While flying at a rapid speed - Orsted collected the reward from the system in his mind.
[ You have obtained: 1,000 dragon points, 50 years of lifespan and 1 gacha chance.]
Storing away the gacha chances for later, Orsted found there were no new side quests - making him turn towards the side quest 4.
'So I will have to complete them all before a new side quest is released? Recruiting Todd Fang....' Orsted could only show patience at this point.
The only lead on finding Todd Fang was through the system's advice and his own knowledge of the plot.
Five years before the start of the main story, Todd was a bandit in the Fortified City of Garkla. At that point, he was already one of the leaders among the bandits - planning on turning them in and becoming a respected soldier for a better future.
'According to the system, Todd would become a bandit in around 2 years from now. Which meant he became a leader in a year among those bandits, not very surprising.'
[The original plot shall start in approximately 8 years and 9 months.] - Orsted checked in the system quickly.
There was still a lot of time before Natsuki Subaru appeared and Orsted's main quest activated.
The ability that makes Todd so dangerous was his intellect. He was extremely attentive and calculative, always approaching a situation while using logical reasoning and being two steps ahead of both his enemies and allies.
His only flaw could be his fearfulness and urgency to destroy anything he deemed dangerous.
'If I fought him in a battle of wits, I would most likely lose. His cunning and intuition is levels above mine. In the first place, I don't consider myself to be smart. I just excel at preparation for the future.'
That's all Orsted was good at - worry about the future, think about the worst situation and prepare against it.
When it came to paranoia, Orsted and Todd Fang suffered from similar things.
Though it wasn't very lacking right now, Orsted did have intentions of upgrading his intuition to Todd level with [rewrite] - soon.
As a subordinate, Todd Fang could prove to be very useful. His strength was a lacking factor, but it could be potentially covered by Orsted's help. He possessed a lot of training methods from the knowledge he received from his template.
'...I should focus on the special quest for now. In the worst case scenario, I will head back to Zarestia's bed and finish my dragonification there.'
It was expected that Zarestia wouldn't like his idea one bit.
"I felt a bad premonition just now." Zarestia tightened her hands around Orsted's neck.
"....." Orsted wondered if she could sense his soul to a degree too.
Crossing the Crimson Hills Girall, Orsted could see the Sixth-city, Azamiki from the high altitude of his flight.
"It's within that forest..." Zarestia pointed towards the vast bodies of trees, where a river could be seen connecting it to the Azamiki city.
As Orsted approached above the forest, Zarestia disengaged from his neck with a serious expression.
"Instead of throwing it away, why don't you let me protect it instead." Orsted couldn't help but try to change Zarestia's mind.
"Why?" Zarestia pouted in dissatisfaction, she felt uncomfortable with the light sphere nearby.
What if she became the same as her past self?
Zarestia remembered once Orsted had commented about it being problematic too.
"Since it could act as your anchor, it should be a special glintstone if I'm not wrong. If we sell it, we could potentially make thousands of gold coins."
"Thousands of gold coins...."
A normal ground dragon could be brought with 30 to 50 gold coins, by the way.
Greed was a good way to manipulate others, especially when they are as simple as Zarestia.
Orsted didn't want her to use the light sphere herself, he knew the current her would reject the idea no matter what. So, he only wanted to change her mind subtly - to not throw it into the great waterfall.
Even a normal person with Zarestia's light sphere could instantly attain enough power to match existence like old Wilhelm and Ricardo. Its value was very unique and it was almost impossible to come across another one.
"Alright. I want to get rid of it, but you can have it if you want. In exchange, let's eat a ground dragon today!" Zarestia showed a peace sign with a smile.
Coming to an agreement, Zarestia raised her hands forwards with a cheeky grin.
"I won't let him escape this time."
The atmosphere darkened at Zarestia's announcement instantly.
Bang!
At the very next moment, Orsted saw a big part of the forest cave in, as if bitten off by a huge beast. Almost one-fifth of the forest was destroyed by Zarestia's single attack.
'Her attacks are swift as ever, living up to her moniker as the [Most beautiful shinigami].' Orsted was sure that any existence within Zarestia's attack range was definitely dead.
After defeating her thief, Zarestia hid behind Orsted as if to use him as a shield.
The light sphere floated up towards them, from the wasteland that existed below them - controlled by Zarestia's wind.
'It might be at the level of a trauma from how she is acting.' Orsted pursed his lips and transferred her light sphere into the inventory.
"Is that 'thing' gone?" Zarestia looked around with a frown.
"Yeah." Orsted felt one of the shackles of contract disintegrate around his mana gate.
"Let's return to Azamiki." Orsted held Zarestia's hand and began leading towards the city.
There was one last thing that Orsted wanted to complete before leaving Kararagi.
It was to write a letter to Crane from Banan.
There was a need to make his permanent contract with Zarestia official and the fact that the light sphere has been retrieved known.
Such information should be able to push his dragon points to more than 12,000.
"It has been a while since we went out to hunt. You aren't gonna take those bounty things anymore?" Zarestia asked after entering the city through the fortress.
Orsted could feel her fighting spirit and the urge to kill through their connection. The past betrayal seems to have left a mark on her mentality, even if centuries had passed.
Zarestia was comfortable with her current self, so Orsted had no intention of helping her with [Rewrite] either.
"We will leave the city tomorrow, you can choose a few bounties then." Orsted walked towards their inn while speaking.
"So, where are we going next?" Zarestia asked with a carefree smile.
"Lugunica."
"Where's that?"
"....."
It was expected that - Orsted would spend the whole day drilling information about all the nations on this continent into Zarestia's head next.
[End of volume 1]