Nidoume no Jinsei wo Isekai de Chapter 107

(T/N: Rairaiken is a famous ramen shop in Tokyo)

<…>

The voice was interrupted.
Renya, who judged that she probably hasn't died, turns his consciousness back to reality.
Just as he does, he hears the sound of wings cutting through the wind.
The wind pressure that was suppressed to a certain extent by a sorcery barrier, makes his forelocks sway.

After having been in deep thought, Renya looks down at the thing he's currently sitting on.
It's night time and the moon in the sky is faint and small.
Under the moonlight that barely functions as a light source, he couldn't grasp the colors very well. But if he were able to look at it under proper illumination, he would be able to see that it was a dragon that was covered with green, vivid scales.
Its size is around two sizes bigger than Drkun over at Liaris'.
It seems to be a species called emerald dragon, but Renya doesn't really care.
Since Croire was flustered after seeing it at first, he didn't think anything except that it's most likely a famous species among the elves.
It's the dragon that Drkun introduced after having asked him to lend him a dragon as he wanted to go somewhat far away. “Originally it's a species that doesn't live at our group's dwelling”, Drkun explained.
When Renya asked where they lived then, he was told that it's a species that inhabited the northern continent.
It was completely unknown how it had heard about Renya, but information about him had been circulated to the northern continent by one of the dragons among those living on the human continent and several individuals, who got interested, came to make contact with Renya through Drkun.
It seems that this emerald dragon accepted becoming Renya's temporary mount as a member of said curious group of dragons.
For some reason not only Drkun, but even Croire stressed the point that it's only a temporary arrangement, but Renya doesn't know why they did so.

“I was brooding for a bit.” (Renya)

Being told that, Renya looked down towards the ground from atop of the dragon's back.
He has no idea at what height they are flying, but there's only pitch black ground depicted below. He does see things that might possibly be lights at spots all over, but he absolutely doesn't understand what they are doing and in what state they are.
It looks like the allied forces have already passed the border and entered the Trident Principality, but although Renya wanted to actually have a look at how many people they have, he can't see the military forces' condition at all since they chose to travel at night so that they won't receive any attacks, and moreover, they are flying at quite a high altitude.

“Is this the Holy Kingdom's allied army below us?” (Renya)

It appeared that the dragon could see the military forces below with its dragonic eyesight, even while flying at such a height within complete darkness .
Of course there's no way for Renya, who's no more than a human, to see something like that with his eyesight.
I guess it can't be helped, Renya gave up immediately.

“I can't do anything about things I can't see. Pay attention to our altitude, okay? After all we might get attacked if we are discovered.” (Renya)

When they brought up this topic over at Liaris' place, she proposed the strategy of mobilizing the dragons living nearby by asking Drkun and having them reduce the Holy Kingdom's allied forces to ash.
They were about to literally burn them to cinder in reality, but Renya put a stop to this.
As expected, even Renya felt hesitation towards the act of causing a large amount of people dying in the vicinity.
In Renya's eyes, the death of soldiers didn't matter at all.
If they don't want to die, they shouldn't have become soldiers.
If there's a draft system, it would be best for them if they they took actions to abolish such system or if they defected to a country without it.
However, I can't say for sure that, given the large amount of people dying, some souls among them haven't grown up to the extent of possibly not returning to this world while holding onto their resources and disappearing.
It would be meaningless if I produce souls, which would lower the amount of resources by escaping from the circle of reincarnation, even though I came here especially to replenish the lacking amount of resources.
If not for that, the way of eradicating 100,000 soldiers, while trying my best, is a simple matter.
For Renya there are various methods to make that possible.

“Pay attention to the height. That hero owned a range attack as well after all.” (Renya)

There's another reason why he rejected their annihilation due to the dragons.
It's very likely that the hero possesses powers that allow him to defeat dragons easily, Renya expected.
One way or another, the hero doesn't posses many good traits, but if it's limited to his combat abilities, according to what I sensed during our little match in the Holy City, you can call them quite extraordinary, is Renya's opinion.
I don't know what will happen as long as I don't try to fight him myself, Renya believes, but I think he possesses combat abilities which allow him to easily hunt down dragons at Drkun's level.
Rather, if he doesn't have at least this much of a combat ability, I'd like to know how he intends to fight with someone like the demon king? He wonders.
And, the existences called dragons possess strong powers and bodies if compared to humans.
In other words, in case the humans were to be killed by the dragons after having gathered to a certain extent at this location, he has to again worry about the possibility of those souls escaping from this world while taking their resources with them.
However, if it comes to worrying to this extent, next he would have to even worry about the hero's soul, who became a resident of this world after being summoned.
There's no reason to revise the matter of defeating the hero.
Last time Renya believed that it wasn't that big of an issue and thus stopped after making sure that the hero couldn't indiscriminately put his hands on women. But the situation after that has developed to go as far as war.
If I had killed him at that time, it wouldn't have turned out like this.
Renya considers this to be likely his own error in judgment.
Therefore it was necessary for him to properly bring it to an end this time. But if the defeated hero's soul escapes to another world while holding onto its resources, that in itself will become a problem as well.
Well then, what would the best option be here? Renya was troubled.
Even if he knows how to cut people, it's not like he knows how to cut something as ambiguous as a soul.
I guess it'll be best just to think about killing him for now and worry about that matter once the time comes, Renya switches his way of thinking.
Assuming he did escape while taking the resources with him as the worst case scenario, it would be okay to consider it as inevitable.

“Well then, can I have you hurry up a bit?” (Renya)

The emerald dragon flaps its wings once.
With just that motion, the large flying body gained even more speed.
Renya was sitting directly on the dragon's back without even using a saddle, but he endures the speed-up by while holding onto one of the dragon's scales on its back.

“I suppose it's a matter of my feelings. Or perhaps I should say that I somehow won't calm down unless I do something.” (Renya)

Compared to the suddenness of the acceleration, the impact received by Renya's body was extremely small.
Considering his rider, the dragon is protecting Renya's body, but for Renya it seems to be hard to settle down if he doesn't somehow grab onto something when he feels the sensation of the sudden acceleration.
The emerald dragon's flight speed was so high that it couldn't be compared to that of Drkun's and the other's.
The emerald dragon that appears to be of a superior race when compared to Drkun's group, arrives at the destination that ought to be quite far away in a mere two hours once it flies seriously.

Upon the dragon's thought, Renya strains his eyes into the darkness ahead.
Over there is a huge city that is surrounded by high walls. He can see a castle with several high spires in the centre of the city.
Because the city itself is bright due to the lights all over, even Renya's eyes were capable of perceiving its existence, albeit only vaguely, even as they fly while maintaining a reasonable altitude.