――A full day has passed since then. Today is Thursday, May 23rd.
I followed my usual route to school, feeling muddled. It was akin to grappling with a math problem that had no clear answer.
What happened to Laral Infedora after that?
And where could Yurizia Aswell, who showed such a magnificent betrayal, be hiding?
Yesterday, after carrying Aira and Rain back to my apartment from the Wet Battlefield, it was Rain who woke up first.
She should have been burned on her back and suffered severe burns from Laral's right arm, the Dragon's Head――
When I asked why, it turned out that she used her magic circle’s abilities to heal herself slowly over time while being carried from the battlefield by my telekinesis.
"My favorite robe was torn, though..."
The fact that she could joke about it shows how terrifying Rain Margarett is in a sense.
Meanwhile, it was discovered through Rain’s examination that Aira was only unconscious, which was a great relief.
While it is true that Laral had inflicted some abuse on Aira just before we reached the base of the mountain, we were glad to have all safely returned.
It was truly a miracle.
Surrounded by the formidable enemies, Dragon-Horned Person Laral Infedora and Witch Yurizia Aswell, we were still unharmed.
Such miracles don’t happen often.
Although we understood that, neither Aira, Rain, nor I knew what to do.
With Aira back, our forces are sufficient. However, the enemy still possesses a superior force――
"――You’re okay up to this point, Aira."
"I see. …Please don’t let your guard down even during school, Yuki. If anything happens, follow Rain's instructions."
"Yeah, I got it."
I wave to Aira, who is acting as my escort on the way to school. We’re about 200 meters from the school gate.
I open my right hand, revealing a purple symbol that Rain inscribed before I left the house.
It seems that if I channel my mental energy into this mark with a sense of urgency, it gets transmitted to Rain. It’s like a security alarm, which makes me feel a bit pathetic.
"Well then, see you later."
"Yes――. I’ll be there to pick you up."
After exchanging farewells, I headed towards the school――while Aira returned back to house.
To be honest, I wished she could have stayed with me a little longer.
"Hah――"
For some reason, I felt depressed, though I’m not entirely sure why. I’m sure it’s not just me; Aira and Rain must be feeling down as well.
The odds of victory are even slimmer than against Livia Betagard. The pressure is overwhelming.
――Help Aira and Rain, and protect the world I live in.
It’s easy to say these things. The real challenge is whether I can make them a reality.
Do I truly have the power to accomplish this? I look at my right hand, which holds only a small special ability――Telekinesis and Basic Information Reading.
However, I sensed that my special abilities had evolved through the Battle of the Defiled Lands.
In terms of telekinesis, I am now able to influence heavier objects and the duration has increased. I can currently suppress a person for roughly a minute.
As for Basic Information Reading, honestly, there hasn’t been much growth. The view tinted with a digital green has only slightly improved in clarity…… that’s about it.
(How am I supposed to fight Laral and Yurizia with just this?)
All I can do is assist and support.
With Aira as the main force and Rain providing rear support, I am just standing by the sidelines of the battlefield.
Shit.
I take out my frustration on a small stone lying in the path. The kicked stone tumbles forward.
And there, stood a girl.
"Yuki-san"
A small, petite beautiful girl with a tiny white horn.
With the front of her dragon-skin jacket boldly opened, showing off the cleavage of her huge breasts and abdomen, she came closer to me, her breasts shaking with each step.
"I need to talk to you for a moment."
――Laral Infedora, who was supposed to be our enemy.
The one who had kidnapped Aira for Rain's artifact now spoke to me with a serious expression――.
※ ※ ※
Amid the fresh, deep green air, Laral and I were sitting next to each other on a park bench.
There was no sign of hostility――or so I believed, with my overly optimistic thinking. Nevertheless, I had the feeling that I needed to hear Laral out.
As I watched her marvelous breasts bounce with a "plop," Laral displayed a puzzled expression with a "?" above her head.
"Ah, um... So, what is it that you wanted to talk about?"
"…I want to apologize to you, Yuki-san."
"To me?"
She wants to apologize?
"…Yes. Although, I should be apologizing to the Dragon Slayer, but Lara don't have the courage to do so yet."
Unbelievable. Laral came all this way just to apologize to me?
The person who kidnapped Aira and demanded Rain the evening before yesterday is now bowing their head――.
"Could you listen to my story?"
It was already getting late and I would be late for school if I didn't hurry. But that didn’t matter; I decided to listen and immediately urged Laral to continue――.
"――Laral was anxious. She said it had to be taken care of, no matter what."
Her childlike voice melted into the clear May air.
The story being told is the truth about the Dragon Horn Clan and the journey of Laral Infedora. A heartfelt longing for freedom.
This is a tale from a faraway world――the other world of Ivral. Memories from a world unlike my own.
Several years ago, humans, known as the common race, feared the 1 percent of the population that were special races and plotted to suppress them.
Special races came in many forms, such as Dragon Horn People like Laral, Vampires, and Man-Eaters. They were different from the normal humans.
The Dragon Horn Clan, aware of the plan to suppress them, decided to take preemptive action.
They attacked a small country under the direct control of the world government, making a dramatic display of their unique presence to the world. They raised their voices in defiance of the oppression――.
"――This is the history of Laral and the others as it is told by the world."
"Is that how it’s talked about... in the public?"
Indeed, I heard that exact story from Rain.
"Yes... the truth is different. Originally, Dragon Horn People are all of a gentle nature. They were merely fearful of the government."
The so-called truth of the Dragon Horn Clan that I learned from Rain is not the real truth.
So, what is the truth that Laral is talking about...?
"The government told lies and deceived people all over the world..."
"Deceived them, you say?"
"They falsely claimed that the Dragon Horn People were responsible for the destruction of a small country in a different incident. They tricked everyone."
An unrelated incident. A small nation that perished years ago. A complete massacre with no one knowing the true culprit.
A deep crimson shadow appears, tainted and shedding tears.
The world government framed the Dragon Horn Clan as the perpetrators of that incident, inflating fear, disgust, and anxiety toward them across Ivral. They hired skilled swordsmen and witches from around the world and exterminated the entire clan.
To appease the fearful upper-class humans, people around the world were deceived, and Laral’s clan was annihilated.
A sorrowful history, a tragic truth.
What were the Dragon Horn People, who were merely frightened by the oppression, thinking as they were hunted down?
"So why is Laral still alive?"
"Laral is――because Laral was a princess."
"……Huh?"
"The Dragon Horn Clan had a king, and Laral was his child."
"Yeah, I get that, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t hunt you――they’re not that merciful, you know?"
I've already come to realize how cruel the world government is.
A princess of the Dragon Horn Clan would be a prime target, wouldn't she?
"Laral and the Dragon Horn Clan were aware of it. For hundreds of years... that ordinary humans had been fearful of us."
Prejudice and fear from the common humans towards the special races.
The Dragon Horn Clan was convinced that their unstable emotions would someday explode, and thus, they had long made arrangements to hide one member with royal blood deep within a cave.
When the world government carried out the oppression, it just so happened that it was Laral Infedora who was hidden.
While the clan members were being indiscriminately killed, Laral, who had been carefully protected in the depths of the cave since childhood, was said to have been playing absently with a dragon doll.
"Laral is a small wish――. Laral is the hope of everyone who has died."
So she wanted to get it back at all costs.
By achieving victory in the Battle of the Defiled Land, obtaining freedom, and working towards the revival of the Dragon Horn Clan, which is thought to be doomed.
Facing various difficulties and prejudices, Laral alone burns with a passionate resolve.
（Laral is...)
Laral is... not our enemy.
Even though our ultimate goals are different, perhaps we should fight together as allies.
Laral Infedora's crime is, of course, her existence. Although it wasn’t spoken of, even Laral, who was hidden deep in the cave, was found and captured by the world government, and now is being forced to participate in the Battle of the Defiled Land.
――I won’t accept that.
If merely living is considered a crime, then I will deny that crime myself.
"But, I can’t fight alongside you."
"W-Why? We...!"
"Laral has harmed the Dragon Slayer and the one who can see the future..."
"――Aira and Rain."
"……Ugh. Because Lara hurt Aira and Rain, with these hands."
"That’s...!"
With a Whoosh—! a blue light wrapped around Laral's right arm, rapidly taking shape.
What appeared was the Dragon’s Head. From Laral's shoulder to the fingertips of her right arm, it was overtaken by the Dragon’s Head.
"This is Laral’s sacred artifact, Hellfire's Leviathan."
The Dragon’s Head on her right arm that burned Rain’s back was a sacred artifact, after all. The Hellfire's Leviathan.
Unlike typical sacred relics that are just held or worn, it is a special sacred artifact that demands a part of the wielder’s body as a sacrifice to maintain.
Laral’s right arm is not hers; it is said to be dominated by the artifact even in everyday life.
Even now, it exhales a warm breath, like a real dragon, making a 'gugigagaga...' sound.
"I can’t fight together with you."
The mistake of hurting Aira and Rain is significant. Laral’s pale blue hair flutters in the wind
"However, if you and the others call for help, Laral will come to your aid."
"…… I’m sure Aira and Rain will feel the same way."
"Yes. But, Laral must win. Lara will win and obtain everyone's... smiles."
With the dragon vanishing from her right arm, Laral had a smile on her face.
Not the face of a girl dreaming unreachable dreams, but the face of a girl persistently running towards a clear goal.
Looking at Laral’s expression, full of pure and sincere fighting spirit, I felt a small pang of jealousy.
◆ ◆ ◆
I never imagined that this conversation would be my last with Laral Infedora.
◆ ◆ ◆
Swaying with her angel-like, pale golden hair, the girl makes her way forward clumsily.
As if she were a doll on the verge of breaking.
She moves her right foot forward—but her left foot doesn’t follow smoothly.
After a five-second struggle, she finally planted her left foot down with a heavy thud.
(—Run away...)
The true self of the girl screams in her heart, but it does not reach the Dragon Horned person walking five meters ahead.
From somewhere, someone whispers to the light golden-haired girl.
――It’s just a matter of dealing with her before she becomes troublesome by cooperating.
――It’s not a bad thing, merely a required action for achieving victory.
She shakes her head, rejecting someone’s selfish thoughts as just self-centered ideas.
(Haa... haa... haa—... Why... no—)
Shshshshh
A black tentacle emerges from inside the maid's skirt, directing its tip towards the Dragon Horned person's back.
The tentacle coated in an ominous slime is shaping its tip into a drill shape for its purpose.
Yurizia Aswelll cries out in desperation.
However, someone who won’t permit it is forcing Yurizia’s body to steadily approach the Dragon Horned individual.
The drill-type tentacle—fails to thrust forward.
Yurizia clenched her teeth and strained her whole body while resisting.
I will not allow them to do as they please any further.
I won’t let my hands be sullied for someone else’s purpose.
—Now is the moment to execute the plan I've been preparing.
At the moment of putting into action the plan she had quietly devised while being controlled, and resisting—.
"—Ugh, gii, ah…?! Gah—ah, gah...! Nn, ugh...!"
Someone somewhere laughed mockingly.
The drill tentacle tore the flesh of the Dragon Horned Person's back, gouging out their internal organs while bursting their voluptuous chest from the inside, killing them.
Blood splatters, blood splatters, blood splatters, death throes.
The asphalt, shining silver, was covered in dark blood, and with a plop, the dragon’s heart fell.
"—Ah……………eh, heh… hee hee…?"
After returning the tip of the black tentacle to its original shape, Yurizia staggered forward.
Licking the blood clinging to the tip of the tentacle.
Crouching beside the desiccated corpse, she let the dragon blood drip from the tip of the tentacle onto her explosively large chest, which, though not quite as large as that of the Dragonkin, was still impressive.
She grasped the heart, still pulsating even though it had been severed from the main body, with her white hand, intending to lick it, but then changed her mind and crushed it with a squelch.
"—Eh?"
Suddenly, Yurizia regained her senses and looked at the blood-stained breasts, the crushed heart, and the dead body—.
"—N-no… I don’t want this, I don’t want this, I don’t want this… Noooooooo!!"
—She kept crying and screaming until her throat felt like it was on fire.
It was already too late for anything
Chapter length 6036 characters.
No comments:
Post a Comment