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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Sen tucked the Ballista back into her chest.
“Hee hee, a married woman.”
A smile crept onto her face, but it quickly vanished.
“Waaaaah!”
“E-Eve! Come with me!”
Hearing their screams, Sen rushed towards them.
“This is anticlimactic.”
It hadn’t been long since I’d rescued Eve and Jane from the Chokugen Faction.
I’d intended to deal with the Leader, the Eccentric, and the pirates.
But Shakarim, enraged, had obliterated the pirates, sinking their ships.
And surprisingly, Sen had dealt with the Leader.
All that remained were the Chokugen Faction members and the Eccentric.
After dealing with the members, the Eccentric surrendered immediately.
He was too drained of mana to escape, so I just bound him. There wasn’t much left for me to do.
I’d been prepared for a tough fight, but it was over so quickly. It felt anticlimactic.
Shakarim sat on the beach, glaring at me.
He looked ready to devour me, but…
Exhausted from the fall and swimming to shore, he could only growl and pant.
Supported by Eve and Jane, I sat before him.
“Let’s talk.”
“Fool…!”
He still clung to his pride.
But even as he spoke, he lowered his long neck, meeting my gaze.
“The world is ending.”
“…I’ve heard. And I knew.”
“Right.”
I sighed and glanced at Eve and Sen.
“I’ve already experienced it.”
“…Experienced?”
“Huh?”
“What do you mean?”
I’d told them the Goddess of Time had shown me the future, but here, honesty was best.
I told them how Rin had destroyed the world.
Not the details about Rin, our conversations, or her destroying the world to trigger my regression.
Just how the ‘Earliest Apocalypse’ had unfolded, and the ‘Following Apocalypse’ that came after.
Shakarim listened intently.
Eve and Sen seemed to want to say something, but the dragon spoke first.
“You stopped the Earliest Apocalypse, but the Following Apocalypse arrived, and you regressed thanks to the Goddess of Time?”
“Yes. That’s how I knew you were awake, and what you felt just now.”
“What I felt?”
Watching the waves roll in, I said,
“You wanted to live.”
“…”
“When your wing was torn, when you fell… you wanted to live, didn’t you?”
Shakarim’s open mouth wasn’t in contemplation, but in remembrance.
Like waking from a nightmare, relieved it wasn’t real.
He sighed.
“Yes, I wanted to live.”
A primal instinct he’d forgotten during his long slumber. Death had become a distant concept, a truth even he had forgotten.
He wanted to live.
Despite the endless boredom, the countless times he’d thought death would be preferable.
Those had been abstract thoughts, born of immortality.
Faced with actual mortality, he wanted to live.
“That is why I called myself a god.”
Gods don’t die.
Gods are eternal.
He remembered why, long ago, he had declared himself a god to the dragon-kin.
“The falling sun is what must be stopped.”
He exhaled and nodded.
“I will cooperate.”
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“Thank you for everything.”
We stood before Jane at the Dragon’s Boundary.
Sen and Eve seemed reluctant to part ways.
“Come visit us sometime!”
“W-would that be possible?”
“Come in secret.”
It was rare for dragon-kin to cross the boundary, so Jane scratched her head awkwardly.
Eve and Sen insisted it wouldn’t be a problem, but wouldn’t Diana catch her the moment she crossed?
They showed no signs of stopping, so I spoke up.
“Aren’t you going?”
“Say goodbye properly, Daniel.”
“Yeah.”
Eve and Sen stepped back. I hadn’t planned a grand farewell, but I offered Jane some encouragement.
“Good luck. It’s going to be tough.”
“I know.”
Jane was the Dragon Priestess again.
The elders were dead, and the Dragon God was awake.
He wasn’t a true god, but Jane would use that to her advantage.
She would use the dragon-kin’s blind faith to correct their distorted society.
Theosander had been dismissed as cardinal and was facing the Dragon God’s judgment.
He was the only corrupt official left, so he was taking the fall.
“So, you’re basically the ruler now, right?”
I asked, shrugging.
Jane shook her head.
“I have to slowly change their culture of dependence. They need to stand on their own, not rely on a god.”
“…”
“Once that’s done, I’ll step down as Dragon Priestess. It might take a while.”
“Good for you.”
“Huh?”
I remembered our conversation on Shakarim’s back.
“You said you’d forgotten what you wanted to do. Now you have time to remember.”
I smiled, and Jane nodded.
“That’s a good idea.”
A brief silence followed.
“Good luck,” I said, turning to leave.
“You seem so free.”
Jane’s wistful voice stopped me.
“Are all humans like that?”
It was an unexpected question, but I considered it for a moment.
“There are social barriers, but… I suppose so.”
Jane smiled faintly.
“I… I’d like to experience that freedom… as a human.”
With you, if possible.
Her words, though carried away by the wind, reached me clearly.
I waved back.
We left the dragon-kin’s land.
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Inside the carriage back to the royal palace, I sighed, looking at the Eccentric, bound and huddled in the corner.
“We have convenient transportation magic, and yet we’re stuck in a carriage.”
“I’m not a means of transportation.”
“Shut up.”
I kicked him, and he finally closed his mouth. He couldn’t use warp magic, thanks to the mana-suppressing shackles.
I thought I could finally relax, but Sen sidled up to me.
“Hee hee.”
Her creepy giggle wasn’t like her.
“I’m Sen McLean.”
“Ah…”
In the rush to return and deal with the aftermath, I hadn’t had a chance to explain.
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