Where Are You Rushing Off To?
Once we crested the mountain ridge thick with poisonous miasma, the monstrosity at last revealed itself.
…The Corrupted Dragon.
In the heart of what had once been a village, the colossal beast crouched amid the ruins, claiming the shattered wreckage as its nest.
Its form was, quite simply, too vile for words.
Every scale on its body had blackened and rotted through, and from the cracks between them a pitch-black venom oozed like festering pus. With every breath it exhaled, a dense cloud of poison billowed outward like fog.
“…So that is the Corrupted Dragon…”
Beside me, Celine swallowed a low, involuntary sound.
I gulped hard myself.
I had known of it from the original story, of course—yet facing the abomination with my own eyes sent a chill racing down my spine.
…Still, we’re lucky. It hasn’t noticed us yet.
The creature still seemed unaware of our presence. It simply sprawled in its nest, lazily leaking poison.
This was our chance. We had to strike before it found us.
“…Vice Captain. Let’s hit it hard before it notices.”
I lowered my voice to a whisper for Celine and carefully reached for the hilt of my sword.
In that very instant—
…Whiiish!
From somewhere unseen, a jet-black arrow of mana tore through our blind spot.
“…!”
There was no time to react. The mana bolt slammed straight into Celine’s shoulder.
“…Kh!”
With a short cry of pain, Celine tumbled sideways.
“…Vice Captain!”
I recoiled in shock and lunged toward her. Where in the world had that come from?
And then—
“…Heh heh. As sharp as ever, I see.”
From the shadowed ruins a man stepped into view.
He was wrapped head to toe in a robe black as pitch. At the hems, damp violet sigils were embroidered, flickering faintly like living poison. The face beneath the hood was bloodlessly pale, and upon that pallor sat a strange blend of youth and age that made his years impossible to guess. A thin, unreadable smile curved his lips—cool, leisurely, as though he had held this entire scene in the palm of his hand from the start.
The moment that clammy aura washed over me, my whole body seemed to freeze solid.
That… that man is…?
I knew him.
More precisely, I had read of him in the original work.
Noah Grim. The sinister mage who lurked in the Empire’s shadows, weaving every sort of foul scheme.
And the knowledge from the original story whispered one more fact to me.
…Don’t tell me the one controlling that Corrupted Dragon is…
Exactly. That vicious beast was no random calamity.
It was a monster Noah Grim himself commanded at will.
The instant the realization struck—
…Grrrrrr… Kuaaaaaaaaa!
Beyond the ruins the Corrupted Dragon finally rose.
It unfurled its vast, rotting wings and yawned its pitch-black maw wide, beginning to spew a dense cloud of poison in every direction.
The moment I saw it, instinct told me the truth.
…If that engulfs us, we’re finished.
Celine, still reeling from the wound in her shoulder, could barely keep her feet.
…There was no time to think.
Before I knew it I had planted myself in front of her. Then I ripped the sword from my belt with all my strength.
…Shiiing!
The cold-forged blade gleamed a murderous blue amid the black poison.
…Nothing to fear.
I murmured the words under my breath to myself.
What was so special about this? No matter how vicious the poison, a blade could still cut it. It was no different from handling ingredients on a cutting board.
Yes—reading the grain and drawing a well-honed knife through in one stroke. That was the single most familiar, most confident motion I had repeated tens of thousands of times since my previous life.
I only needed to cut as if I were prepping a bundle of vegetables.
With that resolve, I swung my sword down with all my might toward the onrushing torrent of poison, as if I meant to cleave the very sky in two.
An unbelievable sight unfolded before Celine’s eyes.
——Seogak.
The single slash Kyle brought down cleaved the surging black torrent of poison cleanly in two. The sword aura did not stop at parting the breath; it continued onward, all the way to the Corrupted Dragon itself, and sheared off one of the beast’s enormous wings.
…Kuaaaaaa!
The Corrupted Dragon screamed in agony.
Impossible.
Celine swallowed hard without realizing it.
He had grown again already.
That man who had once looked so green had, before she knew it, come this far.
But there was no time to linger in admiration. The opening Kyle had just carved was a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
Celine bit down hard on the pain in her shoulder. Then she shot through the gap in the poison that Kyle’s sword aura had split open, her body a silver streak.
…Paat!
Her powerful legs drove against the earth and she became a flash of light, closing the distance to the Corrupted Dragon in the blink of an eye. Celine drove a freezing slash straight down into one of its forelegs.
…Seogak!
The foreleg sheared away in a spray of black venomous blood. The massive body lost its balance and lurched heavily to one side.
Celine did not miss the moment. The instant she landed she dropped low and linked the next cut without pause.
Her blade danced over the dragon’s body like a lethal sword dance—fluid, merciless. Every time it slipped between the rotting scales, black venomous blood sprayed in every direction.
…Kuaaaa!
The enraged dragon yawned its black maw at her once more, ready to unleash another poisonous breath.
And that was exactly what Celine had been waiting for.
…Yes. Look at me.
She deliberately dove into the center of its field of vision, drawing every scrap of its attention onto herself.
In the split second the beast focused entirely on her—
…Whiiish!
From the sky, a razor-sharp flash of light crashed down like a thunderbolt.
Kyle had already leapt high into the air. Using the full force of his descent, he split the black dragon’s head cleanly in two.
…Ku… kua…!
The Corrupted Dragon never even managed to loose its breath. Its colossal body sagged and went limp.
At that perfect timing, a thrill raced down Celine’s spine.
They had not exchanged a single word, yet their blades had intertwined as naturally as if they had fought side by side for years.
“…You… you bastard!”
From the far side Noah Grim roared.
He thrust a hand upward and began chanting some wicked spell, its target none other than Kyle, who had just landed.
But—
…Not a chance.
As if she had been waiting for exactly this—or as if she meant to repay the earlier debt—Celine poured power into her strong legs.
Paat!
In the next heartbeat she was already at Noah’s side.
…Seogak!
Before the spell could finish, one of Noah’s arms was sliced away by a freezing cut.
“…Khugh!”
Celine did not stop. Leaving him alive would only plant a seed of disaster for later. Her blade swung again, intent on severing his life.
Yet at that very moment a black magic circle bloomed soundlessly behind Noah’s back.
“…It seems this is as far as we go today.”
With a twisted expression he spat the words and flung himself into the black circle as if diving into it.
Seogak!
Where Celine’s sword carved empty air, Noah was already gone.
…He got away.
But Celine had no leisure left even to taste the regret.
“…Hah… hah…”
At some point her body had begun to burn like fire.
She glanced down at her shoulder—the place the mana bolt had struck earlier.
…This is…
The skin had already turned black.
Just like the plants of the ruins, that vicious poison was already seeping, inch by inch, into her flesh.
Only then did the taut string of tension snap.
Strength fled her legs; the world before her eyes began to blur and recede.
…Srrr.
Celine’s body tipped weakly to the side.
“…Vice Captain! Vice Captain!!”
From far off she could dimly see Kyle sprinting toward her, his face deathly pale.
…Ah. So he can make a face that desperate after all.
With that useless thought as her last, Celine’s eyes slid shut.
…Paat!
Noah Grim tumbled out of the magic circle into the middle of a familiar room.
It was none other than the lair where he had long hidden and spun every sort of dark design.
“…Khugh. What a disaster.”
Clutching the stump of his severed left arm, Noah gasped for breath.
A truly bitter blunder.
Not only had the prey slipped through his fingers—he had lost an arm and fled in this wretched state.
Still, he had kept his life. No matter how those two swords cut loose on the frontier, there was no way for them to chase him here. He need only regroup and plot again for another day.
…Yes. It isn’t over yet. A failure like this is nothing.
At that very moment—
“…Where are you rushing off to in such a hurry?”
A cool voice slid into his ear from behind.
“…!”
A full-body chill raced down Noah’s spine.
Impossible. This place was his secret refuge—known to no one. How could there be a person here…!
Before the question could finish forming—
——Seogak!
A single freezing slash whispered in from behind. The next instant Noah watched his remaining arm drop limply to the floor.
“…K-khaaagh!”
Both arms gone, Noah collapsed to the ground as if his legs had given out.
Even as agony whitened his vision, he could not believe what was happening.
How—how in the world…
Then—
Thud. Thud.
Soft footsteps approached, and a woman walked slowly into view before him.
Hair black as night, eyes the color of blood. The woman of that cool beauty was none other than—
“…P-Princess… Victoria…”
Victoria von Roseria, the Emperor’s youngest daughter.
How was this woman here… Noah’s mind went blank white.
Victoria looked down at him and leveled the tip of her sword at his throat.
“…A mere insect dares point a blade at him?”
Her crimson eyes flared like fire, terrifying.
Noah felt his entire body freeze solid.
He had lived his whole life in the shadows. Crossing every threshold of death and intrigue, he had long since dried up any feeling called fear. Even if a man’s head rolled at his feet, he would not so much as twitch an eyebrow. That was the man known as Noah Grim.
Yet before this woman’s gaze, even he could not dare make a sound.
…Caw.
From somewhere a crow flew in and settled lightly on Victoria’s shoulder.
It peered down at the armless, sprawled Noah with round black eyes, then tilted its beak as if rather pleased with itself.
“You would do well to steel yourself thoroughly,” the crow murmured.
“Our Princess has a great many questions. Whose orders you followed… what else lurks behind you… You will confess every last detail, very slowly, and leave nothing out.”
At that chilly promise, Noah’s face drained of all color.