IVAGHD 15

Chapter 15

The god of Ranken had once again failed to help him.
Ranken concluded that the reason must be donations.

Gritting his teeth, he decided that next time he would either donate more—or actively sabotage Viretta’s donations—and shot her a resentful glare.

“Let us begin the First Dragon Hunting Strategy Meeting.”

Standing beside the table, Viretta scribbled on a large blackboard with a piece of chalk.

“I’m Viretta Medlitch, serving as the interim chairperson. Anyone with objections, please raise your hand.”

Ranken shot his hand straight up.
Viretta pointed at him with her chalk.

“Very well. Moving on. We plan to hunt the dragon in the southern mining region. Any objections?”

Ranken raised his hand again.

“I see. Since we left in a hurry, we’ll cover the initial funds using items brought from the estate and my personal money. Any expenses incurred in preparation will be deducted later from the profits. Any other opinions?”

Ranken flailed both arms wildly from side to side.

“Thank you for participating so enthusiastically. Next agenda item: the target date for the hunt. It’s impossible to slay the dragon before the engagement ceremony in two days, so let’s decide on a feasible date. When would be good?”

Ranken swung his arms in a wide circle and pounded the table with his other hand.

Thud. Tap, tap.

“You’re really energetic today! Thank you for the input.”

“You’re ignoring me!!”

After being ignored four times in a row, Ranken finally snapped and shouted.
Even at his ear-splitting yell, Viretta didn’t flinch—she just winked at him.

“No, no. I’ve been watching very carefully.”

“Don’t just watch—listen! If you weren’t going to listen, why ask?!”

“It’s for reference. I want to be a great leader who listens attentively to everyone’s opinions!”

“Then show it with your actions! If it’s a meeting, respect my opinion too!”

“Oh dear, what a strange thing to say. I even ignore my father, who supports me so generously—do you really think I’d respect your complaints?”

She said it with a bright smile, and before Ranken could even begin arguing, he realized this conversation was going nowhere.

He glared at her, looking like he’d just been punched.
What infuriated him most was that he couldn’t deny it.

“I know you’re worried about my safety while supporting me—how touching. But they say the more precious the child, the more discipline they need.”

“That’s not how that saying is used.”

“Anyway. Ms. Iola, Sir Monain—how long until you decide to cut my father down?”

“If we don’t receive a satisfactory answer, it could happen at the engagement ceremony.”

“Oh wow… that’s much sooner—and more specific—than I expected…”

What Viretta had meant as a joke received an alarmingly serious response.
Considering Monain’s profession and Iola’s blunt honesty, it was a genuinely dangerous statement. Viretta wiped away cold sweat and laughed awkwardly.

“Well, my father will have servants and guards with him. He won’t go down easily.”

“I hope so. Though he has won battles fighting ten to one.”

“Then shouldn’t he be able to hunt a dragon?! Shouldn’t Sir Monain do it instead?”

“I asked. He refused.”

The answers came too smoothly.
Once again, Viretta realized just how enormous and ferocious dragons truly were.

In stories and novels, lone knights beheaded dragons with ease.
But reality was different—so different that even a veteran mercenary who’d survived ten-to-one battles refused to hunt one.

“At least you asked.”

“Yes. You were the fifty-third person.”

Fifty-two extraordinary people had already refused…

Watching this, Ranken’s gaze darkened. Even Viretta’s voice wavered slightly.

“It’ll be fine. My father’s greatest weapon is his silver tongue—he’ll manage. And, you know, the more precious the father, the more discipline—”

“That’s still not how that saying works.”

Ranken muttered quietly.

Iola, who had been deep in thought with his hands clasped, stood and picked up the chalk. He wrote several numbers on the board.

“It’s only a possibility. He won’t act rashly. The fact that he hasn’t killed me yet suggests he’s not always violent.”

“Then that’s a relief.”

Viretta answered cheerfully, as always.

“Still, it would be best to finish the hunt within four months. My father and his group can’t stay longer than that, and once winter comes, dragon hunting becomes extremely difficult.”

“Why is that?”

“In winter, a dragon’s hide grows thicker, and the cold makes handling blades difficult. Sometimes even gunpowder won’t ignite.”

“Then let’s aim to finish within four months.”

Since Iola specialized in dragons, his words carried weight.
Viretta circled the numbers he’d written and set an outrageous goal.

“Is that really possible?”

Iola asked worriedly.

He’d suggested four months because of Monain’s patience—but four months didn’t seem sufficient to hunt a dragon.

“No. You’d die faster.”

“Yes. It’s possible.”

“Your confidence is very reassuring.”

“Why do you keep ignoring everything I say? You believe all kinds of nonsense, even buy rocks with blind faith—so why not my words?”

If a stranger says they’re going to hunt a dragon, she believes them.
If someone says they’re used to running away from home, she praises it as admirable.
She buys an ordinary rock for four silver coins.

In their short acquaintance, it was clear Iola trusted people easily.

And yet, only Ranken’s perfectly reasonable opinions were consistently ignored—from the moment he said he wasn’t a knight, all the way until now.

Fed up with this blatant favoritism, Ranken scowled.
Iola stepped closer and gently patted his shoulder.

“So that’s why you were upset. Please don’t be angry.”

“Ranken, even if it doesn’t look like it, both of us trust and love everything you say.”

“Hey! Are you my parents?! Don’t turn me into some petty guy sulking because people didn’t believe him!”

With Iola and Viretta holding his shoulders and smiling warmly, Ranken’s face turned red.

No matter how much he puffed his lips and complained, their gentle consolation didn’t stop. They soothed him as if he were a small boy.

“I apologize. It’s not that I doubt your intentions. But the world is full of countless people and just as many opinions. When those opinions clash, I tend to respect the words of those I feel closer to or trust more. In that sense, I neglected you for a moment.”

“And you trust Viretta of all people?”

“What do you mean? If I don’t trust someone as sincere and wise as her, who should I trust?”

Ranken stared at the braggart with half-lidded eyes.
Not a single word of that sounded sincere.

He shot Iola a look that clearly asked whether he’d chosen the wrong person to trust—but Iola remained unfazed.

“Viretta is my fiancée. At present, she is the person closest to me, so I intend to trust her first.”

There was something oddly deliberate about Iola’s tone.
It sounded as though he had chosen to trust Viretta among many.

When both Ranken and Viretta looked doubtful, Iola smiled.

“It’s best to have as few regrets as possible from not trusting someone close to you.”

It sounded like experience speaking—bad experience.

Before either of them could decide whether to ask, Iola changed the subject.

“Until we achieve our goal, it’s unclear whether we’ll succeed or fail in breaking off the engagement. We may succeed and become strangers, or fail and become spouses. So even when considering the future, Viretta is both a stranger and my fiancée.”

“…Pardon?”

“Compared to a complete stranger, a half-fiancée is closer to me.”

“…What?”

The strange explanation left both Ranken and Viretta groaning. They looked at each other, realized neither understood, and felt relieved. At least they weren’t alone in their confusion.

Watching their expressions, Iola began drawing on the blackboard. He drew a long line, then split it into two branches.

“So, our future splits into two possibilities: whether we hunt the dragon, or we fail to hunt it.”

The upper line was Dragon Hunted (O).
The lower line was Dragon Not Hunted (X).

“I hope we succeed. But an unobserved future is not a confirmed fact, so we must not jump to conclusions at this stage.”

“Oh, I get it now. Mr. Iola, you really do make simple things sound complicated.”

After staring at the board for a while, Viretta suddenly smiled brightly.

“So in short, you’re saying you have a fifty percent intention of staying engaged to me!”

“Incorrect.”