Chapter 56

Carrying a stone spear made by sharpening a magic stone, Dodol went into the mine together with Balan.

The stone spear seemed to be more of a charm than a weapon.

Normally, it seemed the beastfolk assigned to the front line went in alone, but because the tunnel was deeper than expected and because it was a newly opened vein, even Dodol had not fully grasped the layout of the passage, so Balan took the role of relay support and stood by in case anything happened.

Balan, too, was apparently a mage, though not a particularly talented one, and he said he had planted magic stones engraved with bodily enhancement magic circles here and there. In an emergency, he said he would use magic and go save Dodol even if he had to smash through some rock with his bare hands.

Or rather, bodily enhancement magic.

Some of the magic stones Gerario had set into his gear also had several magic circles I had never seen before, so the magic stones processed on this island were probably only a very small fraction of the magic circles that existed in the world.

I had better look into that as well, I noted mentally for when everything ended safely, when Kururu suddenly said,

“It feels strange.”

Dodol and Balan vanished into the mine, and the beastfolk acting as decoys, scattered around the area near the entrance, shifted their feet restlessly; Kururu watched them from a small rise some distance away.

“When I’m with you, I keep feeling strange.”

I was told I could not take my eyes off the mine entrance, so she did not turn her gaze toward me, but she did angle her chin slightly in my direction.

“I’m taking part in dragon hunting as a mage… I never even dreamed something like this would happen.”

From the outside, the mine looked as though nothing was happening at all, and a few birds drifted lazily overhead. There was no wind, and the weather was calm enough that it would have been perfect for a stroll.

“If we’re talking about strange, I’m the one who’s had a far stranger experience.”

After all, a soul had taken residence in a corpse left in the mine, and that was how I had revived in this world.

“Hehe. If a soul ends up in the wrong place, apparently it gets hunted down as a demon.”

It seemed she had heard that from Gerario.

Monsters were said to be born from the mine, so that sounded plausible enough.

“If you’d been the enemy, Gerario and the others might not have been able to beat you.”

“…Even though I’m this weak?”

Kururu said things like that to me every chance she got.

“Kengo handles the brute strength, and you use sly tricks. Sounds strong, doesn’t it?”

Kururu finally glanced at me and grinned.

When I answered with a wry smile, she shook her shoulders and chuckled.

She was pretending to be fine, but even I could tell she was tense and worked up.

If it were Kengo, he would probably place a hand on Kururu’s shoulder to calm her down or encourage her, but that was not really the sort of thing I did.

“Even if your turn never comes, don’t take it out on me over here.”

As far as the extermination plan went, it would be best if Kururu never had to act at all.

But Kururu did not answer, only flicking her ears and tail as though pondering something.

“…Would it be bad if I fired in sync with Balan?”

Because she was more straightforward than Iiria, Kururu could seem oddly childlike at times.

“It would.”

When I told her that, Kururu took a deep breath and puffed her cheeks in a sulk.

But after letting out the breath she had been holding, she seemed to calm down somewhat.

No, she had not calmed down.

The fine fur on Kururu’s ears was trembling faintly.

It was not the shiver of excitement before battle—it was—

“It’s coming!”

The ground was shaking.

The mountain gave a faint rumble, and the birds, as if sensing something, all took flight at once.

Then, several beats later, a roar loud enough to split the ears burst out from the mine entrance.

“Looks like it has the worst wake-up mood imaginable.”

The fur on Kururu’s tail had puffed up to twice its size, and her ears were pricked sharply upright.

“You’re in pretty bad shape too, Kururu-san.”

I noticed her hand was trembling, and before I knew it, I had taken it in mine.

I thought she might shake me off, but instead Kururu gripped my hand even harder.

“If you’re here, it’ll be all right.”

Kururu spoke in a strained voice.

“For some reason, miracles always happen.”

Kururu grinned because her tension had reached its peak.

The tremors from the mountain now came through clearly beneath our feet, and from the mine entrance came an unbroken stream of screams that sounded like roars.

It felt similar to the sensation just before a train burst out of a tunnel.

The vibration underfoot swelled in an instant, and then—

“Dodol!”

Kururu cried out involuntarily because Dodol, who had come running out of the mine entrance, lost his footing and stumbled forward. He might have lost his sense of balance after suddenly emerging from the darkness into the bright light.

Balan, who came running right behind him, seized his arm with tremendous strength, hauled him upright, and kept running.

“Uugh, ooohhh…”

Kururu was gritting her teeth and growling under her breath.

Her eyes left Dodol and the others and turned toward the mine entrance.

For a moment, it felt like the roaring had stopped, and the shaking as well.

Then, in the very next instant, the dragon’s enormous head burst out from the tunnel.

“GYIIIIIIAAAAGH!!”

The sight was so detached from reality that I found myself thinking something absurd, like how much shriller its voice was than I had imagined.

Perhaps startled by the sunlight, the dragon was shaking its head, which was as large as the entire width of the tunnel, but apparently it was only struggling to force its body outside.

The edge of the mine collapsed as it tried to push its body out through the cramped hole.

Dodol was already running down the escape route, and Balan had taken position on the rise to fire his magic.

The beastfolk decoys watched the situation with bated breath.

The dragon stretched out its neck, and its sturdy legs emerged from the gap beneath its belly.

The next moment, rock was sliced apart like tofu, and the dragon’s body came out into the open.

“Run!”

Gerario’s voice rang out, and the beastfolk scattered as though spring-released.

After throwing a roar toward the sky overhead, the dragon sensed presences and lowered its gaze, its attention caught by the beastfolk running off in all directions.

It had only taken one step, then two, moving forward like a toy with dying batteries, when a gale strong enough to warp the entire space struck the dragon.

Balan released his magic, slamming it into the pitfall right before it and pinning its movement in place.

A perfect victory pattern.

“All right, well done! Eat a gigantic flame—”

It was just as Gerario was about to unleash his magic.

“GYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAHHHH”

We heard the roar of another one.

Everyone’s eyes turned toward the crumbling mine entrance.

We had not planned for there to be a second one.

But Gerario was a battle-hardened warrior.

“Missy! Get ready!”

The order came at once, and the next instant, day and night seemed to flip.

That was how immense the explosion of flame released from Gerario’s hand was.

As that crimson torrent was caught up in the wind magic Balan had unleashed, it bored into the dragon’s back like a red-hot drill, forcing its way in, twisting deeper, and tearing through the flesh of its back.

The dragon reared back in agony, but perhaps because its scream was swallowed by the torrent of wind magic, I could not hear it at all. That only made the power of the flaming drill feel more vivid, and from deep inside the wordlessly opened maw lined with fangs, following the violet smoke, a great quantity of blood burst out together with the raging flames.

There was no time to rejoice that it was probably an instant kill. The next threat was already bearing down on us.

And the beastfolk decoys were already gone, while Balan could not release his magic until he was sure the first dragon was dead.

Which meant the only one who could stop the unexpected second dragon from charging out in a rage was none other than—

“It’s all right.”

Both Kururu and Iiria had caught me off guard by suddenly hugging me before.

I did not know whether that had anything to do with it, but from behind Kururu, who had gone completely rigid, I took both her shoulders in my hands and brought my face close to her slender shoulder.

“When Gerario-san gives the signal—”

Kururu’s trembling stopped, and she tightened her grip on the magic stone.

The shoulders I was holding suddenly grew hot.

Gerario raised his right hand.

“Now!”

“—!”

Kururu let out a voiceless cry, and the magic was released.

Because Kururu used magic while keeping the “hole” closed, this time she was not blown away even with Kengo supporting her as before, but instead it felt as though everything was about to be sucked into the “hole.”

The torrent of magic passing through Kururu’s body was that intense, and perhaps because I was gripping her shoulders, I could feel it through my arms in my own body as well.

It was like the disgusting sensation of a vast amount of something being sucked into a bottomless hole, like the intake of a gigantic reservoir dam.

It felt as though everything inside my stomach was going to be sucked out, and I desperately clenched my throat shut and endured it.

Kururu was clearly widening the “hole” too much.

Her slender body could not withstand the magic’s output, and she was pitching forward as though being pulled.

With gravity seeming to have reversed, and with the violent gale stirred up by the magic added to it, I could not see the situation clearly.

Then I heard something.

“—, ru—”

Kururu was on the verge of losing herself in the control of the magic. Who was that? Or rather, was it really even a voice?

“—un—”

Run.

The moment that word reached me through the breaks in the wind,

the wind reversed.

No.

A wyvern had appeared right in front of us.

“‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘!”

It was not a voice, but the very mass of compressed air itself.

I tried to shield Kururu by wrapping myself around her, but I could not possibly withstand the wind pressure, and we were both thrown to the ground together. The magic stone slipped from Kururu’s hand and went rolling away, clattering along.

The tool meant to defeat the dragon was gone.

When I tore my gaze away from the rolling magic stone and looked back, the dragon Kengo had said was an opponent muscles could do nothing against was staring down at us from point-blank range.

Its hide was rugged like that of a reptile. Massive claws, and fangs.

And wings that somehow looked shabby, like the sails of a wrecked ship.

Perhaps because it was enraged, I could see blood vessels writhing like snakes beneath its black skin.

Its bloodshot eyes were fixed on us.

From that fang-filled mouth, gelatinous drool was starting to drip.

Kururu had just unleashed an enormous spell and was collapsed on top of me, unmoving, and someone as weak as me was nothing but prey to the dragon.

In other words, here, we were going to die—