Shun's Perspective "Ah, Shun. I've been meaning to ask — when did you raise a dragon?"
We were currently flying through the sky.
Riding on the back of a dragon.
"Well, up until recently this one was definitely not what you'd call a dragon, but after I formed a contract through the Summoning Skill, it evolved on its own."
A massive white dragon that could easily carry all four of us on its back.
Originally, it was a monster called Peolart — a fairly common creature that looked like a lizard found just about anywhere. I had subdued it through Training, the pre-evolution version of the Summoning Skill.
Calling it a monster was a bit of a stretch. It was small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and posed virtually no threat.
But somewhere along the way it had evolved into a Lower Dragon, and by the time I summoned it again after becoming a Hero, it had become an Upper Dragon.
A rare Light Dragon, at that.
"Hero bonus, perhaps?"
"Probably," Kathia and the Teacher agreed. I figured that becoming a Hero must have influenced my contracted monsters as well.
I had a few other contracted monsters, and all of them had evolved too.
"You absolute cheater."
"Don't go saying that in Japanese, of all things."
I knew someone would say that.
"We'll activate Stealth and Camouflage to conceal ourselves soon."
At my words, everyone suppressed their presence. On top of that, I activated Camouflage, and we melted away into the darkness of night as if vanishing.
As long as I nullified sound as well, we should be undetectable from the ground short of something extraordinary.
That was what I thought — until the streets of the royal capital appeared below us and I hastily conjured a spell and fired it off.
"Huh? Wha—?!"
At point-blank range, two spells collided and a violent explosion erupted.
"Shun!"
"We're being sniped! The opponent is an incredibly skilled magic user!"
"Impossible! Accurate magic of that caliber aimed at this altitude?!"
We were flying at approximately one thousand meters.
There was no way ordinary magic could reach that distance.
I activated Clairvoyance and searched for the mage who had cast that spell.
There was no need to search — the old man was standing openly atop the castle's outer wall.
I studied the structure of his spell.
The sheer level of completion drew an involuntary gasp from me.
That was masterfully constructed magic.
"Second shot incoming!"
I called out a pre-emptive warning.
I gripped the dragon's reins.
A spell hurtling toward us at high speed — I dodged it by a hair's breadth.
Dragons possessed a skill called Reverse Scale that conferred a magic-dampening effect, but I couldn't be careless.
Now that we had been spotted, there was no point clinging to covert operations.
"Accelerating! Hold on tight!"
I pulled the reins and plummeted from the sky toward the ground, accelerating as though in freefall.
All while evading or intercepting the old man's spells.
[Oh, damn. I can't win this one.]
[Huh!? Teacher!?]
[I'm out. Retreating.]
I intercepted that exchange of telepathic messages.
For an instant I braced for a trap, but sure enough, every last one of the powerful humans I had sensed inside the castle vanished via teleportation.
All of them.
"Wait, that's it?"
I murmured, almost deflated.
I stood there in a daze for a moment.
"The attacks have stopped, haven't they?"
"Y-Yeah. Apparently they decided they had no chance of winning and pulled out."
"That was awfully quick. The odds of this being a trap seem high."
"No, judging from the telepathic chatter I intercepted, that really didn't seem to be the case."
"Either way, let's proceed with caution."
"Right."
Yet when I braced myself and advanced carefully, we slipped into the castle without any trouble at all.
"Did they really retreat in earnest?"
"Maybe."
I couldn't help but feel a little anticlimactic about it.
I dismissed the Light Dragon and, better late than never, resumed Stealth once more.
[Teacher, where is Brother Reston's current location?]
[In the southern spire.]
[Understood.]
We exchanged information via telepathy and advanced cautiously.
The castle interior was eerily silent.
Not a soul inside.
[Suspicious.]
[Has to be a trap.]
We kept our guard up and pressed forward warily.
But with nothing happening at all, we arrived at the spire where Brother Reston was being held without incident.
The problem was that two additional human presences flanked the brother.
I activated Clairvoyance and peered inside.
[Two people besides the brother. Ana and Clevea.]
[What's their condition?]
[They look hollow. Almost certainly brainwashed.]
[Copy. Shun, you said you had a plan — does it still work with three people instead of two?]
[I'll manage.]
[For now, there's a chance they'll attack on sight. Let's prepare for combat.]
[Agreed. I'll breach first.]
The tension ratcheted up.
Hyalins signaled with her hand, then charged in.
I followed right behind.
Hyalins froze mid-step, shield raised, eyes wide.
The instant we breached, all three of them took their own lives.
Hyalins snapped out of her paralysis and lunged to stop them.
But she was too late.
Without a moment's hesitation, each of them drove a thick, needle-like object straight into their own eye.
The needle sank deep into the eye socket and destroyed the brain beyond.
In this world, defensive power was exerted even over soft points like the eyes — parts that would be vulnerable on Earth.
Touch sensation remained the same, but wounds became far harder to inflict.
That was how it was supposed to work, yet those needles pierced into all three of their eyes without the slightest resistance.
Apparently the needles carried some kind of additional effect.
"Damn it!"
Hyalins deftly caught all three collapsing bodies, tossing aside her sword and shield to do so.
"Shun! Heal them!"
Hyalins already knew.
That it was too late.
But I obeyed her command anyway.
Behind me, I could sense Kathia and the Teacher wearing bitter expressions.
But there was nothing to worry about.
I pulled the needles from their eyes and began constructing a recovery spell.
A special kind of recovery spell.
The destroyed flesh regenerated.
At the same time, the stopped hearts resumed beating.
The fading souls were restored.
《Proficiency has reached a certain threshold. Skill "Taboo Lv6" has become "Taboo Lv9".》 I heard the System's divine words.
I knew no one else could hear them, but my heart nearly leapt out of my chest.
I had known the Teacher possessed a Taboo.
After all, I had a Sovereign-type Skill of my own.
The Skill of "Mercy."
And its effect was the resurrection of the dead.
The cost was that the Taboo level rose by one for each person resurrected.
That was why I couldn't say anything about the Teacher's situation.
Because I, too, carried a Taboo.
I signaled to the stunned Hyalins group with a nod and lifted the revived bodies of my brother and the others into my arms.
Then we escaped from the castle.
************************* "Sorry about that. The real Hero was more than I could handle, so I ran off here."
"No worries. By now she's probably standing there in a daze after watching someone precious die right in front of her. Heh heh heh."
"Right. That's exactly why we cleared out the entire castle like that."
"I was sure that softie would come rushing in no matter what. It's a shame I won't get to see her crying and screaming, but my real interest is elsewhere anyway."
"You've got some nerve — you just got back and you're already putting an old man to work."
"If you've got complaints, I can always put you to work by force. The only reason I haven't bound you with brainwashing is that at your level, it'd be a real pain in the neck. Real pain — but not impossible, you know."
"I'm well aware. That's why I've been doing my job properly."
"That's all I ask. Well then — time to march out and destroy the
(Honestly... maybe I really should just cut my losses and retire.)