Goddess Kaleidoscope

"It's good! This outfit really suits you."

"Mentor!"

Romian blushed slightly, a little shy, as she put on her new clothes. Rudd immediately declared that these would be her everyday attire, and she would wear them every day. He also asked Manny to make her another set for changing. His reasoning was that since she was now a nun, she should act like one.

After paying the full amount for the two sets of nun's clothes on the spot, Rude led Romian away from the tailor shop and arrived at the village chief's house, which was under expansion.

Thanks to a significant increase in population compared to last year, Pine Village is rapidly upgrading from a village to a town, and many supporting facilities need to be built. Relying on his position in the village, Old Rom has taken control of the tavern and inn businesses, intending to hand them over to his second son, Rob, while his eldest son, Ron, will continue to serve as his militia captain.

The villagers weren't entirely without objections to the village chief's excessive spending, but they all acknowledged that his family had consistently contributed to the village's major events without hesitation. Old Rom, in particular, had been at the forefront of the fight against bandits, even injuring his back in the process.

In addition, the village chief simply took the best "meat" and never said he wouldn't leave any soup for the other villagers, so at most everyone would curse him a couple of times behind Old Rom's back, but no one harbored any resentment.

When Lud arrived, old Rom was directing his second son and several kobolds to build a new house. The old man seemed to have made up his mind to give up farming, selling off all his land and buying up the houses of his neighbors to build a "grand hotel"!

Lude had previously told him that Old Rom was eager to open the tavern because he wanted to do business with adventurers and mercenaries. Their village was located on the northern border, right next to the Void Forest, so many people would come every year after spring.

But in the past, the village was poor and had no decent service facilities, so most adventurers would choose to settle in Riverwood, and they would earn all the money, while Pine Village could only watch with envy.

But this year, things changed. Pine Tree Village rose from adversity, while Riverwood Town declined and began to fall into ruin. So the old man had the idea of ​​"taking its place".

Lude came here specifically to discuss this matter with him.

End of this chapter

Mercenaries and adventurers, these desperate outlaws who live on the edge, are probably one of the groups with the strongest spending power in this world, apart from royalty and nobility.

Because their work involves the constant threat of death, many of them have developed a habit of living for the moment, spending their hard-earned wages on lavish lifestyles. Those with a more long-term perspective, however, will use their money to upgrade equipment and purchase consumables, which also incurs significant expenses.

Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that mercenaries and adventurers are one of the main promoters of the service economy in this world, and supporting industries have formed a relatively complete industrial chain.

In his heart, Lud did not oppose the village developing the tertiary industry, but he did not want the village to blindly follow the trend, only seeing the benefits of attracting mercenaries, while ignoring the various drawbacks that a large influx of outsiders might cause.

It's important to understand that while mercenaries are wealthy consumers who are willing to spend money, they are also a "security scourge" that causes headaches for town administrators and law enforcement agencies around the world. For many mercenaries, fighting is almost a traditional form of entertainment after drinking.

Songshu Village currently only has the size of a town, but it has not established a corresponding management organization. If a real incident occurs and an organization is then formed, the situation will likely be unmanageable.

So Ludwig approached old Rom and proposed forming a village committee capable of fulfilling administrative functions, instead of the current council of elders with completely unclear responsibilities and powers. This ironically made Ludwig the de facto leader of the village, as the villagers had become accustomed to consulting the priest on matters big and small, and these trivial matters severely consumed his time and energy.

Old Rom agreed with Ludwig's suggestion. After all, the entire village had witnessed the priest's intelligence and wisdom, and a sense of trust had been established among them. Moreover, he felt that the village was currently burdened with too many affairs and needed more people to share the workload in order to manage them all.

So the matter of forming a village committee was decided so directly. Lud suggested that Rom should choose young and strong men from the village to take the position, and provided him with some candidates. The respected elders would only be responsible for providing life experience and supervision.

In Lude's plan, the village committee's main responsibility is to assist the village chief in the daily management of the entire Pine Village. The main members include the security committee member, the propaganda committee member, the sanitation committee member, and the accounting committee member. Each committee member will be accompanied by two or three assistants, depending on the situation. Each member is only responsible for their own area of ​​authority and must report to the village chief regularly.

According to Lu De's estimate, for Songshu Village, which has more than 3,000 residents, a village committee management team of about 20 people would be sufficient. At least at this stage, there is no need to make the administrative body so comprehensive, as it would seem too bloated.

As the two were discussing the specific details of the village committee, the village's eldest son, Ron, returned.

Seeing this, Lu De quickly called him over and said that he and Old Rom had just decided that he would be the first security committee member of Songshu Village, and the militia would be renamed the Self-Defense Corps. The important task of maintaining security in the village would be entrusted to them.

Ron was completely bewildered after hearing this, feeling as if he had been promoted. Then he slapped his forehead, saying that he had almost forgotten about the important matter.

"Priest, Father, a small group of adventurers just arrived at the village entrance. They said they want to stay overnight in our village. I don't know if they are genuine or not, so I had Gouzi and the others stop them outside."

"You're here so soon?"

Upon hearing that adventurers had arrived, old Ron hurriedly asked how many there were. He learned that there were only five people, three men and two women, so he asked Ron to bring them over first. Ludwig, meanwhile, was pondering a question while rubbing his chin.

The mercenaries and adventurers who come to Pine Tree Village for lodging are mostly there to explore the Void Forest. Most have accepted commissions to find rare plants and animals, or even to hunt demi-humans. Some have received information about treasures and are going there on their own initiative. In short, they are all people who won't do anything without a profit.

Depending on their skill and luck, at least half of these adventurers never came out of the forest.

However, according to old Rom, the adventurers did arrive earlier this year than in previous years, which made Lud a little worried. Could it be that they had heard rumors about dragons and came here specifically to court death?

It's well known that among the bards of various human nations, the legend of the "dragon slayer" is always a favorite tale for young people dreaming of fame. But with so many stories told, it's inevitable that some will be misled into believing they are the chosen ones, that given the best sword in their village, they can slay the evil dragon, marry the beautiful princess, and reach the pinnacle of life.

Lude wasn't worried that these "dragon slayers" might threaten the safety of the Nidhogg family. Usually, these hotheads who impulsively registered as adventurers probably hadn't even seen what a dragon looked like, and they would perish on their very first mission because of their lack of strength.

Even a top human like Hamilton, with his strength, has to resort to underhanded tactics like sneak attacks to deal with dragons. If a mercenary hears that a dragon has appeared somewhere, they will usually mark that area as a "no-go zone" on the map and try to avoid it in the future.

However, there are always exceptions. Some adventurers sell information about dragons or other powerful monsters as a kind of "commodity." These "information hunters" may not be foolish enough to provoke dragons themselves, but they will sell the location of dragon nests to those who want to provoke them.

Soon, Ron brought over several adventurers. Rudd carefully examined them; they were all human and looked quite young. Their equipment was decent, including swordsmen, archers, and even a mage, though his rank was probably not high.

The squad leader was a young swordsman in his early twenties. The young man was handsome and quite tall and strong. He wore a well-made leather armor, and the hilt of the longsword at his waist was even decorated with patterns. He must have come from a very good family, and might even be the youngest son of some noble family.

The group arrived at the village chief's house and were surprised to find an elderly priest also present.

“Good afternoon, Chief Villager, and this… High Priest. My name is Denzel, and I am the leader of this adventure team. We hope to stay in the village for the night, and we would also like to ask you some questions about dragons.”

End of this chapter

"Sigh~ Just what I feared most has come to pass!"

The young adventurer didn't notice Lud's headache-ridden expression and continued to inquire about information about the dragon. He also confidently introduced his teammates, saying that they were all well-trained elites!

In this era, news is almost inevitably delayed and biased during its dissemination. As a result, the adventurers were unaware that the dragon incident had already passed for five months, almost half a year. The information they received had also changed hands many times and was far removed from the truth.

What puzzled Lud even more was that dragons were among the top magical creatures in this world. Even the great mage Hamilton, known as the "Fire Saint," only dared to boast in front of Lud that he could go toe-to-toe with a newly grown dragon in his "peak condition." But these young upstarts confidently claimed that they had a sure way to win.

It was only then that Lud noticed that among the baggage brought by these young adventurers, there seemed to be two objects emitting strange energy fluctuations.

Therefore, out of the cautiousness characteristic of an old fox, Lud did not openly mock the young men for overestimating their abilities. Instead, he smiled and winked at old Rom, signaling him to arrange accommodations for the adventurers.

So old Rom told his son to lead a few adventurers to find some vacant houses in the village to stay in. His inn was still under renovation, and the kobolds who had been called to help build the house were hiding inside, so it was best not to let the adventurers see them to avoid any misunderstandings.

After the group left, Ludwig instructed old Rom to have men keep a close watch on them and prevent the villagers from having any contact with them. Before figuring out their intentions, absolutely no information about Nidhogg should be revealed.

After returning to the temple with Romian, Rude immediately summoned Hume and told her what had just happened, hoping she would work overtime that night to secretly bring over the adventurers' luggage.

Lud wanted to figure out what was emitting that strange fluctuation, perhaps related to their obviously abnormal confidence in slaying dragons.

That very night, the Thief God himself went out and returned with what Rudd wanted in less than fifteen minutes. When the group opened the bundle, they discovered that what had caught Rudd's attention was an ancient book and a magnificently crafted greatsword.

Both items emitted extremely strong magical energy fluctuations, requiring special sealing cloth to conceal them. Even so, some of it still leaked out, successfully attracting Rud's attention.

Lude picked up the old book that looked quite old, and was immediately struck by the golden title on the cover.

Holy crap! The complete guide to slaying dragons?!

Looking at the large gold lettering on the cover, if it weren't for the extremely strong magical energy emanating from the book, Rude would never have believed that such a flawed "masterpiece that insults dragons" existed in the world.

So he casually flipped through the book and found that it seemed quite professional, detailing the types and habits of dragons, how to find dragon lairs, how to effectively deal with dragons, and accompanied by vivid illustrations. This made one subconsciously think that the author of the book must be a dragon expert who had personally hunted many dragons.

Furthermore, Rudd discovered that the book was actually written with dragon blood, and he had personally experienced the special magical fluctuations emanating from the words when he was healing Nidhogg's wife, Tawawa.

"No wonder these guys were so confident, they came with a strategy guide!"

"Pfft~!"

As Ludwig was reminiscing, Hume suddenly burst out laughing, his expression as if he had just witnessed someone being pranked. Ludwig glanced at her, then at the book, "The Complete Guide to Dragon Slaying," which he felt had something amiss with him, and frowned as he asked...

"I'm saying, you don't know something, do you?"

"Guess who wrote this book?"

"you?"

"No, guess again!"

"If it's not you... then could it be a dragon?!"

"correct!"

Hume, who never revealed his real age, had an unimaginable social circle and knew many secret truths unknown to the public.

She told Rudd directly that the original author of the book was a blue dragon named Sanders, who, like Hume, loved to play pranks. One day, this guy suddenly came up with a wicked idea that he found very interesting: he wrote a book called "The Complete Book of Dragon Slaying" and secretly circulated it in the human world.

Just as it almost fooled Rud, this book itself is extremely deceptive. The book has a rare unicorn hide as its cover, and the contents are written with freshly taken dragon blood, so it can emit a unique magical fluctuation that has not dissipated even after hundreds of years.

However, the book only tells a limited amount of the truth in the part about dragon habits and how to find dragon nests; the rest of the "dragon-slaying tactics" are all made up by Sanders.

The purpose of the lapis lazuli dragon Sanders in writing this book was simple: to trick humans into actively seeking out dragons and offering themselves up for death. Later, he felt that having only one book circulating was too slow in tricking people, so he made several more copies of the same book, and even included a matching dragon-slaying sword.

This seemingly cool greatsword, like the book, is a trap designed to rip people off. It's imbued with numerous magical enhancements, making it appear even more like a divine weapon. However, hidden among these spells is a "hidden lightning" spell that causes the sword to emit a sound only dragons can hear when it's drawn, acting like an alarm.

No matter what state the dragon targeted by the dragon slayer is in, even if it is sleeping like a log, it will be instantly awakened by the piercing noise emitted by the sword. Then, with the dragon race's uniquely strong morning grumpiness, it will annihilate the intruder without leaving a trace.

So, on a whim, Ludwig pulled the sword out a little bit. Less than three seconds later, he saw Kanna fly out of the inner room, baring her teeth and claws, and unleashing a fierce "baby dragon combo" at the greatsword with her pink little claws covered in paws, until Ludwig sheathed the sword.

The little guy glared angrily at Lude, as if he was complaining that Lude had no sense of public morality and was playing Douyin (TikTok) at full volume late at night instead of sleeping properly!

Therefore, Lude had to pick up the little guy and comfort him for a long time, and finally fed him several balls of divine power to calm him down, while he secretly sighed in his heart.

"That dragon named Sanders is truly despicable!"

End of this chapter

After briefly glancing through the misleading book, Luther told Hume to return the items intact, while repeatedly reminding her to restrain her "nature" and not to steal anything.

These young adventurers were fast asleep, completely unaware that they had just been robbed by a god!

After Hume left with his belongings, Ludd comfortably stroked the soft, furry baby dragon in his arms while pondering a solution.

Out of goodwill, Lud didn't want these young people to lose their lives needlessly because of a wicked dragon's prank, but if he told them the truth directly, saying that the "Complete Guide to Dragon Slaying" and the great sword were fake, he figured they wouldn't believe him and would instead think that Lud was the one who was lying.

As Lude was lost in thought, Aina, dressed in her pajamas, came out of the back room, rubbing her eyes and calling out Kanna's name.

"Master, have you seen Kanna?"

"Here it is."

Seeing Kanna being held in Lude's arms, Aina, still half-asleep, walked over and snuggled the baby dragon into her own arms. The little guy nestled against Aina's ample bosom, looking even more content than when he was in Lude's arms.

Perhaps because they are close in age, the two little ones are the best of friends and sleep together every night. So when Kanna ran out for a while, she noticed that Aina's "hand warmer" was missing, so she also went out to look for it.

"Master, it's so late, why aren't you asleep yet?"

"I still have some things to take care of, you go back to sleep."

"Oh."

Holding the baby dragon, Aina took out a small cloth bag, no bigger than the palm of her hand, from her pajama pocket, and then, to Lud's bewildered surprise, put it over the halo above Kanna's head.

Seeing this, Lude thought to himself that this silly girl really had a way. The strange halo floating above the baby dragon's head was shining all day long. Kanna didn't have the ability to adjust the brightness yet, so in order not to affect her sleep, Aina made a light-blocking bag herself.