Poor Noble Nord’s Adventure

Chaos 2

When Johan arrived at the entrance of the mansion, he saw the butler of the Obrielle family, who was standing by the half-open door. The butler noticed him and bowed his head.

“My apologies, sir… it seems I have disturbed you.”

“That’s fine. More importantly, what about my brother?”

Johan asked the butler a question. However, the butler, with a troubled expression, opened the door wide and motioned for Johan to look outside.

“Kyuu! Kyuu!!”

Indeed, beyond the door, in the darkness, was the small figure of a flying dragon. However, the figure that should have been beside it—its master, Nord—was nowhere to be seen. The young flying dragon, upon seeing the door open wide, squeezed its body through the gap and entered the mansion. It then approached Johan and continued to cry out.

“What’s going on? Where is Nord?”

“I’m afraid I have no idea…”

Johan could understand that the flying dragon was trying to communicate something, but he couldn’t grasp what it was. Had it fled from Nord, or had something unexpected happened to him…? As Johan was still trying to figure out the dragon’s intentions, the young dragon, seeming desperate, stomped its forelegs on the floor twice or thrice, then forcefully pressed its neck against Johan’s body.

“Kyuu! Kyuu!!”

“Hey, hey, calm down…”

“Ahhh!”

As the dragon seemed to get excited and tried to climb onto Johan with its hind legs, Johan attempted to hold it back when a loud voice echoed from the Obrielle mansion’s entrance again.

“Newt, welcome home!”

“Emilia, you should be in bed at this time!”

“I woke up, so it can’t be helped!”

The voice belonged to Johan’s younger sister-in-law, Emilia. Apparently, she had woken up due to the dragon’s cries and the sounds it made. When Emilia saw Newt, the flying dragon, on top of Johan, she instantly brightened up and hugged it. She rubbed her cheek against its scales.

“Good grief, one thing after another… hey.”

“Understood, miss, let’s try to get some more sleep.”

“No, I don’t want to. I’m not sleepy yet! …Oh, Newt, what’s this?”

Johan, trying to put his younger sister-in-law back to bed, gave a glance to the butler, signaling him to take action. The butler, receiving the hint, tried to lift Emilia and carry her to her bedroom. However, Emilia resisted, clinging to Newt and refusing to let go. Then Emilia noticed something hanging from the dragon’s neck.

“This… this is from big brother Nord, isn’t it?”

“What?”

“Newt, did you get this from big brother?”

Upon hearing Emilia’s words, Johan followed her gaze and indeed saw it: a thin chain hanging from Newt’s neck. It had a small crystal plaque attached to it, which was Nord’s adventurer guild identification tag. Johan hadn’t noticed it until now.

“Could it be that this is what it wanted us to notice?”

“Big brother, there’s a letter too!”

Emilia, held by the butler, pointed to the side. Sure enough, attached next to the identification tag was a small scrap of paper. When Johan reached for it, Newt immediately stopped moving, growing silent. It seemed that all of the previous actions were meant to draw attention to this paper.

“What does the letter say?”

“Shh, miss, please be quiet…”

“….”

The scrap of paper was small, like a note. Johan quickly unfolded it and read the contents.

“Miss, let’s go to bed now…”

“Wait.”

Johan stopped the butler as he tried to carry Emilia to her bedroom.

“There’s no need to put Emilia to bed.”

“Eh? But…”

“Wake everyone up.”

“But it’s midnight right now…”

“Hurry!”

“Understood.”

“And tell my father-in-law to come to my room immediately.”

With that, Johan quickly made his way to the study.

§

“Son-in-law.”

“My apologies for waking you.”

“It’s fine, so what happened?”

When Johan’s father-in-law, the former head of the Obrielle family, arrived at the study with a displeased expression, Johan was seated at his desk. Using the light from a candelabra, Johan had been writing when he showed the letter Nord had sent to the former head of the family.

“Please take a look at this. My brother sent it earlier.”

“Nord, you say? …Is this for real?”

The former head of the Obrielle family quickly grasped the gravity of the situation after reading the letter, his face showing shock as he questioned the authenticity.

“My brother entrusted this letter to the flying dragon, Newt. At the very least, it’s certain that something has happened to prevent him from coming here himself. And Nord isn’t the type of person to tell lies for no reason.”

“Y-yes… but still, it’s hard to believe. The Empress Spider Arachne? Isn’t that a monster from myth?”

The former head muttered in confusion. It was understandable. Even Johan, upon first reading the letter, had gone over its contents three times. It wasn’t a long letter at all. It simply stated that the Empress Spider Arachne and hundreds of knight spiders were in the forest, posing a danger. The letter urgently requested the evacuation of the villagers and reinforcement from the kingdom’s knights. There were no further details in the letter.

“So, what do we do now?”

“We’ll evacuate the villagers. And request reinforcement from the knights.”

“What about the Spirit Festival!?”

“We’ll have to cancel it.”

“B-but that would cause an uproar among the villagers…”

“We’ll have to persuade them somehow.”

“W-well… how about at least sending a request to the Adventurers’ Guild by swift horse tomorrow? If we’re lucky, that might resolve the situation.”

Johan paused for a moment, put down his quill, and faced the former head of the Obrielle family.

“That would be difficult. The Adventurers’ Guild is already understaffed. There are hardly any adventurers around here as it is, and it’s unlikely we’ll find anyone stronger than Nord.”

The shortage of adventurers had been lingering since the great Eastern Knights’ exercises. In the nearby guild, they were struggling to find even Crystal-tier adventurers, let alone Stone-tier ones. With Nord being an experienced adventurer and a knight in the Iron Dragon Knights, he was the strongest force available in the village of Alba. Johan, trained as a knight but lacking in real combat experience, and the former head of the Obrielle family, who had long since retired, were no match for him.

“To be honest, I’m conflicted. The harvest this year was poor, so canceling the Spirit Festival means we won’t get the expected profits. If we consider the cost of evacuating, it’s a huge loss. Even this year, at best, we’re looking at a dark shadow hanging over the management of the village in the future.”

Johan briefly paused, wetting his lips.

“But if what Nord says is true, the damage to the village won’t stop there. No, it won’t stop with just this village—other nearby villages and towns will be affected as well. As the current head of the Obrielle family and as a knight of Hamill Kingdom, I will do everything I can to act in the best interests of all.”

“I see… If you say so, I’ll follow your lead. So, what should I do?”

The former head of the Obrielle family, seeing the unshakable resolve in Johan’s eyes, didn’t oppose his decision.

“We need to evacuate the villagers. I would like you to take command of that. As for me, I must write more letters.”

“Understood. I’ll have the butler prepare swift horses.”

“Thank you.”

After their brief exchange, Johan picked up his quill again. There were many letters he, as the head of the family, needed to write: warnings to the neighboring lords, requests for reinforcements from the knights, letters to safely direct the evacuated villagers to areas deemed safe. Additionally, there was no guarantee that the letters would reach their destinations without incident. There was always the risk of accidents or loss on the way. Johan knew that the most urgent letters needed to be written in multiples and sent out. Writing letters was, for him, the battle to be fought at that moment.