I headed up the stairs with Usato and everyone else. Everything was shrouded in darkness as we made our way up the manor stairs. The place was broken and in a state of complete disrepair. I used my magic to see the future as I led the way. Behind me was Aruku, Usato, and Blurin.
“Are you okay, Aruku?” asked Usato.
“Well, I’m all out of magic, but otherwise moving isn’t a problem. But you’ve been fighting nonstop for a while now. Your body must be at its limit.”
“I’m, well . . . I’m fine,” Usato replied. “And I’ve still got some magic left in me yet.”
I frowned at Usato’s reply. He’d fought Aruku when Aruku was under Nea’s control, and then he’d had to fight the dragon right after that. The dragon also attacked with a powerful poison, which Usato had breathed in. I knew that he was even more exhausted than I could possibly imagine. He would have been physically and mentally spent. It was crazy that he could still move. But Usato still insisted on going to see Nea.
“Gwah,” growled Blurin, worried about Usato.
“I’m fine, Blurin,” Usato repeated, patting the grizzly’s head. “But I have to see this thing through. I have to see the girl who started all of this.”
Before we stepped foot inside the manor, Usato made sure to heal all of us. That was when I told him that Nea had tried to bargain with the dragon when it had a hold of her. Usato listened to me quietly. It was impossible to know what he was thinking. We would know once he and Nea met face to face. But it left me feeling very uncertain.
“It’s just like I saw it,” I said.
We were nearing the place of my premonition, the hall. The walls would be wrecked, the chandelier shattered, and the windows cracked. In among it all would be the figure draped in shadow. Usato knew who that person was now. Usato was crazy, but he wasn’t stupid; he knew that we were nearing the future I’d told him about. But even knowing what was to come, he kept on going.
“Here we are,” said Usato, looking out past the stairs.
I readied myself and climbed to the top of the stairs, then headed for Nea. Usato kicked the door open to the hall on the third floor.
“So you came,” said Nea.
She looked hurt as she sat leaning against a wall, the hint of a smile on her face.
“You don’t look so hot,” she said.
“Look who’s talking,” said Usato, shaking his head.
He walked on over to Nea with such abandon that I wanted to scream at him to stop, but when I saw the smile on Nea’s face, my breath caught in my throat. The dragon had left her in critical condition. Perhaps it was that she was simply a fragile monster to begin with, but it was clear that she could barely move.
“You really put us through the wringer,” said Usato, chuckling.
Usato looked beaten up. His uniform was covered in dust, and although he’d healed his injuries, his face was pale. He looked weakened.
“Funny,” Nea replied. “You don’t look all that mad.”
Usato’s chuckling came to a sudden halt.
“What?! I. Am. Furious!” he said.
I couldn’t see Usato’s expression, but Nea’s face filled with horror and terror. Tears streamed from her eyes, and even though she couldn’t move, her body trembled.
“Our mission is hugely important, and you almost sabotaged the whole thing. You took control of Aruku and forced him to do the unthinkable. But more than anything else . . .”
Usato stopped for a moment to cross his arms before he went on.
“You put countless lives in danger the moment you resurrected that dragon.”
What would have happened if Usato hadn’t been able to stop the dragon? I know that I’d been the first one to suggest we flee from it immediately, but if we’d followed through on that, a huge number of people would have been massacred. Nea hadn’t even considered that. She’d brought the dragon back without even thinking. That’s what made Usato so mad.
“You didn’t think that would happen, did you?” said Usato as Nea remained silent. “But don’t think that means we can just overlook what you did.”
Nea still didn’t speak. Usato sighed.
“Amako told me what happened. Why did you try to protect the village? Aren’t all those villagers just puppets for you to play with?”
“Yes. That’s what they are.”
“Then why didn’t you use them? If you’d used the villagers’ lives as your shield, catching me would have been all too easy. You heard all about me from Aruku; I know you did. So, you also know that as a member of the rescue team it’s my duty to help people. I would have been completely helpless if you’d used the villagers as your hostages.”
He’s right.
I’d only been thinking about the dragon, but if Nea had used the villagers, even Usato would have had to obey her.
“I didn’t need them,” Nea said. “That’s what I assumed. I guess I assumed wrong, didn’t I?”
“Hm,” remarked Usato, unconvinced.
Nea let a self-deprecating smile drift to her lips.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” she said. “If I’d been able to control the dragon, everything would have been fine.”
“Yeah . . . no,” Usato laughed. “A zombie that’s nothing more than a puppet on strings? We wouldn’t have lost to that. I would have knocked you out before you could have given any proper orders.”
“You’re a real monster, you know that?” said Nea.