Chapter 57

“There’s no way I’m letting it end like that!”

What I reached into was my pocket.

Then I pressed what I grabbed against Kururu’s stomach, as she lay collapsed on top of me without moving.

Caught off guard, she might have lost the magic stone she had been holding and fallen into a daze.

More than that, I did not even know whether she was conscious.

But I believed.

That Kururu was not the kind of girl who would give up even in front of a hundred dragons.

“!”

Kururu immediately stretched out her arm and unleashed magic.

What she held in that hand was a magic stone so large her small hand could not fully grasp it.

A composite magic stone equivalent to third class.

What happened after that was so instantaneous that I do not actually remember it very well.

At least, in my memory, it went like this.

First, the weight of Kururu’s body on top of me increased fivefold.

Then all the visible space distorted, and a fierce light converged into Kururu’s hand as though it were about to crush the world itself.

A single instant of pause.

Then came Kururu’s shrill scream, sharp enough to split the ears.

“—!”

Rather than a scream, maybe it was something more like a battle shiver or something of that sort.

Because I too, perhaps because my body was pressed against Kururu’s, had fallen into that same sensation.

Something coursed through my body like a muddy torrent, something that felt as though I could not stay sane unless I cried out.

Her own physical sensation must have been far beyond even this.

Whether because it hated us for killing its companion, or because it had just woken up and was foul-tempered no matter what, the dragon had probably been looking forward to the moment it would crush us—whom it regarded as less than prey—with those jaws.

And yet that huge head did not move at all, only its eyes remained fixed on us.

Even within that stretched-out span of time, it was unnaturally motionless.

But the moment Kururu’s weight suddenly became zero, the distorted space and sunlike light scattered away, and silence abruptly fell.

Thinking Kururu’s body might have turned to smoke just like the magic stone, I reflexively wrapped my arms around her.

And there in my arms was Kururu, definitely slender, soft enough to seem almost fragile.

“Ah.”

The dragon’s head tilted unsteadily.

Only then did I understand what had happened.

The blast of flame Kururu had released had, for a mere instant, been an intense pillar of fire.

In that single instant of flame, the dragon had been carved away from the base of its neck.

It was obviously an instant kill, but there was a problem.

The dragon’s head by itself was quite heavy, and gravity mercilessly continued doing its job—

“!”

It dropped with a heavy thud.

Skillfully enclosing both Kururu and me between its half-open jaws.

“…”

Maybe I had leaked a little, just a little.

Beneath the dragon’s mouth, thick with a fishy smell and something like the scent of a barbecue place, I was slightly doubtful that I was still alive.

But I immediately knew I was alive, because there was someone gripping my hand.

“—Nobu…”

A small voice.

I returned the grip, feeling for that small hand clasping mine.

“I’m… alive.”

The moment I said that, dragon saliva dripped down and landed on the upper right side of my forehead.

At the same time, I heard several sets of footsteps rushing closer.

“Yori…nobu, you…”

Kururu’s voice was slightly slurred, and it carried no small amount of anger.

“You… suddenly… a third-class one, you…”

Kururu was shifting around on top of me, but she apparently could not put strength into her body yet.

She had poured out her full power thinking it was a fourth-class magic stone, only for it to be a third-class one instead.

So maybe absolutely everything had poured out from the “hole.”

That I could not see what sort of face Kururu was making—whether that was lucky, or not.

I could hear the voices and footsteps of Kengo, Gerario, Balan, and the others.

Holding Kururu a little tighter, I said,

“I’m glad… you’re safe.”

“…”

Kururu seemed like she was about to continue arguing, but apparently stopped, and I could feel that through my back.

And she also stopped trying to dig her nails into my hand, weakly squeezing it instead.

“…Yeah.”

If I had said aloud that it was such a girlish reply it surprised me, I probably would have been scratched hard or punched.

While Kengo and the others tried to move the dragon’s head off us, Kururu kept holding my hand the entire time.

It was no longer trembling, nor was it stiff anymore.

“Hey, you alive?”

The dragon’s face was moved away, and Kengo delivered that theatrical line only because he already knew we were safe.

With the sun glaring overhead, I frowned.

“I almost died.”

When I answered, Kengo merely shrugged.

“Looks like Kururu-chan is at death’s door too.”

“Huh?”

I started to raise my body, but nails dug into the back of my hand.

Apparently that meant I was supposed to treat it as though she had fainted.

In any case, now that the beastfolk knew we were safe, they had begun processing the dragon corpses, and Gerario flashed us a smirking grin before leaving with Balan.

Kengo, left behind, wore a look that said good grief.

“I got more chills from that than when I died myself.”

“A reincarnation joke?”

Kengo laughed and said, “I’ll go call a wagon,” before leaving.

The ones left behind were me and Kururu, pretending to be unconscious.

“This is your chance to get up.”

When I said that, Kururu, who seemed to have regained some freedom of movement, jabbed me in the side with her elbow.

“Compared to Kengo, your chest is too scrawny. Not fit for sleeping on.”

Kururu mouthed off like that as she raised herself up, but apparently her strength had not fully returned yet. She slid aside and ended up sitting down heavily.

When I tried to sit up too, Kururu held out her hand to me.

I took it and got up.

“When Iiria-sama wakes up, she’s going to be stunned.”

Two dragon corpses.

“My head hurts already, though.”

The instant I said that, Kururu’s face froze, and she closed the distance with incredible speed.

“What’s wrong, where is it, what hurts?!”

Her beautiful jewel-like green eyes went perfectly round, and like a cat struggling to grab a ball inside a clear plastic box, she started fussing all over my head with both hands.

“Uh, ah, no, that’s not it, that’s not it.”

Kururu stopped moving and looked at me suspiciously.

“It’s an idiom. Thinking about what comes next makes my head hurt.”

“…”

Kururu slowly erased all expression from her face, then smacked me on the head.

“Don’t say misleading things!”

She really was a violent girl after all, I thought, though the way she had smacked me just now did feel a little girlish.

“The tunnel is a complete mess, after all. I’m worried about how long it’ll take before production can resume.”

“…”

Kururu gave me a dubious look, then snorted and turned her gaze toward the mine.

“Then sell the dragons. They should fetch a decent amount of money.”

“That’s true, but I’m not sure about that either.”

“Why not?”

While talking, Kururu suddenly twitched her nose and apparently realized that her own hair had been singed. Seeing the curled ends, she looked sad.

Considering she had cast a spell powerful enough to reduce part of a dragon to charred ash all the way to the bone, it felt almost miraculous that all she got was slightly singed hair, but I had a feeling I would get hit again if I said that.

“If dragons are that valuable, I don’t think we’d be able to buy them back at the same price whenever we wanted one again.”

In games, they always had special effects, and their hide and bones could be used for weapons and armor.

Even if something expensive had a listed price, it often never actually reached the market, so thinking about the future, it might be better to keep them in reserve.

But if we did not turn the dragons into cash, then depending on the state of the tunnel, our finances might grow dangerously tight.

I was thinking I would have to discuss that with Gerario, when I noticed Kururu’s tail moving strangely in the corner of my vision.

“Ahaaan?”

With a smug look on her face, Kururu grinned and patted me on the shoulder.

“So you’re a man too.”

“Huh?”

“Well, I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”

She chuckled, then rubbed her nose, which only made it dirtier with dust, but for some reason it suited Kururu strangely well.

Before long, she let out a tired sigh, then broke into a refreshed smile and stood up.

“All right, let’s go home and eat!”

Kururu held out her hand to me.

I took it and stood, and as one of the key figures in the dragon hunt, I was given a wagon for the trip back.

Apparently one of the beastfolk had already gone ahead with news of the dragon subjugation, because a huge crowd had gathered at the edge of town, and we received an overwhelming welcome.

Since Kururu had not been disguised as a mage, the one who mainly received the praise was me, as the supposed planner and commander of the operation, but Kururu still seemed satisfied with that.

People from the church, including the priest, also came rushing over in a panic and gave us their blessing.

Kururu somehow managed enough social grace to put on a fake smile too, and leading a crowd of townspeople behind us like heroes in triumph, we returned to Iiria’s mansion.

It seemed even Iiria had finally woken up amid all the commotion; she came out with sleepy eyes to greet Kururu and me on our return, and was astonished when she heard how it had all happened.

She started to scold Kururu for heading into danger while she was asleep, but Kururu, saying she needed to wash off the fatigue and grime, fled to the kitchen for once.

Iiria glared displeased at Kururu’s back, but before long she seemed to give up and sighed.

Then she looked at me and smiled weakly.

“Looks like my turn never came again.”

All I could do was shrug.

“What are you talking about? From here on out, the one who’ll be working harder than the rest of us is you, Iiria-san.”

“Huh?”

Even if Kengo handled the practical work and I provided support in repairing the tunnel the dragons had destroyed, the truly important matter was not that. I believed the greatest result this time was not the dragon subjugation itself.

We had brought Gerario, Balan, and Tsatsaru—adventurers—into our circle.

Knowing the outside world, wandering through many lands and devoting themselves to war, surviving after seeing more of the harshest realities of the world than almost anyone else, they were surely invaluable people whom no amount of money could buy.

At present, Jirenu Territory’s connection to the outside existed only through the thin thread of the Bax Company, which we could not quite fully trust. And if even the church priest was an unreliable worldly cleric, then if Jirenu Territory was to deal with the outside world in order to build up its strength, the knowledge and contacts Gerario and the others possessed were worth a thousand gold.

And if it came to dealings with the world beyond the island, that would unquestionably be Iiria’s work, and if people were hired from outside to take up positions within the territory, managing them would likewise be Iiria’s responsibility.

And of course, informing the townspeople of the dragon subjugation was also the lord’s duty.

Gerario had firmly told us that unless the dragon subjugation was used not as a fleeting victory but as a means of reinforcing the lord’s authority, it would not truly count.

And naturally, using that authority to bring order to the territory was also the lord’s job.

“…I should have just stayed asleep.”

Iiria was probably more suited to being a lord than anyone else, but she herself apparently did not want it.

Iiria shrank in on herself amidst hair fluffier than usual, perhaps from bedhead, but when the time came, she would surely work more seriously than anyone.

Smiling at Iiria’s usual self, I thought that since it would take Kururu a while to get cleaned up and prepare food, I should probably go to the company first and make preparations for cleaning up the aftermath. After all, if the crowds had swarmed in and every ship in the harbor had sunk, then unless they were salvaged, the fishermen would not be able to head out tomorrow, and all sorts of distribution would be disrupted.

Just as I was thinking what a truly headache-inducing mess it all was, I suddenly remembered something.

“Oh, Iiria-san.”

“What is it?”

I gave a wry smile at the way she asked back in a flat, displeased-sounding tone without lifting the end of her voice.

“I heard dragon corpses sell for an incredible amount.”

Iiria blinked, then gave a little shrug.

“Apparently so. They make extremely good medicine, so the nobles buy them at high prices.”

“What kind of effects do they have?”

When I asked, Iiria, who looked even younger than Kururu, answered without hesitation.

“They restore male virility.”

“Hngh.”

A strange sound slipped out of me.

It was not just because Iiria had said something like that so casually. I had also remembered my exchange with Kururu just a little while earlier.

When I had smugly said that maybe we should not sell the dragon corpses, that maybe we should keep them, what had Kururu said when she heard that?

—So you’re a man too.

She had absolutely misunderstood.

“If you eat the meat, even the frailest young man will be as strong that night as a sturdy beastman, and if you mix the oil rendered from the meat with powdered boiled bone to make pills, one pill is enough to keep you energized for three days, or so I’ve heard. The powder from the horns and fangs is especially precious, and they say if you mix it into incense and burn it, then a year later, you’ll hear babies crying all over town.”

Iiria spoke with a suppressed laugh, apparently well used to this sort of topic.

“The court is full of nothing but stories like this, after all.”

I was the one far less immune to it. As I turned away wearing a complicated expression, Iiria apparently realized something.

“What is it? Surely you didn’t say you wanted to eat dragon meat with Kururu without knowing any of this?”

She slid over with a grin on her face.

I grabbed her narrow shoulders and pushed her away, then cleared my throat.

“That’s not what happened… but I do think I got misunderstood in a different way.”

Iiria tilted her head slightly, but then her gaze dropped briefly lower on me, and she burst into coughing laughter.

“I’ll clear up the misunderstanding for you.”

“That is absolutely none of your business!”

When I said that with obvious displeasure, she only enjoyed it more, but after patting my shoulder, Iiria suddenly changed to an intelligent, gentle smile.

“Good work. You saved us again.”

If Kururu sometimes showed an unexpectedly meek side, this was the kind of thing that made up Iiria’s charm.

“There was a lot of luck involved too.”

“That counts too.”

The easy way she said that made me think Iiria must have gone through incredible hardship.

“Well then, I’m off to do my job of honoring the people who earned this victory. That rotten priest is probably dying to make a big show of the gods’ blessing right about now too.”

Her cute face saying words like rotten priest suited her remarkably well.

“Please handle it carefully so Gerario-san and the others don’t get inconvenienced.”

He looked irresponsible on the surface, but he was probably serious at heart. He was not the sort of person who would happily get carried away just because people praised him, so if he got soured by being flattered too much, that would be a problem.

“Leave it to me. I know a little about how to handle people who don’t throw their weight around.”

Saying that, Iiria poked my chest with her finger, then briskly started walking off.

I stood there unable to move, still bewildered, and when Iiria turned back, she gave me a cheerful smile.

It was completely different in nature from Kururu’s smile, but it was cute in its own way.

The square facing Iiria’s mansion was overflowing with people full of joy that the dragon threat had passed.

I wanted to return to the mansion myself for a bit, so I went out through the back entrance and into the alley behind it.

In contrast to the square, it was quiet there, and that brought me relief.

It was hard to believe I had just been fighting dragons only moments ago.

And besides.

“…”

When I remembered the exhilaration I had felt fighting alongside Kururu, a strange shiver ran through me.

I took one step, then another, through the quiet alley, and ended up muttering,

“An adventurer, huh.”

It was not that I lacked admiration for it, but if we formed a party ourselves, the positions that would unquestionably stand out would be Kengo and Kururu. Maybe Iiria would be the priest.

And as for me… I would probably end up in the merchant slot, which was not especially cool.

Thinking that, I laughed to myself, realizing how much I had already started to absorb this world.