Pride
Ryung, closing in to kill Rainia, felt something streaking toward him from behind and spun around.
Nine dragons were diving straight for him.
Ha—!
It was an attack he had never imagined in his wildest dreams. Controlling dragons? The dragonkin would have fainted from sheer shock if they saw this.
But Ryung, who held neither fear nor reverence for dragons, settled into a stance and prepared to strike them down.
"Secret Art of the Tiger-Wolf Style."
Dragon-Tiger Clash.
He swung his arms and legs at the oncoming dragons.
The first dragon. He swatted it aside with ease.
The second dragon. It tore through his shoulder as it passed.
The third dragon. He kicked it away.
The fourth dragon. It sank its teeth into his thigh.
The fifth dragon. It shredded his entire body to ribbons.
The seventh dragon. It claimed his left wrist.
The ninth dragon. It claimed his right leg.
"Aha—ahahahaha—!"
Even with one wrist and one leg gone, blood pouring freely from every wound, Ryung did not flinch. He threw his head back and laughed with pure, unbridled delight.
As if injuries of this caliber meant nothing at all. Balancing on one remaining leg, he looked across the field at Evan, who still gripped the hilt of his sword in the distance.
"What are you waiting for? Come on—fire. You won't be able to dodge the way you did before."
Ryung said it with Evan's earlier Sky Slash still fresh in his mind. His leg was gone. That meant more than half his mobility was gone with it.
And with a hand missing as well, even abandoning his pride to scramble away on all fours was impossible. A tiger with its feet bound. Against Evan, who possessed a magic sword that could attack unilaterally from afar, he was an easy target.
But Evan did not end the fight that way.
Thud, thud—Evan walked forward until he stood well within reach of Ryung's remaining limbs, close enough that mobility hardly mattered, and looked him in the eye.
"Come at me."
"…What are you thinking?"
"—Because it would be a waste for a man of your experience and skill to die over a single mistake born of insufficient talent."
Hearing his own words thrown straight back at him, Ryung froze, staring hard at Evan.
But only for a moment. The phrase just deserts crossed his mind, and he burst into another roaring laugh.
"Euha—ahahahaha—!"
"What's wrong? Don't tell me everything you've shown so far was all you had."
"—One good hit and you've gotten awfully full of yourself! Evaaaaan—!"
And in the next instant, Ryung swung his severed limbs in an attack. Evan, who had never expected a strike from the missing side, was a fraction late to react—but it hardly mattered.
Not right now, at least.
"Ninth Form."
A single swing of the blade became three. Three blades became nine.
"Absolute Severance."
Blades that occupied every direction came flying in.
Ryung threw his wounded body straight into them.
A moment later, the two of them passed each other by.
"Cough—!"
I spat out a mouthful of blood. My insides must have taken a serious beating—even standing still made my gut throb with a dull, grinding ache.
I wanted nothing more than to collapse on the spot, but I forced myself to turn around instead. Ryung, covered in deep gashes from head to toe, had already hit the ground first.
"…You're strong, Evan."
"You were strong too, mister."
"At least keep your speech consistent to the end. What's with the flip-flopping?"
"Ah, well—earlier the blood had gone to my head… The fight's over now, so I should speak politely to my elders."
I said it as I sat down beside the immobilized Ryung. When I settled next to him, he rolled his eyes just enough to look at me.
"Weird kid… When I was your age, I dropped all formality with my boss and even picked fights with him."
"You were a complete maniac."
"Well, living like that is how I became the boss, I suppose…"
Ryung slowly raised a hand, fingers curling as if to seize the sun hanging in the sky above.
"I thought… I'd touched the sky…"
His trembling hand dropped limply to the ground. Having wrung out the last of his strength with that single gesture, Ryung spoke in a voice already halfway to death.
"If I… if I die… use my hide and claws well… I hope…"
"Ah, yeah, that's not happening."
"Pff—! Ghk, khehk—!"
I upended a potion over the head of the dying Ryung. A Highest-Class potion issued to Special-Class adventurers. Expensive as it was, the gashes covering his body began to close before my eyes.
Once I confirmed the wounds had roughly regenerated, I cracked open another bottle for myself, then checked on Ryung's severed arm and leg lying some distance away.
"Rainia. Could you bring those limbs over here?"
"…Evan. Are you planning to spare that man?"
"Huh? So I should kill him? I'm not some murderer… I've never killed a person before."
At that, Rainia tilted her head as if she couldn't quite believe what she was hearing.
"The black mage terrorist attack in Bland County. Word is you were the one who stopped it."
"Yeah, and?"
"You killed every last one of those black mages without leaving a single survivor."
"Their names have 'black' and 'mage' in them. They're not people—they're demons, right?"
Every book I'd ever read said the same thing. If a name had "black" and "demon" in it, they were evil beings who'd given up on being human.
So black mages aren't human either, right? Cyrus? His nickname has "Demon" in it, so he's a demon, right?
Hearing this, Rainia wore an extremely awkward expression and scratched her cheek.
"…Evan. Black mages are still human, you know."
"What!? Don't lie to me!"
"I'm not lying…"
"Pff—puhahahaha—!"
"…?"
Ryung, still lying on the ground mid-recovery, suddenly exploded with laughter. When I turned to look at him, wondering what that was about, he stared back at me with an expression of pure disbelief.
"To think I lost to a greenhorn who doesn't even know how the world works… Unbelievable."
"Mister. You lost, so be quiet. Anyway—I'm not a murderer who goes around killing innocent people. And this guy never tried to kill me from the start."
More than anything, this man had the gall—right after losing to me—to pretend to accept death with dignity, to put on a whole show of dying nobly and honorably.
A loser, of all people.
"You lost, and you still want me to decorate your death beautifully? That's arrogant. Whether you live or die is my call. Who said you get to die on your own terms?"
"Kha—khahaha—! Yeah. You're right about that too, Evan."
Understanding my point and laughing through it, Ryung pushed himself up despite his unfinished recovery and went to collect his severed limbs from where they'd fallen.
He pressed the cut surfaces back together himself, then asked me for a potion. I tossed a Highest-Class bottle over with a flick of my wrist and splashed it across the severed joints.
Sizzle—! With the sound of flesh knitting itself back together, Ryung's cleanly severed arm and leg reattached themselves.
"Mm—that'll do."
"You're not finishing the bottle? It's going to scar."
"Scars are a warrior's medals."
With a roaring Awooo—!, Ryung's mere roar was enough to snap his subordinates free of Rainia's hypnosis. He turned toward the Nine Lives mansion.
"You lot—! Sleeping on the job? Get over here, now!"
"W-wha? Boss? H-hold on!"
"We're coming with you!"
Without so much as a goodbye, Ryung simply walked forward, eyes fixed ahead. Watching him go, I thought, Yeah—you need that kind of stubborn grit to get that strong. Only after they vanished from sight did I finally collapse.
"Evan!?"
"Uwaaaa… I'm dying…"
"Are you all right?"
"Noooo…"
The potions had treated the wounds inside and out, but they couldn't restore stamina that had already hit rock bottom. A bone-deep exhaustion seized my entire body—I couldn't so much as twitch a fingertip.
Cradled in Rainia's arms, I murmured softly.
"I'm so tired… Hold me. Rainia…"
"…All right. That much I can do."
"It hurts… a little gentler…"
Feeling something soft and ticklish brush against me again and again, I slipped under.
After Evan collapsed, Rainia held him close and wrapped her tail around him, tilting her head as she wondered whether this would be enough.
It was soft when I touched it myself…
She thought this as she gave her tail a gentle sway. The fur was softer and fluffier than anything she'd ever felt. Surely Evan would sleep soundly like this.
Satisfied, Rainia carried him to a nearby patch of shade. Once they were settled somewhere cool enough that the sun wouldn't disturb his rest, she wrapped her tail around him again and stroked him gently.
"Mmm…"
Ehk…!?
Perhaps the tail brushing his face had tickled him—Evan squeezed it hard.
It wasn't painful, but the intense sensation reaching all the way to the base of her tail made Rainia realize something: outside of combat, her tail was far too sensitive.
Squeeze, squeeze—every time Evan wrung her tail, a current of electricity raced up her spine.
"E-Evaaan…? I-if you touch it like that…"
"Uuung—"
"Hnnngh—!"
Watching Evan stuff the tip of her tail into his mouth and chew on it, Rainia briefly wondered whether the little brat was only pretending to sleep.
But after watching him for a while, she confirmed he was genuinely out cold. He was simply touching the warm, cozy tail beside him on pure reflex.
"S-stop…"
Tremble—!
In the end, Rainia couldn't muster any resistance at all and simply surrendered her tail to him.
Whether or not he understood how she felt, Evan kept stroking it without pause.
"Yaaawn… H-huh? Rainia?"
When I opened my eyes, I found Rainia looking down at me with a bright red face, and I scrambled upright in a hurry.
She had been propping my head on her thigh. She rose just as quickly, brushing the dust from her backside and her tail with brisk little pats.
"Y-you're awake? Then let's go."
"Huh? Yeeeah…"
"Ahem."
Rainia spun around at once and hurried off with short, quick steps, as if she couldn't get away fast enough.
Trailing after her, I noticed something sticky clinging to my hair.
Water…?
Maybe some dew had dripped on me. I brushed the dampness from my hair and casually fell into step beside her.
"Rainia, I'm sorry."
"S-sorry for what?"
"No, just… everything."
"Forget it. You don't need to apologize. Be grateful instead."
"Then thank you."
Rainia never once met my eyes. I spent the rest of the way back to bed wondering what on earth I'd done wrong.