Chapter 5
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Can You Follow?
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Can you follow?
A sword fell from the sky.
A blade gleaming silver.
It wasn't just sparkling in the sunlight—it seemed to harbor its own light, pushing away the surrounding colors to assert its presence.
Elysia knew it at a glance.
Though she was an incomplete hero's bloodline who couldn't even forge a single holy sword properly, the power dwelling within that blade was unmistakable.
This was no ordinary weapon.
And above all, that sword had been made for her by her first friend—now her most loyal retainer.
Kim Jinwoo had crafted it for her.
The moment she realized that, Elysia's steps halted.
It was dazzling.
Too much so.
It was close enough to touch if she reached out, but her hand froze midway.
'Me...'
Did she have the right to grasp something like this?
She, who had failed to inherit the holy sword.
She, who had protected nothing and proven nothing.
As that thought flashed through her mind, her fingertips began to tremble unbidden.
That was when it happened.
A voice whispered clearly in her ear, as if right beside her.
"Lady Elysia. This is the holy sword for you."
Jinwoo wasn't here.
Yet it was unmistakably his voice.
Terrified, Elysia squeezed her eyes shut.
She bowed her head as if fleeing, then slowly opened them again.
And with resolve, she took a step forward.
Toward the hilt.
This time, she didn't stop.
And finally, the instant she gripped Balmung's hilt.
A chill ran down her spine.
"...Sweat?"
Sylphy, the blue-scaled dragonkin, momentarily blanked at the sensation trickling down her cheek.
Below her, in the garden's center, Marina—the red-scaled dragonkin she'd been laughing and chatting with moments ago—lay bisected, a mangled heap of flesh.
A dragon.
Scales that repelled even high-tier magic, a body that no ordinary human weapon could scar.
Yet that sword had cleaved Marina in a single, unhesitating strike.
And now, the one wielding it was the pitiful human duke's daughter who had been kneeling and sobbing just before.
Impossible.
Before her mind could process it, her body reacted first.
Sylphy felt it.
A cold bead of sweat cooling on her cheek.
"...Me?"
Sweating at the sight of a mere human?
That was a sensation unbecoming of dragonkin.
Fear.
Humiliation.
An instinctive warning.
Her body had already judged that sword far more dangerous than her current position.
Elysia took a step forward.
In that instant, Sylphy's foot retreated involuntarily.
One step.
Another.
The closer the sword-wielding human drew, the further she backed away.
Her scales quivered.
Her heart raced.
This wasn't about fighting.
The mere fact that a 'human' wielded that sword already proved something.
Sylphy gritted her teeth.
But she couldn't reverse her retreating steps.
"Duchess Elysia. Weren't you... the bloodline that couldn't summon a holy sword?"
"...Yes."
Elysia's reply was calm.
No excuses, no evasion.
"Th-then what the hell is that sword?!"
Sylphy's voice cracked.
"Damn it... Do you even grasp this situation?! We're envoys. Diplomatic envoys! And you think you'll get away with killing a dragon?!"
She stumbled back until her back hit the garden's stone wall.
There was nowhere left to retreat.
Her blue eyes shook wildly.
Like a mouse cornered by a cat, desperate to say anything to survive.
But.
"Even in hostility... harming an envoy is a crime! This is blatant diplomatic provocation! It's declaring war on the entire Empire—"
"Diplomacy."
Elysia quietly cut her off.
And took another step forward.
"Then was that red dragonkin touching my father earlier part of diplomacy?"
"...!"
"Trampling my blood-vomiting father in front of his daughter too?"
Elysia's golden eyes coldly looked down at Sylphy.
"That... wasn't an issue?"
Those words tightened around Sylphy's throat.
Her excuse to flee vanished.
However.
A smirk twisted Sylphy's lips.
"...Heh. Fool."
She bared her teeth in a grin.
"The moment you seized power, you should've beheaded the enemy outright."
Elysia furrowed her brow.
"...What?"
"The classic mistake of those who newly grasp strength."
Sylphy tilted her head back.
"Mistaking themselves for victors."
In that instant, her blue scales cracked with a grotesque sound.
Her body, forced into human form, screamed as if breaking free from shackles.
Bones elongated, muscles swelled, skin split.
Krunch—!
Her clothes tore, and massive wings burst from her back.
Blue scales spread across the garden like a flood, and atop her elongated neck, a dragon's head emerged.
Her true form, shed of human guise.
The Azure Storm Dragon.
Sylphy roared low.
"No more diplomacy."
Her massive head reared toward the sky.
"I was disgusted from the start, treating human scum as equals. So—from now on, take this as a declaration of war!!"
With those words, Sylphy's colossal body launched skyward.
Under the sun, the halted dragon's silhouette loomed like a calamity fixed in the heavens.
And the air shifted.
The surrounding winds twisted as if sucked in, clouds shredded and drawn to her maw.
Absorption.
Ambient mana, air, heat, and currents converged to a single point.
Her dragon belly slowly swelled.
The moment Elysia saw it, her face twisted for the first time.
"N-no way...!"
She shouted reflexively.
"Everyone, retreat now! Get out of here!"
"L-Lady...?"
"What's suddenly—"
"It's a breath attack!"
Her voice cracked.
"A dragon breath is coming!"
Dragons.
The near-unique race in this world capable of directly absorbing ambient mana into their bodies.
What other races struggled to even sense over years or decades, dragons wielded innately from birth.
And they converted that gathered mana into flame, unleashing it in one cataclysmic burst.
Records noted varying power by individual, but enough to vaporize a castle with ease.
Knowing this, Elysia clenched her teeth.
'I have to evacuate the knights and servants now—!'
The instant she drew a deep breath to shout, it happened.
"Don't let them flee."
An unfamiliar voice echoed in her mind.
Thick, resolute, bearing the weight of ancient scars.
"Let it come."
With those words, the world severed.
Sound, light, wind—all vanished.
When Elysia regained her senses, she beheld a pristine white void.
A completely empty realm without end or walls.
And before her stood a man.
Human in form.
Yet no ordinary human.
Armor woven from dragon scales.
Pallid skin.
Traces of enduring endless battles and death.
Above all, the sword in his hand.
The same shape as the one Elysia held.
Even from his back alone, his presence made her swallow hard.
Beyond any strong foe she'd ever seen.
A different league entirely.
Not a 'powerful human.'
A living legend.
Or the legend itself.
The man spoke lowly.
"If you've gripped that sword."
His voice reverberated through the entire space.
"Then you block it."
Blink.
She closed and opened her eyes, back in reality.
Precisely the moment the blue sky turned red, flames about to rain upon the castle.
The air already scorched, a colossal shadow of fire blotting the heavens.
Glancing around: the head butler carrying her father on his back, maids screaming in flight, knights scattering in chaos.
The garden was pandemonium.
But that was a calamity no amount of fleeing could evade.
To ground-bound humans, flames pouring from the sky weren't disaster—they were apocalypse.
In this instant, to the dragon's eyes, the castle's folk were mere livestock awaiting the slaughter.
...But.
She couldn't allow it.
Elysia planted her feet firmly.
As a daughter of the Valenhardt family. As the master for whom he forged this holy sword.
And as one who had just stood before that hero's shadow, the sword felt heavy in her grip.
Not mere weapon weight.
'Responsibility.'
Only then did the meaning of his words crystallize.
Can you follow.
Elysia quietly inhaled.
"Of course."
Her gaze pierced the sky.
"I am Elysia von Valenhardt."
Her golden eyes shone resolutely.
"No winged lizard will make me yield!"
She turned.
And shouted.
"Everyone, to me!"
"L-Lady?!"
"We have to run now—!"
"If that hits, we're all dead anyway!"
Elysia stated firmly.
"Trust me, and you'll all survive."
For a brief moment, silence blanketed the garden.
Then they looked to one another.
The Duchess of Valenhardt.
The one who couldn't summon a holy sword.
Yet she always cherished the servants, never wielding her bloodline's privilege as a whip.
Everyone here knew her.
So they nodded.
One by one.
Gathering at her side.
And simultaneously, the Azure Storm Dragon roared from the heavens.
"It's over—take this!!"
Flames to incinerate the world cascaded like a waterfall.
Elysia raised her sword.
No fear.
Only the task at hand.
"Fire."
The sword resonated.
"Holy Sword—Balmung!"
Kwaaaaa—!!
Silver sword aura exploded outward, slashing straight through the descending inferno.
Flames parted, air tore, light engulfed the sky.
And the shockwave pierced clean through the dragon's colossal form.
The Azure Storm Dragon plummeted from the sky, broken without even a scream.
Silence fell over the garden.