Then Varen, who had been standing quietly behind me, leaned in and whispered at my ear.
"Ceryl, I don't like that human. Can't I kill him?"
"...Hold it for now. Let's at least hear what he's trying to say."
Now that I'd seen they had more strength than expected, I had to drag the Rebels onto our side somehow.
And standing right in front of us was a Rebel executive. Our first impression was already fucked beyond repair, but I had to stop it from spiraling into something even worse.
Noance rolled his eyes as he tried to dredge up a memory, and I forced myself to steady my breathing.
The Rebels' goal was a dragon victory and the complete liberation of monsters. And House of Aylos was known as the original dragon hunters—there was no way they'd welcome the name.
But there was still hope. I was traveling with Varen now, and I'd even fought a war alongside dragons on friendly terms. That alone was proof that I wasn't the same as the Aylos of the past.
Not long after, whatever memory he'd been searching for clicked into place. Noance snapped his fingers and his eyes lit up. Then he stared at me with a face full of questions.
"You're that guy? The executioner they said was at the Fifth Monster Management Facility."
"......"
"Until recently, the rumors were everywhere. They said there's a bastard who kills monsters like it's eating meals."
Goddamn it, Ceryl Aylos. So there's another debt from the past I have to carry, too.
I mean, it was true that Ceryl had played a brutal role at the facility... but how the hell was I supposed to talk my way around this?
Flustered, I couldn't answer a single word. Even so, Noance nodded to himself like he'd figured it all out. He pulled a small notebook from his pocket and flipped through it at speed.
"Aylos... Ceryl Aylos. Yeah, here you are. Low priority, but you were one of the targets."
Noance had climbed all the way to an executive position in the Rebels on the back of a single specialty: assassination. In the original story, he was the kind of character who never let a target slip and never failed an operation.
The fact that my name was written in Noance's notebook was basically a death sentence.
"Perfect. Then I can just kill you now."
Noance delivered his murder notice in a ridiculously breezy tone. And behind me, a low growl soaked in killing intent rumbled out.
"That human needs to die."
The aftereffects of the relocation magic still clung to my body, but I desperately ran the numbers anyway.
If Noance and Varen fought here, what would happen?
The odds were high that a dragon would subdue him before a human could even move, but I couldn't calculate Noance as an ordinary human. I couldn't completely ignore the possibility of Varen being put in danger.
If that was the case, the only hope I could lean on was Morpha. He wouldn't be willing to talk to me, but a professional negotiator would have some trick up their sleeve.
I came to a conclusion: survive until Morpha got here, no matter what.
I squeezed Varen's hand tight with one hand, then raised my other hand and tried to calm Noance down.
"Please, just listen to me first. We don't want to fight you."
"You can't fight me."
"...And you don't want to fight a dragon, either."
"Why do you think that?"
Noance asked me back with a face that genuinely didn't understand.
And like he'd finally reached his limit, Varen stepped forward from behind me.
"Arrogant for a human. The only reason you're still alive is because Ceryl is stopping me."
"Hmm."
"If you so much as touch a single hair on Ceryl's head, I'll burst your heart and tear your limbs apart."
Even at Varen's threat—cold enough to make my spine go numb—Noance only lifted one corner of his mouth. Then he muttered to himself, clearly meant to be heard.
"I don't know. You were slower than I expected."
"What? How dare—!"
Varen took the bait so hard he practically swallowed the hook. He couldn't contain his fury, gearing up to lunge out with an unmistakable I-will-kill-you glare.
I hurriedly grabbed Varen's shoulder. A normal human caught between a living weapon and an enraged dragon was the one most likely to get pulverized.
"Calm down, Dragon Boy. Not yet. Just until Morpha gets here—"
"He's trying to kill you! How long am I supposed to hold back?"
"He's only talking. He hasn't attacked me. You don't need to step in."
"You want me to leave a human alive when he's a threat to you?"
As I strained and wrestled to hold Varen back, Noance started praising me. He made the kind of sound that loosened the air that had been stretched taut like a drawn bowstring.
"What the hell are you that a dragon would be loyal to you? The more I look, the stranger it gets."
The more I listened, the more it grated on me—calling me "that" from the start, treating me like an object.
My stomach twisted, but I shoved my feelings aside and blocked Varen first.
"Dragon Boy, you hold it in. This is—"
"Can't even control your emotions. Ah, is it because you're a baby dragon?"
"......"
"I heard a dragon showed up, so I got my hopes up, but you're nothing special. You'll be less useful than the youngest on our team."
Varen's eyelids trembled. His confidence had already been taking hits lately, and that landed right on the bruise.
I could endure him threatening to kill me, but I couldn't endure him tearing Varen down.
I snapped my stiff neck to the side and glared at Noance, who looked utterly at ease. The temper I'd managed to hold back until now finally caught fire.
"You fucking bastard... who the hell are you calling this and that?"
"...What?"
At my attitude flipping a full one-eighty, Noance twitched one eyebrow. Even so, he didn't lose that leisurely, amused expression.
The more I looked at him, the more my blood pressure spiked. I pushed Varen back, planted both hands on my hips, and kept going.
"Hey. I said we should talk, didn't I? If I say it nicely, you can't understand? You got rocks stuffed in your ears?"
"Rocks?"
"You don't know shit about whether our kid is a baby or fully grown, so why are you running your mouth? Who do you think you are, you fist-sized runt, mouthing off at a dragon? If you're so desperate to die, pick one. Want to be roasted, or torn apart. Huh?"
"......"
"And don't give me that 'target' bullshit. If you say you're gonna kill me, what, you think I'm just going to sit here and let you? I came because I thought we might be able to join hands with you—fuck you. If you're going to act like this, at least do it in moderation if you want me to ignore it."
Noance listened in silence, then let out a dry laugh. But that infuriatingly lifted corner of his mouth didn't look like it had any intention of dropping.
"Why would we join hands with you? You're the famous monster execution—"
"I didn't kill them! I didn't! Did you see it? Did you see me killing monsters?!"
"......"
"You didn't even see it with your own eyes and you're doubting people, you rude little shit! You start screaming about killing me for no reason!!"
The anger and fear I'd been choking down burst out all at once. I dragged it up from deep in my gut and roared—and Noance's face darkened.
And Rami, who'd been sitting quietly against my chest, sprang out. The palm-length shadow lizard scrambled up and settled on my shoulder like she owned the place.
Rami threw all her strength behind my words.
"Hiyuuung!!!"
She bellowed loudly, using the dragon-style roar she'd learned in Belzena.
Inside the tent, the only sounds were my ragged breathing and Rami's furious huffing.
Then Noance, who'd frozen there as if he'd lost his words, crushed his expression into a scowl.
"...What's wrong with your personality?"
Getting my personality critiqued by a psychopath made my temper flare even harder. But I still had one last shot.
This was an old trick—back when I was an ordinary junior veterinarian working at an animal hospital. The final card I'd learned after being ground down by countless nightmare clients.
Rami and I lifted our chins at the same time. Then I spoke in the most high-handed, commanding tone I could manage.
"I'm done talking to you. So! Bring me the highest-ranking human here!"
"Hiyung, hiyuuung!!!"
Silence dropped into the tent.
I couldn't even breathe properly, terrified Noance would hear the pounding of my heart.
Work, please work.
Zed had backed off whenever I pushed hard. All I could do was hope the same tactic worked ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) on Noance.
And after a long while, Noance shook his head and looked back and forth between me and Rami.
"First time I've ever seen a monster follow a human like that."
"Hiyuuung!"
"Well... seeing an unbound monster follow you, I guess there's something to you after all. Wait here."
It wasn't exactly the way I'd intended, but Noance still ended up raising the white flag. He left the tent without a sound, just like he'd come.
Only after he vanished completely did I let out the breath I'd been holding. Bent at the waist, I sucked in air in quick, deep gulps.
Varen lowered his upper body and patted my back with gentle hands.
"Ceryl, are you all right?"
"Y-yeah. I'm fine. Holy shit, I almost died of fear... hhk...."
"No matter how weak humans are, you don't die just because you're scared."
I'd overwhelmed Noance with sheer momentum, but the tension didn't fade easily. I clutched my chest and kept panting.
After I finally caught my breath, I straightened up. Wiping the cold sweat from my forehead, I looked at Varen.
Varen wore the expression of someone who'd just reached a profound realization.
"Ceryl, you were right."
"About what?"
"You said it could be solved with conversation. He was a human you could talk to, more than I expected."
Varen nodded and stared past the tent flap where Noance had disappeared.
It had been a nonstop barrage of screaming profanity, but to Varen, it seemed to have registered as a form of conversation.
