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We rushed to the forest, Lord Felix and I on one horse and Sir Kain on another.
Lord Felix had been reluctant to bring me along, but how could I just sit and wait while my friend was in danger?! Besides, Jack said he knew where Lady Alice was. Heading directly to her obviously made more sense than searching blindly.
Lord Felix had been confused when I told him this, though.
“Lucille, what are you talking— Never mind, this isn’t the time.”
And so, perhaps realizing I wasn’t going to back down no matter what, he had let me onto his horse. I would’ve liked to have ridden by myself, but since I had zero experience on horseback, I accepted his offer. I would definitely practice at some point, though.
“Meow, meooow? Thank you, Jack! Lord Felix, please head past that large tree and to the right!”
Lord Felix seemed to be biting back a comment but followed my directions nonetheless.
“There aren’t supposed to be monsters here, but mana suddenly started welling up here over the past few days,” he explained. “It may be related to the recent surge in monster sightings.”
“I see...”
Just as Lord Felix said, my first impression upon entering the forest had actually been “This place sure contains a lot of mana.” But as we proceeded, I realized that my conclusion hadn’t been quite accurate. The mana didn’t belong to the forest itself but to a presence within it.
Actually, if I’m not mistaken, this presence might be— Oh! More importantly, I can sense us getting closer to Lady Alice! But I can’t tell exactly where she is because the mana here is so dense.
“Meooow? Jack, you said she was this way, right?! Lady Alice! Where are you?!” I called out as we followed Jack on horseback.
I didn’t know you could run so fast, Jack! Like, this can’t be normal, right?
As Lilybell, I had been able to run amazingly fast thanks to Master Alys’s enhancement magic. Perhaps Jack wasn’t an ordinary cat either?
I tried to suppress my anxiety as we sped along, passing through a thick cluster of trees to reach a small clearing. Suddenly, the horse stopped in its tracks and whined, its legs trembling.
Behind me, Lord Felix gasped.
A dark creature that clearly did not belong in the forest sat before us. And on the ground right next to it was Lady Alice, her face pale.
The dark creature—a black dragon—stared at her with his red eyes.
Despite the size of the forest and denseness of the tall trees, for a dragon to be able to hide here entirely unnoticed, he was likely small for his kind. Still, he was much larger than any human. I could sense Lord Felix’s tension.
“I...can’t believe there’s a dragon here,” Lord Felix murmured to himself.
“Indeed, I never thought I’d encounter such a sight in a place like this,” I replied.
My response to his musing seemed to snap him out of his shock—he suddenly moved to stand in front of me and slowly drew his sword.
Lady Alice had probably noticed us by this point, but she remained frozen in place, her eyes locked with the dragon’s.
“Lucille, you need to quietly retreat and get out of here,” Lord Felix whispered to me, gaze pinned to the dragon.
I couldn’t help but be impressed.
Whaaat? Lord Felix, you’re so darn cool! Nothing beats a gallant person doing gallant things!
I wished I could’ve seen him doing this for Elvira instead. It would’ve been a feast for the eyes. I was sure that Lord Felix was a true gentleman at heart, give or take the occasional concerning comment.
I suppose now isn’t the time for such thoughts. When this is all over, then I can indulge!
The dragon didn’t seem to have noticed Lord Felix and me. Moving his reptilian face closer to Lady Alice, the dragon stretched open his maw to bare his sharp fangs.
The sight of poor Lady Alice trembling in fear, eyes brimming with tears, filled my heart with anger.
I let out a sigh to calm myself a bit, then took a deep breath and yelled, “Stop it right there! Are you misbehaving again?!”
The dragon froze and turned to look at me, his red eyes wide open in disbelief.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Wh-What?!” Lord Felix exclaimed.
Why is Lord Felix also gaping in shock? Well, he was right next to me when I shouted, so perhaps it hurt his ears—in the physical sense, that is.
I thought I’d been careful not to cause ear damage, but if Lord Felix was angered by my loud voice, then I’d just have to apologize later and ask for forgiveness. Right now, there were more pressing concerns.
I focused my attention on the dragon. I remembered this naughty boy very, very well.
“This mana... It can’t be... Are you Lilybell?!” he bellowed.
Dragons were a highly intelligent and extremely long-lived race, capable of speaking human language.
I wasn’t sure how to respond to the dragon’s question since I hadn’t been planning on telling Lord Felix and Lady Alice about my past life. After mulling over it, I decided to play dumb.
“What? Who’s Lilybell? My name is Lucille,” I said as coldly and imposingly as possible.
The dragon opened and closed his mouth several times before finally choosing to remain silent.
Yes, I’d say you made the right decision. Because I am incredibly angry right now!
Long, long ago, back when I was still Lilybell, I’d met a dragon who was always causing trouble. During our first encounter, I’d thought, “I don’t think there’s any way we’ll ever get along.” He was too violent and insensitive, and he attacked humans without reserve.
Well, that’s the red-eyed black dragon in front of me right now.
This dragon’s name was Maouldoth, and the two of us had given each other hell in my past life.
I never thought I’d run into him again as a human...
I jumped out from behind Lord Felix and walked determinedly toward the evil dragon.
“Huh? Lucille, wait! Hey!”
It sounded like Lord Felix was trying to stop me, but my fury could no longer be contained.
“Maouldoth! So your seal has weakened with the passing of time, has it?! You always complained, ‘I’m not doing bad things anymore! I want to be free!’ But the moment your seal weakens, you immediately start misbehaving again! You still haven’t learned your lesson, have you?!”
“Eek! No! It’s not what it looks like!” Maouldoth squealed pathetically.
In case it wasn’t obvious, this dragon was a little afraid of me.
In every era, there had been one person he just couldn’t win against, and by some twist of fate, that person had always been one of my precious owners. Plus, since my owners had loved me so dearly, they had shared their mana and special tricks with me. In other words, I had inherited a bit of mana from all of the people who had been capable of making Maouldoth tremble with fear.
It wasn’t as if I could beat him. I mean, this was dragon versus human, and in my past life, it would’ve been dragon versus cat. Realistically speaking, I stood no chance. But I suspected that his fear of the mana in my body ran deep. He couldn’t simply will it to go away.
The dragon also had one more reason to be afraid of me in all my smallness.
I turned to Lord Felix, who was standing still in shock, and pointed at a certain part on Maouldoth’s body.
“Lord Felix! Right here! Imbue your blade with mana and stab it into this terrifying dragon in this very spot! Don’t worry, his seal may be weakened, but it isn’t broken! He won’t be able to escape!”
“Gaaah!” the dragon wailed. “Who’s the terrifying one here, you monster?!”
Lord Felix seemed bewildered by the casualness of my exchange with the dragon. He looked at his sword, then me and Maouldoth, then the part of Maouldoth’s large, thick tail that I was pointing at—a purple area near the base.
Maouldoth was afraid of me because I had known him for so long that I was familiar with all of his weaknesses.
“Lord Felix? Come on, he’s all yours!” I urged.
“Sorry, could you provide the mana instead, Lucille?”
“You want me to imbue it into your sword?”
This is called teamwork, right?! It’s like we’re best friends! I love it!
Lord Felix held out his blade, and I channeled my mana into it as requested. He swiftly approached his prey, raised his sword, and swung it down on the dragon’s tail with great force.
“Gyaaaaah!”