“So… How do we provoke the dragon to attack?” Fanael sat by the strange voice blocking portal while seemingly lost in thought.

  “I…wish I could say I’ll just cast magic to annoy it, but just in case you two didn’t see it, that thing is enormous. I highly doubt anything I could sensibly cast would even tickle it.” I sighed with frustration while sitting next to Fanael.

  Amelia was the only one standing up. Her stamina was something else alright. “I could swipe at one of its legs.” She blurted out nonchalantly.

  I was about to interject her ridiculous idea, but then it hit me. Maybe her idea wasn’t that bad after all? “I… I think I see what you’re getting at.” I nodded. “That weird… death magic you got blessed by, right?”

  “Indeed. I don’t know what effect it would have on something as large as the creature is, but I feel it’s probably our best shot at agitating it.” She walked around a bit. “Fanael is strong with lightning magic, which is most likely wholly useless against a beast with its very body crackling with thunder at all times.”

  “… And I can shoot snowballs.” I added without letting Amelia describe my powers in an even less flattering manner.

  “R-right…” The knight seemed to be a bit awkward about me guessing her line of thought.

  We sat back to ponder in silence for a moment. We didn’t really know when the group of miners would exit anyway, so we had some time to ponder our situation over. This also caused me to remember something.

  “Um… Amelia. Just in case, though.” I guided her to kneel a bit before me. “A lot of those metal pieces on the dragon were wrapped up in a bunch of really sinister mana. I’d guess the items were cursed or possessed or something.” I mumbled. “Judging by that, there is a possibility your powers will not harm the dragon either.

  “Is that so?” The knight sat before me. “That’s…indeed quite concerning, but my plan was to at most provide a distraction. Somehow, I cannot even imagine killing that thing.” She lowered her gaze a bit. “I don’t believe… I’ve ever heard of a dragon dying.”

  “I’ve heard of one dying.” Fanael spoke under her breath. “My mother…took one down alongside her.”

  And at that moment, I realized we had walked into a social landmine. The silence felt like a waterfall was crashing down on my back.

  “Um…” I staggered awkwardly.

  “Oh…!” Fanael looked at us two, suddenly growing glum. “OH!! No! Um… In Mhiir’im culture, dying in combat is a high honor!” She forced a smile on her face, but it began crumbling fast. “Mother died while protecting all of us… She’s my hero.” Fanael began shaking her hands around, but it was clear she wasn’t necessarily fully behind everything she said.

  “She is your mom though…” I couldn’t help but comment due to her obvious sadness over the passing of her mother.

  Fanael was clearly taken aback a bit by this. She seemed to try to keep up a tough front, but it shook a bit. “Mom was…” She began narrating quietly.

  I’ll narrate the following part from Fanael’s perspective. At this point, you’re surely used to it from how many times we’ve had story times from Amelia’s viewpoint, so for the first time, let’s hear a story by Fanael.

  “I remember…the scent of burning metal and flesh…” Fanael’s narration began.

  There was fire and sulfur everywhere. A dark cloud of smoke concealed the shape hidden within, but the electricity sparkling through the darkness gave it away.

  ‘A force of nature’ is what they called them.

  Calamities brought upon by dragons were considered an unavoidable fact of nature. Nothing could oppose their endless brutality and hunger, so it was pointless to hold a grudge either. All you could do was run and pray.

  And… that day seemed to be our turn to run and pray at the sight of this supposed embodiment of nature itself.

  I remember being stunned by the sight completely. I was still young… and so immensely arrogant. To compare myself to humans… I’d have been around twelve years old or so. I had gone on several adventures even above ground, so I was confident.

  Or so I thought, until I was no longer against an enemy that I could simply destroy with little to no effort.

  I remember my eyes stinging… The noxious gases everywhere… the burning buildings and… death. Death everywhere.

  I had never seen any of my fellow Mhiir’im die before.

  Mere centimeters away from my foot currently rested an entire severed leg. The flesh was charred black and the lower half of the leg stump was slowly oozing out red.

  Red…

  I remember thinking it must have been a dream. Heroes don’t bleed…

  Heroes…

  And at that moment, another group of Mhiir’im men exploded into a bloody, fiery mist. People I loved, people I respected… splattering across the walls of that cavernous outpost I had grown to call ‘home’.

  Only a few days earlier we were drinking and laughing… showing off the boons of our travels.

  “…” I lifted the leg stump from the ground.

  It had only been a few days…! Only a few days… How did it suddenly turn this way?! It was as if I had been thrown into an entirely different world all of a sudden.

  “FANAEL! LOOK!!” Virna’s voice echoed in the chamber as she ran to me.

  She had slain a mighty Deephorn, a type of lizard common in the caverns we Mhiir’im also occupy. It was at least a few meters in size! The Haark girl was dragging it along, her outfit was torn and she seemed ragged.

  “Psh!” I scoffed. “I’ve seen bigger! In fact, yesterday while hunting I was THIS close to obliterating one with my magic!” I boasted pompously. In all honesty, the creature had escaped the moment I began casting…

  “Heeee? Really now? You know what they say in the camp! Pelt or it’s just a tall tale!” She grinned smugly, a single tooth missing in the middle added nicely to her immense lack of grace.

  Virna was an adorable-freckled girl with dirty brown hair. The Haark were always known mostly for their big toes, not so much for their colorful hair like us Mhiir’im. She was a bit of a wild girl, so her clothes were always a bit messy, but the messiest part was her ‘shoes’ which were in total shreds, her big Haarken toes sticking out from the front. They could barely even be called shoes at this point.

  “Smells like the princess is full of nothing but hot air!” The girl teased.

  “HUH!? You wanna go again!? DID YOU MAYBE FORGET WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME?!” I began taunting her.

  “Last time was a fluke!! PUT ‘EM UP! We’ll decide this once and for all!” Virna shouted in a roar.

  “I’ll give that lonely hole in your row of teeth a friend!!” I roared in turn, and with that, we began a most nonsensical fistfight.

  Grappling and swinging fists, punching and pulling hair. Spitting and biting. Nothing was banned. This was truly a battle between honorable warriors.

  After the skirmish was over, we were both panting over the body of the Deephorn, as if trying to claim it for ourselves by covering more surface area of its body.

  I didn’t manage to knock out another one of Virna’s teeth… but she managed to totally mess up my hair.

  “Ghhhh…” I bared my teeth, trying to tie up the frizzy mess my beautiful locks had become from the weak fire magic my rival had thrown around during our battle. I was covered in soot.

  “Bahaha---eeeee---hah!!” Virna’s roaring laughter was sometimes interrupted by some remnants of electricity from my magic surging through her body, causing her to twitch momentarily.

  “Damn gremlin…” I remarked as I slowly stood up to stand on top of the lizard. “AT LEAST NOW YOU SHOULD KNOW YOUR PLACE!” I declared as my hairbands went flying with a ‘PLIIING’ like sound, causing my hair to fluff up like a cloud.

  “HAHAHAHA-EEERRRG-AAHAHAHHA!” The girl kept laughing like there was no tomorrow.

  “OH YEAH!? IT SEEMS LIKE YOU NEED ANOTHER BEATING!!”

  And with that, we continued our brawl.

  In the evening, we both dragged a pair of lizards to the camp. Covered in bruises inflicted, much more so by each other than the lizards. I managed to catch one on the way home as well, so we were on our way to get them measured to see which one was bigger.

  To clarify a bit, all over the underground there are sprawling tunnel networks full of treasure and peril of all kinds.

  It was generally the duty of adventurers to explore these tunnels, and I was following in my mother’s footsteps to train my skills with combat through adventuring the caverns.

  It was quite an unusual way of training for royalty, but mother always believed this was the right way to truly gain experience, so we wouldn’t get blindsided in real combat.

  Life underground was definitely not without peril. Monsters in the depths were much more adapted to hunting, and the things that didn’t try to hunt you in turn were all either insanely fast to escape or poisonous to an awful degree.

  Calling it an extreme environment was an understatement.

  The adventurers made camps in larger caves, inhabiting them in small groups, creating little villages. It’s not uncommon to have people live their entire lives primarily in these outposts, living off-of the bounty of earth day by day.

  While mother herself never mentioned this viewpoint to the whole concept of learning while adventuring, I think she also wanted me to be there to understand how the average people lived their everyday lives as well.

  In the caves, there was only royalty in name. Name doesn’t protect you when a poisonous monster is gutting you alive, which is why I never really felt like I was above or below the people I adventured with.

  In the brutal bosom of mother earth… everyone is equal.

  “Hahahaha! You two look like you got caught in a mining explosion!!” Herbert, a Haarken man, laughed at us. He worked as a blacksmith in Outpost 35, the town we were currently residing in.

  We remained silent, dragging our lizards through the town, getting some laughter and pointed fingers as a reward for our achievements.

  Our little battles were quite well known in Outpost 35. Some locals were even rumored to have started betting on which one would end victorious each time.

  With a loud thud, we both hoisted our catches on the looting guild table.

  “MINE IS BIGGER, RIGHT?!” We both roared in unison, then exchanging a glance…

  We exchanged some blows while the guild workers laughed and began measuring the lizards.

  “Miss Virna’s is certainly a couple of centimeters bigger…” The verdict was smashed down like a hammer of judgement by one of the guild workers.

  “GAHHH!” I collapsed down to my knees.

  “YES!!!” The Haarken lass began a victory dance.

  “However…” The guild worker, who was a girl with a petite nose and vivid red hair, adjusted the glasses that could barely stay on top of that tiny nose of hers.

  “HOWEVER?!” I repeated her question, causing Virna to stop dancing.

  “Her Highness’ catch is in much greater condition…! We will pay more for the materials she brought.” The verdict was in.

  “W-WELL! EITHER WAY! Mine is BIGGER so it’s BETTER!” Virna started.

  “YOU HEARD THE GIRL! Mine is objectively better! Value over size ALWAYS!!” I bounced up, revitalized by my personal victory.

  “NO! Size is what matters!” Virna shouted.

  “It’s all about the quality! Fool!!” I retorted.

  And with that, we were fighting again. While you might assume, our fighting was filled with nothing but grit teeth, blood, and tears. It was almost impossible for us to have a skirmish without at least one party bursting out laughing in the middle of the fisticuffs. Our rivalry was merely a spice to our friendship.

  After a bit, both of our faces were too bruised to continue.

  “AS EXPECTED OF MY DAUGHTER!” The booming voice of my mother, Elniel Il Subtherma sung through the room. “A PASSIONLESS RULER IS TRULY WORTHLESS!” My mother declared while she was shamelessly poking my exhausted body with a stick a meter or so away.

  “Fffuddub…” I mumbled with my swollen lip.

  Mother was quite a beauty. She had a similar hair color to mine, a bit lighter, maybe. Her red eyes were like rubies doused in blood. Her outfit consisted of a dark swimsuit with fiery orange highlights and short pants on top of it.

  She had recently been diving in some sunken cave systems for potential loot with a few of the outpost members.

  The colors of her outfit made her easy to spot, even at a long-distance away.

  Despite her status as a royalty, there was no unnecessary bowing or groveling at her feet by the locals. The only thing reminding us of our royal status was the fact that the people simply called us by title instead of by name.

  Mother’s white magic helped with the bruises a lot, and soon enough both Virna and I were sitting on the floor.

  “Had a good hunt?” Mother grinned.

  “Uhuh!” I matched her grin. Virna joined in with her silly missing-tooth smile.

  “How’s little Virna? Up to no good as always?” Mom ruffled Virna’s hair, who simply kept grinning like an idiot. “Wanna come over to our house tonight? I’m going on a small hunting trip overnight. I’m sure Fanael would love to have some company!”

  “Can I eat your food?” Virna replied bluntly, sparkling with excitement.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “We can grill the Deephorn meat in the yard! How about that?!” Mother slapped her knees like she was trying to rile up an overly energetic dog.

  Virna obviously replied in kind, jumping up, beginning to dance around. “FOOD! FOOD!” She sang.

  “I guess we’ll find out once and for all who won based on whose Deephorn tastes better!” I slowly climbed, too.

  “You’re ON!!” Virna raised her fists at the ceiling.

  “No fisticuffs until after food, okay?” Mother laughed, after which we headed to our home.

  Our house was over at the northern end of the town, rather close to an exit. We had a small yard with grass growing on it, which made it a perfect spot for grilling food. The scientists over in Subtherma had recently sent us a brand-new invention in the form of a strange grilling tool that allowed meat to be grilled on top of a griddle of sorts.

  It was very convenient for cooking, although a bit cumbersome to carry around.

  The sizzling of Deephorn fat soon filled the air in the yard. Both Virna and I were sitting behind a wooden table, eagerly waiting for food as mother prepared it.

  “What kind of exploration are you going on?” I asked mother while she cooked.

  “Oh! It’s just a routine checkup. The guild’s seismic sensors picked up some tremors, so we’ll go around checking to make sure no caves will collapse if an earthquake ends up shaking things up a bit.”

  “I heard about the earthquake warning too!” Virna nodded. “Grandpa was stumbling around, which always means a quake is coming!”

  “Hahaha! That’s how you can tell?” Mother laughed and soon brought us each a plate of food.

  “Which is which?!” We both asked in unison.

  “You both have some meat from the Deephorn you caught. Taste-test the one you got first and then compare it with the others catch!” Mom had the warmest of smiles… but there was always a small hint of mischievousness to it too.

  We bit in. What juicy meat it was. Deephorn meat is quite similar to bird meat in flavor and consistency. It’s a bit less white, however.

  “Mmmffhh…” I mumbled with my cheeks full of food. “THIS IS CLEARLY THE SUPERIOR ONE! I can’t possibly think how yours could taste better!!

  “NO! Mine is the best! I’ll never stop eating this!” Virna boasted in turn.

  “Hahahaha!” Mother laughed in tears.

  “What’s so funny!?” We both barked at her.

  “Well…” She smirked. “I actually gave Fanael Virna’s piece… and Virna got Fanael’s… meaning you’re currently complimenting each other’s catch!”

  A wide-eyed silence fell over us as we got bamboozled by mother… yet again. She always did this…

  The meat was good, though, so we kept on munching in a strangely awkward yet content silence. I guess both of us got a pretty good catch that day…

  Night slowly fell and the lumungi in the ceiling began to dim.

  For you surface dwellers, the lumungi are those blue fungi growing at the ceiling in Subtherma as well.

  My bed in the house was big, not so much because I was a princess… but because Mom figured I’d have sleepovers often with my friends.

  … And she wasn’t wrong.

  Virna and I were in our nightgowns in the bed, staring at the ceiling.

  “… Right…” I mumbled and slowly crawled out of bed, going off to rummage in a closet.

  “What’s up?” Virna turned to her side. We weren’t planning on sleeping any time soon yet. Going to bed is only the beginning of the night anyway! Sleepovers were all about gossip and deep conversations.

  “Well, I figured my fist in your face is quite a present as it is…” I brought out a pair of neat leather shoes. “But, since it’s your birthday… I figured I’ll add these in for no extra cost…” I mumbled and brought the shoes to Virna.

  She stared dumbfounded at the shoes, and then at me.

  “Bir… birthday?” She tilted her head, sort of in a way to imply she was aware of what I was talking about, but didn’t quite fully comprehend something.

  “Yeah. Unlike the blockhead you are! I actually keep book of the birthdays of my friends!” I proclaimed, fully expecting a verbal counterattack, but one never came.

  “Y-you got shoes… for me?” Virna stared at the boots, gently touching them as if they were some immensely valuable treasures.

  “Uhuh! I even took the size of your ridiculous toes in account when getting them done.” I teased. “I’m done looking at your stupid feet all the tim-“

  My words got interrupted as Virna suddenly lunged at me. I raised my arms in defense, but I guess it wasn’t really the attacking kind of lunge and more of the… hugging kind.

  Virna was hugging me very tightly, her little hands shifting around on my back, as if unsure about where to hold on to.

  “I-it’s just shoes! No need to get so emotional…” I scoffed a bit softly. I guess even I got caught off guard by the sudden show of affection too.

  “I’ll treasure ‘em like choralium…” She sobbed softly. “I haven’t gotten a present since… mom and dad went into the caves a year ago…”

  “Mm…” I sighed, feeling a bit awkward. It was a lot easier to converse with her through fighting, so I was a bit out of my element. “Well… Just ‘cause some people are gone from your life doesn’t mean all of them are, right?” I tried to comfort her a bit.

  “Mm…! That’s right…!” She hugged the boots with an indescribable joy all over her face, beginning to pull them on her feet.

  “HEY! Not in my bed!” I yelped.

  “I’LL NEVER STOP WEARING THEM!!” Virna declared while sucking up snot leaking out of her nose.

  “NOT IN THE BEEEEED!!” I screamed and we began fighting again.

  … In the end, she ended up sleeping with the shoes on…

  What a boulder head…

  … I guess I was a bit glad she liked them, though.

  The next morning, mom came home, reporting back that the tremors seemed feeble when actually inspected by the adventure squad sent out at night.

  I figured it must have been a false alarm.

  Virna and I went out for our usual adventures. We managed to catch some Mineral Snippers. They’re a type of crustacean with a shell made from minerals they grow on them for protection.

  Their bodies secrete some kind of chemical concoction which promotes the mineral growth a lot. They were quite significant hunting targets if they happened to have valuable rocks growing on their backs.

  Something was a bit off, though. The Snippers were usually very skittish and ran off in the blink of an eye, but for some reason for the entirety of the day we were wandering around, they stayed completely still, as if trying to hide… or maybe act like rocks?

  Which they did look like, but any even remotely experienced adventurer would be able to see them from a distance away.

  So, it was basically a free looting day! But, something about the whole thing did leave us feeling a bit confused.

  The following night, mom’s group was sent out to explore again, and in the morning, she returned home.

  “How was the trip?” I asked while yawning. Virna was at her grandpa’s place for the night. She apparently slept with her shoes on even at home, which was giving her grandpa a lot of grief.

  “It was…quiet.” She seemed unnerved. I had never seen mother like this.

  “As in…” I began speaking. “Too quiet?”

  “Yes…” The reply was swift.

  “Virna and I saw something weird while exploring too… The mineral snippers…”

  “Yes. They weren’t the only ones.” Mother began. “Almost every common creature in the nearby caves has vanished or is trying to act like they don’t exist.”

  “So… is a big earthquake coming?” I started growing a bit nervous. “Should we go home before it gets here?”

  “No. Animals can sense when an earthquake is coming. They wouldn’t be trying to hide if that was the case… They’d be running away.”

  “W-why are they not running away then…?”

  My question was left unanswered for what felt like an eternity. Mother seemed to be gauging her words carefully before saying anything.

  “Generally, in situations like this…it’s because they know running is pointless…”

  Those words felt like ice. Burning cold ice, sinking into my skin, sending immense chills everywhere. Something about the way mother said it all… I’m unable to forget the feeling even to this day…

  “Have Virna sleep in here tonight. Just in case. She’s got good ears on her.” Mother spoke quietly.

  The conversation ended a bit awkwardly as some adventurers requested for mother to join them on another recon mission.

  I couldn’t say a thing as I watched her walk off with the group into the suddenly seemingly endless darkness of the cave. Something about the caves I was so familiar with suddenly felt dangerous and intimidating… I didn’t want to see mother go, but I knew it was her duty to do so.

  My gut feeling calmed down a bit as Virna dropped over. We decided to stay at home for the day. As evening fell, we were in the process of fighting over if she could sleep in the bed with her shoes on or not when an alarm started blaring.

  Something about the strange spiraling noise emanating from the alarm system made my adrenaline spike. I remember rushing out of bed with Virna. We dressed and geared up at a record pace.

  As we ran into the kitchen, a massive explosion echoed in the cave, rupturing the outer wall of the house, sending wood, debris, glass and stone flying everywhere inside.

  A horrifying odor filled the air…

  And there it was.

  In the midst of pitch-black smoke, its long arms reached out from the opening into the outpost, dragging the horrifying body inside our town.

  Sparks of lightning illuminated the dark clouds of debris roiling around its gigantic body.

  “IT’S A DRAGOOOOONNN!!” A bloodcurdling announcement rang through the entire town, and suddenly wild screaming began echoing everywhere.

  Buildings were on fire. Corpses of people were littering the streets. Men… women …children… everything was in red bits and pieces torn to shreds by the explosion.

  Roars of cannon fire and magical weaponry began lighting up the monster. The most immediate strike force from Subtherma had arrived already. Mother’s orange outfit flashed in the middle of the crowd, and her booming voice echoed through the flames.

  “DO NOT FEAR DEATH MEN! We are born from the earth, and we will inevitably return to it! Protect our people at all costs! DISCARD TERROR AND RAIN HELLFIRE UPON THE BEAST!!”

  Magic began flying from everywhere. The monster seemed completely unaffected, however. Its horrifying maw was closed for a moment, but as soon as it opened, I knew something bad was going to happen.

  It began exhaling with a bizarre sigh-like roar, which was loud… but quiet at the same time. It’s very difficult to explain, but I’d compare it to the sound of a volcanic crater rumbling.

  A horrifying stench filled the area. My heart was racing.

  “FANAEL!” Virna’s voice cut me out of my daze. “WE GOTTA DUCK! IT’S GONNA FLARE THE TOWN UP!!”

  Her words snapped me back to reality and both of us ran to the side of the house, opening a hatch leading into a tiny food storage basement carved into the bedrock underneath the house.

  Almost the instant we made our way inside the shelter, an ear-piercing explosion blasted through the town again. I could hear parts of buildings flying around… people screaming…

  Then, a few seconds of silence …until the cannon fire and magical attacks started over again.

  We scurried our way out of the basement, finding even more merciless destruction everywhere. Smoke, a horrid sulfurous odor… not to mention all the people everywhere.

  Or… at least I think they were people. It was really difficult to tell with everything being covered in dust and fire.

  The lightning flew off the monster as it slowly crawled further into the village. It was reaching out for the remains of its victims, collecting the armor from the warriors from the strike team.

  It placed the ruptured pieces against its soft skin, and melted the pieces into itself with electricity to act like scales.

  Indeed.

  The dragon was not in the town to feed on people.

  No.

  It was just there to kill everyone and loot the metal to add to its already seemingly impenetrable armor of death.

  “W-we gotta fight it!” Virna suddenly blurted out. “Everyone’s gonna die otherwise!!”

  “What?! N-no!! Mother told me to run if anything comes up!!” I protested.

  “RUN?! What the hell are you saying!! This is my home!! My HOME!! LOOK!!” She screamed in tears, pointing at a pile of burning… something. I could tell she was pointing at… what was left of Herbert, the blacksmith of the town. He still had the burnt remains of his trusty war hammer in his hand.

  “Uncle Herbert…!” I began tearing up. Panic started taking over.

  I had never been in a true life or death situation before. This however… was much more death than life.

  “Look!! Your mom and the strike team! They’re shooting at the ceiling!!” Virna pointed out, and she was correct.

  The cannon fire was no longer aimed at the monster itself, but the ceiling above it. It was more than clear the plan was to collapse the cave on top of it.

  The best way to fight a force of nature would most likely be with nature itself.

  “Y-yeah…okay…! Maybe we should help!” I gained a bit of confidence, steeling my nerves.

  “Let’s go meet with the strike force!” Virna nodded, and with that, we ran.

  We ran by burning buildings… we ran by people we knew… people we didn’t know… all mixed up into a nearly unrecognizable mess of flesh and blood.

  After what felt like an eternity of running, we began finally seeing some men in armor roaring commands to fire the cannons.

  “PRINCESS!” One of the men rushed over to me.

  “W-what can we do to help?!” I asked shakily.

  “Fuel the cannons with mana! Please!” The man replied equally unevenly. “We are attempting to collapse the cave on top of it. Her Highness is keeping the monster distracted with the frontal assault group, but we fear they may be running out of time!”

  “R-right!!” I nodded and rushed behind a cannon, beginning to fuel its ignition chamber with magic while more men carried heavy explosive cannonballs into the cannon.

  With a boom loud enough to make the air vibrate, more and more cannonballs flew at the ceiling, where noticeable cracks were forming.

  Virna was helping the men carry the ammunition., since she wasn’t nearly as refined with her magic as I was. Her brute strength seemed to be of use, however.

  Lightning roared all around the dragon as it seemed to grow more agitated over something. More cannon fire echoed through the cave, and then suddenly, all the sparkling electricity went quiet.

  “D-did…we get it?” I asked…

  … And in that instant, the entire room was shot into a bright blinding light, as if the heart of a volcano itself had spawned out of nowhere in the dark caves.

  Thunder flew in all directions; houses began exploding into fire as the beast began breathing out a constant stream of concentrated heat. It was a blue flame, not much different from that of a metalworker’s flame, except long like a javelin of pure burning death.

  It cut through everything. Like a knife through butter, the monstrosity spewed this strange blue matter all around, melting through steel, cavern walls and people all the same.

  And as if that weren’t enough, the blue fire left strange puddles of glowing sludge all over.

  A loud snapping noise emanated from the other end of the town, and then all of that blue sludge ignited at once. The entire town went up in air like it was made of cardboard.

  The horrifying silhouette of the monster loomed over the town. I was on my knees, black soot-covered tears streaked down my cheeks as I stared at the horror.

  Some men were groaning in pain…

  A few were barking for survivors…

  All I could stare was the burning charred stump of a leg in front of me…

  I picked it up, some blood leaking out from the other end. All I could think of at the moment… was that… whoever the leg had belonged to… was wearing some nice leather shoes…

  “NNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” I screamed in absolute horror, clutching onto the leg like my life depended on it.

  “FANAEL!!!” Mother’s voice boomed through the smoke, and she jumped at me.

  “RUN!! I will take care of this! PLEASE JUST STOP THINKING ABOUT ANYTHING! JUST RUN!! RUN!!!”

  “B-BUT MOM!! IT’S VIRNA!! VIRNA!!! SHE’S!!”

  “IT’S NOT VIRNA!! It’s not, okay!? My daughter, just run!! Don’t think about it at all!! ALL YOU MUST FOCUS ON IS RUNNING!! PLEASE!!”

  The rest of my memories are a blur… I remember running while clutching onto the shoe desperately. Just running… and running… away from the nightmare.

  My eyes burned with the soot, sulfur, and tears.

  At some point, I lost consciousness. Another strike team arriving to help apparently found me and brought me back to Subtherma.

  I heard later on, that mother overloaded her body with mana, turning into a living bomb, exploding the ceiling and crushing the dragon in the process…

  Or… That’s what I was told, at least…

  Father didn’t allow me to participate in her funeral. He kept telling me mother must have survived somehow, since they didn’t find her body and all…

  But I knew… I knew what was going on…

  There was obviously no body because her entire body was used as catalyst for a spell. Mother was nothing but ash at this point.

  While in retrospect, mother died very honorably… I can’t really say the same for a vast majority of other people.

  Is it really some kind of honor to blow up like an insect at your home? What honor is there to dying like that? You died protecting your kingdom? Is that it?

  People kept telling me how honorably all the men and women who fought the dragon passed away…

  But I knew… that if mother hadn’t been there… we’d most likely all be dead. They died in vain. It was a completely merciless and emotionless massacre.

  There is nothing honorable in dying like that.

  I remember growing more and more irritable as people kept stuffing this… so-called HONOR down my throat constantly.

  I made a vow to myself, that I will not let Mhiir’im die for honor anymore…

  What a miserably pointless thing to die for.

  And with that, Fanael’s story was over.

  Amelia was looking away, her fist looked like she was holding to something very tightly, even though there was nothing in her hand.

  I took a deep breath and sighed. I was really hoping she’d tell us a more heroic story… Something nice and kind of bittersweet to pass the time with…

  But this was just bitter. Like black coffee in the middle of a hot day, it felt disgustingly unpleasant to swallow the information she was sharing with us.

  A memory of Fanael’s office flashed through my head. She did have a pair of slightly charred leather shoes on a pedestal. I guess those weren’t her shoes after all…

  I also realized how immensely stupid my plan to blow up the quarry was.

  If this horrifying thing would end up filling the area we were in with that explosive mucus stuff, we’d be dead instantly for sure.

  … And really thinking on it.

  How in the world were we supposed to survive the gas explosion anyway?! After luring it to attack the mining site, how do we get out and avoid the blast?

  I realized how little sense anything I had thought up made. Amelia seemed to be sharing the sentiment now. We clearly needed to rethink this plan from the perspective of:

  ‘This creature is like a living nuclear weapon’

  My planning was cut short, however, as Amelia suddenly gestured for all of us to hide. I lifted Fanael, and we all ran behind one of the sides of the strange magic gate. As we hid behind the structure, I cast my reflection veil spell to hide us from the people approaching us.

  The villagers stood in a perfectly even queue before the one standing at the front suddenly pulled out some kind of gray box that began emitting a slightly electronic noise. The villagers began marching out through the strange misty veil one by one, until they all disappeared down the ladder, most likely heading home for the day.

  The invisibility spell dissipated as we exchanged a glance.

  “Should we go investigate the mining site a bit before we start planning on the whole… blowing the place up plan?” Fanael seemed to attempt at breaking the awkwardness her story caused.

  “I agree.” Amelia nodded. “We are to recover the sword after all. Maybe we could check on it to try to pull it out before we go through with our plans?

  “B-before we go…um.” I lifted my choralium hand a bit like asking for a turn to speak.

  The two turned to look at me. “What is it?” Amelia asked quietly.

  “W-well… I just…” I pondered for a moment. “I’m not really good with people. I’m a bit bad with totally relating to people’s grief of losing those close to them because all I ever lost was myself… kind of.” I stumbled.

  The girls looked at me. Amelia sighed softly and smiled a bit. I have a feeling she had an inkling of what I was about to attempt saying.

  “I just…feel like…! If you two ever have some burdens you need to talk about, and if we make it out of this hellhole, I’m all ears.” I somehow managed to word my thoughts. “I’m pretty selfish, so I kind of only cry for myself, but please understand, that if it’d help you two feel any better, I’m going to listen.”

  “Hah… Selfish emotionally, maybe?” Amelia smiled in her usual warm manner. “But, if you were truly selfish, you would probably at least have your original leg still.” Both her and Fanael were chuckling a bit at me.

  “W-well… you get the point!” I nodded awkwardly. “I just want to say I’m okay even with listening to darker topics. I won’t push you away for venting at me a bit. I care for you two, after all.” I staggered.

  “Mmm! That goes both ways, you dumbass!” Fanael smiled a bit brighter than before. “You’re a bit socially awkward so it’s a tad difficult to tell what’s going on in that weird head of yours! Open up sometimes!” She grinned. I bet her mom had a cute grin too…

  “Agreed! I got countless unsavory stories from my knighthood to share too!” Amelia joined our giggling.

  “Cheers for depressing life experiences…!” I awkwardly raised my fist.

  “Cheers!” The two laughed, and we stepped in through the veil of silence, entering the quarry again.

  It was time to go explore the bizarre mining site.