"...after hearing this I did a few more scouting rounds, and I was able to find other disgruntled people. I even dressed up and tried to talk to them. I can assure you that apart from a few idiots like the one I was talking about earlier, no one thinks dragons are responsible for the disease, but otherwise… well, there are quite a few similarities" Tzegorn concluded after carefully explaining what he had heard the previous night.
Zamor and Haku looked worried. The situation was clearly dangerous, even if understandable: in fact, both had expected that sooner or later someone would start looking for a culprit for the epidemic. When people were afraid, their first reaction was to look for someone to ostracize and punish, even if that someone had nothing to do with what was happening. Haku was aware of that natural mechanism typical of newcomers' weak minds... but he hadn't expected it to emerge so soon. He'd assumed he had a little more time on his hands. He wasn't afraid of any reprisals, after all he and his family had all the necessary defenses to defeat the beastmen even if the whole village turned against them, but that could have been problematic for his plans to bring dragons and newcomers closer together. If people began to believe that dragons had something evil in mind, even if they did nothing they would be suspicious and wary of them; it wasn't what Haku wanted. "Thank you for letting us know" he said to Tzegorn.
The tigerman nodded, though not cordially. Indeed, Tzegorn had been very dubious at first about revealing what he knew; since his goal was to protect his people from the nefarious presence of dragons, letting such rumors spread would be good for him. However, he changed his mind when he tried to reflect on the big picture: not only if those disgruntled people continued to be disgruntled could they do something extraordinarily stupid, like try to kill one of the dragons (and Tzegorn didn't even want to imagine how Haku would react in that case; knowing him, he seriously doubted that he would be able to contain his more violent and brutal side if a member of his family was endangered), but the spread of discontent could also lead to internal unrest in the village, and at the moment with the epidemic going on they would clearly have created delays in the production of the remedies or even their administration, and someone could have died, with the result that the discontent would have increased even more and therefore… well, it would be an endless vicious circle that would almost certainly culminate either in a revolt or in extremely severe restrictive measures imposed by Zamor. Tzegorn didn't want either scenario to happen, because in either case the whole village would suffer and many people would die; therefore, he had decided to stop the situation in the bud and confess everything. He'd use what he'd heard to strip Haku of some of the power the dragons had gained, just as he'd wanted to do all along, and doing so would also block, at least momentarily, any thoughts of incredibly stupid and self-defeating actions by the citizens.
As he had foreseen, in fact, Zamor now seemed somewhat disappointed by the situation, and almost certainly would have been more malleable. The lizardman was in fact reflecting on what to do. "Advisor Haku, did your siblings do anything to boost these rumors?"
The first thing to do to dispel discontent was to ascertain whether such discontent was founded. Haku shook his head: "Not that I know of. They always told me that they behaved in the best way that came to their mind. And every now and then I went by to check the works, and it didn't seem to me that there were any problems at all, on the contrary my siblings seemed too friendly and kind to me. And you also came with me from time to time, so you saw it you too..."
"The problem isn't what actually happened, it's the mentality of the people" Tzegorn intervened. He couldn't blame Haku: in fact he too had seen the work and could confirm that the dragons had behaved well, and even the night before after he had dressed up and tried to ask some questions it had been easy for him to understand that the most of the things people were saying existed only in their heads. "Even I am convinced that you dragons aren't at fault. After all, scolding a worker for five minutes for a single mistake is clearly an exaggeration: considering that you dragons are motivated mainly by logic, none of you would be foolish enough to waste time with one worker and leave all the others unsupervised with the risk of someone else making a mistake. But people don't care about that. If one of Carrion's old subordinates were here, even if he was fully redeemed and doing his best, people would still say he was acting like a monster. Now, I certainly don't want to compare you dragons to Carrion, but still people have spent their whole lives imagining dragons as murderous and cruel beasts, and now they are forced not only to live with them, but also to do their bidding. This, combined with the somewhat horrendous situation we are experiencing, cannot lead to anything good. Even if you dragons have done nothing, in the eyes of the citizens you remain... well..."
"Do we remain monsters?" Haku anticipated him by menacingly squeezing his pupils. "Is that what you mean?"
Tzegorn shook his head. "No, not monsters. Not after everything you've done for the people of this village, after you saved them, fed them, and brought them here. But you're different and strange, and most of all you're powerful, and that makes people unsettled. You can defeat even a legendary level, you have immense knowledge and in half a day you figured out how to heal a disease that it would have taken any other person weeks, if not months to figure out. You are almost mythological figures. People don't know how powerful you are, and so they imagine that you are very much… and since they don't know why you helped us, they think that you have something in your mind. When they look at you, what they see is a ten-meters-long creature with huge claws and fangs that could tear them apart in an instant if it wanted to, and so no matter how that creature behaves, they can't help but feel danger in its presence. In normal times, people would be able to control these feelings and even erase them after some time… but in a moment of total tension like this, all the fear people normally feel is further amplified, including that towards you dragons. And so they imagine that you want to control us and that you are evil and tyrannical. It's not fair... but it's the nature of people"
Haku let out an angry huff and a loud growl emerged from his throat. It was clear that he wasn't liking how things were going. Zamor reflected, then he said: "We can't ignore what's happening. We have to do something to calm things down. Haku, I know it's an injustice towards you and that from the beginning you just wanted to help... but given the situation, I think it would be better if you and your family would give up participating in the production of the remedy against the disease, and just control the final result"
The dragon remained silent, clearly annoyed. Both Zamor and Tzegorn could see his claws lightly scratching the ground beneath his fingers, but when Haku spoke it was very calm and composed. "Yeah… I think that would be for the best too. Without the constant presence of my siblings people will probably quiet down, at least for a while. And then enough time has passed now, people have almost completely learned how to do the their job; I'm sure we'll be able to find trusted individuals who can take over as supervisors. I'll talk to my siblings soon... I don't think they'll protest, a lot of them didn't even like the job"
Zamor was pleased that the dragon had taken it so well, even though he was sure he was totally furious and was only trying to preserve his pride. Tzegorn also felt the same way, but unlike Zamor he was euphoric because for him this was a victory: he had managed to deprive Haku of part of his power, and even if the dragon still had many cards in his deck, at least he had some Less. "We thank you for your understanding, advisor Haku" he said without however hiding a satisfied smile, which surely didn't escape the dragon as it glared at him; however, Haku still didn't react and walked away without saying a word.
Haku quickly walked away, then as soon as he was far enough away from anyone who could see him he finally let out a deep growl of anger and with one claw he uprooted thousands of blades of grass that flew around him as if they were snow. Stupid newcomers! After everything he and his family had done for them, that was how they reciprocated? With suspicions and falsehoods? If only they had been in their place and had done what they were supposed to do, everything would have gone as Haku wanted... and instead they had to behave in such an absolutely ridiculous way! Apparently he had underestimated the stupidity of the newcomers: if he wanted to change their mentality, forced coexistence and help weren't enough. Something more was needed.
He needed something big, something that couldn't help but inspire gratitude in the hearts of even the most stubborn of newcomers. His secret cultivation project wasn't enough: even if everyone would have liked it, they would still have continued to speak ill of the dragons behind their backs and would have said that it was not their right to act in such a sneaky way anyway. Now that Haku had a greater awareness of how much that village was inhabited by assholes, he could take into account many possible variables that he had previously dismissed as too idiotic.
There was only one solution to that problem; Haku wished he didn't have to use it, but he had no choice at the moment. So she sniffed the air and found her target, and ran towards him. In moments he reached the person he was looking for: his brother Rhaegal. "Brother, sorry to bother you, but we need to talk"
Rhaegal looked at him confused. "Okay. What is it about?"
Haku quickly explained to him everything that had happened, also revealing the consequences that this would entail. When he finished, his brother was outraged. "But that's absurd! I mean, just because we're better and stronger than them do they see us as a threat? We saved them from Carrion, damn!"
"I know, brother. But unfortunately that's the way things are. Newcomers are stupid... and we have to behave accordingly" Haku said. "Rhaegal, I didn't want to put you in this situation, but… I need your help"
"For what?"
"To find a cure"
What was the best way to earn everyone's gratitude during an epidemic? Easy: find a way to really cure the aforementioned epidemic. Not with remedies that only served to decrease the symptoms, but with a real cure that would really put a stop to the disease once and for all. "But there is no cure" Rhaegal said.
"Not yet. But we can find one" Haku replied. "Isaac said that healing potions work as long as the mana in them exceeds the mana of the disease. Therefore, all we need is to find a non-lethal substance that possesses greater amounts of mana, and which consequently combined with the medicinal herbs can destroy the disease. If Maldor were here, she would probably be able to thin our blood enough for this purpose... but since that isn't the case, we must seek the cure ourselves. Now, we know that throughout the oasis there is nothing that matches the requirements... but we never tried to look under it"
Rhaegal considered and nodded. He understood where his brother was getting at: he wanted him to go look for something in the underground caverns. After all, since the mana increased as you went underground, it was likely that there was some substance down there that had the necessary amount. Perhaps they would be lucky enough to find a plant or mushroom with medicinal properties. "I get it" he said with a smile. "Don't worry, I'll take care of it. I'll organize a search and..."
"You can't go alone" Haku interrupted him. "Rhaegal, I'm sorry, I didn't want to put you in this situation... but if you were to find the cure yourself, the villagers will accuse us of having had it all along. You need to bring newcomers with you to make the search believable"
Rhaegal sighed. "I know what you want to ask me"
Haku looked down mortified. "Rhaegal, you must make peace with your fellow adventurers, and you must go find the cure all together"