With Baron riding on my back, we enter the territory of the anti-Ryujin village.

“Gru~uoooooo!”

I roar loudly for appearance’s sake as we tread forward.

I don’t know how much time we have left before the village gets attacked.
I need to hurry…… I can’t afford to bide my time here.
I’ll have to get their attention even if it means letting ourselves get seen in the open.

Hearing my loud roar, it didn’t take long for the anti-Ryujin Lithuvar Tribe appear before me.

“He’s here! The Dragon God is here!”
“W-What do we do? Last time he came here, he killed the Manticore for us……”
“We’ve been given orders by Nagrom-sama to kill him! This thing is different from the Manticore who calms down if we feed it! Because we abandoned our faith in him and left the tribe, he’s come back here to eliminate any non-believers!”

There are three of them.
That Nagrom, he still treats us with hostility…… and, here I thought I’ve taken care of everything that made him hate us, their enmity must run deep.
Since he’s the top brass around these parts, persuading him to cooperate might prove to be tricky.

“Ryujin-sama, put me down! I, Baron, will join you in this battle!”

When Baron declared, the three became more vigilant.
…… N-No, you guys got it all wrong, that’s not what I came here for.

“D-Don’t be intimidated! Batora, go report to Nagrom-sama about this! Novale, you and me will keep them busy!”

Then, the man who shouted attacks me with his spear.
The tip of his spear hits the joints of my front claw, but it didn’t stab, and it slid sideways, only causing a shallow cut.

“I did it!”

Partner picks up the man who attacked us with her mouth and lightly threw him in the air.
The man loosens his hold in his spear and he screams as he falls down.
He lands on his stomach and rolls down the ground.

“They got me! I’ve been had! Avenge me!” [T.N: Wtf]

They seem really afraid, too afraid in fact, and they don’t even realize that this scratch hardly did any damage to me.
The other two are wavering and not sure what to do.

【“This should be enuff right?”】

Yeah, that was enough.

If it wasn’t, then there’s no helping it.
I want them to hurry up and call their shrine maiden over so I can tell them with her〖Telepathy〗that I didn’t come here for these petty squabbles.
Guess that’s enough showing off, time to head directly to Nagrom himself.

I ignore all approaching enemies attacking us, sometimes throwing them away like what Partner did, and we eventually arrived at the anti-Ryujin village.
Everyone in the village immediately panicked after they saw me.
Even the girls and children are running away.
More men with spears charge straight at us, but that’s nothing a quick tail swipe can’t fix.

I push onward, ignoring any and every attack that comes our way. But, in the middle of all the commotion, one little girl blocks our path.

“H-Hey, come back! It’s dangerous!”
“Someone save that girl!”

While all the men were uneasy, the little girl chuckled.

“It’s Ryujin onee-san!”

“Ryujin, onee-san?!”

[T.N: imagine if I translated this in full english… it’d be “It’s big sis Dragon God!”]

Seeing me not harm the girl in front of me, they finally realized I didn’t pose a threat, and the attackers stopped coming.
Instead, there was visible confusion all around.

“H-, hey, about last time…… you really came here to save us from the Manticore, didn’t you…….”

With the tension now somehow settling down, Baron speaks from behind.

“R-, Ryujin-sama…… um…… what exactly is happening……”

Baron taps my shoulder, wanting me to look back to him.
…… Sorry Baron, but you’re gonna have to wait until I fully explain everything with the help of the〖Telepathy〗from this village’s shrine maiden.

I had the time to explain to the village if I turned human back then, but I was worried how they would view their Dragon God using〖Human Transformation〗in front of them, not to mention, I wanted to let my MP recover by the time I get back since we really abused〖High Rest〗a lot today.
Unless I really need to, I won’t use〖Human Transformation〗yet.

That skill wastes MP like a waterfall.
Added to that, once we humanize, our stats get halved, so I wouldn’t be able to fully ignore any of their attacks like I did just now.

“Enough of this! You! Get away from the Dragon God!”

A familiar voice shouts.
A healthy old man with a loud voice steps in.
It’s the head of the anti-Ryujin village, Nagrom.
Seems like he didn’t expect me to reach all the way here, his frowning face is showing wrinkles.

Beside Nagrom are more young men wielding spears.
And, literally sticking close right next to Nagrom, is the woman who I encountered before I arrived in the anti-Ryujin village and gave me the〖Intense Light Resistance〗.

She’s most likely…… the shrine maiden who they treated as a traitor in the Ryujin village, Bella.
Taking a quick guess on her age, I think she’d pass to be Hibi’s younger sister.
Nagrom seems to have realized that I’ve come here with some kind of ulterior motive and brought Bella over so he can use her〖Telepathy〗to read my mind.

“………… “

Baron sees Nagrom and makes a face of disgust.
The current heads of the two villages have met. They probably have mixed feelings right now.

“Bella, stay close to me. The last time the Dragon God called us over, it tried to eat us.”

Nagrom warns the girl next to her.
I knew it, so she really is the one they call Bella.

Bella heard Nagrom’s words and slightly nodded.

“…… I know what you’re all thinking, no need to gossip it out loud. I will now explain everything. All of you can decide what you want to do after that. To sum it all up, you’re all thinking that Bella here has no experience interacting with the Dragon God, isn’t that right? Don’t misunderstand, I have my own vision to properly guide the village to prosperity. If it’s for the sake of the village…… I will make it happen.”

His conviction seems to have won over Bella, at least.

This old fart isn’t the village chief for nothing.
I thought I could just show the villagers here that I’ve come to parley…… but first, I’ll have to talk it out with Nagrom and Bella, otherwise we’ll get nowhere.
Bella aside…… Nagrom is the one who seems stubborn to convince.

…… If we tell them the other village is in trouble, won’t they take this chance and attack it themselves?
Last time I came here, only the old man was laughing when we got poisoned while the others were reluctant of what to do.
We’ll have to get them to understand that we really are facing a serious threat, and emphasize the “serious” part.
There’s also the time limit of when we’ll get attacked by the outsiders…… if push comes to shove, we’ll have to make them cooperate with us, even if it means using force.