Speech, Speech Challenge

“…Could you stop speaking so lightly about the Hero, dragon?”

Wind blew from her. It gave the illusion that the flow of air was slicing his skin.

“Kaka, I find no value in things that have already ended and vanished. It is surely a fitting topic to speak of lightly. Things about those who have already left and are no longer here, that is.”

The air scorched. With every breath, it gave the illusion that heat was burning his throat.

“Yeah, scary.”

Amid that pressure, Tooyama Naruhito thought.

How did it come to this? A carefree otherworld fantasy was supposed to begin from here.

He had been looking forward to levels and crystals and all sorts of things, so why had he been thrown into a stare-down between Godzilla and King Ghidorah?

No, depending on how he thought about it, maybe this was a valuable experience.

His head, boiling from drunkenness and excitement, could no longer think normally. Amid a threat to his life, Tooyama was being rather carefree.

“…Should I take that as an insult?”

“Oh, what is this, Archer? You can make a face like that too? Kaka, I shall correct my earlier statement. That Hero had quite the talent for training her dog.”

They still spoke quietly with cheerful faces. Because both of them were so unbelievably beautiful, it made things even scarier.

From the outside, it looked like two stunning beauties, a tall golden-haired beauty with one eye hidden and a silver-haired cool beauty, were having a pleasant conversation.

However, to Tooyama, it only looked like two powerful monster species were watching for a chance to kill each other in a single blow.

“…A hatchling barely over a hundred years old talks like she knows. Back when we were traveling, you should still have been inside an egg.”

“Oh, well, well, did I speak too much to a great senior? Kaka, no, you see, character does not necessarily come with age. …Fool. Release that man at once.”

What kind of one-upmanship is that? Wait, is this woman older than Drako?

While still lying on the floor, Tooyama gradually propped his cheek on his hand and began tapping the floor with his finger.

“Heh, you’re quite attached to him, Hoarding Dragon… Ah, I see. So this is the man who killed you.”

Wenfilbarna looked down at Tooyama.

“Hmph. Isn’t he good? I won’t give him to you.”

For some reason, Drako folded her arms and snorted proudly.

“…I don’t want such a bloody person. I can tell by looking. He is cursed. Evil from birth.”

“Ha. To think the Hero’s extra would say that. Wonderful, Naruhito. You have her endorsement.”

“Being called evil normally hurts, you know.”

Who was evil? Who?

Feeling offended, Tooyama continued tapping the floor with his finger. When he brought his nose close, it smelled pleasantly of wood.

Right, once I save money and have some breathing room in life, I’d like to build a wooden sauna. But does this world even have saunas? As he continued escaping from reality like that—

“Do you understand the situation? You seem awfully relaxed.”

Apparently, she had seen through him. Wenfilbarna’s voice fell from above.

“Like hell I can understand it after suddenly being pinned down like this. Could you let me go, seriously? Which one of us is evil here, pinning a defenseless person to the floor?”

His finger tapped, tap, tap.

—Just a little more.

Thin and transparent, yet dense. Make the blade large and sharp.

“Naruhito, wait a little. I will remove that thing from you at once. Do not think you can trample my, my… f-frie, friend and get away with it.”

“Drako, you’re a good person…”

Tooyama was deeply moved by Drako’s words, which she had stumbled over a little. Since he had few friends, having someone say that to his face made him honestly happy.

“Friend…? Impossible. The relationship between a dragon and a dragon slayer should be nothing but obsession, love, and hatred. What is that?”

At Drako’s words, Wenfilbarna raised one eye. It must have been quite unexpected, because her voice was slightly high-pitched.

“…Does that have anything to do with you? Kaka, ah, I see. You no longer have anyone you can even call a friend, do you? You people were connected only through the singularity called the Hero. The Mage vanished into a Tower, the Thief melted into the shadows, and the Swordsman has already fallen. Kaka, single women are no good when they grow jealous.”

The dragon laughed. Flashing her sharp teeth and twisting her dark blue eye, she amusedly laughed at the hero.

“What did you say?”

It felt like the room’s temperature dropped. He glanced at the ceiling, wondering if there was an air conditioner, but there was nothing.

The source of the chill down his spine was the silver-haired woman, Wenfilbarna. At Drako’s words, her expression had vanished.

“You are jealous, are you not? Oh, yes, that look, Archer. One of the singularities who killed the Demon King. You will remain alone until you die, with no one standing beside you, and no one who will ever find you.”

An icy gaze that would make some people accept death just by having it directed at them.

However, it did not work on the dragon. She cheerfully raised a teasing voice toward one of her own kind, in other words, toward a higher being.

“…You are the one saying that? You, a distorted being who is a dragon yet loves human life. You, who has no place anywhere, call me alone?”

They were the same kind. Only the summits they stood upon were different.

A singularity chosen by the planet to destroy the Demon King.

A higher life-form created to be stronger and nobler than other creatures, to solidify the world’s concepts.

“Kaka, I am different. I found it. I gained it. I was found.”

Yet the dragon declared that she was different, that she and Wenfilbarna were different.

She looked with her dark blue eye at the human friend pinned down by the elf.

Gently placing a hand near her ample chest, Alice, the Hoarding Dragon, looked at Tooyama. She gazed steadily at the terrifying yet beloved creature who had anchored her to the world.

“This is my final warning. Move aside. Release my friend.”

“I refuse. I believe I already said that.”

The sun and the moon. Heat and cold, gold and silver.

The two were very similar, yet decisively different, and they could not accept each other.

Under the pressure of the two higher beings, the headquarters of the adventurers shook. The only ones still properly conscious in that place were those with a decent amount of confidence in their skill.

Those who were weak-willed, insufficiently trained, or simply weak either trembled and could not move or collapsed unconscious.

The perceptive and the truly strong had already left the Adventurers’ Guild. Just as beasts did not oppose beasts stronger than themselves.

However, this man was neither weak, perceptive, nor truly strong.

He was simply—

“Hey, come on, you two. Could you stop ignoring me and getting all worked up? Drako, thanks for worrying.”

One insane human being.

“…Could you stay quiet right now?”

Everyone probably thought the same thing. That man did not understand his situation.

“Naruhito, be quiet for a little while. I will send off this leftover dregs.”

Everyone probably thought he was a fool who did not even realize the gravity of the situation, the gravity of standing at the center of a conflict between two Tower-Class Adventurers.

“…You bark well, hatchling.”

“Do not chirp, relic of the past.”

The opening shot was about to be fired. The Hoarding Dragon and the Archer, dragon and hero. Two beings who should only be allowed to fight in fairy tales were about to kill each other over one greedy man—

“Hey.”

But it was neither. The man did not fail to understand the situation, nor did he fail to grasp the gravity of it.

He had simply waited quietly for the right moment, and more readily than anyone else, he had already steeled himself.

“That is why, right now—”

The hero directed a cold voice at the talkative man.

But she had not noticed.

This was never a fight between a dragon and a hero.

It was a fight between a greedy man and a silver-haired wind.

“—I said don’t ignore me.”

Relic Blade had already finished its preparations. And Tooyama’s resolve was set.

It was complete. Whether it hit or missed, fortune would decide. Then—

“Relic Blade—”

Whether he died or lived, fortune would decide.

Thin and narrow, yet dense and strong.

Relic Blade had already filled the area around Tooyama and Wenfilbarna. There was no wind indoors, and so the mist remained there.

Tooyama grinned. From around Tooyama Naruhito’s neck, a broken sword slipped out together with the mist.

Seeing that smile, Wenfilbarna widened her eyes.

“Tch?!!! Hah!!”

She moved with the swiftness of prey that had encountered its natural enemy.

She leapt back at once. Her breathing grew ragged, and cold sweat poured down her porcelain face.

She glared at Tooyama with eyes as though looking at a poisonous insect.

“Oops, what, you noticed? Hehehehe, you’ve got good instincts.”

The poisonous insect laughed.

While brushing dust from his robe and storing the broken blade back into his own body, Tooyama rose unsteadily.

An unpleasant, distorted smile of hehehehe appeared on his lips.

The man who had chosen far too easily to take both his own life and his enemy’s life laughed.

It had been close.

If Wenfilbarna’s reaction had been even 0.1 seconds slower, Tooyama Naruhito would have activated Relic Blade.

“…Are you insane?”

Having understood what Tooyama had tried to do, Wenfilbarna asked him with eyes that looked at something horrifying.

“Are you stupid? I always got full marks in the Guild’s mental counseling. Obviously, I’m normal.”

A suicidal attack with Relic Blade.

Tooyama could not suppress his excitement at having survived. He had made various efforts, such as keeping his breathing shallow, but if it had activated, he probably would not have avoided heavy damage.

“Naruhito… You…”

Drako seemed to have realized what Tooyama had done and spoke in a reproachful voice.

“Don’t glare at me, Drako. I’m just not into being completely carried by a friend. Well, I’m alive in the end, so forgive me.”

That fight had been sold to Tooyama in the first place. And the one who had stepped on some land mine belonging to Wenfilbarna or whoever she was had also been Tooyama.

No matter how strong or reliable Drako was, leaving everything to her did not suit his nature.

“…Hah. Saying anything to you is pointless, is it? Muu, friendship—no, relationships between friends are difficult things.”

Seeing Tooyama laugh carelessly, Drako gave in and sighed.

“…You laugh with a nasty face. I saw someone laugh like that long ago. He was truly troublesome, and I hated him.”

Soaked.

Wenfilbarna’s face was covered in sweat. While wiping it away, the hero evaluated Tooyama.

“It’s against the rules to talk about someone’s appearance, damn el… No, wrong, huh? Your reaction to Relic Blade was slow too. Who are you?”

The Wenfilbarna Gilbasol Tusk he had met back then and the Wenfilbarna before his eyes.

They were the same, yet different. He understood from her reaction just now.

This one did not know Relic Blade. Her response was far too poor.

The one he had met back then at least knew about Relic Blade. It had not worked on her.

“…You are strange. Something is wrong. Hoarding Dragon, I will take him. I have mountains of things I want to ask him.”

“Kakakakaka!! How amusing, Archer. Do you think I would allow that?”

“I keep telling you not to get worked up without me.”

Each of the three had their own position.

A hero and a dragon glared at each other. Between them stood an explorer.

“Sorry, Drako. I dragged you into this.”

“Hmph, do not worry about it. I expect the same sharpness you had when you killed me.”

Smoothly, the dragon stepped forward. Not to protect the explorer, but simply to stand beside him.

Tooyama and Drako stood side by side.

They stood in the way of the silver-white wind, the hero loved by bow and arrow, the former Hero Party member who had shot down the Demon King.

“…It has been a long time since I hunted a dragon, Hoarding Dragon.”

Silver eyes looked at the two of them. Was the emotion floating in that silver-white gaze hostility, or envy?

A dragon who, like herself, should have been isolated from the world and alone because she was chosen.

And yet that dragon, who should have had the same loneliness, had a friend.

There was no one beside her.

“…Why?”

Was the emotion floating in that silver-white gaze hostility, or—

“Ah, w-wah, ah, a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ahem, o-o-o-on this fine d-d-d-d-day with s-s-s-such good weather, yes, isn’t it?”

“Huh?”

Right after their killing intent swelled against each other, a man’s cracking voice spread through the tavern.

When they looked, a plump middle-aged man with a refined beard was standing rigidly upright, pouring cold sweat.

“…Hello, my lord. The weather is good, but I cannot say I approve. I thought you were someone who could distinguish safety from danger.”

“Lord, as you can see, we are occupied. Stand back, or you will be caught up in it.”

“Pigii! H-h-however, w-w-well, when the two of you become so spirited, the people around you, well…”

Addressed by the dragon and the hero, the middle-aged man’s face turned pale blue, and sweat poured from him like a waterfall. However, his words were directed at them.

“…You were at the embassy, right?”

“…!!!”

At Tooyama’s mutter, the middle-aged man reacted by shaking his head with such force it seemed like it might fly off. Then he sent pleading gestures toward Tooyama.

“Please, impossible, do something about those two.”

“Ah, I see, so that’s it.”

It was not that the man’s tearful eyes had moved him, but Tooyama realized that it would be better to stop these two.

A mountain of bodies.

No, they were probably not dead, but the Adventurers’ Guild, which should have been full of energy just moments ago, had gone silent.

Almost no one remained properly conscious.

More than half had fainted from being struck by the clash of pressure between dragon and hero, and the remaining half seemed to be barely enduring with their faces changing various colors.

“With all due fear! I speak to the great guardian dragon of the Empire, the Hoarding Dragon-sama, and to the exalted legend, Wenfilbarna-sama, one corner of the proud Hero Party that defeated the great evil!”

A long-legged beauty rushed to the side of the trembling middle-aged man, as if standing close to him.

Her tone was clear and her posture straight, but her teeth were chattering and not fitting together.

“…Heidemarie-kun, you too?”

Wenfilbarna turned her cold silver eyes toward the Guild Master.

Though her body jolted, the Guild’s person in charge spun her words, determined to fulfill her duty.

“If my words are mistaken, then do with this body as you will! However, just as my lord has said! Before the spirit of you two legendary beings, we ordinary people can scarcely even breathe! And this is within the Adventurers’ Guild! Please! I beg you to remember once more the stipulations placed upon Tower-Class Adventurers!”

Her name was known throughout the Empire as a talented woman, but her opponents were wrong for her. A dragon and a hero, both beings spoken of in fairy tales.

Even so, she lowered her head. Even while understanding that her life could end depending on either of the two’s mood.

“Oh, I see. I see, I see. Guild Master, you truly are quick-witted. Hmm, indeed, while I am a dragon, I am also a Tower-Class Adventurer.”

“…‘Private fights within the Guild are forbidden.’ A covenant imposed only on Tower-Class Adventurers. There was that too. The fact that the ban on private fights is limited only to Tower-Class really is like us adventurers, isn’t it?”

Heidemarie’s words were not directed at the two of them as a dragon and a hero, but as adventurers under the Guild’s jurisdiction.

The dragon and hero, who were also adventurers bearing the name of Tower-Class, were honestly impressed by the talented woman’s words.

“……………!!”

“…………!!!!”

The Guild Master and the lord. Their silent pressure fell upon Tooyama.

Even without words, it came through.

Namely: “Seriously impossible, seriously impossible, seriously impossible! Any more is impossible! Please do something, it’s your role, right?”

Tooyama flinched at their tearful faces. Certainly, any more would be pitiful. The two had surely fulfilled their roles enough.

Tooyama calmed down.

Thinking about it, he had come here to register as an adventurer in order to earn money. He had absolutely not come here to team up with a dragon and beat a hero to death.

“Ah, yes. …Uh, Drako, sorry, but could we settle things here? Thinking about it carefully, I might have said something rude, yeah.”

“Are you sane? That woman was absolutely trying to kill you.”

“Yeah, but so was I. If trying to kill someone is a crime, then we’re guilty of the same thing. We both got into a fight, and, well, I think saving face for those two who look like they’re about to faint would be very dragonlike and cool.”

Drako stared fixedly into Tooyama’s brown eyes.

Somehow, Tooyama had a feeling that this terrifying being would nevertheless listen to his words.

“Hmm, hmm, hmm, dragonlike, is it? Kaka, Naruhito, you are quite glib. It is as though you possess a dragon’s tongue.”

It seemed to be okay. Drako nodded repeatedly and stepped one pace closer to Tooyama.

“Well, I’m fine now because I’m kind of fired up, but honestly, you two are scary. You there, Wenfilbarna-san, if I offended you, I’m sorry. I won’t ever say what I said earlier again, and I won’t say anything unnecessary either.”

And one remained. This one was troublesome.

Unlike Drako, she was neither his friend nor anything else.

“…Do you think I would believe that?”

Yeah, thought so. Now what? How should I dodge this?

The instant Tooyama thought that—

Ping.

“Whoa, now?”

It appeared.

An arrow only Tooyama could see appeared, pointing at Wenfilbarna.

A message he had never seen before flowed past, and amid the prickling air, Tooyama set his tongue in motion.

Think. What should he do to avoid fighting her?

There should have been a hint in the conversation.

“You’ll just have to believe me. Isn’t that the only way to get through this without bloodshed?”

“…And if I say I won’t shy away from bloodshed?”

She had completely been affected by Drako’s killing intent and was raring to go. This was why hot-blooded people with broken brakes were no good.

They had no common sense, seriously. While grumbling internally, Tooyama spun his happy and clever brain.

What this woman was fixated on. The word she had said frequently. To persuade someone, that was necessary. A key word for that person. Uh, right, she had been fixated on something the whole time.

Each time Drako said that word, her mood had grown worse and worse—

His brain turned, showing its true worth amid crisis and the scent of death.

His mind spun round and round, and his unconscious and conscious thoughts brushed against the answer.

A message danced.

The words Tooyama’s tongue spun without him knowing leaked out.

“…The Hero.”

“What did you say?”

She reacted.

Wenfilbarna reacted to that word, “Hero.”

“No, the Hero you and Drako have been talking about. I don’t know anything about that person, but, well, they were called a Hero. They must have been amazing.”

This was it. Having grasped the thread, Tooyama’s tongue began to turn.

“…Yes, she was. So much so that she cannot be disparaged by that hatchling there.”

“What did you say, dregs?”

As Drako growled and tried to step forward, Tooyama held her back.

“Whoa there, Drako, wait just a little… Yeah, I get it. Heroes are usually amazing people. The ones I know are incredible people who reach the end, even if their father was killed, they were enslaved, turned to stone, and only given a cypress stick to defeat the Demon King.”

“…What are you trying to say, black-haired boy?”

Wenfilbarna was completely listening to Tooyama’s story. Sweat slowly welled up. Ignoring it, Tooyama wove his words.

It was the story of a certain hero from a fictional tale. An American fantasy RPG Tooyama Naruhito had been obsessed with for a time.

“At the same time, heroes are all good people. When the greatest hero I know was asked by a certain person why they needed to save the world, they answered like this.”

Through a game controller, Tooyama had become one with that hero. A fictional world, a fictional person. Fiction, and yet it existed here as a definite memory.

“‘I like this world. I don’t want it to be destroyed.’”

That fabricated story, however, certainly lived on as Tooyama Naruhito’s flesh and blood.

“Man, that line gave me chills. Those are the kind of people who can say that with a straight face. Your Hero saved the world, right? She must have been amazing, and incredibly good too.”

“…Yes. She was a good person too.”

She bit. Tooyama was certain.

—This is it.

“Heh. So I was right. Then what would that Hero do if she were here? Those two over there, who are terrified of beings far stronger and more frightening than themselves, but still carry out their duties in order to do what is right. How would the Hero treat them?”

Tooyama glanced at the two. They had no power, yet they had weighed self-preservation, duty, and their lives, and chosen to raise their voices in this place.

“…Ah, I see. Hehehe, you really are evil.”

Wenfilbarna seemed to have understood what Tooyama wanted to say.

Cold air, wind, brushed Tooyama’s neck. Not figuratively, but literally. As though searching for the position of his skin and blood vessels.

“…………”

Gulp. He swallowed. It was as though she were checking whether there was any lie in those words, that tongue, and those feelings.

After a time that felt eternal, the wind suddenly stopped, and Wenfilbarna sighed.

“…Whew. Yes, you are right. She would honor them. She honored courage above all, devotion above all, and above all, those who acted without regard for themselves… She would listen to their words. Hehe, yes, very well. I shall pay respect to the Hero’s name and to your correct understanding of her.”

The cold killing intent Wenfilbarna had been emitting cleared away as if it had been a lie. Her eyes, gazing somewhere far away, wavered gently.

“…The Hero, huh.”

She murmured softly and laughed in her throat.

“Hoarding Dragon, you should put a proper collar on him. That is the sort of creature for whom it must be done. A warrior loved by a well-turning tongue, hunting, and blood—no, what is he? Something even more horrifying.”

“Hmph. I would very much like to do that, but my friend would dislike it. I read in a book that it is better not to do things your friends dislike. Also, he is human, unlike you and me.”

“…Ah, so it is already too late. You have become completely attached… My lord, and Heidemarie-kun, I caused a disturbance. I will apologize formally someday. I do not feel well today, so I will take my leave.”

Wenfilbarna’s expression softened, and she waved lightly toward the lord and the others.

“Ho! H-haha! Please take caaaare!”

The lord bent his waist at a ninety-degree angle and gave his thanks in a trembling voice. Tooyama did not miss the small fist pump he made.

“…We thank you for your consideration. Our hero.”

Bending elegantly at the waist, the Guild Master also bowed to the hero who had put away her bow.

Sweat dripped from her hair and fell to the floor.

“…Black-haired boy, your name?”

Wenfilbarna cut her gaze away from them and looked at Tooyama.

“…Tooyama Naruhito.”

He answered briefly. The one from that time should have known that name. Which meant—

“Hmm, Tooyama Naruhito… Not a name I have heard. Welcome to the adventure city Agatra. What did you come here to do?”

“…I don’t want to say.”

“Hehe, I see. To tell the truth, I didn’t want to hear it either. Just kidding. …I hope we never meet again, newcomer with the unpleasant wind.”

Saying that, Wenfilbarna turned around, or so he thought, when a gust of wind blew.

The wind was so strong that Tooyama staggered, and the instant his gaze broke away, Wenfilbarna had vanished.

The wind had gone. Without anyone dying.

“Bwah, whew, ahh, that was rough.”

The thread of tension snapped, and Tooyama sat down as though collapsing on the spot.

The message swaying before him read:

“What the hell is that?”

“Heh, kaka. Not bad, Naruhito. You surprised me by defeating that woman with only your tongue.”

Drako laughed and held out her hand to Tooyama.

“That was only because I had you as fighting strength. As expected of a dragon, you’re reassuring as an ally.”

He took her hand, and because she lifted him up far too easily, he felt a little scared. She was strong.

“Kakaka, what is this, you adorable thing. Very well, I allow it. Praise me more. It was written in a book that honestly accepting praise from others is the foundation of communication.”

Looking at the dragon snorting proudly, Tooyama vaguely thought:

She reads books that say surprisingly good things.