Chapter 22

I sat in the golem car, parked in the passage at the edge of the settlement. This path led directly to the surface. Alice was in the passenger seat, and the dwarves accompanying us stood lined up nearby. The people who had come to see us off watched from a distance.

Time had flown by, and the day of the dragon subjugation had finally arrived. During our stay in the settlement, we had made meticulous preparations. We maximized every spare moment to ensure we were at our best. I had no lingering regrets.

Among the crowd were the Elder and his son. We had already said our goodbyes. I stuck my hand out the window and gave them a thumbs-up. They responded with firm nods.

“We’ll be back soon. Have the victory drinks ready!”

With those parting words, I started the golem car. Watching the villagers shrink in the side mirror, I drove through the passage and emerged onto the surface. From here, we had to trek through the forest for a while. Relying on the dwarves to lead the way, we began our advance.

Our destination was the mountain where the dragon made its lair. It was less than half a day’s journey from here. I drove at a leisurely pace, occasionally gnawing on some meat from a bag to keep myself occupied. I felt like blasting some hard rock to pump myself up, but I restrained myself to avoid attracting unnecessary risks. I even held off on my cigars since the scent was so strong.

Alice sat in the passenger seat with her eyes closed, meditating. It seemed she was focusing her Mana Detection to prepare for the approach of any hostile creatures. The dwarves moved on foot, walking in silence. I had offered to walk at their pace, but they had practically begged me to conserve my strength. Having shattered a dragon’s claw with my bare hands, I was being treated as their trump card.

Those same dwarves carried rifles with somewhat large calibers. Alice had applied magical enhancements to them. Theoretically, they were now capable of damaging dragon scales, with the probability of success increasing the closer they got to the target.

The dwarves looked tense. Their pace was orderly, yet a bit stiff. They were the elite volunteers for this hunt—ten in total, ranging from their late teens to their fifties.

‘It’s only natural to be nervous. This is the gamble of a lifetime, after all.’

We were about to fight that dragon. Just facing a being so much larger than oneself required immense courage and resolve. I didn’t know the full details, but in this world, dragons were treated like absolute natural disasters. There was a limit to how much one could psych themselves up. It wouldn’t be surprising if they felt despair or even regretted volunteering.

If they stayed like this, it might interfere with the actual combat. Excessive stress is nothing but a burden. I figured I’d try to ease their tension with some small talk.

I called out to a nearby dwarf.

“Hey there. You’ve got a pretty grim look on your face. Got a stomachache or something?”

“Oh, Master Jack. My apologies. Thinking about finally challenging the dragon… I just found myself lost in thought,” the dwarf said apologetically. His voice trailed off toward the end, making him hard to hear.

I patted him on the shoulder and laughed.

“Being afraid isn’t a bad thing. Controlling that fear is what makes a human strong. I’m not telling you to force yourself to get over it. You just need to get used to it a little. Everyone finds battle scary.”

“Then… was there a time when even you feared battle, Master Jack?”

“Nah. I enjoyed it right from the start. I’ve got a few screws loose, you see. You probably shouldn’t use me as a reference.”

When I gave that reply, the dwarf’s expression turned complicated. The others around him shared similar looks. It seemed my answer wasn’t quite what they were hoping for.

“Wh-what about Lady Alice…? You also seem exceptionally composed.”

The dwarf, at a loss for how to respond to me, turned the conversation toward Alice. Opening her eyes, she pointed a finger at herself.

“Me? I’m not afraid of death. Even if I breathe my last here, the next ‘me’ already exists. It’s been a cycle of that since a long time ago.”

“I-I see…”

The dwarf gave a stiff, noncommittal reply. They didn’t know about Alice’s unique abilities. To them, her words likely sounded like nothing more than a nonsensical riddle.

I leaned in and whispered to the dwarves.

“She’s at that age where she likes to act all mysterious. Just let her be.”

“A-Ah, I understand…”

The dwarves looked at one another with skeptical expressions, but they soon broke into smiles. It wasn’t quite how I’d planned it, but their tension seemed to have evaporated. At the same time, they weren’t getting sloppy. It was just the right balance. This way, they’d be able to move decently when the real thing started.

Having settled their nerves, we continued our trek. The dwarves swiftly dealt with any monsters we encountered. Since the carcasses would only be extra baggage, we left them where they fell. Watching the scene from the driver’s seat, I went over the plan for this operation.

The mission was simple. We would launch a raid on the dragon’s lair during the day. We would maintain a constant barrage using the bombs and firearms packed into the golem car. If the dragon closed the distance, I would move to intercept and hold it back. Then, we would simply rely on raw firepower to suppress it.

That was the gist of the flow. The only other contingencies were that we would engage immediately if the dragon was present, and if it was absent, we would wait nearby and launch an ambush when it returned. It was almost insulting to call it a “plan.”

However, this was the result of meticulous discussions with the participating members. There were two main reasons for this approach.

First, half-baked tricks wouldn’t work on a dragon. If we tried something clever and failed, the entire thing would fall apart. It was decided that a straightforward approach was better than risking a collapse. A clever scheme is just that—a scheme. We couldn’t afford to be dependent on one.

The second reason was the dragon’s sensory capabilities. It was supposedly extremely sensitive to intruders in its lair and could detect them from a great distance. This was incredibly troublesome. Ideally, I wanted to wait until the dragon was away and rig its lair with bomb traps. But because of its detection range, that wasn’t an option. We assumed we wouldn’t have the luxury of time to set them up. In fact, being attacked while setting traps would leave us completely vulnerable. I wanted to avoid that at all costs.

Taking those factors into account resulted in this simple strategy. That said, I wasn’t too worried since we were sufficiently armed. Even back in my original world, I hated roundabout methods. Once preparations were complete, it wasn’t uncommon for me to just use brute force. In the end, it was the fastest and most reliable way. People used to criticize me, saying a professional should form proper strategies, but I always silenced those voices with my results.

I had assembled enough weaponry to do the same here. A mere dragon should be something I can cull unilaterally. I expected the situation to unfold exactly how I liked it.

Eventually, we arrived safely at the dragon’s lair. Located halfway up the mountain, it was an area where the trees had been unnaturally cleared away. Patches of bedrock were exposed across the flat ground. The space was roughly a hundred yards (approx. 91 meters) on each side. It looked as if this spot alone had been dug out by a giant shovel. It seemed the terrain had been altered to make it easier for a dragon to live there. The scale was unbelievable, but there were marks on the ground that looked like they had been gouged out by claws. There was no mistaking it.

And, crucially, the dragon wasn’t there. It seemed our timing coincided with it being away from its nest.

“Hurry. It’s likely already sensed us,” Alice warned.

Following her lead, we quickly unloaded the weapons packed into the golem car. Everyone equipped their pre-designated gear. As soon as they were ready, they moved into a combat formation and waited.

I hummed to myself as I performed the final check on my weapons. A few minutes passed after our arrival at the lair. Along with the sound of flapping wings, a massive shadow fell over the ground. I looked up at the clear sky.

“So, you’ve finally graced us with your presence.”

A massive frame hovered overhead, its wings beating the air. The blue dragon looked down at us with its ferocious eyes.

—A roar echoed through the air.