Mirka took a seat on a rock as she talked to someone over her Proof.
“Being real here, Gandor, I really do have to thank you.”
“Hmmhmm. Which matter might you be referring to?”
“Both of them. For saving Haring last time, and now for bringing his family to him.”
“Ni shi shi! It matters not. Old as I am, I’m still the Administrator of the Dragon Tribe.”
Her conversation partner...Administrator Gandor gave a peculiar laugh.
“He is, after all, the candidate I’ve placed my hopes on. It wouldn’t be fun if he was crushed by trifling affairs. And if I selected him, it only makes sense to take responsibility for him to the end, don’t you think?”
“You say that, but you’ve pretty much abandoned him up to this point.”
“Ki shi shi. That’s what you call a difference in teaching practices. Little old Velt is putting quite a bit of effort into shaping his candidate, but I’m the sort who lets the base ingredients shine through.”
“I see. So is he going to meet your expectations?”
“Of course he will. Up until now, he was always fighting unaware...but a rare spirit polished solely by fighting to protect others shall surely let him ascend to become a true dragon.”
Mirka quietly closed her eyes, letting Gandor’s gleeful ramble enter her ears. “...Well, all that aside, please do hurry up and come to the city, okay? It pains me to say that Velt’s the only Administrator who’s showed up so far.”
“Sorry about that, Mirka, dearie. We have our hands full with our own continents, but I guess we can’t leave the duel city management in your hands forever.”
“Yes, with all that’s happened lately, I’m about to die from overwork...”
“Hmhmm, that tired? A good groping ought to pep you right—”
“Drop dead, pervy old man.”
After one-sidedly cutting off the conversation, Mirka let out a sigh. “Haaah... I thought it would be more interesting than being an administrator, so I chose this side, but...”
A wrinkle slowly spread across her brow as she recalled the events of the last day. “Well, let’s just get this job over with, so I can make Yuri sleep next to me as punishment,” she joked before directing her eyes down to the line of several men made to sit in handcuffs.
“Now then, now then, what’s going to happen to you now?” she asked the man in the center, Navie Ionesca.
“Hah... Hell if I know. All I know is that you dragged us out here to exile us from the city.”
They were currently in a ruined, desolate land. Not a speck of green around, only dull brown rock and gravel filled their field of vision.
Mirka broke into a chuckle after hearing that one. “Exile, is it? I’m sorry, that’s not quite how these things work.”
“...What do you mean, eh?”
“I mean what I say, and I say what I mean. You don’t seem to understand what it is you’ve done.” Mirka twirled the tip of her finger as she explained. “If abusing contracts was all you did, you would’ve probably gotten off with exile. However—murder and attempted murder solely for the thrill of it. Slave trafficking, which is prohibited across all the continents. There’s plenty more I could list off, and I must say, you’ve done just a bit too much.”
It would be accurate to call Navie Ionesca a heinous villain. The central figures of his organization who not only knew about his misdeeds but also actively supported him shared the same offense.
“And yet...you want to be exiled? Ridiculous. Laughable. Absurd. If we return a villain like you to your original continent, the peaceful world everyone’s trying so hard to maintain will fall apart.”
Unable to contain her laughter, Mirka’s eyes turned to look down at Navie with scorn.
“Did you honestly believe that exile was the highest punishment the duel city could offer? Did you think, after instilling them with the power to fight, we would offer salvation to those whose thoughts and actions stepped off the path of ethics?”
If someone who not only had the power but used it to maliciously hurt others was set free, there was no way the peace of the world could be maintained. That was precisely why exile wasn’t enough.
“A place for you no longer exists in this world,” she firmly declared.
Overwhelmed by her intensity, one of the bound men raised his voice. “I-It ain’t my fault! I was just following Navie’s orders!”
“T-That’s right! I just did it because he was threatening me!”
“I wouldn’t have helped him if I knew it would come to this!”
The followers suddenly started acting up. Such ugliness caused Mirka to move a finger to her lips in irritation.
“Ah...just shut up.”
Her tone was as if she was dealing with the buzzing of an annoying fly as she protruded a claw from one of her fingers.
“I should start by taking out a few.”
A moment after her cold declaration, the bodies of the men who began protesting were vertically bisected.
“......Hah?”
The few who survived turned their heads to what had once been their comrades. They didn’t even have to look to know they had died instantly.
“Haaah, I’ve had enough of this job. It really is such a drag.” Her black wings swayed, almost as if she was a child throwing a tantrum. It was like the lives she took meant absolutely nothing to her.
After staring at her for a few moments, Navie’s expression turned from shock to smile. “Oh...I get it now.” Defeated by his encroaching fear, he raised his voice in a broken laugh. “Hahahahahah! I see, it’s you! The mysterious number one! The undefeated duelist who holds the top seat without anyone knowing their name!”
Watching as Navie continued to laugh and laugh, Mirka listlessly pressed a hand to her cheek. “Ah, whatever, just say whatever you want. Your verdict is already set in stone.”
After Mirka shifted her blood-stained fingertips, the air rumbled, quivering in fear. An invisible existence lurked in the atmosphere.
Imperfect as they were, being duelists, Navie and his men surely sensed it. And that was why—they surely got a taste of the greatest terror.
“This is my job as head of city management. Don’t fault me for it.”
By that point, her words could no longer reach them. There was nothing left. No bisected bodies, no men cowering in fear, no Navie repeating his broken laugh.
All that remained was a sizable divot in the ground.
“Hah... How boring,” Mirka complained for the umpteenth time as she stared at the impacted earth.
Boring.
Boring.
Boring.
That was the emotion that was always filling her head these past couple hundred years.
“Honestly, I truly envy all those duelists out there. Just by living in the duel city, they can always enjoy their fights.”
Naturally, this should have applied to Mirka as well, a duelist in her own right. However...there was a difference between fighting and violence. The way Mirka saw it, to fight was an impulse that surged up from the depths of one’s heart. Violence was to wield power against anyone who just happened to be in the general vicinity.
At the very least, Mirka never used violence by choice. But she knew in her heart of hearts that she would never be able to have a fight. As Wallis said, Mirka’s strength was seen by others as one-sided violence. She herself, upon seeing her opponents so unequivocally crushed, only ever felt she was using tasteless violence.
At the peak she stood on, no one could fight Mirka in the truest sense. That was why she now placed her hopes and dreams on people like Yuri.
“Fufu. How strong will they grow to be?”
She hoped for their growth more than anyone. The strength gained from growth was one that didn’t exist for someone like her, who was strong from the start.
How much power could they gain? Was there a limit to their strength? Would they be able to surpass her when no one else could?
Her intrigue was unending. She wanted them to grow up fast and show her a strength that was different from her own.
And—she wanted to fight. She yearned for it. Not to one-sidedly exercise violence, but to fight in a duel where both sides contested with all they had.
The duelist called Mirka Stein longed for such a battle more than anyone else in the city.
She whispered an aimless wish to the blue sky. “Won’t the world hurry up and become one that can entertain me?”