Chapter 119
Ch 119 -- Having a Little Confidence in His Disassembly Skills
We went down to the Guild's warehouse which was basically the same as the others I had been in, only much larger . Doran was the biggest city I'd visited in this country and it was a Dungeon City as well so it wasn't surprising that the Guild's monster disassembly area was larger too .
"So then, please take it out and put it here . " Elland-san slapped the top of a large workbench in one corner of the warehouse . "After hearing from Rodolpho you had subjugated an Earth Dragon we immediately prepared all the facilities and equipment necessary for its disassembly and we were just waiting for your arrival . We will not waste a drop of blood as I'll personally disassemble it with the utmost care . " Elland-san smiled self-deprecatingly . "I have a little confidence in my skills in that regard . "
Wait, the Guild Master is going to disassemble the Earth Dragon with his own hands? He boasted he has a 'little confidence' of his abilities as a dismantler?
"Are you intending to dismantle it yourself, Elland-san?" I asked hesitantly . It didn't seem like the sort of thing a Guild Master should do . Disassembly was a craftsman's role, he had a Guild to run, surely that would take up all his time-
"Naturally! I'd never consider giving such a wonderful job to anyone else! Disassembling an Earth Dragon, who else but me could I allow to do it?"
Oh, it's like that is it? Rodolpho-san had said that Elland-san had a thing about Dragons but I didn't think it went quite as far as this, that he would usurp the task of disassembling a Dragon from the regular warehouse staff . Was the chance to do this sort of work really such a wonderful thing for him?
"The last time a Dragon was suppressed in this country was 238 years ago . " Elland-san mused, a faraway expression in his eyes . "Back then I wanted to join the subjugation party but for various reasons I couldn't go with them . Afterwards I asked to assist with the dismantling, I asked again and again, but I couldn't get permission . " He shrugged . "At that time I was a B ranked Adventurer . I worked hard and eventually rose to S rank but there were never any more Dragon suppressions . Age caught up with me, even long-lived Elves grow old so I retired and joined the Guild's staff . I always hoped that someday another Dragon would be suppressed and I'd be able to dismantle it at least . I've been Guild Master here for 32 years, waiting, hoping, and now . . . "
Ah, Elland-san? You're telling me things about yourself I didn't really want to know . Rodolpho-san said you weren't a bad person as such but well, what you just said sounds just a bit, ummm, crazy? I decided to interrupt him before he went any further so I took the Earth Dragon from my Item Box and put it on the workbench .
"Here it is Elland-san . " I staggered back as the Guild Master pushed brusquely past me .
"Oh, Oooooooooooooooooooooh !!!" Please calm down, Elland-san, I thought as I watched him stare lovingly at the not-very-pretty corpse of the Dragon laid out on the bench before him .
"Th- this is an Earth Dragon!" Well, yes, that's what Fer said it was . "Oh, oh, becoming the Guild Master here in Doran was the best decision I ever made! The Dragon of my dreams, now within my reach . . . and the pleasure of disassembling it to come . . . It's a dream come true . " His words scared me a little . 'Single-minded', that's the word Rodolpho-san used to describe his old Adventurer colleague back in Claire . I was tending towards 'demented' or 'hysterical' myself now having some first-hand experience of Elland-san .
At a loss for words, I requested disassembly of the Earth Dragon . "Oh, and can we get all the materials back afterwards?" Elland-san's reaction to seeing the Dragon made me suspect he might, ahem, pilfer some choice parts if he was doing the disassembly himself . "Well it's a pity . " Elland-san recovered enough to think about what I had asked and the Guild Master of Doran came to the fore again . "In truth the Guild doesn't have the budget to buy in all the materials from this Dragon anyway . It's a real shame . " He looked at me perceptively and smiled .
"You were thinking I might steal some of the materials during disassembly?" He laughed . "Don't worry about that . If something like that were to happen and it became known the reputation of the Adventurers Guild would plummet . Not just that, I'd be sold into slavery or even executed in an unpleasant manner, and I value my life quite a lot . " He shrugged . "Now that Mukouda-san is here in Doran it's entirely possible another Dragon will require disassembly soon . It would be a shame to lose that future opportunity by any foolish actions now . "
Is that so? It sounded like he was more worried about being caught than anything . I settled for that but Elland-san continued .
"No, wait . Even if we can't buy in all of the Earth Dragon, maybe some parts . . . " he thought for a moment . "If you agree maybe we can buy some of the Dragon's materials from you?" He really wanted a complete Dragon but he'd settle for some bits of one . If he agreed to pay us for some parts we didn't want or need then maybe he'd stay honest when temptation struck later as he disassembled the monster .
"Yes, that's OK . " I said . "So what parts do you want? We want to keep all the meat but the rest of the materials we can negotiate for . " I had to keep all the meat otherwise Fer would get angry . He was certain that Dragon meat was the tastiest meat ever . I was intrigued, I had tasted Orc General, Bloody Horn Bull and even Wyvern meat since I had arrived in this world . Could Dragon really be so much better than those high-quality meats?
"We definitely want the blood," Elland-san mused, "and the fangs too . I'd like to buy the innards but . . . Hummm, we can't afford everything so I'll have to choose . The meat is too expensive for sure so of course I'll return that to you . Please let me think about this a little more, Mukouda-san . "
"That's fine . " I agreed . "Once we come back after the dismantling is done we can decide together what parts the Guild wants to buy from us . We want all the meat since Fer says is's really delicious and he'd get mad at me if we didn't keep it . "" . . . Earth Dragon meat is delicious? You've eaten Dragon meat before?" Elland-san exclaimed .
"Well, yeah, I've been told by Fer that it tastes really good . " As I said that Elland-san rushed round from the other side of the workbench and grasped my hand .
"Please, I beg you, please let me eat Dragon meat . I will pay, I will pay you anything you ask, every coin I possess, I'll sell everything I have, please let me eat some of that meat . " he begged, tears in his eyes as I tried unsuccessfully to disengage my hand from his strong grip . E- Elland-san, are you really so desperate to eat Dragon you would sell everything you own? Please don't say that .
"Well, yes, I understand, please calm down . " I pleaded .
Misunderstanding what I had said Elland-san said "Thank you very much, thank you very much" over and over again . I finally extracted my hand from his grip and shook it to restore the circulation . He had said he was an S rank Adventurer before he retired, I could well believe that .
"Ha, Dragon meat . . . " Elland-san said ecstatically, his hand stroking the Earth Dragon on the workbench beside him . When he started rubbing his cheek against its scaly skin I had to look away . This Elf-san is truly terrifying, Rodolpho-san . Your warning was not enough . Fer, who had been pretending to be asleep as usual looked up at the tall Elf figure bussing the Earth Dragon and asked "Is that guy all right?" I didn't know what to tell him . Dora-chan added "Are all the people in this city like him?" I tried to assure them that Elland-san was a special case but I don't think I was very convincing .
"So, how long will it take you to disassemble it?" I asked, hoping he'd stop doing what he was doing . Elland-san stood upright again, blinking as his Guild Master persona took over again . He left one hand resting on the Dragon's skin though, I noticed .
"Well, let me think, umm, I want to be very careful and be sure I investigate every part thoroughly so I'd want 3 days to finish it properly . " The way he said "investigate every part thoroughly" worried me somewhat . Anyway, it would be three days, apparently .
"Then I'll come back in three days . Oh, that's right, are there any subjugation requests for us to undertake in this city?"
"Ah, no . We're fine here . Remember this is a Dungeon City so we have plenty of Adventurers around . " High-ranking Adventurers would tend to congregate around a dungeon so the local area's needs in that respect would be well-catered for .
Elland-san's eyes strayed back to the Earth Dragon on the workbench and I decided it was time to go find an inn to stay at for the duration of our visit to Doran . When I asked the distracted Guild master about lodgings he immediately offered to put us all up at his own home but I declined as politely as I could . It had been nerve-wracking enough just being with him for a few hours, a whole day or longer . . . brrr . He was actually a nice guy as long as he wasn't thinking about Dragons which was most of the time so I said we'd find a suitable inn that had accommodations for contracted monsters .
Elland-san recommended the "Labyrinth City Inn" where guests could stay with contracted monsters and told me that as a thank-you for bringing the Dragon to Doran's Guild for dismantling they'd cover our accommodation fee . He gave directions to the inn and when prompted by Fer I asked for the location of the dungeon entrance too . It seemed that Fer wanted to go there tomorrow and I was too tired to argue so I listened carefully to Elland-san's instructions before we said good-bye and left the Guild building .