“Is it…… over……?”
Gasping for breath, Irina lay sprawled on the floor of the Order, her gaze turned toward the sky.
Would it feel like this if the end of the world came?
For hours without rest, the sounds of collision and thunder had shaken heaven and earth.
Lightning and flashing light.
She had concentrated directly beneath it all to restore her divinity, but in truth, her heart had been pounding no less violently than the battlefield.
How could she not be afraid?
A dragon the size of a fortress flew through the sky, a divine beast roared, and beings who commanded lightning and thunder clashed.
How could one’s heart remain calm beneath all that?
Even so, Irina had done it in the end.
“I…… did well, right?”
The original goal had been to protect the main headquarters.
The first purpose had been to protect the very heart of the Order, a place with an immaculate history, once called a sanctuary.
But when the darkness was torn apart and she felt the goddess’s touch.
When she sensed divinity within it.
And when she realized the one who had manifested it was Hio, and that it was his trump card.
She had poured out all the divinity she had recovered and joined it to that golden hand.
“Since that evil dragon fell after that, and the others have gone quiet as well, I would say you did well. Though, what would I know…….”
Beside Irina, who lay on the floor, the captain of the guard still remained.
“Sir.”
“Yes, Saintess.”
“Please keep it a secret from Grandpa Herald that I’m lying down like this.”
“Of course. Do not worry.”
“If he finds out, he’ll nag me endlessly about the dignity and decorum of a Saintess.”
“Hahaha. Everyone in the Holy Kingdom knows how dearly the High Priest cherishes you, Saintess.”
The surroundings were utterly quiet, as if that fierce battle had never happened.
What had the result been?
Why had the dragon knight and the mage Hio, who seemed to know each other, fought?
There were not just one or two things she found strange, but for now, she simply wanted to rest.
It was the first time she had ever wrung out her divinity to this extent.
Perhaps what people commonly called mana exhaustion felt similar; there was not a shred of strength left in her body.
“It’s raining, Saintess.”
The raindrops that had been falling little by little through the wide-open roof soon began pouring down with a shaaa.
Irina’s eyes closed pleasantly in the cool downpour.
“I will look for something to shield you from the rain.”
“It’s all right. I just want to stay like this.”
“You will catch a cold.”
“I’ve never caught a cold before. I’m a Saintess, you know. Hehe.”
“That is…… enviable.”
At that, the captain of the guard also stopped moving and stood still, looking up at the sky.
The sky seen while standing in the pouring rain.
A sky where the thunder and lightning had vanished, only thick with dark clouds.
“I have decided to believe every story from the myths now.”
Until just moments ago, a dragon had been flying through that sky.
A knight holding a spear and a mage holding a staff had been locked in combat.
“I used to think myths and legends were filled with nothing but absurd tales, but now I wonder if they were actually passed down in diminished form.”
Because he had been there at the scene, tasked with protecting the Saintess, he had seen everything.
Even while Irina had closed her eyes and concentrated, he had been craning his neck to look at the sky, so he knew.
The mage commanded lightning, thunder, and flame.
The knight controlled a dragon with his spear.
And the evil dragon roaring between them overwhelmed them both.
Perhaps he had witnessed a myth that had continued on unknown to the world.
Perhaps he had stood in the midst of it.
“It makes me wonder if they are truly the same humans as us. I had been so proud of reaching the mere 5th rank, and now I feel terribly ashamed.”
At the captain’s words, Irina gave a faint smile.
Her eyes were still closed, as she enjoyed the strangely refreshing rain.
“I told you, didn’t I? The mage is truly an amazing person.”
“……Yes. When I heard that Verden’s new guardian knight had been born, I thought he was rather unlucky. After all, he became the guardian knight right after that Sword Saint.”
He had thought the man would be compared no matter what he did.
Though the Sword Saint himself had acknowledged him, was Sword Saint Vitalianus not a hero who seemed to have been painted into legend over long ages?
“I had heard the rumors that he was a mage who wielded lightning, that he commanded a knight who refused death, and so on, but this…… does it not seem the rumors were lacking?”
Why he was called the new hero succeeding the Sword Saint.
How Black Fang, which had reigned through terror, had been forced to fall.
He understood at once.
Lying down, Irina gave a small nod.
“You’re right. I’m always only receiving help from such an amazing mage.”
Looking back, their first meeting had been born of an extremely trivial opportunity.
She did not know whether it had been luck or the guidance of the goddess.
At the time, she had met him without any idea that he was such an extraordinary being.
She had only given him a very small amount of help.
Yet what she had received in return was far too great.
The awakening of her own ability.
The fact that he had faced the Sword Saint for her sake and cleared her friends of false charges.
And even now, at this very moment.
Was she not receiving help so great that she could not even guess how to repay it?
So.
“I need to…… work harder. There is still so much I don’t know about divinity.”
She wished to be of even the slightest help in what he was facing.
She wished she could at least put his mind a little more at ease, and so the desire to study quickly grew inside her.
The divinity she possessed was so extraordinary that it far surpassed even Cardinal Herald’s, but she was still immature in how to use it, and there was much she did not know.
“For some reason, I also feel like swinging my sword right away.”
“Then let’s both do our best.”
“Hahaha. It is an honor, Saintess.”
The rain that had been falling pleasantly was gradually stopping.
Once this rain ceased, those who had briefly come to a halt would begin moving again.
More vigorously than before. With renewed strength.
Therefore, this rain was a rain that announced a new beginning.
A message saying to pour everything out coolly, and then begin again.
And so the rain that had fallen pleasantly for a while.
“Wow…… it’s beautiful.”
Came to an end along with glittering stardust.
* * *
After a short rest, Irina recovered just a little of her strength and immediately began moving.
“Ah, thank you, Sir.”
With the captain of the guard’s cloak covering her rain-soaked body, Irina slowly moved her feet.
Their destination, of course, was the place where the dragon had fallen.
“Do you think the dragon is truly dead?”
“It roared and rampaged so fiercely, yet now it is far too quiet, is it not? It must be dead.”
“I suppose so…….”
The figure of that unknown knight, who had seemed somehow sorrowful, came to mind, but there was nothing she could do.
Other than the dragon, the nameless knight, and the mage Hio Pavlenko, no one knew the exact circumstances.
The streets were silent.
The soldiers and knights who had tried to remain until the end after the battle began, and even the high priests who had blocked the dragon’s attacks several times with divine blessings, had all taken shelter, leaving the area sunk in a silence like a ghost town.
The damage to the city was considerable, but casualties caused by the dragon were almost nonexistent.
Considering the scale of the battle, it was nothing short of a miracle.
“It should be near Raphaella Square.”
If they passed one collapsed building and then walked between several more buildings, they would reach the square where the statue of Raphaella, the angel of Lifue, stood at the center.
A square where people rejoiced in peace, and hymns singing of God always rang out beneath the statue.
The dragon was there.
They were still in an alley, so only part of the square was visible, but even so, the enormous tail could clearly be seen.
A part of the dragon that had swept through the sky without restraint.
Irina and the captain of the guard raised their tension as they moved.
The clock tower stood straight ahead, soaring high above them.
The closer they drew to it, the closer the square became, and the wider their field of view grew.
Past the dragon’s tail, its legs, and then the body that gradually revealed itself.
And then.
“……Saintess, just now, I’m certain…….”
The tail moved.
It had only been an instant, but it had definitely moved.
They had thought it was dead, so they doubted their eyes for a moment, but there was no way they could have mistaken the movement of such an enormous tail.
The dragon had certainly moved.
“What is this……?”
They had to grasp the situation accurately.
If that thing was alive, disaster would unfold once again.
They would have to send back the knights who were approaching this place, just as they were.
And just as Irina and the captain of the guard, caught in confusion and bewilderment, tried to approach the square more quickly.
“Irina.”
A familiar voice stopped them.
“Mage……?”
It was Hio Pavlenko.
With a face that seemed somewhat tired, Hio adjusted his hat and walked toward the two of them.
“Could you pretend you didn’t see that? Irina, and…….”
When Hio’s gaze reached him, the captain of the guard gave a short bow.
“I am Everchen Baanes.”
“Yes. Sir Baanes. I ask this of you. Please consider that you saw nothing just now.”
Hio’s tired face turned past the two of them, toward the distant rear.
Many people were gathering and coming this way.
The lightning and thunder had stopped, and the rain no longer fell.
Sensing that the battle had ended, they were approaching cautiously, with knights at the lead.
“It will become known someday, but that time cannot be now.”
These were already chaotic times.
The entire continent had yet to even grasp the concept of joining forces against the clear enemy known as the Abyss, and a dragon appearing in such a time could, by its very existence, bring about even greater chaos and war.
“We need time.”
That was why time was needed.
For the people.
And for the dragon.
“Could you turn your backs for a moment, pretend you saw nothing, and stop the people?”
They did not need a great deal of time right away.
Just a little time.
As long as they gave them enough time for the dragon to hide itself from the people.
At that, Irina nodded without much hesitation.
“Someday…… you’ll tell me everything, won’t you?”
“Of course, Irina.”
“All right. I’ll persuade the people so they can’t approach.”
Irina spoke bravely, but in truth, she could not control that many people all by herself.
The square was wide, the dragon was enormous, and there were many people approaching.
She told Hio about that problem, but.
“But I won’t be able to stop everyone.”
“You need not worry about that.”
Hio merely lifted his staff lightly and gave a slight smile.
It was a composed smile despite how full of fatigue he was.
“You only need to tell them not to enter the square.”
“……All right. I’ll make sure to do that, Mage.”
Irina nodded solemnly, as if she had been entrusted with a tremendous mission.
Hio smiled at Irina and raised his staff a little higher.
The captain of the guard, Everchen, asked Hio one final question.
From his perspective, this was the most important thing.
“The evil dragon…… is truly dead, is it not?”
The evil dragon that had rampaged as if it wished to destroy the Order, to destroy Hibernia itself.
If it was not dead and still lived, would it not be a calamity that would someday erupt upon them once more?
That was why he asked, and Hio answered firmly.
“It is dead. Even its soul has been perfectly extinguished.”
Then the tip of the raised staff drew a circle in the air.
From its end, a blue-green light began to spread.
「Skill - ‘Entangle’ is activated.」
The skill, born from magic and manifested, began forming a forest centered on the square.
Giant grasses grew, and vines climbed up over buildings, surrounding the square.
Plants sprouted from between the dirt ground and even pierced through stone.
They hid the dragon’s form, hid the dragon knight who would be standing before it, and then went on to conceal the entire square.
Faced with a sight unfolding before his eyes that was truly like magic, Everchen murmured as if entranced and asked.
“I understand…… The dragon knight and Verden’s guardian knight slew the evil dragon. Would it be acceptable to say that?”
Hio, who had turned to look at the growing forest, shook his head at those words.
With a rather bitter smile on his face, his answer to the question was a denial.
“No. That is not it.”
The dragon knight who had waited a thousand years succeeded in killing the dragon.
Was that not far too cruel a story?
And so.
“I killed the wicked evil dragon.”
That would be right.
“I erased it, soul and all, without leaving even a fragment of bone behind.”
That was how it had to be remembered by everyone in the world.
The truth was that the dragon had not been evil; it had merely wished to live.
The knight who faced it had only wished to protect that dragon.
And the dragon had wished for the knight to go on living.
“You don’t have to worry.”
A story that had continued for a thousand years for nothing more than that.
“It’s over now.”
Well, there would be no need for such a complicated story.
[Hidden Trait: Violence Is Bad! (Patience: 664 / 1000)]