Kayalmirek
I had given some thought to why they had brought the Dragon Goddess Maiden along, and concluded it was probably something as simple as not wanting to lose.
If the cardinal had come alone, Jaguar or Hotshim would have been more than enough to handle him—but compared to Eris, Guardian of Yggdrasil, they would have fallen short.
It was likely a childish desire to seize the initiative in the conversation, and something I had felt more than a few times in my life was that people in high positions were surprisingly the most childish of all.
These bastards always have to win even the pettiest little pissing contests.
Considering how the human Saintess seemed more focused on her public image, this side’s Dragon Goddess Maiden held two votes yet did not look particularly overworked.
“I have heard the entire story. First, allow me to offer my apologies.”
The words Jane the Dragon Goddess Maiden first spoke were a little unexpected. I never imagined she would begin with an apology.
Strictly speaking, the dragonmen were victims as well. From everything I had seen on the way here, they did not seem to fully understand this incident either.
From their perspective, a single human had suddenly barged in and caused chaos, after which beastmen, dwarves, and elves with solid backing appeared—leaving them unable to move one way or the other.
“An apology? Nonsense. We are the ones who should apologize for arriving so abruptly.”
Eris rose and bowed her head slightly in reply.
It felt as though the earlier snarling between her and the dragonmen was being treated as if it had never happened.
“I heard the story. There are people afflicted with a disease that turns them into dragonmen?”
Jane the Dragon Goddess Maiden took her seat and asked calmly. The impatient dwarf Hotshim spoke first, followed by Jaguar, then Eris.
When my turn finally came, I told them about my sister and laid out my own hypothesis.
“Actually, I’ve clashed with an organization called Dogfight a few times in the past. Those bastards…”
The Demon World Forest was famous—and infamous for its danger—not only among humans but across the entire continent, so the explanation was not difficult.
After listening to my account of Dogfight, their faces darkened with grim seriousness.
“Such a group exists?”
“They possess technology that transplants the power of magic beasts into living bodies? Not even a kingdom—just a single organization?”
Hotshim and Jaguar each muttered in astonishment, while Jane pressed her lips tightly shut, lost in thought.
“It seems entirely possible they are involved.”
“Right? If they can graft magic beasts’ physical abilities onto humans, doing the same with dragonmen shouldn’t be hard at all.”
Eris threw her weight behind my words.
But the real question was how they had obtained the dragonmen’s power in the first place—and that was when Jane spoke.
“Recently, the number of dragonmen who wall-jump has been increasing among our people.”
“Dragon Goddess Maiden!”
Cardinal Theosender, who had stood silently at her side, raised his voice in alarm.
Hotshim and Jaguar scowled as if wondering what the fuss was about, but Theosender did not spare them so much as a glance, trying only to stop Jane from saying anything further.
“Why? I came to this place precisely because of this. It may be connected to the present incident. And the more I listen to these people, the more my speculation hardens into certainty.”
“B-but the fact that there are dragonmen who wall-jump…”
It was a warning that many dragonmen harbored internal grievances, and that one must not carelessly speak of such things before other races—yet the Dragon Goddess Maiden firmly ignored him and continued.
“At first I believed there were simply many dragonmen nursing discontent. As you all know, the dragons have fallen into a deep sleep.”
If their own gods simply slept while neglecting everything, anyone would eventually explode with resentment.
Anything that went even slightly wrong would be blamed on the dragons’ slumber.
“So I met the families of every dragonman who had wall-jumped. According to them, those people were not the sort to abandon their families and leave—and they had no reason to.”
“……”
“It happened again and again. Again and again. I finally concluded they had not simply left out of dissatisfaction with life or with the dragons.”
Even from the lofty position of Dragon Goddess Maiden, she had personally met every single family of the wall-jumpers.
Occupying the highest place yet conducting herself like the lowest—her bearing was that of the ideal Saintess itself.
“This is a serial kidnapping case. Yet there was no evidence, and my position made it difficult for me to investigate such matters.”
“Ahem.”
Theosender cleared his throat beside her.
Even if she had insisted with all her strength that an investigation was necessary, it was plain he would have told her the Dragon Goddess Maiden need not concern herself with such things and should simply smile for the dragonmen.
“Then all of you arrived. As Daniel said, it seems the organization called Dogfight has been extracting dragonmen and subjecting them to experiments.”
Jane’s small fists trembled.
It was as though the screams of dragonmen who had wept in agony were ringing in her ears.
“Those capable of such acts would be the Inquisitors stationed on the front lines. Theosender—begin an investigation of the Inquisitors at once.”
“Dragon Goddess Maiden! That is no different from insulting them!”
Theosender recoiled in horror and tried to stop her, but Jane instead sprang to her feet and rounded on him.
“Are you joking right now? Our people may have been kidnapped and subjected to human experimentation. They were taken from our own land, so the culprit is almost certainly a dragonman as well. An investigation is only natural.”
“They are the protective shields that guard the Dragon’s Border! Merely suspecting them is an act that tarnishes their honor!”
“So we should simply sit still? For the sake of their honor? Theosender, please come to your senses! If we remain silent, a tag of suspicion will cling to every Inquisitor. Thorough investigation here is the only way to protect their honor!”
“But…”
This is going to take forever.
Looking at the rigid, hidebound cardinal, a sigh escaped me of its own accord.
Eris met my eyes and gave a small nod, clearly thinking the same. The cardinal had been attached as an escort, but in truth he was a watcher—nothing more, nothing less.
As I was getting an indirect taste of how exhausting the Dragon Goddess Maiden’s life must be, a high-ranking Inquisitor rushed in from outside.
He swept a flustered glance over us, then hurried to the cardinal and the Dragon Goddess Maiden and whispered urgently in their ears.
The cardinal’s eyes flew wide and he immediately began gauging our reactions—yet the tactless Dragon Goddess Maiden simply shouted for him to say it aloud.
“One of the Inquisitors caught wind that they would be detained for investigation and fled! Form a pursuit team at once!”
“D-Dragon Goddess Maiden! In front of outsiders!”
“Keeping one’s mouth shut after watching one’s own people sold out is far more shameful! Theosender—High Inquisitor—do not test my patience any further.”
At her sharp command to assemble a pursuit team immediately, the two dragonmen had no choice but to bow their heads and leave.
It seemed one of the Inquisitors belonged to Dogfight and, sensing exposure, was attempting to escape.
Staying here meant certain capture.
The man had rolled a die that showed either one or six.
“I should go.”
I rose slowly from my seat and took the sword at my waist.
“Huh? You’re going? Our pursuit team will depart at once.”
Jane spoke in panic, but this was hardly a situation that allowed for leisure.
“How do you expect a hastily thrown-together pursuit team to chase someone across this vast Dragon’s Border? The man knows the border better than anyone—he will already have secured escape routes.”
His entire job was standing guard here day after day; there was no chance he had failed to prepare that much.
“Eris, help me. I need eyes that can find him.”
“Don’t worry.”
In the pupils of Eris, who was already preparing alongside me, the mark of Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, had risen.
Kayalmirek—dragonman of Dogfight and Heretic Inquisitor—was running with all his strength, a green camouflage cloak wrapped tightly around him.
The hand that the human had pierced earlier throbbed, but he forced himself to ignore it and never stopped moving.
Damn it all!
What kind of mess was this, all because of those Dogfight bastards?
He, a Heretic Inquisitor, now had countless charges pinned on him and was wall-jumping like a common deserter.
It’s fine. Once I cross the Dragon’s Border I can meet the Dogfight people, change my appearance, and live on.
They turned humans into dragonmen.
They could turn dragonmen into humans as well.
Becoming human was revolting and disgusting, of course—but he had to survive first.
If he were caught now, execution was certain.
“Huff! Huff!”
Still, Kayalmirek possessed a fair measure of confidence that he could escape.
He had already secured a route through the long stretch of the Dragon’s Border, and he wore a camouflage cloak in this dense forest.
Finding him was practically impossible.
No matter how quickly the pursuit team was formed, they only just departed. The other outposts will also struggle to move immediately because of the commotion. By the time they reach the end of the border, I’ll already be treading human soil.
As he continued to run, an iron fence finally came into view.
For a martial-type like him, vaulting something of that height was child’s play—so the instant he prepared to leap—
A searing pain, as if he had been burned, flared through his thick tail.
“Guaaaagh!”
Kayalmirek twisted in panic to check his tail—only to find it was no longer there.
“Looking for this?”
A human held the severed tail, blood still dripping from it.
Daniel McLane.
“H-how…?”
It made no sense.
How in the world was he already here?
Reaching this place from Havelock Outpost took considerable time. He had run hard even with a head start precisely because he was wary of Eris, the forest-dwelling elf.
He crossed the forest faster than an elf?
It defied understanding, yet the reality stood before his eyes.
“So it was you, huh? No wonder you charged in alone looking so anxious earlier.”
“……”
Under normal circumstances he would have killed the solitary human and vaulted the fence.
But Kayalmirek, who had already tasted defeat at Daniel’s hands once, chose the ungraceful option of flight.
If he were caught here, the sentence was immediate death.
With that thought he prepared to cross the fence.
For some reason Daniel McLane merely stared at him without making any move to stop him.
In that instant a realization flashed through the dragonman’s mind and struck like a hammer.
“Ah…”
Kayalmirek hurriedly scrambled back onto dragonman soil.
That had been far too close.
If he had crossed into human territory right in front of that man…
“You noticed, huh?”
Only then did Daniel step forward, his fist slamming precisely into Kayalmirek’s abdomen.
Even with only the faintest trace of mana infused, the blow combined with Daniel’s physical power to unleash destructive force; Kayalmirek’s massive frame lifted clean off the ground and smashed through the iron fence to the far side.
“A-aah…”
Despair bloomed across Kayalmirek’s face.
From the mouth of Daniel McLane, who now walked toward him across the shattered fence, the judge’s sentence fell.
“When a human crosses into dragonman territory, every judicial right over him transfers to the dragonmen.”
That was why they could take a human, torture him inhumanely, or even devour him, and no human authority could interfere.
“The reverse is also true.”
Conversely—
the moment a dragonman set foot on human soil, every one of those rights was stripped away, and he became nothing more than a beast.
Kayalmirek shed tears of bitter lament, thinking he would have been better off caught by his own people.