In front of me, a clothed rat and an ornate snake stared at each other.
It was as if the one who looked away was going to be eaten.
With such a tense atmosphere, Alba and Clay faced each other, glaring at each other.
Alba Germain, the wise rat, showed no emotion at all, while Clay, the snake, grinned happily as they looked at each other silently for a while.
It was Alba who looked away first.
“I’m sorry I’m late. It took me a while to detect your non-dragon presence.”
As he said this, Alba lightly jumped down from the rock where he had been standing and came to my feet.
“Aoi and your brother are very worried about you. Oh, don’t worry. They’ve arrived at the tomb of King Dailan without any trouble. Prince Atol is probably taking them to a safe place right now. I’ll get Aoi to come pick you up later.”
“… Aah.”
Alba smiled and stood on my lap, acting as if Clay did not exist.
“Well, to do that I need to go back to Aoi and let her know where you are, but it’s not safe to leave you with this snake. Let’s get rid of it.”
Alba turns around and looks at Clay.
I felt a slight irritation in his voice.
He was not the aloof Alba he usually was.
He didn’t have his usual irritating attitude where he treated people with contempt.
“Hmm.”
Clay pulled his head back to observe me and Alba.
The gesture of looking at the whole thing together was like that of a predator trying to catch its prey.
“You’ve been taking very good care of him, haven’t you? That’s unusual. It’s unusual that you, who has no interest in anything other than dragons, would try to protect something as weak as a human.”
Clay was still smiling.
As usual, I have no idea what’s so interesting to me.
The only thing I feel is discomfort and disgust.
“Can you please stop talking about me as if you know me? It’s very unpleasant.”
“I know. Yes, I do. In fact, who else but me could possibly understand you?”
Clay said and began to circle us.
The black snake undulated around us, giggling, or rather, hissing.
“Hey? My brother.”
“Huh?”
I was the one who reacted to the words.
Brother? Who?
“… Please stop. I’ve never once thought of you as my older sister. We were just born in the same place, okay?”
Alba jumped off my lap and began to circle around me as Clay moved.
I knew this wasn’t his normal attitude.
He’s been keeping an eye on the snake in front of him, Clay.
Are these two really siblings? Are there really siblings who are so bitter?
Shouhei and I are really close, so I can’t imagine it.
I mean, first of all, how can a rat and a snake be siblings?
How can a snake’s brother be a rat?
“Is that so? I think of you as my brother, but a bad, bad, bad brother. Didn’t you almost kill your own sister when a bad woman took advantage of you?”
“Stop.”
Alba held up his staff.
He pointed it at Clay and glared at him hatefully.
The tone of his voice was heavy and did not contain any of Alba’s usual lightheartedness.
“Don’t you talk about Seraphy. Shall I destroy you once again, this time completely?”
Who the hell is Seraphy?
Wait a minute.
I really can’t keep up anymore.
There were so many incomprehensible things going on that I had no time to calm down at all.
“You still have feelings for that gloomy bitch? That’s the spirit. I don’t know what made you do it. Oh, even though I hurt you, it looks like you got the better of me. Well, it’s not your place to hate me. It’s her fault for picking a fight with me in the first place.”
“How dare you? You can’t say that. If Seraphy hadn’t risked her life to stop you, there would be no life in this world today. I never thought I’d see you again after all these years. I had no idea you were still alive. The way you look, you look so worn out that you can’t even keep your form without clinging to your little life. It’s disgusting, but it seems we’ve both been through something similar.”
“Oh, this look? I like it, actually. I’ve been secretly watching you borrow the flesh of a dying rat. There’s nothing you can do that I can’t do. Besides, my original body was torn to pieces by that woman.”
“You got what you deserved, didn’t you? It’s a small punishment compared to what you’ve done. I’m honestly surprised you’ve managed to live this long without me noticing. I guess you could have done it if you were persistent. I knew I should have looked for you carefully back then.”
“Haha, even so, I had a hard time. I’ve been struggling to find a way to regain my original power. Well, from the looks of it, you’re no different. That’s why I’ve been able to live until now.”
“Now, what have you been cheating on and who have you been screwing over to stay ugly? If you call me your brother, why don’t you tell me, sister?”
“Well, I wonder. I don’t think I’m the kind of person who would expose his hand even to his only family member. After all, my foolish brother still seems to be trying to kill me.”
“Of course. I really want to kill you right now. The only people who can completely destroy you, an immortal, are the same, me and Seraphy.”
“Don’t say things you can’t do.”
“It’s not impossible. It’s nothing I can’t do, as long as you keep me company for a month or so. But you’ll run away, won’t you?”
“Yes, I’m running away. I don’t want to die either. I’ve got things to do.”
“What makes you think I’ll let you do that?”
Alba and Clay exchanged words in a defensive posture, both of them biting at each other’s words.
Clay kept his head pointed at Alba, and Alba kept the tip of his staff pointed at Clay, never looking away from each other.
Wait. Really wait.
Somebody explain something to me, even just a little bit.
Just tell me something that I can understand!
“Boy, what are you?”
Clay looked at me sideways.
“I set it up so that when I interfered with the transference, you would come right to me. But this kid disappeared from subspace once and then shifted to a place where I couldn’t detect him. That’s impossible. There is no way that my eyes could lose sight of something once it has been captured. Except for that one place.”
“… What are you talking about?”
I know.
Even I’m an idiot, but I kind of get it.
So that place where I was just now, is it a place that Clay shouldn’t know about?
Mom, no, the place where the white girl and the two fairies were.
The milky white sky and the tattered stone stage in the deep green forest.
There is something in that place that Alba is trying to hide.
It means there is someone who needs to be hidden, right?
Then I won’t say anything.
If I’m stupid enough to blurt out something about that place, I’ll never be able to get it back.
It’s just a hunch I have.
I kept my mouth shut.
If I don’t say a word, there’s no chance of them getting the information they want.
“And… if you try to hide it. Well, I already know most of it.”
Clay’s eyes narrowed once, and she smiled again.
“Sanctuary.”
It was Alba who reacted to the word.
He shook his shoulders once and shook the tip of his staff.
“The place where that damned white woman died. That’s what they call the Forest of Protection now, isn’t it? I believe there was a dragon in her direct lineage that was supposed to have disappeared when the world collided 42 years ago. But it’s strange that the spirits are still alive even after that land disappeared. I knew they must be hidden somewhere, but I couldn’t find them. Even with my all-seeing eye, I couldn’t find it at… That means it doesn’t exist in this world, it’s in another dimension.”
The red of Clay’s eyes glowed more intensely as she looked at me.
“But then there’s no way anyone can get to it. So how did the little boy get there? What does he have? What is the purpose of the multiple seals on his heart? I’d like to know. Yes, I want to know. My brother. The half of me born of the same mud. Who now call himself Alba Germain, foolish, foolish one from the beginning.”
Clay’s tone of voice changed.
Clay’s voice, which had been feminine, became heavy and sharp enough to resonate in my brain.
My body began to tremble.
I was scared.
I was terrified.
There’s no way such a being can exist.
Everything about its long, thin body is ugly, fearsome, and sinister.
The Clay End in front of me is a person who exists to make everyone involved unhappy.
This snake will surely hum all the evils of the world.
I don’t know why I think so, but the goosebumps running all over my body tell me so.
I want to run.
But I can’t move.
“So I’m telling you to stop that mind magic… There’s one thing I want to ask you, too.”
As soon as Alba said the words, the fear that clung to my body disappeared.
What the hell?
What did she do to me?
I can’t take this anymore!
I need to see Jaja and Nana!
“What is it?”
There was no way they could hear my cries, and Clay smiled again.
“Forty-two years ago, on the day the two worlds collided, the eighty-three demons and beastmen that started it. You were involved in the incident where they attacked the sanctuary and the magic ritual… that created the Fire of Extinction, weren’t you?”
A pale light was lit on Alba’s staff.
The light grew stronger and louder while emitting an ear-piercing sound.
“Answer me. You planned the attack and used the lives of thousands of beastmen and demons to perform that magic, didn’t you? You didn’t think that the worlds would collide again after so much time had passed, but you did it to kill Hildegarde, who was protected by the sanctuary, didn’t you?”
Alba asked Clay in a dignified voice.
His voice was strong and dependable, and above all, reassuring.
“…… I don’t know. Well, it could have been me, but what does that matter? The dragon is a pure enemy to me. If the one in the sanctuary is a direct descendant of the white woman, then there are plenty of reasons to kill her. The simple question is, why else would a dragon have been born to her?
Clay told us, keeping a smile on her face.
“I told you that I would never forgive anyone who hurt Seraphy, and all dragons living today are Seraphy’s children. I will show no mercy to those who threaten them.”
“Huh?”
Clay listened happily to Alba’s voice.
The red jewel on his forehead began to glow, just like Alba’s staff.
“So, what are you going to do with me?”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
They both smiled faintly at each other, and at the same time, an intense light shot out from Alba’s staff.
“Whoa!”
Right in front of me, there was a huge explosion.
It was followed by a blast that almost blew my body away.
The ground shook from the vibrations, and the lights flickered repeatedly around me, making me nauseous.
Before I knew it, Alba, who was supposed to be at my feet, was gone.
Flickers of light were everywhere in my field of vision, above and behind me.
Alba and Clay were fighting in an incomprehensible way.
I had a hunch.
I cowered on the ground and held my head to protect myself.
“Stop it! Just stop it! What the hell, really!”
No matter how hard I shouted, my voice was drowned out by the sound of the explosion.
“Give me a break! Somebody, please explain this to me properly!”
For what seemed like an eternity, Alba and Clay continued to fight.
A series of explosions.
A violent light pierced the back of my closed eyelids.
The strong wind and vibrations shook my body, which was lying firmly on the ground, to the left and right.
The flickers of light were so violent that they gouged the ground, ate up the space, and erased the darkness of the night.
Just one hit of this light would probably wipe me out without a trace.
This is something that a weak creature like me should not be involved in.
If that rat and snake’s hands or thoughts were to go even slightly awry, my existence would vanish as quickly as if I were a fool.
In an instant, the wilderness of the night turns into a battlefield for the inhuman, and there I am, with my fragile life as if I were blown away.
I want to go home.
I want to go home and be pampered by Aoi.
I want to take care of Jaja and Nana to the fullest and laugh at Rouge’s envious glances.
I want to get told off by Shouhei, who is exasperated with me, greet my father when he comes home, eat dinner together, hold Aoi to my chest to nurse before bed, add the weight of Jaja and Nana, and doze off in happiness.
I don’t want to listen to incomprehensible stories in this incomprehensible place!
I don’t want to die without understanding a single thing!
Let me go home!
Let me go!
To our home!
To the warmth of my family’s home!
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”
Let me go home!
Aoi!
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