It felt like getting hit in the head with a brick.
I had completely forgotten. Before Kallen became my direct subordinate, she used to deliver feed to the dragon.
Only now did it occur to me that the two of them already knew each other. As if things weren’t tangled enough already.
But I couldn’t leave it like this. I grabbed Varen’s arm and lowered my voice this time.
“Yeah, I get it. You want to kill her right now. I understand. But—”
“Understand?”
I’d tried to speak gently to calm him, but what came back was a voice edged sharp enough to cut.
“How would a human understand me.”
His blue eyes flashed, and every muscle in my body froze. I hadn’t seen that kind of glare from Varen since the first time we met.
Feeling an actual dragon’s killing intent hit me, every cell in my body shrieked in terror. I was forcibly reminded of exactly what sort of being stood in front of me.
Someone who could turn this entire lush forest into a sea of blood if he felt like it.
“Just... c-calm down. Calm down and—”
“Hiyung!”
That was when Rami shot out of my pocket, shaking like a leaf. Terrified of the dragon but instinctively reacting to the killing intent directed at me.
She tried to save me by biting Varen’s finger. Of course, a soft-jawed monster with no real teeth couldn’t leave even a hairline scratch on a dragon’s skin.
The blue eyes that had been fixed on me turned toward Rami. The hand-sized lizard froze mid-bite, her posture locked in place.
“...What are you doing.”
Before I could hear Varen’s answer, a clattering sound erupted behind me.
I turned to see Ella with her crystal horn lit in bright flame. She’d risked her life to drag her friend out of the fire—now that friend was about to die, and she was shaking with panic.
“Hihihing!”
Elfera was an S-rank monster. In raw attack and vitality, she was at the very top.
But she’d picked the worst possible opponent. I couldn’t let her get hurt on top of everything else.
“No... no, Ella! Don’t! Don’t charge a dragon!”
Varen’s gaze speared into Ella next. She froze exactly as she’d reared her foreleg to stomp, letting out only a strained, pained whine.
That was the moment I remembered the fact I’d grown too comfortable with and momentarily forgotten.
I’m inside a novel. A world painstakingly designed by someone with cruel attention to detail.
“My kin. Why are you taking the human’s side.”
A world where every character has their own hard-wired settings.
“...Don’t. Don’t do this! Don’t cross that line! Let them go!”
I released the forearm I’d been holding and grabbed Varen by the collar. I shook him with everything I had, but he didn’t so much as blink.
“Kuhk... k—kgh....”
Meanwhile, Kallen’s breaths were growing weaker and weaker.
Frozen Rami couldn’t even let out a “hiyung,” and Ella’s suspended foreleg twitched helplessly in midair.
Every time I dealt with Varen, I’d had the same conviction.
Whether the target was human or monster, I could not let Varen’s hands be stained with blood again. I couldn’t let him get used to killing.
“You bastard, snap out of it! You called her your kin!”
Varen kept his eyes locked on Ella as he spoke, his voice still flat and cold.
“I’ll kill this woman. If you get in my way, everyone dies.”
“Fine, kill me! Kill me too! But you can’t do this to monsters. Let them go first, okay?”
“...Why would I kill you.”
Kiiiing, kiiing. Ella cried in agony. The sound made my vision go white.
I clenched my teeth and whipped my head to the side. The one who needed to get a grip wasn’t Varen—it was me.
Think. Think. Varen isn’t human—he’s a monster. How did I calm down agitated monsters?
I lifted my head to read Varen’s face. His eyes, full of killing intent, were still locked on Ella.
I hurriedly tried to cover Varen’s eyes with my palm, but he only tilted his head and avoided my hand.
Left with no choice, I grabbed his shoulders with both hands and jumped. With the height difference, it was practically a vaulting-horse leap.
But I managed to wrap my chest around his head and hold on. My dangling legs hooked around his waist as I clung with all the strength I had.
If I lost my grip, everyone here would die. It was a literal last stand.
“Please... please don’t do this. Snap out of it.”
I cradled his head against me and whispered. I repeated “snap out of it” over and over.
As soon as the dragon’s line of sight disappeared, I heard two successive thuds. Freed from his gaze, Ella dropped her leg and wheezed, and Kallen slumped onto the dirt, coughing.
Just as I thought—covering the eyes was the most effective way to calm a monster down. I loosened my legs from around Varen’s waist and put my feet back on the ground.
But this time, Varen wrapped both arms around my waist. It wasn’t a hug—it was the kind of pressure that could crack ribs.
“O-off... hey, let go....”
I pushed against his thick shoulders, but of course he didn’t budge. Instead, the arms around my waist tightened further.
My breath clogged in my throat. When I yanked at his hair in panic, Varen lifted his head and met my eyes.
His face, overheated to the point of glowing, was flushed crimson and drenched in cold sweat.
“L-let go of me... I’m going to die....”
The urge to beg for my life climbed up my throat. I kept shoving until Varen, annoyed, turned his gaze back toward Ella.
“H-hey—! Why are you looking at her again! No, don’t look!”
Terrified that all my work calming him would evaporate, I grabbed his head again and pulled it against my shoulder.
I’d rather break a rib than watch Varen kill a monster in front of me.
Thankfully, this time he followed without resistance. He bent down and buried his head in my shoulder, exhaling hot, feverish breaths.
“Haa... ha... Ceryl....”
“Yeah, I’m... ngh, I’m here. Just... kgh—let’s calm down.”
“Ceryl... Ceryyl....”
His words stretched out, and the strength drained from Varen’s arms. The instant I could breathe again, his massive weight toppled onto me.
“H-hold on—ugh!”
Varen collapsed on top of me. I barely managed to catch what felt like a one-ton weight and lower him before he smashed his head on the ground.
I didn’t have time to catch my breath; I checked his condition first. His temperature was abnormally high—he’d fainted from fever, but his life wasn’t in danger.
Only after Varen closed his eyes did the tension drain out of me. Sweat drenched me, and a shiver still crawled down my spine.
“Prrrng....”
“Hiyung....”
Two monsters approached and let out thin, exhausted sounds.
I finally looked around. A storm had passed, and I needed to evaluate the situation.
A dying girl dragged out of the fire. A door-sized adult man unconscious from high fever. A burned, limping unicorn. A lizard whose maximum carry capacity was half a cluster of grapes.
And me.
“...What exactly am I supposed to do.”
***
Everyone needed cold water.
Thankfully, since we were climbing a mountain, the ravine was nearby. But a distance that normally took ten minutes had taken us thirty.
“Prrrng.”
“Haa... Ella, don’t worry about me... go on ahead... huu....”
I was the only one even remotely functional, and the forest swarmed with dangerous humans. I couldn’t leave Varen and Kallen behind to fetch water.
But I couldn’t entrust an unconscious dragon to injured Ella either. I set Kallen back on Ella’s back—she was at least light—and dragged Varen by slinging his upper body over my shoulders.
No, “carried” wasn’t accurate. I couldn’t even dream of lifting his lower half. I looped his arms around my shoulders and dragged only his torso. His feet scraped the ground, {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} but there was no better option.
“Haa... you... huu... you’d better pay me back for this someday.”
I clenched my teeth. If I relaxed even for a moment, my legs would give out. My knees buckled again and again, and I forced strength into them.
Ella led the way, as if instinctively knowing the ravine’s location. She kept glancing back to check I was still following.
After a long, painful trek, we arrived. A cold waterfall crashed down, and a clear, icy stream roared by.
I laid Varen on a flat rock and lifted Kallen from Ella’s back. Then I headed straight for the water.
“Ella, you come in too. Let’s cool you down first.”
No medicine, no tools. This was the only emergency treatment available.
Ella stepped carefully into the stream. When the cold water touched her burn, she flinched with a trembling prrrng. I rubbed down her back to help disperse the pain and checked the wound.
“There’ll be herbs somewhere in the forest we can use. Don’t worry. I’ll treat you, I promise.”
Even though the burn stung, the cold seemed to soothe her. She waded deeper to cool herself more.
Rami didn’t go in—she only lowered her head to lap at the water.
I felt like I could pass out any moment, but the cold water snapped some clarity back into me. I dunked my head all the way under and came back up.
Then I tore off both sleeves of my shirt. The cloth was filthy with dirt and blood, but there was nothing else. I scrubbed them as clean as I could, then climbed back onto the rocks without wringing them out.
I folded one cloth thickly and laid it over Varen’s forehead. With the other, I gently wiped Kallen’s face.
I checked her breathing again and lifted her jaw to secure her airway. Then I opened her mouth to inspect inside. Soot coated her mouth and nose.
Considering she had been hit by a dragon’s fire, I knew she wouldn’t be unscathed—but her condition was critical. Carbon monoxide poisoning, possible bronchial burns.
Even with modern medicine, this would be nearly impossible to treat. If her airway was burned through, I couldn’t even ventilate her.
Even her thin, shallow breaths must have been agony. What was I supposed to do?
“Prrrng.”
Ella’s whimper came from behind me. It was as if she were begging me to save Kallen.
But even with medical knowledge, there was nothing I could do. I shut my eyes tight, opened them, and was hit with helplessness.
“The little girl’s airway has burned completely.”
“A—AAAHHH!!!”
I screamed so loud I nearly fainted and toppled backward. My tailbone slammed onto the rock, but the pain in my pounding heart was worse.
I’d closed my eyes for just a moment—then someone was suddenly sitting in front of me. Not metaphorically. Literally appearing in the blink of an eye.
“W-wh—who are you! How long have you been there!”
Ragged clothes. Overgrown beard. Wide-brim straw hat.
The fishing-spot NPC. The white-haired old man smiled at me.
“I’ve always been here.”
