Demon Prince 44

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Chapter 44. Auction 1 

"Is it safe to say the situation is resolved?"

"At least concerning the crest."

After passing the crest to the Holy Dragon, we immediately used teleportation magic to return to the castle and explain the whole situation to everyone. Of course, we kept the promises of secrecy intact.

"But as I said, we still don’t know who attacked the previous Dragon King, Bahamut, or why."

"Given that no nation has made any official statement, it seems nobody intends to come forward. We’ve started an investigation, but nothing’s turned up. For now, we’ve reached out to the country managing the area where the dragon was found and asked them to look into it."

"Oh, so you’ve already begun investigating, Father?"

"Of course. We were lucky this didn’t escalate into a major disaster—if things had gone poorly, the royal capital might’ve been obliterated. Even if that didn’t happen, the heir of Elmbern’s life was endangered. We can’t let the perpetrator off without making them pay."

"That’s fine, but please be discreet about the crest, Father."

"I know. Don’t worry."

"So, what do you think the attacker’s actual goal was?"

"We don’t know. Targeting the crest is only one possibility. They may have had multiple objectives."

Right now, we can only speculate based on limited information. We barely know anything for sure.

"What other motives do you think they might have had?"

"That dragon was missing one eye and part of a wing, remember?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Through alchemy, a dragon’s eye fused with a crystal can create a powerful weapon or magical tool called a Dragon’s Eye Stone. The membrane of a wing is also valuable material. But if they attacked just for those resources, it hardly seems worth the effort."

"Wait, have you studied alchemy too, big brother?"

"Nah, it’s just something I heard over tea with Miss Stefania."

Stefania is a top-tier blacksmith and maker of magical tools. She’s also well-versed in alchemy and knows all sorts of things. Surprisingly, she’s quite level-headed, making conversations with her interesting.

"So resource hunting is one possibility. Any other ideas?"

"They might’ve wanted the land the dragon occupied. Maybe there was something valuable there, and the dragon was in the way. So they killed it or tried to drive it off."

"Like some nasty real estate scheme..."

"Exactly. Another possibility is that they wanted the dragon to cause chaos wherever it escaped to."

"What do you mean?"

"Father mentioned earlier that the capital could’ve been blown away. Maybe the attackers hoped for exactly that."

"So they stirred up the dragon to unleash it on Elmbern?"

"Not necessarily Elmbarn—it could’ve been any country. The dragon’s arrival in the northern forest was likely just chance."

"So they planned to cause destruction somewhere, indiscriminately?"

"They may not have cared where, as long as the dragon caused some damage. If they could control it, they might’ve directed it elsewhere."

If we hadn’t intervened, that dragon probably would’ve died on its own, rendering the attack pointless for the perpetrators.

"But I still think their primary goal was the crest, and everything else was secondary."

"Which means..."

"They haven’t achieved their objective yet. I expect they’ll make another move soon."

"So they’ll probably come to confirm the dragon’s corpse..."

"""Ah!"""

This is bad.

The Adventurers’ Guild might be in danger.

"I’ll get in touch with Lark and have him come right away. He’ll probably complain about the late hour, but he’ll have to deal with it. And we’ll send guards to the guild. Sebas!"

"Understood. I’ll make the arrangements."

Less than an hour later, the guild master arrived at the castle.

"What’s so urgent, Aslad? Couldn’t this wait until morning?"

"No, it’s critical. The dragon’s corpse—it's still at the guild, right?"

"Hm? Yeah, it is. Actually, I was planning to discuss that with Jun tomorrow."

"Did something happen?"

"Yeah. Considering how valuable those materials are, we thought it’d be better to auction them off instead of selling them directly. We started advertising the auction yesterday."

Silence.

The room freezes. Are we already too late?

"Father, this is..."

"Y-Yeah, we’re probably too late. We should assume the culprits already know."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"We need to explain…"

We give the guild master the gist of the situation, omitting any mention of the crest.

"That’s it? That’s what’s got you so worked up?"

"Do you realize this means the attackers know the dragon’s corpse is here? They’ll try something."

"Nah, not before the auction."

"What? Why not?"

"You’re not thinking clearly because your son was put in danger, are you? The moment you asked other nations about an injured black dragon, the word was already out."

""Ah.""

He’s right. Announcing that we knew about the wounded dragon was as good as saying we had it.

"And another thing—since the auction is public, anyone attending can confirm the dragon’s remains for themselves. There’s no need to take risks before that."

He’s got a point… In hindsight, it’s obvious, but none of us thought of it.

Even Yuu, Ai, Father, and Mother didn’t realize it—they weren’t thinking straight either.

"You folks usually have sharp minds. I guess your son being in danger really threw you off. Who knew you were such a doting parent, Aslad?"

"Shut up. But yeah, I wasn’t thinking clearly. Sorry about that."

Since the crest’s existence is a secret, we couldn’t explain how it endangered me. And since I was only just freed from that danger a few hours ago, nobody was calm enough to think clearly. Father smoothed things over by backing down. Sorry, everyone.

"Anyway, you want to catch whoever attacked the dragon, right? If that’s the case, they’ll definitely make a move at the auction. At the very least, they’ll try to find out how much we know. They might use intermediaries to avoid detection, but it should give us a lead."

"So we’ll lay a trap at the auction?"

Since the auction is already happening, we may as well use it to our advantage.

"Father, let’s go with the guild master’s plan and set a trap at the auction."

"Right. The auction’s in a month, right, Lark?"

"Yeah. The dragon’s materials will be the highlight of the event."

It’s not every day you get the chance to auction off the near-complete body of a divine beast like a dragon—it’s sure to attract a lot of attention.

By the way, we asked the Holy Dragon if they wanted to take Bahamut’s remains, but...

[I don’t need that. Do whatever you want with it—roast it, sell it, I don’t care. There are no next of kin to claim it, either.]

With that, we decided to proceed with the auction.

"I’ll send soldiers to guard the dragon’s corpse. Make sure nothing happens to it."

"Got it. Someone besides the attackers might try to steal it."

"Much appreciated."

The auction is in one week.

We need to figure out how to catch them before then.