The Dragon's Teeth

Who entereth herein, a conqueror hath bin;

Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win

"The Fall of the House of Usher"

Man, some of these books that have been in my backlog for ages and I honestly don't remember when or where I got them. Sometimes I'm lucky, and there's a receipt inside or a store name on the price stickers, but often, I just don't know...

Kadono Kouhei's Satsuryuu Jiken - A Case of Dragonslayer ("The Case of The Dracocide - A Case of Dragonslayer", 2000) introduces the reader to Romiazalth, an independent city-state located strategically in a valley between the two warring states of Daiki and Melknorse. While the states on both sides would like to make Romiazalth their own, neither side would ever dare invade the grounds of Romiazalth. For the city-state is also the territory of one of the seven dragons that live in this world. Dragons are absolute beings of this world. Not only older than the human race, but also much wiser, and these beings also wield absolute magical and physical prowess far beyond the capabilities or even imagination of humans. The protection of 'their' dragon, who does not allow for a war being fought in the dragon's territory, has been the guarantee for the independence of the citizens of Romiazalth for generations. This is also the reason why peace negotiations between Daiki and Melknorse are held to be here at this neutral place, led by the Seven Seas Alliance, a global trade alliance. The masked Edworth Theseworks Markwhistle, nickname ED, is sent to Romiazalth as the Alliance's battlefield meditator, and he is accompanied by his friend Major Heathrow Kristoff, lauded and feared throughout the world as the Wind Knight. The two are also joined by Captain Riesse Riskassé from Katahta: her mission is to attend the negotiations as a third party, but she's also an old classmate of Heathrow. The three decide to see the dragon in its cave first to ask for permission to hold tbe peace negotations here, but they stumble upon a world-shattering sight inside the cave: the dragon is dead. The ultimate being in the chain of life, a being that has been on this world for longer than human history, a being that possesses unlimited magical power has been derived of its life. The grand metal nail sticking out of its neck, right beneath one of its scales, is proof the dragon has been murdered. But how, and why? How could someone kill a being that is in every manner superior to man? How could the most powerful creature on this world be murdered just like that by man? Given that the cave is usually protected from outsiders through a magic seal cast by the mages of Romiazalth (the dragon is far more powerful than any human mage, so the seal is not to keep the dragon inside, but people out) and that nobody can just walk inside the cave to attack the dragon, the citizens of Romiazalth first point at ED, Heathrow and Riskassé as the culprits, but they manage to buy themselves a month time, before the peace negotiations start. The trio decides to have a talk with the six other people who visited the dragon these last few months to see what they can learn from them and whether the real culprit is among them, but they have to hurry, for not only are the peace negotiations approaching, if ED does not return to Romiazalth before the end of the month, the Death Mark spell cast upon him will kill him.

How odd. I think I bought today's book just over ten years ago in Japan, and I remember that not long after buying it, it was announced by Del Rey they would be publishing the English translation with the slightly altered title The Case of the Dragonslayer. I kinda forgot about this book as it disappeared into the backlog list, but I was always under the impression the English version The Case of the Dragonslayer was available. But when I dug up this book from the graveyard a while ago and looked it up, I was quite surprised to learn that apparently, the English-language edition was never actually released? Or was it? It has an ISBN, there's cover art to be found, there's even an official summary and reviews of what seems to be the English version, but I don't believe the book was really released, or even if it did, only in very limited numbers, as you can find next to no accounts of people actually buying/reading the English version.

And yep, that's artwork by Kaneko Kazuma, probably best known for his work on the Shin Megami Tensei game series! And author Kadono Kouhei's name might sound familiar too, as he's also the writer of the popular horror light novel series Boogiepop, which has also been adapted as anime a few times.

Anyway, back to the book. I've been reading quite a few mystery novels this year with some fantasy element: Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei ("The Hourglass of the Time-Space Traveller") is obviously about time travel, the Isekai no Meitantei series is set in a parallel fantasy world, Neko ni wa Suiri ga yoku Niau ("Deductions Suit Cats Well") has a talking cat, Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Shitai ga Arimashita ("Once Upon A Time, There Was A Body") is set in fairy tale land, you know the drill. All these books however are also very good detective stories, not despite, but thanks to their original takes on the puzzle plot mystery. In my mind, I have always seen them as mystery stories, with a fantasy element. Satsuryuu Jiken - A Case of Dragonslayer however I'm inclined to describe in the opposite manner, it's a fantasy novel, with a mystery element. Obviously, this novel is not set in our world, but in a medieval-esque fantasy world with dragons, knights and mages, but that was also the case with Isekai no Meitantei. What makes this novel feel more like fantasy is the story structure: after the first chapter in which our heroes discover the dracocide, they embark on a long journey across the world trying to trace the six other people who visited the dragon earlier that year. Each destination brings new adventures, from meeting new allies to having to fight assassins and you even get a world map, that allows you to trace the route our heroes take as they travel (small note: in my edition the map is at the end of the book, but it's not listed in the table of contents, so I read the whole book and only found out there's a map after I was done). Following the group's road trip with adventures around every corner is of course very fantasy-esque in terms of story, as especially ultimately, the heroes don't really do that much detecting and investigating during their long trip. They just find each suspect, have a talk and move on to the next and the fact they have to fight a bit along the way, that's fun to read perhaps but not at all connected to the dracocide. If you're just reading for the murder plot, you might be surprised that probably more than half of the book isn't that relevant.

I guess you can compare Satsuryuu Jiken - A Case of Dragonslayer to something like Pratchett's Feet of Clay of the Discworld series, in the sense that they are foremost fantasy novels, that happen to be dealing with a mystery plot. Ultimately, the problem of Satsuryuu Jiken - A Case of Dragonslayer revolves around the why and how. I think the book has some nice ideas, though not always worked out perfectly. The why is basically a mish-mash of several reasons for the culprit (a bit of this, a bit of that): some parts of the motive seem very superficial, while other parts seem to suggest a motive of a truly epic scale involving a very patient murderer, but taken all together it lacks convincing power. Had the story focused solely on the latter as the motive, it would've been much more impressive. I do like the how a bit better. The question of how a puny human could ever hope to defy a dragon, and actually win by killing it, is raised a few times over the course of the book (and when you see that even the Wind Knight stands no chance against the sheer pressure radiating from other dragons) and I think the book does provide a satisfying explanation to it. The misdirection regarding the murder weapon is pretty clever, and the build-up to how the actual murder was pulled off is nicely foreshadowed too (though it does require the reader to make a few bold guesses in order to arrive at the solution).

Compared to the other fantasy-inspired mystery stories I named earlier, Satsuryuu Jiken - A Case of Dragonslayer definitely feels a bit lacking, in the sense that that this is clearly written as a fantasy novel, where the heroes happen to be dealing with a seemingly impossible murder case, rather than mystery story that happens to involve fantasy elements. The main mystery of the murder on a dragon, a deed deemed utterly impossible, not even in the imagination, is quite alluring and the solution has some nice ideas, some even very good, but I can't deny other parts of the solution feel slightly contrived and/or underdeveloped, which do undermine my ultimate feelings on this book. I do like the world presented in this novel though and with many references to many things existing in this world we haven't actually seen ourselves yet in this first novel, I have to admit I'm curious to see what follows next. So perhaps I'll return to this series in the future.

Original Japanese title(s): 上遠野浩平『殺竜事件 - a case of dragonslayer』