The Meteor Swordsman Heads Out To Slay The Geo Dragon

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO……!”

The giant lizard let out a roar.

But it was clearly different from the roars before. It was a voice lacking strength, the cry expelled by a life coming to its end.

Its massive body swayed unsteadily.

“…Whoops!”

I let go of the fallen tree and jumped down to the ground.

As if following after me, the giant lizard’s body, drained of strength, collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud. Its huge frame twitched once, and then it never moved again.

“…Phew…”

I let out a breath.

It seemed to be over.

Somehow, I had made it through unarmed—with nothing but cloth clothes for equipment. I was lucky the opponent had been a Giant Lizard. If it had been a dragon-type monster, a mere student sword saint like me would have been finished in no time….

“Well, luck is part of skill too.”

That was what I started to say with a smile, but I stopped and tilted my head.

I really could not think of myself as lucky.

To begin with, the reward I would get for all this effort was zero. A huge amount of meat? Monster meat was so heavily contaminated by miasma that it was inedible. Turning its tough scales and fangs into weapons or armor? Sure, that would have been useful, but unfortunately humanity’s technology had not caught up to that point.

That was why a monster carcass was completely useless.

“Ahhh, geez! What a waste of work!”

I stamped my feet in frustration. All I had done was escape with my life. I had only brought a negative back to zero. There was no gain in it at all.

But, well….

“I guess it worked as rehabilitation.”

Student sword saint, student sage—those were not exactly titles to brag about, but after lazing around for two whole years, it was true that my senses had dulled. Today’s fierce battle had helped me get them back.

And on top of that—

The purchasing agent had said so, had he not? That even the adventurers gathering medicinal herbs had been suffering casualties.

Which meant that thanks to my efforts, the damage going forward would decrease at least a little.

A soft chuckle slipped from my mouth.

It felt like my strength had been useful, and that was something proud and pleasant.

“Well, it was not all that bad.”

Feeling that sense of satisfaction, I headed back to the Imperial Capital.

That day, Phonic, who had been leading the subjugation force, was heading deeper into the great forest.

He was doing so in order to carry out the Geo Dragon subjugation Orfred had ordered.

“Gieaaaah!”

A beast’s dying scream rang out. One of his subordinate warriors had cut down a Giant Lizard.

They were elites gathered for anti-dragon combat. Even if they did not measure up to Phonic, one of the Eight Stars, there was no way they would fall behind against something as minor as a Giant Lizard.

The large lizard, about two meters long, died easily and stopped moving.

The unit resumed its advance as though nothing had happened.

“…Even so, there really have been more monsters lately.”

That was what Carmilla of the Eight Stars, “the Crimson,” said as she walked beside him. She too had joined the dragon hunt under Orfred’s orders as the vice-captain.

“Indeed.”

Phonic nodded.

For the past few years, just as Carmilla said, the number of monsters in the great forest had been increasing. The reason was known: the concentration of miasma blanketing the forest had risen.

Monsters were born from dense miasma.

If the miasma grew thicker, the danger level rose. Stronger monsters, in greater numbers—it was simple logic.

And if that miasma became extreme, it could even give birth to highly dangerous monsters like the Geo Dragon. In other words, this situation had happened because it was bound to happen.

(The past few years—or no, the past three years.)

Three years ago, precisely the year Black Dragon’s Fang’s revenue had grown dramatically.

The Imperial Capital’s largest clan, Black Dragon’s Fang, was no longer merely a gathering place for adventurers, but had become a giant profit-making organization. Here, many things were regarded as “businesses for making money.”

Medicinal herb gathering in the great forest was no exception.

Originally, herb gathering had been a low-profit division, but in these past three years it had grown significantly.

The exclusive territory in the great forest that Orfred had been granted long ago by royalty—for some reason, during these last three years, high-quality medicinal herbs could only be gathered there. Thanks to that, Black Dragon’s Fang had achieved a monopoly and was able to sell them at high prices to major clients.

As a result, the herb-gathering division, once treated like dead weight, had greatly increased its presence within the clan.

And the person most responsible for that was one of the Eight Stars—Varnir, known as the “Sage of the Forest.”

The apothecary Varnir was a man in his mid-thirties. Four years ago, after his predecessor died suddenly, he inherited the position and became one of the Eight Stars as the person in charge of medicinal herb gathering.

Varnir had been seen as “a capable but inconspicuous, plain man,” but over the past few years he had shown undeniable ability and had become someone whose presence even Orfred could not ignore.

A colleague’s great success—

But there was also something about it that caught in Phonic’s mind.

(…Things have gone far too smoothly…)

He had no issue with the quality of the herbs rising at the same time Varnir took office, but—

He could not overlook the fact that, around the same time, the miasma had increased and the monsters had multiplied. On top of that, Black Dragon’s Fang’s exclusive territory had not been affected by that influence.

Varnir had said that he carefully managed the exclusive territory so that it would not be affected by the miasma, but—

There had been one time when Phonic asked Varnir about it.

“Does Lord Varnir have any opinion regarding the strange changes occurring in the great forest these past few years?”

“Well now, who can say…”

“Everything is going far too conveniently for us. Is there not something behind it?”

“I have no idea…”

After tilting his head as he said that, Varnir gave a faint smile and continued.

“But really, does it matter? Thanks to it, our clan prospers. That is also Lord Orfred’s joy. For those of us who have sworn loyalty to Black Dragon’s Fang, is that not what matters most?”

When it was put that way, Phonic could not argue. It was the proper way of thinking for a clan member.

The largest clan in the Imperial Capital—and yet even after reaching that point, Orfred’s ambition had not burned out. Bigger, stronger. He still desired further expansion.

As one of the Eight Stars, one of the clan’s chief figures, Phonic had to place achieving that above all else—

“Lord Phonic! The advance party has returned!”

At his subordinate’s words, Phonic suddenly came back to himself.

When he turned his gaze forward, he saw the lightly equipped clan members hurrying back in confusion.

Had some unexpected situation arisen? Or had they found the Geo Dragon?

That was what Phonic thought first, but he soon reconsidered. Because what he saw on their faces was not panic, fear, or excitement, but bewilderment.

That in itself still made no sense.

He could not at all imagine what would give them reason to look like that.

One of the advance party members shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Lord Phonic! This is terrible! The Geo Dragon was there!”

That much was within expectations.

However, the next words from the advance party completely betrayed Phonic’s expectations.

“The Geo Dragon was there, but it was a corpse—a corpse! Someone has already killed it!”

“…!?”

Who, and how?

It was the very moment confusion surfaced on Phonic’s face.