The battle had ended, but the question of what to do with Ragni remained unresolved. Killing her while she was unconscious just didn't feel right.
"So, what do you think? Are you going to finish the mission?" the GM was the one left to ask.
"Of course, if we kill her, we'll fulfill the mission and return to the village as heroes. But something doesn't sit well with me about all this. You defeated her, so you should decide what to do with her," Katrina couldn't seem to make up her mind either.
"She tried to convince us all along that she was not at fault. Perhaps we should listen to her?"
"Do you believe her?"
"Not entirely yet, but I also don't see any evidence of her guilt. There are no traces of missing girls in her lair. If she had eaten them, there would be human bones left. Maybe she knows what happened to them."
"But I think once she wakes up, she'll immediately try to kill us."
"Not all dragons, especially the black ones, adhere to a code of honor. If she lost a fair one-on-one battle, she should obey me."
"Then let's take her back to the village and sort it all out there."
"Or maybe you won't take me to the village and just finish me off right here? Why waste time?" it seemed Ragni had already woken up and heard the end of our conversation.
"Ragni, you lost to me in a fair fight, and now you will obey my orders," just to be safe, I needed to ensure my safety.
"Hmph. I won't say that the fight was so fair. Anyway, I lost to you, and I'll follow your orders. But if your orders lead me to inevitable death, I'll refuse."
"Then we should return to the village. I'm sure if you explain everything to the elder, he will understand. People aren't as foolish as you think."
"Oh, yes. Those people who are ready to run after anyone suspected of using demonic magic with pitchforks and torches?"
"But you lived side by side with them for so many years, they can't hold a grudge against you."
"That's what you think. I was an outsider in the village, just like my mentor. They treated her with disdain, and when she brought another outsider from the city, they didn't speak to her for a long time. She always helped people, curing their illnesses, even saving lives. She never took money from people and mainly lived off the gifts the villagers gave her. She never had money, but once she fell seriously ill while in the city. The medicinal herbs from the forest weren't enough, and she needed rare ingredients that could only be bought in the city. I went to all the houses in the village, but they all said they had no money or refused to help outsiders. They gave me only a few pennies. I went to our merchant, Rikhar. He was the only one with a lot of money in the village and connections with traders in the city. He asked me what I could offer in return. I offered all the potions I could make and promised to supply them as much as he needed. But he just laughed in my face and said, 'Your concoctions are worthless in the city. You have nothing to offer me. If you need money, go to the port and try to earn it with your body.' He threw me out onto the street. And soon after, my teacher died. At the funeral, all those hypocrites came up to me with sad faces, expressing condolences. I hate them. I vowed never to help anyone for free again. From everyone who came to me for medicine, I demanded money. I asked for much less than the city apothecaries, but those bastards were still dissatisfied. Every time they left, they reproached me, saying my mentor healed people from a pure heart, unlike me! Damn them all!" Ragni was furious, but soon she calmed down and said, "Now you understand? They will kill me if you take me to the village."
"We have no other choice anyway. We're going back to the village, and don't even think about running away!" However, there was no strong confidence in Katrina's voice. Even if Ragni decided to escape, we wouldn't be able to stop her.
"Hm, well, okay, I will follow the laws of honor of our kind then."
After half an hour, three travelers appeared on the outskirts of the village. Two students from the Academy had come to protect the village from the dragon, along with the local healer, who had black horns adorning her head. Naturally, this caught the attention of all the villagers, and they started gathering in the square in front of the elder's house.
The elder himself stood before the assembly.
"What does this mean?" He didn't even attempt to hide the fear in his voice.
"This is your Dragon," I nodded towards Riby/Ragni.
"Why did you bring her to the village? She could kill all the villagers if she wanted," apparently hoping for the elder's reasonability was a bad idea.
"But I don't eat people," Ragni already understood that talking to these people was futile.
"Lies!"
"She ate our daughters!"
"Kill the monster!"
The crowd's hostility was intimidating. Even with so many people, Ragni might not have been able to handle them, especially in her human form, where her skin was not as tough as her scales.
"Please, calm down," unexpectedly, Katrina stepped up in Ragni's defense, and I thought she didn't like her, "you can at least listen to her first. Ragni claims she is not responsible for the troubles that befell your village. And you also have no direct evidence of her involvement."
"She bewitched them, don't believe this monster," I felt like it was the same voice that had stirred up the discontent before. Someone really wanted her dead.
"What's wrong with you people? There is still a chance that the missing girls are alive, and you don't even want to listen to her!?" I was irritated by their attitude, but there was no way to fight the whole village.
"She just wants to lure us into a trap. If we let her go now, the village is doomed!" that voice again! I heard it in the forest behind the elder's house. It seemed like someone strongly desired her death.
"Your motives raise doubts for me, and I won't let you harm Ragni," with these words, I furrowed my brow and theatrically reached for the swords on my back.
I hoped it would intimidate them, but it didn't have much effect. Armed with whatever they could find, the peasants relentlessly approached us, and the elder didn't seem to mind if they tore us apart.
"Ragni, can you carry us away from here?" I whispered to the dragoness.
"What are you joking about?! Have you forgotten what you did to my wings? I'm not sure I can fly away myself."
Things were looking bad, but at that moment, a shadow covered the town. If you looked closely, you could see a dark silhouette on the sun's disc, resembling a cloud.
"What is that?"
"An eclipse?"
"Has the witch cursed us?"
It seemed like our chance to escape, but a genuine fear appeared on Ragni's face.
"M-m-mama," looking around with a frightened expression, Ragni noticed a half-empty barrel of water behind the shed, "You can do as you wish, but I need to hide!"
With these words, the dragoness made a graceful jump of more than six meters, landed neatly in the barrel, and tightly closed the lid.
Meanwhile, the shadow grew larger. By its outline, it could be mistaken for a massive bird, but a sense of unease did not leave me. And my bad premonition came true. The shadow swooped down over the town low enough to instill fear in all the villagers. It was a black dragon! If Ragni was already a large dragon, this one was enormous. It measured two hundred meters in length, and one of its heads was the size of a small house. Its wingspan was almost three hundred meters, and it seemed like it could blow the entire village away with a single sweep. And it appeared that the dragon had no intentions of leaving; Rigdeil was its destination. A couple of kilometers above the ground, the dragon made a dead loop and hurtled toward the square where the villagers had gathered.
To my surprise, this did not end in a bloody massacre. At a height of about ten meters, the dragon did a somersault, instantly transformed into a human shape, and smoothly glided down with her human-sized wings before the frightened crowd.
"I am Ignis," she proclaimed.