I, Viretta, Am Going to Hunt a Dragon-Chapter 60

Viretta swallowed hard, her hand starting to sweat. She let out a brief groan and glanced back at Saffron.

“Would that size be able to be disassembled? Saffron, how was the dragon you dismantled?”

All eyes turned toward Saffron.

Saffron was a butcher with experience dismantling dragons.

Even a dead dragon, his firsthand experience with such creatures made him the most important person in the group when it came to this particular task.

That’s why Viretta had made an effort to include him, even if it meant some discomfort.

“In my case, I found a dragon that was already dying. It had a big wound on its neck.”

Saffron, now the center of attention, spoke somewhat uncomfortably.

“Oh! Was there a bite mark on its neck?”

“Yes, the neck was... it looked like it had been bitten off by another dragon. Pieces of flesh were torn right off.”

“Most likely, it fought with another dragon and lost. Dragons are territorial, so they fight over their territory. It would have been great if we could see the shape of the teeth marks in the wound.”

As soon as the topic of dragons came up, Iola’s eyes sparkled. Saffron squinted his eyes, as though the light from her enthusiasm was blinding.

“Did dragons really fight each other? Do they bite each other’s necks? Isn’t that stupid?”

“It’s actually a smart move, considering they’re territorial creatures. There’s limited space for dragons, so they fight each other to reduce the population. Otherwise, they’d starve to death because there wouldn’t be enough prey.”

“It’s pretty uncool for a dragon to starve to death. The mountain’s king acting like that... it’s disappointing.”

“There’s nothing to be done. Prey is the most important thing. Nowadays, there aren’t many large beasts that can serve as prey, so their numbers are decreasing daily.”

Dragons don’t typically eat small creatures, unlike humans, and Iola added in a whisper with an ominous tone.

“Small creatures are just too much of an effort to hunt. If humans gathered in groups, it would be a different story.”

“There are plenty of stories about dragons eating humans!”

“If one just happens to wander into their mouth, they’ll eat it, but they don’t actively hunt humans. It’s like how whales have to chase fish schools for over 10 hours a day to survive. A dragon would need to eat at least a hundred humans to satisfy its hunger.”

It was a chilling tale, but useful information.

‘It’s getting harder to find large prey than in the past...’

Good news.

“…Ahem, anyway, the dragon was found dead with a huge wound in its neck, right in the middle of the village’s main street. It was bigger than 4 meters. About twice the size of this room?”

Tired of hearing about humans being eaten, Saffron interrupted again. Iola eagerly absorbed every word Saffron said.

“About 12 meters long. What was its tail like?”

“The tail was about a third of its body length.”

“Quite a large specimen. What about the claws?”

“Claws? I’m not interested in inedible stuff.”

“Oh, I see…”

Iola looked dejected, like a puppy that had been scolded.

Her drooping ears, which were impossible to imagine as belonging to a puppy, made Viretta feel uneasy.

As Viretta grew anxious, Saffron, who was sitting across from her, crossed his arms and snorted.

“…To pull out the claws, you have to wear thick leather gloves first. Or else you could cover the claws with dragon hide.”

“Really?”

“The claws are sharp and rough, so they easily cut your hands. If you’re not careful... oh, you could cause a real problem.”

“I’ve heard! The dragon claws sold commercially are all smoothed out, but that’s all processed. I wonder how rough the claws of a freshly caught dragon must be.”

Iola’s face lit up with happiness as she scribbled on her paper.

“Strange, isn’t it? If it’s not dragon hide, you’d hurt your hands. You’d need to peel off the hide first, make gloves from it, and then pull out the claws.”

“Isn’t it fascinating and fun that you can only grab a dragon’s claws with its own hide?”

Iola’s eyes sparkled as she wrote down all the new information she had learned.

Viretta, borrowing paper from Iola, diligently jotted down what Saffron and Iola had shared.

Rather than writing neatly, she scribbled hurriedly, but it wasn’t difficult to understand.

When it came to hunting, information was key. Hide, claws, length. Viretta wrote down various details.

Once she had finished writing, Viretta asked the next question.

“How did you dismantle the dragon?”

“With a knife?”

“Did a knife work? I’ve heard from Iola that it’s hard to cut a dragon with a kitchen knife.”

“Ah, that’s what you mean. Ordinary knives don’t work, but a large steel knife is fine. Something about this big…”

Saffron spread his arms to show the approximate length. The size and width of the knife seemed quite large for a butcher’s tool, but similar in size to a sword used in a real fight. The knife Saffron had used seemed slightly shorter and thicker than the one Iola wielded.

Iola could probably handle a bigger, heavier knife with no problem.

“Would something like that be able to pierce a dragon?”

“Normally, no.”

Saffron, realizing what Iola and Viretta were looking for in academic information, tapped his body.

First, his arm. Then, his chest.

“These areas with muscle are too thick for a knife to go in. Our village’s butcher tried a few times, but it didn’t work.”

He touched the joints and areas where muscles connected to each other as he gave his example.

“But this part, where the muscles connect, that’s where the knife can get through.”

His nails dug into his skin. As he rolled up his sleeve, the small scars on his forearm became visible.

“Even then, you have to put a lot of force into it to get the knife to go in, and it’ll only go in a little.”

“Exactly where would that be?”

Iola felt around her arm and chest. Viretta absentmindedly followed Iola’s fingers as they traced her muscles.

“You’d need to see the corpse to know. It’s hard to target when it’s alive. It’s hard to explain, and most importantly, it’s so high up that you wouldn’t be able to pierce it.”

Saffron couldn’t clearly describe the vulnerable spots on a dragon’s body.

“If you see it, you’ll know. But it’s a bit hard to explain... like this? Something like this?”

He gave an example by touching his own chest and arm, but a dragon had four legs and wings. Its body couldn’t be compared to a human’s.

And Saffron was right.

When standing on all fours, a dragon’s chest would be above Iola’s head, making it hard to strike.

With a human size of less than 2 meters, there was no chance.

Iola fell into a brief silence. He closed his eyes and imagined the areas Saffron had pointed out, envisioning a mock battle with a dragon in his mind.

He imagined attempting to pierce the dragon with a sword, but even after five tries, he couldn’t picture a victory.

With a heavy sigh, Iola tilted his head slightly.

“It doesn’t seem possible. Even if I stabbed it, I can’t imagine it dying instantly.”

Considering the thickness of the dragon’s hide, even a sword or two would feel like poking a toothpick or a pin.

It would sting, but given its size, the bleeding would be minimal.

“It’ll be tough even if we delay. Even if we strike it in four or five places, the thick fat and muscles won’t bleed as much as expected.”

“Seems like that’s the case.”

Viretta nodded, accepting the reality.

It wasn’t disappointing or surprising. She had expected this since she first learned about the dragon’s thick hide.

Viretta spun light in her fingers and closed her eyes.

“In that case, we’ll have to rely on your lightning strike, brother.”

“My lightning magic? It’s strong, but…”

“We were debating between physical attacks, fire magic, and lightning, but if we have you, we should go with lightning. We can set traps and strike with powerful lightning.”

As Viretta shared the plan, Moslin lightly waved her staff and muttered an incantation.

A short chant later, a small bolt of lightning struck the roasted turkey on the table.

“It’s hard to hunt with my magic.”

Moslin pushed the plate with food toward Viretta.

The small bolt of lightning burned the large turkey black, turning it into ashes. Some pieces of meat remained, but it was clear it was no longer edible.

“If you burn the prey like that, we can’t use it for hunting.”