Ice Dragon (3)
The Ice Dragon took in the sight of the frozen tundra before her.
Considering she had been running for her life just a day earlier, it was strange how peaceful the world looked now.
“Are you the Emperor of these lands, Virgin?”
“Huh? Stop calling me Virgin.”
She didn’t seem to hear the complaint. Her attention remained fixed on the landscape.
“On my way here, the animals avoided your humble castle. The beasts lurking in the woods fled when you arrived. Are you not the ruler of this frozen expanse?”
Vergil stared at her for a moment, then rubbed his forehead.
“It’s not a castle. It’s a cabin. And I’m not an emperor.”
She turned to look at him, confusion etched on her expression.
“You command these lands, do you not?”
“I—”
Vergil stopped himself.
His first instinct was to deny it outright, but the moment he actually thought about it, the words died down.
In the village, the people relied on him for protection.
Whenever trouble appeared, they called for him, along with their own knights.
And in the frozen woods surrounding his cabin, he hunted freely and faced no threat he couldn’t handle.
In these lands, whether he intended it or not, he acted like the apex predator, like the one creature everything else avoided.
Didn’t that, in its own strange way, make him the de facto ruler of these rural northern lands?
“…Huh. That’s… actually not completely wrong.”
The Ice Dragon woman crossed her arms with a satisfied look, as if she had just confirmed something obvious.
“So you admit it. You are, in fact, the one who governs this frozen domain. Then this makes matters easier. Virgin—”
“It’s Vergil.”
“Virgin.”
Vergil frowned. He couldn’t tell if she was doing it on purpose or if she genuinely believed that was his name.
But from observing her posture, the tone in her speech, and the subtle refinement in her gestures, she clearly held the mannerisms of some sort of noblewoman.
Would someone like her even know what that word meant to the human race?
Before he could correct her again, she continued in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Since you saved me, I must repay the favor. You have a clear lack of territory expansion. I will grant you the right to broaden your domain, should you wish it.”
“Huh?”
She blinked at him, surprised he didn’t immediately grasp her meaning.
“Do you not know? These frozen plains belong to Ice Dragons.”
This woman… was out of her damn mind.
Regions naturally had their own overseers.
The green forests of the western front, where ivy and ancient trees thrived, belonged to the elves.
Farther west lived the beastfolk. To the east were the dwarves. In the south, the orcs held dominion.
And in the north, where all seasons collided and the lands were coldest, resided the Dragons and the Dragonoids.
Humans, meanwhile, were at the very center of everything.
It was the most exposed, the most vulnerable, the most disadvantaged territory one could inherit, but also the most important when it came to trade.
In any case, the north, divided into territories controlled by different dragon clans, was governed by true Dragons, all of whom were ruled under the authority of their overseer, the Dragon Emperor.
If this Ice Dragon woman’s existence had been discovered, and since the Dragonoids were hunting her, then the order had most likely come from above.
The Dragon Emperor himself had likely marked her for elimination.
As for why Ice Dragons were hunted by their own kind, Vergil had no idea.
Vergil turned to look at her. Her cold blue pupils reflected his own black eyes with an emotion he couldn’t quite place.
“That is of a bygone era.”
“……”
The northern plains that had once thrived with Ice Dragons were already lost to time.
Their presence, which had once shaped entire seasons, had faded into near extinction after centuries of being hunted by their own kind.
Whatever land they once ruled no longer belonged to them. Reality had changed, but she spoke as if the past were still intact.
The Ice Dragon woman, lost in her memories, lifted her gaze toward the winter sun.
A faint hint of nostalgia softened her features, even if just for a moment.
“Yes. That is so. It is of a bygone era. These frozen forests once prospered under the Ice Dragons.”
Vergil watched her quietly for a moment before answering.
“…But not anymore.”
Her gaze lowered, and the nostalgic warmth faded from her eyes.
“I must go.”
Vergil turned to her and asked.
“Go where?”
But she didn’t elaborate. Her gaze remained distant, as if the answer lay somewhere far beyond the horizon, farther than he could imagine, and closer than she wanted to admit.
Vergil frowned.
“You can barely walk.”
“While your concern is noted, it is unnecessary. I will repay this debt, Virgin. If not today, then one day. An Ice Dragon always repays their debt.”
———!
Before Vergil could respond, scales began to bloom along her bare skin. Her form slowly began to expand, as if she were moments away from transforming into her true draconic shape.
For a second, Vergil marveled at the sight.
“.....?”
But it vanished just as quickly.
Her body reverted to its human form, and the strength draining from her was immediate.
She collapsed to the ground and immediately coughed violently.
A broken whimper escaped her lips as she clutched at the snow, trembling in agony.
Vergil stepped forward in alarm.
“Hey—”
“This—Cough! Isn’t right…”
Vergil’s eyes dropped to her remaining horn.
The single blue horn pulsed like veins. It didn’t take a genius to see the problem.
A Dragon’s power flowed through both horns.
Losing one meant losing half of everything that made them what they were.
With a single horn, her strength was split down the middle.
Trying to take her true form now was nothing short of suicide.
“This body… refuses me… I am an Ice Dragon… why can I not—Cough!”
“Hey, hey.”
Vergil moved closer, supporting her as her body curled over in pain.
Her limbs trembled uncontrollably, and her strength was draining faster with every attempt she made to rise.
——Sir Vergil!
From a distance, voices echoed through the trees.
It was most likely the chief and the village Head Knight again.
“Ah, shit.”
Without wasting a second, Vergil gathered the weakened Ice Dragon into his arms and carried her inside the cabin.
He set her down gently on the bed before stepping back out.
By the time he closed the door behind him, the chief and the Head Knight were already there.
“Sir Vergil, there’s a situation!”
Vergil met their frantic expressions with a raised brow.
“What’s the matter?”
“Dragonoid officials have come directly to the village!”
Vergil’s eyes immediately flicked toward the cabin door, hesitation creasing in his expression.
“Fuck.”
He rushed back inside, grabbed his coat and sword, and told the Ice Dragon woman not to venture out until he returned.
He stepped outside, shut the door behind him, and turned to the chief and the Head Knight.
“Lead the way.”
* * *
Vergil swallowed hard.
The moment he had killed those Dragonoids, he already expected that some form of attention would eventually fall on the village.
Dragonoids did not simply vanish without reason, and officials would eventually notice something was wrong.
Even so, Vergil had taken every measure he could.
He had hidden the bodies thoroughly, cutting them apart and burning every piece until nothing remained but ash.
Without proof, there was always room to twist the truth, to push the narrative elsewhere, to retcon the situation entirely if he had to.
When Vergil arrived at the town hall, he was met with the sight of an elder Dragonoid standing at the center of the room.
The man’s beard was long and frosted at the tips, and his scales were a muted shade of blue.
Standing behind him were armored Dragonoid guards, each holding spears.
The elder Dragonoid’s gaze turned to Vergil.
“Is this the human?”
The village chief bowed his head.
“Yes. Sir Vergil was the one we sent to investigate the commotion yesterday. If the group you dispatched truly passed through our region, then Sir Vergil’s account will be far more reliable than ours.”
The elder Dragonoid regarded Vergil with a scrutinizing stare.
Vergil kept his posture relaxed.
One wrong word and the Dragonoids might tear through the village.
The elder finally spoke.
“Human. You encountered my men, did you not?”
Vergil met his gaze evenly.
“I came across some Dragonoids, yes.”
The guards tightened their grip on their spears, watching him more closely now.
“And what became of them?”
“Nothing that involved the village.”
A tense silence followed. The Dragonoid guards exchanged uncertain glances with each other.
The elder Dragonoid frowned.
“Explain.”
“I found signs of their presence. But not the Dragonoids themselves. They likely encountered something in the forest.”
It wasn’t a lie.
Just not the truth they wanted.
The elder Dragonoid stroked his beard slowly in deep contemplation.
“Hm. And you saw no bodies?”
Vergil shook his head.
“No. Whatever happened to them, the forest didn’t leave much behind.”
And if the Dragonoids decided to investigate the forest now, that was exactly the outcome they would find.
With every trace erased, they would be left grasping at straws and forced to rely on assumptions rather than evidence.
If they chose to use force regardless, then Vergil would simply indulge them.
It would no longer be his problem.
Dragonoids starting a conflict without proof would draw the ire of every other race that benefited from the peace that tied the world together.
The balance that allowed each race to prosper in their own territories did not permit reckless accusations or displays of aggression.
If the Dragonoids pushed too far, they would ignite a war.
And they would be the ones paying the price, even if it were some small rural village.
“This might be a strange question. But have you, by any chance, encountered signs of an Ice Dragon in these woods?”
Vergil scoffed inwardly, though his face didn’t show it.
“None.”
