"Not only two dragons, but also their offspring… this isn't the time for something like this to happen. Sir Siegfried, what do you propose we should do?" the marquis asked.
"Run for your life, of course, " Sieg said. Anemone glared at him, but his eyes told her it wasn't a joke. "What? Did you expect something else?"
Running wasn't the answer they had in mind. However, Sieg is the only expert they have, and if he says they should run all they could do is follow his advice.
"Sieg, you told me before that you hunted several dragons in the past right? Can't you deal with them this time?"
"Don't be stupid, my lady," a vein pulsated on his cheek as he forced a smile, "it's true that I hunted a rorock before, but I wasn't alone back then. You need a party of six eternals with the best equipment they could get, and even then, they might not get it done."
"I …see…"
"Hu-uh, that's something I hear about for the first time; did it happen before the great betrayal?" said the marquis.
"It's a story from long ago. I remember receiving a request from some noble asking for their eggs. Slaying them wasn't a priority"
"The eggs? Why would they ask for that?" Anne asked.
"Dragon eggs are high class ingredients, the only reason to pay for the quest is so they could eat them." As he remembered that time, he unconsciously began to drool. "I kept two of them for myself– I haven't eaten anything that delicious ever since."
"A high-class ingredient huh, is it worth risking your life for?" Sieg ignored her remark and continued, "back to the matter at hand, the most bothersome thing about Rorocks isn't their tough shell or their magma spit."
The round man gulped down audibly, "w-what could it be?"
"Their fart"
"pfffffffft!"
Sieg and the marquis turned to look at Anne who couldn't stop coughing. Embarrassed by her lack of self-control in that one moment, she calmed herself before talking.
"In other words, it has a poisoning attribute, or is it stoning?"
One of the few things Sieg never gets tired of is seeing the faint red on Anne's cheeks as she tries her best to hide her embarrassment, but unlike her, he was a master at masking his true expression.
"Poison, paralyses, confusion, dizziness etcetera. The effects differ from one to the other but every rorock has at least three of those."
"Warding items and potions for multiple effects require a lot of materials and skills to make. They are quite expensive," Marquis Leopold noted.
"We don't have a lot of time to prepare them either," Sieg said. "From what I saw, the mountain they nested in is nearly empty. If those Rorocks decided to feast on the people in this city you would have no choice but to ask your soldiers to throw their lives defending it, and even then, a massacre won't be avoidable."
Anemone wasn't prepared to let such a huge sacrifice happen without doing anything. Her mind worked to its utmost trying to find a solution but all she came up with were ideas she refused before.
"Marquis Greydeer, I think the best option we have right now is to ask the king for support. We can send a quest to the Phoenix Alliance as well, even if it isn't a preferable course of action right now"
"Lady Lionheart, with how close Windyfield is to the border, if our neighbors noticed us stationing more soldiers here, they would take it as a declaration of war."
He stopped for a minute trying to make up his mind.
"We have better chances at survival if we start evacuating. I will personally ask the king for permission to send a request for eternals to hunt down the monsters."
Anne turned to Sieg and asked, "you know the right people who could deal with Rorocks, right? Could you handle gathering them?"
"First you need the king's permission, everything else comes after that."
"Then it's decided," the marquis said "I will give the orders to start the evacuation. Sir Siegfried, can I count on you to provide us with the time if the worst happens?"
"I have to get some proper equipment first, everything I had on me melted in the monster's guts." He turned to his master with a serious look, "my lady, you should return to your father's side as soon as possible. This place is far too dangerous right now"
"But…"
"I won't accept any objections; your safety is my top priority after all"