Mist Gathers, Wind Blows, And The Dragon Comes, Blooming With A Spupupu Laugh

“Guh, suuu, suu, uuh.”

Sleeping breath.

In the kill zone filled with the stench of death, the master of the mist slept after exhausting all of his strength.

Whoosh. The mist began to clear. Wind blew. As if scooping away scum, it rose and carried off the mist gathered between the trees.

Whoooooooooooooosh.

An especially strong wind blew the mist away.

“………His charm reacted, so I came, but…… Now then, what should I do?”

There was a woman.

Riding the wind that carried off the mist and raced through the forest, the woman appeared on the spot without any warning.

She was the same as wind, the wind that crossed the world and moved the world. Wherever her mood and the blowing wind led, she would appear.

“To think I would meet you in a place like this. Dragon slayer…… Do you and I share some strange fate?”

The woman looked down at Tooyama, who was fast asleep.

Silver. Long hair reaching her waist, with one braid tied in.

She was a woman with silver hair that looked as if real silver had been melted and combed through it.

“Well, whatever. First……”

She narrowed her long, sharp eyes, which had silver irises mixed with green.

Her simple leather armor, however, was a one-of-a-kind item made from ancient-species materials. The cloak she wore was likewise woven from the materials of an ancient species she had harvested.

A supple body. Her perfected body had not a single unnecessary thing, yet from the leather armor stretched tightly over her chest, a feminine swelling was visible.

Her abdomen and waist, covered in a black inner layer, were so slender and beautiful one might mistake them for works of art. A perfect female body, to the point that any man would gladly throw away even his life if he could only grasp that waist.

“Yuto, Yuto Wetral? You can hear me, right? I came to help, though it seems that may no longer be necessary.”

The silver-haired woman moved her gaze from the sleeping Tooyama and spoke to the nearby charred corpse of a fallen giant snake.

Squish. Scrape, crack.

Part of the charred corpse swelled. Then it tore open with a peel.

“Puhah!! I’m dead! I seriously thought I was gonna die!”

A man crawled out from inside the snake’s belly. For someone who had come out of a monster’s stomach, he looked strangely clean.

Whirl, whirl, whirl. The decorations and hem of the man’s clothing fluttered. A whirlwind was wrapped around his body.

The charm she had given her beloved disciple had properly protected the adventurer’s body, even inside the monster’s stomach.

“Oh, you’re alive. Even if you were protected by my wind, to be eaten by a monster and still be safe…… Kuku, not bad.”

“Master…… Ah, so that’s what happened. Your wind activated, so……”

“That’s right. I was correct to make it so I would know immediately if anything happened to my cute disciple. It seems you properly kept the charm with you.”

“Haa…… Damn it. To you, I’m still treated like a kid, huh?”

“It’s fine, Yuto. Don’t worry about it. Even for a Tower-Class Adventurer, this monster, this ancient species, was too much to handle. That is all. Now then, I need to save your companions too.”

Fwooh.

The woman aligned her long fingers and held out her palm. Then she brought her lips to it and gently blew.

Pop, pop.

Several of the bellies of the burned and crumbling snake corpses burst open and split apart.

“Gweh.”

“U-Uuh……”

Wrapped in wind, two adventurers were pulled out from their bellies. River and Small. Yuto’s companions.

“Ah, Master. You seriously saved us. I did something bad to River and Small.”

“Kuku, even so, those two are sturdy. They’re breathing properly too.”

“……I see. Good. They’re alive.”

“Yuto, that’s not like you. I thought that when it came to surviving, you would not look inferior even compared to that Immortal……”

“Haha, no, seriously, I have no excuses. Master…… Wait, no way?! M-Master, is the one collapsed over there possibly the dragon slayer?!”

The man, the Tower-Class Adventurer Yuto Wetral, opened his eyes wide.

“An acquaintance of yours?”

“I met him at the market yesterday. The Guild’s reading that he might be related to the abnormality in this forest was way off, though. Besides, you were interested in him too, weren’t you?”

“Ah, well, yes. He knew something only I knew, so I only wanted to question him. A dragon got in the way, and it was left unresolved.”

“……Is that the kind of thing I shouldn’t ask about in detail, Master?”

“You picked up your life after all. Take good care of it, Yuto.”

“Ohh, that’s a serious one. ……Haa, this is rough. Hey, Master……”

“What is it?”

“The world is huge. After becoming a Tower-Class Adventurer, I thought I could do most things. I knew there were still people above me, but I still thought I was pretty close to the top. But…… haha, Tooyama Naruhito, seriously? ……He killed that monster alone?”

“……A mountain of monster corpses, and one wounded adventurer in the middle. Yuto, just as you said. It seems the dragon slayer took down a monster that had defeated a Tower-Class Adventurer and first-rank adventurers, all by himself.”

“Haha, amazing.”

“……Now then, I would like to sort out the situation, but what should I do? Yuto, how much do you remember?”

“……Honestly, I don’t know. But I feel like I was dreaming. There was a really pitiful girl, and I feel like I was comforting her the whole time. ……When I came to, the area was full of snakes, and then……”

“Go on.”

“……Mist. That’s right. Mist…… Mist appeared. Mist and laughter kidnapped the girl and took her somewhere……”

Still sitting there, the man absentmindedly groped for words. He still seemed half-dreaming.

“Heeh, I see. Okay, I can mostly see it. Most likely, you were under the influence of a skill or Sacrament that resonates with the mind of that ancient species. Kuku, not bad, monster. It seems you knew well how to kill humans.”

“Sorry, Master. My head is still foggy. ……It’s pathetic.”

“No, that’s enough. I more or less understand the situation. That much from you is fine.”

“No, with just that, the situation doesn’t—”

“I’ll ask the wind about the rest.”

That was a function originally possessed by that living being. Not human, not monster, an existence that was not human.

A defiant people, and even among her people, a special existence that had appeared only a handful of times throughout their history.

“Cross.”

It was neither talent nor a gift from angels, but a unique function in this world.

“Wind.”

She was an existence who governed wind. All the wind that blew and spread throughout this world was connected to her.

An organic being directly linked to the planetary phenomenon itself.

“Gather.”

The Magic Academy, which transformed the continent itself into a weapon; the Hundred Leaves Nation, a great plant kingdom whose king was a talking beanstalk piercing the heavens; the country of Hunters, who made even dragons their prey; and the old country that befriended the dragons opposing it and conquered them.

“Wind.”

An age of the Great War, a hellscape where absurd powers destroyed one another, a war whose beginning no one even knew anymore.

“Breath, blow.”

The Hero Party Archer, Wenfilbarna, was one of those who ended it.

Wind blew. It gathered, and the winds crossing the forest converged toward Wenfilbarna.

Wind crossed the world. Therefore, wind saw and knew everything.

What had happened in this forest. How one unfortunate woman had reached the end of her strength. How a cornered monster and that woman’s special blood had joined together, and how she had been reborn as an ancient monster.

Wind knew everything, and it properly conveyed that to the master of wind.

Wenfilbarna’s silver hair swayed in the wind. Her silver eyes began shining white. The wind blowing toward her then gradually faded away.

“…………………Heeh.”

Her eyes widened.

The wind stopped.

For a while, Wenfilbarna did not move a twitch. Only the wind danced. She alone did not move.

“Master?”

Yuto called out to her. Only then did Wenfilbarna finally react.

Wenfilbarna’s silver eyes. That radiance, which could surely captivate the human heart more than any jewel in the world, swirled round and round in her eyes.

“………What is this? Ku, kukukuku, what is this?”

Her white skin. Her cheeks turned red. The silver in her eyes wavered. She was plainly excited.

“Haha, hahahahahahaha!!”

Mixed with the wind was silvery-white laughter. Beauty like a natural jewel twisted into laughter.

“Preservation, ‘preservation of souls’?! Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, that has to be a lie, right? Ku, kukukukuku, ah, what, what a thing…… Kuku, truly, life, life, life, life, this thing called living is……”

She covered her face with both hands and began staggering. With steps like someone intoxicated by something, she approached the sleeping Tooyama.

“……Dragon slayer, dragon slayer. I see, soul collection…… preservation…… Relic Blade…… preservation, command, and control…… Hahahaha, that, that, that, that, that, that, you see……”

Wenfilbarna had seen everything the wind had conveyed about what happened in this forest, the evolution of one man that the wind had watched, and that power.

She had seen that power, the power that killed even dragons and preserved everything within the mist.

“Dragon slayer, that time and this time too. What are you?”

Dropping to all fours on the ground, Wenfilbarna peered into Tooyama Naruhito’s sleeping face.

“What a thing. Ah, what a thing this is. Kuku, this is not merely Soul Devouring. The power to preserve souls. What, what is that?”

It was now an old story. A story no one knew had ended. Wenfilbarna was a person from that story, an existence who had survived even after it ended.

“M-Master?”

Yuto directed a confused voice toward the woman whose state was clearly strange.

“Yuto, sorry, but something urgent has come up. You can go back alone, right? Take your companions over there with you too. This forest is still a monster habitat.”

She answered the call of the man she had just rescued. She did not even turn around.

“N-No, that’s fine, but what suddenly happened?”

“……I will take him back. He is the one who resolved the forest abnormality that even the Guild struggled with. I’ll deliver him properly.”

She smiled. This time, Wenfilbarna turned back and smiled at Yuto.

—Yuto’s face twisted. Shock, disappointment.

The skill of the Tower-Class Adventurer Yuto Wetral had exposed the true nature of that smile.

“……Master.”

Then Yuto slowly stood up.

“Hm? Ah, I see. Your skill was the talent to see through lies, wasn’t it? Kukuku, Yuto, stop. Let this pass. It’s not as if he and you are especially connected, right?”

“Master, that’s not good. That’s not a good face. That’s the face of a beast. Let’s not do that kind of thing.”

Silently, without a sound.

The Tower-Class Adventurer Yuto Wetral drew a large blade, a machete, from his waist. At the same time, in his left hand, he held a small one-handed crossbow that had been equipped at his waist.

“That was a lie. You lied. The idea that you’ll safely take that man back to the Guild is a lie. Master, why tell that kind of lie? What are you planning to do to him?”

In a combat stance, with sharp eyes, Yuto took aim at Wenfilbarna.

“……Don’t do it, Yuto. It’s not like you and he are friends or anything, right?”

Wenfilbarna kept her face lowered and her back exposed to Yuto, never turning around.

“Tch, I was raised well. Repay hatred with hatred, and repay debt with debt. I owe the dragon slayer. I owe him for properly cleaning up our mess. In a business like adventuring, if we don’t draw that line, we’re no different from monsters, aren’t we?”

“Heeh? Well said, Yuto.”

“Master, leave that man behind. He’s my and my companions’ benefactor. Staking the name of a Tower-Class Adventurer, I won’t let anything unnecessary happen to the guy who completed our job.”

“Stop it, Yuto. I honestly like you quite a lot. But right now, I’m not calm. ……I searched for several hundred years, couldn’t find it, and told myself I had given up. That existence is right in front of me.”

It was a pleading voice. Still with her back turned to Yuto, Wenfilbarna let those words spill out as her shoulders trembled.

But her gaze remained fixed on the sleeping Tooyama.

“I don’t care. Master, I love and respect you. But the current you can’t be trusted. My rules as an adventurer don’t include leaving debts and favors alone and pretending not to see them.”

“Yuto, that debt you’re talking about, is it heavier than your life?”

The wind stopped.

Yuto stared at Wenfilbarna.

Wenfilbarna simply stared at Tooyama.

“That’s what being an adventurer is.”

Their gazes never crossed. The conclusion was reached.

“……Yuto, how many years has it been since I met you?”

“………Twelve years. When I was a kid, I was kidnapped by bandits and was about to be sold to perverts. I’ve never forgotten the day you came for me.”

“Mm, nostalgic. ……No, it’s too soon. Truly. You were so small and weak, but in the blink of an eye, you grew so splendidly. Kuku, I’m proud of you, Yuto.”

“You’re the one who taught that small and weak kid how to live. I owe you too, you know. Hey, Master, seriously, what happened to you? You’re not the kind of person who makes that face.”

“Kuku, it means what you knew was only one side of the existence called me. I see, twelve years.”

Wenfilbarna turned around. She continued staring at Yuto for a while.

“That is a thin amount of time.”

She cut it away. Desire was a terrifying thing. Wenfilbarna had long since forgotten. She had originally come here to save Yuto.

However, in the end, Wenfilbarna did not choose Yuto Wetral. She had found something inside Tooyama Naruhito that took priority.

That was all there was to it.

“?! Wenfilbarna!!”

“I truly regret this, Yuto. Ah, I’m sure I will regret you. But, but right now, I really am not calm.”

Strong, howling, roaring.

Wind twisted and gathered. Without obeying any law, wind appeared in the world.

It possessed overwhelming mass and gathered above Yuto’s head.

As if being sucked into it, the forest scattered leaves, its roots creaked, and it screamed.

“—Wind, turn and circle.”

Tower-Class Adventurer against Tower-Class Adventurer. Their rank was the same, and yet their grade as living beings was hopelessly different.

The violence of a hero of the Great War told in legends, a figure from fairy tales, was turned toward an adventurer.

“Mm, how should I put it? You and I have overlapping speech patterns, don’t we?”

The wind was twisted away. The wind that had been about to blow down toward Yuto instead fell in a completely wrong direction and literally blasted the trees away.

“?!”

“—This scent of wind…… Ah, again. Between you and the Hoarding Dragon, you people always interrupt at the best moment.”

Wenfilbarna’s expression vanished. Like a beast facing an outside enemy.

“Spupupu.”

An outside enemy.

The Great War, a hero of an old age, Wenfilbarna. A legendary living being who governed the concept of all wind in this world.

Only a very small number of beings would be recognized as an outside enemy by such a being.

A human, a transcendent who had surpassed the frame of life, or a familiar that had been outside the world’s framework from the beginning.

Or else, a higher being on this star—

“W-Who are you?”

“Spupupu. I’m just a passing super-smart dragon, Tower-Class Adventurer-san.”

There was a woman. The woman laughed. A woman who appeared from somewhere in the forest.

Leather boots, a dark brown sweater, a long black skirt, and silver hair reaching her waist fluttering behind her.

With skin whiter than fresh snow, she praised a somewhat sickly beauty.

A hardcore fan who had continued watching her favorite fight a monster with his life on the line through a magical formula she herself had woven, all while dripping nosebleed, ignored space, distance, and all such things.

She came on foot.

The Dragon of Human Knowledge had arrived.

“—Huh?”

Legend and dragon.

Both possessed beautiful silver hair.

The silver-haired, black-clothed woman who had appeared between the trees as if she had been there from the beginning. With her appearance, it was as if night had come only around her, with moonlight shining down.

“Adventurer-kun, you undoubtedly made the correct choice. Well done for trying to protect him. The fact that you are alive now is simply the result of that choice.”

“Ah, yes, thank you.”

Yuto, disarmed of hostility, no, understanding by instinct that he must not argue with her, fell silent.

The black-clothed, silver-haired woman nodded in satisfaction at that.

“……Your impression is quite different from several hundred years ago. But that horrifying scent of wind has not changed, All-Knowing Dragon.”

“Ah, wrong, wrong. Archer-san, my current name is not All-Knowing Dragon.”

The beautiful dragon shook her head, her long silver hair swaying. Eyes darker than darkness itself, black enough to swallow even light, stared wetly at Wenfilbarna.

“Dragon of Human Knowledge. Could you call me that for now? And so, you.”

The silver-haired woman pointed at the silver-haired woman.

A higher being pointed at an ancient living being.

“What is it, old dragon?”

Silver and silver.

They faced each other.

The eyes of the black-silver woman blooming with a spupupu laugh, however, were not laughing at all.

“You’re too close to Tooyama-kun, my favorite. Could you move away before your female stink rubs off on him?”

Mist gathered, wind blew, and the stalker dragon came.