Armin Rom Goldired
Armin stopped her training and looked ahead.
Barely five minutes remained.
The characters had once been unreadable to her, but Sunghyun had taught her before he left.
“Sunghyun…”
I hope he’s safe.
Worry gnawed at her.
He’ll be fine. After all—who is Sunghyun?
“Who… I don’t really know either…”
I know his name.
I know his personality. I know his voice.
I know exactly which of my expressions make him smile.
“Isn’t that enough?”
Yes. That’s enough.
The time they had spent together had not been long.
But its depth had been profound.
And so—
“I know Sunghyun.”
When I step outside, he’ll greet me with a smiling face.
I’m certain of it.
Armin allowed a soft smile to bloom.
“I want to see him soon.”
I want to see him smile.
I hope he says “Welcome back” and ruffles my hair.
Before she knew it, only a few seconds remained.
“Hehe. He’ll be so surprised when he sees I’ve grown a little taller.”
Under Sunghyun’s guidance, Armin’s skill had advanced by leaps and bounds with every passing day.
A radiant glow began to wrap around her body.
“Let’s go. To see Sunghyun.”
Transferring.
The voice was dry and mechanical—nothing like the one that had spoken when Sunghyun left.
But that didn’t matter.
The moment she stepped outside, she would hear his warm voice again.
The blinding light that had covered her eyes gradually faded.
Armin immediately turned her head, searching for Sunghyun—
and saw him, body twisting as he collapsed.
That sight was nothing like what she had hoped for.
Black lightning coiled around him, failing to recognize its own master and carving away at his flesh.
And that was not all.
Whatever technique he had used, blood poured freely from his eyes and mouth.
Huh?
Why?
You’re supposed to greet me with that confident smile.
Why do you look like this?
Armin’s vision began to swim.
She sprinted toward him in a frenzy.
As she drew near, Sunghyun recognized her and offered a faint smile.
“You’re here.”
“Ah—! Sunghyun! Stay with me! I’m here! Y-you’re okay, right? You’re going to jump right back up and laugh like nothing happened, aren’t you?! Right?!”
Her voice shook uncontrollably.
Tears began to blur her sight.
Thud.
Sunghyun’s right hand settled gently atop her head.
“I told you I’d clean things up. Is this good enough for you?”
Thud.
His eyes closed, and his body went limp, sliding to the ground.
“Aaaaah!!!! Sunghyun! Sunghyun!”
She frantically pressed her fingers beneath his nose. Thankfully, he was still breathing.
Only then did Armin let out a shuddering sigh of relief.
With his overwhelming regenerative power, he would rise again just like always.
He would. She was sure of it.
“Thank you… for keeping your promise……”
To go this far… to let his body end up like this…
So what if the ones he fought were my own kind?
The person I want most in the world is lying here like this.
That was when it happened.
The instant Sunghyun fell, gold and red dragons that had been hiding nearby revealed themselves.
The moment they saw Armin, they spoke as one.
“Princess. That man must die. He is far too dangerous.”
“Indeed. If we leave him alive here, there is no telling what may happen.”
Heat flooded Armin’s skull.
What the hell are they saying right now?
Looking at how they crawled out, they must have kept themselves low during the fight so Sunghyun wouldn’t notice them.
And the second he collapses, this is what they come out with?
Kill him? Finish him off?
Did I hear that right?
Armin’s face flushed a deep, furious red.
“What did you just say? And you still call yourselves proud dragons?”
At her words the other dragons raised their voices.
“Do you know anything about that human?! Even if you are the daughter of our lord, we cannot possibly accept this regarding him. Step aside. You will get hurt.”
Fine.
So that’s how you want to play it.
At last Armin’s mind, already burning, tipped past the edge into pure rampage.
You lot—
do not deserve to live.
Heat erupted from every pore of her body.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
Crackling—
Whoooosh—
With Armin’s roar, fire and lightning poured from her entire form.
The sight was exactly like—
“N-Naturalization? At an age not even three hundred? Impossible!”
“The princess has betrayed the dragons! Just attack together! Kill the human first! We’ll deal with the rest later!”
The gold and red dragons’ eyes rolled white with panic.
Perhaps it was the overwhelming terror of death they had already tasted once.
Instinct screamed that the man before them had to die.
Because of that, Armin’s status as princess meant nothing—an empty shell of a title.
But their attacks never reached her.
Even incomplete, her Naturalization was enough.
When Armin swept her hand, their strikes vanished into nothing.
When she drove a fist forward, lightning and fire erupted and swallowed her enemies whole.
“Gyaaaaah!”
Hah… hah…
Yet Naturalization forced through raw emotion was never perfect.
As Armin gasped and the transformation began to unravel, the dragons regained their arrogance, sneering.
“As expected. You are still lacking. Just lie there and watch us dispose of the human.”
No.
I will not allow it.
Every drop of moisture had fled her lips; no sound would come out.
“Khrrrk!”
Instead of words, the sound of boiling blood rose from her throat.
I will never let him go.
Even if this body dies here—
I will keep this man alive.
Armin staked her life.
Like a dying ember flaring into a great blaze once more, her eyes deepened into pure gold, and lightning and fire surged from her entire body.
Kim Sunghyun.
She imitated his thunder.
So this is how he does it.
Fire as the support for lightning.
Lightning as the free, wild core.
One step.
The moment Armin took a single step, the scenery changed.
Thud—
Her hand punched straight through the belly of the red dragon at the front.
“Gyaaaaah!”
“Damn it! The princess has gone mad! Kill her too!”
But how?
“Buy time! That state won’t last long!”
The words had barely left their mouths when the princess tilted her head and smiled at them.
“Until every last one of you is dead, my life will not run out.”
Those who are resolved to die shall live; those who seek life by chance shall die.
That distant maxim took root in a dragon from another dimension.
Right now, for Sunghyun’s sake, Armin was burning her life away.
She glanced at him.
His body’s natural recovery was so high that the internal damage was already healing at a visible rate.
Just like always, he would be on his feet in an instant.
Until then—
I hold on.
With my life.
Before she realized it, the dragons had shifted form and begun launching magic from a distance.
“I won’t let you.”
Armin dragged fire and thunder from the air around her.
Blazing Thunder.
The technique Sunghyun used so often.
Armin succeeded in recreating it.
At once—
“Gyaaaah! Damn it! Fire and lightning don’t work! Use other attributes even if they’re weaker!”
The dragons chose the next-best option instead of the best.
Three more times.
No matter how high her will burned, her body could not take any more.
She had already surpassed her limit long ago.
And then she had surpassed it again.
Beyond this point, even staking her life would not be enough.
So Armin prayed.
Please.
Someone—anyone—help me.
Please.
When the dragons unleashed water, stone, and wind, the force of her Blazing Thunder weakened.
“It’s working! Keep pouring magic!”
They were her own kind.
So why were they like this?
What had they seen in Sunghyun?
What made them so desperate to kill him?
Was stopping them really the right thing?
Maybe they were the ones who were right…
No.
No.
I know Sunghyun’s smile.
I know the way he eats a simple meal with pure enjoyment.
I know the way he throws his body on the line just to keep a promise.
Armin dragged up every last drop of power.
“Don’t you dare measure Sunghyun by your standards!!!!!!!!”
That final ember swelled, spreading as if it would devour everything around her.
In that instant—
“Kroooooar!”
A new gold dragon appeared.
Armin clenched her teeth hard enough to crack them.
Damn it!
She could only curse the heavens.
Of all times—why now?!
But the gold dragon did not attack her.
Instead it began attacking the gold and red dragons that had been trying to kill her.
“Gyaaaaah! What the hell is that?!”
Boom! Boom!
Countless magic circles bloomed around the new dragon.
Even Armin, who was not under attack, felt a chill race down her spine.
Huh?
What is this?
Just before her body completely collapsed, Armin released every scrap of power.
Thud—
Not a single finger would move.
Even so, she began crawling toward Sunghyun, dragging herself with her fingertips.
Scrape—. Scrape—.
Right now she wanted to see his face more than she wanted to watch their battle.
But her body refused to obey.
Aaaah.
She wanted to cry, yet every drop of moisture in her body had dried up.
Even tears would not come.
With the last of her strength, Armin rolled onto her back and faced the sky.
Then let’s see.
Who?
Who came here to help me?
She lifted her gaze.
Familiar golden hair.
So far away it looked like a mere speck—
yet to Armin, whose senses were sharpened to a razor’s edge, it was clear.
A man she knew well.
Someone she could never forget.
Of course.
“Dad?”
Atop the gold dragon, her father raised a hand toward her.
“Daughter!!!!!”
Only then could Armin close her eyes in peace.
Hah.
I’m alive.
Euclid Rom Gold.
And Nakamoto Satoshi.
At last they had entered the Forest of Death—the very heart of the Forest of Demonic Beasts.