CH 25

25 Those wings, a nuisance

Holy shit, that was close. Looks like I was barely on time……

I look at Alize behind me and brushed off her shoulder. The village suffered no damage, what with me sending the dragon breath flying into the sky.

“Ma, master……”

“My bad eh, for being late in dealing with it”

Seeing that I went to the dragon’s nest, it was my mistake for not considering the risk of its owner returning. I heard of a similar story where some adventurers challenged a nest with no dragon inside, subjugated the lizardmen inside it and took the treasures out. And the moment they left the nest, they unexpectedly stood face to face with the dragon who just went out by chance. Why do these inconvenient events happen with pinpoint precision I wonder……

“No…… That can’t be helped, but……”

“Hm?”

“Plea- please let her down soon.”

“ …… Ah”

“Funyaa…………”

I remember I was carrying Amelle on my back. She’s pretty exhausted and her eyes are going round…… I guess she won’t become useful at all like this. Well, I’ll apologize for running with all my strength, but the village will vanish if I was even a little slower, so please forgive me.

“I guess I should treat her to a meal…… Just a sec Alize, hold Amelle for me please.”

“I, I understand――――――ieh!”

“W-! Hey!”

Alize’s body crumbles down the moment she received Amelle. Looking at it closely, her body is tattered. It guess she’s already at the point she could barely stand up.

“I’m sorry…… for being a little late in catching her……”

“This guy’s a high rank species even among the dragons. You can’t do anything about that, it’s fine”

I cast the healing restoration magic <Perfect Heal>. With this magic that perfectly heals every wound as it name implies, the external wounds on Alize’s body vanished completely.

“It should be fine with this.”

“Tha- thank you very much”

“Don’t mind it――――――So, I’m gonna kill this thing a little”

“Eh?”

I run towards the dragon who was charging his breath again. Us having a leisure conversation is good and all, but that breath is already charged up thanks to that.

“Don’t you go pointing what’s coming out of your mouth this way!”

“Gugyaa!?”

The moment the dragon fires its breath, I jump up and kick its jaw up. The lump of magic power spilling from the dragon’s mouth once again disappear into the sky, causing an explosion.

A heat wave comes sweeping down on us, but I won’t be blown away with this amount and also, the village is safe since the explosion happened quite high up in the sky.

I land in accordance to gravity and I then jump once again. At the same time I unsheath Kuromaru from my magic bag.

“Those wings are a hindrance, huuh!?”

I cut a wing of the dragon who was still flinching from the kick in the jaw. The hard scales were utterly useless and the large build of the dragon falls to the ground at the same time a single huge wing fell.

“Grrrr……”

“Yo, how does it feel to fall down to the same height as a human being? Oh, mister proud dragon.”

I land while I shake the dragon’s blood off Kuromaru.

“Well, if it’s up to me, dragons and the all are just lizards with wings grown on them, right?

“Ga…… Gaaaaaaーーーーー!”

Oops, did he get angry?

Because dragons are highly intelligent, they can even understand our language. Somehow he’s feeling angry. Well, it’s obvious though when they’re being called a lizard.

The dragon who couldn’t fly anymore goes to strike me with its proud, strong arm. I intentionally don’t dodge it and try catching the blow with Kuromaru. A heavy weight is transmitted to my whole body, but that’s all it does.

“I knew it…… So you’re just an ordinary lizard ain’t ya!?”

With Kuromaru, I force back the arm I caught with all my strength. With the sudden resistance, the dragon has his arm repelled and its body rises against his will, exposing his defenseless stomach.

“You’re full of openings, you know.”

俺は〈飛剣〉を放つ。今度は洞窟の時よりも強めに。

地面すらも切り裂きながら進む飛ぶ斬撃は、体勢を崩している竜を両断し、後方に消えていった。村の門やら防壁やらまとめて吹き飛ばしちまったけど、村消滅よりはマシということで納得してもらおう。

I then release a <Flying blade>. This time it’s stronger than the one in the cave.

While cutting up even the ground, the slash flies forward and bisects the dragon whose posture was broken, and vanishes into the back. I accidentally blew away both the village gate and the wall in one go, but let’s get them understand that it’s better than the village getting annihilated.

“――――――You ended that too quickly……”

“What, did you just get here?”

Levia comes walking beside the bloodied corpse of the bisected dragon.

“That Flying Blade passed right beside me when I was running with everything I had, I was surprised you know.

“Aah, that was my bad”

If she gets hit by that while she’s not in the sea she’d probably die, won’t she? No well, if it’s her, I think she could defend it though……

“So, you’ve already solved the problem right?”

“Yeah, I guess. Hey Alize! It’s over now!”

“As, as expected of master……”

Says Alize with an amazed voice, seeing the dragon split in two. In one of her arms, there is a fainted Amelle and her other hand is connected with the hand of a small boy.

“That kid is?”

“There are broken houses over there, you see? This child lives in that house.”

According to Alize, she helped the kid out back then when I was fighting. But her face became gloomy midway her story.

“? What’s wrong?”

“ …… The one who told me this child was alive was Ramell…… However, Ramell is――――――”

“I see.”

I turned towards the collapsed soldier who is somewhat separated from my sight. I can notice it from the armour, but that’s definitely Ramell. But there’s no presence of magic power, his life had ended.

“He tried to save this child…… and got seen by the dragon.”

Saying that, Alize’s appearance was gloomy. I thought from the bottom of my heart that I’m glad Amelle fainted. A relative’s horrible way of death is not something you want to see.

Ramell was always brave …… and even this time when nobody could move, he was the only one who went towards the dragon…… And then……”

Tears gathered in Alize’s eyes.

“Say Alize, you liked Ramell didn’t you?”

“…………Yes.”

The moment she confessed, tears flowed through her cheeks.

It was at a pretty early stage when I noticed Alize’s feelings.  Her making a lively face when talking with Ramell is proof of that and Ramell himself likes Alize to the point of flaring up even against me.

…… It’s an awfully bad aftertaste, excessively bad.

“ …… Say, what if Ramell is still alive…… would you marry with that guy?”

“ …… What are you saying? That kind of fable――――――”

“Never mind that, just try and answer me okay?”

When I say that with a somewhat strong voice, Alize jumped up and trembled. And then, after showing a bit of hesitation, she began talking with a reluctant look.

“I would like to…… marry him. It’s impossible to do it immediately, but…… I would have liked to be in a relationship with him.”

“So you like him that much, right?”

“ …… Yes.”

…… fuh, there’s no choice then if it’s like that.

“Is that so, then wait just a little. Because I’m going to be waking up Ramell now.”

“Eh?”

“If I use this fella I’ll have a shot at it.”

While saying that, I take out a test tube like thing with some liquid out of my magic bag.

“A handmade resurrection medicine, it’s quite effective you know?”

◇　◇　◇

Telling them I need a place to use the medicine, I went to the forest outside the village while carrying Ramell. It was quiet within the forest where the lizardmen have disappeared and I hear nothing but the rustling of leaves with the exception of the occasional the bird’s voice I’m hearing. Nobody was following behind me. It’s because I also told them there are several considerably important steps when using this medicine and I don’t want those to be known.

After taking enough distance from the village, I lay down Ramell on the spot. And then then medicine I was holding I would――――――jokingly throw it away.

“ …… Like there’s such a convenient medicine.”

When mentioned the resurrection medicine and showed an appropriate potion, Alize ended up being deceived and made a glad looking face. I can’t say I felt guilty when I saw that. Levia had some thoughts about my appearance, but it looks like she noticed the lie.

“Well, reviving him…… is a fact, but…… I don’t really want to use it though.”

Despite grumbling to myself, I place both of my hands in front of my body.

“Wake up――――――<Gluttony>”