Please find my child.
Below that were details that could be the child’s characteristics, like hair color and eye color. Naro couldn’t take his eyes off her until he entered the inn. She had a devastated expression as if her very soul had left her body.
“Hey! You two!”
As he was about to go upstairs, a man from the cafeteria raised his hand high and greeted them. It was that guest who had praised Ray’s physique last time and even shared food with them.
“Perfect timing! If you haven’t eaten, eat with me! I’ll treat you.”
Naro naturally looked at Ray.
“Let’s have him treat us. I saw him last time and that human looked rich.”
Naro smiled slightly and nodded.
“Wow, good timing. I was just thinking it was boring to eat alone.”
Ray’s words about him looking rich weren’t completely wrong, as the man ordered a heap of food. Enough plates to completely fill the table.
“So where did you go sightseeing today?”
“Ah… the Lupel Clock Tower!”
The guest naturally assumed Ray and Naro were tourists who came to the capital to have fun. Though they didn’t come to the capital for the purpose of traveling, Naro thought there was no need to deny it and answered off the top of his head.
“When you think of Lupel, it’s that clock tower.”
The man nodded and took a big bite of bread.
“It’s good that you’re touring the capital, but still be careful on the night streets. Kidnappers are running rampant these days.”
“Kidnappers? Do such crimes happen in the capital too?”
“Of course. You’d think there wouldn’t be any since the Knights’ headquarters is here, right? But you know what they say. It’s darkest under the shining crystal orb. Rather, because it’s a place where people and goods all gather, the crime rate is high.”
Unlike Ray who was focused on eating, Naro listened attentively to the man’s story. He had vaguely thought the capital was a safe place where not a single crime occurred, but it seemed that wasn’t the case either.
“Of course, thanks to the Knights working hard, the arrest rate is high, but the problem is that these bad guys keep growing no matter how much you cut them. Like weeds.”
Naro laughed softly, finding it funny that he compared criminals to weeds.
“The kidnappers running rampant these days are really bad quality guys. Now they’ve gone so far as to kidnap and sell children. You saw the person holding the picket out front, right? That person also had their daughter kidnapped a few days ago. Tsk tsk, how heartbreaking.”
“Ah…”
Naro sighed softly. From what he heard, it seemed children with outstanding appearances or unusual hair and eye colors were mainly targeted. Naro’s heart grew heavy as he had a history of being kidnapped before too.
“What shows those guys really aren’t in their right minds is that there’s no standard for kidnapping targets. Even if it’s not necessarily people, if it’s something that can make money, they get their hands on it first. Even rare animals are done for if they catch those guys’ eyes.”
Endangered species designated by the Empire, or individuals of common species but with a different color in one part or unique appearance, were also their targets.
“I hope they get caught soon.”
“You’re telling me. I don’t know what the Knights are doing not quickly catching such bad guys. You be careful too. With that pretty face, you never know even if you’re not a young child.”
When the man said what sounded like a joke seriously, Naro laughed awkwardly. Talk about appearance was always hard to get used to no matter when he heard it.
“Naro won’t have that happen. Because I’ll protect him.”
Ray, who had finished three plates while the two were conversing, spoke confidently. He who hadn’t joined in any conversation until now reacted only to that statement.
“Hm? Haha, well, if someone like you appears solidly, even kidnappers might run away scared. You have a good cousin. Must be very reassuring!”
Trivial conversations continued after that. The two who got a hearty meal from the man didn’t forget to tell him thanks before going up to their room. Of course, that guest pestered them asking if they couldn’t stay and talk more since he was bored, but Naro wanted to let Ray rest as much as possible if he could.
“Hurry in and rest. Ah, are there enough towels? Do you have plenty?”
“I have 3 left.”
“Okay, then I’ll tell them to refill tomorrow.”
Naro waved his hand saying see you tomorrow, but Ray stood still without entering his room.
“I want to sleep with Naro today.”
“Uh… huh?”
“I want to sleep together. Like usual.”
Ray emphasized the word ‘usual.’ But Naro made a slightly troubled expression as if hearing unexpected words.
“Don’t you want to?”
“I-it’s not that I don’t want to…”
Naro scratched his head and turned his gaze to some random place.
“But our rooms are single rooms. The bed will be cramped if two people lie down. You’re already very tired these days, so you should sleep comfortably when sleeping.”
At Naro’s concern, Ray’s lips moved slightly. But he didn’t particularly say anything. He just nodded.
“Then go in. Ah, I told you before, right? You can return to dragon form when sleeping.”
“Naro.”
Naro, who was inserting the key into the doorknob, raised his head.
“Don’t change.”
“Huh? What do you…”
But before Naro could finish speaking, Ray left a good night greeting and entered his room first.
Naro, who entered his room, sighed deeply. Was he upset after all? He thought he had smoothly passed over it earlier, but there was no way to know whether Ray had noticed or not. But he really didn’t think he could sleep with Ray.
Naro, who knew himself that his gaze toward Ray had changed lately, couldn’t affirm Ray’s words that he wanted to sleep together.
“…Problems I never thought of keep arising.”
Naro collapsed onto the bed. He thought he just needed to worry about the problems immediately facing him after coming to the capital, but he never expected to have this kind of worry.
There was nothing particularly strange about Ray’s behavior, so was the cause of this confusion with himself after all?
“But what did he mean by don’t change?”
Naro tilted his head, recalling what Ray had said before they parted in front of the room. Ray’s expression when he said that was somehow subtle. Moreover, the somewhat meaningful words to not change.
Naro made a groaning sound and ruffled his hair. There were too many problems facing him that he felt like he’d rather just become dust.
Naro headed to the bathroom, dragging his body drained of energy from using his head. After washing up, he didn’t go straight to bed but walked to the table.
Inside the inn room was a round wooden table. Perhaps because it was a good inn, the wood used for the table also looked quite luxurious.
Naro took out the notebook and pen he had brought from Rodelus Village. He passed over traces of research on Mellian’s physical condition and herb blending for her and opened a new page.
“What I’ve found out so far…”
Naro muttered softly to himself and wrote down the information about Ray and the Dragon Tribe he had discovered.
“Mm, the incident 25 years ago is the biggest problem after all.”
The reason the Knights put out a bounty on Ray was also likely because of the incident Ray caused in the past. That the Knights issued a bounty meant Commander Flens had permitted it, so then did Flens already know that Ray hadn’t died?
Naro had learned in detail about Flens’s heroic tales after coming to the capital. He was born with a natural talent for magic from a young age. With only his skills as a commoner, he joined the Knights and quickly rose through the ranks, surpassing outstanding members. The trigger that made him hailed as a hero within the Empire was precisely the dragon attack incident 25 years ago.
At that time, Flens was a mid-level member within the Knights, but with a brave spirit and unwavering conviction more than anyone, he supposedly defeated the dragon that threatened the Empire. After that incident, Flens’s remarkable achievements became known to the public and Flens became the Empire’s hero in one stroke. And a few years after that, he supposedly rose to become the youngest Knight Commander.
It was certainly a perfect protagonist’s narrative that could appear in a novel.
Among the heroic tales, the details diverged on whether Flens fought one-on-one with the dragon and won, or the dragon got scared of Flens’s skills and ran away but was eventually caught and subjugated. If you considered that there were probably exaggerated parts as people who liked to gossip spread the word here and there, the reliability was somewhat low.
Even so, the unchanging facts were that Flens had confronted Ray and won. That he might be the only person who directly witnessed Ray’s end.
As long as Ray had no memory, if there really were detailed inside stories about the incident 25 years ago that weren’t known to the public, the only person who would know them would be Flens.
But going to Flens was almost the same as leaving fish with a cat. If he went to Flens and asked ‘What happened back then?’ he would obviously be treated with suspicion, and going further, Ray’s existence would be discovered too.
