William wanted to conquer the new world with a near endless waves of troops sweeping over the new world.

If only he had a few regiments of soldiers this world would be already his by now, sadly reality rarely go where you wants so he has to settle carefully and slowly.

Beating the enemy is not the problem, the problem is holding the captured territories with insufficient man power as he would have to send troops for garrison for each settlement he takes.

William tried to do the math and no matter how he did it, he always comes up short on the amount of troops to garrison the empire alone.

Well that could change in the future but for now he had but a fort on the hill the locals calls Alnus.

It has permacrete walls, anti-air batteries, artillery batteries, heavy bolter positions, heavy stubber positions and layers upon layers of barbed wires.

Although he got the anti-air batteries and the artillery batteries by "borrowing" from the hive's defensive Improvements, to which Fredrick gave him an lecture of the dangers of weakening the hive's defenses.

Saying that William is pretty confident in the invulnerability of the base... At least with whatever the feudals are using its impossible to make a dent in its defenses.

Now back to where we last left

The roaring sounds of the engines of the chimera, the armored vehicle made a cloud of dust in its trail.

Thevchildren in the vehicles had to endure the rocking of the vehicle from sharp turns and changes in speed, causing their heads and bodies to collide with each other. Gritting their teeth, they endured the pain.

Looking out of the view port of the vehicle, the view was blocked by the escaping Coda villagers.

And the black shadow falling on them from the sky.

It was the Flame Dragon.

It was the third day of the exodus from Coda Village, and the refugees thought they were out of the Flame Dragon's hunting grounds. However, the beast suddenly appeared and immediately began attacking its prey.

Thanks to the prior knowledge of the Flame Dragon's appearance, Coda Village and a few other nearby villages had all simultaneously fled from the beast. After the Flame Dragon couldn't find any humans or Elves to prey on, it followed its nose to a place filled with humans.

Since the preparation for escaping had taken some time, and they were weighed down by their luggage, the slow speed of the Coda Villagers had allowed the Flame Dragon to catch them.

"Give it the Emperor's wrath!"

The veteran shouted furiously at the beast as he lets out a spray of auto-gun rounds at the beast from horseback. Maybe it was due to the over-secretion of adrenaline by the brain, but a hint of joy could be heard in his voice.

Ratatatatata

Unfortunately, the auto-gun rounds did very little, infact it seems that the dragon does even notices that it's being fired upon.

The Flame Dragon swooped down at the villagers who had stood frozen in place.

"Suppressive fire!" William ordered and everyone simultaneously opened fire on the beast creating a dazzling light show.

Ratatatatatatatatata

Ratatatatatata

Ratatatatatatata

Ratatatatata

As good as it might look like however the tough dragon scales deflected all of the bullets.

"It's useless!" A young trooper commented

"shut up and shoot boy!" The Sargent yelled keeping the young trooper in line.

'with this many guns while it can't hurt it, it would at least annoy that creature' William thought.

And it worked! The beast constantly being pelted by auto-gun rounds slowed down a bit, which allowed the farmer who was already in its mouth to escape.

Being annoyed the dragon turned his head towards the men and looked at them with its one eye murderously.

Yes, one eye as it seems an arrow protruding from its blind eye, but nobody could look directly at its terrifying visage.

Bfoooooooooooooow

The Flame Dragon breathed fire at them like a heavyflamer, but was unable to reach the wildly evasive horse William's men are on.

"Ono! Yuniryu!! Ono!"

A female teenage voice came from inside the chimera.

As he turned around, golden hair entered William's line of sight.

The pale Elf pointed her slender fingers at her eyes whilst shouting "Ono!" repeatingly.

As Williamis not a dumbass he instantly understood what she meant.

"Aim for the eyes!" William shouted

The PDF troopers trained their sights on the face of the dragon and opened fire.

The Flame Dragon looked visibly annoyed as it turned its face away and stopped its movements.

At this moment William suddenly remembers something as he opened his eyes wide.

"didn't we have a missile trooper!? What the hell have been you doing!?" William yelled as he searched through his men only to land on a young trooper with shaking hands.

William tell seems to snap the trooper out of it as it hurriedly picked up the missile launcher and fired.

Foooosh

And the missile flies away, unfortunately in the rush the trooper didn't aim property as it seems the missile would miss.

Usually it's a would be a guided missile but due to guided missiles being more expensive than unguided. So when deciding to which types of ammunition should the hive produce in the early days of the settlement his great grandfather choose the more economic friendly one. Since then the incident is pretty forgotten as the missile launcher rarely used anyway.

The missile accelerated towards the Dragon with flames sprouting from its tail.

The dragon which had lost its balance spread its wings to regain its balance and slowing its speed trying to evade the missile. However, its footing suddenly slipped.

Looking closely, there was a halberd stuck straight into the ground.

On the top of the chimera, the goth lolita girl somehow managed to climb atop the chimera and thrown the halberd from there. Its handle hit the leg of from creature.

The Flame Dragon fell in the direction of the missile, which should have missed.

Due to the Neumann Effect, even the tough dragon scales were unable to resist the blast. It exceeded the Hugoniotic elasticity limit of its armour and broke through, blasting a hole clean through it.

If one compared the anatomy of the Flame Dragon to that of a human, the whole left arm was blown off.

The air vibrated with the wail of the Dragon, it roared at the pain all the while a hint of rage could be felt in it.

The Flame Dragon's piercing roar caused a brief lapse in the PDF's fire.

Seeing such large and powerful creature reduced to this is really something.

Seizing this opportunity, the Flame Dragon flew into the sky.

Spreading its wings, it flew unsteadily as it gained altitude.

The PDF watched silently as it flew away from them.

The Flame Dragon had been repelled!

Meanwhile from the Feudal's perspective

If they told others this story in a pub.

Anyone would be suspicious and say "Are you kidding me!?"

People who could slay Dragons single handedly would only appear in myths and legends.

Triumphing over bears and buffaloes barehanded was still possible if one trained hard enough. But to fight an Ancient Dragon was suicidal.

Even if an entire order of knights, equipped with magic armor and weapons, magicians, priests, and Elven archers and Spirit users were sent against an Ancient Dragon, it would still be futile. This was common sense in this world. As such, Ancient Dragons meant disaster.

However, the news of "Although it wasn't defeated, it was still driven back" did not come from a single source, but from many people. Thus, many people believed it. On the other hand, there were people who said "It may be the truth, but are you sure it was a Flame Dragon?".

The Flame Dragon's active period occurred every 50 years, as mentioned earlier. In addition, it was hard to imagine that anything could defeat an Ancient Dragon. With that in mind, it would be more convincing to say that the Ancient Flame Dragon was actually a large Dragonewt or a Slither Wyrm.

That said, a very old Dragonewt could grow to the size of an Ancient Dragon. Slither Wyrms were also more dangerous than Wyverns. With that, even killing one of those lesser dragons could qualify a person as a Dragon Slayer. With more than half of the villagers still alive, they had more of a reason to believe that "It's only at that level."

In this world, death could come to anyone, at any time. Being lost in a forest meant death, playing beside the river and falling into it by accident also spelled death.Thus, for humans who had an enemy such as the Flame Dragon who can rain death upon them, the news that the dragon was repelled gave them hope and led them to spread the news further. Every one of them were curious about who the new hero was.

There were three types of survivors from Coda Village.

Some of them were villagers who could seek out their family or friends nearby. Those were the lucky ones, as their family and friends guaranteed their safety whilst providing them with accommodation and job opportunities.

The second type were villagers who had no family or friends and had to live the life of a refugee. These people, who made up the majority of the villagers, had no accommodation or job opportunities. Although they worried about how to live through the next day, they still prayed in gratitude that they had survived this disaster and hoped that Lady Luck would help them as they scattered throughout the land.

Each of the surviving villagers grasped the hands of Itami and his subordinates, and thanked them profusely.

To the refugees, the PDF were mysterious beings. They had helped them escape and even fought the Flame Dragon, although they had no obligation to do so, and asked for nothing in return (more like they nothing to offer)

Given that they could not speak the language, they did not seem like knights or priests of this country. If they were the army of a foreign nation, the villagers would have been slaughtered and pillaged. (William would have loved that but as he's playing this diplomatically he has to play nice and be on the good side of the people, a key part in Williams plan is have a few of the natives rise up and join his side, then he'll help the rebels to overthrow the empire setting up a puppet in its place. For that he needs positive PR)

Although there seems to be a noble looking young man with them.

Of course, they were not bandits.

The most reasonable explanation for them was that the PDF was a group of foreign mercenaries that was accompanying a young noble on his whims of adventure.

A mercenary group, they would usually not lent aid without seeking profits. Thus, the villagers were scared about what sort of recompense the PDF would demand in return for their power.

However, they did not ask for a single penny in the end.

Not only that, despite their praiseworthy accomplishment of repelling a Flame Dragon, they had gloomy looks on their faces and sunken shoulders that made people think that they were on the losing side.

They would also on occasion look at a particular young trooper with the "big metal rod" that droved the dragon away with strange eyes. (they could have been killed! If the bastard just picked up the missile launcher at the start and the just shot the damn lizard then none of this would have happened!)

They even helped to bury the dead (a priest happened to be nearby and performed simple funeral rites).

Gazing at the PDF who were waving their hands at them even after the villagers were out of their sight, the villagers of Coda Village could only smile bitterly.

(William is told them to wave their hands, keep up the smile and wait until nobody's around before they beat the bastard that put them all in danger)

Incidentally, villagers of Coda Village On their journey met a lot of people who asked for confirmation. In other words, "Was the Flame Dragon really driven off?".

"It was really a Flame Dragon, I saw it with my own eyes. It looked at me with eyes that said 'pitiful humans'...huh? Who, you ask? They were the people who wore a strange grayish clothing and armor. They were humans, for sure. Not Elves or Dwarves. Maybe it's the Eastern tribe's attire. Although they could not speak our language, they were smart and they kept trying to learn our language. They were good people, they helped us to escape without asking anything in return. For free, I tell you! It's true!"

Unlike the bards, they did not have a wide vocabulary and their description of the events was quite rough. But what they had seen with their own eyes needed no exaggeration.

The listeners' imaginations were easily stirred when they heard the survivor's words, leaving a large impression on them. Because the witnesses had seen it with their own eyes, when they were asked "So what was it like?", they could answer their audience's questions.

When the scene was described where the dragon's arm got blasted off, the listeners gulped and quietly said, "How, how powerful."

They parted ways with smiles on their faces and without asking for anything in return.

Even the PDF troopers themselves would have asked "Who are you talking about?" After all, a tale of heroes that would not even be found in legends was currently spreading among the people.

In the bars or even on the street, the refugees would be stopped and asked "Are you from Coda Village?" And because the villagers saw different things from different points of view, what came out of each of their mouths were naturally different. With this, their words painted a surprisingly realistic scene.

"Knight Norma, what do you think?"

In the Imperial courts, there were female knights who served as aides. One of them, Hamilton Uno Ro, asked her senpai, who was also her colleague, about the tales from the street.

Several knights and their followers sat in the corner of the rowdy tavern, filled with guests. The bar was dirty, and it only had a little space between tables. The place was so noisy that one might not be able to hear what was being said at a nearby table, unless one shouted. Amidst this noisy atmosphere, the knights and their followers sat side by side reaching out with their hands for food and holding their cups full of wine.

Glancing over, there was a girl from Coda Village working as a temporary waitress who was serving her customers from a tray of ale. After she set the plate of dishes down on the table, she described what she had seen, and collected a good amount of tips.

Knight Norma, whose mustache was neatly trimmed, had an uncomfortable look on his face.

While he was at court in the sparkling clean palace, he enjoyed delicious meals prepared by the wives of the nobles or their daughters. Although he was part of the Princess's order of Knights, they were nothing but a decoration of the court and had nothing to do with the frontlines. And now, an aide like himself was eating crude dishes and murky alcohol.

Although it was a mission, it did not sit well with him.

How the hell did I get myself into this mess…? Norma felt like cursing his superiors. Just keeping himself from doing so had taken all of his willpower. Since it was a direct order from the Princess, the mission of investigating Arnus Hill could not be helped. However, he had expected the Princess to lead the whole order of knights, so that his servants would have to wait on him hand and foot throughout the journey.

However, that willful girl issued orders to station her main forces far behind, only taking a few people to perform reconnaissance. They even hid their identities, intentionally dirtying their clothes, eating the crude black bread and murky wine of common peasants, which he considered unfit for a knight like himself.

Norma raised his hand to signal the waitress for a refill. Seeing how his kouhai did not recognize how bad the situation was for them, he sighed a little.

After he got his refill, Norma shrugged under the innocent gaze of Hamilton who was waiting for his reply.

"If there are that many refugees who said the same thing, then it probably isn't a rumor. It's not likely that so many people would come together to tell such a lie. Still, it's very hard for me to believe that it was a Flame Dragon."

"I think that if that many people are saying the same thing, then it wouldn't hurt to believe them."

The waitress's mood immediately changed. She smiled cutely while saying, "Thank you, young Knight-sama". Although her attire made her look old, she might be younger than she looked.

"After receiving so much, I'll tell you what I kept from the others."

Saying that, the waitress started her story:

When the news of the Flame Dragon's appearance started to spread, Coda Village became as busy as a beehive. The blacksmith's wife next door had come over to tell Melissa about the news. It was noon and she was drying her clothes.

"Melissa! Melissa! Bad news!"

They often gossiped about the happenings in the small village and had become quite close. Even if there was no one in the house, she knew where Melissa would be as she went around back to where she dried her clothes to look for Melissa.

Melissa told her son who was taking in the dry clothes to inform her husband who was out in the fields, and then she ran into her home to start packing.

After a short while, her husband came back panting and shouting, "Is everything okay?!?!" Apparently, the way their son had described it made him think that the Flame Dragon had already attacked the village.

Seeing that his wife was safe and sound, the husband sat down on the floor in relief. Although she was safe, the real danger was still lurking around the corner. After explaining the situation to her husband, Melissa returned to packing their luggage.

After loading their food, water, some basic daily necessities, a few changes of clothes and their hard-earned savings onto their wagon which was used for farming, it was buckling under the weight of all their luggage.

They used a mule to pull the cart while her son and husband pushed it from behind, and then they started down the road towards the village. When they reached the center of the village, there were already many other villagers also in their wagons crowding the road.

Many wagons had broken down due to their heavy loads, blocking the street.

After wasting precious time waiting for the wagons to be cleared up, they were finally out of the village. By then, the sun was already beginning to set.

Sometimes a wagon's wheels would get stuck in the muddy ground and it would become immobile. Angry shouts of "Get out of the way!" and desperate cries of "Come help!" intertwined with each other, amplifying the frustrations of everyone present.

Scenes of people quarrelling, wagons overturned, luggage scattered all over, children crying loudly and women with obvious looks of despair on their faces could be seen everywhere.

But, in their time of need, their saviors came to their aid.

"They were the strange men in gary. There were twelve of them, one of them in particular seems to be a foreign noble as he was wearing a fancy blue coat and the sword he carries on his hip is incredibly ornate"

The waitress's voice not only could be heard by the Knights, but also by the other patrons. Unconsciously, the tavern had gone silent as Melissa described the exodus of the village as well as the presence of the noble among the people in gray. No one in the tavern knew anything about them.

"What do the young foreign noble look like?"

Norma's question made Melissa quirk her brow as she seems to be thinking of the rumors she has heard. The rumor in question is... Let's just say the bonds between two men comrade in each other's arms can be quite strong.

Thinking about it gave rise to a strange feeling with in the waitresses heart but try as she might, she can't seem to identify the emotion she is feeling... Excitement perhaps?

Anyways Melissa recalled every single detail about him and began telling a colorful picture.

"The young noble has a delicate handsome face not to dissimilar to an elf's. His hair color was as black as a raven's feather, coupled with eyes the seems like gemstone as blue as the sky. He has a wonderful generous personality, on the journey when seeing the suffering child he offered them to sit in his carriage..." She goes on for a bit.

"so he's simply the living embodiment of nobility" by the time she has finished she had a dreamy look on her face.

Meanwhile the men in the room all snorted

"Woman..."

"its just a sissy"

She continues the story.

"Hmm. It was like that. Many things happened, but we still managed to move on. But that beast finally caught up with us."

There was not enough water for the villagers and they didn't have enough food to satiate them. Still, they did their best to endure in order to take another step forward, but they were nearing their limit.

Yet, they continued their difficult journey even as their supplies rapidly dwindled to nothing.

Yet, they continued their difficult journey even as their supplies rapidly dwindled to nothing.

Alas, they finally reached their limit.

Those who could still move continued on, while those who couldn't sat down in fatigue.

The noble's strange carriage which didn't need any horses to move carried the children who couldn't move anymore. Still, it could not take all of them .

"I couldn't move anymore. Still, I wished for my son to live on. I prayed hard to God, but nothing happened. Those priests said that God exists, but why didn't God help us when we were in such dire straits? I won't do an idiotic thing like praying to God next time."

The bright sky above them suddenly turned dark. Expecting to see rain clouds, the villagers raised their heads and froze in place.

"It was a red Dragon. It had arms and legs, and it spread its wings like a bat. It was those large wings that covered the sky."

The dragon landed. In an instant, Moyer and her husband disappeared before Melissa's eyes.

Only the lower halves of their bodies were left.

Before the people even understood the situation, their natural instinct took over as each of them ran. Carrying their children, they abandoned their luggage as they tried to get away from the monster.

The wagons overturned, crushing many villagers under them.

While everyone was escaping, the Flame Dragon spewed fire all around it. After thoroughly roasting the humans, it swallowed them whole.

They scampered around like baby spiders as they tried to escape. Like a child destroying an ant's nest, the Flame Dragon squashed the escaping villagers under its foot and ate them.

Despair filled the villagers' hearts.

"In that instant, the graymen appeared."

Melissa said with a tone of admiration.

"They rode on their strange breed of horses, which were faster than our horses. On the horseback, the Men in Green raised their magic staffs and attacked the Flame Dragon with spells.

However, the dragon remained unscathed. Even their magic was unable to pierce the dragon scales. But, they didn't give up.

They circled around the dragon repeatedly and kept attacking to buy time for the villagers to escape.

Thanks to them, many of the the villagers survived.

The Flame Dragon turned around to attack the graymen. But, the beast could not catch up with their frightening speed. By moving around, they kept themselves safe from the scorching flames of the dragon.

But soon, the dragon got used to their tactics. The people in green who could only cast magic from afar were at a disadvantage.

"At that moment, the leader of the people in green shouted something and they took out that thing."

"What thing?"

"A giant magic staff. We call it the Divine Rod of Steel. There was a loud bang and the Flame Dragon's whole left arm was blown off."

It was that moment when the so-called invincible Flame Dragon was defeated.

After getting injured, the dragon let out an earth-shaking roar and rapidly flew off.

After finishing the story, the people present were silenced by the magnanimity of her tale.

"Divine...Divine Rod of Steel?"

Such an exaggerated name awed them into shocked silence.

After a moment of quiet contemplation, the Knights began discussing their thoughts on this. The tavern also returned to its rowdy atmosphere.

"In-In a nutshell, they were very powerful. Although it looked to be like a foreign noble is leading a band of mercenary seeking adventure, they had such amazing skills. I think we should recruit them. What do you think, Your Highness?"

The vermillion-haired female knight who was about to eat the Ma Nuga meat in her hands was asked a question. She then put the meat back onto her plate on the table to reply to the knight.

Ma Nuga meat was made by wrapping the a long bone from livestock with smoked meat.

Stretching her hands towards her wine cup, Piña Co Lada replied, "I'm quite interested in the weapons used by those people who repelled the dragon."

Senator Godasen had said it before. "The enemy infantry's weapon made a sound of 'Bang! Bang! Bang!' A moment later, our troops had fallen."

Based on these words, it seemed to fit the bill with the Coda villagers' descriptions. The Coalition Army's defeat at Arnus hill must be related to that magic weapon.

Piña called the waitress to ask her a question.

"Woman, you have seen the weapons of those people. What do they look like?"

Melissa tilted her head as she told her what she had seen.

Although being addressed as 'woman' made her unhappy, because of the presence of the young female knight who gave her tips, she decided to tell her the truth.

"In other words, those people used staffs that looked like steel. They made an exploding sound, as well as spitting fire?"

"In my opinion, it is a magic weapon."

"Then, the staff they used to repel the Slither Wyrm…….it's called the Divine Rod of Steel, right? What does it look like? Try with the best of your abilities to describe it."

"Didn't I say that it was a Flame Dragon, not a Slither Wyrm?" the waitress insisted. With a wicked smile, she glanced at the men around her.

"You're being rhetorical. The Divine Rod is good stuff…...Well, I can't blame you, seeing that you were born in an overprotective environment. But, why don't you ask the girls who have husbands? It's the same as a man's thing. Of course, it's so large that you can hug it. I don't think any man here has a thing that's as big or as black as it..."

The waitress laughed crudely as she went to the other table to take orders.

Confused, Piña looked to the male knights for an explanation.

As if on cue, all of them averted their faces from Piña's gaze.

She finally set her sights on Hamilton.

"You...you have a fiancee, right?"

She must have thought that she was safe from the line of fire.

The prim and proper Knight, Hamilton Uno Ro, who was drinking soup, sprayed it out in surprise. Her messy short hair shook with her head as she protested, "I-I do…...but I am still a maiden! How would I know about such a things... ah."

The men's eyes landed on Hamilton. "Hmm, that kind of thing, eh?"

Piña's suspicious gaze pierced her.

Hamilton could only blush furiously as she cowered down in her seat.