in my head without chanting. Double casting as I call it.」

 

When Sybilla hears my answer, she looks surprised and then puts her hand on her chin as if she was thinking about something.

…… Alright, I cut it out nicely.

 

「Hey, this is something that popped up in my head just now, but…」

 

「What is it?」

 

「About that double casting… if you start practicing to do it with both healing magic and offensive magic at the same time, wouldn’t it be very powerful?」

 

「Yo-You sure can think of something scary aren’t you?」

 

A dark attribute sorcerer that can completely heal everyone in the party every time he fires offensive magic, is it? How on earth are you supposed to beat that?

That very sorcerer is me, though!

 

「There, I’ve dismantled it, but… just what are you going to do with it?」

 

「In some ways, it is the best reward for dragon slayers. Especially since it’s a Fire Dragon this time.」

 

Sybilla plunged her hand into the dragon’s chest, which was gushing blood, and when it seemed like she had caught something, she inserted her sword into the dragon’s body and moved it back and forth like a saw.

And when I saw what she pulled out of the dragon’s body, I was convinced.

 

「Dragon steak is one of the rewards for slaying a dragon. But since the meat from Fire Dragons can’t be grilled due to their nature, we’ll have to eat them raw. And this one here is the best of the cut.」

 

What’s in Sybilla’s hand is a small piece of meat that’s very hard to imagine it’s coming from a dragon this big.

 

「It’s the heart of a dragon. You can eat it raw as is. It’s quick to go bad and since it’s the meat from a Fire Dragon, it’s impossible to freeze it. It’s so valuable that only those who killed the Fire Dragon have the right to eat it… even I have never eaten it before.」

 

Then Sybilla cut it in half and lightly sprinkled salt on it.

She handed me one half, but it’s still a bit too big after being split… and, more importantly, eating a raw heart just sounds so gross…

 

While I was still a little hesitant, Sybilla ate her portion all at once in one bite.

You look more like a bandit head with a nice face than a Twilight Goddess right now. No, you were like that to begin with, huh

 

「Hmmmm~! It’s sweet!」

 

「Sweet?」

 

「It’s different from the sweetness of fruit or something like that, but how should put it… it’s like butter baked goods?」

 

——Huh!?

What the heck, it’s insanely good!

 

While still half-convinced, I half-hesitantly took a bite of the blood-stained piece of meat in front of me that had been sprinkled with salt, which she said was sweet or some other metaphor that I don’t quite understand.

 

It’s a little bit chewy but surprisingly easy to tear through with your teeth. Sybilla is watching me with a grin on her face, but I don’t feel like reacting.

Well, I can see why this is said to be the best reward for dragon slayers.

 

「Ah… I finished it all up… Eh?」

 

—— 【Twilight Sorcerer】 Level 7 《Dark Sphere》——

 

「My level went up.」

 

「That’s right. That’s the real best reward. If you eat the heart, which is a mass of magic and life force the dragon had, you will become stronger even if you aren’t participating in the fight against the dragon.」

 

While I was absentmindedly processing what Sybilla had just told me… a sudden realization occurred to me and I pointed my finger up to the front with trembling hand.

In front of that finger was the bandit Goddess posing with her hands on her hips and an annoyingly smug look on her face.

 

「Yo-Youuu——!」

 

「【Mage】 level 21 it says! I really leveled up haha!」

 

This girl! She just casually took half of the experience from the dragon’s heart! And it went up to level 21 she said!? Isn’t that too high!? She was just level 8 when we came here!

This Goddess really has a shrewd personality, isn’t she?

Though this kind of shrewdness is also very typical of Sybilla!

 

……Well, if Sybilla hadn’t told me about it, I never would have had the idea of eating the dragon’s heart, and I wouldn’t have been able to use Dark Magic in the first place…… so I guess that’s a cheap price to pay.

 

「At any rate, I’ll at least let you take that meat as a thank-you for granting me this new Job.」

 

「Yes, yes, it’s good that you understand. Although, you becoming the 【Twilight Sorcerer】 is already like a reward in itself for me.」

 

「Is that so?」

 

「Yep. Anyway, I can tell you more about the 『Twilight Pact』 later——」

 

Sybilla patted the giant dragon’s corpse with the back of her hand.

 

「——So let’s get the men from the village to come over and bring this material home, shall we!」

 

Since then, the Adventurer Guild in Adria Village which is usually empty and quiet, has been in an uproar.

After all, Sybilla had brought one of the Fire Dragon’s scales with her. And since the rest of its giant body was lying near the village, there was bound to be a commotion.

 

It might sound pathetic, but if it were just me, who isn’t that well-liked by the men in the village, I wouldn’t be able to move so many men from the village.

But with Sybilla’s beauty and charisma, moving the men to do your bidding is a piece of cake.

Really, since her face is indeed insanely beautiful… I feel bad for these rural men who are helpless against beautiful women like her.

 

Sybilla then put forth this proposal. A part of the dragon will be rewarded to every person who helps carry it.

The people from the village worked hard going back and forth between the dungeon and the village, carrying the Fire Dragon’s corpse which I had cut into several parts with my sword.

We’ve mapped out the first floor of the dungeon, and since the corpse is just located on the second floor, it’s relatively close.

The people from the village worked hard making the round trip carrying the material without rest for the reward, and we managed to carry all the parts to the back of the guild before nightfall.

 

Then Sybilla came up with another tempting proposal.

As a result of that, the villagers all gathered together for a big dinner banquet.

The meat of the Fire Dragon, the same as the heart earlier, can’t be grilled or preserved by freezing it.

And if we let it be, they will rot and turn poisonous while emitting a foul odor.

Therefore, we decided that it would be better for everyone to eat it before it rots.

 

Even veteran adventurers of higher ranks, let alone those in rural villages, never get a chance to enjoy free all-you-can-eat raw Fire Dragon meat.

Thanks to that, the village tonight was very lively as if there’s a festival going on.

At the same time, Sybilla’s popularity is also soaring, even though she has only been in the village for a short time.

I can imagine how she will be more cheeky after this.

 

Some red-faced guy jokingly called you a Goddess, but little did he know that you’re actually one.

Well, since it’s Sybilla we’re talking about here, she wouldn’t find those remarks disrespectful or anything.

And Sybilla, don’t affirm that you’re a Goddess yourself. Does this girl really have the intention to hide from the Sun Goddess worshipper?