“I hate to admit you’re right.” Regina accepted Shinichi’s argument and lowered them onto the sun’s surface. Looking at it up close, it appeared to be made of some glass-like, translucent substance. It was cool to the touch—hard to imagine it had just been shining. Shinichi was curious about the mysterious material, but he focused on the matter at hand to greet the Proxy. “Hello, Blue Dragon. We have come to visit because we wish to ask you something.” He didn’t know what kind of being they were dealing with, so he opted for a formal greeting, but all he received was silence. “…No reply. It’s just a corpse.” “Don’t say something so ominous!” snapped Regina. “Maybe it’s just sleeping?” Suddenly, the voice of a young woman rang in their minds. “Congratulations! You are the first customers to visit since the grand opening of our underground branch!” “……” “Hmm? Did my joke flop? Tee-hee! ” They were almost too shocked for words. “Um, are you the Blue Dragon?” Shinichi managed. “Uh-huh! I’m Blue, OG superstar keeping the demon world shining bright! ” The mental image of a beautiful woman striking a pose made Shinichi so dizzy he fell to his knees. “This…is…their…god…?” “……” “Regina! Stay with us!” Arian violently shook the Blue Princess of War, as her eyes rolled back into her head. The Blue Dragon laughed in amusement at the sight of the three of them. “Tee-hee-hee! I’m glad I made the demon world if it meant seeing the looks on your faces! Totally worth it!” “Her personality is just terrible…” Shinichi cradled his head in his hands again. The Blue Dragon was the polar opposite of Arian’s silent father. The woman replied like she hadn’t expected such a response. “Hey! Says the one who exposed Ellie’s secrets to the entire continent!” “You saw that?” “Of course. There’s no way I was going to miss a show that good. I’m so glad I saved the demons and humans.” “……” “Well, actually, I only saved the demons who escaped underground. Greenie was the one who helped the humans who stayed on the surface. She’s a bit of an animal collector, you see. She kept her ‘holy garden’ warm enough to preserve the ecosystem during the ice age caused by the meteor.” “Greenie…? You mean the Green Dragon?” “Don’t get the wrong idea, though. She only protected humans because they’re just another animal. She actually hates you guys, since you have the potential to destroy all the other wildlife. Especially you. You would never be allowed to enter her garden. ” “Sounds like a science-hating tree hugger.” “Well, she’s a recluse who only cares about keeping her garden safe. She’s harmless as long as you’re not stupid and don’t try to mess with her.” The Blue Dragon was very casual about letting such important information slip. Shinichi filed that information away, feeling cold sweat running down his spine. “She must be—,” Shinichi thought. “Bull’s-eye! You’re so smart. ” The Blue Dragon guessed what Shinichi was thinking and laughed in amusement. “Huh? What bull’s-eye?” Arian didn’t know what they were talking about. Shinichi explained with a pained expression. “I’d always wondered: If the Proxies only exist because the planet is here…then why did one of the dragons save the humans?” The Blue Dragon had led a group of demons into the hole that the Black Dragon had dug, allowing them to escape the impact of the meteorite. The professor of the Magicology Department had posed the same question: Why would a dragon go out of her way to save them? The humans and demons were as parasitic and pesky as an unwanted hair on your chin. But their answers were similar to the Green Dragon’s, since they all shared the same hobby. “The answer was: because they’re fun to watch.” “…What?” “Ding-ding-ding! The outsider wins a hundred million points!” While the Blue Dragon was bursting with excitement, Arian was the exact opposite, frozen in place from surprise. Regina finally regained her senses. “You saved us for your own entertainment?” “Yeah, it must be like admiring a garden,” said Shinichi. But unlike with man-made flower beds, the goal wasn’t to look at beautiful flowers. “She likes to people-watch—humans alive and dead, in love and in a murderous rage. All of it.” Fact wasn’t as strange as fiction, but there was no plot as varied as the lives of human beings. There was no show more riveting to a demigod with a near infinite life span. “So she saved the demons to keep herself from getting bored.” “Basically. You don’t have to thank me for it or anything,” said the Blue Dragon lightly to Regina, whose jaw was still slack. But that didn’t reduce how much the demons worshipped the god who had saved them, nor did it ease any of the pain in Regina’s heart. “I can never tell my husband or Rino about this…” “It can be our little secret. ” It was like the Blue Dragon knew they could handle the truth, but Regina wasn’t sure if she should be happy about that. Shinichi sighed again, seeing that the Blue Dragon was horrible enough to even enjoy toying with Regina. “I’m starting to see Arian’s dad as a respectable person…,” said Shinichi. “How dare you?! I can’t believe you would think I’m worse than some deadbeat dad!” “Hmph…” Arian pouted when the Blue Dragon talked bad about her father, even though Shinichi had once pointed out the same simple truth. The Blue Dragon scrambled to amend her statement. “I’m just joking! How about this? I’ll listen to anything you tell me as my way of apologizing, okay?” “Anything?” Shinichi stressed. “Tee-hee! You’re so naughty, wanting to make love with me! ” “…Shinichi?” asked Arian. “Wait! I’m not exactly into having sex with gigantic spheres!” Shinichi shouted, since she was taking this so seriously. Just then, a beautiful blue-haired woman sprang from the ground. “Do you still not want to make love with me?” “I will have to politely decline your offer,” Shinichi immediately said. Any form of lust was outweighed by an impending sense of doom, though this was virtually a male fantasy come to life. Even if Arian weren’t next to him looking so upset, he would have had to pass. The thought of sleeping with such a trickster was far too scary. “Anyway, it looks like you can take human form,” offered Shinichi. He knew she’d assumed this shape when she’d led the demons in their escape to the underground. He figured the Red Dragon had turned into a human, considering he’d made a child with Brigit. But seeing it in front of his eyes left him unable to hide his surprise. “It’s not like my real form is as the sun or a dragon. ” The Blue Dragon winked, making Shinichi nauseous and squashing any desire he had of asking her for more details. I bet they don’t even have a true form. A Proxy of the Planet didn’t necessarily need a specific shape. If they were there to kill any enemy who tried to destroy the planet, they could be a shapeless slime as long as they could generate massive amounts of magic. Did they take the form of a dragon because it seemed appropriately strong…? I wonder which of these things came first… Did humans start calling giant winged lizards dragons because the Proxies took that form? Or did the Proxies take that form because the humans had imagined that a creature like that would be so powerful it could kill even a god? Shinichi eyed the Blue Dragon suspiciously, but she didn’t answer his questions. She just smiled back at him. “As an apology for my little slip earlier—and because I really enjoyed watching your fight against Ellie—I’ll listen to pretty much any request, though I can’t help you with everything.” “We appreciate it.” Shinichi felt like he dodged a bullet, shoving Arian in front of him. She readied herself. “Please tell me what my mom was thinking when she got together with my dad. How did she get involved with him? How did I end up being born?” “Sure, sure. I can fill you in!” The Blue Dragon had known that question was coming since she’d been watching them. She didn’t look surprised—more like amused—and cast some spells without a moment’s hesitation. “Link and Search.” They’d experienced this before with the Red Dragon. Their senses were linked with the Blue Dragon’s consciousness, flooding their brains with information stored in the planet. “Agh. It’s still painful the second time around…” Shinichi, Arian, and Regina clasped hands with one another and desperately braced themselves so they wouldn’t lose their own minds in the deluge of information. They saw the images of a swordswoman warding off monsters in a restricted zone. She swung a thick great sword in her hand—the palm emblazoned with the Goddess’s symbol. She looked like the mother that Arian knew, and at the same time, she looked nothing like her. But there was no mistaking that chestnut hair, those sharp blue eyes, and the angular facial features. “Mom…” Arian tried to hold back her tears at the sight of her mother, Brigit the Hero. “Hssssssssssss—!” A sixty-foot snake opened its mouth and came at Brigit, trying to swallow her whole. She wasn’t intimidated at all, swinging her great sword directly in front of her. “Hi-yah!” Her muscular body had been trained over a long period of time and further strengthened by Physical Enchantment. The single slash was almost supersonic, tearing the snake from its head all the way down its body. A moment later, the shockwave blasted into the two halves of the snake, blowing them away in a rain of fresh blood. Brigit quickly dodged the blood and sinew, gazing cautiously at the remains of the gigantic snake that had crashed to the ground. “……” It was surprisingly difficult for animals to die, twitching for seconds, even without a functioning head or heart. Monsters were even worse. It wasn’t uncommon for a person to lose their life when they got caught up in a monster’s death throes. On top of that, some of them had more than one brain or heart, which meant they didn’t die even when you’d supposedly defeated them. Luckily, the giant snake didn’t move a single inch, and Brigit slowly lowered her great sword. Suddenly, she twirled around and lashed out with a horizontal slash. There was nothing there. Or it looked like there was nothing there, but she could feel her sword cutting through flesh. There was a spray of blood and a thud as something heavy fell to the ground—the corpse of a lizard with a particularly large head and eyes. It was a chameleon turned into a monster. “…Phew.” Brigit searched the vicinity for signs of anything else, but it seemed this time there really weren’t any more monsters. She finally let out a sigh of relief. “They just keep coming.” Each monster had morphed into a different form, meaning they came to attack with a variety of methods. Brigit muttered resentfully as she used Purification to clean the blood from her great sword, then left the area before more monsters could fight her. “It’s like hell out here.” Brigit looked around the forest but couldn’t locate a single normal animal. Not one normal field mouse or sparrow. Quite the contrary. Here, even the grass and trees were twisted into unpleasant shapes. There were even some carnivorous plants that could move. North from the Mouse Labor Camp and across the Matteral Mountains was this restricted zone. The deeper parts had more monsters and less normal wildlife. In the deepest reaches that Brigit was in now, all you saw were beasts everywhere. “Impurities must be cleansed at any cost.” She couldn’t ignore the damage that these monsters caused when they occasionally crossed the mountains and made their way to human civilization. More importantly, she simply couldn’t allow these abominations against nature to exist. “As is Lady Elazonia’s will,” said Brigit proudly as she looked at the hero symbol on her right hand. Evil monsters rampaged across the restricted zone, but in the end, their total numbers weren’t all that great. Monsters had to eat hundreds of pounds of food every day to maintain their massive bodies, and the forest’s bounty was limited. Once they finished with the nuts, fruit, and normal animals, their only option was to prey on one another. This kept their population in check. “Even if there are ten thousand monsters, they wouldn’t be impossible to exterminate.” If there were that many monsters, they had the potential of killing millions of normal soldiers. But the church had the immortal heroes. If they continued to fight without giving in, they would annihilate the monsters eventually. Brigit truly believed that, and that’s why she brushed off the people who tried to stop her from going to the restricted zone. She hadn’t been surrounded by a large group of monsters, but she did lose a few fights in the beginning. Now she’d adapted completely and had already slaughtered more than three hundred of the fiendish creatures. She had believed that if things continued like this, this land might be returned to human hands someday…but lately, she was starting to feel doubtful. “I knew it. It doesn’t seem like their population is getting any smaller.” Though her kills had only been about 3 percent of the total population, she had been making progress. Even though the impact to the restricted zone was small, it would make sense for there to be fewer monsters on her morning route into the forest. But nothing had changed. “It feels like their numbers are increasing.” There was nothing inherently strange about that situation. Monsters came from existing wildlife exposed to large amounts of magic, causing them to morph. They would continue to appear unless all plants and animals were eliminated from the world. However, the rate at which monsters occurred naturally was incredibly low. During the approximately three hundred years the church had been going around slaying monsters, they had kept detailed records about what kind of beasts infested which locations. Based on that information, it was possible to calculate the average rate of a monster appearing at one per year in locations with ecosystems larger than a few hundred thousand animals. So monsters normally appeared at a rate of one in hundreds of thousands, yet they somehow filled this restricted zone as if infinitely respawning. In other words, the only logical conclusion was that there was something unnatural creating them. “And there’s no way it’s a human.” There was a story of an evil magic user who conducted experiments where they continued to cast spells on a mouse until it evolved into a monster. That magic user was executed by the church, and all their research data was destroyed, meaning none of the details remained. However, it was evident that monsters could be artificially produced. Except this wasn’t a single little mouse—it was ten thousand massive monsters. The magic necessary to create them was beyond anything a human could produce. Which meant… “The Evil God must be here.” In the age of legends, the Goddess Elazonia defeated and sealed the Evil God deep in the underground pits. Maybe the Evil God was creating monsters to wreak havoc on the world, since they couldn’t act on their own. She couldn’t think of any other explanation that made sense. “It would also explain why His Holiness the pope seems afraid of the restricted zone, saying it’s a cursed land that no one should ever set foot in.” Other than Cemetarium Forest, which was controlled by elves, the church had control over pretty much the entire continent. No one would ever go against the church, yet the pope had never ordered the cleansing of the restricted zone. It had always bothered Brigit, but it made sense if it was because of some connection to the Evil God. “If His Holiness can’t do it, I will.” Brigit gripped the hilt of her great sword and smiled. She wasn’t very good at Healing or Resurrection spells, so she was never able to become a priest, but her capacity for magic went beyond that of a cardinal or pope, even Vermeita, the leading candidate to be the next cardinal, who was called the Holy Mother despite her young age. Even she wouldn’t be able to win against Brigit in a close-combat fight. Since she started hunting in the restricted zone, she’d been able to work on her skills even more. It was safe to assume no human could win against her now. “My Lady Elazonia! I promise to defeat the Evil God and release the restricted zone from its curse!” shouted Brigit to the heavens. Then she continued to walk farther into the forest. There was no one closer to being a true hero of the Goddess than her. The entity responsible for all these monsters was indeed one of Elazonia’s hated enemies. But could it really be called courage if someone was blinded by faith and was reckless because they had a cushion of immortality? There wasn’t a single person to ask Brigit that question. “That’s…my mom?” Arian was stunned, almost unable to believe what she’d seen. The mother she remembered was a kind, gentle person who avoided fighting with others. Nothing about her resembled this zealous warrior who giddily slayed monsters. “To think she worshipped Elazonia that much…” Arian wavered on her feet, more shocked about that than by the fact that her mom was a hero. Shinichi quickly caught her in his arms. It makes sense. I can understand why her mom would want to hide this from her. Brigit herself would have considered it a dark part of her own history, considering how much she hated the church in her final years. Shinichi felt guilty again for exposing these secrets, but the Blue Princess of War’s eyes were sparkling in excitement. “Hah, she’s such an incredible swordswoman. I never would have imagined she’s human. There aren’t even many like her among the demons,” she said. “She leaves carnage everywhere around her,” agreed Shinichi. Brigit was always a skilled swordswoman, but the time in the restricted zone, bathed in the Red Dragon’s magic waves, must have pushed her to even greater heights. “Maybe even as strong as human Elazonia, though she fought with magic, not swords,” Shinichi assessed. “Uh-huh. She reached the upper limit of human capacity,” said the Blue Dragon, confirming his thoughts. Shinichi stroked his chin. “I can’t completely abandon the idea of training humans using “the dragons’ magic waves. I wonder if there’s a way to prevent them from turning into demons…” “I don’t think it’s possible. Well, maybe if you take your time. But only natural-born geniuses would be able to keep their human form. Sanctie might be the only one currently,” said the dragon. “I see… Am I okay?!” Shinichi suddenly realized he was in acute danger and shuddered. His magic ability was below average, though he had some fancy spells founded on science. He frantically patted his body to check he wasn’t sprouting animal ears or scales. The Blue Dragon giggled at him. “You should be fine if it’s only a couple of hours. But if you stay here for days, you’ll end up a demon! ” “I never thought it could happen to me… Well, it wouldn’t be that much of a issue if I turned into a demon now,” he said flippantly. “I’d like to see more… Is that all right?” He looked at Arian, who was still in his arms. She seemed upset, but nodded anyway. “Please show us some more. How did she turn into the mom I knew?” “Here we go!” The Blue Dragon snapped her fingers, letting the paused memories of the past start again. Brigit had arrived at the foothills of the mountain under which the Red Dragon slept. “This has to be the place.” Brigit looked up at the tallest mountain in the restricted zone with sharp eyes. She’d spent days searching the territory and had finally sniffed out the magic source she believed to be creating the monsters. “It’s in there… No, below there.” Brigit stood at the base of the mountain, feeling the powerful flow of magic and glaring down below the sloped ground. “There’s no way in.” She tried climbing up to the peak for a bit to investigate, to no avail. No caves seemed to continue to below the mountain. “If only I could Teleport…” She sighed. Advanced spells were nothing more than a pipe dream for Brigit. She must have lacked the imagination necessary to cast them. “I have no reason to hurry now. We’ll do this slow and steady.” Brigit returned to the base of the mountain, placed her hands on the ground, and cast a spell. “Mother of all lands and seas, grant me a path forward, Tunnel.” He magic blasted out of her palms, burrowing into the earth to create a hole. It was only about ten feet long and so narrow that only one person could barely squeeze through, but that didn’t seem to bother Brigit. She just continued to cast the same spell. “Tunnel, Tunnel, Tunnel…” If she ran out of magic, she slept in there. She left the hole to eat and go to the bathroom, but then she’d go back and keep tunneling. The work continued for ten days until it suddenly connected with a massive underground space. “…It’s here.” Brigit felt the terrific magic waves and gripped her great sword tightly; she cast a Light spell and dashed into the space. She was in awe of the bright-red body suddenly coming into view. “A red dragon…” It was completely different from the Black Dragon of the church’s legends, the servant of the Evil God. This one had scales so red they looked like they were on fire. It slept, its huge eyes closed, but she still felt its intelligence when she looked at its face. But it was still a dragon. This was one of the beasts that had devoured masses of people and destroyed civilizations in times past. It continued to create monsters even now, making it the mortal enemy of the Goddess Elazonia and all of humanity. “Hi-yaaaah!” Her wonder only lasted a second. Brigit let out a terrifying battle cry and lunged at the Red Dragon. Her great sword had been boosted with Protection, making it harder than diamonds. She swung it down at the dragon faster than the speed of sound. It was a strike sure to kill any monster with a single blow, but the great sword bounced back, sending pins and needles up her arm. “Argh!” Brigit gritted her teeth and looked at the dragon’s neck, where not even a scratch could be seen. She didn’t give up, though. She stood and continued to attack. “Haaah! Hi-yaaaah!” She thrust at vital points—its forehead and eyes—slashing at its scaleless belly, but even so, the Red Dragon continued to sleep quietly without a single wound. “This is the true strength of an evil dragon…” Brigit fell to her knees, her breath ragged. She stopped her thousandth sure-to-be ineffective swing. But she wasn’t about to give up there. If she was one to throw in the towel, she would never have made it through the cursed restricted zone to the Red Dragon’s lair in the first place. “I will kill you.” Brigit gritted her teeth in frustration but walked away from the Red Dragon, sat down with her back against the stone wall, and closed her eyes. That was the beginning of her days spent attacking the creature. When she opened her eyes again, she lifted her great sword, slashed at the dragon until her strength failed her, then passed out into sleep. She only stopped swinging her sword and left the dark underground space to go out into the sun when she needed to find food and water. She looked like some hermit who had withdrawn to the wilds for intensive training. To tell the truth, the two months that Brigit continued to challenge the Red Dragon had cooled her once-burning faith in Elazonia. “Why won’t you kill me?” Brigit stopped in the middle of her nth slash—she’d lost count—and quietly asked that question. She understood she was entirely unable to inflict any wound on the Red Dragon, and so it would have no reason to bother killing her. But even so, she was like an annoying fly buzzing around its head. There was no reason to let her keep living, either. Yet the Red Dragon continued to let her be, remaining completely silent. “Are you really an evil dragon?” she asked, already certain that was wrong. This Red Dragon was obviously the source of large numbers of monsters. However, there was no grand scheme or evil intent here. Just like it had continued to ignore her, the Red Dragon seemed completely indifferent to everything that happened in this world. She couldn’t believe that something like this would be the servant of the Evil God or destroy humanity. “Who are you?” The Red Dragon didn’t answer her question. Not that she expected him to. She just sat down, leaned against the massive red form, and turned her question inward. “Who am I?” She was so tired her mind wasn’t working properly, and she felt like she was half dreaming as she looked back on her own life. When she was a little girl, she was better than anyone else. She could run fast enough to keep up with dogs, and she was strong enough to send a keg of ale flying. Rumors started to spread that she was a child prodigy not even adults could keep up with. A priest in the city caught wind of this and came to see her. He inspected Brigit’s body and grinned broadly. “This child has incredible potential for magic. Would you please allow us, the church, to take her?” Brigit’s parents jumped on the offer and sold their daughter for a hefty sum of money. It was understandable. They were nothing more than a poor farming family, and they had four other mouths to feed. But Brigit knew the truth. Her parents hadn’t done it for the money. They’d done it to get away from their superhuman daughter. When they looked at her, their daughter, being led away by the priest, there hadn’t been a single tear in their eyes. In fact, they’d looked relieved. That was the moment she decided she would believe only in the Goddess Elazonia and keep getting stronger. “It was fun to train.” The priest who had taken Brigit in was a man in his late thirties called Cronklum. Later, he would become known as the Elderly Cardinal, but at the time, he was still nothing more than a gifted bishop. Brigit trained alongside other potential heroes under the tutelage of Cronklum, a powerful magic user himself. That was a very fulfilling time for Brigit. She’d never met anyone equal to her before. But that didn’t last long. She wasn’t very good at healing magic, and she only ever made progress in strengthening her body and using her sword. Soon, even an adult priest couldn’t keep up with her, let alone her fellow potential heroes. When Brigit was thirteen and more powerful than even Cronklum could handle, he took her to the Archbasilica. She stood in front of the statue carved by the first pope and received the symbol of the hero. “I liked to fight, too.” She spent her days as a young hero slaying monsters. Since battle was her one forte, it was the only job where she felt useful to people. Her work saved many, bolstering the success of her adoptive father, Cronklum, and spreading Elazonia’s influence throughout the world. It was wonderful. That’s why she believed in the Goddess without thinking about it, continued to kill monsters, and moved forward—ever forward. “I never thought about who I was.” She enjoyed the consecutive battles. She’d had no time to stop and think. That wasn’t true. She never stopped because she was afraid. She had no companions standing beside her and no family supporting her from behind. If she had thought about it, she probably would have realized just how alone she was. That’s why she continued to redirect her focus to the enemies that stood in front of her. As a result, she ended up hunting all the monsters who roamed the fields. The only worthy enemies remaining were the elves in the east or the monsters in the restricted zone. Brigit believed killing monsters was more in line with Goddess Elazonia’s message, so she’d decided to try her hand at the latter. Then she ran into the massive obstacle—the Red Dragon—and just sat with herself for the first time. “Who am I?” asked Brigit as she looked up at the dragon’s face. She was shocked to see its eyes open. No amount of swings from her sword had elicited a response, but now its heavy lids were open and its golden eyes stared straight at her. ““……”” They looked at each other in silence, forgetting to blink. Brigit wasn’t about to stoop so low as to go for the dragon’s eyes now that the vital points were exposed. She just looked into its eyes, feeling like they would suck her in, and asked the same question as if the Brigit she saw reflected in those eyes could answer her. “Who am I?” “Understood,” boomed a sonorous voice in her mind. As soon as she registered it was the dragon’s voice, a flood of information poured into her brain. “Agh!” She somehow managed to withstand the headache as she watched images of her young parents cradling a baby. “Is that me?” The Red Dragon showed her memories of her birth. It must have been its way of answering her question. The baby started to stand and walk around. Her magic came to life, and she started showing her superhuman abilities. She was sold to the church, so she would be taken away. Brigit watched herself from a third-person point of view, observed herself focus on training to become a hero and spend her days driving away monsters. She felt like she was sinking into a calm ocean. “That’s me.” These were the days where she just kept fighting. She had no family, no friends, no lover, but she also had no regrets. She felt proud seeing the smiles of those she’d saved from monsters cheering for her. “I am a hero of my Lady Elazonia. There’s nothing shameful about that.” Brigit started to stand with her great sword in hand, realizing she’d been a coward, but then she froze in place. “…Huh?” She saw images of herself entering the restricted zone. She had just defeated a massive deer monster when she was caught off guard by a gigantic worm digging through the earth below her feet and a gryphon flying in the skies above her. They rushed in and tore into her head and torso, resulting in her very first death. These images were gory and grotesque, but Brigit had seen hundreds of monsters die. She didn’t even feel nauseous. The problem was what followed. “What is that…?” Brigit’s bloody limbs—chewed up by the monsters—suddenly disappeared from their mouths…and reappeared in a strange room lined with a number of large magic conductors. It was the hero resurrection facility inside Elazonia’s underground laboratory. Brigit’s flesh was brought there with Apport. A golem lifted the pieces up and placed them on a conveyor belt, where they were transported into a vat of flesh and blood from animals. “Initiate resurrection.” A different golem pressed a button on a magic conductor, activating a Resurrection spell. Masses of meat—once Brigit’s body—started to materialize by pulling in the dark flesh and blood in the vat. “Ugh…!” Brigit was desperately trying to hold back the sharp acidic sting in her throat from coming up. So what if her body was remade with the flesh of animals? It was no different from consuming animal meat, which generated into her body tissue. That’s what she tried to tell herself anyway. In her mind, she saw the images of her body after the resurrection was complete. There was no light in its eyes as it lay limply like a lifeless doll. Her body had been re-created using her genetic information, but the memories in her brain had been lost when the monsters’ teeth had crushed it. A husk of a body was placed on another conveyor belt where it was eventually taken to a bed. Another golem on standby placed a strange-looking helmet over her head when she arrived and pressed the button on the magic conductor that the cables on it connected to. “Initiate install.” Brigit’s memories had been broadcast from her hero symbol and stored in that magic conductor. Now they were being shoved back into that empty brain with a spell. The body spasmed a few times before it was teleported back to the church nearest to her previous location. Her eyes slowly opened. Brigit stood watching those vivid images of her past self. “That’s me…?” She was a living creature whose body was formed from the flesh and blood of animals, with memories copied and pasted from a magic conductor. That creature was definitely a human, but was it really her? “……” Something inside Brigit sounded like it snapped. She stood there frozen in place. In her mind, she saw herself go back into the restricted zone, challenge numerous monsters, and get killed and eaten again. Her bloodied corpse was again resurrected in the vat of flesh and blood and laid on the bed for her memories to be installed. During the process, the first golem placed a chunk of flesh belonging to Brigit that it’d missed the first time around on the conveyor belt. The piece was taken to the vat, resurrected, and came out again: the same chestnut-haired, blue-eyed girl. “Uh…” There was a Brigit lying in the bed having her memories installed and a Brigit being pulled from the vat of blood. One of the golems discovered there were two of her and let out a high-pitched error warning, then submerged the newest Brigit back into the vat. “Initiate disposal.” It pressed a different button from the one used for resurrection, activating Blood Mixer, a spell that formed blades from the blood and chopped Brigit’s body into tiny bits. That Brigit was turned back into fragments of flesh that would be used as materials for future resurrections, while the other Brigit was sent to the church. There were two of her, copies, like when you mass-produced an object. One was killed, and the other was alive, returning to the restricted zone, where it repeated the process again. “Aah…” Brigit moaned. Each of the Brigits who’d died seemed to appear in front of her like an illusion. Together, they all opened their mouths and asked, Who am I? Who are you? “Aaaaaaaaaah!!” She heard something shattering and screamed so loud she strained her vocal cords, then started scratching herself. The Brigit born from her parents no longer existed. What was here was nothing more than a shadow of an imitation of her. “Who am I?” Brigit had asked, and the Red Dragon had answered that question. She just wasn’t expecting this. “No! No! Noooo!” She raked her nails across her arms, tearing apart her skin. Hurting herself wouldn’t mend her broken heart. And wasn’t that fake, too? “I… I…” She couldn’t even bring herself to say her own name. She just stood there tearing at the body that wouldn’t even let her die. The Red Dragon had only one question inside him at the sight of Brigit as she was on the brink of insanity. “Why?” He didn’t understand why she was falling apart. He’d originally had absolutely no interest in humans. He slept deep below steep mountains, only coming to the surface once every few hundred years. The humans had feared him as a devil and worshipped him as a god, but he’d never even known. His fellow dragons might watch humans to kill the time, protect them as another specimen, or congratulate brave challengers, but the Red Dragon had never cared like they did. Of course, humans were the only living creatures who had developed the capacity to destroy the planet, meaning they were a race with the potential to become his enemy. He was a little wary of them. However, it was hard to imagine things would come down to that for at least another thousand years. He’d simply crush them when the time came. Unlike his fellow dragons who were forced to burrow below the surface, the Red Dragon’s sleep was never disturbed. He’d never had the opportunity to develop any sort of emotion toward humans. Brigit was the first human to ever stand in front of him. “Why?” he’d wondered when she suddenly materialized in front of him and launched her attack. He searched the planet’s memories to learn about the Goddess Elazonia and her heroes, as well as the fact that some humans even viewed dragons as an enemy. He quickly guessed this woman posed no threat to him. He simply found Brigit’s mind a mystery because she continued such a pointless activity for so long. That was the first time that the Red Dragon, who had felt nothing toward humans for so long, had even become aware of one of them. So when she stopped swinging her sword and asked her question, he decided he’d see what would happen if he answered. It was simple curiosity; it was neither from good intent nor from ill. However, the answer made her lose her mind to the point of self-harm. “Why?” He didn’t understand. If the genetic information for the body and the neural connections in the brain—the memories—hadn’t changed, then she was the same person. It didn’t matter if the atoms in her cells were replaced with new ones or if the memories were put into a different medium. Brigit was still Brigit. But for some reason, she was screaming and trying to destroy her own body like she couldn’t stand it. “…Why?” He didn’t understand. His actions had led to her suffering, but that did no harm to him. His heart ached, and he felt unpleasant emotions as he watched her. That was the thing the Red Dragon understood the least. “Search.” Because he didn’t understand, he probed the planet’s memories. What was the appropriate thing to do if a human woman was screaming and crying? The Red Dragon found his answer. He separated his core from the massive form of the dragon and changed into the form of a human male. It was a form suitable for stopping a woman who was crying. Now a handsome red-haired prince, he healed Brigit’s injured body with his magic and wrapped his muscular arms around her to prevent her from hurting herself again. “It’s okay,” he said, murmuring into Brigit’s ear, using these unfamiliar human vocal cords. No matter how much she thrashed and injured the Red Dragon’s new body, he continued to hold her. “It’s okay.” He didn’t even know himself what was okay. He was only certain of his goal: to no longer see her in such pain. “You’re going to be okay.” He repeated himself, cradling Brigit for hours until she finally stopped lashing out. “Aaah… Gaaaah!” She started crying tears from a different emotion and suddenly pressed her lips against the Red Dragon’s. She started hugging him back, wishing to forget everything. He looked into the planet’s memories to learn what he should do in this situation. What he didn’t understand was that his heart had started to ache again. It was completely different from the tightness in his chest before, and it was not unpleasant. He couldn’t understand it himself, but he gently pushed Brigit to the ground and— “Owieee!” The Blue Dragon shrieked in pain, abruptly halting the stream. “What’s wrong?!” asked Shinichi. “Urgh… Red noticed and stopped me.” “Oh,” Shinichi said, accepting the explanation with a strange expression as the Blue Dragon rolled on the ground, clutching her stomach. “If I knew someone was about to see me sleeping with someone, I’d probably do the same.” “But don’t you think it’s a little too cruel to teleport a bunch of aqua regia into my tummy?” “You’re all monsters.” It was horrific that the Red Dragon would forcibly inject someone with poison, but it was scarier that the Blue Dragon could withstand the pain. These creatures were on a totally different playing field. “Damn, and while I was not paying attention for a brief second, he went and blocked the information about them having sex!” The Blue Dragon pouted. “Actually, we don’t really need to see that anyway,” retorted Shinichi. Their daughter wouldn’t want to see her parents sleeping together anyway. Shinichi looked at Arian and saw that she seemed unable to hear the rest of them talking as she looked down glumly. “……” Arian stood in silence, a look of agony on her face, and Regina patted her on the shoulder in sympathy. “Take it all in. I know it’s tough knowing the Red Dragon will be able to see when you and Mr. Groom over here sleep together,” she consoled. “Yeah…” Arian nodded. “Wait, that’s not the problem! Well, it is a big problem!” She turned bright red. The Blue Dragon looked at them with a smile, stomach problems seemingly cleared. “Red’s an honest guy. He wouldn’t peep on his daughter.” “E-exactly!” “I will, though,” she added. “…I knew it. The dragons must be destroyed.” This was the first time Shinichi had agreed with Elazonia on something. He was so grateful the Red Dragon was a respectable being. “Anyway, it looks like Arian’s mom learned she was a ‘Swampman’…” That said, he didn’t feel too disgusted by Brigit. He looked at her resurrections the same way as the Red Dragon—that it wasn’t a problem as long as the genetics and memories were the same. But Shinichi was the exception. Any normal person would be shocked by the revelation. I imagine it stings for Arian, too… Even if Brigit was a “Swampman,” it didn’t change that she was Arian’s precious mother. Now she understood all the suffering her mother had gone through, which was enough to tear her heart to pieces. But these events were all in the past. Brigit was already gone, and they’d even defeated the source of her troubles—Elazonia. There was nothing Arian could do for her mother now, which made her feel even worse. The Red Dragon must have been so stubborn about this because he knew it would hurt Arian. Well, he must have been embarrassed, too. “Can we skip the hanky-panky and see what happened after that?” asked Shinichi, and the Blue Dragon nodded after a moment of silence. “Yeah, I don’t think Red cares about that.” Maybe he evaluated it was best for his daughter to finish what she started. “If you give me a chance to have at it with Red,” mused the Blue Dragon, “I could have him unlock the X-rated scenes.” She snickered. “Cut it out,” snapped Shinichi, paling. If two Proxies really went all-out against each other, they wouldn’t just be destroying the demon world. “If I could see a real Dragon Breath, then the demon world is a small price to pay…,” whispered Regina, seriously considering the offer. “Don’t you think you’re enjoying this a little too much?” snapped Shinichi before turning to the Blue Dragon. “Okay, show us the rest.” “You got it! ” She resumed the stream of memories rushing into their minds. Brigit’s once-fractured sanity could only be healed by time. It took three months. “I am…” Her consciousness finally returned, and she looked at her own right hand to see that there was no longer a hero symbol there. The Red Dragon had finally realized it had driven Brigit to madness and dispelled it. He’d shown Brigit memories of the past, so she understood Elazonia was nothing more than a ghost who’d done horrific things and increased her followers to collect more magic. “I am not a hero anymore.” She’d lost her immortality and her faith in Elazonia. She felt neither joy nor sorrow, just an empty feeling of nothingness. “Who am I?” She wasn’t a hero anymore. She was some fake construct, barely human. She had no value. Brigit hugged her shoulders like she was cold, then realized she was completely naked. “Where are my clothes?!” She quickly looked around, and her eyes fell on the face of a handsome redhead sleeping peacefully beside her. As soon as she remembered this was the Red Dragon, her memories of the past three months came rushing back. “Uh, ah…” While she had been raging, crying, and screaming, he had been with her—sometimes tenderly, sometimes passionately. When she had been as immobile as a corpse, he had fed her and washed her dirty body. Her face started to burn now that all the memories were fresh in her mind, and she watched the Red Dragon open his eyes, smile at her, and stroke her cheek gently. “You’re going to be okay.” The floodgates opened, drowning Brigit in shame. “Nooooooo!” Brigit shrieked, jumping away from the Red Dragon and frantically pulling on her scattered clothes and equipment. She fled the underground space as fast as she could. “Wh-what have I done?!” She screamed in anguish the entire time she ran through the long tunnel leading to the surface. It didn’t matter that she had slept with the Red Dragon. She knew the truth about Elazonia now, which meant she was no longer her faithful follower. She had no contempt toward the dragons or demons. She was embarrassed that she had wailed like a newborn and become infatuated with some man even though she was known as a powerful hero. “No, I’m not some harlot!” She continued to rush away, covering her face with her hands, looking a lot like her daughter would in the far future. Once Brigit returned to the surface, she put as much distance between them as she could. She eventually came to a stop in a forest she didn’t recognize. “Huff, huff…” She’d run out of breath, face still twisted from shame. All of a sudden, she went tense and swung her great sword. “Hi-yah!” The slash was so fast you wouldn’t have guessed she’d spent the last three months doing nothing. Without a single sound, two halves of a hawk monster came falling from the sky. Brigit leaped forward to avoid the shower of blood and thrust her great sword deep into the earth. “Do you want some of this, too?!” The blade pierced the brain of a mole monster hiding beneath the ground, and it died before it even had a chance to break the surface. Brigit slowly pulled the great sword out and scanned her surroundings. She must have drawn them to her with her running and screaming. She could hear dozens of monsters rushing her way. Since she was no longer an immortal hero, the wise choice would be to run away, but Brigit readied her sword and turned to attack the horde of monsters. “This is perfect. I can take my frustration out on you!” Brigit attacked with the very selfish reason of blowing off some steam, slashing out sideways and splitting the two-headed wolf coming at her in half. While the Red Dragon had held her, she’d been exposed to his magic waves at very close range for a long time. Her body was now as strong as a demon king. On top of that, she was raging from her powerful emotions. Eventually, she stood in front of a mountain of monster corpses. She was struck by vertigo, perhaps from fatigue, and she fainted. When she next opened her eyes, she found herself lying in a dimly lit cave. “Where am I…?” “Oh, you’re awake.” “—Ack?!” She saw the fur-covered face of a middle-aged woman looking down at her, and she jumped backward. The woman didn’t seem bothered by her reaction. She poured a green-colored tea into a wooden cup and offered it to Brigit. “The name’s Gunda. I won’t eat you or nothin’, so you can relax.” “…I’m Brigit.” She introduced herself though she was still cautious. She accepted the cup from Gunda, the fur-covered woman, and brought it to her lips. The green tea smelled slightly bitter but refreshing, and it seemed to calm her nerves. “It’s good.” “Isn’t it? The men in the house haven’t got any taste. They just say ‘more meat and none of that dirty water.’” Gunda smiled and refilled Brigit’s empty cup. Brigit gratefully accepted the refill as she dug through her memories. “I was in the middle of giving that mob of monsters a good thrashing, then I passed out…” “Yep. I’ve never seen someone as strong as you in my whole life!” said Gunda excitedly. Brigit sat up properly and bowed her head. “You’re the one who saved me, aren’t you? Thank you.” “It was no bother. Aren’t you afraid of us?” Gunda pointed to her furry face, but there was no disgust in Brigit’s eyes. “I thought people who came over the mountains like you hated beast morphs.” “…That was the case.” If this were a few months ago, she would have been unable to accept the beast morphs, as they were similar in appearance to demons. In fact, she would have instinctively killed them, but she’d learned several truths from the Red Dragon. She no longer felt any hostility toward them. “Besides, I’m…,” she started to say, then looked down with a dark expression and muttered, “…a monster pretending to be human.” Gunda yanked up Brigit’s hunched shoulders. “Hey now! Don’t be down on yourself! The mountain god went out of his way to save you. You should be happy!” “Mountain god?” Brigit seemed skeptical. “A spirit of some sort, I imagine. I’m not all that sure,” said Gunda uncertainly. “When I saw you passed out, I heard a strange voice in my head that said ‘mother, baby, save.’” “…What?” “I panicked ’cause this was so important and punched all the men in the village who were opposed, then…” Gunda went on with her story, but Brigit’s mind went blank. She couldn’t hear anything. That stilted speech had to be the Red Dragon. He must have known she was in danger and used Telepathy with Gunda, who happened to be nearby. The issue was the second word. “Baby?” “You’re pregnant. Didn’t you know?!” Gunda yelped. Brigit trembled as she looked at her belly. At most, she’d only been pregnant for three months. Her muscular abdominal muscles might have prevented her from seeing any noticeable bump. If she focused, she could feel a weak flow of power in her womb that was different from her own. “I’m carrying the Red Dragon’s child…?” “He’s the father?! Which means I was talking to the Red Dragon?!” Gunda gripped both of Brigit’s shoulders, but Brigit was too dazed to answer. All she could do was sit there shaking. “I’m going to have a baby…” She felt no resentment toward the Red Dragon. She was the one at fault for craving the warmth of his skin in her panicked state. It would be wrong to place the blame on him, but… “Is it all right for someone like me to have a baby?” She was just a fake copy of the hero, a body made from the flesh of animals with memories installed into her mind. Was she suitable to give birth to a child? Wouldn’t it just contribute to more horrible monsters in the world? The empty cup fell from her trembling hands as she wrapped them tightly around her shoulders. Gunda frowned, then patted her shoulders again. “Don’t be a fool! Listen to yourself! You’ve been blessed with a precious life! If you’re trying to say something stupid like you’re not going to keep it, I might have to beat you up myself!” “…You’re right. You’re right.” Brigit nodded slowly, giving in. Even if she was a monster, the child in her womb was innocent. Nobody had the right to end its life. “I can see clearly now, thanks to you.” Brigit bowed her head. “It’s not really something you need to thank me for.” Gunda scratched her nose, bashful, then took Brigit’s hand. “Hey now. If you’re feelin’ better, I can introduce you to the villagers. Once they hear you’re carryin’ the Red Dragon’s child, even the men who were opposed to saving you will welcome you with open arms.” That’s how the village chief’s wife, Gunda, convinced Brigit to live in Mouse Village until baby Arian was born safely. When Arian neared the age of two, Brigit spoke to Gunda with a strange expression. “We’re going to leave the village.” “I see.” Gunda wasn’t surprised. She offered Brigit a cup of green tea. “I sort of had a feeling you would.” “…I’m sorry.” “No need to apologize,” said Gunda as she stroked Arian’s red hair. “Can I ask why?” “I want her to see the wide world with her own two eyes.” Brigit looked at the red scales on Arian’s throat—the mark of her daughter’s father. She could easily imagine that her daughter would face major obstacles if they left this village and went into human society, which was controlled by the Goddess. Even so, she wanted Arian to know the outside world. “I’d never seen anything, so…” Drunk on her own strength and blinded by the Goddess Elazonia’s sense of justice, Brigit had lived her life never realizing what wickedness lurked in the shadows. She didn’t want her daughter to repeat those same stupid mistakes. “I know I’m being selfish for forcing my own ideals onto her, but this child needs—” “I don’t really understand these complicated things, but you don’t need to beat yourself up over it,” said Gunda as she lifted the sleeping Arian and laid her in Brigit’s lap. “Children are so much stronger than their parents think. You should raise her as you see fit, and take her to all the places you want to take her.” “…You think?” Brigit smiled and gently stroked her daughter’s cheek. Gunda patted her back strongly and sent them on their way. Brigit said her good-byes, thanking the villagers before leaving with Arian strapped to her back. She sprinted out of the restricted zone so fast the monsters couldn’t even keep up with her, crossed the Matteral Mountains, and returned to human civilization. There, she plunged the great sword that had been her partner for so many years into the ground like a grave marker. “Thanks. And good-bye.” She said her farewell to her great sword so that she could make a clean break from the hero she used to be, then set off walking. She touched her hair, which had grown quite long. “This will do, but I’ll have to buy different clothes, and maybe I should change how I speak.” It had already been three years since she’d disappeared, but there were probably still those who remembered the face of Brigit, their incredible hero. “It would really suck if Cronklum found me.” Brigit had no way of knowing the Elderly Cardinal had already started rearing a hero candidate, who would be known as the Saint, to replace her. “Maybe we’ll head to the west first.” They’d try and live somewhere far away from the Holy City where the church had the most power, somewhere where no one knew them. “Does that sound good?” “Eeee!” Her daughter squealed happily on her back, though Brigit wasn’t sure if she’d understood or not. Brigit smiled back at her daughter and walked beneath the bright blue sky. Arian had memories about the things that happened after that. They helped farmers, hunted in the forests to get their food, and lived on the road as they traveled to all sorts of villages and towns. Thinking about it now, that wasn’t just to keep the fact that she was a half dragon a secret—it was to show Arian all sorts of things. Verdant green forests. Ravaged grass plains. Sparkling metropolises to the smallest of villages. She saw people who would kindly offer them food and people who would spit on them for being unacquainted nomads. Brigit must have wanted Arian to see all there was in human society, so she could someday decide for herself how she wanted to live her life. This little girl is going to be so much stronger than me, she thought. She grimly looked at the innocent young girl chasing a dragonfly. She’s started feeling inferior because she’s different from the other children, because she’s a dragon’s daughter, and that’s subconsciously keeping her strength in check, but… Her incredible half dragon powers would awaken when she was feeling an explosive emotion. Brigit didn’t know if that emotion would be a good one—kindness or bravery—or a bad one like anger or hatred. That’s exactly why I want her to see the world. She wanted her to see all the beauty, all the ugliness with her own eyes so that she could grow up to be a kind child who loved people. I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t see anything because I was blinded by my strength and faith… Brigit looked into the distance as she kept watch over her daughter, who was still sprinting around. In the spring just before Arian’s twelfth birthday, Brigit collapsed from illness. Even though she wasn’t good at healing magic, she had used a little bit of Pain Block to ignore the problem, which ended up being a detriment to her. By the time they found the illness, it was too late, and the symptoms had only worsened. Magic couldn’t completely heal her, so it was said that she was at the end of the “life span the Goddess gave her.” It was a fatal disease from which a normal person couldn’t even be resurrected. She had cancer. “Mom, stay with me!” Arian clutched her emaciated mother close as she lay in the bed loaned to them by a kind farmer, warm tears spilling down her face. Brigit smiled contently and stroked her daughter’s red hair. “Arian, no matter how much pain you’re in or how much it hurts, you should never hold a grudge.” Brigit herself had gone off that path when she’d become the hero of the Goddess—a spiteful woman who’d abandoned her human body and become a god. That’s why she didn’t want her daughter to make the same mistakes. “You are human. You’re a bit stronger than other people, but you are human.” Arian was different from her. She wasn’t a fake copy of a human. She had the blood of a dragon in her, but Brigit wanted her to live proudly as a human without becoming some beast drunk on power. She knew it was selfish of her to push what she couldn’t do onto her daughter, but she couldn’t explain it to her crying child. I could never tell you I’m just a fake… She was terrified of her daughter looking at her with disgust in her eyes, of her wishing she was never born, so she kept that her secret until the very end. Ah. I never realized I was so weak. Standing on the brink of death, she finally understood. Even if her body and magic were strong enough for her to kill hundreds of monsters, her heart had remained infantile from the day her parents had abandoned her. If only I could cry… It would have been so much better if she’d cried like her daughter did now, clinging to her chest and begging her not to leave her alone. But Brigit had never experienced a painful loss. She would have been too ashamed to show her weakness, even to her family. She still would have chosen to go alone. I was such a vain and weak girl. And that… A smile spread across Brigit’s haggard face, finally finding the answer in her last moments. Then she stroked the red hair of her daughter—her only child, who was going to be alone because of Brigit’s own stubbornness. “I’m sorry I’m so pathetic.” She closed her eyes forever. The sound of her daughter crying drifted farther and farther away, and in the moment just before her consciousness faded completely, she heard a familiar voice in her mind. “…You okay?” If she grabbed on to that voice, he would surely heal the incurable disease and pull her back from the edge of death. But Brigit was stubborn to the very end. “It’s okay. This is okay.” She might have just lived her life as a stupid copy, but the twelve years spent with her daughter were all she could have ever asked for. She said thank you and good-bye to the one who had given her that and was the only man she had ever loved. Her life came to an end before she reached forty. “Every time I watch a life with dramatic twists and turns, I’m thankful that humanity managed to hang in there! ” “Take a hint.” Shinichi glared at the Blue Dragon, who casually let such horrible things slip out of her mouth, then he patted Arian’s back as she clung to his chest crying. “You weren’t a copy or anything… You were my mom… I wish you would’ve lived longer!” If only Brigit could have stood her ground that she would always be herself, regardless of if she was some “Swampman” with a copied memory. If only she could have lived more boldly by using the church to her advantage or relying on the Red Dragon’s power. Brigit never could have done that. Just like she had realized in the very end, she was a weak and stubborn woman. “Do you hate your mom?” asked Shinichi. “I would never!” Arian shook her head vigorously. Shinichi smiled back. “Then you should do what your mom wanted for you—see all sorts of things and live as a human.” That was the only offering she could give to her mom now that she had passed. “Yeah!” Arian nodded, wiping her tears and looking into Shinichi’s face. “I’ll keep living. I don’t want to leave you or the children alone.” “…You do know what you’re saying, don’t you?” Shinichi’s cheeks turned red. The grinning faces of Regina and the Blue Dragon loomed over them. “Ha-ha-ha. Already planning for parenthood?” Regina laughed. “Looks like Rino and Celes will need to get things moving.” “Children, huh? Just how many times are you planning to get in the sack?” giggled the Blue Dragon. “Wha—?!” Arian’s face turned bright red. This bordered on sexual harassment. Unlike her past self, she didn’t try to skirt the question and instead sheepishly nodded back. “Yeah! I’m going to become Shinichi’s wife! Just you wait!” “…You’ve really grown.” Shinichi was moved by her bright smile and hugged her slender frame. He wasn’t exactly happy with the others watching them, so he stepped away from Arian quickly and turned to the Blue Dragon. “Thank you for your help today.” “Oh, it was nothing. Come back anytime. And what better way to thank me than with a front-row seat to your first night together? ” “See you never!” spat Shinichi, turning on his heel. Regina cast Fly, and they left. The Blue Dragon waved. “I’m excited to see what you get up to in your life, outsider!” She wasn’t being facetious. The knowledge he’d brought with him from Earth had greatly altered the course of Obum. There was nothing more entertaining than that. “I wonder how far you and your descendants will go!” Maybe they’d surpass the ancient civilization. Maybe even Earth. They might break the chains of gravity—or even surpass the dragons, trivial little beings who only had the power of one planet—or travel through space. The possibilities were endless. “I’m looking forward to it. I hope you go at it like rabbits and make litters of little babies! ” “And I hope you die!” He flipped her the bird, sighing as he looked north to where the Red Dragon was. I am so glad Arian’s dad is an upstanding being… Shinichi felt like he heard someone talking to him—“Dad, name, unpleasant”—but he pretended to mind his business, holding Arian’s hand as they flew through the demon world’s night sky.
Chapter 85
55 min read