Episode 15
Carnelian dragged her beloved sword, Mistral, along the ground with a tired expression, indifferently passing through the crowd cheering for the war's victory as she headed toward the inn where her 'Master,' Julitan, was. The red suit she had been wearing since the earlier match was covered in the dust of war, so to others she might have looked like a pitiful young girl returning home after finishing manual labor.
'My back hurts like I'm going to die. I tried to land coolly…… Am I getting old now?'
As they say, you reap what you sow.
'I should go in and ask Master to put a hot compress on my back. Anyway, whew…… What business does that Karina or whatever have meeting me here.'
Carnelian's grumbling continued endlessly, and only after putting herself in the worst mood did she finally arrive in front of the guest room door where Julitan was. She let out a long sigh and opened the door.
"Master. My back hurts so put an ice pack on it quickly…… Ing?"
Carnelian's steps, which had been entering the room, stopped. Though quick to judge situations, it took her a few seconds to grasp the situation inside the room. That is, the situation in the room that Carnelian was looking at with an unbelieving face was as follows: A half-naked elf dancer who had just begun undressing, revealing her milky skin on her chest and legs, stood in the living room with her head bowed, and Julitan, sitting on the sofa with a bewildered expression, was looking at that pitiful-looking elf. If this situation meant anything…… there was only one thing to expect. By this point, her head held no thoughts of Master or anything else.
"You…… you…… you rotten……"
Carnelian's rage gauge began to rise rapidly, and Julitan hurriedly began making excuses upon seeing Carnelian. An expression of fear toward death was even etched on his face.
"Mi, mi, mi, misunderstanding! I was just……"
Anyway, regardless of the era, a flustered appearance only loses more persuasiveness. To explain her current expression in one word, it was: 'My master was a pervert who played around with an elf in broad daylight.'
"Hey, you stupid bastaaaaard!"
Carnelian's uniquely high-pitched, hysterical voice truly stimulated a spine-chilling fear in those who heard it. Holding her radiant sword Mistral aloft, she strode toward Julitan, who was crushed by her voice and unable to say a word.
"I went out to the remaining battlefield and fought like hell before coming back……"
Her eyes blazing with a red radiance.
"……And this so-called master, the only thing he does is……"
As she strode closer, she spat out words like a stamp, each one sounding like a final farewell to the world of the living. However, in truth, the only thing Carnelian had done on the battlefield was fall right between Jelrid and Rii and hurt her back.
"Ah, no. Listen to me. Uwaaaah! What are you doing!"
Julitan could feel the cold chill of the radiant sword Mistral against his neck. This was no joke, really.
"It seems you think I carry a blunt sword as a toy…… Shall we test whether this blade can or cannot cut your neck! You perverted chef!"
Carnelian's eyes were so filled with madness that they overflowed. A sense of unease—that she might really kill him—flashed through Julitan's mind.
"Please, just listen to me!"
Julitan's desperate voice echoed throughout the inn.
"So the owner of this place sent the elf?"
"That's what I'm saying!"
Julitan had a very aggrieved expression, but Carnelian continued to glare at him. Well, Julitan didn't seem to be lying. So the situation was that the owner had sent up an elf dancer to butter up the 'Sir Knight,' and the elf had arbitrarily begun undressing. And Julitan was too incompetent to even stop her.
"I tried to stop her too! But no matter how much I shouted, that elf…… couldn't understand human language at all!"
"Hoo. Is that so?"
She was a surprisingly suspicious woman. Julitan put on a meaningful smile at her appearance and said.
"Oohoohoohoo. Could you perhaps be jealous right now…… Uwaah!"
"……."
The sword Carnelian thrust without a word touched the edge of Julitan's neck. She was not only suspicious but also had fierce pride. She spoke to Julitan in an icy voice.
"It seems you have lived in this world as long as I have, Master. You don't seem to have much intention of living any longer."
She truly had a terrifying personality.
"S, sword…… Put it away and talk."
"Do you think elves are doing that because they want to? It's absurd to demand they muster the courage to defy humans now, but they are also a proud race like all other beings. They probably never feel their own lives as pathetic as when they have no choice but to do as ordered……"
Carnelian sheathed her sword and brought it to her chest as if embracing it while saying that. How should one put it? If Julitan felt that her words were mixed with self-mockery about her own life, would that be a groundless assumption?
"But what happened to the battle? It seemed like Sir Rii won the battle."
Julitan changed the subject because the conversation was becoming uncomfortable. He was curious as well.
"She met an incredible man. They say Sir Rii almost died."
"Wh, what?"
To Julitan, Rii had seemed like a knight among knights who would never be shaken—was there really someone who could drive her to death? Just what level of skill did he possess?
"It was someone called Jelrid…… From his actions, he didn't seem to be a knight, but anyway, Sir Rii is severely wounded now. If it weren't for me, someone would have died."
It wasn't a lie. Because Carnelian had suddenly crashed onto the battlefield and somehow spoiled Jelrid's mood, causing him to turn back.
"Si, Sir Rii is wounded? Shouldn't we go visit her?"
"Don't go."
"Why?"
"Because I don't want you going there and muttering only to get exposed as not being a knight, so avoid contact with Sir Rii as much as possible."
"……."
She was a meticulous and cold-hearted woman. She still seemed to have not abandoned her ambition to raise Julitan as a knight, or to deceive others with him. Anyway, while talking about Jelrid, she didn't mention Karina at all. How should one put it…… perhaps an expression that said she didn't want to think about her even a little?
"Well, about the elf thing from before…… you don't need to worry."
Julitan scratched the back of his head and said with an embarrassed face.
"Just seeing your naked body in the past surprised me so much…… I still remember it even now……"
"……!"
Carnelian's face turned red as if something incredibly hot had exploded inside her body.
"But you, unlike your personality…… your figure……"
Though Julitan didn't know, those words were a huge mistake. Her cooled anger began to boil up again.
"Wh, why would you say that! You idiot! Die!"
"Uwaaaah! Why are you doing this!"
With her face burning red, Carnelian began swinging the radiant sword Mistral at Julitan. No matter how you looked at him, he was truly a pathetic tamer.
Unlike the forceful atmosphere at Julitan's place, Rii and Icates were surprisingly calm and quiet.
Standing behind Rii, who had taken off her top, Icates skillfully stopped the bleeding of the deep wound on Rii's right shoulder and then skillfully wrapped it in bandages. In truth, the problem was not such external injuries but being poisoned by Jelrid's deadly poison. As if to demonstrate the power of that poison, Rii's cheeks and lips were paler than ever before.
"Your right arm…… Can you move it?"
Icates asked with a worried expression, but surprisingly, Rii was calm. She looked at Icates with a strained smile.
"It's not exactly a shallow wound, after all. If Helmond attacks in the meantime, we'll be in big trouble."
Rii's right arm muscles seemed clearly torn. Thanks to a knight's uniquely strong physique, she would recover soon, but until then she couldn't wield a sword proficiently. Moreover, due to the poison, it was actually difficult just to remain standing. Icates showed genuine concern for Rii. So…… one might say it was an expression rarely seen on Carnelian.
"It would be best to return to the castle quickly and receive treatment…… Your complexion looks very bad."
"I know this is Jelrid's poison. It's not something that can be easily cured just by going to the castle. And I…… have to wait for him. We need to finish the fight from before. Let's return to the castle after meeting Jelrid."
Contrary to her calm voice, a resolute determination could be seen in Rii's eyes, and it cast a shadow over the beautiful face of the pretty boy, Icates.
"Icates…… There is something that occasionally makes me anxious when this time comes."
Rii looked at the sunset burning outside the window and spoke. The sunset around evening, which soaked the world thoroughly, exerted a power that could dye even a massive mountain red in an instant.
"I wonder how I must live when tomorrow comes. Sometimes I'm really afraid to the point where I can't breathe. Maybe time, which is given fairly to all beings in the world, is burdensome to me. Perhaps what Jelrid said to me years ago…… A cowardly girl who wounds her own body because she's afraid of being hurt by others…… Perhaps those words are really true."
There was no sign of hatred or disillusionment toward Jelrid in Rii's appearance as she hunched her shoulders, which looked narrower than ever. Nor was there the appearance of a strong knight she had shown in front of Julitan.
"Lady Rii……"
Icates looked as if he, for once, couldn't figure out what to say.
"Icates. Could you prepare my clothes? Jelrid will come soon."
The 'clothes' she spoke of were the knight's garments worn in war or duel. Icates looked at Rii's ivory-colored cloak hanging on the clothes rack, still stained with blood from the earlier battle, with pained eyes. As if by fate, the sunset began to disappear beyond the horizon.
-intro
"I feel a resonance…… A familiar resonance……"
Her eyes suddenly losing focus, she muttered with an anxious expression.
"Wh, why are you like this?"
"He has returned. My…… tamer……"
"If you mean tamer, surely not?"
She had briefly heard about her former master, but she was certain she had been told he had disappeared by now.
"Who are you!"
It was as if he had wandered through an ominous forest without a sword and encountered a great wolf. It was only natural that the sentry of Bellesima was paralyzed with terror at the sight of Jelrid approaching with cold eyes. The spear the sentry pointed at Jelrid trembled helplessly.
"Step aside, common soldiers."
Jelrid walked toward them without even drawing his sword.
"Yo, you are……"
"Karina."
Karina of the night had the appearance of a leopard. Karina, who had sprung out from behind Jelrid in an instant, soared into the air and delivered a direct strike to the massive castle gate that seemed like it would only open if three or four people pushed together. An unbelievable power burst from that small body, and soon the castle gate collapsed with a loud noise.
"Huu…… A nightmare!"
"He's here."
Rii picked up her rapier placed before the table and stood up. Since her right arm wrapped in bandages was in a state where she absolutely couldn't use a sword, she had no choice but to hold the blade in her left hand. She looked at Icates, whose expression was anxious, and spoke calmly.
"If I die, you should find another master."
It was a kind of resonance. A resonance infused with intimacy in the words of Rii, an excellent tamer, that held influence to the extent that a seal could not refuse it—one that would prevent Icates from losing his reason even if she died. However, Icates, Rii's loyal seal, couldn't remain still after sensing Rii's resolve.
"I wish to help as well. For Lady Rii to die in a place like this……"
"I'm not dead yet, not yet. It's not too late to make that face after I'm dead."
"……But."
"Then I'll be going."
Rii quietly opened the door and went out with the composure of old, unlike her face that was enduring pain from the poison. The soft sound of Rii's footsteps descending from this floor continued to echo in the ears of Icates, who seemed to have gone deaf to all else, before soon fading into the distance.
Dragon Lady
Author/ Gim Cheolgon
Publisher/ Bak Seongin
Editor-in-Chief/ Editorial Department
Published by/ Next Level Studio
Address/ 4F, 113 Seongsui-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Phone/ 070-8801-6987
ISBN 979-11-92729-25-1
This book is published as an ebook by Next Level Studio under contract with the copyright holder.
Unauthorized reproduction of this book's contents without the publisher's permission is prohibited by copyright law.