La-Zaar And Tooyama Naruhito

“The other one?”

“Yes, ma’am! Earlier, Seventh Knight Lady Cradea and Fourth Knight Lord Clun captured him! We have word that he is currently being brought here!”

One of the men from the unit that had appeared answered Stolu’s short question.

“That information is late.”

“…Clun, dis?”

“Hello, Lady Stolu. Oh? What’s wrong? You seem rather unlike yourself, not very energetic.”

The silver-haired, blue-eyed, handsome young man leading the unit, Fourth Knight Clun, smiled as he spoke to Stolu.

“…It’s nothing, dis. Conversely, I’m glad you seem well, considering you were burned by a dragon, dis.”

Stolu muttered with plenty of sarcasm. Right now, she did not feel like speaking properly with this man at all.

“Hahaha! Naturally! In that moment, the Hoarding Dragon and I were bound by a bond! That flame aimed only at me was, indeed, love from the Hoarding Dragon! The fact that I am not dead is the greatest proof!”

Even among the Ten Swords, this man had an especially strong obsession with dragons.

Just the other day, this man had incurred the Dragon Shrine Maiden’s displeasure and nearly died. Without showing any sign of that, he adjusted his hair with a flick and laughed brightly.

“…You didn’t die because the saint was there, dis.”

“Hmph. I understand why you are jealous. Thanks to that lowly slave called the ‘dragon slayer,’ I too have had my hardships.”

Clun nodded to himself as he muttered. The moment he said the words “dragon slayer,” his voice had lowered.

“Dragon slayer, dis?”

Yes, the dragon slayer. The name of the slave that had become the talk among the knights.

Apparently, he had black hair and brown eyes, like someone from the Empire’s eastern races. Stolu slightly blurred her words because that appearance was exactly the same as the man she had just killed.

“Stolu!! Thank goodness! You’re safe!”

The slender female knight who arrived late on horseback broke into a relieved smile.

“Cradea! You too… thank goodness. Are you injured?”

“No, I’m fine. He was quite skilled, though. If Clun hadn’t joined midway, he likely would have escaped.”

Cradea soothed her horse by stroking it, then smoothly dismounted.

“Hahaha, Cradea. When you praise me like that, even I feel embarrassed. Well, though he had a peculiar talent for a sinner, he could not escape the pursuit of my sword.”

Cradea ignored Clun’s words, lifted the thing that had been tied hand and foot and loaded like luggage near the horse’s rear, carried it on her shoulder, and slowly lowered it to the ground.

“Ugh… Wh-where is this? Damn it… I couldn’t get away?”

He was covered in dust, with cuts and fresh wounds standing out.

The sinner with his hands and feet tied behind his back was Lazaar. He had awakened from unconsciousness and understood the situation, that he had been captured.

“Lizard-san…”

“Tch. To think we’d reunite like this… Wait, where’s Naruhito? Was Naruhito captured too? Since you’re safe, did he escape? Did he get away?”

Lazaar questioned the young female knight, First Knight Stolu, who had muttered in a small voice.

Church Knights had gathered around them, and three of them were from the Ten Swords. They were not opponents who could be easily outwitted.

But if Tooyama Naruhito was there, something could be done.

Lazaar already fully trusted the strength of that man, despite having only known him for about two days.

“…………”

Stolu quietly looked away.

He had a bad feeling. He felt the same atmosphere as when something bad always happened back in the Kingdom.

“Lady Stolu, we have finished confirming the sinner’s body. He is dead. He is not breathing, and his pupils are fully dilated.”

“…………………………………Huh?”

His mouth fell open.

“…Clun, hold him down.”

“Hmm?”

At Stolu’s small words, Clun turned his eyes toward him.

“No… way.”

He strained his eyes.

He saw it. Among the surrounding knights, he saw something lying on its back on the stone paving.

“No way. Hey… what is this… haha, what is this… why…”

That finely tailored robe, and those oddly made shoes. Lazaar knew only one person who wore them.

“Hmph. Hey, you. Restrain the lizard. Sorry, but I don’t want to dirty my armor any further.”

Clun disliked touching Lazaar and ordered one of his subordinates.

“Yes, sir! Come on, stand up, lizard! Don’t make trouble for—”

One knight grabbed Lazaar’s shoulder to make him stand, while Lazaar sat on the ground and stared at a single point, at the unmoving human corpse—

Snap.

Thud.

With divine speed, he undid the restraints the knight had placed on him and slammed a backfist into the defenseless jaw of the knight who had grabbed his shoulder.

Leaving the collapsing knight behind, Lazaar broke into a run.

“Naruhito?!!”

Not to flee, but toward his friend.

“Damn it, you—! Lizard!”

“Don’t move! If you come any closer!”

The knights grew agitated. They drew their swords and formed ranks as though blocking the path to the corpse—

“You’re in the way.”

“““Ah!”””

Lazaar melted into shadow.

He easily slipped past the knights and reached him immediately.

“Naruhito! It’s me! It’s Lazaar! Please, please wake up! Hey, you’re kidding, right?! This was just the beginning! It had finally, finally begun! Why? Why did you… Why?!”

Ah, damn it. As expected, the one lying there was Tooyama Naruhito.

He shook those shoulders.

He slapped that cheek.

But Tooyama Naruhito did not move at all.

“Ah…”

A small fly walked over his fully dilated pupil.

The cheek Lazaar slapped was terrifyingly cold and hard—

“………………Ah, ahh, no. No, not this. Damn it, why? Why does it always… always turn out like this…”

He was dead.

He was not alive. Lazaar understood that.

“You lizard!”

Lazaar, dumbfounded, was slammed into the ground.

His body struck the stone paving, but he did not even feel pain.

“Hey, now, come on, you lot. Don’t kill him. Just hurt him moderately.”

“Yes, sir! You, get away! Filthy lizard! That one is already dead! You understand well now what happens to those who defy us Church Knights, don’t you?!”

While lying on the ground, he was kicked in the stomach.

“Guh?! Ugh…”

“Ora! Be grateful for Lord Clun’s mercy. Scum like you would normally all be cut down on the spot, you know!”

“Ghob?! …Kh.”

Next, he was kicked in the neck.

“Ooh? What’s with those eyes? That sinner is already dead. It’s over. Get smart, Lizardonian. Come on, behave yourself.”

They swarmed him as a group, punched him, kicked him, and slammed him into the ground.

One knight who was not wearing a helmet crouched down with a grin and laughed at Lazaar.

The knight found the Lizardonian, who said nothing and barely screamed, amusing, and continued tormenting him.

“…We Lizardonians never commit the act of offering a friend’s remains to beasts. Which of us is filthy? With that vulgar face, I can see straight through to your rotten souls.”

Between the violence, Lazaar spat onto the ground.

““““……………………””””

All at once, the Church Knights fell silent and began tormenting Lazaar without a word.

“Ghah?! Guh, guuuuh.”

“Die.”

“Scum who insults us Church Knights.”

“Rot and die, sinner.”

How noble a sight it was. Fully armed men surrounding, punching, kicking, and tormenting a half-dead man who was trying to protect his friend’s remains.

How filthy those faces were. Pleasure in tormenting the weak seeped from the faces wrapped in helmets.

“H-hey, Clun, this is too much! He’ll die!”

Cradea finally began to panic.

At her voice, Fourth Knight Clun shrugged and tilted his head.

“Well now, Lady Cradea. That thing just insulted us Church Knights, you see. It spat upon their pride. A punishment of that level is their right, isn’t it? Well, if he dies here, we will lose a rare familiar skill, so I will stop them at an appropriate point.”

Clun stroked his chin and wore a frivolous smile. He did not intend to kill Lazaar, but he had no intention of helping him either.

He only thought of it as just right for letting his subordinates vent.

“Clun.”

“Yes? What is it, Knight Stolu?”

“Stop them immediately.”

“Haha! What is the matter, Lady Stolu? Even you? Did you not hear what I just—”

Clun’s handsome face twitched.

The moment he saw the face of the small girl beside him, a girl three heads shorter than himself, barely tall enough for him to look down at, his words caught in his throat.

Because he understood that the anger of the Angel Church’s First Knight was directed at him.

“Do not make me say it twice, dis… I believe I told you to restrain that Lizardonian.”

“Eek… N-now, don’t be so angry. H-haha. Hey! You lot, stop. Cease at once! That sinner must be put on Church trial, and then we must recover the familiar’s favor!”

“Y-yes, sir! Lord Clun!”

“Tch. You got lucky, trash lizard.”

“Be grateful you’re possessed by a familiar.”

“………………….”

Lazaar lay collapsed on the ground like a rag.

His clothes were in tatters, blood seeped from his body, and his claws were broken.

There was no longer strength in the fangs he clenched; he merely entrusted his whole body to the cold stone paving.

Ah, was it the same here too? Would it be taken from him here as well?

It had always been like that. It always turned out this way. No matter what he did, fate did not change.

“…………I’m tired.”

Hope and absolutes always exchanged places easily. His encounter with the foreign object called Tooyama Naruhito had been hope itself to Lazaar.

But that hope was dead. It was over. The dream he had seen with him, the future, everything had ended.

“…………Naruhito.”

He looked at his companion lying on the same stone paving. Around his neck were countless painful scratch marks, his face was swollen blue, his eyes were wide open, and the traces of bloody tears were painful to see.

He must have suffered and died. He no longer moved. He could no longer speak.

“Hmm, hmm? You, move aside a little. I want to see that sinner’s face.”

Clun suddenly tilted his head.

“Y-yes, sir! This lizard?”

The knight roughly grabbed Lazaar, who still lay collapsed, by the neck.

“No, no. I have already seen enough of that Lizardonian’s face. I mean the sinner lying over there. The black-haired… man, yes?”

“Yes, sir! His black hair is rare in the Empire. Is something the matter?”

Ignoring the knight’s question, the tall knight Clun looked down at the corpse of the fallen man.

His cruel green eyes reflected that dead face—

“…Pfft!”

What burst out was laughter.

“Knight Clun?”

“Pff, hahaha, hahahahaha, ahaha! To think. Oh, angel. Ah, you truly are the greatest. Ah, yes, that’s right, of course. There was no way that could have been true.”

Ignoring Stolu’s question, Clun continued laughing.

Only Clun knew who that was. Only this man, who had been at the Dragon Embassy at that time, remembered very well what Tooyama Naruhito had killed.

“Oh, pardon me. No, no, it is nothing. The sinner’s deathly expression was simply too comical. No, as expected of our strongest sword, permitted to bear gifts from two angels, ‘Justice’ and Hanging. Before the First Knight, well, this is what happens.”

Concealing it, Clun grinned.

His gaze next turned toward Lazaar.

“…Y-you…”

Did he laugh? Did this man laugh?

What was so amusing—

Clank.

Clun crouched down.

Then he brought his mouth close to Lazaar’s ear as he lay collapsed on the ground and whispered.

“Ah, I see. So you are the Lizardonian adventure slave mentioned in the report. Hehehe, serves you right, you fools who don’t know your place. …Good work on all your useless effort.”

There is nothing uglier than a man’s jealousy.

The one who hated the dragon slayer, who had apparently captured the dragon’s interest at that place, more than anyone else was this Fourth Knight.

“U, ah…”

Malice smiled.

Lazaar’s battered heart no longer had the strength to stand against malice.

He simply watched the man walk away, humming in satisfaction.

At a time like this, what would he have done? What suddenly came to mind was the face of his now-dead friend.

Ah, what had it been?

The thing he always hummed when facing hardship or enemies.

But Lazaar, in despair, could no longer remember those words—

“…Haha. I can’t remember anymore, Naruhi—”

Resignation and despair got along well.

Enough. He was tired. Very tired. He wanted it to end.

He tried to close his eyes. There had been far too many painful things. This world was far too cruel and sad.

Lazaar no longer had the strength to rage against it or resist it.

He would give up on everything, throw it all away, and be at ease.

《It’s good. It tastes the way I like. Lightly sweet and healthy. Rye?》

《That dream of yours is very compatible with my desire.》

“……………Ah.”

And yet, they would not disappear. The voice from when he first met him. Only the words he had received from him would not disappear.

Even though he wanted to give up on everything, wanted to throw it all away, only those words remained in Lazaar’s chest, in his heart, like claw marks even now.

“Expanding Ego” had certainly entrusted something to Lazaar.

“……………………Naruhito.”

At that moment, Lazaar saw it.

He saw Tooyama Naruhito’s right hand.

“…………Haha. That’s just like you.”

When he saw it, what spilled out was laughter.

He was lying on his back on the ground, his pupils fully dilated, his face lifeless, and he was not breathing.

And yet, even then, that was still gripped in his hand.

A weapon. A thing humans had created to stand against enemies, the will to rebel, the will to confront, a tool to kill enemies and dispose of things that got in one’s way.

Even in death, Tooyama Naruhito had continued gripping it.

That alone made him understand.

Ah, Tooyama Naruhito had remained Tooyama Naruhito until that final moment.

That was right. He was always, in the midst of despair—

—as he desired.

“…………Hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi.”

The laugh that sounded as though his throat was spasming was Lazaar’s voice.

Light returned to Lazaar’s eyes.

Ah, that’s right, Naruhito. I remembered your favorite phrase.

—Let’s do as we please.

It awakened.

“All right, then let’s carry them—”

The knights had their backs to Lazaar and Tooyama, listening to Clun’s words.

Just before one of them turned around, Lazaar sprang up from the stone paving.

“—Don’t move.”

A cold voice, as if it had reached them from the bottom of a snowy country’s well, sealed for a thousand years.

“Eek.”

A short scream leaked from the proud sword of the angels.

“You understand, don’t you? From the gap in your armor, a shadow fang is touching your throat.”

The Shadow Fang awakened.

The shadow rolled forward and took the knight from behind.

From the gap in the Church Knight’s thick silver armor, Lazaar pressed a black dagger he had drawn from somewhere against his throat.

“Huh?”

“H-hey.”

Too fast. Too stealthy. Too skillful.

Belatedly, everyone there understood that the Lizardonian, who should have been on the verge of death just moments ago, had taken control of the field in a single move.

Lazaar placed the shadow dagger at the knight’s neck and used him as a shield.

His vertical, inhuman pupils glared at the angels’ swords.

“I said don’t move. Don’t make me say it twice. That goes for you people over there too. Unless you want to see your comrade’s head say goodbye to his body.”

“E-eek.”

“Your breath stinks. Don’t speak. Your trembling is grating too. If you speak again, I don’t need you anymore. A hostage doesn’t have to be you.”

That tone, that expression, were not those of Lazaar when he had met Tooyama Naruhito, not those of La-Zaar, who aimed to become a baker and regretted his past.

They belonged to the finest wet worker lurking in the dark side of the Kingdom, the land of old blood and old covenants, the production site of humanity’s salvation system, and the land where the “End” slept.

“Shadow… Fang… You cannot be… from the Kingdom…”

“Indeed, young lady. If you wish, I can show you my art anytime.”

Lazaar answered Stolu jokingly.

His eyes were not laughing at all.

“S-stop. Calm down. ‘Death’ did not point at you. Don’t pile up more sin here and now. Please.”

Cradea’s pleading voice, however, did not reach the Shadow Fang.

If all the angel knights had possessed even a fragment of the goodness she had, perhaps Lazaar might have surrendered.

But that path no longer existed.

“It is useless, Lady Cradea. Look at those eyes. Those are the eyes of a cursed soul now. Very well, Lizardonian. It would be amusing to compare which is more correct, your shadow or my sword.”

Clun laughed pleasantly. What lay in his heart was dark jealousy and sweet longing.

Therefore, he would never be compatible with the Shadow Fang.

“Correct? Correct, you say? Shameless bastards. Not one of you is correct.”

At Clun’s words, Lazaar spat them out while suppressing a laugh.

For Lazaar, it was the first time words alone had made him this nauseated.

“Are you insulting the Angel Church?”

“Yes. You make me sick, human. That forked tongue of yours truly makes me want to vomit. On the surface you sing of peace and sincerity, while inside you are the very sour stench of stagnant sewage, worse than the filth of a sewer. There may be no creatures uglier than you, who harden your own ugliness beneath surface brilliance.”

“…You speak too much, sinner.”

“Ha! Sinner! Fine, that’s exactly right! I am, after all, a filthy sinner! A sinner who could find no way to live except by committing sins and hurting people! But you are the same! The gatekeepers, those owners of vulgar laughter! Do you know what they were doing?!”

He hated humans. What they said and what they thought were completely different.

And yet, those creatures lived in herds based on that premise, and right now, he could not help finding it disgusting.

“…Gh, Lord Clun, permission to punish the sinner!”

Several of the knights surrounding Lazaar shuddered for some reason.

As if they were panicking over something.

“Yes, well, the hostage is unfortunate, I suppose.”

Clun smiled while stroking his chin. That frivolous smile was endlessly irritating and endlessly cold.

“Eek, L-Lord Clun…”

The knight realized he had been abandoned and let out a pathetic voice.

“Tch.”

This one will definitely do it. The hostage won’t work. Lazaar understood that and was about to kick the man away—

“Wait.”

The young female knight’s voice stopped the flow of the situation.

For the strong, the flow of the board was not something to ride, but something to create.

“…Gh.”

“Lady Stolu, this is troubling. We should not let a sinner chatter too freely. See, the citizens are watching too, you know.”

Clun exaggeratedly slapped his palm to his forehead and shook his head.

“I am interested, dis, Lizardonian-san. What were the gatekeepers doing?”

Ignoring that, Stolu asked Lazaar without changing expression.

“Ha! I suppose a knight wouldn’t know! Those people were forcing bribes under the name of compensation fees or handling charges on adventurers with weak strength and weak positions, and they exploited female adventurers who couldn’t pay by other means! You can find out with a little investigation. They all had obviously stupid faces, after all!”

Lazaar raised his voice.

The faces of the scum Tooyama had dealt with still remained clearly in his mind.

“Y-you! D-d-don’t say random nonsense! Lord Clun, permission to dispose of him!”

“Th-that’s right! Such further insult is u-unforgivable!”

Several knights became visibly agitated.

“Expanding Ego” brought that flash of insight to Lazaar.

What he would have noticed if he had been here, Lazaar was also able to notice.

“Hahaha! This is amusing, you small fries over there! Could it be that you were involved in their evil deeds too? You’re awfully talkative, and this one’s heartbeat just jumped loudly! You third-raters make me sick to hear the word justice!”

It was a bluff. There was no way he could hear a heartbeat through armor.

But those words, the poison born from his “tongue,” functioned properly in this place.

Just like Tooyama Naruhito, Lazaar manipulated words and challenged the world.

“Th-that’s nonsense! Lord Clun, he’s cornered, so he’s making things up!”

“Hmmm… Hmmm, well, I suppose so, but still. Lady Stolu, you can judge, can you not?”

That poison had properly spread through them.

“‘Justice.’”

Without words or confirmation—

The First Knight exercised her function. The question-and-answer of Justice could not be escaped, even by knights who served the Church.

“Ah, eek, this is—”

“The First Knight’s Justice…?!”

“‘Answer the question with yes or no. Are ye sinners?’”

“…I’ll tell you just in case, but lies don’t work against Stolu’s Justice. …Stolu, unfortunately, it seems what he says is true. ‘Death’ told me.”

“Eek, eek, eek… N-no! W-we told them not to!”

“Th-that’s right! W-who do you trust, us knights or that lizard?”

“‘If ye cannot answer, then ye are sinners.’”

“Eek.”

“B-gih!”

“Ah, ah?! U, ugh.”

The judgment of Justice fell equally.

The Hanging Sword hanged several of the Church Knights to death.

“…Oh my. This is unfortunate. To think people who were Church Knights truly engaged in misconduct.”

“…………I cannot tell which side is justice anymore, dis.”

“A-ah, ah, p-please save—!”

The man who had been Lazaar’s shield was also hanged and died.

Justice never let sinners escape.

“…Gh! What is this change of heart?”

“Do not misunderstand, Lizardonian. …My reason for existence is as the Church’s sword, the punishment of beings who oppose the angels’ teachings and justice. That does not change even if they are knights, dis. I merely fulfilled my role.”

“…Is that so? I wish you had shared even a little of that calmness with Naruhito.”

“…I merely execute my justice, dis.”

“Haha, is that so? Then I am the same.”

“Lady Stolu…”

“Yes, I know. This is my final warning, dis, Lizardonian. Even if they were sinners, it is a fact that you bared your fangs at the Church. If you behave quietly—”

“You damn octopi.”

Lazaar’s words interrupted Justice’s words.

It was not his usual gentlemanly tone, but one extremely similar to the manner of speech of his friend, his now-dead friend.

“Who would obey unpleasant justice like yours? I have decided. I have decided. I will never give up again. I will not yield anymore. I will take him back. I will definitely take his body with me.”

“Expanding Ego” did not perish even if the person himself died.

Because he was not complete, because he needed others, others in turn needed Tooyama Naruhito.

He would not die even if dead, would not die even if he died. It would be inherited and continue expanding.

“As my desires dictate—I will absolutely reach the place I seek.”

That way of being invaded people. That way of being distorted the world.

An ego resembling immortality. It was also similar to the way ■ existed.

“I place the covenant here.”

Lazaar—no, the “Great Tooth,” ancestor of the Lizardonians.

Those beings existed only in hidden history. One among them.

The function granted by the thing called a “Tooth” when it created the Lizardonians.

“…What is this?”

“H-hey, something, something is wrong. This is bad.”

The surviving knights, the pure knights who had not stained their hands with wrongdoing, trembled.

They, too, knew the pressure they felt from the sinner before their eyes.

The finest of the Church Knights, the endpoint, the “Ten Swords.” They were the polar existences prepared as countermeasures against higher beings, beginning with dragons.

From a sinner who should have been beneath notice, they sensed the same “pressure.”

“I am already gone, and ‘Light’ is gone as well. We, ended by the ‘Arm,’ ended by terrifying humans in a world brought to its end, nevertheless leave proof here. I leave my remaining proof here.”

Crack, crack.

Lazaar’s body began to change.

His skin began to melt, and his scales peeled away. His reptilian skeleton was exposed, like a bone dragon, bare teeth laid open.

“Oh? Well now. This is the first time I have seen it. Was it the Lizardonians’ feed, racial skill, ‘Vanguard of Teeth’?”

“A strong scent of death… I see. They share each individual death with the entire race and turn it into power. So this is the seriousness of the invasive species, Lizardonians…”

“A race close to dragons—no, beings that are dragon familiars, dis?”

“Floria, lend me your power. If you love me, then give me everything.”

Lazaar’s true power began here.

The ancestral power the entire race could use. Added to that was the power granted to Lazaar personally.

[…Hehe.]

The one smiling at him was the goddess of evil deeds, an angel’s familiar, named Floria.

She granted her blessing to the man who was endlessly pure, endlessly unlucky, and endlessly good-natured.

“Oops, this is bad. So he is both a feed user and possessed by a familiar. …What a shame to kill him.”

“…Unfortunately, he is far too dangerous.”

“…Fourth Knight Clun, Seventh Knight Cradea.”

““Yes, ma’am.””

“I confirm Church Law Article Eight: ‘use of armed force near the Angel Church Headquarters by one possessed by a familiar.’ Under the name of First Knight Stolu, I permit the release of all grave goods, all skills, all sacraments, and all combat power, dis.”

““As you command.””

[“Ah, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!! I will take him back! Do not touch Naruhito! To the lake, I will take him back!”]

The one protecting his friend’s remains was a fang from a foreign land, wearing the form of his ancestor and clad in shadow.

He had lost sight of the meaning of life and drifted into the Empire, but through meeting greed, he had found the meaning of living.

Even if his friend had died, even if he had disappeared, those memories would not disappear.

Friendship is not something nurtured by time. It is something nurtured by mutual hearts. Time has nothing to do with it.

Behold that grotesque form. Flesh, scales, and skin festered, and bone lay exposed. The expanding skeletal posture changed into four legs and grew larger and larger.

In the unreliable parts that were only bone, shadow flesh took shape. Behold that form—not quite a dragon, yet already far removed from ordinary life.

The Shadow Fang’s true power. Lizardonian, invasive species. The terrifying race that once destroyed seven nations during the Great War.

“[Ooooooh! Ooooooooh!]”

His roar was a requiem for his dead friend.

“E-eek…”

“A d-dragon. A dragon! A dragon appeared!”

“No way.”

The spectators watching from a distance vanished, scattering like baby spiders. Many of the Church Knights also lost their will to fight and fell on their backsides.

A bone dragon clad in shadow, a familiar of teeth, the Lizardonian dragon form, had appeared.

“Hehehe, hahaha. This is perfect. A fake dragon protecting the dragon slayer. Good. My interest has been stirred.”

“Knight Clun?”

“Do not interfere. That is my prey. Grave good, awaken. Pursue, Hound Sword.”

The beautiful man, Fourth Knight Clun, stepped forward. The slender sword in his hand had no blade, only a tip like a needle.

A rapier. In the Empire, this weapon had a strong aspect as an artwork for noble ceremony, and Clun gripped it.

“Hehe. You remember, do you not? My Hound Sword pierced your thin shadow and hunted you down endlessly. You and I are utterly incompatible.”

Indeed, if only Cradea had chased Lazaar, Lazaar likely would have escaped. The slashes of Clun’s grave good, the Hound Sword, pursued their target endlessly, endlessly.

Even into Lazaar’s shadow.

“A-ah, come, you filthy justice bastards!”

“Hahaha, this is good. Though it is a little inferior in rank, it is unmistakably the heroic tale of a dragon slayer! Ah, this is correct. I, a Church Knight, am the one worthy to stand beside dragons! I thank you, sinner, for rising into that role.”

Silver armor. An article blessed by the Church that corrected the wearer’s stats strengthened Clun’s body.

The rapier in his hand, the “Hound Sword,” also trembled with warrior excitement at the presence of great prey—

It rattled and trembled. The round handle shaped like a dog’s face on that grave good rattled.

With it still sheathed, Clun ran across the ground.

“Hound Sword, pierce the sinner’s flesh once again!”

“Ooooooooooooooh!!”

Mighty. The tooth dragon’s arm was swung roughly, and Clun faced it head-on. With his enhanced body and the slash of his grave good, he should be able to pierce the tooth dragon together with that arm—

Silence.

“…………Hmm?”

The Hound Sword was not drawn from its sheath. Rattle, rattle.

It was not warrior excitement. It was truly trembling.

Dogs are sensitive to hierarchy.

The Hound Sword was frightened. Not of the tooth dragon before it—

But of the presence of something far, far more horrifying.

The hierarchy between dogs had already been settled.

“Eh, no way, why? I can’t draw—ah.”

“Ooooooooooooooh.”

Boing.

The swung dragon bone arm easily blew Clun’s body away like a toy.

The silver-armored man bounced like a rubber ball, gouged the ground several times, then crashed into a street stall and did not get back up.

“Ooooooooooooooh! Ooooooooooooooh!”

“E-eek, n-no way! Lord Clun was defeated in one blow?!”

“H-help him! We have to help him!”

The knights ran toward Clun, who had been blown away like trash.

“…………Stolu, did you know that would happen when you allowed Clun to duel him?”

“Not at all. He and I do not coordinate well. I merely judged that a duel was the correct way to use him, dis. Now then, Cradea, shall we begin the real fight?”

Two knights who watched all that with calm faces, the knights of Justice and Death, stood there.

“Yes… At least let him suffer as little as possible.”

Shff.

Behind Cradea, the slender female knight, black and tattered knight armor appeared.

A skeleton. A skeleton wearing knight armor.

What it held in its hand was a large lance.

Reverently, as if offering it, that thing handed the lance to Cradea.

“Sacrament, Visitation: Familiar of Death, ‘Thirteenth Pale Spear.’”

A weapon condensing “death,” brought from a place not of this world.

A gift from the familiar that only Cradea, loved by death, could hold.

It was a conceptual weapon that, if the conditions were aligned, could even reach a dragon’s life.

It was pointed at Lazaar.

“For the justice I believe in.”

The light-blue-haired girl stepped forward as if shaking something off.

“Sacrament, Execution, ‘Justice.’”

A statue appeared from the girl’s back.

A distorted statue, as if many kinds of statues had been distorted and forcibly mixed together.

“There is no need to ask, dis. You are a sinner, dis.”

It was an unidentified something that could not be counted among familiars. A mass of the concept called “justice,” growing stronger the longer human society continued.

Born from the certainly correct feelings of each individual, it was, however, distorted by those same individual humans.

The destination of justice that lost its master was none other than malice called justice. Yet the girl was too young and too foolish to know that.

“I do not understand what is right. That is precisely why I choose to make the justice of ‘Justice,’ the justice of the Church, the correct thing that determines my way of being, dis.”

However, because she was foolish, the girl had not yet been swallowed by justice.

Ah, however, however. Because she was foolish, she did not notice. Thin cracks had begun to enter the statue of justice.

The wings spreading on its back had begun to tilt.

At the same time, she drew the slender sword at her waist, the Hanging Sword.

“Lizardonian, sinner. Do you have any last words?”

The Angel Church Knight Order’s greatest fighting force, the Ten Swords.

First Knight Stolu.

Seventh Knight Cradea.

The swords meant to oppose dragons faced the impossible tooth dragon.

That question—

“Drop dead, you octopi.”

Did not reach the tooth dragon.

He would take him with him. He would not hand him over. He would definitely take his friend’s remains to the scenery of his dream. Protecting his friend’s remains, the dragon spat upon the world.

Lizardonians never betray their kin.

“…In accordance with Church law, we will begin execution of the sentence.”

“Yes, Knight Stolu.”

Death, Justice, and Hanging were directed at the tooth dragon.

Ah.

The tooth dragon, Lazaar, understood.

He would die here, staking his life.

He knew he could not win. There was no way someone who could not reach a dragon could defeat those swords that could even reach dragons.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah?!”

The lance of death pierced the tooth dragon’s hollow eye socket.

Death swallowed the shadow.

“Gaba, kaba, kuhoooooooooooo?!”

A groan.

The Hanging Sword strangled the tooth dragon’s neck. Crack, crack. Its body of shadow and teeth, still unable to escape the structure of life, was certainly breaking.

The tooth dragon’s attacks did not land.

Sharp swords dismantled the enormous lesser dragon of bone, teeth, and shadow like a task.

Ah, he could not win. He could not win.

“Ooooooooooooooh.”

Even so, he roared. He roared.

Tooyama Naruhito had continued resisting the world. Then he would do the same.

Only the sight of the weapon gripped in the corpse’s hand made the tooth dragon grit his teeth.

“Even if dead, I will not die. Even if I die, I will not die. Even If Dead, I Will Not Die…”

“No. You will die, dis.”

First Knight Stolu slipped past one blow from the tooth dragon and leapt.

With one bound, she reached directly above the tooth dragon.

What she swung was a slender sword.

The punishment of justice, its incarnation.

“Grave good, court opens.”

The simultaneous use of Justice and Hanging. A talent only the First Knight could wield.

The full release of the function of that life, created to kill dragons.

“Hang him, Hanging Sword.”

“Damn… it…”

The shadow familiar, the being who loved Lazaar, rang an alarm with all its might.

Run, please.

The shadow that loved Lazaar pleaded. You cannot beat that. You cannot reach that.

As long as one was human, one could not resist justice and punishment. The familiar of evil deeds knew that.

And, ah—

“I will never let this be taken from me again!”

The tooth dragon, La-Zaar, “the one who rises again,” would never run away again. The familiar of evil deeds knew that too—

Everything would end.

The tooth dragon would now be sent to the otherworld of justice and punishment, and die there.

His existence would be hanged, played with by wicked justice, and killed.

The familiar of evil deeds knew that.

The story was being repainted into a heroic tale—

Awoooooo.

A somehow carefree, somehow joyful howl echoed through the world.

“—Huh?”

Crack.

It shattered. Not Lazaar.

The Hanging Sword. A grave good said to have been gifted by an angel to something.

That existence beyond the human realm, which should never have broken, shattered as easily as a lie.

“Huh?”

Everyone froze.

Awooooooooooooo.

The carefree howl still continued.

That voice, echoing from who knew where. Ah, that voice.

It was a battle cry. It was a voice seeing someone off. It was the voice of a beginning.

To allies, it brought—

“What is this? What a beautiful voice… What a reliable voice.”

Courage and hope.

To enemies, it brought—

“Eek, hih, n-no, what is this…? Ghostly? Otherworld? No, none of them. A world with no roundness, nowhere at all. What is sharp? What is this? No, nooooooooo?! Don’t look, don’t look at meeeee!! I’m not here. I’m nowhere! No, no, nooooo, h-help me, no, Stolu, help me—ah. It’s looking at me.”

“Cradea?! Why?!”

To enemies, it brought fear and madness.

Ah, no one knew.

Familiar, Church, dragon.

No one knew.

“Gh… Keh—”

Fwoosh, cough.

The corpse’s chest swelled greatly, and it breathed out.

The match had been decided.

Somewhere that was nowhere.

Within Justice’s otherworld, the match had been decided.

“Justice” had prostrated itself before the doggo.

It would go nowhere anymore.

“………………Huh?”

Stolu froze.

Before the tooth dragon, she froze upon seeing the thing that dragon protected.

“When I was a kid, I used to wonder this all the time.”

That thing was still gripping a weapon in its right hand.

Everyone froze and said nothing, while he alone began speaking in a carefree tone.

“What happens if a person sentenced to death doesn’t die from the execution?”

Scratch, scratch.

While scratching his head, he slowly stood up. Again and again, he took deep breaths in and out.

Gaping, the tooth dragon opened its mouth so wide it looked like its jaw would come off as it watched him.

“Will it be like the Sekitetsu Prefecture Death Row Revival Incident? Hihihi, I wonder what happens in this world.”

Crack, crack. He cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders as if restoring his body’s functions.

“What do you think, Lazaar?”

Awoooooo.

Once again, a howl echoed from somewhere.

As expected, that voice was clearly happy. It contained a tone as if something were boasting about something.

“…Like I know.”

“Huh? Lazaar, did you change your image or something? That looks cool on you.”

“…You damn fool. If you were alive, then wake up sooner, you damn fool…”

“Oh, my bad, my bad. Feels like I was having some kind of dream. A really nostalgic, slightly lonely dream.”

The two of them laughed.

The battered tooth dragon and the hanged man after execution.

The two were wounded all over, and yet they were still not dead.

Therefore, their adventure had not yet ended.

“…………I do not understand, dis.”

“I didn’t die. It’s not ‘execution in progress!’ but ‘execution complete!’ So what happens in this case?”

Tooyama Naruhito laughed, grinning carelessly to the end.

“…‘Justice.’”

Silence. Nothing appeared.

The shattered sword was now no different from scrap iron.

“Sorry. I don’t remember it well, but it’s that. Justice broke into pieces! Something like that. It’s two against one now. The small fries around us who’ve wet themselves probably won’t be opponents. They’re no match for Professor Lazaar.”

“Me, Naruhito?”

The two men laughed carefree.

The girl glared at them.

“My justice—”

“Justice is dead. I killed it.”

“Gh— I will follow the reason I was born, dis. The justice of the Church—no, I will destroy the enemies of the Church! I was born that way. I was desired that way! I live for that purpose, dis!”

“Then fight for that from the start. Justice, justice, repeating it like an idiot. You idiot. Ah, I got a big one.”

The girl screamed with tears gathered in her eyes.

The man around thirty picked his nose while listening to that desperate scream, muttering that blood had come out, then wiped it on his robe.

“I am not an idiot, dis!!!”

Even after losing all her weapons, the First Knight’s strong, created body surged into motion.

The greedy adventurer and the tooth dragon met her head-on.

The Church’s justice and the Church’s enemies.

It was now a fight to the death that no one could stop—

“Archbishop’s Order activated. Three years of lifespan used. Stop, First Sword.”

“—Eh?”

A carriage charged into the open-air market at tremendous speed.

It scattered street stalls, warped its wheels, and rampaged wildly.

Wham.

Stolu’s leaping body froze in defiance of physical laws and fell to the ground.

“Hmph.”

“Saint?!!”

“Take this.”

Bonk.

A black-clad nun shot out of the carriage like a cannonball and punched Stolu, who had fallen to the ground, in the head.

““Huh?””

Stolu did not move a twitch. Her face was embedded in the stone paving.

“Bishop-sama, I stopped the First Knight.”

“Haaah, haaah, cough! Y-you did well, Svi. Cough, cough. Ah, seriously, that shortened my life. Ah, right, it really did.”

Creak, thud.

The one who emerged from the carriage that had stopped while drifting was a narrow-eyed woman also dressed in black clerical clothing.

Her face was pale, and white hair that had slipped out from her cape sprang up with a little bounce.

Wobble, wobble.

Though staggering, the woman crawled out of the carriage and reached Tooyama and Lazaar.

Who is that?

Tooyama and Lazaar grew wary of the woman who had suddenly appeared—

“I am truly, seriously sorry for what happened this time! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, ah, no, I shouted too loudly… Ubo, nubu, obororororororororororororohhohohororohhorohorororororobooooooorororororororororo…”

She prostrated herself.

Then sparkles.

While prostrating herself, the woman scattered sparkling vomit.

““Uh…””

That was all Tooyama and Lazaar could say.