The Adventures of Rose Hood

“So, you are here to help?”

“Yes.”

“Then why break our economy.”

“Because it’s evil. That is my job.”

He growled for a moment before returning to the task at hand.

“There have been sightings of lesser demons along with goblins and we think that a group of them will cause mayhem to the city.”

“You have A rankers here, send them.”

“We have, only 3 returned.”

“How many did you send?”

“10.”

“So, you think that there may be a greater demon.”

“Yes.”

“Tell you what. I don’t need the money for completing this, if you free whatever slaves you own.”

“You-”

He breathed in deeply. Even he knew that he needed me.

“Fine, if you succeed and deal with the ringleader, I will free my slaves.”

“Thank you, lolimaster.”

“Don’t call me that.”

I left without being dismissed. He was confident that I wouldn’t hurt him, but he knew that he couldn’t exactly get me in trouble for melting his gear. After all, that would expose his deeds as well.

I went out and saw a group of adventurers.

“We were assigned to help you. Guildmaster insisted.”

A lie. The only word about that was help. Likely the lolimaster wants me to die but is too cowardly to attempt it himself. These guys all were A quality, and one was even S quality.

We began to move out and the adventurers followed behind me.

“Alright, we are far enough now.”

“For what?”

“Get on my back.”

“Huh?”

I shifted into a dragon causing some of them to scream.

“Get on my back, we can get to the valley much quicker that way.”

The S level did it first, but he had a smirk. Maybe he thought that he could kill me while on my back.

The others slowly got on and then I took off. The air pressure caused some of them to scream, but when we reached cruising altitude I evened out. They were shakened but looked over and I heard a gasp from the youngest one. Not fear, but awe.

“And now you see what we see.”

“Incredible.”

They were shocked to see the expanse of the world below them. Even the S level was in awe. None of them had seen the world from this perspective. In their mind, it was unbelievable.

_

We reached the town that we were heading to an hour after we set out. I landed on the field next to it and shifted. We were supposed to meet with the guildmaster here and he would send us to where the evil beings were.

But having a dragon land near the gate caused massive panic. When I became my catkin form their panic lessened, but a spear was still thrown... and broken by my chestplate.

“Relax, we need to meet with the guildmaster.”

“Are those the A ranks who failed us before?”

“Hah, how dare those fools come back.”

“They should just put on collars.”

“Yeah!”

The A rankers began to look ashamed.

“You try it then.”

Everyone looked at me.

“You try dealing with the evil beasts.”

“What? We are civilians. We aren’t strong enough.”

“Then why criticize the adventurers that tried before. Don’t get mad at them if you are too cowardly to even attempt what they failed.”

Everyone looked at me in shock.

“Hey girl, stay out of this.”

“No, I don’t think I will. You are insulting my comrades but are too cowardly to do anything yourself.”

Of course, they had a man sneaking up behind me with a collar. My party was conflicted. On one hand, they were supposed to make sure I didn’t return, on the other hand, I stood up for them.

Then the youngest.

“Rose! Look out!”

The collar snapped around my neck and the merchant that did it seemed proud of himself.

“A dragon under my control. I can do so much with this. Come here.”

I did.

“Now, k-”

I kicked his groin, causing him to collapse in pain and agony. I took off the collar and slapped it around his neck. I seized the contract related to it and said.

“Take out the contracts.”

Shaking, he did.

“Burn them.”

He cast a fire spell and all of his contracts went up in flames. I tossed the one he was linked too in there as well.

“Congratulations, you’re a free man now, try that again and you will lose more than just your slaves.”

I walked over to the guard who was frozen in place.

“Now, could me and my kind party come in and talk to the guild master? Or will you hold us up more.”

The guards opened the gate and me and my party entered. They were in awe. The S level walked up to me.

“Hey, um sorry about earlier today. I didn’t want to disobey the guildmaster.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t bring personal business into missions, and besides, I’m sure the lolimaster will face his comeuppance one day.”

The party snorted with that title being given to the guildmaster.

We got to the guild hall entrance sharing adventures we’d been on. It turned out that the S level hated slavery as well, he was just more terrified of the guildmaster and other adventurers than he hated slavery.

“Why, you are S level in terms of power?”

“Well, I did the adventurers bane, and the boss there terrified me to the point where I fled. It was a beast far greater than any I’d faced before.”

“Was it a dragon?”

He froze for a moment before failing to speak.

“Ah, don’t worry, you could challenge it again. Thalia now works for Calesen as a smith.”

“Thalia?”

“The former boss of the adventurer’s bane dungeon, and my older sister.”

“Wait, so I could try it again?”

“Yes.”

“They ridiculed me as a coward for fleeing, especially because I couldn’t explain myself.”

“Yes, she had you agree to a contract before letting you go.”

“I figured that out, but most thought I merely wouldn’t mention it so they wouldn’t laugh at me. Even after more S candidates fled and many didn’t come out at all, they still regarded me as a coward.”

“That sucks, but why are you scared of the guildmaster.”

“Because he is an S rank.”

“I see.”

Compared to me, most people were weak, so I didn’t usually check their power level.

A party member of his spoke up.

“Yeah, boss tried writing it down, but his hand seized whenever he did it, so we knew it had contract magic, but we couldn’t figure out which one until now.”

“Hmm.”

We entered the guild, and some jerk started laughing.

“Hey, cowardly knight. How are you? Scared of the dungeon still?”

“No, in fact I intend to rerun it again after this current mission.”

“Ooh, so you waited for there to be a new boss? Sure, you won’t run this time?”

“Yes.”

“Who’s the girl? Is she for sale?”

The guild erupted in laughter.

“No, she’s actually the senior of the mission.”

“Hah, wow, they think you’re so weak you only need a little kid to keep you in line.”

“Actually, we are here to keep her in line.”

“Hah!”

The man walked up and grabbed my shoulder.

“You’re too weak. They want you to guard a little cat- OH MY GOODNESS!!!”

Not even my party knew why he freaked out, but he was shivering against the wall. I had focused and released the full extent of my aura straight at him.

He was the only one to feel it, and now he was cowering in the corner muttering nonsense.

The S level turned to me an unamused look.

“What did you do?”

“Shot my aura at him.”

“Try not to break the minds of the people you are trying to help.”

“Eh, he deserved it.”

Finally, he had a smile.

“Yes, I suppose so.”