Chapter 1217: Treatment of Raydoss Citizens

Fran gave Esmeralda a brief explanation. Basically, the dukes of Raydoss started massacring their own citizens, so we cooperated with the Red Knights to protect them. Then, we somehow ended up teleporting near Bulbora during the battle.

It took about five minutes, but I think she got the gist of it.

『Siiigh…』

Meanwhile, Esmeralda seemed to be massaging her forehead to ease a headache on the other side of the sand rat. This must be quite a difficult story to handle.

『Head to Bulbora as soon as possible. I’ll let my subordinates there know you’re coming. Make sure you keep the guys from Raydoss with you, as letting them go will cause even more problems. And don’t worry, we’ll treat them with respect as long as they do the same to us.』

「Got it.」

Esmeralda can be savage when needed, but she’s not the type to lie. We can rest easy that Sibylla and her folks will be safe as long as they don’t cause any trouble.

I guess we first need to get everyone to Bulbora.

That said, were the villagers in any state to walk all the way there? The city may be visible from here, but there’s still quite a bit of distance.

So much has happened. The intense battle, the teleport incident, and Biscot’s transformation into a dragon. I almost forgot that the villagers were pretty much at their breaking point.

All of them had been pushed to the limit, both mentally and physically. Probably the only reason they haven’t collapsed yet was because they needed to stay up and ensure the safety of their friends and children.

I want to let them rest, but there’s one big problem.

The villagers are citizens of Raydoss, an enemy nation. The Red Knights even engaged the Kranzel army in a fierce battle just the other day.

Fran happened to cooperate with them to protect the villagers, but Kranzel isn’t simply going to let their enemies walk free.

Not to mention how two Red Knight orders, Raydoss’s strongest forces, just illegally entered their country.

Kranzel might suspect Fran of collusion if we don’t do something about this. We need to ensure Sibylla acts very carefully.

「Sibylla.」

「Fran, Biscot somehow turned into a dragon… You were manipulating evil energy with your sword, right? Do you have any idea how this happened?」

「No clue.」

「I see…」

Yeah, Fran truly doesn’t know anything about this. Neither do it, aside from the Evil God Fragment’s obvious involvement.

「Sigh. I guess he was about to die, so we can consider it a win.」

「Kyuu!」

「…I wonder if he can understand anything. Maybe as well as a dragon? I’ve heard high-level dragons are decently intelligent…」

「Kyuu?」

「I guess Biscot has always been a bit of an idiot, so probably not a big change there.」

「Kyua! Kyukyuu!」

The black dragon screeched in protest. With a skillful movement of his small wings, he began floating in the air and gesturing with his limbs.

「Can you understand what I’m saying?」

「Kyuo!」

「Great, let’s get down to the main question then. Are you Biscot?」

「Kyuu?」

「Why are you tilting your head like that? I can’t tell what that’s supposed to mean…」

The dragon blinked a few times with a tilted head.

「You understand me, right?」

「Kyuu.」

「Do you have memories of being Biscot?」

「Kyuu? Kyu!」

The dragon used his small claws to make a gesture indicating “a little”. It seems he does remember being Biscot, but the memories are vague.

「…What’s with that cuteness? Has our Biscot become a mascot?」

「Kyua?」

「Guess it can’t be helped. You better listen to me, okay?」

「Kyuu.」

Doesn’t look like he’ll go berserk or start attacking people. That’s one thing less to worry about.

「Sibylla, about what’s next.」

「…I suppose we can’t simply part ways like this. We’ll end up fighting Kranzel’s soldiers in no time if we’re on our own.」

Sibylla must also be worried about their future course of action. They have no clue what’s going on within Kranzel, so there are too many unknowns.

「Here.」

「Huh? A rat made of sand?」

「It’s connected to one of the important people here. She says we should bring everyone to Bulbora.」

「So that really is Bulbora?」

It seems Sibylla also recognized that we were within Kranzel’s borders. Come to think of it, we first met her during the Bulbora cooking contest.

「Sigh. Guess we don’t have much of a choice if they know we’re here… Can I trust you?」

「Nn. They’ll guarantee your safety as long as you don’t cause trouble.」

「…Alright. I’ll order my men to refrain from acting recklessly.」

Sibylla directed her gaze not at her subordinates but at the villagers sitting on the ground. For her, the lives of those villagers must be of utmost priority.

There’s no way to get all of them to safety when they’re this deep within enemy territory. If the knights get into a fight, the villagers are as good as done for.

And Kranzel will likely use them as hostages against the Red Knights. Perhaps they would even go as far as to make an example of the through torture and such.

Any true Red Knight would never abandon the villagers to such a fate, so I think we have their support. All that’s left is to ensure the villagers act carefully too.

Even if even a single person runs off on their own, it might sour relations with Kranzel.

「Klikka, Madred, we need to talk!」

「Roger!」

「…Roger.」

Sibylla informed Klikka and the others of the situation, explaining that they were in Kranzel Kingdom and needed to head to Bulbora.

Madred didn’t like entrusting the villagers to Kranzel, but reluctantly agreed after hearing how there was no way to safely get them back to Raydoss.

Like I thought, many of the Red Knights were unfamiliar with foreign affairs.

Besides, these villagers were nearly massacred by the East Conquest Duke. Would they even want to return to Raydoss in the first place?

「Everyone is tired. Let’s take a short break here before we move.」

「Alright. Klikka, Madred, make sure everyone stays on standby. Absolutely do not act on your own. Any of our actions are directly linked to the safety of our people. Got it?」

「Yes!」

「Roger.」

Looks good. Now we should be able to reach Bulbora without any problems.