86 – Dragon

“…Hey!”

Someone was tapping me on the head.

My body swayed violently, as if they were trying to shake me awake.

I tried to open my eyes, but they wouldn’t budge.

I tried to rise, but my body wouldn’t move.

Or perhaps, it was merely a reflection

of my own desire to lie here a little longer.

“This b*stard just won’t wake up.”

“….”

“How long are you going to sleep, you crumb?!”

A voice, boyish yet recognizably female,

overbrimming with charisma.

As that voice echoed in my ears,

something struck my head with force.

Probably, a fist.

A small fist traveling back and forth across my scalp.

At first, it was just a gentle tapping.

With enough force to crack an egg.

He taps my forehead like giving a flicked knuckle.

“..Strange, you seem to be conscious, clearly.”

“….”

The intensity increases a little.

This time, the force of a knuckle-flick with a finger.

As soon as a small, slender finger

touches my forehead, the shock reverberates.

“..You still won’t wake up?”

“….”

Again, the intensity is stronger than before.

A shock and a stinging sensation, slightly more intense than before, resound.

But, still, unfortunately.

This damned body wouldn’t budge.

“Ha, at this point, you’re just refusing to wake up on purpose?”

“….”

“Alright, let’s see if you can hold out until the end.”

After that, it wasn’t a signal to wake up anymore,

but the act of hitting itself.

Thwack, thwack, whump, thud.

The intensity and the sound grew stronger and stronger,

and luckily or unluckily, that actually helped me.

Because as I was absorbing the shock of what could easily be called violence,

my body was instinctively moving to avoid it.

“Still, you won’t wake up?!”

“..Ugh!!”

“Ah, you’re awake.”

As soon as I raise my body, dodging a fist

flying towards my head, pain follows.

Neuralgia, muscle pain alone weren’t enough, it seemed,

blood streamed from my eyes and nose,

and I felt an immense, electrifying agony,

enough to make me lose consciousness in an instant.

“Gg..Heeup..!”

“Uh, ah? Hey, what’s wrong?”

A groan, as if embodying their humiliation,

spontaneously erupted from my mouth,

and realizing that my condition was not normal,

the person in front of me also

lowered their fist and approached me.

My head, which had been turned towards her,

I tumbled downwards, just like that.

The blood, trickling downwards,

Fell from the edge of my jaw, staining the floor.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you? Huh?”

“Kuh…huh…hngh…”

“Seriously, don’t tell me this guy has some incurable disease

or something? That’d be troublesome…”

What exactly was troublesome, I wondered.

She seemed genuinely concerned for me,

And suddenly, one of her hands came to rest on my back.

“Stay still, or you really might die.”

“Ah…uhng…”

“I said, stay still.”

The sheer killing intent that washed over me in that instant

Froze my entire body momentarily,

And as if she’d been waiting for just that moment,

She inserted something into me.

Through my back, where her hand was touching.

Something entered.

Whether it was mana, ki, something of an unknown nature.

Warm? Hot?

A viscous energy I couldn’t quite describe

Was felt coursing through every corner of my body,

And before long, her energy returned

Back to the palm of her hand.

“Wow, this guy is completely insane?

How do you abuse your body this badly?”

“…?”

“Ugh, why did my eye fall on someone like this?

This is really messed up…”

Suddenly declaring my physical condition critical,

She cursed, covered her face with both hands,

And simply slumped to the ground.

“Ugh…really, I should have noticed from when his

inner world was like this, damn it…”

“…I want to ask something for a moment─”

“What, damn it, what?!”

Taken aback for a moment by her fierce reaction,

I hesitated, but there was something I wanted to ask her.

There were simply too many.

Why my body was in this state.

How she knew about my condition.

And, who she was.

“What? Why your body’s like this, you ask?”

“Yes.”

“You really don’t know?

That b*tch didn’t warn you?”

That b*tch?

Who was she talking about?

Warning?

What warning was she referring to?

I stared at her, genuinely clueless, and

she sighed deeply, as if at a loss.

“…What kind of warning are you talking about?”

“Ha, so she really didn’t tell you?

But, I thought her work ethic was at least…”

“…?”

“Hey, you. You have the Dragon’s Eye, right?

Tell me, how did you get it.”

“…How did you kno—”

“Shut up and tell me.”

Her gaze fixed on me, as if she’d kill me

if I didn’t answer.

Her unwavering wariness

seemed to reach even me.

If only to ease her suspicion…

I would answer. I had plenty of questions of my own.

“Roughly…it happened like that.”

“…So, you received something called a ‘Status Window’ from a god…

and then suddenly received that as a reward?”

“Yes.”

I took a moment to leisurely appreciate

her speechless expression.

Ash-grey hair cascaded down to her thighs,

long enough to almost enfold them, and

her body, not fully grown, was, by my standards,

a physique that could definitely be considered that of a young girl.

The clothes she wore were all too large, or

ill-fitting for her, and

Only the gold of her eyes, glimpsed through strands of hair, seemed to hold any light.

And further, her manner, her cadence, her very actions,

clashed so completely with her appearance.

It struck me as especially

alien.

The constant cursing, for one.

The violence, when it surfaced.

It wasn’t just her that felt out of place, either.

This space itself echoed the feeling.

One word could define it completely:

Black. Unblemished, absolute black.

Crimson amethyst bloomed in patches here and there,

and the odd crystal of a different hue surfaced now and then,

but nearly everything was steeped in shadow.

A flowerbed of beauty, blooming in darkness.

It didn’t belong in this lightless room, not at all.

As I took in the surroundings,

she seemed to reach the end of her thoughts,

and laboriously pushed herself up from where she sat.

“…Ha, if I didn’t get consent, it would be

a breach of contract…guess there’s no choice, huh?”

“Finished thinking?”

“…Use polite speech, you dust bunny.

I’ve lived millennia longer than you.”

Millennia.

Did she even know how old I was?

Probably the oldest geezer in the world

wouldn’t have aged as much as m─

“Even centuries-old elves can’t claim seniority in front of me, so shut it.”

“….”

“What, shocked that I read your thoughts like an open book?”

She curled up one side of her mouth, as if amused,

and I, slightly flustered,

tried my best to keep my expression neutral.

“Tch, guess I need to explain it all from the top.

Crumbs, come over here for a moment.”

“…?”

“If I say come, then come quickly.”

Still seated, she seemed to have made some grand decision,

vigorously patting the floor beside her,

summoning me, and I obediently complied.

I didn’t know who she was, or why she was here,

but I seemed to know one thing.

She was stronger than me.

I could tell from the murderous glint a moment ago, or

from her reading my thoughts, but anyone who’s done

what I’ve done, even once, can tell.

How many people the person before you has killed, and how accustomed they are to it.

It’s hard to explain exactly,

that ominous, unsettling aura.

It was felt regardless of race or status.

From wild beasts to murderers, criminals. Even knights.

And from the woman before me now,

a vicious aura emanated unlike any I’d ever seen.

“…You know, your mind works better than I thought.

Well, if you’re weak, you at least have to be smart, I guess.”

“….”

Her words, as though reading my thoughts,

left me unable to respond.

Her left arm, now encircling my shoulder,

felt unbearably heavy.

Despite being a small, slender arm,

the weight I felt was anything but.

It felt like an elephant’s foot

had landed on my shoulder.

“First, think of the reason your body was spazzing out

a while ago as some sort of overload.”

“…Overload, you say?”

“Yeah, you were forcibly moving nerves and muscles

that were already dead, so that’s what happened.”

“….”

“Got a guess? It’s the words *you* spewed.”

I did, of course.

It was also me who forcibly moved my body.

But still, something was off.

If my body was in that state…

“How were you able to get up in the first place?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it’s simple. This isn’t reality.”

“…?”

“Don’t give me that look. It’s the truth.

To be precise, this is your ‘Mindscape’.”

Mindscape.

Appearing differently for each person,

An individual’s heart, a world solely for themselves.

It can be projected onto reality,

Or left abandoned somewhere within the heart,

It can be symbolic, or transform into delusion.

The word used to describe it differs from person to person.

For some, it’s their belief.

For others, a common delusion.

For some, it’s a place they call their inner world.

“…You’re saying this is that place?”

“That’s right.”

“….”

“You don’t believe it, do you? But what can I do?

My words are the truth, the reality, the event itself.”

“…Then who are you?”

“Huh? Me?”

“If what you’re saying is true…

Isn’t this supposed to be my own space?”

“Ah, so you’re asking how I’m here?”

“…Yes.”

She brushes off her legs and stands up.

Even though there’s no dust to be found.

Her ash-grey hair still sways, and

Before I know it, her bright yellow pupils

Are right in front of my face.

And then, she opens them.

Her tiny, light pink lips.

“The owner of the eyes you took, and

The origin of the language you recite.”

“…?”

“Don’t you have some status window to check?

Telling you to not speak so much of the truth.”

“….”

“If you abuse your power and defy fate…”

“They say a gray causality is coming to pass.”

In that instant, like a flicker,

words from the status window bloomed in my mind.

*If you overuse Dragon Speech,*

*the Gray Demonic Dragon may seize your body.*

And then, impossibly, in my inner world,

she appeared, with her hair the color of ash.

All the memories, the circumstances,

blatantly revealed her true nature.

Only then did I see it.

The elongated pupils, absent in humans.

“Too late, noticing even now.

Let me tell you again, properly.”

“….”

“My name is Eve, or rather, Ibedia,

the dragon risen from the black ash.

The one hated by all life,

the lord of the ashen heap, Ibedia.”

Her ash-gray hair, radiant in the black space,

stirred once in a wind that came from nowhere.

Far, far away, like ash carried on the breeze.

≪You have encountered a Demonic Dragon, one of the Destroyers.≫

≪Due to the difference in your levels, your stats are decreasing.≫