CHAPTER 405: HOT CHAOS

That morning, Commander Henry had been elated to see that Sylaron hadn’t caused trouble through the night. Despite how freezing the weather was, he kept his room window open a crack so he could hear outside just in case the dragon started stirring up chaos, whether it was intentional or not.

He had only just ordered his knights to tell the villagers that she was trustworthy and had her under his control, but trust could be broken easily.

Fortunately, it didn’t come to that. She only left the dilapidated and abandoned building when the Commander told her to. From there, she disappeared into the mountains.

Conveniently, Sylaron had slipped to the back of the Commander’s mind and became low on his list of priorities. There were plenty of other things to worry about as they pressed on and got closer to Earl Auden’s estate.

However, she went right back to the top of his problems because an explosion, as well as the dragon herself, flew into the sky. His priorities changed rather quickly as he called for his knights to go with him.

Luckily, Lady Irene was ever intuitive because she ordered the apprentices to stay behind and make sure nothing happened to the maids. Otherwise, he was uncertain of what lay ahead and felt that all knights with him weren’t an overreaction.

The biggest problem was that Sylaron was a bit deeper into the mountains, and the lands weren’t prepared for leaving the trail. Some horses could barely run through the thick snow, and it was also a hazard to have them blindly trampling through.

Fortunately, there was a person who was quite familiar with this particular area.

"Commander, these lands are familiar to me!" Irene called. "And my horse is equipped to break us a trail! This way!"

Ah, so she was still able to be passionate about something.

Lately, the Commander felt that he had wronged the woman in some way because every time they interacted, she seemed to be holding back just as she used to in Idona. He thought that they had breakthroughs, but she seemed to be hot and cold and hard for him to understand.

Even though she was a knight, perhaps his lack of understanding about women was his issue. After all, that was why he and the Princess crumbled so badly.

Pushing these thoughts aside, he focused on his surroundings and was pleased to see that Irene’s horse, Sammy, truly was equipped in breaking a trail through thick snow. The warmer days made the top layer of snow melt, and then it would harden. It was as strong as ice and likely as painful, but the horse didn’t even flinch as Irene directed it in the correct way.

Eventually, it led them to a forested area where the snow was shallower because of the evergreen tree cover, so the knights could spread out and move forward more efficiently.

The smell of smoke stung their noses, and they knew they were drawing closer to the epicenter of whatever had transpired due to the dragon. Then they stumbled upon what seemed to be a clearing, but it turned out that it wasn’t supposed to be there at all.

The trees in the vicinity were scorched. Further in, they were lying down completely flat. In the center of the area, there was a massive hole in the ground. It seemed the dragon had gotten into a cave and decided to blow it up for some strange reason.

The Commander pushed ahead and he saw movement in the massive hole as Sylaron took to the sky once more, meeting the knight she followed around so obsessively.

"What on earth—" the Commander demanded, but was cut off as the dragon landed in front of him.

All the knights turned their attention towards the dragon even though it was hard to ignore that the massive hole in the ground was letting off a pungent smoke that stung their eyes and made it feel hard to breathe. The trees scorched the most were at least not on fire since the ground was constantly wet or frozen because of the snow.

"What was it?" the Commander asked the dragon more calmly.

Her tail gently waved as she stared at the man. To the others, it seemed as if she was silently communicating with the Duke, but no one knew for certain.

However, the rest of the knights got their own answer rather quickly as something in the hole started to stir.

Soon enough, the collapsed rocks and dirt fell away to reveal the head of an ogre. One of its empty eye sockets was bleeding, revealing a fresh injury that likely happened when the earth collapsed over the top of it. The situation was becoming clearer as most realized it was a cave that had collapsed, and the monster was hibernating underground.

"Get the ogre!" the Commander shouted.

Sylaron took to the sky and dove downward again. The knights braced themselves for the worst with their weapons out, but it seemed they needed to be cautious of other things because another burst of flame soon shot up and took over the space around them. They had to force their horses backwards to keep a safe distance.

The fire was smaller than the first and didn’t reach outside of the hole as much as it had in the first place. It could be concluded that the dragon was considerate of those who stood on the outside and didn’t want to light them on fire.

Never would anyone believe that a considerate dragon existed until that moment.

This was the moment when another problem was revealed to them.

Just as many other caves they had experienced, there wasn’t only one entrance. That much was certain as grotesque goblins, upset about being woken up so unfairly during the winter, started piling out of a smaller opening that was letting off smoke.

The grotesque monsters coughed occasionally. The moment they saw that knights were there, they let out hoarse screeches and rushed forth. Many had weapons, but equally as many did not.

The fight was certainly unfair, but it was better than allowing the goblin nest to stay and cause problems for the lord of these lands in the future.

Irene took particular interest in this because it was likely her father who would be in charge of handling it. Instead of risking her horse, she hopped off of Sammy and slapped his side so he would escape back into the forest.

With her sword unsheathed, she was ready to face the monsters. The dragon was doing the hardest part. Goblins were the least Irene could do.

It was evident that the thrill of battle wasn’t only rushing through her because the other knights soon followed her.