You Did It, Naru-chan, You’re Getting More Backers

“No, this ain’t gonna work, Lazaar-kun.”

Several dozen minutes from the gate, at a place they had walked to after borrowing the cart.

In the middle of the plains, far from the highway, Lazaar and Tooyama were sitting on the spot after putting the cart down.

The back of Tooyama, who had collapsed there, was covered in soot.

“What is with that way of speaking?”

“No, no, no, no, Lazaar, what is with that muscle boar? Is that really a living thing that someone who just became an adventurer is allowed to hunt?”

Giant Boar.

A monster that lived in the plains region and closely resembled a boar. Because the information said it was a relatively introductory hunting monster and that there were many of them, Tooyama had chosen it as their first prey.

Choosing it had been fine, but……

“Fast, huge, charge-only. Nope, nope. Simple ones like that are the most troublesome.”

The result was a crushing defeat.

Tooyama and Lazaar’s weapons were, respectively, Relic Blade and Lazaar’s knife, and that was all.

Relic Blade was a style that killed with certainty by arranging the field and fulfilling conditions, while the boar, which came charging in at full speed without question, had disastrously bad compatibility with it.

“Well, I suppose that is what makes hunting difficult. If our levels rise, we may be able to fight them properly, but even rotten, it is still a third-rank monster. You would probably need to be level 3 to face it head-on.”

Lazaar, who likewise looked utterly exhausted, muttered while hanging his head.

Apparently, “introductory” meant introductory for humans whose basic abilities were above that boar’s after their levels had risen.

While brushing off his robe, which was covered in grass and dirt from sliding and face-diving around while fleeing, Tooyama spoke to Lazaar.

“Lazaar, you were level 2, right?”

“Yes. It is said to be the point ordinary people can reach. From level 3 onward, one likely cannot reach it without some clear talent or overcoming a trial.”

“Third-rank and second-rank adventurers had an average level of 2 too, didn’t they? If those who can rise from there to level 3 become first-rank or whatever, then hmm, I see. The monsters are clearly stronger.”

“Basically, hunting is about even with multiple level 2 adventurers. Even if the opponent is a third-rank monster.”

“Hmm, hmm. I underestimated it a little too much. Especially that boar. That thing’s no good. It’s way too bad a match for me.”

“What will you do? Shall we switch to another job even now? This booklet says the Guild also buys medicinal herbs that grow in clusters in the plains region.”

While catching his breath, Lazaar made a suggestion. That method was certainly possible too.

Or rather, it was obviously that. In this world, Tooyama felt that the difference in ability between humans and monsters was huge.

It was the same between humans too. There were adventurers he could handle and beat down, but there were also countless dangerous ones who would make him tremble just by facing them.

Against those with low levels, he felt like he could win a messy fight through differences in basic stamina and muscle strength, but there seemed to be nothing he could do about Drako, Bernal, and that saint.

Perhaps their levels were different. Once again, it was regrettable that the crystal had not made his current position clear.

“Hmm, right. While looking for those herbs…… Wait, Lazaar, get down. Something’s strange.”

While turning over his thoughts, Tooyama agreed with Lazaar’s proposal…… or was about to.

Rustle, rustle. Nearby, he heard the sound of four feet trampling grass and flowers.

Tooyama reflexively crouched on the spot, and Lazaar followed by lying low in the same way.

“A Giant Boar. It is looking around. Has it noticed us?”

Tooyama shook his head at Lazaar’s voice.

“No. If that were the case, it should’ve charged at us by now. That thing looks less like it’s searching for enemies and more like it’s frightened of something.”

Eight meters ahead from where the two were lying low, there was black fur, a protruding snout, short four legs, and proud tusks.

There was a boar about the size of a small compact car, a Giant Boar.

If it had found Tooyama and Lazaar, it should have snorted roughly and immediately charged. At least, all the individuals they had encountered until a short while ago had reacted the same way.

Perhaps they had a strong territorial sense. Despite that, they acted in groups of four or five. It was like being chased by several compact cars. They were a bad match for Tooyama.

But the individual before them seemed strange somehow. It was alone, and while snorting roughly, it was looking around.

As if it were afraid of something—

“—Bugi?! Bugiiiiiiiiii?!”

“Whoa, what the hell is that?”

A scream. The next instant, something like a writhing, thick trunk coiled around the black boar.

Tooyama knew the sensation of chills the moment he saw it. It was the fear he felt when facing monster species that resembled reptiles.

The thing attacking the screaming boar was—

“A snake? Hey, hey, hey, you’re kidding. Was that thing camouflaged as the green of the plains until now?”

It was a snake.

A giant snake that had suddenly appeared was attacking the giant boar.

The boar struggled desperately and swung its tusks around. It tried to escape, but it was no use. Its short legs merely scattered grass and flowers, and its body had been completely coiled by the predator.

It was no longer a fight. It was a hunt. The thick, supple body of the snake coiled around the boar and began tightening.

“Gyaaiiiiiiiii?!”

The relationship between prey and hunter had been fixed. The boar’s agonized scream, one that made him want to cover his ears, somehow resembled a human voice.

“Wait, it’s written here. A giant snake monster that lives in the forests clustered on the northern side of the plains region. ‘Titanos Mare’…… A second-rank reptile monster……! This is an outrageous big one!”

“Huh, so snake monsters exist in every world. Whoa, it started swallowing it whole.”

Creak, creak, crack, crack.

The Giant Boar had already stopped even struggling. Its body, squeezed like it was in a vise, had its bones crushed, its body area folded down, and it was being swallowed whole by the snake.

The Giant Boar was being swallowed halfway from the rear, and the upper half of its body, which had not yet fit into the snake’s mouth, twitched and convulsed.

The lifeless eyes of the beast were looking at Tooyama. Something being eaten. He could not understand a beast’s expression, but surely there was fear and despair there.

Tooyama merely watched that sight of it being eaten alive, a cruel scene of nature as it was.

“……For that, you are strangely calm. Honestly, if you were not here, I would want to run immediately.”

“There was an even worse snake monster back home. It had the nickname Mother Goose, and that snake sang. Well, Lazaar, if things really get bad, you run even if it’s just you. If you dive into the shadows, most guys won’t be able to catch you.”

While lowering his voice and watching the hunt of the monster called Titanos Mare, Tooyama murmured quietly.

The snake monster did not seem to have any intention of moving from that spot yet. It lay on the ground with its torso swollen in the shape of the boar’s body, flicking its tongue as it rested.

“Don’t be ridiculous. At that time, I will drag you into the shadows and take you back with me.”

“That sounds scary……… Hm? Wait, wait, Lazaar, what? Did you just say you could drag me into the shadows?”

Tooyama’s eyes widened in reaction to Lazaar’s words.

“What, do you think I am joking? I am serious. I do not think we can make it in the Empire from here on without you.”

“I don’t dislike the softheartedness that makes you naturally count the kids as one of us, but no, no, that’s not it, Lazaar-kun. ……Can I enter your shadow too?”

He confirmed it once more. If that was true, the options they could take in hunting would suddenly increase.

“Yes. If it is me and one other person, I can wrap them in shadow……… Ah, I see. ……Discussion is important.”

As he answered, Lazaar seemed to realize what Tooyama wanted to do.

Lazaar had continued using that power to escape from enemies. The talent to conceal his own form and assimilate with shadows may have been given to him precisely because it belonged to someone like Lazaar.

As an ability granted to Tooyama Naruhito, it was too dangerous.

Lazaar treated shadows as something to flee and hide in. Then, an explorer would—

“You noticed, huh. Hm, hmm. Lazaar, could you read out all the information on that Titano-something?”

“Ah, yes. Name: Titanos Mare. Rank: second. It is docile during the day but becomes active at night, making it nocturnal. A monster classified as a reptile species with an appearance closely resembling a snake. It changes its body color to blend into its surroundings and waits in ambush for prey. It also has an eye on its forehead, and that eye, whose color differs by individual, is processed and treated as jewelry, so it is traded at high prices in the market. Its detailed ecology is unknown…… That is what it says.”

As Tooyama requested, Lazaar opened the Guild booklet and began reading.

“Hm…… No, that much is enough. Snake, snake…… I can understand it being nocturnal, but what I don’t get is that it’s the middle of the day, right in broad daylight, yet it’s caught prey and is hunting…… Normally it’d be night, right? Why now?”

Based on the information he had heard, Tooyama organized it and thought of a method. By speaking aloud, he clarified the uncertain elements.

Its hunting style was to change its body color and wait in ambush. He see. At night, unless a creature had very good eyes, it would be difficult to see through.

Then what was the reason the Titanos Mare was hunting now? And its original habitat was apparently a forest.

This was the middle of the plains region, slightly away from the place said to be its habitat. In such a place, it had lain in ambush—

“Who knows? Perhaps it really likes boar? Incredible…… It swallowed it whole. What will you do, Naruhito? Now that it has swallowed its prey and grown sluggish, is this not an opportunity?”

Lazaar spoke to Tooyama, who continued thinking. That line of thought was possible too. Monster species that left their habitats to hunt for favorite prey were not rare.

“No, wait. Long ago, when I took down a similar monster, two people died because of that judgment. If it were a normal snake, right after it swallowed prey would be a huge chance, but that thing is a monster. I want to be a little more careful.”

Monster Species No. 17, Gray Snake.

A monster species in the shape of a fairly active snake that inhabited modern dungeons. He had the impression that people died fairly often even when subjugating subspecies.

Tooyama himself had once been squeezed and nearly killed. Monster species shaped like reptiles were troublesome.

Normal humans would inevitably freeze when facing reptilian monsters. Was that due to memories of fear toward predators from their primordial ancestors?

There was no carelessness or disdain whatsoever. Tooyama had decided on his hunting target.

“Then what will you do? Give up on that and aim for another prey?”

“……Mm, no, I have a bit of an idea. Lazaar, can you wait a little?”

“Yes, what do you intend to do?”

“Mm, well, it’s just for peace of mind, but good, the soil around here is damp. There.”

All of a sudden, Tooyama pulled up the grass from the ground. He roughly began smearing the grass and flowers, wet soil and all, over his body.

“……Naruhito, what are you doing?”

“Putting mud on. Even if it’s a monster, if it has the shape of a snake, it wouldn’t be strange for it to have the same biological functions as a snake. It’s not that I don’t trust your shadow, but this is the fastest.”

He scooped up damp soil, stirred it messily in his palms, and smeared it over his face and neck.

Lazaar watched with a smile meant to avoid provoking a madman.

“Don’t make that face, Lazaar. They’re called pit organs. Snakes and lizards have organs that can detect the body heat of living things. I’m putting on mud to hide my body temperature. Don’t worry. The strongest special forces man I know used this to beat the crap out of the strongest hunter in the universe.”

“……Again with something I cannot understand. Hah, but very well.”

“Sorry, Lazaar.”

“It is fine. Do not worry about it. I have bet on you. Something of this level, at this point, is nothing.”

While sighing, Lazaar also began smearing damp soil over the exposed parts of his body like Tooyama.

The smell of soil stung his nose. For some reason, Tooyama felt the reality that he was alive from that green, raw smell pooling deep in his nose.

“Well, smearing on this much should be enough. Okay, Lazaar, what should I do?”

Tooyama, now covered in mud, had finished his preparations.

“You do not need to do anything. After I use the ability, only think about the outline of your own body.”

“Outline?”

“Shadows that are too dense can sometimes make people forget their human shape. Well, since I am here, there is no need to worry that much. Now then, I will begin.”

“Yeah, I’m counting on you.”

Lazaar slowly stood up and spread his hands.

Then he delivered words.

They were words to something that should be at the summit of the world, the high-level information aggregate that had brought him the fate of walking through shadows.

—A prayer.

“Floria, wrap us in your cloak. Our footsteps, our breathing, and our wicked schemes are vices that should be hidden by your cloak.”

“Shadow Guidance.”

“U, oh?!”

Darkness spread from Lazaar’s palms. A deep shadow that painted over his vision dark for an instant wrapped around Tooyama.

It was cold and cool. The dense darkness cleared in an instant, but his entire vision was dyed monochrome.

Even when he looked up at the sky, there was no blue sky anymore, only a world dyed black and white.

“It is complete. It should be impossible for any ordinary existence to notice us. Your vision will return to normal once I release the ability, so do not worry.”

“This is amazing. It makes stealth technology and stuff look stupid. How does this look from the outside?”

“Like shadows. The shadows cast by clouds floating in the sky, the shadows gathering deep in back alleys. We become those things themselves. In this place, we likely look like nothing more than the shadows of the grass and flowers of the plains.”

“Isn’t that power basically cheating for sneaking?”

“Yes. Aside from the time a certain someone found me easily, even a Tower-Class Adventurer would have difficulty finding me within the shadows.”

“Well, that was more Relic Blade than me. Whatever. Can I walk normally like this?”

“No. If you go more than three steps away from me, the shadow will fall away. Follow me, and please do not move too violently.”

“Understood. We’re following that snake monster, Titanos Mare. If my prediction is right, that thing should head back to its nest now. Hehehehe, looks like we’ll be able to make use of the cart.”

With expressions filled with the greatest possible excitement, the explorer and the assassin began tracking the snake monster.

The joy of thinking about how to bring it down far outweighed the fear of the monster.

While unconsciously licking his dry lips, Tooyama began moving while blending into the shadows.

………

……

…

—At the adventure city Agatra’s “Dragon Embassy,” some time after Tooyama and Lazaar’s hunt began—

“Oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my, well, well. Wise ones of the Angel Church, renowned throughout the Empire. You have come well. I welcome you.”

“……Your words are more than we deserve, great dragon.”

“We are deeply honored to have been invited on this occasion.”

Arrogance. There was no other way to describe that attitude.

An unbelievably beautiful woman with blond hair and blue eyes sat sprawled in a throne-like chair, crossing her legs and smiling.

Long fingers gently brushed aside the bangs that covered one eye.

“Hmm, good. You may be at ease.”

From a place about three steps higher, the dragon looked down while seated at the two humans.

They were the Female Bishop, Kanosa Tier Field, the top of the Angel Church, the Empire’s only unified religion, and the First Saint, Svi Kana.

These two had been summoned by the dragon. It was to explain themselves, or perhaps be executed, for having put a collar on the dragon’s reverse scale, which must never be touched.

Every time Kanosa breathed, she felt as if her life was shortening.

Nooo, I hate thiiis, scaaary! Even that demon is next to the dragon, it’s overrrr! Even if I get desperate and resist, I’m definitely deaaad! Oppiropii.

Without letting even a hint of her fear-driven deranged inner thoughts show, Kanosa bowed reverently.

After the saint’s blunder, its discovery by the dragon had happened far sooner than expected, and she had been summoned before the Church as a whole could even formulate a response. Her panic was beyond words.

“Hoarding Dragon-sama, regarding this occasion—”

Somehow, Kanosa desperately squeezed out a flat voice—

“I suddenly remembered an old tale.”

The dragon’s murmur interrupted Kanosa’s voice.

“—An old tale?”

She looked up, and the beautiful dragon, her back buried in the chair, narrowed her eyes in boredom while combing her golden hair with her own fingers.

“The lonely angel, the angel of storms…… The many stories of angels passed down among dragons were always filled with jealousy, obsession, and ruin. A jealous woman who only covets what belongs to others…… That is what angels are.”

An insult toward angels permitted only because she was a dragon.

In the Angel Church, insulting angels, the one and absolute idol, was forbidden by doctrine. But such doctrine was not something a dragon needed to care about.

“As expected of the Angel Church renowned throughout the Empire. To think you would imitate the object of worship you revere. Faith is a frightening thing. To think it could make one commit even foolish acts that do not shrink from death. You need not have gone so far as to mimic angels.”

The dragon murmured as if utterly bored, as if this were meaningless.

She scooped up a fruit from the silver tray offered by the butler, the demon attending beside her, rolled it over her tongue, and swallowed it.

An arrogant gesture, and yet it was simply beautiful to the very end, like a single scene from a painting.

“……………Svi.”

“……Yes.”

Kanosa calmed the saint’s quiet anger, which only she could understand, with one word.

Now was no good. Provoking the dragon would mean the end of everything, a full-scale war between the dragon and the Church.

There was only one thing they could do in this place: figure out how to die peacefully.

“Oh, what is wrong, saint? Human blessed by angels. Is there something you wish to say?”

“……No. Nothing.”

The saint, Svi, answered the dragon’s question tersely. Hey, hey, Svi-chan-chan, stop looking at her with those glaring eyes, seriously, what is with you? You’re not that kind of girl, are you?

Kanosa’s inner panic did not reach Svi.

It was no good. Born as someone special called a saint, she had a tendency not to believe there was any existence stronger than herself.

“No. Thing.”

The dragon tilted her head and repeated Svi’s words.

Unfortunately, Kanosa’s stomach died. She might be unable to drink anything but hot water for the rest of her life.

“D-D-D-D-Dragon, our Hoarding Dragon, w-we have come to apologize, to apologize on this occasion. Regarding the fact that, through an unfortunate misunderstanding, we formed a contract with your pet human—”

With a swish, at a speed even the saint could not react to, Kanosa prostrated herself. She felt as though merely standing with her head raised would get her killed.

But Kanosa, too, was one of the influential figures whose name resounded through this city, the adventure city. She was an exceptional person who had survived every dispute with dragons several times before.

From that experience, one way or another, dragons were lenient toward humans. If one properly understood their anger and did not apologize for the wrong thing—

“Pet human.”

“Huh?”

Huh? Huhuhuhuhuh?

Amazing. The air was sticky. She could not breathe.

The dragon repeated Kanosa’s words. Had the pressure spreading from her affected the air? Or had Kanosa’s human instinct given up on living?

She opened and closed her mouth like a fish and desperately continued breathing. The saint, Svi, desperately continued rubbing Kanosa’s back, but Kanosa could not even feel that sensation.

What in her words had touched the dragon’s heartstrings? Amid her suffering, Kanosa desperately worked her brain.

“It seems there is a discrepancy in perception between me and you lot. That man is not my pet human.”

“Ah—”

“That man is free. That man is an individual. I recognized him as such. I decided to respect that way of being. That man is not yet mine…… Ah, yes, he is precious. He defied my decision, surpassed my amusement, killed me, and did not become mine. I find that way of being very delightful.”

“What are you—”

“S……vi, be silent.”

She could not afford to miss a single word the dragon said. Their understanding of the dragon was fatally misaligned somehow.

If they did not correct it, they would die. If even one more word to the dragon was wrong, everything would end.

“That man lives as he pleases. He continues moving to realize the ‘desires’ swirling within his frail mortal body. A good thing has a method of collection appropriate to it. That one is not to be placed at my side as a possession, but made to stand beside me. I had decided that.”

She had erred. Misjudged. Mistake, mistake, mistake, mistake, mistake, mistake, mistake, mistake!

Impossible. That was absurd.

A dragon was being considerate toward a human?

Recognizing an individual, respecting individual freedom, and treating an individual as an equal existence to herself?

Impossible. There was no way.

From Kanosa’s knowledge and experience of the creatures called dragons, the words of the Hoarding Dragon before her were impossible.

They were transcendents. There were none who stood beside them, and none who could admonish or bind them.

Therefore, their ways of relating to others were limited. Domination, servitude, plunder. There might occasionally be alliances, but those were only between fellow transcendents.

Dragons never stood beside humans. That was the creature known as a dragon—

However, that thought of Kanosa’s was shattered when she saw the expression of the dragon before her.

“I want to see that free one. His figure as he lives according to the desires within him is my pleasure, the form of my friend. You lot dirtied that.”

That was a human face. The face of a person thinking of a friend and growing angry for a friend.

“Ah, u……”

She had completely misjudged. The dragon was changing, in the middle of changing. A dragon, which should have been unchanging because it was immortal, was meeting change.

Who? What? How?

Kanosa was now in a storm of confusion far greater than her fear.

“I cannot forgive it. I cannot overlook it. I will not permit anyone other than me to touch that one’s path. Even I endured it. Truly, I want him right now, but I am enduring it.”

The dragon, still seated on the dragon throne, spun a breath of fire and looked down at the humans.

The chandelier’s light illuminated her body, but the shadow cast on the floor changed for an instant from the shape of a human into that of a winged dragon swinging its tail.

“You lot imposed a shackle on him. You put an unsightly collar on a dragon’s friend. What humiliation. What insult. Now, let me hear it, children of angels.”

A porcelain-white face. One eye bearing the color of the deep sea, or perhaps the sky at its summit, gazed at the humans. There was surprisingly little expression there—

“Do you lot wish to anger a dragon?”

“………!”

“……………”

She could not breathe.

Air escaped from her lungs. It felt as if even the air was terrified and did not want to be here.

“Do not make such a frightened face, Bishop. I do favor you. This occasion has certainly displeased me greatly. However, I do not intend to destroy the entire Angel Church.”

“Y-your words are most gracious.”

That she managed to squeeze out a voice was a miracle.

Kanosa, gasping for breath, answered the dragon’s exchange.

“Good. Saint there. That woman who placed a shackle on my friend—behead her. That will end everything.”

“………………Ha, ha.”

…………As expected.

It was the compensation she had predicted. Dragons liked making humans choose. They liked seeing the decisions and choices mortals made within their short lives.

No matter how cruel that choice might be, dragons favored it.

“What is wrong? Is there a problem? I understand, Bishop. You are a human who knows your place. A human who can properly fear me and properly understand the current situation. I know that this insolence was not your idea.”

“Th-that is……”

At the time of choice, there were few humans who could choose it without hesitation.

Not everyone could laugh according to their own convictions, their desires, like a greedy man.

Not everyone could challenge according to their tension, their mood at that moment, like a madman.

Not everyone could cling to their goodness, their reason for survival, like a broken man.

You may have forgotten, but not everyone had a happy head.

“I—”

Her trembling body and disordered thoughts dulled Kanosa’s judgment.

“Ah— You made the Bishop-sama cry.”

The dragon’s pressure softened gently. It was the saint, the saint, Svi. A special person born with a deep blessing from angels.

Her sacrament healed life, and the mighty strength dwelling in her body surpassed that of ordinary people.

Svi stood and glared at the dragon. The mighty strength dwelling in that small body, her hair standing on end, her swelling fighting spirit. The overwhelming presence of a strong one that would make any ordinary person freeze just by facing her—

But now was no good.

Even so, the saint could not reach the dragon. In this place, even the saint was nothing more than a half-baked existence.

“Do not chirp.”

The dragon said one word.

“Gah?!”

Svi’s scream. Kanosa had not seen it.

In an instant, the demon in butler’s clothes attending beside the dragon pinned the saint down and slammed her into the floor.

“Do not speak without my permission, saint there. It was surely the work of a shallow, foolish beast just like an angel. Were you arrogant? Or are you hopelessly lacking in brains? Why do you think a mere saint can stand beside a dragon?”

Kneeling on the throne and resting her cheek on the back of her hand, the dragon tilted her head.

“……Ah, gi, gi, gigigiga.”

Creak, creak, creak.

Svi’s mighty strength strained as she tried to repel the demon. One, then two of her clenched molars shattered.

Sturdy Loito stone, a material used even for the walls of the adventure city and the stonework of the Imperial Capital’s castle. The floor, lavishly made of that material, began cracking.

“Ojou-sama, what shall we do?”

However, the butler calmly pinned the saint to the floor without a single bead of sweat. No, not even his complexion changed, let alone any sweat.

An overwhelming difference in ability. Far more than Kanosa had predicted, there was a hopeless gap in military strength between the Church forces and the Dragon Embassy.

“Hmm, keep holding her down as she is. I see, saint. An abnormal element strongly loved by angels. You are surely superior, surely outstanding beyond the great many common humans. But you do not know your place. Merely standing above others does not mean you can ever stand beside a dragon.”

Cold to the very end.

“Therefore, it is insolence. Pay for that ignorance and those actions with your life. Bishop, quickly.”

Strong to the very end.

The dragon forced a choice upon a human.

“………Bishop-sama, do as the dragon says.”

The saint hung her head and limply threw out her small body.

“I will acknowledge your readiness. Here.”

Clang, clang.

A sword that had appeared from somewhere was thrown at Kanosa’s feet.

Kanosa’s wide-open eyes were reflected in the silver-shining blade.

“Ah, ……eh……”

Staggering and feeling numbness in her body, Kanosa picked up the sword.

There was only one thing to do. There were no longer any choices.

“Bishop-sama……”

Her right arm. Her foolish, strong, and adorable right arm, the only one she could trust in a world full of enemies, smiled as if she had given up on everything.

She laid her neck limply to the side.

“Bishop.”

The dragon’s words echoed in humans. That call was the same as a signal for execution.

The Angel Church was about to pay compensation. The dragon’s anger—no, the price for misjudging the dragon.

A dragon urged toward change. That was an invasion of this world caused by a single greedy man.

They should not have laid hands on him. They should not have gotten involved. Because the essence of that person, which could even change a dragon, was no different from deadly poison.

“…………………”

Kanosa readied the sword.

“That is good.”

The dragon nodded.

“……Bishop-sama, please do it.”

The saint murmured quietly at the end.

Clatter, clatter……

Her trembling hand and trembling sword tip were aimed at Kanosa’s only ally.

Gold coins, money, money, poverty, gold coins gold coins gold coins gold money happiness people family dragon angel bastards money if only there was money Svi saint church family gold coins gold money money money money money money money pay saint money money money money money money money money money money money’s money money I hate poverty there’s no food can’t choose anything weak the lack of money is bad this world is money if only there was money Svi money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money church money money money

—Svi, my adorable Svi.

Amid scenery like a revolving lantern of life, the last thing left in the mind of the Female Bishop Kanosa Tier Field, the woman called a money-grubber, was the quiet smile of the little saint—

“…………………A trial.”

Kanosa had exceeded her limit, and words meant to break through this situation slipped from the human brain on their own, without their master’s permission.

It was truly a miracle. A divine revelation that descended precisely because she was one who had offered faith to angels, not something that would be brought to an ordinary person—

“Huh?”

The saint let out a foolish voice.

“What?”

The dragon’s eyes widened slightly.

“Hmm.”

The demon narrowed his eyes in amusement.

“A trial. It is a trial. Our dragon. It is a trial for the proud shrine maiden who connects the Human Realm and the Dragon Realm, and for the one who has drawn your interest, the dragon slayer.”

Aaaaaaaananaaah?! I don’t caaare anymore, I don’t care, don’t care, don’t care!! Aaah?! I did it! I really did it! If I had sacrificed Svi alone, it would have ended, but I went and did iiiit!

Kanosa’s head burst. She no longer understood what she herself was saying.

But she did understand one thing: if she stopped talking now, she would die.

“You…… have dared say it.”

See? She’s super pissed. The air is starting to burn. What is that, are you a barbecue-specialized organism?! Dragons are amaaazing!!

Kanosa’s head became happy. It was only temporary, but she could no longer stop.

“Do not test him. Do not measure him. That is something even I am enduring. That is my pleasure. Angel Church, do you think you have the right to touch what belongs to a dragon?”

The dragon grew angry. Kanosa instantly upgraded her understanding of the dragon to the latest version.

In other words, basically, it was like having a favorite toy dirtied by someone else. No, like having a lover stolen? Or perhaps the feeling of learning your first love had someone they liked?

You virginity-obsessed freak, aren’t you a unicorn, not a dragon??

She pushed down a line that would instantly turn her to ash if she said it aloud and sublimated it into other words.

“Yes, yes! Exactly, dragon. Ah, we seek your forgiveness, we beg your forgiveness, dragon.”

The cornered Kanosa pleaded to the dragon while shedding tears.

“Enough al—”

The eyes of the dragon looking at her were cold. They were eyes that made one feel that even the deep sea, where no light reached, surely had such coldness.

“Because of our love for you! Please forgive us, who ran toward foolish acts! Please forgive the love we weak, foolish, ignorant humans bear for you!”

Kanosa shouted.

“Bishop-sama?”

The saint muttered in a daze.

It was far too out of left field, far too nonsensical a line.

It was a line, but perhaps this too was a miracle. The dragon’s anger softened ever so slightly.

“………………………………………Continue.”

Yes, the dragon. Alice Dral Flaretail was relatively weak to affection toward herself.

Oraaaahhh!! Miracle, miracle is heeere, the skin of my neck, the skin of my neck is still connected by one thin layer!

The woman who had reached the optimal answer raised both hands in her heart and shouted.

The Female Bishop suppressed the explosive passion inside her with all her capabilities.

“Yes! Just as you direct your interest toward that one, our hearts are also directed toward you! One beyond the human domain, a pillar of this world, a great life surpassing even transcendents! We yearn for you, we weak humans are madly enchanted by you!”

“…………Hmm.”

A dragon’s eye saw through lies. Therefore, what Kanosa spoke here was her true feelings. Her heartfelt admiration and reverence toward the existence known as a dragon. She undoubtedly possessed them.

And she cooked them with eloquence born from human wisdom.

Spin, my tongue.

Wriggle, my brain.

If you do not work here, prepare yourself for the fact that the time to polish gold coins and drink wine with them as your snack will never come again.

Kanosa whipped herself and manipulated words. That, too, was one form of a human standing against a dragon.

“As you say, it is jealousy. We are jealous of that dragon slayer who monopolizes your attention, you shrine maiden of understanding. Your gaze, your voice—they are now turned not toward the Empire, but toward that one. Ah, and that is why we committed our foolish act! We thought that if we approached your dragon slayer, you might look at us!”

“Hmm, I see.”

The dragon nodded. The Female Bishop dramatically looked up to the heavens, the saint stood dumbfounded, and the old butler held back laughter.

“Ah, and that is why we are satisfied with this! Hoarding Dragon, you said you would forgive us with the head of one saint! No, no! That is not enough! If you would burn me together with this saint, Svi, then we would receive a moment to monopolize your attention, even if it were hostility, even for the slightest instant!”

This place was now Kanosa’s stage.

“B-Bishop—”

“—”

She silenced Saint Svi, who tried to say something, with her eyes. With the sheer force of her bloodshot, desperate gaze as she danced in the land of death, she stopped the words of the saint from Kanosa’s faction.

“In other words, you did this because you wanted to draw my attention?”

“It was foolish.”

“Even while understanding that I would be angry?”

“Even that anger, ah, is something precious to us.”

She smoothly spoke one word after another. Kanosa danced through a fun death game where one misstep would reduce her to ash.

“I see. Then I shall end it as you wished.”

The dragon narrowed her eyes. Ah, yes. This was that kind of creature, that kind of existence.

She was not an easy existence that one could persuade with one’s tongue. Kanosa knew that perfectly well.

Heat. Flames.

The power of the dragon sealed inside that figure shaped like a human woman was directed at the two humans who upheld the teachings of angels.

The saint crawled before the dragon’s power, and the bishop stood stunned before that flame, heat, and death.

“Bishop-sama……”

The Female Bishop’s sword, a sword broken by the dragon, murmured weakly.

“Shakora, suzzokora.”

The Female Bishop bit her lip and muttered a unique encouragement that welled from her heart.

She thought back on her life a little and laughed.

One man had faced a dragon using the desires writhing within him and the irregular power of the Mist.

Kanosa faced a dragon with angelic miracles beyond her measure and desperate guts born from recklessness.

All humans possessed weapons. At times, anyone could possess a poison capable of killing even a dragon.

That was what humans were: the greatest weapon and madness of creatures of possibility—

The Female Bishop made a gamble. Words she could never say unless she were recklessly desperate.

But Kanosa knew. It was in the place closest to death that life shone brightest.

So, prepared, she spoke those words—

“Ahh, the dragon slayer was not much after all.”

With sincere boredom.

Kanosa touched the dragon’s reverse scale once more. Rather, it was a slap. Instead of rubbing the dragon’s reverse scale the wrong way, she had slapped it with a hand that had picked her nose.

“—What did you just say?”

The heat filling the dragon’s surroundings wavered.

The words must have been that outrageous, words she had not expected at all.

That was precisely why the dragon froze with her mouth hanging open.

Confusion appeared in the dragon.

“Ah, the contract of fifty platinum coins. Certainly, if he were an ordinary human, that would be an amount difficult to obtain even over a lifetime.”

The contents of the Pledge Scroll contract. The Female Bishop muttered about the contract with penalty clauses that the saint had formed with the dragon slayer.

I said it, I said it, I actually said it. I can’t stop anymore, I can’t be stopped. Before that confusion turns into anger, Kanosa must spin her tongue at full speed.

This was the critical moment.

“But that one is a ‘dragon slayer,’ an unbound one who, while being human, without surpassing humanity, killed a dragon while remaining human. Ah, how unfortunate. And yet the dragon thinks of him as only that much. That he has only enough ability that he cannot gather even fifty platinum coins.”

“………………………”

“Svi, let me hear it. Why did you make the dragon slayer form a contract?”

This too was a gamble. She did not expect verbal maneuvering from this super naturally airheaded child. But precisely because of that, there were methods she could use.

“……Because he was precious. Because his figure as he watched human death, a human end, and quietly sent them off resembled you, Bishop-sama…… That is why I helped him. That is why I formed a contract and settled our debts…… I honored the Angel’s teachings, equality, and exchanged a contract, and—”

That was the truth from the bottom of her heart.

The dragon must have understood that too, because she did not interrupt Svi’s words.

“Ah, exactly! Exactly so! Everything is love! We of the Angel Church recognize the dragon slayer’s power. We wish to see the dragon slayer’s future. We affirm his figure and his way of being! Ah, what an honor. Because the dragon does not believe in his power, because the dragon protects him, we were able to draw your attention. If we perish for that, we are satisfied.”

Kanosa spun around and spread her hands toward the dragon, talking over whatever Svi had been about to continue saying.

“Do with this life as you will. Our dragon. May overflowing light be granted even to the dragon slayer who lives under your protection.”

Then she smiled with all her might. She herself intended it to be the most beautiful, highest-grade smile, but to everyone present, it was nothing but the smile of a madwoman.

“………………………………………”

Finally, the dragon fell silent.

“Bishop-sama……”

“Quiet.”

Kanosa interrupted the saint’s words while remaining in her dance’s finishing pose. She had done everything she needed to do. If she died from this, it could not be helped.

Kanosa was in a strange sense of satisfaction.

“…………………Hmm, Bernal, what do you think?”

The dragon suddenly asked the butler who continued holding down the saint.

“With all due respect, I believe it is Ojou-sama’s complete defeat. If you execute them here, Ojou-sama herself will have acknowledged that her words are true.”

The butler answered while laughing deep in his throat.

“Hmm, that Naruhito is under my protection?”

“Yes, and it would also mean that Ojou-sama herself does not believe in that person’s ability. It would mean acknowledging that he is a human of such a level that he cannot gather even fifty platinum coins.”

“Hmm, true.”

“Furthermore, those women will be recorded as people who splendidly drew a dragon’s attention and perished for love of a dragon. That will be conveyed to the Dragon Realm as well. Heh, they have already scored a point against you.”

“Hmm, I see.”

“That is so.”

The master and servant continued their calm exchange. A pleasant trust surfaced in that conversation.

It was the proper form of an alliance between transcendents. The dragon and the butler continued conversing as if they were an obedient granddaughter and a wise grandfather.

“Raise your faces.”

“Yes.”

“Yes……”

Kanosa raised her face, which was drenched in sweat.

The saint, released from the butler’s restraint, immediately drew close to Kanosa, likewise knelt, and raised her face.

“Splendid. Female Bishop, I praise you for being able to spout nonsense and spin your tongue before me.”

“I am grateful.”

“I changed my mind. Your foolish act toward my dragon slayer shall be repaid not with your lives, but by another method.”

“……Anything you wish!”

A miracle had occurred. Kanosa suppressed the joy welling up inside her.

“Hmm, you have no objection to those words?”

“Y-yes, of course.”

Perhaps that was why. Kanosa did not notice. The dragon tilted her head as if suppressing laughter, and her eye gleamed like a cat’s.

“Then just one thing. From now on, make the aftermath of the many disturbances that fellow will likely cause in this city and this country the chief mission of your Angel Church.”

“D-disturbances?”

“That one is a foreign object. One who creates ripples on the surface of a lake, one who destroys what has been completed, and also one who moves forward what has hardened in place. Ah, I had been thinking about various things. He dislikes it when I step too far forward. But I want to help him somehow. He is my friend, after all.”

For a while, Kanosa and Svi stared blankly.

Biologically, she was the same sex, a fellow woman, yet the dragon, the Dragon Shrine Maiden, the Hoarding Dragon’s face as she spoke of “that fellow” was far too—

“Therefore, Angel Church. You shall protect the adventurer Tooyama Naruhito. There is no need to do it openly. While the contract binds you, watch over him. This matter shall be left unquestioned in exchange.”

“Your words…… truly, truly, we gratefully accept them.”

“We are most grateful.”

Shaaaaaaoraaaa!! We won, we won!

Protection? Cleaning up disturbances? I’ll do anything! No matter how much he is a dragon slayer, he is an individual. A human.

There is a limit to what he can do.

Even if a promise with a dragon was only verbal, it was close to an absolute contract comparable to a Pledge Scroll, but no matter how she thought about it, this was a bargain.

With protection of an individual and a little convenience, they had avoided a full-scale war with the dragon.

Too good. As expected of me. It’s all because of my daily conduct. All right, I’ve won. I’ll go take a bath.

Just as Kanosa had begun dancing in her heart while scattering flower petals,

“Pardon me, Ojou-sama. We have just received a report from a running hound that trouble seems to have occurred around that person.”

Beside the dragon, space distorted. From the space warped like glasswork in the middle of being shaped, a maid popped out.

Kanosa could tell that Svi beside her had held her breath slightly. That maid must also be an existence who could make even a saint shudder.

However, Kanosa watched the exchange between transcendents as if it were someone else’s problem.

Nooo, no, no, no, no, we’re totally fine now, right? There can’t be anything more than this, right? We won, right? Thanksies, thanksies.

There was no calmness in the mind of Kanosa, who tended to get carried away relatively easily. It was just as well, because if she calmed down even slightly, she felt she might die of fear.

“Hm? Faran, good, I permit it. Speak.”

“Currently, in the commercial district, the fourth-rank adventurer Tooyama Naruhito is in combat with the Angel Church Knights’ ‘First Knight.’ It seems he is suspected of being involved in the murder of gate soldiers at the East Gate, and also of adventurer killing because he brought several units of material from the second-rank monster Titanos Mare, a monster that a fourth-rank adventurer should by all rights be unable to hunt, to a merchant.”

“…………………Eh?”

Ominous words. Her body jumped despite herself.

Hm? The First Knight, that boar-brained idiot? The battle maniac whose brain, even by generous estimates, amounts to only one tablespoon?

Oh my? Huh? It feels like the air is changing.

Kanosa finally noticed the large beads of sweat appearing on her forehead.

“Kakakaka, Naruhito has already gone and done it. Good, what an amusing fellow.”

The dragon’s voice was endlessly amused, and faintly heated. The voice that called “Naruhito” was the highest-pitched one yet.

“What shall we do, Ojou-sama? He is putting up quite a good fight against the First Knight, but it is only a matter of time.”

“Kaka, worry not, Faran. We have just settled matters. Is that not so, Female Bishop?”

“……………Ah, yes.”

“That is how it is. Then I leave this one matter to you. Peacefully rescue my friend. I am counting on you, Angel Church.”

“…………Isn’t this a little fast?”

The Female Bishop muttered in a daze.

However, at those insolent words, the Hoarding Dragon shook her long golden hair and rumbled her throat in amusement.