Ep.10 - A Single Scale
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"UWAAAAAAAH!"
I screamed, but even my scream was swallowed by that terrifying roar.
Everyone, myself included, was hurtling through the air at a horrifying speed, cradled in Revi's arms. The intermittent screech of tearing air battered my ears so violently it hurt.
Even Chichi's protective spell couldn't fully dampen the brutality of Revi's flight. A thunderous boom echoed around us, as if a thousand bombs had detonated simultaneously.
I should have refused the moment I saw her transform into a dragon. Now it was far too late.
A soaring mountain ridge. A monstrous form that seemed larger than ten whales combined.
Revi looked like something that could only appear as a god's final, ultimate form — the kind of colossal being you wouldn't dare to even look up at...
Chichi's broomstick flights, where she used to carry me around, felt utterly childish in comparison. We ripped through the sky so sharply that I genuinely worried the entire planet might splinter apart.
Everyone was held firmly in Revi's grasp, pressed right against her belly. Thanks to that, the unimaginable air resistance couldn't even scratch our skin.
Still, this was absolutely, utterly staggering — completely different from anything you would encounter in a comic or a story. There was no godlike majesty to it. Within that jaw-dropping shock, all I could feel was pure terror.
They beat that? My noonas did?
Damn. I seriously need to stop running my mouth from now on...
In a matter of mere minutes, Revi carved through a path that would have taken us well over a week on foot. Even though she flew above the mountain ranges so as not to startle the dwarves, her flight was swift enough to fling us to the far edge of L'Myune in an instant.
The dwarf kingdom had already revealed its distant border and was falling behind us. We had practically vaulted over that entire rough and rugged realm.
"Urgh... my head is spinning... the world is going round and round..."
We descended near the midpoint between dwarf territory and elf territory to pack our gear one last time. From here on, we would have to make the journey on our own two sturdy legs, so each person's load inevitably grew considerably heavier.
"I hate dragons... kkiing... urp..."
Kaede, whining and complaining of nausea, was lugging a pack almost larger than her own body. Yet she still did not complain about the weight. Airsickness was the only thing tormenting her.
"At this point, would you just shut your mouth? Or just throw up, will you?"
"But if I throw up, everything I ate and drank yesterday will go to waste... kkiiing..."
"...Haah, you are driving me insane."
As if even feeling annoyed took too much effort, Riko cut the exchange short. She was brimming with irritation for all sorts of reasons right now and had no energy to respond to Kaede's cute, innocent, scatterbrained antics.
Riko's eyes were fixed solely on me. She, of all people, was the one I could not properly fool with my lie. Since she had already given me a furious scolding a few hours ago, telling me "no lying," her piercing glare now scared me even more than usual.
"Th-thank you so much for bringing us here. This is as far as you go, right?"
I hastily changed the subject and addressed Revi. She gave a quiet laugh and placed her hand on my head, stroking it lightly. I was conscious of Riko watching that gesture, but since this was our final goodbye, I decided to just let it slide...
"Boy. Setting out for a foreign land will bring its hardships, but do your best to pull through with your women. You have good women at your side, so do not worry too much."
Revi's parting words were surprisingly free of melancholy or lingering attachment. The brief encounter between the two of us, and the hard but hollow battle between the dragon and the dragon paladins — it all reached its close here.
"...However."
But then Revi leaned closer for a moment, drew my ear near, and whispered softly. Her red eyes were directed at Helen.
"Be wary of that wench over there. Something about her unsettles me deeply. I sensed it back when we fought as well. That one is clearly, somewhere..."
"What?"
I could not help being flustered by the sudden warning. And on top of that, the subject of that grave, whispered caution being Helen only bewildered me more.
Helen had appeared out of nowhere, certainly, but had she not given me a tremendous amount of help?
Even so, Revi's red eyes rested quietly on Helen. Something about her clearly felt wrong to Revi.
"...Well. It is merely a feeling of mine. But that one seems to be hiding much. Beware the woman who always wears a friendly mask yet remains full of secrets, more than that prickly brown-haired woman. A hidden dagger is far more terrifying than bared fangs."
"But, um, Revi-ssi, you may not be aware, but that person has really helped me out a lot...? If it were not for her, I would already be dead..."
At my words, Revi's expression shifted. A look of genuine puzzlement crossed her face...
"Hmm... Is that so?"
"Yes, truly."
"Well, so be it. I suppose my intuition has had time enough to grow a little rusty. It seems the senility of age has overtaken the seasoned insight of experience."
She let out an awkward laugh, shook her head slowly, then offered me a smile and said her goodbyes.
That marked my final farewell to her. To get past the woman who could soar through the skies and slaughter the world with a sword of ice without having to fight her — from my perspective, it was an unbelievable stroke of luck.
"Very well, very well... Farewell, boy. Someday, when all your business is concluded, would you show your face to me once more?"
However, at that formal, pleasantry-like request, I could not easily produce an answer. Showing my face meant I would have to come back to this place, did it not?
I had a home to return to. A family, friends, a future. I had far too much to give up should I settle down here.
I had to return to my original world...
"...Yes! Once it is all over, I will come visit and bring the noonas along. Do not fight us when I do."
Revi paused briefly at my answer. Her eyes skimmed over my face, faintly wistful. What was she thinking?
"...Very well. I do not fight my guests, so worry not. Delin."
At the very last moment, Revi finally called me by my name. Throughout our short, single-night encounter, that was the very first time she had spoken it.
And with that, she departed. She had exchanged no parting words with the other noonas. It felt as though her farewell with me was what had held us there until the very end, and once our words concluded, we slowly let each other go.
The others surely would not remember Revi. To the noonas, she was merely an enemy who had targeted me, a bothersome monster they had to defeat across countless Load cycles. None of them would bother to recall such an unpleasant opponent.
Thinking that made me a little sad. Perhaps that was why my eyes lingered a moment longer on Revi's retreating back...
"Might as well just follow her, hmm?"
During that brief moment, Riko walked up to me and sneered. No, it was less a sneer and more a kind of pure fury. Her voice had hardened into something cold and unyielding.
"Huh, yeah...? N-no. Why would you put it like that!"
"So now you are snapping at me. Are you in any position to be snapping at me right now? Huh? You think you are?"
Riko's interrogation continued on and on, right up until the moment Neva came to rescue me. Riko had clearly caught on to some discrepancy, some lie of mine that felt off to her.
"Philmark. Stop bothering Delin and go gather your own things."
"..."
Riko backed off at Neva's reprimand quite obediently. But her eyes never once left me.
"Sniff, sniff...? Seobang-nim! What am I supposed to do if you have gone and gotten strange scents all over yourself again! Keureureung..."
"N-no, I did not! Kaede noona, you say that every time. It is just in your head...!"
The other noonas were equally suspicious. To end up in a damnable situation where I was sweating bullets and scrambling for excuses — all because of one night of passion...
"A-anyway, that aside, that alcohol was seriously delicious. Everyone, you really must try some later!"
"You can barely even hold your liquor, so why did you bring back such a huge haul of it?"
Even Chichi grumbled as she moved our gear. The luggage glided smoothly through the air, pulled along by her hand, without so much as a wobble.
Just like that, we each gathered our things and set off. Only Eva and I carried light loads in small backpacks; everyone else's packs were large in volume and heavy in weight.
From here onward, we would have to traverse the entire kingdom of the elves carrying that luggage. To make matters worse, the elven kingdom was vast and lacked well-maintained roads, so walking would take a tremendous amount of time.
And so, without further delay, everyone set their feet to mov—
Just as we started, everyone abruptly halted.
The sensation of a presence and a surge of powerful mana was felt once more from behind us.
"Delin!"
Revi, who had only just departed, came rushing back to me. Her face was filled with a regret and worry she could not conceal.
"Take this. It is my scale. I have nothing proper to offer you, but this scale, at least, should surely prove useful. You may sell it, or keep it as a memento. Only, I ask that you not forget that I gave this to you."
She pressed a scale the size of a fist firmly into my hand and, truly for the last time, savored my warmth. As if wanting to hold my hand a little longer, her own hand could not easily let go, regretfully stroking the surface once more...
"Delin. If ever you succeed in meeting that god and are granted a wish, before you make yours, could you please seek out an answer for me? Ask on my behalf..."
She gave me one final request.
Her plea was both sorrowful and desperate.
As though she somehow knew I would never return alive...
"Now, as everything crumbles away, ask on my behalf... why I alone am left behind to live out this long, long life... what I have failed to achieve that I still cannot become a star... I am weary and pained now even to let others go. Please... Come back with an answer. Show your face to me, just once."
With that request, Revi left me.
In my hand, all that remained was a single piece of her scale.
After agonizing for a while over how to handle that scale,
I found no alternative, and in the end, I carefully slipped it into my pocket.
It was a scale of a blue hue.
The scale of the dragon that froze everything felt so cool it seemed it could chase away even the heat of late summer...
Ep.10 An Unexpected Encounter
end.