Side Story:
Zavilia Updates His Hit List
“HMM… WHAT TO DO…” Zavilia sat at his favorite spot by the bay window of my dormitory room, pondering the scraps of paper strewn about his feet.
“What’s that, Zavilia?” I asked.
“Hm? Oh, just my hit list. It’s been ages since I updated it, so I was thinking it’s about time.” His eyes remained glued to the scraps of paper as he swished his black tail back and forth. He focused intensely, but his words struck me.
“Your hit list?!” I shrieked.
Come to think of it, he had made such a list a while back.
I drew near to see my adorable black dragon writing something decidedly not adorable. I recognized many of the names on his list.
Hit List
1. Desmond, Second Knight Brigade Captain
2. Cerulean the Jester
3. Saint Priscilla
…
“Eek! Z-Zavilia! I-Isn’t this already updated?!” I exclaimed with a small jump. Some of these names hadn’t made the list last time.
Zavilia didn’t even look up at me as he replied, too immersed in his list-making. “I’ve only gotten to the fifteenth place so far. Number sixteen should be…”
“N-no, I think you’ve written more than enough! Actually, why are you making such a scary list in the first place? I-I mean, you’ve been able to fly around freely on castle grounds lately, right? With you to protect me, I’m perfectly safe! There’s no need for this!”
I grabbed Zavilia’s shoulders and shook him, and at last he regarded me.
“Well, I can’t ensure your absolute safety, and it’d be too late if I were to arrive after something happened, so wouldn’t it make sense to execute threats preemptively?”
“E-e-execute?! M-my, those are some scary words you’re slinging around there, Zavilia! Uhh, I’m happy you’re worried for me, but I’ll be fine. And there’s nobody dangerous around me that you have to ‘execute.’ I’ve only met Saint Priscilla once, and you have her listed third, for crying out loud!”
Zavilia simply scoffed. Apparently recalling my visit to Lloyd’s manor, he said, “Once is more than enough to see how awfully she treated you. That Priscilla girl deserves to be taught a lesson after what she did. You made me promise not to split space apart and teleport over no matter what I heard, but you didn’t say anything about me flying to the manor normally—and I genuinely considered doing just that.”
“Eek! I wasn’t trying to leave you a loophole. Don’t intentionally misinterpret my words! Like I said before, Priscilla is a fellow saint, not my enemy! Everyone is already worried by how few saints there are, so you can’t hurt her!” I ran down the list again to try and change the topic. “And what’s with your number two here? Cerulean is just a small child! Don’t tell me the great black dragon is going to hurt a child?!”
“He may look like a child, but he’s actually a twenty-nine-year-old man and the king. He’s the troublesome type, and he forced all his duties onto his younger brother while keeping his power. Plus, he’s willing to sacrifice anything to get what he wants.”
Wow, Zavilia is sharp! I thought. Cerulean was sacrificing his own life to try and save Colette, after all.
“The more power one wields, the greater their demands. As there’s much that only you can do for him, Fia, I see trouble in your future if you get involved with him. The best thing we can do is pluck this worrying seed out before it has a chance to grow into a big, cumbersome tree—then chop and mince him into pieces for good measure.”
“P-pluck, chop, and mince?! That’s going way too far! Cerulean’s brother, Commander Saviz, may be tall, but I don’t think Cerulean will grow that big. If anything, he’s getting smaller every year, so relax, okay? He’s not going to grow into a big tree but will instead remain a tiny shrub not worth worrying about!”
“I think you’re missing my point here…” Zavilia continued to grumble, but I pretended not to hear and instead checked the list again.
“Let’s see, number one is…Captain Desmond! Ah, now this I can get behind! Er, I-I’m not saying he’s a bad person or anything, but he likes to have a bit too much fun and gets carried away.” He also bragged and teased a lot. If one took half of his teasing seriously, then I could see why Zavilia would put him on the list, but it wasn’t like Desmond could change his ways at the drop of a hat. He’d lived his whole life with that nasty personality of his and…
Zavilia slammed his tail against the floor to snap me out of my thoughts. “There’s no excuse for the rudeness he shows you, and he insults you knowing full well of my existence, thus indirectly provoking me. I originally planned to face him head-on, but I’ve settled instead on burning him to a crisp in front of an audience to prevent any future issues from the others. I’m currently awaiting a good opportunity.”
“Eeeeeeeeeek! Z-Zavilia, no! Bad dragon! Captain Desmond works himself ragged every day, so he gets exhausted to the point where he doesn’t know what he’s saying! Everything you hear from him is nonsense! He’s not someone you should take even the slightest bit seriously!” And yet Zavilia was taking him very seriously. I could tell from how he spoke, and it sent me into a panic.
Zavilia mulled over my words. “…Really?”
“Yes, yes!” I insisted. “He’s not someone my adorable, smart little dragon should waste time on!” I changed the topic by brute force. “Incidentally, Zavilia, I heard Gizara, that griffon we brought back from the Giza Ravine, laid eggs! Wanna go see?”
Finally, Zavilia’s interest turned away from death and destruction. “Oh? You want to go see that strange knight acting all weird?”
“Strange knight?” The last time Zavilia had said something like that he was referring to Quentin. “What, did Captain Quentin do something again?”
Quentin had always been a rather eccentric individual, but he became all the odder when monsters got involved. Gizara was his familiar, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he pulled something weird again. Zavilia must have spotted Quentin getting up to something during one of his flights.
“Well…I could explain, but it’s far more instructive to see it for yourself, so let’s go.”
“Ohh, sounds exciting! Let’s do it!”
Truth be told, I didn’t want to go anywhere near Quentin, or as Zavilia put it, “that strange knight,” but I had to distract Zavilia from his hit list, and you can’t break an omelet without cracking a few eggs.
Nonchalantly, I slid Zavilia’s hit list to the far corner of the bay window. “Shall we be off?”
“We’re the ones who brought that griffon here, so I suppose we have a responsibility to check on things before something goes wrong… I guess I can work on my hit list later.”
Guh. Shoot. I guess you won’t forget about it that easily, huh… It seemed I only managed to postpone the issue. I hung my head. M-maybe Zavilia will have so much fun meeting Gizara and Quentin that he’ll lose interest in working on his hit list!
With abundant optimism, I made for the familiar stable with Zavilia.