Chapter 342
Chapter 342
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 342
Chapter Title: Side Story 26. Blue Spring to You (8)
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“Suspicious. What business could those two have dragging each other to a dark corner like this?”
Sechika muttered, eyes narrowed into a fierce glare.
She had slipped away from the group and was prowling through Adren's sewers.
Unable to shake her suspicions in the end, she had set out to tail them.
The sewers were dim and foreboding—perfect for a clandestine meeting.
The mana detection ability passed down from Asel revealed Lanse and Naro's trails as faint bluish footprints.
'No way. It can't be. We've known each other so long... Honestly, my looks are better anyway, right?'
Sechika desperately tried to convince herself.
But as time dragged on, the theory that Lanse was stepping out grew ever more convincing.
They weren't officially an item, but that hardly mattered.
Lanse's tastes in women were as steadfast as his honest nature, and the flame-like transfer student fit them to perfection.
She rounded the corner and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Phew...”
No one there.
It was ironic.
She was dying to know where Lanse and Naro had gone, yet at the same time, she dreaded turning the corner to catch them in some intimate act.
A kiss against the wall or whatever.
If she saw that...
'Please don't. I like you both, you know.'
Sechika bit her nails.
She didn't even want to imagine it.
With her mild temperament, she was the affectionate type at heart.
Lanse went without saying, but Naro—after just one day hanging out—she knew he was a good kid.
It was the moment she turned the next corner, barely holding her nerves together.
“Eek!”
“Ugh.”
She collided with something and fell flat on her butt.
Looking up, Sechika gasped.
There stood Lanse, the one she'd been desperately searching for.
“L-Lanse!?”
“Sechika...? What are you doing in a place like this...”
“That's what I want to know... But what happened to you?”
Sechika blurted in bewilderment.
Lanse looked awful at a glance.
His face was deathly pale, and he leaned on his sword like a cane, as if he'd just come to after passing out.
She scrambled over and grabbed his face with both hands.
“Who beat you up? And where's Naro? That stray cat after all...!”
“It's not like that... Urp.”
Lanse shook his head and dry-heaved.
He had blacked out after Naviroje's blow and only woken minutes ago.
His guts felt like they were tap-dancing inside him.
“Sechika... Go call for help. Naro's in danger.”
“W-what? Why Naro?”
“Villains planting a bomb in the Flame Palace... Urp. He went alone to stop them, no word yet—something's wrong.”
“No way...! What about you?”
“Gotta help him... Sorry for knocking you down. Hurry, get people.”
With that, Lanse staggered onward.
Sechika stared blankly at his retreating back.
Bomb terrorism out of nowhere?
Was he messing with her right now?
“That idiot...!”
It was suddenly too much to process.
But Lanse's grim expression suggested no joke.
He wasn't the type for pranks like that anyway.
Her quick mind raced to a decision.
She irritably tousled her hair and cast two spells at once.
Then yelled at the fool strutting ahead alone.
“Hey! Lanse!”
****
She had never intended to absorb all of Navardoje's power.
It would have been as mad as trying to contain a bonfire in a twig basket.
Her plan was to reclaim just her peak strength and leave the Flame Palace.
Having suffered two humiliating defeats from complacency, she prided herself on utmost caution.
【Kughhh! Kraaak!】
So why was she in this mess?
Absorption continued, but her body refused to regenerate.
Gargaren, struck by Naviroje's lethal slash and plummeting, roared in torment.
【This can't happen—no, it can't! I am of the fire dragon clan!!】
The serpent coiling his body had vanished, but his flesh kept crumbling away.
His three vital points—horns, heart, reverse scale—destroyed in one strike.
He was less dragon now, more living flame.
Gargaren's writhing agony evoked a sandcastle dissolving in the waves.
“Vanish already... You've lost.”
Naviroje silently evaded attacks.
Exhausted, with no reason to fight further.
Gargaren's revival was impossible.
The blade that melted on impact bore Ronan's blood, fused to it.
'Now, if he just returns alive.'
But she couldn't let her guard down yet.
Transcending limits in crisis was thrilling, but worthless without safe return.
It had to still be there.
Her scanning gaze halted.
'Found it.'
A crack lingered in one corner of the barrier.
Remnant from her entry.
But it was slowly sealing.
Still wide enough.
As she shifted with Gargaren slung over her back.
【Kraaak! Where do you think you're fleeing, wretch!】
A roar thundered from behind.
A colossal wall of flame erupted before her eyes.
Dark crimson inferno boiling sky-high to the Flame Palace ceiling.
Turning, she saw Gargaren—body aflame save his head.
【I curse you, mortal! Even if it costs everything, I'll obliterate you and this Flame Palace!!】
“Pointless struggle.”
【My kin will scream it to the world! The Flame Palace fell to human hands! The crawling vermin will cower in draconic fury once more!】
Gargaren bellowed.
Before Naviroje could reply.
Even his head ignited, body morphing into a massive fireball.
Kwaaaaaa—!
Ambient air vortexed, drawn to the orb.
“Tch.”
Naviroje clicked her tongue.
Like a star on the verge of birth.
Gargaren meant to sacrifice his last dregs of life for cataclysmic blast.
Mana vast enough to raze the palace.
“Don't make me laugh.”
She whirled without pause.
Dragon ties aside, the explosion imperiled Adren's sightseeing students.
Her strained heart thundered.
“Huuuup...!”
Body's mana converged.
Eyes flared wide; darkness engulfed all.
Kwaaaang!
A colossal serpent erupted from the floor, devouring the orb.
-Shaaaa!
【That technique again...!】
Gargaren snarled.
Absorption halted briefly; flames guttered.
But no dramatic turnaround.
A mocking voice seeped from the serpent's gut.
【Futile! How long can you last, wench!】
“Kuuugh...”
【Tuck tail and run! Watch your treasures burn with your own eyes!】
Naviroje clenched her teeth.
Hated admitting it, but the lizard was right.
Top-ten powerhouse or not, a direct hit from a Red Dragon—Fire Dragon clan no less—was no trifle.
Her scorching skin attested.
Even mana meant for heat resistance diverted.
Choice time.
Maintain Mansah and mutual destruction with Gargaren, or release and flee for survival.
Naviroje laughed.
“Ha.”
Not worth agonizing.
She gripped the hilt tighter.
“Together now, lizard.”
【Fool...!】
Gargaren faltered.
Naviroje ignored searing agony, focusing solely on sustaining Mansah.
'This the end? Finally cheat death by age, yet such fate.'
Hollow, but no regrets.
Protecting pupils was a teacher's duty. Sacrificing herself for the young shoots? A wish fulfilled.
Her palm fused to the hilt.
Life's fragments flashed by.
War's acrid smoke.
Parents bereft of child, children of parents—wails.
Blade's icy bite.
Coins traded for heads, beer's bitter tang.
Bloody youth, gone forever.
Rinsing crimson memories: her Phileon disciples.
'Fun while it lasted.'
Phileon years were treasures.
They redeemed her void life.
As she taught swordplay, they taught joy in living.
Ronan, Adeshan, Schlieffen.
And the talentless, foul-mouthed idiot disciples.
Last surfaced the airship memory.
Recalling Sechika's words, Naviroje's lips curved.
“Friends.”
Pleasing echo.
Perhaps no accident, returning to this age.
Montage ended; time resumed.
The fireball brightened, explosion imminent.
'Dispel impossible, huh.
Still, Mansah dulls the shock.'
As resolved Naviroje mustered final strength.
A youthful voice rang from behind.
“Good heavens! Naro!”
“...What?”
Familiar timbre.
Turning, Naviroje's eyes bulged.
Beyond the barrier, Lanse and Sechika raced toward her.
Their bodies floated via Sechika's telekinesis.
“W-what's going on? You okay?!”
“That's the bomb...! Get out now!”
Sechika cried in horror.
Lanse gesticulated frantically.
Naviroje's face twisted savagely.
Composed amid melting flesh, now enraged.
“What are you doing here! Get out!!”
“No way. Leave you behind? Impossible.”
“You fools... Ugh!”
Why were they here?
As she reared to yell again, blood spewed.
Her body gave out.
Focus shattered; Mansah dissolved.
【Held out well, but curtains. Perish!】
Gargaren cackled madly.
The unveiled fireball roared fiercer.
Power halved by Mansah, yet ample to gut the palace interior.
As despair shadowed Naviroje's face.
“Haaap!”
Lanse vaulted forward, sword flashing.
White line scored the barrier; the mending crack collapsed.
A hole sized for one emerged.
No hesitation—he plunged into the blaze, seizing Naviroje.
“You...!”
Naviroje's eyes widened.
Lanse's garb ignited.
Skin blistering visibly, yet he grinned undaunted.
“Kughhh... Incredible. How'd you hold out here?”
“Idiot! Shut up and get out!”
“Planned to! Sechika!”
Clutching Naviroje, Lanse glanced back and bellowed.
Sechika flung up both arms.
Asel's premier spell triggered with incantation.
“Got it! Invisible Hand!”
Their bodies yanked rearward.
The instant they slipped through the fissure.
Kwaaaaaang—!!
The climax fireball detonated in blinding flash.