Chapter 130
Chapter 130
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 130
Chapter Title: Suspicious Movements (5)
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7
Laura was, to put it bluntly, someone who had lived her whole life without getting her hands dirty. Though born as a product of magical experimentation, after inheriting the Aunsor name, she had been treated like royalty. Aside from practicing magic and engaging in battle, she didn't even need to dress herself.
But now she was washing dishes and doing laundry. Surprisingly, she found the everyday chores of travel fresh and enjoyable—except for one thing she was obsessive about.
"What's wrong?"
Azel asked, holding up a shriveled, twisted scrap of fabric that had once been classified as women's clothing. It was Laura's outfit.
Among the group, Laura carried the most clothes. She bought new ones in every village they passed, packing them all up herself without asking anyone to carry them for her, so no one complained. From the perspective of a traveling party covering long distances at an absurd pace, adding extra baggage was sheer foolishness. But as long as it didn't slow them down, it was her prerogative, right?
Having been raised in luxury, Laura had a bit of an obsession with cleanliness. Even when camping, she always sought out water, using magic if necessary, to bathe at least once, and she changed her clothes every single day.
It was a stark contrast to Leticia, the other woman in the group. Having lived such a rough life, Leticia had the same standards of hygiene as the men. And travelers in general had far greater tolerance for dirt than ordinary folk.
'Well, this is the more ladylike approach, I suppose...'
In any case, Laura changed clothes daily and thus did laundry more often and in greater quantities than anyone else. But unless they stayed at an inn in a village, she couldn't leisurely air-dry them, so she used magic to dry them quickly... and for some reason, she botched it this time, ruining the outfit.
Suspicious that she had gone to the stream and taken too long to return, Azel came to check and found the hopelessly over-dried clothes discarded, with Laura sitting there hugging her knees. Her expression didn't show it, but she seemed troubled, so Azel quietly sat down beside her and asked,
"Are you hurt anywhere? Did you get injured in the fight?"
"...No."
Laura, who hadn't reacted at all, finally answered. Her voice carried a sigh.
An awkward silence descended once more. After waiting a moment, Azel glanced at her and said,
"If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to. I'm not trying to pry."
"......"
Laura didn't respond. Azel shrugged lightly and stood up. After taking a few steps away, he heard her whisper softly,
"...It was a kill-or-be-killed situation."
Azel turned back and sat beside her again. Laura tilted her head slightly toward one knee and continued,
"I knew from the start how they'd treat me... because I used to be one of them."
It was something she had steeled herself for when she chose to follow Azel. The Dragon Demon Worshippers were zealots who demanded perfect faith. They were the type to inflict brutal punishment for the slightest flaw, so it was only natural they'd try to kill even yesterday's ally like an enemy if she betrayed them.
But there was a vast difference between imagining it in her head and facing it in reality. She had envisioned it countless times and hardened her resolve, but the actual shock was immense.
The mage she killed had cursed her in a voice dripping with venom.
'Burn in the fires of hell forever, you wretch! I'll make sure you pay for betraying your faith and your comrades! No matter what! I'll punish your body and soul so agonizingly you'll beg for death!'
...They were capable of doing just that. They knew ways to inflict torment like an inescapable hell, even beyond death.
But she wasn't afraid. What troubled her wasn't fear.
Laura asked,
"You've heard enemies curse you plenty of times, right?"
"Yeah."
"How did it feel?"
"I didn't pay attention. If I let every one get to me, there'd be no end to it."
"I think I was the same back then. A little different, but still..."
When carrying out missions as a Dragon Demon Worshipper, she hadn't given it a second thought. Raising results per orders was her entire purpose, the only reason she lived. She was gripped by an obsession not to fail, but she never empathized with the enemy or let guilt weigh her down.
So she ignored whether her targets hated or cursed her. The enemies she eliminated during missions were little more than objects to her.
But when she turned her former comrades into enemies... she could no longer see them that way.
"I still killed them. I had no choice, I had to... but I did it. Yet somehow, I can't forget. I'd never cared what they looked like or how they sounded..."
"Hmm. So... you're saying it's the first time an enemy felt like a real person to you."
"......"
Laura, who had been rambling in response to Azel's words, fell silent. She widened her eyes slightly and looked at him.
Azel asked,
"Isn't that it?"
"Yeah... that sounds right."
As a high-ranking mage, Laura was extremely intelligent. But emotionally, she was as immature as a child. Only after hearing Azel's words did she realize why she was so distraught.
Back when she was an executive in the Dark Snowfield, enemies were objects, and allies were mere tools. She hadn't assigned them much value or bothered to remember individual faces or names.
But the mage she defeated this time... she knew she'd never forget him.
Azel said,
"Your situation is unique, but since you were in the same boat, it's inevitable."
"In the same boat?"
"It's an idiom. Makes sense you wouldn't know it."
Azel wasn't even sure if the phrase was still in use in this era. He always found it novel when people nowadays used idioms from the Dragon Demon War era. And seeing new phrases emerge—or hearing old ones quoted from someone he knew—stirred indescribable feelings.
In any case, Azel brushed aside those thoughts and continued,
"It means thinking of people in the same group with a shared goal as a kind of family... Even among humans, without a kill-or-be-killed hostility, just leaving one group for another with conflicting interests gets you branded a traitor, causing stress. It's natural you're shaken."
Azel had been through something similar. Not as extreme as Laura's, but realizing that enemies worthy of hatred were people too came with its own shock. When you start off as natural foes locked in mortal combat, then discover they have families, friends, and human joys in the mundane...
'The Dragon Demons were like that for me.'
Azel had experienced his first kill against bandits as a young child, so he never had the shock of discovering humanity in someone he had to kill.
But the Dragon Demons were different. When those he saw as natural enemies became allies, and he realized the monsters he thought utterly inhuman were profoundly human after all... the impact was indescribable.
As Azel reminisced, Laura asked,
"What should I do?"
"Unfortunately, there's no easy fix. Like so many problems in the world, some things just can't be helped."
"I see......"
Laura sighed. Of course, she knew that. Having chosen this path, she had to bear the responsibility.
Suddenly, she said,
"I mentioned an elder to you before, right?"
"The nameless Dragon Demon who's lived since the Dragon Demon War?"
"Yeah."
"What about him?"
"......"
Laura shot Azel a glare. From his perspective, that elder was just an enemy to kill on sight, so there was no reason to show respect. But to her, he was one of the few sources of emotional comfort, so it grated on her.
Her usually expressionless face rarely showed emotion, but Azel noticed. He gave a wry smile and said,
"I get why you're upset, but... even if Dragon Demon King Atein came back to life, I wouldn't use a respectful title for that guy or anyone like him."
"I know. And thinking about what you said, I realize I have to fight that elder too now."
"Probably. But from what you've said, he sounds like some frail old coot who can't even leave his lair. Will you really have to face him?"
Laura had never given specific details about the elder. But based on what he'd heard so far, Azel guessed he was an aged Dragon Demon. A skilled mage, perhaps, but no one could fully escape the limits of the flesh.
'No, given what those bastards get up to, he might be on the verge of becoming Undying. In that case, his magical prowess would remain intact, making him a formidable foe. He'd lose Dragon Demon mana, but if he achieves immortality while wielding Dragon Demon Armaments, that could compensate somewhat...'
As Azel pondered practically, Laura shook her head.
"No."
"Hm?"
"When I met him, he was always seated and motionless. But it wasn't frailty. He was elderly, sure, but he could move—he just chose not to."
"So all that frailty was an act?"
"Yeah."
"Why go to such lengths to deceive you? Though, piecing together what you've said, the old guard in the Dark Snowfield seem reluctant to share info with the young ones..."
"No, more than that... it felt like some magical ritual."
"A ritual restricting movement? Hm. Could be a method to halt aging."
"Possible. But Azel."
"Yeah?"
"You really think like a mage. A non-mage wouldn't jump to that conclusion..."
"Well, I had a friend who loved lecturing about magic."
Azel smiled wryly. Kallos had always loved prattling on about magic to him. Thanks to that, Azel knew far more trivia than a Spirit Order practitioner needed.
And during the Dragon Demon War, that knowledge had been invaluable. It let him anticipate what enemy mages could or would do in specific situations.
Azel said,
"Anyway... why bring up that elder?"
"He once told me this: Discovering something worth staking your life on of your own will means being prepared to fight the entire world."
"......"
"He might have foreseen that I'd make a choice like this someday."
Laura had always thought that whenever she met him. Compared to others, he was oddly sympathetic toward her and never preached fanatical dogma. While other survivors of the old war held real power in the Dark Snowfield, he lived quietly, almost invisibly.
Now that she had betrayed the Dragon Demon Worshippers, he was the only one she wanted to meet again. Her questions about him had only grown since leaving the organization.
Who was he, really?
And what purpose kept him hidden all this time?