Wouldn't It Be More Comfortable for Lizards to Fight in Lizard Form?
Wouldn’t it be more comfortable for lizards to fight in their lizard form…?
It had already been over two years since I returned to Earth. After ending the stream and lying in bed, that thought suddenly occurred to me. Two years—a span of time that was by no means short. And most of that time had slipped by without any real meaning.
But over the past few months, my life had begun to change dramatically. I met Bora, started streaming, and received help from Tyuni. The fact that more and more people were appearing around me—someone who was used to solitude and had no choice but to remain alone—stirred up emotions I didn’t know how to describe.
Was this the kind of life Iia had wanted to see? If that was why she had sent me back to Earth….
“Hmph.”
Feeling embarrassed for no reason, I buried my face in the pillow. It wasn’t that I felt grateful or anything. Absolutely not.
The Tritan Continent had been suffering from a massive headache lately. Heretics had suddenly surged in every region, and even those already captured and made to repent were protesting that this was unfair.
“Sigh…. This time it happened in Triya Village.”
“Again? No way!!!”
“It’s true…. Get ready to head out immediately.”
At Lara’s words, Sasha slapped her forehead and sighed. For Sasha, who had only been a priest for a little over a year, the schedule was certainly brutal, but the situation had grown so dire that she couldn’t exactly complain.
“So? What are they saying this time?”
“The beastmen are gathering and claiming that the two gods worshipped by our two orders are false.”
“They’ve lost their minds….”
The devout priests Lara and Sasha simply couldn’t understand why anyone would do such a thing.
“But seriously, why has everything gotten so busy all of a sudden?”
“Huh? You’re asking that seriously?”
“Yes.”
“…Ah. It’s only been a year for you.”
Thinking it might indeed be hard for her to understand, Lara stated it plainly.
“That person suddenly vanished.”
“That person?”
“Selene. Our order’s Inquisitor.”
“Ah, Senior Lene…. I don’t think I’ve ever spoken with her….”
“Of course not. Even after more than ten years of this work, I can count the conversations I’ve had with her on one hand.”
Selene. That was the name of the woman who had served as the Ia Order’s Inquisitor for the past decade.
“…But Senior Lara, does it really make sense that things have gotten this bad just because one Inquisitor disappeared? It’s not like we don’t have others.”
“It’s not just any Inquisitor who disappeared. It’s Inquisitor Selene. …Though I suppose you’ve never seen her. Do you know about the time three dragons tried to challenge Lady Iia two years ago?”
“First I’m hearing of it.”
Lara chuckled at Sasha’s innocent reply.
“At the time, Lady Iia gave an oracle: ‘I will send the order’s Inquisitor. If you can defeat her, I will accept your challenge.’ How many Inquisitors do you think stepped up to fight dragons that day?”
“For dragons, obviously all the Inquisitors would have gone at once….”
“Wrong. The only Inquisitor who fought those dragons was Lene—by herself.”
“…What?!”
Sasha’s mouth fell open in shock, and Lara, clearly enjoying the reaction, continued with a smile.
“The sight of her returning to the order drenched in blood, three dragons collared and dragged behind her, still appears in my dreams sometimes. After that, nearly all the heretics vanished.”
“Is something like that even possible?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? The job of an Inquisitor exists for exactly that purpose. Of course, Lene was an exception among exceptions. Just how deep must her faith have been….”
A priest’s—especially an Inquisitor’s—power could be said to be decided by the strength of their faith. In other words, Lene’s faith, which had allowed her to single-handedly defeat three dragons, was on a level no other Inquisitor in the Ia Order could hope to match.
Yet Sasha only looked more puzzled.
“Isn’t that strange?”
“What is?”
“I sometimes saw Senior Lene muttering to herself when she was alone…. No matter how you look at it, it didn’t seem like the behavior of someone with strong faith….”
“Iia, you fucking bitch. Making me do this crap every single day. I’m going to curse you. I’ll get my revenge someday, you evil whore. You selfish bitch who only ever does whatever you want. Do you have any idea how much I suffer because of you?”
The words that spilled from Lene’s lips were, by any measure, not the speech of someone with deep faith. If anything, they bordered on blasphemy.
“Ah, that…. It did cause quite a stir back then… but Sasha, it’s the opposite of what you’re thinking. Her faith is simply too deep. That’s why she acts that way.”
“Huh?”
“It’s hard to explain, so just remember that. I told you it caused a lot of talk before, right? Lady Iia herself personally declared, ‘Lene’s behavior is cute, so I rather enjoy watching it.’ There’s no point arguing after that.”
Sasha tilted her head in utter confusion, looking as if her soul had left her body. But it couldn’t be helped. Everything Lara had just said was far too shocking for a priest who had only been in the role for a single year.
“Anyway, with Lene suddenly gone, the speed at which we can make heretics repent has slowed considerably…. That’s why we’ve become this busy.”
On top of that, an oracle had descended from Iia: Haven’t you all been shoving every task onto Lene until now? It’s time for you to put in some effort yourselves.
Haven't you all been shoving every task onto Lene until now? It’s time for you to put in some effort yourselves.
In short, they would not be getting any rest for the foreseeable future.
“I hate this, seriously…. I just want to rest….”
“Same here….”
In a cramped room with almost no daily necessities in sight, two figures were conversing.
“Those children said that you and Tet are now relics of a bygone age.”
“…Do they not understand the roles the two gods fulfill?”
“There’s no way they don’t. If anything, they probably understand better than you or Ariel. They say it while fully aware. That this is their era now.”
“What kind of idiotic…”
The middle-aged man with faded gray hair—Reinhardt, Pope of the Ia Order—let out a heavy sigh.
“Aaaah~. After being treated like that, is there any reason for me to keep working? Should I just leave everything to those children and go rest with Tet~?”
“Even as a joke, that isn’t funny, Goddess.”
Reinhardt’s greenish eyes sharpened. However, the blue-haired woman—Ariel, Saint of the Ia Order… or more precisely, Iia who had possessed Ariel’s body—merely shrugged with a smile, as if none of it bothered her. Her amber eyes held nothing but pure amusement.
“No matter how I think about it… if it’s them, we cannot send ordinary children.”
“Well, that’s true. So…”
“U-um… excuse me….”
A tiny voice interrupted their conversation. Its source was the bed in the corner of the room. Only a pair of ruby-like red eyes peeked out from beneath the blanket the girl had pulled over herself.
“Why are the two of you talking in my room of all places…?”
Reinhardt sighed at the girl’s words while Iia giggled with delight.
“If there is a reason the Goddess and I are speaking here, there can only be one, Lene.”
“…Uweh?”
“Heretics. It seems you will need to take action.”
“Yep. That’s how things turned out, so I’m counting on you, okay?”
“Ehh….”
The location was a snow-covered mountain, everything buried beneath pure white snow. At its peak stood three men. From left to right: one with brilliant golden hair, one with hair as pure white as the snow itself, and one with hair the vivid red of flames. But the most striking feature was the curved horns rising from each of their heads. Their shape was entirely different from the straight horns of the demon race, and an overwhelming amount of mana flowed from them—something beastmen could never possess.
In other words, their true identities were dragons currently using polymorph.
“Didn’t she say she would send a single Inquisitor?”
“She did.”
“The goddess must be insane. What could one person possibly accomplish….”
“There is no need for all three of us. I alone will end this immediately.”
Each one was a supreme race that could be called a natural disaster. The fact that three of them had gathered meant anything could happen.
Step. Step.
“Hm?”
“She’s here.”
Before them, a figure appeared.
“…What is this?”
“H-hello….”
It was a small girl with silver-white hair and striking red eyes. Her appearance seemed completely out of place for the catastrophe that was about to unfold, yet the priestess robes she wore clearly marked her as belonging to the Ia Order.
“…Are you the Inquisitor we were told would come?”
When the white-haired man asked, the girl quietly nodded.
“Kahahaha! Have the so-called gods truly lost their minds?!”
They burst into laughter. Sending a girl like this could only mean they had already accepted their own defeat.
“Y-you three… are the incredibly large and arrogant l-lizard bastards who said they would challenge Iia… right…?”
At the girl’s words, their laughter stopped. They frowned, staring at her.
“How dare a insignificant insect speak such words?”
“If you had simply accepted defeat and withdrawn, none of this would have been necessary….”
An overwhelming pressure accompanied by powerful mana poured down on her. Yet the girl’s expression did not change. She simply trembled where she stood.
“Y-you’re not planning to fight in that form, are you…? That’s a little… No. It’s q-quite inconvenient…. I-isn’t it m-more c-comfortable for l-lizards to fight in their l-lizard form…?”
“You dare demand that we show our true selves to the likes of you!”
Enraged by what he took as mockery, the red-haired man swung his hand. A blade of mana flew toward the girl. It became a storm of magical power that tore into her. That should have been the end.
But it wasn’t.
BOOM!
A heavy sound echoed across the snowy mountain. A massive warhammer had appeared, embedded in the ground, and the girl stood behind it, quietly offering a prayer.
“…Did she block it with that?”
“No… it is the Goddess’s protection.”
Only then did the three realize their opponent was no ordinary foe. The girl who had finished praying slowly opened her eyes and declared to them: