Ā Chapter 09
I blinked, looking at Leonas, who was staring at me with his eyes wide enough to pop out, and Vilatea, who was crossing her index fingers to make an ‘X’.
> ‘Why are they acting like that? It didn’t seem like an unreasonable question to me?’
I glanced at the two of them and then fixed my gaze back on Perenustus.
“I’m asking why you don’t go yourself and instead send those kids who just scream about getting a little blood on them.”
“Hey, why are we kids?”
Vilatea got a little upset. Whether she was or not, I just stared straight at Perenustus.
“If you’re someone who can just create things in the blink of an eye like this, wouldn’t it be much better for you to do the investigation or exploration yourself instead of sending us?”
I had been about to seek agreement from Vilatea and Leonas, but I inwardly sighed, ‘Oh dear,’ and closed my mouth.
Their expressions, gritting their teeth and shaking their heads, said it all. That a professor’s essence was to use students like their own possessions.
The two model students, unable to bring themselves to say that out loud, just sighed briefly and watched Perenustus’s reaction.
“Hahā¦ā¦.”
An uncomfortably heavy silence flowed. Perenustus, frowning as he looked down at me as if asking if I really didn’t know, spoke in a tone of someone scolding an idiot.
> “I didn’t expect a question of this level.”
“ā¦ā¦.”
> “If I had to answer, it’s because I am the creator and the person in charge. If I intervene directly, objective and accurate observation is difficult.”
Having shut my mouth with a fairly plausible reason, Perenustus checked his watch again.
> “Alright, then let’s truly begin.”
Before I could ask any more strange questions, Perenustus quickly snapped his fingers.
—
**\*\*\***
I stood on an endlessly sheer cliff and stared at the cliff opposite.
A barren mountain peak surrounded on all sides by high, steep cliffs. A place where a dense colony of Erba trees grew in a concave basin at the base of the precipice. That was the village where I lived.
Narrow plots barely leveled between the thick Erba trees, and houses whose walls, pillars, and roofs were built by weaving Erba branches together.
“My god. You lived in a place like this?”
Vilatea, looking around, clicked her tongue in disbelief.
Yes.
This was my village. Or should I say, this was where my village used to be.
> ‘Are all the houses burned? Meltedā¦?’
The homes of me and my neighbors had turned into something like soggy ash heaps, belching out acrid smoke.
> ‘That’s strange. When I and the villagers carried Silphy’s neck to the castle, it wasn’t this bad.’
“Look over there.”
As if answering my question, Silphy tilted its severed neck and pointed to the middle of the opposite cliff.
“That’s the cave where I was sleeping, isn’t it?”
The entrance to the cave in the middle of the cliff looked unusually pitch black. I guessed it was because of the silver liquid pouring from that cave like a thin waterfall and the thick white smoke it emitted.
It was a strangely beautiful and mysterious sight. Vilatea, who had been staring at the falling silver liquid as if hypnotized, suddenly realized what it was and pointed.
“Is that, by any chance, the same liquid that caused the disturbance in the Training Stage?”
“Yeah. That’s the liquid. My blood.”
Silphy mimicked Vilatea’s tone and sneered playfully. Then it added in a somber voice.
“My body must still be pouring that stuff out even after my neck was cut off.”
“But that’s not okay! That blood is a deadly poison!”
“That’s exactly why the village ended up like that.”
Silphy’s chin glanced toward the bottom of the cliff, which was full of white smoke. The place where the silver liquid flowing down the cliff was pouring into. My village.
The place that used to be my village, which I remembered and missed, was half-submerged in that silver liquid, melting away. Instead of familiar neighbors’ houses between the Erba trees, only pale smoke lingered.
I couldn’t bring myself to approach, nor could I look away. I just let my shoulders slump.
Whether Silphy didn’t like the look of me like that, it rolled its eyes around and then suddenly shouted.
“Seeing that shit makes me even angrier! Hey, you crazy ex-warrior! What kind of warrior cuts the neck of a sleeping dragon? How pathetic! Warriors don’t do such cowardly things!”
“When I’m about to die, do I have time to worry about being cowardly or looking pathetic?”
“You’re so frustrating. A legendary warrior is supposed to be most strict about that kind of thing. A hero lives and dies by style.”
Leonas nodded without hesitation, agreeing with Silphy. Even Vilatea, who had been unable to speak, stunned by the village’s devastation, shot me a reproachful look.
“ā¦ā¦.”
As I grew even more sullen, Silphy clicked its tongue, ‘Tsk tsk.’ Then, this time, it pointed its chin at the empty air.
> “Of course, there are probably one or two cowardly backstabbing warriors in other worlds. But definitely not in this one. Look at our world’s general manager. Just one look and you can tell he has no use for trickery or leniency, right?”
Again, as soon as Silphy finished speaking, Leonas and Vilatea nodded their heads ever so slightly.
Silphy continued to scold me with an expression that made it hard to tell whether it was trying to comfort me or criticize me.
> “I’m a dragon created based on that Ren, so I value laws, rules, order, principles, and standards very highly. That’s why I felt I absolutely had to curse you to feel better. Do you understand a little better now?”
I carved the dragon’s voice, speaking as if soothing a child, into my mind and quietly mulled over all the information that had been thrown at me.
> “So I was rightā¦ this is the afterlifeā¦.”
“No, you idiot. Uhā¦ is it? Is it a similar concept?”
Silphy tilted its head this way and that, pretending to be cute for a while. Then, after a long time, its head, which had been tilted askew, slowly nodded up and down.
> “Well, I suppose from your perspective, it’s not much different from the afterlife. Ren’s room is a space to double-check isolated data before completely deleting it. You’re pretty perceptive, huh?”
Silphy let out a sneering laugh and examined me with fresh eyes. I stared at the silver liquid oozing and dripping from the neck I had cut off, with an expression mixed with strange guilt.
Silphy, seeming pleased with my frozen expression, put on a slightly kinder face and suddenly thrust its face toward me.
> “That gloomy bastard over there plastered with jewels beyond that wall is the one who designs and arranges the worlds. I’m a kind of on-site supervisor he created. Got that far?”
“On-site supervisorā¦.”
> “Yeah. And you are an existence that was never supposed to appear in this world in the first place. You, less than an extra, popped up as a crazy variable, killed me, and disturbed the flow of the world. You’re a serious criminal, so you were brought here.”
I endured the urge to squeeze my eyes shut and stared intently into the dragon’s eyes. The dragon, its vertical pupils filled only with curiosity, faced me as if aiming at coordinates.
“Ask if you’re curious about anything else.”
“Why?”
> “Because the more you realize, the more interesting things get.”
Vilatea, who had been listening quietly, frowned deeply at the word ‘interesting’ and pulled my arm.
“Let’s get closer first.”
“Ah, why? He said it’s interesting, so why not let him talk more?”
> “The Dragon may not know this, but humans have certain lines they must observe, even between enemies.”
“Lines?”
> “Yes. Like not saying useless things in front of someone who’s shocked because the neighborhood they lived in their whole life got destroyed. Those basic manners are called ‘lines’.”
“Useless thingsā¦ Hey, I may look like this, but I’m a dragonā”
> “I’ll take the lead. Even exploration mode might be harmful to your health, so everyone be careful.”
Leonas, who had been silent the whole time, cut off Silphy’s words and led the way toward the village. We followed him carefully.
The closer we got, the more horrific the situation became. The Erba trees, the houses, everything was melted and tangled together, making it impossible to tell which house belonged to whom.
“Where is your house? We need to go and check whether the books are there or not for sure.”
Leonas urged me in a polite yet detached tone befitting a model student. Having lost even the will to speak at the unimaginable devastation, I just raised a finger and pointed to the place where the smoke rose thickest.
“Where?”
“Over there. The inn with a sign saying ‘Hunter’s Rest’.”
“An inn? There’s an inn in such a remote place?”
Leonas, who had somehow managed to recognize the half-melted sign, asked in surprise. I pointed at Silphy.
“It’s the cliff village from the prophecy. So there were quite a few adventurers or scholars who came to see the Silver Dragon. It’s not a one- or two-day adventure, so there had to be an inn.”
The expressions of the three people looking at me were strange.
