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A New Job

"Richard, maybe you'll consider finding a job? Living in a city is a harsh world, and if you stay unemployed, I bet you won't gonna live long. I can't help you beyond paying the sheath, clothes, transport, accommodation, and foods. Now, from how I saw you fight yesterday, how about if you join the Union Guard?"

"I have a...bad control to my tail," said Richard while munching some bones with his unusual strong teeth. "I'm good at swords and arrows, though."

"I'll consider it with the leader. Let's go home for the day. You can go around the city if you like tomorrow, but make sure you know my address. It's 112 Senfired Hills. Got that?"

"Yes."

After they got into the Mothshov, Richard warned Juagar about the reckless driving, but the dark green draconian died hard to the habit and couldn't slow down. Richard suffered from being hit by the hard metallic sides until he became dizzy after they arrived home. Cernelesh was mowing the lawn in front of their home, and found both. It was starting to get dark, although not as late as previous night. Richard went straight into the house and walked upstairs, and again (because of exposed claws) he scratched the wall by mistake. But he couldn't find it something weird, so he slumped to his bed after having a difficulty folding his wings. He dozed off after that.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Vandel prepared some coffee to Cernelesh and Juagar. While drinking, the female asked, "How's Richard?"

"It's just a day we've met, but he made a friend already."

"Oh, and who is it?"

"It's Hector, that German weapon dealer. It's really hard to find discounts with him, but Richard somehow able to do that. Hey, do you know what I'm thinking about Richard?"

"He's weird?"

"No, he isn't weird at all. So, Cernie, if you ever met a drake with irrelevant topic, what would you do?"

"I'll try to get straight with him, but if so, I can persuade him."

"Right...but this is Richard's case."

"Richard Andaluvia? What with him? Yes, he's strange, but not all that strange. He's a gentleman, polite to us, and..."

"But a different draconian. He is a gentleman drake, but what I want to say is the type of gentleman. Is he really doing our gentleman's doing?"

"I don't know what you mean. All I'm hearing is you're suspecting him of something of a freak. Juagar, I know it's strange to let a stranger, especially a drake with scales made up of gold, live temporary in our house, but I know you can feel him. He's not someone who would strangle you in your sleep."

"If he really does that, I'll pierce his heart this time."

That night, Vandel and Juagar went to sleep after having a long chat. Juagar couldn't find anything relating to Richard about any relevance in this nation. The dark green draconian traveled a lot during his youth, and of course he was accustomed to many kinds of trend and culture, but this one wasn't in any of those. Richard didn't understand anything, especially cars. This is 1020, not middle age. Then why did he just talk about blacksmiths and stuff to him?

But maybe because of prolonged thinking, Juagar dozed off soon. The next day, he heard sword thrusts and swings, followed by a falling sound and a gasp. Juagar thought it was Seiglet since their homes were only some blocks far. But when he woke up and took a drink, he realized it was Richard, and now Juagar realized why Richard didn't want to use any shoes (up until this point Juagar didn't know Richard's dragon-like feet. All draconians in this world were plantigrades, so of course they use shoes to prevent any injury to their feet). The draconian was different, too, in physical appearance. Those digitigrades were only seen in dogs, and fictional dragons. Something also up when he saw how Richard almost never move his tail, making it a soft target for shooters. The training he did was also not an amateur swordplay, but his movement proved Juagar he was an amateur.

"Hey, you wake up early this time!" said Juagar that made Richard surprised and stopped. "Are you doing sword training?"

"Not really, just making sure my playing wasn't dull."

"You're getting dull enough."

"It's just three days since my last...training."

"Hey, mate. I caught you having sword training and I think I can help. Are you playing enough already?"

Seiglet was already inside the lawn despite of the hedge's height. The white blue draconian walked to him and unsheathed his sword. It was silver, just like his scales, with hilt one-third long of the overall length. Richard knew it was a broadsword with medium range, unlike his long sword with medium-to-long range, but he knew underestimating another swordsman would lead to fatal end, as what he encountered with one of the Dark Slayers.

"Hey, can we just use..."

"No, it's okay, mate," said Seiglet while smiling to him, but he suddenly glared to Richard so the golden draconian readied himself for any kind of sudden attack. But, right after he blinked, Seiglet was gone, but he sensed danger behind him. With sudden inhuman reflex, he leaned back so that his back was parallel to the ground, and his maw barely hit the sword thrust that was intended for his back. In retaliation, he used his sword to stab his attacker, but he suddenly tripped and in the next second, Seiglet was above him pointing the tip of his silver blade, but he made surprised expression toward him.

"Bloody hell, mate!" exclaimed Seiglet in surprise. "Where did you learn that move? I could stop the blade from cutting you into half. I'm not that kind of person who tries to kill comrades."

"No, you really are trying to kill me! You glared at me and you made killing aura! At least, I'm accustomed to danger like those. Oh, no offence, Seglet, but don't lean any closer. My blade is right below you."

"Guess we are off to a good start, eh?."

After they laughed, Seiglet helped Richard stood up, and they resumed the spare, this time using wooden swords (in Juagar's order, for safety precautions. Seiglet was a fierce swordsman and sometimes put things seriously). But each time they spare, it ended with Richard falling despite of his sword skill. Seiglet's move was predictable, but each time he went into the victorious attack, he suddenly tripped without any reason. After three times, he realized after he tripped Seiglet's tail moved a little. He knew this wasn't a human sparing, this was a draconian fight. A draconian is a half-dragon, and of course their mean of attack didn't always rely on kicks and punches like how humans were. It was the tail, claws, and (because of safety, this never happened) fire. Now Richard understood why draconians were myths: they had great skill in fights, and was inhuman.

After standing up and went into battle stance, Seiglet who was also panting said, "Hey, you know the word give up, right? It's almost sunset, and we're sparring more than a half day, mate."

"I'm not that tired."

Seiglet, realized it wasn't a bluff seen from Richard's expression, called it off a day, and they both went into Juagar's big veranda.

After Seiglet said farewell, Juagar offered him a ride, but Seiglet refused and flew away. He sighed and returned to Richard. Somehow, the golden draconian wasn't all that tired since he didn't sit like Seiglet did. From the viewing point, Juagar knew it wasn't right in how Richard dodged the killing move.

"No one ever beaten Seig in endurance until now," said Juagar when Richard sat after taking a bath. "You really are something."

"Thanks, but I failed to notice his tail."

"Yeah, tail is also a crucial part in sword fight. Aside from your hands and legs, the tail and the fire are crucial in close quarter combats. From the look of it, you really had a difficulty in moving your tail. Also, that tail is pretty big for a medium-sized drake like you."

"It's not like I like being born from it."

"I'm more interested towards your legs, though. Those aren't normal legs."

"It's, uh, something I don't want to talk about."

"Okay, I won't gonna ask you about it. What I mean is...are you having mutation issues?"

"What's that?"

"Nevermind..."

After three days, Juagar still couldn't understand why Richard had digitigrades instead on normal feet. But, he was convinced the draconian wasn't from this world evidenced on how good he got in reflexes and how fast he learned to evade Seiglet's tail. Also, by time, the digitigrades really helped him in any feats using legs, especially jumping and running. Cernelesh was astonished that there was a draconian able to beat her in sprinting (her strong legs were inherited to Kijte, her nephew). By time, Juagar thought Cernelesh was the fastest draconian he knew.

In the fourth day, when it was Juagar's work days, he wanted to recruit Richard as a Guard with him, so he took the golden draconian to the base with him. The base was a simple tent positioned near the neutral zone where the five drakes group met with Richard earlier in the story. After a long process, Richard was able to enlist the Guard, but strangely, without any military-like training.

"We train by ourselves," said Viglerne when he met the confused Richard. "Most of the personnel aren't fit for battle, but most are accustomed to weapons even after birth. So, it's our task to make the personnel fit into battle, by training them. Okay? You don't need to, considering your skills."

"Oh, I get you." But he thought, "What in the world? This world is weird. If there's a war, what would happen, then?"

In his first day, he was assigned to a post which 'coincidentally' included five of his first comrades (although Viglerne as a post leader suggested it by bribing the recruitment team to convince them to put Richard into their team since the draconian knew his potential and his own relationship with him). But, Richard was greeted (aside from the five of them) by other comrades with killing intentions; somehow some also reverted to sadism by taking combat knives and licking to it, wanted to hurt Richard. Richard knew the golden scales he had attracted them, since aside from Seiglet, most of the draconians there had dark scales.

"Uh, hi...my name is..." but he was interrupted by the knife-wielding draconian who jumped over him and fell over him. Although his knife looked threatening, Richard strangely felt that this black draconian wanted to say something to him, preventing his fast-reacting claws to unsheathe his sword and protect himself. He calmed a bit, and said, "C'mon, if you want to say something, just say it. I'm not gonna hurt you." But he didn't reply, but he fell to the side and made gestures.

"He said 'you got a good shining scales, it makes my eyes hurt'."

The gruff voice was directly behind Richard, so he made use of his long, sleek dragon neck to see behind while on his back. The draconian was another hybrid like Hector, but this one had a more realistic fin on the end of his tail, but unlike Hector, he didn't have a shiny scale combination, but instead only dull black scales with little emerald green stripes along the arms. He stood up and took the smaller draconian over Richard and put him to a seat, while he helped Richard to stand up.

"Solomon Gordy."

"Richard Andaluvia," replied Richard with the same manner the black emerald draconian said (possibly to blend with them, since Hector told him he was too polite).

"So, Viglerne recommended you into this post, huh? You had...valuable scales, you know." When his slit eyes saw Richard's sheathed sword, he murmured, "Why are only the sword experts got bright scales?"

"What was that?"

"Oh, no, it's fine. I was just saying that you're...tall."

Gordy was surprised, alongside others, that when Richard stood up, he was very tall thanks to his dragon feet. All of the draconians present there smiled and they turned on all of the lights to reveal a derelict post with graffiti on the wall, dirty tables, and seemingly abandoned kitchen, but tidy lounge, indicating that they were slackers.

"Welcome to post 44, Richard Andaluvia. Welcome to Union Guards!" exclaimed some draconians together, with Richard blushed, and Seiglet laughed. What a first day of work this is.