Schtola D went hmmm as he thought about it.
“Well, I suppose so. I ain’t heard of anyone gettin’ into a Necropolis and comin’ back alive, though.”
“Why not?”
“The shitty bastards livin’ in those Necropolises have been holed up in those cramped castles for thousands o’ years. Their retainers have some pretty damn tweaked-up defenses for those castles. It’s a way for ’em to kill time.”
Murmuring those words, Schtola D lowered his eyes as if enduring a memory haunting him all over again.
“They got most of the bunch from my village, too. That guy—that bastard Shahryar Ren—lured us into his castle on purpose so he could have fun with us! He was watchin’ while my pals died!”
“That so…”
Yaze’s expression grew graver as he sank into silence. He felt like he finally understood why Schtola D hated Ren despite both of them being Devas. Apparently, the whole reason he’d been captured as a sorcerous criminal was because ordinary civilians had been caught up in his repeated attacks on MAR for the purpose of defeating Ren. That collateral damage couldn’t be undone, but Yaze could empathize with him to a fair extent.
“What happened to that dragon…?”
Bruté Dumblegraff, who’d kept silent up to that point, spoke from the adjacent bed through the thin curtain separating the two.
“Dragon? You mean the flame dragon called Kreyd?”
Yaze remembered the copper-colored dragon he’d encountered back at the warehouse district in Island East. They’d thought he was a member of the Order of the End, but the dragon was actually a coconspirator of Shahryar Ren.
“Pretty sure that dragon went to Nod along with Shahryar Ren.”
Asagi calmly answered Dumblegraff’s question.
Upon hearing this, the dragon slayer man fell silent on the other side of the curtain. He’d lost his battle with Kreyd and had been unable to stop the flame dragon from crossing over to Nod. He apparently felt responsible for the result.
“Hey, you, you’re a dragon slayer…a Georgius, right? Why do you have that much of a hate-on for dragons?”
Asagi followed up, her interest piqued. She thought he might ignore her, but Dumblegraff was unexpectedly open about it.
“There is no reason. I am a Georgius built by the Church for that purpose.”
“Even so, there have to be extenuating circumstances. What did the Western European Church make the Georgiuses for?”
“…Because dragons are invaders, or so I was told.”
After a silent pause, Dumblegraff quietly spoke. Asagi narrowed her eyes with a dubious look.
“Invaders…?”
“The dragons on this planet are scouts; therefore, we kill them before they can carry information back to their kind.”
“…Scouts…like recon troops? So they came as spies…but where from?”
Dumblegraff’s explanation was so lacking in words that Yaze felt a strong sense of bewilderment. At present, it was impossible for Yaze to judge if he was speaking the truth or simply false dogma that had been fed to him long ago.
For some reason, Asagi readily nodded.
“I see. It makes sense.”
“Eh…?! Asagi, you buy his story?”
Yaze pressed the point with his childhood friend in a tiny voice. Asagi looked apathetic as she spoke.
“I don’t completely buy it, but to me, it doesn’t look like he’s lying.”
“Well, I’m with you there, but…”
“Either way, we’re putting dragon countermeasures on the back burner. We have to do something about these Necropolises first.”
“I guess you have a point… Otherwise we won’t be able to send Kojou off to Nod.”
It didn’t sit well with Yaze, though he had no choice but to accept that Asagi was right. Yaze’s brow creased as he sighed deeply.
Either way, they’d gotten the information they needed. There seemed to be no reason to stay in that hospital room any longer. Yaze and Asagi nodded to one another, about to head out the door at virtually the same time.
That was when Schtola D opened his mouth once more.
“Wait, Priestess of Cain. You said the Fourth Primogenitor…Kojou Akatsuki, was it? Tell that jerk something for me.”
“Tell Kojou what?”
Asagi stood still and looked back. Schtola D nodded with a sulky look on his face.
“Yeah. It’s pathetic, but I’m stuck in this bed, so tell ’im to kill that shit bastard Shahryar Ren for me, would you…please.”
Asagi raised her eyebrows, somewhat surprised as she saw Schtola D reverently lower his head. Then a powerful grin came over her.
“…Okay. Even if it’s not killing him, it’ll be half killing him for sure. I’ll make Kojou take responsibility.”
“Fine with me.”
Schtola D murmured in satisfaction and closed his eyes. Turning their backs to him, Asagi and Yaze left the hospital room.
“…You sure you should be making a promise like that? Half killing Shahryar Ren… If he knew we were in negotiations to sell Itogami Island to MAR, wouldn’t he totally flip his lid?”
Yaze asked Asagi this as they walked down a dreary hospital corridor.
Asagi nodded without any change in expression.
“I suppose so.”
“Er…even you suppose so…”
“It’s all right, though. That’s not gonna happen.”
Asagi showed off a toothy smile. Asagi’s behavior perplexed Yaze.
“How can you be so sure?”
“MAR…or rather Ladli Ren has a huge misunderstanding about one thing.”
“Misunderstanding?”
“Yeah. She thinks Kojou’s someone who’ll budge from weighing the pros and cons in purchase negotiations.”
The instant she spoke Kojou’s name, Asagi’s smiling face was enveloped by a bright, vibrant glow.
Somehow, the tone of the words she spoke sounded loving and proud.
“It takes a complete idiot immune to that kind of logic to rule this island.”