Main Quest Tossed Aside Play

“Hmm? What is wrong, lizard? Show me that sharp intuition you displayed earlier, or did this one’s words displease you?”

The armored bastard chuckled in his throat and toyed with the lizard slave.

Before Tooyama realized it, a ↓ had appeared in his vision again. It was pointing at the lizard-man, as if to say this was the target.

“Y-you mean… kill each other…”

“I will not say it twice. Surely you do not mean to claim you did not hear this one’s words. Ah, I see, I see. You want to see the reward first, is that it?! Kaka! Lizard, you are quite shrewd!”

The armored bastard laughed as he took something from his coat and showed it off to them.

“Is that, don’t tell me…”

Tooyama had no idea what it was, but the lizard-man seemed to understand.

“It is a ‘Church Return Seal.’ A piece made by mixing this one’s claw with the blood of the female pope. Kaka! Just possessing this will immediately free you from slavery, allow you to survive this Tower, and even make it possible to take up a job in the adventure city, my city. Truly, for your current selves, it is something you would desperately want, is it not?”

The armored bastard dangled it back and forth while chuckling in his throat.

“You two shall kill each other, and I shall give it to the survivor.”

“A-a Church… If I had that, even I…”

“Lizard-san? What’s that?”

“……………………”

The lizard-man did not answer. He had somehow answered all sorts of things until now, yet this time, he stared with bloodshot eyes at the small seal the armored bastard had thrown.

“Kuku, and also, here, lizard. That slave over there is rather skilled. A handicap. Use it.”

“! This is…”

“Feel honored. It is this one’s knife. A blade made by mixing diamond with the dragonbone of my grandfather, the ‘Flame Dragon,’ and a handle carved from the Genesis Tree in the Kingdom’s ‘Sea of Trees.’ It is a piece valuable enough to let seven generations live in leisure.”

The thing tossed lightly spun around and stabbed into the ground.

It was astonishingly transparent and beautiful.

“…A dragon knife…”

“Kuku, kukuku. Now then, dance for me, amuse me, slaves. Kill, fight, or else you will not survive.”

“…I can go back?”

The lizard-man began to stagger forward. He picked up the unsheathed knife that had been thrown at his feet.

The dangerous light held in that blade, and the same murderous intent, dwelled in the lizard-man’s eyes.

Tooyama silently stared at him.

The lizard-man’s eyes, vertically slit in the way particular to reptiles, shook greatly, and Tooyama Naruhito’s chestnut eyes were reflected in them.

“…………”

“………………”

At this stage, Tooyama had begun thinking a little. Perhaps this was not a dream after all.

The silence conveyed the lizard-man’s violent emotion, and that somehow did not feel like a dream.

…I don’t want to kill him.

He looked at the vertically slit pupils beside him, gripping the knife and staring at him.

—It was bread I made.

—I thought someone might get hungry.

He was a good guy. Without a doubt. No one who tried to fill someone’s empty stomach could be a bad guy.

That was why he had helped him.

He had not wanted to leave the lizard-man trampled underfoot by those so-called adventurers. That was unmistakably Tooyama Naruhito’s own desire, which he prioritized above all else.

“What is wrong? Hurry and begin. Ah, if neither of you does anything, I will kill both of you, so I believe it would be wise to choose the option that gives you a chance of survival.”

The armored bastard’s words were poison. They bound people hand and foot with both fear and reward.

In truth, Tooyama Naruhito’s preparations were already complete. It had taken time, but thanks to the armored bastard’s long speech, it was enough now.

If he felt like it, all the preparations to dispose of every enemy at this very moment were complete.

But, fairly seriously,

“…I’ve decided, Hoarding Dragon-dono.”

The lizard-man stood up. He held the knife in his hand, and in his eyes burned the dark light particular to those who had made their resolve.

Ahh, I hate this.

Tooyama nearly sighed.

He followed the destination of that knife with his eyes. The gentle taste of brown bread similar to rye still remained on his tongue.

Clang.

“Huh?”

“…………Oh?”

Tooyama let out a voice.

The armored bastard murmured.

The lizard-man glanced for an instant at the knife he had readied, then tossed it aside as if throwing away trash.

“Oh, oh, oh-ho, I see. You made a foolish choice, lizard. You—”

The armored bastard’s voice lowered slightly—

“—I had wanted to build a shop by the shore of a lake.”

The lizard-man muttered.

Those words, those words, were very similar to the desire of a certain man.

A shiver ran through him. Tooyama opened his eyes wide, following the numbness that ran through his body.

The lizard-man stared at Tooyama. His smile seemed resigned, and it was a gentle expression.

“A shop just for myself. There, in the morning, a faint mist would rise over the surface of the lake, and only the smoke rising from my shop’s chimney would be reflected on that lake.”

“It would not need to be a large shop. Trusted friends would come to help now and then, and a small number of customers who favored me would come just after the shop opened in the morning. Once the sun rose, they would eat my bread there, with the lake view spread out before them.”

“…That was my dream. It was… my dream.”

Tears had gathered in the lizard-man’s eyes. Were they from fear, or tears overflowing from some other emotion?

“…But I was wrong. Hehe, it was nothing complicated. My dream came true today, Dragon-dono.”

The lizard-man clenched his trembling hand, a scaled hand with webbed fingers.

“…It was the first time. The bread I made, as a Lizardonian—far from finding it disgusting, he accepted it like it was nothing and ate it. And then, hehehe, and then, he said it. He said it to me.”

His body was trembling. Even so, the lizard-man faced forward.

He looked straight at the armored bastard, at the dragon.

“He said it was delicious, Dragon-dono.”

Thud. The lizard-man sat down on the spot.

He stared at his trembling hands, shed tears, and crouched down.

“I… I don’t want to die. But, hehe, it came true. I ended up satisfied…”

“I am ashamed and pathetic for having even thought for a moment of killing him and surviving… I don’t care what happens to me. There is someone who said my bread was delicious. Ahh, our great and mighty ‘Fang,’ I give thanks for this guidance…”

It was a prayer directed at something. The lizard took a deep breath.

“He is a good man. A good man who got angry for the sake of bread made by a filthy Lizardonian thief, bread that was treated poorly…”

After saying that, the lizard-man remained seated and looked down. After that, he did not move anymore.

“…How truly, truly boring, lizard. To willingly let go of that thirst for life possessed by you mortals, something we ‘higher species’ sometimes envy… Truly boring. Hey, black-haired slave.”

The voice was low enough to chill the bones. Even through the helmet, with the muffled voice impossible to tell as male or female, it conveyed that the speaker was in an extremely bad mood.

The armored bastard’s hand turned toward Tooyama. There was a light sound of air being scratched, whoosh.

“…This is…”

Tooyama caught what had been thrown.

“A Return Seal. Hold it in your hand and chant your own name. It is an item only ‘Tower-Class Adventurers’ are permitted to possess, but if you are a creature of this world, you should be able to use it without issue. …Hmph, dragons do not break promises, but this amusement has become far more boring than expected.”

Clank. The armored bastard shouldered the great spear and sighed.

“Hmm, a name, huh… Gold-plated armor, what are you going to do with this lizard-san after this?”

“That is obvious. He threw away that chance himself. Dragons keep their promises. Of the two of you, one will certainly be killed. That was the promise, was it not?”

“Hahaha, I see. Keeping promises, huh. That’s definitely important, yeah.”

Pat, pat.

Tooyama toyed with the claw-designed seal that fit in his palm. He flicked it with his thumb and caught it in his palm. Again and again, as if playing with a toy.

“…Slave, it seems you do not understand its value. …Hurry up and leave. It is a boring conclusion, but that lizard’s death will keep you alive. Like a mortal, clutch it tightly and from today onward, a new tomorrow—”

“Hihihihihihi.”

The explorer’s laughter interrupted the armor’s words.

“…Am I mistaken? Did you just laugh at the words of this one, the ‘Hoarding Dragon’?”

Fury.

He felt the surrounding air distort. It was more pressure than when he had stood before Contact-Permission Monster Species No. 87, the “Grassland Great Ground Spider,” that monstrous spider the size of a house.

Even so, Tooyama ignored it.

“Lizard-san, raise your face.”

“…What is it? Even this is the best I can do. Please, stranger, go while my tiny pride is still suppressing my fear of death. I might end up getting some strange idea again.”

“Well, don’t say that. Come to think of it, I never asked your name. Lizard-san wouldn’t make for a very good ending, would it?”

The ↓ still pointed at the lizard-man.

It was an order to Tooyama Naruhito indicated by something, a guidepost for Tooyama Naruhito.

Tooyama looked at it and snorted.

“…Lazaar.”

Still looking down, the lizard-man—Lazaar—muttered his own name.

“I have no surname. I am just Lazaar. A filthy Lizardonian, and a cursed thief, Lazaar, traveler-san.”

“Naruhito, Lazaar.”

“Huh?”

“My name is Naruhito. My surname is Tooyama. I’m an explorer whose head got a little happy from dungeon drunkenness. Come on, give me your hand.”

Who the hell would obey? Stupid message.

Lazaar raised his face with a “huh?” Tooyama tossed it lightly toward him.

The “Return Seal” was tossed with the casual ease of handing gum to a friend.

Lazaar reflexively caught it.

—If he touched it and chanted his name—

“Lazaar.”

Tooyama chanted his name.

“…Huh?! Y-you?!”

The seal activated the function it was set with. In a state where it touched Lazaar’s body, his name had been conveyed.

Instantly, a light of return shone, enveloping the lizard-man, Lazaar.

“I don’t hate it. I don’t hate that kind of thing.”

Tooyama drew a desire inside that amusing head of his.

He had found one person necessary for the house he would build by the shore of a lake.

“I’ve started wanting to talk with you. Our musicality matches. That dream of yours is very compatible with my desire.”

“Shut up.”

He ignored all of them. He reached out toward the ↓, the arrow, floating above Lazaar’s head.

“Huh?”

Lazaar’s eyes widened, and Tooyama drew back the thing he had grabbed tightly.

“You belong over there.”

He grabbed the ↓ firmly and threw it away.

There was only one direction. Who was the only being here who truly deserved to die?

Tooyama threw the ↓ toward the armored bastard.

“You… Naruhito?!”

“I’ll see you again soon, Lazaar. I’ve got something good to talk about. Business. A story about your dream and my desire.”

He pointed his index finger toward Lazaar as he vanished enveloped in light.

“Wait—”

Whoosh.

The law of return was fulfilled. The Lizardonian, a lifeform of this world, was safely expelled from the Tower.

“Yeah, stupid arrow. That’s how it should’ve been from the start. What you should be pointing at. The piece of crap who should die here.”

Tooyama turned around and looked ahead.

He clearly fixed his gaze on the new target indicated by the arrow, the ↓.

“There’s only one irritating bastard here that I should kill.”

A message appeared, a message told only to Tooyama Naruhito.

“…Unpleasant, slave.”

The arrow, the thing indicating the target, pointed at the armored bastard.

“Don’t rush. I’m about to make you feel even more unpleasant. According to my desires.”

Now, Tooyama Naruhito did not have even the slightest dissatisfaction with the arrow.