Chapter 69

Chapter 69. Please Do Not Lie (9)

BOOM!!

BOOM!!

BOOM!!

BOOM!!

BOOM!!

BOOM!!

Before I could stop him, six red spheres crossed the darkness and flew at tremendous speed toward the black shadow walking in the distance.

Then came the sound of explosions.

KABOOM! BANG! BOOM!

“ROOOOOOOOAR!!!”

After being struck by all of them, he let out a scream.

When I lowered my head with a dumbfounded face, Exel smiled softly and raised his gun blade upright.

As his hand moved quickly, the cylinder attached to the guard of the gun blade separated and ended up in his hand.

He held it upside down and, as always, shook out the metal slugs inside.

“Since it is big, it is very easy to hit.”

“What are you doing?!”

At that, Exel smiled faintly and slowly inserted metal slugs, shaped a little differently from the ones I usually saw, into the cylinder he had been holding in advance.

“Nothing much. I only gave him a light greeting.”

“Good grief! You call that a greeting?”

After inserting all the metal slugs into the cylinder, Exel smiled softly and nodded, while I frowned.

“Of course.”

From the houses near the wall, curses and similar words flowed out as lights began turning on.

At the same time, the soldiers standing guard on top of the wall, startled by the explosions, came running toward us.

Naturally, they surrounded us, outsiders standing on top of the wall, and thrust out the longswords at their waists and the spears they held.

However, Exel showed interest only in the dragon, who was approaching a little faster than before.

So the one who paid attention to the men glaring at us with displeased faces was me.

I looked around at them with a bitter smile.

As befitted the guards of a city near the desert, all of them wore robes to withstand the fierce sandstorms, so I could not tell what kind of armor they wore. But I could clearly see the expressions on their faces.

They were surprised, baffled, and flustered.

On top of that, they showed far more interest in the monster thudding toward us from the distance and the gun blade in Exel’s hand.

In the middle of that, one soldier thrusting a spear at us shouted,

“Zaitrim! Sharana kariia!”

“Orinai jeri no giriktemi! Sharana kariia! Som nai! Aah?! Nai!”

It seemed to mean something like, Who the hell are you bastards?

But I had never learned this country’s language.

I looked around at them, then opened my mouth with slight expectation.

“Is there anyone here who can speak Merses?”

At that, an unexpected reaction burst from all of them.

All five soldiers—more were running over from the other side—turned their heads toward me, opened their eyes wide, and shouted.

“You bastard! Are you from Merses?! What are you doing up here?! Huh?!”

“And what was that sound just now?! What the hell did you drag here, you bastards?!”

“Do not move!”

I made a somewhat bitter expression and began wondering whose words I should answer first.

However, their words were quietly buried by a man who came running urgently from the other side with three soldiers.

“Murii iso jin liria!”

He came running with his cloak fluttering, an old general with white hair neatly swept back.

Judging by the two longswords hanging side by side at one side of his waist, he was probably the person in charge of this place.

Serpiz warriors always carried two swords.

Though I did not know why.

He frowned at the two soldiers who had run with him and were panting beside him, threw a few words at them, then turned his head toward us.

He glanced at the soldiers gathered around us.

The soldiers either raised or lowered the swords and spears they had been thrusting out in a posture that said they would stab us if anything went wrong.

“The weather is quite nice, is it not?”

I glanced at the men moving their spears away and spoke as I turned my head toward him.

At that, he raised his eyebrows slightly, crossed his arms firmly, and opened his mouth.

“You are Merses people. Answer my questions immediately. First, what are you doing up here? Second, what was that explosion just now? I would appreciate an answer right this instant.”

I decided I might as well answer his questions properly, and raised my hand to point at the dragon approaching quickly from far away.

THUD! THOOM! BOOM! THOOM!

“Can you hear that?”

He turned his head and looked in the direction my hand was pointing. He discovered the black shadow walking across the desert spread beneath the full moon.

When he saw it, his mouth fell open. Then he uncrossed his arms, grabbed the ear of the soldier panting beside him, pulled it up to his mouth, and quietly told him something.

At that, the soldier held his ear and ran along the gallery, back down the wall.

The white-haired old general watched him go, then turned his head and quickly gave orders to the soldiers around him.

Following his orders, they each shouted something and began running in every direction.

After watching his men carry out his orders with a proud expression, he now looked at us and bared his teeth.

“Did you bring that thing here?”

“No.”

He narrowed his eyes and glared at us for a moment, then looked at the black shadow that had come a little closer than before.

“Then what is that?”

“It is a dragon.”

“A dragon? You mean that thing running over there right now?! I do not know what it is, but that dragon must truly enjoy taking walks. Does it plan to keep its wings and boil soup with them?”

“It is an undead dragon.”

The blood drained from his face.

He looked back and forth between us and the dragon approaching this place at great speed with the face of someone struck by a bucket of water in his sleep, then said,

“I am Moro, the person in charge of this place. In your language, that would be the guard captain. Right now, I would like to take what you are saying as nothing more than my grandson’s nasty joke, but with something like that coming at us, I cannot bring myself to do so. So explain what is going on.”

While I made a bitter expression at his words, Exel cut in.

“It would be better to stop that thing first, then explain the details over some tea.”

As he said that, he raised his sword onto the battlement and fixed it in place just as before.

Then the gun blade spat fire once more.

BOOM!!

BOOM!!

WHISTLE~~~~ KABOOM!! BAAANG!!

With an explosion even stronger than before, a flash of flame rose from the shadow’s chest.

However, the shadow only staggered slightly and continued running.

Moro, who had looked startled by Exel’s sword, seemed to have grasped the seriousness of the situation now that the dragon was so close.

With movements and a voice that did not suit his age, he leaned his body over the opposite side of the wall and shouted thunderously into the city.

“Galamos iruana! Karion mari! Karion mari!”

His shout rang out into the dark city beyond the wall.

At that, the quiet city began turning noisy as lights came on in every house.

I watched him give some instructions to the people running out of the guard post below for a moment, then turned around and climbed onto the wall.

“What are you trying to do?”

“I have to stop him from coming any closer. I will try talking to him first, so do not shoot.”

After hearing my words, Exel nodded slightly, and I jumped down from the wall.

THUD!!

Was it about thirty meck high?

Normally, my legs would have broken, but my body alone was sturdy, so nothing much happened.

Besides, it was sandy ground, so the impact was not that bad.

From above, Moro’s startled face appeared, but it was nighttime, so I could not make out his expression.

“Are you all right?!”

I grinned at him, turned around, and ran forward.

Then I took out the scroll I had tucked behind my waist.

Ahead, the black shadow was running toward me, and Exel’s attacks probably seemed to have little effect.

After putting some distance between myself and the wall, I untied the knot of the scroll in my hand, held it in one hand, spread it open, and shouted exactly as written on the tag.

“Fire Ball!”

WHOOSH~

A massive ball of fire with a diameter of one meck appeared in front of my chest.

After looking at it once, I raised my hand and designated the target just as Rene had taught me.

Following my will, the Fire Ball flew fiercely across the desert, which looked eerie thanks to the moonlight, and fulfilled its given mission against a fairly large sand dune.

BAAAANG!!

That is tremendous power.

I lifted the scroll in my hand above my head to block the sand falling from the sky.

I was wearing a hood, but what could get in would still get in.

A short while later, when I raised my head, the sand dune I had thought fairly large a moment ago had vanished without a trace. Instead, a large crater had formed there.

However, despite my threat, he continued running toward me.

Damn it!

I threw away the scroll in my hand, cupped both hands around my mouth, and shouted,

“Stop!!”

THUD! THUD! THOOM…!

He stopped as if it were a lie.

Somehow, that feels strange.

I thought he would ignore me and keep running.

Having stopped in place with a certain distance between us, he raised his head stiffly and looked down at me.

I hesitated slightly at this unexpected development, then brought my hands back to my mouth.

Just as I was about to speak, his solemn and quiet voice echoed across the entire desert.

-I know you. Do you have something to say?

“Please stop! You are a dragon! Preserve your pride!”

-If I had thought of such things as pride, I would not have risen again like this. Go back. I do not wish to kill you.

After hearing his words, I pulled out the scrolls tucked at my waist with both hands.

Behind me, the soldiers seemed to be busily moving around on top of the wall, preparing for battle.

When I raised my head and looked up at him, he also seemed to be silently looking at the soldiers moving about with weapons and at the houses one by one lighting up.

In that posture, he spoke.

-If you had watched the skin of your child being peeled before your eyes, you would not say such things either. Move aside. I, Aiarunit, fear you humans, who rise again no matter how many times you are killed. Today, on this sandy land, I shall wipe out the seed of humanity.

As he said that, he slowly moved forward, and I gritted my teeth, spread both arms, and shouted.

Do you think only you are sad and hurting?!

“Stop! Did I not tell you not to come any closer?! Do you think you are the only one carrying such pain?! I am the same. I also watched my family die at the hands of my own kind. You are not the only one who hates them!!”

At my words, he stopped again.

-How ironic. And yet why do you stop me?

“I am human.”

For a while, he looked down at me. It was dark, so I could see only his glowing eyes.

However, the voice I heard next seemed to contain a hint of amusement.

-Is that so? I understand. I will give you advice, so listen. Go back. Return to your beautiful wife and the embrace of the peaceful forest.

No one, not even the Three Goddesses of Fate, has the right to condemn one who seeks his own happiness.

But if you insist on standing in my way until the end, it will be difficult for you to avoid death. Will you still stop me?

After saying that, he stepped forward again.

But I shook my head.

“I will stop you.”

He stopped for a moment, narrowed his eyes, and looked down at me before speaking briefly.

-Fool. Your wife will grieve.

He took a step forward.

At that, the outer skin that had fallen away from walking through the desert all day and enduring Exel’s attacks revealed muscle and tissue that had not yet rotted around his joints.

It quivered each time he took a step, but he paid no attention.

His attitude seemed to say that since his body was already dead, he did not care about wounds.

THOOOM!

“Do not move!”

I raised my head and tore the knots on the scrolls in both hands with my mouth.

Then I unfurled them and shouted loudly.

“Chain Lightning! Fire Ball!”

A ball of fire appeared in my right hand, and crackling lightning gathered in my left.

I shouted at him.

“You are the one who should go back!”