342 Meeting (1/2)

Her scarlet mage robes were embroidered with precious and expensive magical runes. Her vine mage staff was engraved with a red dragon crystal that jumped up and down as if it were a living heart. Archmage ”Christina” wasn't very famous, but she seemed to wear the evidence of either her power level or that she was really rich.

And after she showed off impressive fire magic abilities in numerous team missions, she was chosen as one of the representatives for the neutral unaffiliated adventurers and became one of the adventurer leaders for this battle.

Her fiery red hair and sexy mature woman's body accentuated her beautiful face and helped give her the nickname of ”Fire Witch.” She even had several loyal followers.

But, today, she was in quite a terrible mood, especially after she heard a certain piece of news.

”Have you heard? I hear that someone from the Calamity Rankings is here.”

When this news started spreading, she thought at first that she had been exposed. And when the news that people were looking for a spy started spreading, she broke into a cold sweat.

Yep, that's because not only was she a member of the Calamity Rankings, but she was also the undead's spy.

Her real identity was…

”Molly?”

Yep, she was Molly, the previous Dragon Queen Molly, who was now a spy working for the undead.

The majority of the dragons currently residing in the mortal plane lived by themselves. For example, Little Red when she was back in the Underground had her own dragon nest and territory, along with manticores and other magical creatures as subordinates. It could be said that every single adult dragon with its own territory was like a domain lord. All they had to do was to enjoy their subordinates' worship as the subordinates brought food for them. They simply needed to sleep on top of their treasure hoards and enjoy their lives.

And it just happened to be that dragons were able to grow in power even while they were sleeping. The older they got, the more powerful they became. This was why other mortal species envied them, and also why the giants looked down upon the dragons. The giants always called them big lizards that didn't know how to do anything but hibernate.

Molly, who no longer had a Dragon City, was just like an immemorial red dragon that had lost her territory. She could only rely on herself. Having only recently arrived aboveground, she didn't know anything about how things worked here. She didn't even dare to fight other dragons for their territory as she was afraid that stories about her would spread to the surface Dragon Cities and then people would gang up on and chase after her.

Since she lost her Underground Dragon City and no longer had any subordinates or dragon underlings, the ambitious Molly decided to lay low for a while and first establish her own dragon nest before obtaining territory. Yet hiring powerful subordinates required treasure, and fixing a dragon nest required money. Still, an immemorial dragon like her without a treasure hoard that was suitable for her status? Every other dragon would laugh at her.

”…Dragons never lack money as other countries' treasuries are their treasuries.”

And so, she went around aboveground and attacked cities in order to accumulate wealth, all to reestablish her own faction and make a new dragon nest.

In order to earn money, she was even willing to hire herself out as a mercenary. Not only did this help make her terrible reputation known far and wide, she even got onto the Calamity Rankings because of it: ranked 99, Red Armageddon.

An immemorial dragon who was willing to be hired as a mercenary and even sometimes turned on her employers? This was obviously a shame upon all dragons, one they found difficult to withstand. And Molly seemed to know this as well. In order to avoid any ”hunting” of her by the surface dragons, she wandered around everywhere and never stayed in one location for long. Or perhaps it should be said that she roamed around, committing crimes everywhere. But when she arrived in the Bardi Empire's capital, she never expected the capital city to be on the highest level of alert. After she escaped from the dragon knights there, she was blocked by the Undead Emperors.

And so, she discovered that she was forced to a brink. Worrying that she would be forced to transform into a bone dragon, and with nobody else she could possibly ask for help, she recalled her own daughter and sent a letter pleading for help. However, she was still caught by Aso and the other undead.

When she found that her opponents were multiple Undead Emperors, she shamelessly surrendered, similar to how she surrendered ever so quickly to the Demon Earl in the past. As long as she didn't have to become a bone dragon, anything was fine.

From a certain standpoint, Molly, who possessed zero sense of honor, was indeed a shame upon all dragons.

”As long as you work for our cause, all these items that are useless apart from being shiny can be yours.”

To the Undead Emperors, the treasure they accumulated over the years was nothing more than shiny rocks. Even if they were rich, there was very little they could buy. Using their treasure to bribe a SemiGod like Molly into working for them was quite profitable. And that was how the undead's generous payments helped Molly unhesitatingly surrender and become their most loyal servant.

And, right now, it was supposed to be time for her to open the castle gates of Oak Town for the undead. But the moment she arrived at the gates, someone called out her real name.

”Molly? Former Dragon Queen Molly?”

”Ein Mezus?”

The black-haired female ranger lowered her head and looked at the red-headed female mage before her. Little Red doubted her own eyes. She was supposed to be one of my secret aces who would guard Oak Town's castle gates, but she never expected that she would meet the purpose for her excursion—finding Molly—right here.

”Watch the castle gates. I'm absolutely certain that there's still a spy in Oak Town. This is a critical time. Nobody is allowed near the castle gates without express orders. Anyone that approaches without permission, capture and interrogate them.”

My words were still in her ears, and Little Red was highly familiar with Molly's personality. She instantly figured out what Molly was doing, and her astonishment became humiliation and anger… With such a mother, she really felt it was embarrassing. She came all the way here to save her mother, but Molly ended up as the undead's spy. Little Red's anger knew no bounds.

”MOLLY!”