Chapter 901

901: Georg the Dragon King

Fran was left pacing back and forth through the room.
We couldn’t touch the evil crystals since it might interfere with the interrogation. It might be okay to store them rather than destroying them, but I didn’t want to take the risk.
So we just played it safe for the time being, examining the rest of the hall. After Fran ran out of things to look at, someone called over to her.
Drulay must have finished the interrogation.
「Are you done already?」
「Yeah. It seems that burst of madness earlier weakened whatever was controlling him, allowing our hypnosis to work. We got him talking now.」
Drulay, you’re like a true underling now, huh?
It seems that incident worked to our advantage. Maybe the power dominating these guys gets expended slightly every time they are forced to obey.
The life dragonkin simply sat on the ground, completely expressionless. He looked to be in a complete daze and didn’t react as Fran approached him.
The raccoon beastman’s hypnosis must have worked perfectly.
「So they’re the attackers?」
「I’m sure of it.」
Drulay and the others explained the intel they had gotten from the dragonkin.
These were warriors under the direct command of the Dragon King, the one who ordered the attack. The Dragon King had them bound with the Dragon Domination skill, forcing them to obey his orders.
This skill allows him to completely brainwash any target, as long as they have a certain amount of loyalty to him in the first place. It also draws out and strengthens their latent powers.
While it seems he can’t dominate just anyone, it’s still an incredibly nasty skill.
The dragonkin here were given the order to protect this place even if it costs them their lives. That explains why they went crazy when we attempted to destroy the crystals.
Finally, the Dragon King ordered them to incite a war between the gangs. Filuria and the Dragon King must have been working together behind the scenes.
「Dragon King Georg……」
The name of the other mastermind behind this incident, alongside Filuria.
「Why did he want a war?」
「It seems his goal was to empower the evil crystals in this room.」
The ritual magic circle absorbed power from the souls of anyone dying in the city, and store that energy in the evil crystals.
Then, the Dragon King planned to use the charged crystals to perform yet another ritual.
Destroying a city, evil crystals, and a ritual circle. The Dragon King’s scheme exactly matched the fiendmancer Linford’s plot to the letter.
There’s no way he could have any decent goal in mind.
That’s when Fran asked something she was concerned about.
「How much is Seliadot helping the Dragon King?」
「I wasn’t able to find that out. Sorry.」
The one who answered her was the raccoon beastman in charge of the interrogation. He seemed to be an intellectual type, speaking calmly without any fear of Fran.
「Then where did they get the warding stones?」
「The Dragon King handed them over directly. It seems these guys don’t know exactly where they came from.」
Since they had warding stones, I thought Seliadot might be in cahoots with the enemy. However, she’s being subtle about it, at the very least.
It’s possible Filuria passed the wards along without her permission.
Is Seliadot friend or foe? And what is her goal? Since she rescued Sophie, there’s gotta be something more to it……
「And who caused the explosion at the guild?」
「Ah yes, I’ve found the answer to that too.」
One of the adventurers who was helping with the interrogation asked a question about that as well.
「They say the dragonkin with the Dragonblood skill blew himself up by letting his ability go out of control.」
So it really was a suicide bomb after all.
The Dragon King must have manipulated that red-scaled dragonkin into sacrificing his own life for the explosion. That only proves just how powerful his domination was.
「Where is the Dragon King?」
「It seems they don’t know his location.」
「Nn? Why?」
The Dragon King apparently wasn’t in this city to begin with. He never told Meruba his exact location, only that he planned to come secretly after the evil crystals charged up enough power.
Does that mean he can remotely check the status of the evil crystals? If a high-ranking member like Meruba didn’t know his whereabouts, it may be quite difficult to search him out.
「What does Dragon King Georg look like?」
「They say he is an evil dragonkin with dark eyes, dark hair, and a thin figure.」
「Shouldn’t he be killed if he’s an evil dragonkin?」
「Apparently he’s a rare type of evil dragonkin that kept his sanity. Their race allowed him to live because of his strength.」
If the Dragon King truly was an evil dragonkin, then he might be able to perform evil rituals. I was wondering if he had some sort of fiendmancer cooperating with him, but maybe he can simply perform the rituals by himself.
Also, the Dragon King being an evil dragonkin would explain why the other dragonkin barely talked about him. They didn’t want the rumors getting out about an evil dragonkin allowed to run free.
Many dragonkin were ashamed at having to borrow the power of an evil dragonkin, so they would want to keep his existence a secret from the other races. There seems to be a deep-rooted racial discrimination at play there.
Young dragonkin or those of poor status, such as the dragonkin from this city, were unaware about this fact. Even if they heard rumors about a living evil dragonkin, they never connected the rumors to the self-proclaimed Dragon King.
But shouldn’t at least the elders of the dragonkin settlements know about him?
Moreover, we might be able to track him down if we follow the trail of evil energy back to the source. This is good to know.
We were able to get a lot of useful info from the interrogation, but there was still a big job left unfinished.
『Well, now that we’ve heard what they have to say, we can finally destroy the evil crystals.』
「Nn.」