Following the trail of corpses, we returned back to the surface. With every step, I became more concerned by the lack of opposition. The fact that they hadn’t sent reinforcements when they felt the ritual slowly being eroded by my clumsy attempt at counter-warding meant they no longer needed it.

  Once we reached ground-level, I could tell immediately that the smoke rising into the air had become significantly more thick, and the black dragon continued to fly through the air. The dragon threw its head from side to side, and a high-pitched screech informed me that something was distressing it. The creature spun through the air more than a hundred meters over my head, and then its flight evened out.

  Suddenly, the sound of a heavy impact rang out from near our position, and a plume of smoke rose from a nearby building. I looked over and saw that something large had fallen through the roof of a small shop that stood perpendicular to the road on which I was standing.

  “Was that a person?” Kinro said, blinking in confusion.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked, just as confused.

  “When the dragon spun, a person fell from it and crashed into that building.” Kinro pointed over at the settling dust-cloud as he spoke.

  I didn’t see anything, but I trusted Kinro’s eyes. The [Fighter] path had a lot of skills that increased the physical senses. Kinro almost certainly had a skill or two that allowed him to see better than any normal human.

  Stepping closer to the partially-collapsed shop, I shouted loud enough for anybody inside the store to hear. “Hey! Are you alive!?”

  Seconds passed where the only sound I could make out was that of collapsing bricks and cracking stone. The building was still adapting to its new partially-collapsed state.

  Eventually, someone from inside of the building called out, “Yes, I’m alive but too injured to move.” The voice sounded more annoyed than injured. “Don’t worry about me. Save yourself. The dragon will attack you if you stay out in the open for too long.”

  Miriam craned her neck to see inside of the partially-collapsed building, saying, “I’m a [Priestess] of Nyx. Please, just hang on for one moment! I’ll come in and heal you!”

  Desperation to heal a wounded man quickened Miriam’s voice. She took a step onto the uneven ground, and I had to stop her from walking deeper into the structure by putting a hand on her shoulder.

  “Please stay where you are,” the voice said, seemingly flustered by Miriam’s decision. “This building is unstable. If you come inside, you’ll just get hurt. I don’t want the death of a [Priestess] on my conscience.”

  “It’s not up to you,” Miriam said, pulling her shoulder from my grasp. Embarrassingly, it didn’t take much effort for her to do so. “I’m going to save you whether you like it or not.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Okay! Okay!” the voice cried out. “I’ll come out! Just stay over there where it’s safe!”

  The sound of detritus crashing down and feet shuffling against the ground emanated from within the structure as the man within got to his feet, brushing a pile of debris off himself. After a few seconds, a man in the armor of a mercenary with a curved one-handed sword holstered at his hip stepped out into the street.

  His hands were protected by armored half-gloves, and he wore a Liar’s Ring and an Anti-Observation Ring on the fingers of his hand that weren’t protected by leather or chainmail. With distaste, I noticed that the pips on his neck and shoulder armor marked him as a captain in the Etronian First Army, also known as the Band of Bastards.

  Physically, the man was bleeding from puncture wounds on his chest and abrasions on most of his body. For a man who had just fallen from such a height, however, he didn’t seem particularly bothered by his injuries.

  “Weren’t you too injured to move?” Kinro said with a smile.

  “I say a lot of things,” the Captain said.

  Without missing a beat, Miriam walked over to the Captain and pressed her hand against his shoulder. She chanted the [Second Prayer], and the man’s injuries healed completely. Once she was done, Miriam squinted in pain. The man must have lost quite a few HP points for Miriam to be suffering from the effects of mana drain.

  “Hmm, red eyes,” the Captain said, looking at Miriam. “You wouldn’t happen to be related to…” He looked over at me, and his voice caught in his throat. “Wow, you’re his spitting image.”

  I didn’t need to ask to know who he was referring to. My father was the commander of the Band of Bastards, after all. “You’re referring to Armond Feldrast, correct? He’s our father.”

  As I spoke, I peered beneath the Captain’s helmet. He did not look Etronian, yet there was something eerily familiar about him.

  “Thale and Miriam Feldrast, eh? As an officer of the Etronian First Army, I am obligated to escort you two to safety. I, Captain David York, promise to follow you until you are no longer in danger.”

  David York? That was definitely not an Etronian name. In the world of Ferrum, the name sounded exotic. To my ears, however, his name was jarringly mundane. Memories that had been dormant for decades rose once more to the surface.

  “Were you at the Cagliostro, David York?” I asked in perfect English.

  A look of utter fear and confusion passed over Captain David York’s face. He took several steps away from me, and his hand twitched toward his scimitar.

  “How did you know that? Who are you?” David asked fearfully.

  “It’s a long story. Suffice it to say, we’re from the same world.” I noticed with a frown that David York was significantly older than Haydith and me. He must have been in his mid-thirties. “I’ll explain more once we kill that dragon.”

  “You’re doing it again,” Kinro said, annoyed that he didn’t know what we were saying. “What language is that?”

  “English,” I answered.

  “Should you really be telling them that?” David asked, his eyes darting between me and Kinro.

  “They have no context for that word,” I said, shrugging. Reverting back to the common tongue, I said, “Come on, we have a dragon to kill.”