RMGCFW — Chapter 121 - The Repressed Clan

"Long time no see, Lady Frieren."

"Yes. Long time no see, Racine."

"A full two hundred years have passed since you helped our clan deal with the magic dragon."

"Has it?" Frieren gave a slight nod. She hadn't felt the time pass at all.

"I thought I'd never meet you again in this lifetime. Yet here you are..."

"I said back then that the barrier sealing the dragon would only last three hundred years. When the time came, I'd return to reinforce it."

Banxia glanced at her. He'd had no idea any of that had happened. He'd have to ask about it later.

"I never imagined you'd still remember. I'm truly grateful."

The woman named Racine was the elder of the Iorph clan.

Nearly everyone in the clan wore flowing white robes. Golden hair, crimson eyes. And thanks to their racial traits, even after several centuries, they kept the faces of children.

Racine was the elder, so looked slightly more mature than the others, but only by comparison.

"Pretty similar to Roxy's race..." Banxia muttered from the side.

The people here, male and female alike, were all exceptionally small. You couldn't tell their age from looking at them. Apparently once they hit fifteen, their outward growth stopped entirely.

So most of the villagers, from what he'd just observed, were little girls and little boys.

Only a small number, like Racine, had developed past the norm before that cutoff, and even then, it was just their build. Their faces were still childlike.

"You must be Lord Banxia." Racine looked toward the young man. Someone had clearly filled the elder in already.

"Yeah." Banxia nodded.

What surprised him was that the Iorph clan really did seem to be the kind of reclusive people who had zero contact with the outside world. Because given everything he'd done, deeds that had spread across the entire continent, a clan with any outside connections would not have been this calm hearing his name.

"Lord Banxia, about the trade arrangement you proposed, I can only apologize." Racine bowed slightly. "Our clan lives by the loom. Weaving, day after day, the same rhythm repeating. We have no desire to be disturbed by the outside world."

"I see." Banxia nodded and let it go. He had something more important to deal with right now.

"Frieren. What's the situation with this magic dragon you mentioned?"

The white-haired elf gave him a slightly puzzled look, then spoke. "Two hundred years ago, when I passed through here, I sealed away a powerful magic dragon."

"You didn't just kill it?"

"It had very high magic resistance. Dealing with it alone would have taken a long time, so I found an opening and sealed it inside the mountain instead."

"That's not exactly reassuring. If that seal ever breaks, this clan is in serious trouble."

"It won't break. My seal is very—"

Banxia cut her off.

"Frieren, this is on you." He straightened up, voice carrying the full weight of a man about to do the right thing. "We're talking about people's lives. You can't just gamble on it. Even a one-in-ten-thousand chance of the seal breaking is reason enough to act. Something like this needs to be handled now."

He turned, already moving.

"Take me to where the dragon is sealed. A crisis this big doesn't wait."

"My seal is perfectly—"

Before Frieren could finish, Racine spoke up, voice edged with worry.

"Lady Frieren... is there truly a chance of that happening?"

"...Not really." Frieren hesitated. "Unless the entire mountain collapsed, the odds of the seal breaking are extremely small."

"As long as that monster isn't completely eliminated, everyone in this clan is at risk!" Banxia didn't budge. "I, Hero Banxia, refuse to accept that outcome."

"Lord Banxia..." Something shifted in Racine's expression.

The elder had assumed he was just a merchant chasing profit. This was not what a merchant looked like.

And, had he just called himself a Hero?

"...Fine." Frieren relented. "I'll take you to unseal the dragon now."

"Good. I'm glad you understand what's at stake." Banxia nodded, satisfied.

He could already see that fat stack of demonic lifespan waving at him from across the mountain.

"Wait — Lady Frieren." Racine stopped them before they could leave.

Frieren turned back. "What is it?"

"I need to get our people to safety first. To make sure what happened two hundred years ago doesn't happen again." A soft sigh. "Please give us a little time to prepare."

"That really shouldn't be necessary." Frieren glanced at Banxia. "With him here, it won't take long. A few minutes, and it's done."

"Hey." Banxia's eyes narrowed. "Who exactly do you think you're underestimating?"

A few minutes. She was going to eat those words. He'd make sure the white-haired fossil got a proper look at what he could do.

"If even Lady Frieren says so..." Racine looked up at the sulking young man, taking in his broad build. "Lord Banxia must be a formidable warrior."

Racine didn't know how strong he was. But the elder knew exactly what kind of devastation Lady Frieren had unleashed against the dragon two hundred years ago. The sheer scale of it.

"Marginally stronger than Frieren, I suppose." Banxia left the white-haired fossil a shred of dignity.

"I see." Racine nodded.

Lady Frieren alone had gone toe-to-toe with a magic dragon, and had the edge. Add a warrior who was even a step stronger than her, working together...

Eliminating it would be far easier this time. At the very least, it wouldn't be like last time, when the shockwaves alone had nearly leveled their home.

...

Unlike the elders who remembered the disaster firsthand, the younger clanspeople had gathered outside the stone house the moment word spread that outsiders had arrived.

"Lord Elder!" "Lady Racine!" "Lady Frieren!"

When the three walked out, the young ones all turned to stare at the two strangers.

An elf woman roughly their own size, and a broad-shouldered young man who looked exactly as strong as he needed to be.

More than a few of the older women let their gaze linger on him.

A reclusive clan didn't have much in the way of entertainment. And unlike elves like Frieren, they were not exactly indifferent to such things.

The number of young faces that hadn't existed two hundred years ago said more than enough about how they passed the time.

The only problem was that most of the clan's males looked like young boys, and even the older ones barely passed for teenagers. A fit, vigorous young man like the one standing before them might as well have been a rare creature.

"Please stay well back once things get started." Racine explained the plan briefly.

The younger generation, already bored senseless with the daily routine, felt the pull immediately.

If they could actually witness a fight like that with their own eyes,

Honestly? Worth dying for.

...