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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Aren’t you going to say anything? What if I suddenly decide to rejoin the Chokugen Faction?”
The pain wasn’t from the force of her punch, but from the emotion behind it.
I chuckled, looking at her pouting face.
“Well, this is a bit out of the blue, but…”
I’d been thinking about this since Royen.
About Sen.
This child, taken by the Chokugen Faction, forced to take drugs, lose her emotions, and become an assassin.
What could I do for her?
I wasn’t sure if she’d accept, but…
“Sen McLean. It sounds a bit strange, but what do you think?”
“…Huh?”
Sen’s eyes widened at my question and grin. A surprisingly strong reaction for someone with limited emotional range.
“W-wait… are you… s-serious?”
She stammered, struggling to speak.
“I’ll have to talk to Diana. But she won’t say no.”
Diana had often said she wished she had a younger sister, not just a younger brother.
Sen had spent the winter break in our village, so she wouldn’t have trouble adjusting after graduation.
This child couldn’t keep living a life of bloodshed.
Sen blushed, flustered. She covered her face with her hands, peeking at me, then slowly, but firmly, nodded.
“O-okay.”
I’d been worried she might refuse or be uncomfortable. She could have abandoned everything and returned to the Chokugen Faction.
I smiled and ruffled her hair. She leaned into my touch, eyes closed like a cat.
“Then it’s settled. Even if you decide to go back to the Chokugen Faction, it doesn’t matter.”
“Hmm?”
“I’ll bring you back, no matter what.”
So she could do as she pleased, without worry.
“It’s good to have a place to return to.”
“Y-yeah.”
Her blushing face made me happy. I gently wiped away a tear.
Sen took a deep breath, composing herself. She glared at the stunned Leader, then leaned towards me.
“But… what should I call you?”
“Huh?”
“H-honey? Or… d-darling?”
“…Huh?”
My mind went blank.
“W-wait! I meant as a sister…!”
I was horrified. She’d completely misunderstood.
“Eccentric!”
The Leader’s furious shout.
The shelling had stopped, and the Eccentric had placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Looks like we’re fighting after all. Sorry!”
He grinned mischievously.
His warp magic engulfed me, and I was suddenly falling from a height where the island looked like a speck.
“Sorry! Try to die from this!”
“You son of a…!”
I cursed and reached for him, but he vanished with another warp.
He was too afraid to face me directly, so he’d put me in a fatal situation.
The wind buffeted me. I would die if I hit the ground like this.
‘I have to find a way…’
Putting Sen’s misunderstanding aside, I desperately searched for a solution.
There was nothing.
Was this really how I died? After cutting off the Dragon God’s wing, so close to stopping the apocalypse?
Stopping time wouldn’t lessen the impact. I thrashed, but there was no escape.
Then, like a savior, a wyvern ascended from the earth.
It weaved through the Chokugen Faction’s attacks and the pirates’ cannon fire, flying straight towards me.
“Hey!”
I yelled, not knowing its name, but it responded with a cry, as if understanding.
Jane wasn’t the only one who’d formed a bond during the fight with Shakarim. The wyvern and I were comrades now.
I grabbed the safety line dangling from it. Gripping the reins, I felt a surge of relief.
“You’re the best! Thank you!”
I patted its head. It had injuries and embedded daggers from the Chokugen Faction’s attempts to stop it.
“I’ll avenge you.”
It cried out again, as if in response. I was about to descend and deal with the Eccentric first, but…
A massive shadow loomed beneath the pirate ships, bombarding the island.
The pirates, focused on firing, hadn’t noticed.
The Pirate Lord was still on the bow, taunting us to surrender.
“A whale?”
At first, I thought it was a whale.
But whales didn’t come this far inland.
Screech!
The wyvern trembled, recognizing the shadow.
I looked closer, finally discerning its shape.
“A dragon?”
ROOOOOOOOAR!
As I spoke, Shakarim emerged, destroying two pirate ships. The pirates panicked.
“The sword’s gone from his eye.”
I didn’t know if a pirate had removed it, or if Shakarim had regained consciousness on his own, but he was now rampaging, as if denying his defeat.
“He can swim?”
He must have swum here without a wing. He really was just a lizard.
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“Haa… haa…”
Sen held her daggers in reverse grip.
Direct confrontation was an assassin’s worst-case scenario, but she’d had a lot of experience with it.
And that experience was keeping her alive.
Literally.
“You’ve… grown stronger.”
The Leader admired Sen’s skill in parrying his attacks. She was now capable of becoming a high-ranking Chokugen Faction member.
“Don’t talk like you raised me. You just turned me into a weapon.”
The blushing girl from moments ago was gone, replaced by a cold, calculating assassin.
She struggled to stay on her feet.
She’d pushed the wyvern hard so it could reach Daniel.
And now, she was the only one left to protect Eve and Jane. They were outnumbered.
Eve knew some magic, and Jane used her experience as Dragon Priestess to cast support spells.
But they were facing the Chokugen Faction’s elite, led by the Leader.
With the wyvern gone, they were relentless, but…
Sen’s resilience was proof of her growth.
“I raised you. I took you in, a child abandoned by her parents, and made you into a person. And now you bite the hand that feeds?”
“You didn’t make me a person. You turned a person into a sword.”
“A little self-awareness, and you dare talk back to me?!”
He attacked again.
Sen gritted her teeth and parried.
She’d sparred with the Leader before.
If a child couldn’t last a minute against him, they were expelled.
Memories of desperately dodging his attacks resurfaced. Back then, she’d fought to survive.
CLANG!
Now, she faced him head-on.
She was ready to strike if he showed an opening.
But the Leader, seeing the fire in her eyes, remained cautious.
“Waaaah!”
“Those idiots!”
Eve and Jane screamed.
Eve blocked a sword strike with a thick book.
Jane, retreating, cursed at the sight of the fallen elders.
The elders, seeing the Chokugen Faction’s approach, had surrendered, begging for their lives.
But the Chokugen Faction never left witnesses.
The elders died with their eyes open.
‘I have to help…!’
Sen’s movements became frantic, and the Leader, seizing the opportunity, struck hard.
BOOM!
Sen lost her grip on both daggers. She would have broken her arms if she’d tried to hold on.
“Ugh!”
She rolled across the sand, away from Eve and Jane.
She tried to regain her position, but…
The Leader stood before her, smirking.
“You may have escaped my cage, but your swordsmanship, your techniques, your habits… they all originate from me. You underestimated your master.”
Then…
The sound of waves, previously drowned out by the cannons, now overwhelmed them.
A massive wave crashed over the beach, swallowing the pirate ships.
“Huh?”
Like an overflowing cup, the wave surged inland, and a dragon’s roar filled the air.
“Woobooboob!”
Sen and the Leader were swept away. But both, trained in underwater combat, quickly recovered.
They charged at each other as the wave receded.
Sen drew a hidden dagger from her boot.
The Leader smirked.
“Always hide your weapons until the very end. That’s what I taught you.”
CLANG!
The dagger spun harmlessly through the air. The Leader had anticipated her move and deflected it.
“Farewell, child.”
His sword lunged towards Sen’s heart…
BANG!
A strange sound echoed across the island.
The Leader’s sword faltered, and he stumbled back, clutching his chest, where a hole had appeared.
“A pistol…?”
“It’s Jesant’s.”
The Pistol Ballista.
A weapon that consumed the user’s mana to create bullets. Daniel had given it to Sen, saying he couldn’t use it.
“Hidden in her chest? Heh, I thought the little brat had grown.”
He’d noticed her slightly fuller chest and assumed it was a sign of maturity, but…
She’d been hiding the pistol there.
“Always hide your weapons until the very end.”
“Damn you! Biting the hand that feeds!”
Sen looked down at the kneeling Leader and pulled the trigger.
“I’m already married. Don’t talk about masters.”
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