/
Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I should call it a dragon.
First, it was sure that it was not a living thing. Building debris, broken furniture, stones, animal bones… All sorts of miscellaneous rubbish were clumped together and crushed to form a dragon-like shape.
The size was also about 3 meters, so it was small compared to a real dragon. Of course, that didn’t mean it was not threatening.
“Ah…!”
I clutched my left chest in a stabbing pain.
My heart ached. Moreover, unlike before, where it ended in a short sharp pain, it was quite long.
What’s the difference?
‘Could it be that it’s reacting to the dragon?’
My heart beat wildly as if it were about to explode. As if something inside the heart was struggling to break through the heart and come out.
“Marianne Valer!” cried Caesar as he looked at Marianne with bloodshot eyes.
Marianne climbed on the crude dragon’s back, looking down at us with an arrogant smile.
“Be careful!”
At the same time as Leonard’s cry, the dragon kicked off the ground and flew up. That heavy-looking body soared upward about 10 meters in an instant.
“What? It can fly!?” Covering his face with one arm from the gust of wind, Caesar shouted as if it were ridiculous.
It was flustering for me too. I stepped back, enduring the heartache.
“The pillar is falling!”
The pillar in the plaza’s center collided with the dragon’s body and was cut in half. The top of the pillar crashed to the ground with a heavy sound, and the knights standing nearby scattered.
Cough, cough.
I couldn’t breathe because of the dust.
“Is there a dragon that looks like that, Helena?”
“No way! No matter how you look, that’s not a living thing!” I refuted Caesar’s words with a shout.
In my previous life, I had beaten several dragons besides Krusech, but I had never heard of such a dragon.
Leonard, who had heard Caesar’s conversation with me from the side, innocently asked, “By the way, why do you ask Her Majesty that, your Majesty?”
Oh, god.
Caesar and I looked at Leonard, both stunned at the same time.
“Oh, th-that’s…because Helena is smart?” Caesar stuttered his excuses.
I wiped my face with one hand. Are you calling that an excuse?
“Ah, indeed. I see.”
… You believe that!?
I mean, how can you believe that? Dearest brother, you should’ve known how stupid your sister is, right?
“The dragon is coming again!”
Oops, this isn’t the time.
Agoth’s cry sent the three of us back to alert.
I saw the dragon soaring through the air, balancing, turning toward us.
Now, what would come out? Breath? Or magic?
“… Here it comes!”
The dragon thrust itself down at me with terrifying momentum. I dodged the attack by rolling away as if throwing myself away.
The floor of the plaza shattered, and debris flew in all directions.
“What was that? A torso attack?”
That was unexpected.
“Haha! They look like bugs crawling on the floor!” Marianne’s frantic mocking sounded overhead.
Immediately after the dragon landed on the ground, Agoth and Leonard rushed at the dragon and swung their swords. However, like swinging a sword against a building wall, it had no effect except for a few scratches.
“How stupid! Do you think that attack would work?” Marianne sneered arrogantly.
Soon the dragon kicked off the ground again and flew up.
In the meantime, Caesar supported me and raised me up.
“Helena, are you okay?”
“Yes, not yet.”
“It’s hard to attack with a sword.”
I agreed.
It was not a creature in the first place, so I didn’t know if ‘killing’ had any meaning.
“Shoot it!”
At that time, dozens of arrows flew from one side of the plaza. Garmal, the cavalry commander, quickly deployed the archers.
However, the dragon dropped many arrows with just one flap of its wings. Some arrows barely managed to get through the dragon’s body, but they wouldn’t stick at its body.
“What do we do, my lady?” Agoth asked me desperately.
I didn’t know either. I would be less frustrated when dealing with Krusech. I’d never seen a dragon that looked so weird.
The dragon quickly landed in the direction of the archers, scattering them. Then it hit the ground again and flew up.
‘Attack of the same pattern.’
I got out of the range of the dragon’s attack, taking advantage of the moment, and began to think.
‘Since before, it’s only been using the method of flying up and then throwing its body to attack.’
The original weapon of a dragon is its breath and magic. It’s a creature with higher intelligence than humans, so it’s strange that it can only make one-dimensional attacks like this.
“That is not a dragon,” I said, wiping my dusty cheeks with my hand.
Caesar, standing next to me, nodded as if agreeing with me. “We shouldn’t aim for the dragon. Aim for the person who controls it instead.”
Marianne Valere.
This situation would not end unless we killed her.
“But it won’t be easy,” said Leonard with a grieved expression.
He was right. The arrow’s distance to where Marianne was possible, but the location was terrible.
If we tried to shoot arrows from below, the dragon’s body and wings would block it all, so…
Oh, wait a minute.
Impossible from below?
Then why not just shoot from above?
“… We should go to the central castle pavilion,” Caesar muttered resolutely, probably having the same thoughts as me.
In the central castle, a bow was stored for shooting flower baskets.
That gigantic bow that Caesar said would make his arm tremble when he held it with one hand.
“Be careful! The dragon has turned this way again!”
Agoth’s cry woke me up. True to her words, the dragon that had succeeded in scattering the archers took a posture to attack this side again.
Oh, wait a minute.
Were the archers scattered?
Then who would shoot the bow once we reach the central castle?
“Leonard. Move to the central castle. Leave the guards behind, go alone.”
“I receive your order!” Hearing Caesar’s short and clear command, Leonard’s eyes lit up with a sharp light.
“Let’s go, Helena.”
I nodded silently at Caesar’s words.
“Let’s go, Agoth!”
“Yes, my lady!”
The four of us started running toward the castle at the same time. The dragon that attacked from behind landed, digging through the floor of the plaza we had already left.
“Prevent the witch from approaching! Protect His Majesty and the Empress!” Dalton’s gruff voice came from somewhere. I didn’t know the exact location, but I did know that he was protecting us somewhere.
“Ha! Are you thinking of cutting off your tail and hiding because you can’t compete with me?” Marianne’s taunting voice was also clearly audible.
“Fine! Hide to your heart’s content! I only need to find your corpses after I destroy this castle!”
Thud!
I heard another crash behind me, but I didn’t look back. I just gritted my teeth and ran.
***
Thanks to most people evacuating to a safe place, the road to the castle was empty. We arrived without stopping for a moment.
Upon entering the castle, I saw a man-tall bow and quiver stored in a glass cabinet.
“Oh, it’s locked!”
The glass casement was locked with a large padlock. I need to hurry up and pick the lock… As soon as I thought that, Caesar broke the cabinet door with his sword handle.
Leonard, Agoth, and I flinched at the sound of a crash.
“Is it okay to break things carelessly like this?”
“Isn’t anything in my castle my property?”
Caesar took the bow from the cabinet, raised it, and held it to me.
… Wait a minute.
“Why are you giving it to me?”
“I must confess. Actually, I’m not good at archery.”
“What?!”
I glanced at Leonard, who was standing next to Caesar. “What about you, Brother?”
“… You know, Your Majesty.”
Oh, yes. Peresca was originally an unmanned family. Leonard had already distinguished himself with swordsmanship thanks to his unique efforts and my teaching, but the other aspects were zeroes!
“Then Agoth…nevermind.” I turned my head to Agoth, saw her gloomy expression, and quickly gave up. It wasn’t a matter of talent. Agoth had never even held a bow.
Well. Are you saying I’m the only one who can shoot a bow here? Seriously?
I snatched the bow from Caesar’s hand.
“How many arrows do we have?”
“One shot.”
“Pray that I don’t miss.”
The responsibility was heavy.
I was confident in hitting a non-moving target, but could I really hit a moving target?
I stood outside the castle. The dragon circled slightly below me, aiming for those who would attack.
I slowly put the arrow on the string and took a deep breath. Still, my fingertips trembled slightly.
‘Honestly, I’m not confident.’
But I had to do this.
The bowstrings tightened. My arms trembled, and I held my breath.
‘Come to think of it, I also shot an arrow when I first met Marianne Valer.’
I had shot an arrow so she wouldn’t threaten me again.
What did this bow aiming at her right now mean?
“… Hah!”
With a short shout, I let go of the bowstring. The arrow shot through the air at high speed.
However, it failed to hit Marianne and was lodged in the dragon’s nape. Damn it.
“Ugh, it’s all wrong!”
I was devastated.
“It’s okay, Helena. If we had shot her, the dragon would have crashed to the ground.”
“Your Majesty, what’s the use of such consolation now?!”
“You two, get away! The dragon is coming this way!”
The dragon hit by the arrow seemed to have chosen us as its target. It flew straight into the castle hall and hit it with his head.
“Gwaaaaahh!”
The roof of the castle was blown off and part of the walls collapsed. The dragon’s head dug deep into the castle.
“I won’t let you go!” Caesar pierced the dragon’s head with his sword, pinning the dragon to the floor of the castle.
That would not kill it, but the dragon only fluttered its wings as it was fixed to the castle. It couldn’t fly again as it was stuck.
“Helena!” Caesar exclaimed. I was already running out with the bow when I heard that voice.
I stepped on the dragon’s head and pulled out the arrow stuck in its neck. The arrow was quickly pulled out because it was embedded in a wooden material rather than a stone.
“Wh-what!?” Marianne, riding on the dragon’s back, exclaimed in great panic. Her red hair fluttered wildly in the whirlwind of the dragon’s wings.
The arrowhead was dull, and my arms were wobbly, but it didn’t matter.
“At this distance, even a three-year-old could hit you!”
I stood on the dragon’s head and drew the bowstring at Marianne, about ten paces away.
“Don’t make me laugh! How dare you! How dare you do this to Marianne Valer!” Marianne cried out. Her eyes turned red with a burst of blood veins.
Marianne was an elegant woman, one who knew how to smile benevolently and warmly, regardless of her true nature.
Does she still not understand it was she who ruined herself?
I let go of the bowstring.
The arrow traveled quickly and landed precisely in the center of Marianne’s chest.
Unable to overcome the arrow’s speed, Marianne’s body fell to the floor.
Along with the shattered fragments of the fake dragon, the spell was cut off.
***
Marianne wasn’t the only one who fell to the floor.
When the dragon—the thing that had once been one—disintegrated, I, who was standing on top of it, also lost my balance.
Instantly, the floor went out, and I was thrown helplessly into the air.
‘I’m falling–!”
There’s no hope for survival if I fall like this.
Is this how I die?
‘Well, I didn’t have any big lingering attachments to my second life in the first place.’
After being convinced that I would die, my mind became rather cold.
How did I live so hard again? Thinking about that made me laugh a little.
‘Even in this life, I have no regrets.’
I thought so.
That is until I heard his voice.
“Helena!”
A cry close to a scream pierced my ears.
Caesar ran into me. There was no way to save me, who’d already been thrown into the air.
Without thinking, he jumped into the air and hugged me. As if not wanting to lose me, his embrace was strong.
“… Caesar?”
Oh, I was wrong.
You’re here.
My lingering attachment.
We hugged each other and fell to the far ground.