National-Level
A heart just a little larger than a man at a light jog.
And lying inside it, a scrawny-looking man.
"What the hell is this."
When Zehar said heart, he hadn't been speaking in metaphor. It was an actual heart?
And why was there a heart in a place like this to begin with…?
"Ugh… so you came all the way here to kill me after all…."
"Came to kill you? The moment Golden Fragrance took hold, you were already dead."
"Crazy bitch…."
I walked toward him at an unhurried pace as he spat curses.
"Somehow all those clones of yours were so tough. And this is what you really looked like?"
"Yeah, go on. Keep laughing…."
"Laughing? Please."
I clenched my fist tight.
The second I tried to wrench him free of the heart—
Tak—
"Lady Goldy. This heart… don't you need this?"
"Why?"
"I just have a feeling we shouldn't pull him out like that… My instincts are saying so."
"…Instincts?"
"How do I put it. It's almost like a jewel…."
Terra stepped in front of me.
A jewel-like feeling, huh… If it really was something in that family, Terra's senses would almost certainly be right.
When it came to processing gems, an Earth Dragon was more serious about it than I was.
"So then what do we do with this?"
"…Pathetic little lizards."
"You shut up before I just burn you as you are."
"If it's turning to gold anyway… once the conversion is complete and all vital activity stops, it should open on its own," Terra said.
At his claim that the heart itself was like one enormous jewel, I clicked my tongue.
Zehar had been certain this heart would work even against the Black Dragon….
His words were never something you could casually ignore. For all how frustrating he could be, he was the Sand Emperor Dragon—most of what he did carried weight.
"Still, I don't particularly feel like waiting around until then—"
A sharp prickle ran up my spine.
"Eek?! Lady Goldy?!"
"Get behind me!"
I hauled up what little courage I still had left and shoved Terra back.
"What's go—"
"Something's coming!"
A crushing presence. Something was closing on us at terrifying speed.
Three seconds.
In a span of time that short was almost nothing at all, the moment I got Terra behind me—
Tak!—
"Hmm?"
A woman with pink hair similar to Ansusa's swept into the chamber, scythe already in motion.
"What is this, what is this? Is everyone gathered here?"
"…?"
"Are you hostiles, maybe? Hunters who got dispatched too? Or Ark staff?"
For someone holding a scythe in a frankly threatening posture, the pink-haired woman spoke with almost bubbly cheer. There wasn't a shred of tension on her.
"Hmm~ What is that? Is that power the thing the Association uncle was talking about?"
"Wait… Association?"
"Yep! Everything's a total mess right now!"
The scythe twitched, just slightly. I didn't miss it. Bracing for a fight I hoped wouldn't come, I spoke.
"For the record, I'm a C-class hunter. I tracked the Ark's master here on a direct Association commission."
Terra was with me, and given the money currently in my hands, I really preferred to avoid any further fighting. I could win—but I couldn't guarantee Terra's safety one hundred percent.
"C-class?! You do not look like one!"
"So who are you, then?"
"Ehhh, you don't know me?"
"How would I—"
"National-Level! You don't know Sobyam?!"
Sobyam…?
Was that another one of those nickname things…?
More importantly—National-Level?
"I got emergency-dispatched because of the abnormal energy currents that kicked up here~ I never imagined there'd be an Ark, though!"
"Energy…?"
"Yep! That aura pouring off your body in droves!"
Ah. She meant the courage.
"Up top is going completely insane over it right now~"
She said it lightly, but her eyes raked over me as she spoke. There was a strangely cold edge under that look. I answered carefully.
"I'll pull the power back. Once this job is done."
"Job? What job? I'll help!"
"You see the guy inside this?"
"Hmm~ Night… something-or-other, right?"
"He's the master of the Ark. And I want this heart, so I was looking for a way to get him out of—"
Skeong!—
Before I could even finish the sentence, Sobyam swung her scythe from right beside me.
I didn't have time to stop her. The blade carved a clean arc straight through the heart.
Seureuk—
For a human, the physicals were absurd. She'd swung so fast even I flinched for a second.
"W-what are you doing! That heart belongs to Lady Goldy!"
And at the end of that scythe-stroke—
"Keh… hhk…."
—I saw Slayer, split cleanly down the middle.
"Hehehe. Traitors to humanity get purged! So? Did I look a little like a magical girl?"
She reached into the sundered heart, hauled Slayer out, and tossed him aside. Then—
Tak!—
—she planted the tip of her scythe in the floor.
I dropped into a combat stance on pure reflex, ready for anything—but—
"Ta-da!"
Sobyam threw her arms wide with a proud flourish, as if the mood of the room simply did not apply to her.
The heart began to knit itself shut. Slayer's body started stitching back together.
"Now you can take what you wanted, right?"
"Uh…."
"Then can you turn that energy off now? That's what I came for!"
At her words I clamped down on my courage—and Sobyam clapped her hands together with a sharp tak.
"Well? Well? Cool, right? Another day of justice served!"
Then she started talking to a chat window that suddenly floated up in midair.
Wait… she'd been streaming this whole time?
The Association people told me not to stream….
"Ooooh? What, is this unnie famous? People are recognizing her left and right? Goldy?"
"Ahaha…."
"Heeeeh, a dragon? That's so cool!"
Apparently there were people in chat who knew who I was.
She traded a few more lines with the chat window, then suddenly turned and waved at me.
"Mission complete again!~ Alright, I'm out!"
"Huh? Wait, hang on!"
"Hm? What? Oh! Want an autograph?"
"No, forget that… you're just leaving like this?"
"Heeeeh, you want to hang out with me more? Receiving a dragon's favor—Sobyam is moving up in the world!"
Her eyes sparkled as she beamed like an idiot.
"But~ I'm a busy woman!"
"No, that… what about this?"
"Hmm? Night? He's your commission target, right~ Do whatever you want, Scales Sis~"
"…Scales Sis?"
"My own little nickname for you! Okay, I'm really going now~"
With that she flipped the scythe onto her back, and—
Taaang!—
—vanished from my field of view as if she'd hit an acceleration skill.
"What… even was that…?"
"It felt like a storm just blew through, Lady Goldy…."
A thoroughly incomprehensible situation. The same flavor of absurd as the time a novice mage had barged into my lair declaring he was going to kill me.
Anyway. First things first.
Kwaak—
"Urgh?!"
I grabbed the head of the Slayer collapsed on the floor and hauled him up.
"What happened to all that swagger?"
"Damn it… you always—"
Pak!—
"This isn't working. Need to shut him up for a bit. Terra."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Figure out a way to move this thing. I'll handle this bastard."
"Understood."
Not exactly a scene for kids, so better to take care of him outside.
"Don't worry. I won't kill you that easily. Instead—"
I stepped out through the door and flung him onto the floor.
And then—
"I'll make sure you can't even die."
I accelerated Golden Fragrance.
Beep—
Twenty-seventh floor of the Association's Seoul branch.
Suppression Team 3's floor.
I stepped out of the elevator and found myself back there.
Eyes from every direction locked onto me. Well. Fair enough.
What I was carrying was pretty distinctive.
Creeeak—
"…You've arrived."
"'You've arrived'? Give me a break."
Kutang!—
I dumped Slayer's head onto Kim Sang-chul's desk.
He startled at the violence of it. Naturally. The man was still breathing.
I'd only cut the neck free from a body already sealed in Golden Fragrance.
From now on, this bastard couldn't even die without my say-so.
"No matter how I look at it, this is just too much."
I dropped the honorifics entirely and spoke in a voice thick with anger.
"Please, go ahead."
"Did you know the master of the Ark was a hunter?"
"That is…."
"What a well-oiled machine you people run, huh? Even a National-Level shows up."
"…That matter involved government-side pressure. We had no choice."
I looked down at Kim Sang-chul, so floored by the answer that I had to click my tongue.
"What a spectacle. What were you going to do if it hadn't been me? You handle a job like this and then say you had no choice?"
"…We'll compensate you."
"Spare me the compensation talk. Can you even give me what I actually want?"
As I said it, I pointed at Terra standing beside me.
"You see his horn? This bastard did that. How do you compensate for this? This happened because you people didn't give us proper intel."
"…I'm sorry."
Kim Sang-chul rose from his seat and bowed his head. The sight of it only made me more incredulous.
"Ha-eun talked me down, so I'll let it slide one more time. But if this kind of bullshit happens again, I'll start by tearing the Association itself apart. Got it? If she hadn't stopped me, I'd already have burned this place down."
The secretary hunter beside him flinched. The hostility in my voice had been crystal clear.
"Get your judgment straight. There's a limit to how much I'll put up with."
"…Understood."
"And the Ark—from now on, it falls under my jurisdiction."
"Pardon?"
"Looks like I'll have plenty of use for it. It was written in the contract, wasn't it? Byproducts obtained during a mission belong to me."
This time Kim Sang-chul's face went white with shock. He clearly wanted to ask how the hell that counted as a byproduct.
However.
"If you've got a problem, try and stop me."
I even pulled up a little mana. His mouth worked like he had a lot to say.
Then—
Beep-beep—
"…Understood. We'll do it that way."
After checking an email, he nodded. Apparently the Association had decided they couldn't stop me.
And once the Ark was under my jurisdiction, I planned to put Ansusa in charge of managing it and shut down every last scrap of human trafficking and the like. Skim a little of the money coming out of it, too.
A territory of my own, in other words.
Even in my previous world I'd never been greedy for land.
And now I had a domain for the first time.
Later on, maybe I'd just expand it big and found a whole country.
Hmm… the people around me might get a little too annoying about it, though.
"This Slayer or whatever—I'll deal with him myself. No objections?"
Beep-beep—
"Yes."
"Whatever compensation you're talking about, send it through Ha-eun. Point it toward fixing his horn."
Thud, thud—
With that I turned on my heel, got back into the elevator, and glanced at Terra's horn.
Every time I saw it, it just tore me up inside….
I needed to get this kid's horn fixed, and soon.
And also….
"Terra."
"Yes, Lady Goldy."
"Want to form a contract with me?"
"Yes, ma'am. Uh…? Y-yeeees?!"
It was about time I admitted it.
Terra, just like Ha-eun.
Was someone who had become a pretty precious bond to me.