LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 12
After regaining consciousness, a breathtaking scene unfolded before his eyes.
It felt both ancient and unfamiliar.
Eleina, the Elf Queen, was sobbing as she hugged her unconscious master tightly.
She anxiously checked the back of his hand to see if his pulse had stopped.
Fearing that the flicker of life in front of her might extinguish at any moment, her pupils fluctuated nervously.
With a heart full of sorrow, she clutched her chest and let out a faint whimper.
“Ha… hick!”
The sight of the fallen man in front of her was pitiful and heartbreaking.
What a mess to have encountered such a cruel fate!
The parched girl weakly called out for her.
“Sister… please answer me…”
The charged red light in her eyes kept coming back to her, asking persistently.
The dry voice, sounding like it had withered away under the scorching sun, further grated on the sensitive ears of the elf.
The dragon pointed at her master, who was lying beneath the elf.
“Papa… no, the captain is just sleeping. I’ve checked several times.”
The dragon confidently claimed that everything was fine.
However, Eleina couldn’t readily accept that.
The elf didn’t believe those words.
Instead, her finely-tuned senses were getting rubbed the wrong way.
Anger boiled up inside her. The dragon felt the same way.
The girl in front of her had the golden hair of a Gold Mine Dragon, shimmering like gold.
If her emotionless eyes hadn’t been the color of a red rose, Eleina wouldn’t have doubted her words.
In the urgent situation, meeting eyes with the dragon, the elf glared fiercely at it.
Soon, she lowered herself gently to where her master lay.
Neither the elf nor the dragon looked at each other.
What reflected in their eyes was solely the fallen man.
*
Edric, the Gold Mine Dragon of the Guild, had lived through countless ages.
The reason her lair resembled a shabby old ruin that was thousands of years old was the same.
She was well aware of the deep traces of time and how greatly they affected her psyche.
That Gold Mine Dragon called Keyal Kralin her father, the Guild leader.
Despite the long passage of time, the longing for her parents was immense. She regarded him as a father and harbored feelings for him, not as a daughter but as a woman.
The elf, aware of this, looked upon her with disdain and disgust.
After all, who could sympathize with her twisted and selfish yearning?
The Gold Mine Dragon knew this well.
On the other hand, she also held the elf in low regard.
The moment they touched, it was as if a dark dust was blown away, and they had never narrowed the distance between them.
The elf, pushing her ample bosom towards her master, was an unwelcome sight to the dragon.
Seeing the dragon in a state of confusion, calling her master “Father,” made the elf feel nauseous, as it was an inappropriate desire.
It grew dark, and suddenly a brilliant light surrounded them.
The elf’s antics woke her master from his deep slumber.
Like someone in a daze, he blinked several times and regained his consciousness.
The faintly trembling elf, in a moment of panic, wrapped her waist around him and burst into tears.
“How foolish…”
The dazed oaf continued to make people feel uneasy.
When it came down to it, it was the elf’s actions that had caused the serious injuries.
What a ridiculous situation.
She had done this to herself and was now weeping.
The Gold Mine Dragon furrowed her brows.
She was the one who healed the wounds and brought them here to take care of them.
Even though they were rivals, her kindness was as vast as the ocean, caring for even the injured elf.
Yet the foolish creature before her didn’t even utter a word of thanks.
The Gold Mine Dragon looked at her master, who was nestled against the elf.
The more she looked at him, the more her heart ached.
His delicate smile, which had once caressed her, was etched in her memory.
But now, knowing she couldn’t squeeze in between them hurt her deeply.
“……”
She still hadn’t apologized. That fact naturally took a firm hold in her heart.
*
Immediately after opening his eyes, he was led out of the lair by the Gold Mine Dragon.
She had once been a small and adorable dragon. But upon their reunion, she looked much more like a lady trying to shed her girlhood.
Her once flat chest had gained some volume, and the height that had barely reached her waist was now close enough to Eleina.
They stepped into a dark forest, where the Lord of the Wraith had disappeared.
The forest was twisted, the ground was hollowed out, and the many holes bore the marks of Keyal and Eleina’s desperate resistance.
The spirit of the reaper had been extinguished.
The blackened remnants were clearly visible to her.
“I did that.”
Her murky red eyes slightly smiled as her fingers twitched.
“What do you mean—”
Suddenly, Keyal stared intently at the charred remnants once more.
A faint smell of burning began to arise.
Had she been mistaken? The thick skeletal smoke seemed to seep out.
How many beings could perform such an act?
A lower-level spell that could be cast with merely a flick of her finger could defeat a spiritual entity and strike down the weakened reaper in an instant…
“At least for mortals, it could only be the dragon, right…?”
It was then that Keyal grasped the meaning of “I did that.”
In short, it meant she had swooped in to claim the finishing blow on something that someone else had painstakingly worked on.
“This is rather unpleasant…”
“R-Really?”
“I… I didn’t mean it that way. Um… I’m sorry.”
It wasn’t the Gold Mine Dragon’s actions that were unpleasant. Someone had to struggle alone to barely deal a fraction of the damage, while someone else just flicked their finger and finished it off.
It was just as unfair in the modern or contemporary world.
“If it’s fantasy, shouldn’t it uphold the romantic ideals of man? Tsk tsk…”
Wasn’t there a proper way to create a world? Suddenly, the creating gods of the universe felt unkind.
Some throw everything they have and still only manage to scrape by, while others accomplish their goals with just a simple click.
“…I also wanted to be a dragon…”
“Eh?”
“…It’s nothing. By the way, that place we were just in was indeed….”
“Yeah, that’s my lair.”
Of course, it was just as she suspected. It meant she had brought Eleina, who had been collapsed, to her lair, caring for them with wet hands.
“Huh?”
But then a contradiction arose. Keyal gazed at the Gold Mine Dragon, Libera.
All she saw were delicate and slender hands. Even lifting two people would seem like a daunting task for her.
“Libera, did you carry us all the way here?”
“Yeah. But…?”
The one who threw out the question felt awkward as Libera nodded emotionlessly.
A girl claiming to have carried two adult men and women.
If she was just a girl with the physique of a senior elementary school student, everyone would scoff and laugh it off or pretend to believe it while putting on an act. But Libera was a dragon.
The aging child of a single breed was a fleeting moment in time for them.
And what if she were a half-dragon who had transcended time?
She might very well be a being that could live a lifetime of immortality.
For someone like Libera, one thousand years of lifespan for a Half-beast and the eternal reign of Elaina as an elf would seem like the lives of primitive beings who lived meaningless lives and died.
Of course, Libera wasn’t of such a terrible disposition. But to put it metaphorically, it might feel somewhat like this.
“I thought you had defeated them since I saw the notice saying it was done… but it wasn’t me?”
“Eh? What did you say, master?”
Keyal shook his head at Eleina’s question.
“Wow… good thing Libera showed up or we would have been in real trouble. Thank you so much, Libera.”
“…It’s only natural to save Dad… I was Edric’s hero, right?”
She awkwardly twisted her body, feeling uncomfortable.
Her cloudy eyes seemed to harbor words she wanted to say but would end up unvoiced.
Keyal’s gaze was firm as he observed her actions.
Her eyes were downcast and she couldn’t meet his gaze, meaning she was quite anxious.
She must be feeling guilty.
As someone who had come to this place intending to aim for salvation, Keyal was even more certain.
What was it?
That she was wrecked.
Burdened by guilt, she referred to herself not as the hero of the Edric Guild but as merely one who once was a hero.
“This is similar from both sides,” Keyal thought.
The abandoned dragon’s tail lay lifeless. It thrashed about as if it had lost its way.
It reminded him of Eleina not too long ago, who had clung to him, weeping, begging him not to abandon her.
“…Once a guild member, always a guild member. Libera has always been an important companion to me, then and now.”
He gently stroked the head of the young dragon, who was fearfully trying to avoid being touched, worried that she might disappear once again.
No darkness remained, as he began to comb her golden light with his hands, offering comfort.
The scene was chaotic, but the light quickly enveloped the darkness.
With his body surrendered to the familiar embrace of the darkness, he soon began to fall into a deep sleep.
As he softly closed his eyes, he put aside the anxieties of the dark whispers.
The salvation of the Half-beasts had begun.