Chapter 72: Volume 4 - CH 16

After regaining her consciousness, Paserane first realized that she was on the ground, tied up in a net. She was surrounded by around twenty poachers, moving around wildly. As Paserane was familiar with the forest, she realized this area was familiar. As the dragon was often spotted around here, it was regarded as off-limits. The poachers seemingly were using this location as their gathering spot. Paserane seemingly must have fought while being unconscious, because her body hurt with every small move, riddled with wounds and injuries. She most likely wouldn’t be able to break free out of the net.

Her last memory was Roas escaping with his injuries, so that was at least some kind of final grace. Realizing that Paserane had woken up, the man she assumed to be the leader approached her, looking down at her in disgust. Right as Paserane wanted to open her mouth, the man slammed his foot right into her abdomen.

“Gah!”

Naturally, she was unable to evade this attack, groaning in agony, but somehow managed to keep her consciousness connected.

“Shut your mouth. Hearing human words from you black long-ears is nothing but displeasure for us.”

Black long-ears was a derogatory term towards dark elves.

“Jeez…having my comrades killed by such a pseudo-human…”

As there had been casualties in their previous fight, the man cursed Paserane with harsh words. Learning that her final arrow landed at its target, Paserane felt some relief that eased her pain.

“Will that Unicorn come back, I wonder.”

Another man called out to the leader, who nodded.

“Most likely. That Unicorn won’t sacrifice his rider, especially if it’s a woman…However, the morning will soon come, so whether it comes back or not…Depends on the final job.”

“Understood…Still, what good luck that dragon brought us. Thanks to it, we managed to finish our plans earlier than anticipated.”

“It almost feels like a shame that we can only control the dragon for a few more days…”

“Fool. What’s important is that we use it for our goal. And we are slowly—What?” The leader seemingly caught on to something and looked around.

Finally, his gaze moved up towards the sky. Paserane thought ‘If only I could take these people down with me’…when she realized that the air around them changed. The other poachers also felt that something was off, and immediately changed into a cautious mindset. The air grew tense, and pressure filled the air. All the birds around in the forest soared into the sky, and the monsters in the forest ran away. The reason for this was hard to decipher, but everybody felt sheer anxiety and fear crawl up their skin.

“D-Did the Unicorn return?”

“This is too fast, and it’s not as simple as that…Something different is…approach…ing…” The leader shortly after lost his words.

The moment he grasped the identity of this pressure he felt, everybody had their mouths wide open, their eyes filled with confusion and disarray. In a way, they were used to this sight, but as this was outside anything they could have expected, the shock was even greater.

“Impossible! Why is the…No, that’s a different dragon…?!”

At that moment, a dragon—Irumera—soared through the low sky and opened her mouth. The poachers reflexively imagined themselves being burned alive by the flame the dragon would spew. However, no fire arrived. Instead, an ear-splitting roar filled the air.

‘Goaaaaaaaah!!’

The dragon’s roar could make your soul as a whole shake, utterly chaining down the poachers who just started moving. Aiming for that moment, the attack began.

The first wave of attack consisted of arrows. As the poachers’ attention was diverted by the dragon, Urza, who had snuck up on the branch of a tree, fired off the arrows with the help of her summon Wind Spirit Sylphid. As they were fired indiscriminately, not many men were injured, but it was more than plenty to leave them in disarray, fulfilling its job perfectly. Then, three shadows appeared from the thicket.

First came Kyle and Seran, running at the speed of the wind, as they struck down any men in their way, with Lieze after them, clearing up any stranglers. Out of all the poachers present, after roughly 20 seconds following the dragon’s appearance, half of them had been rendered unable to fight. Some of the poachers saw this sudden turn of events, attempting to run away, but the arrows fired by Erina finished them off, unable to move.

“Urk!”

However, some of the poachers managed to get up quickly. The leader of the poachers realized that no arrows landed near Paserane, and judged that this was a rescue mission, immediately moving to take her hostage. However, a white silhouette—Roas immediately interrupted. Then again, he only had eyes for Paserane, so anybody in the way was mercilessly blasted away.

“Out of my way!”

The leader suffered a direct ramming attack from Roas. With any normal horse, the man would have been blown off, but as he was hit by a Unicorn with its horn, it stabbed right into his chest.

“Get off!” Roas shook his head, sending the man flying.

He was slammed into a nearby tree and passed out before he could even raise a scream. Like this, the surprise attack ended shortly after it began, and the number of poachers had gone down drastically, and yet in this disadvantageous situation, they did not lose their calm—almost eerily enough.

Lieze was facing two of the stranglers, and most certainly did not let down her guard, but she was taken by surprise because of the two men’s actions. One of them suddenly stepped backward, walking behind his comrade’s back, hiding from Lieze’s sight. He used the longsword in his hand to stab through his own ally, aiming the blade at Lieze.

“…Wha?!”

The man who was stabbed looked down at the hole in his abdomen in shock, as the other man pushed his human shield forwards towards Lieze. She reflexively fought back with her fist, but that didn’t work against the human shield who had already died, giving her no more options to stop the incoming attack. Right as the blade was about to stab her, Yuriga broke between the two, striking the two men away to send them flying with her bare fist, which contained more strength than the average Wild Boar ramming attack.

“Ah…”

Lieze stood still in a daze, only to immediately shake her head, attempting to thank Yuriga. However, she immediately moved away from that place, not even giving Lieze a glance. At around the same time, Kyle and the others finished striking down the last stragglers. Roughly 50 seconds after Irumera’s roar, only his group stood on their feet.

‘Why do I have to…I’m supposed to be an observer…’

After they finished clearing up the area and restraining the poachers, Irumera sighed in disbelief at his own actions. Of course, since she simply let out a roar while flying in the sky, it was hard to say she directly contributed, but that didn’t leave her any less satisfied. Shildonia observed this and attempted to cheer her up.

“Don’t be like that, we were dealing with a hostage situation here. Also, they used him, remember? I bet you wanted to get some revenge for what they did, right?”

Erina offered Paserane some magic medicine as well, to which she swiftly improved.

“To think I would end up being saved…by that Erina of all people…” Paserane was still a bit under the weather, as she flashed a weak smile.

“…You saved me many more times than that, Paserane-san.” Erina looked after her, tearing up a bit. “The fact that you cared for me, a half, with such passion…I won’t ever forget that.”

“I see…” Paserane showed a faint smile, only for her serious expression to return.

There was still something left she had to do.

At the same time, Kyle’s group was searching around the corpses of the poachers.

“I was planning to at least leave them alive, but…”

Seran flung his leg at a man who collapsed on the ground, turning his face upwards. Both Kyle and Seran attempted to avoid the enemy’s vital points, but they had all been decimated after the fight.

“They drank poison, alright. Most likely had it stored in their teeth…To ensure they wouldn’t leak any information if they got captured and tortured…But, why be so persistent?”

You wouldn’t often see information being protected with human lives like this.

“Just…who are these people?” Lieze walked towards them with a pale face.

When Kyle saw the dire situation Lieze had previously been in, he himself felt a cold sweat run down his back. Now he was left with an uncertain feeling in his stomach at the fact that Yuriga was the one who had saved Lieze. Yet, that Yuriga in question had already moved away from the group, as if to say that she had nothing to do with this.

“Being able to discard one’s allies for the greater cause…This recklessness, is it possibly…” Kyle looked through the chest pocket of the leader, who had been previously killed by Roas.

And then, his bad premonition turned out to be true. He found a small metallic coin, engraved with a painting of a goddess carrying a human child. It was the holy token any Mera follower kept on them.

“So they were Mera followers after all.”

“This is…the Mera cult.”

Lieze and Urza both grew pale. They had only heard about this from Kyle himself, but experiencing an encounter directly made their skin crawl in terror. Especially Urza, who was always regarded as a target by them, covered her long ears and shivered in anxiety.

“But, why are they going around poaching like this?”

“I’d love to ask them about it…Luckily, we seem to have some survivors left.”

Most of the poachers had been killed off, but three seemingly managed to survive. They were the ones who tried to run away during the fight, shot in the feet by Erina. According to Roas, they were the ones who planned the ambush. Since they didn’t attempt to kill themselves, they most likely didn’t belong to the Mera cult. Maybe some hired soldiers of sorts.

“Then we’ll go right ahead and—Ah, wait!”

They tied them up in a simple way, right about to question them, when Paserane shot up and dashed towards them, emitting clear killing intent. In her hand, she had a dagger, so when Urza realized this, she frantically stopped her.

“Let go! These bastards! These bastards just…!”

Having her comrades killed, her friends the Unicorns hunted, and even with her own life almost at their hands, Paserane’s anger was more than gratified.

“…We need to question them. Killing them here will give us nothing.” Kyle said, and together with Roas and Erina somehow managed to calm down Paserane.

As she still wasn’t back to her full strength, she could not break free from them either.

“Now then, I hope you’ll give me some worthwhile answers. I’m not taking any silence for an answer, and if you don’t spit it out, you’ll have to die. However, if you give me the answers I want…I’ll let you go this once. However, if we run into you again, we won’t hold back then. If you don’t want to die, then leave this place and live the rest of your lives in peace.”

When Kyle said ‘let you go’, Paserane’s entire body emitted a raging fury, but Erina soothed her. The three poachers frantically nodded, so Kyle started questioning them.

“First, are you also Mera followers?”

“N-No! We are normal hunters, hired for this job.”

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Or so they called themselves, but they were ready to offer their help for poaching like this, so they clearly weren’t just any average hunters.

“Why were you hunting Unicorns?”

“Of course, for the horns. They apparently needed a great amount of them for a strong healing medicine, which is why they gathered us…”

Apparently, money was not their goal, but the horns’ healing effect instead.

“What were they planning on using the medicine for?”

“No idea…We were only hired to help hunt the Unicorns.”

The man said as they were all tearing up in fear.

“Then here comes the most important question…how is the dragon related in all this? And where is it right now?”

Kyle knew that Ghrud was not near them, otherwise, Irumera would have known his location.

“T-That’s…”

“No need to hide it, we know that you were using the dragon.”

“We were hesitant about it at first…hunting Unicorns in the forest inhabited by dark elves would be impossible…and then we heard that we could use the dragon as a guise.”

“So he’s being controlled. How?”

“I don’t know the details, only that they’re using some secret technique…Apparently, the person controlling the dragon is moving separately, and we’ve never met them! They’re also the ones seen with the dragon.”

“So he must be from the Mera cult as well. How many more are out there?”

“I don’t know. I’m sure there are some, but they are all acting separately…at the very least, there should be ten.”

“Ten of them…that’s a lot.” Kyle showed a perturbed expression.

There could be nothing more troublesome than having this many Mera cult followers around.

“But…I heard stories of them having the dragon attack the dark elf village the day after tomorrow.”

“What…?!” Hearing this, Paserane’s expression was filled with rage once more.

Erina also swallowed her breath. Although she was forced to leave, it was still her hometown, so there’s no way she could remain calm after hearing this.

“Why would they attack us?! What is their reason?!” Paserane screamed.

“We were only hired for the hunting itself! That’s all we know! I swear!” The men pleaded while cowering in fear and regret.

At the very least, it didn’t look like they were lying. Kyle judged that this would be enough of an interrogation, and decided to end it with the next question.

“One last thing. Did you ever see a demon near your camp or with the people who hired you?”

“Huh? A demon? What are you talking about?”

The men were utterly confused as the word demon was thrown into the conversation.

“If you don’t know, then that’s fine…Alright, that’s all I wanted to hear.” Kyle pulled his sword, and pointed it at the men.

They screamed in terror, cursing Kyle for breaking his promise.

“Shut up.” He swung his sword, cutting through their ties. “Leave immediately. We’ll keep your equipment with us, but if you’re lucky, you might survive…Go.”

Before Kyle would change his mind, he let the three run away. Paserane evidently didn’t like that fact, and glared at Kyle like she was going to strangle him.

“You bastard! Why did you let them go! They killed my friends!”

“In order for them to talk, this promise was necessary…and, I keep my promises,” Kyle said with a serious expression, but Lieze and Urza were just looking at him in disbelief.

“I keep my promises…I do, at least.”

Kyle moved his gaze, but the fiendish friend of his who should be standing there had long vanished.

The three men ran through the forest as fast as they could. Just as Kyle said, they were given no equipment, but if they ran with all their might now, they could possibly make it back to Rinecol alive. It was a pipe dream considering how dangerous the forest was, but it was better than being dead, so they ran. However, despair blocked their path.

“Yo.”

Seran greeted the three, faintly waving his hand.

“W-What do you want?! Do you still need something?!”

“…Seems like you folks couldn’t be more unlucky,” Seran said, speaking like it wasn’t even any of his business. “To think we’d run into each other this quickly.”

The men didn’t understand what Seran was talking about. However, when Seran pulled his sword and moved ahead with one smooth motion to cut down the man standing at the front, the other two didn’t take long to grasp what was happening. However, neither could react fast enough, and another of them had collapsed to the ground.

“Kyle said it just now, right? If we run into you again, you’re done for.” Seran explained to the last man alive.

“Y-You bastards never had any intention of letting us leave alive, huh?!” He screamed, but Seran wouldn’t let him waste any more breath.

“Difference of opinion, my friend…Well, not like it matters anymore.” Seran’s cruel stab killed the man’s scream of terror, as silence returned.

“How did it go?” Kyle asked Seran, who shrugged with his shoulders as he returned.

“Nothing suspicious. They were just gunning it for the city.”

Seran was following them to ensure they didn’t attempt anything fishy after they were freed, such as reuniting with their allies, but there were no signs of that.

“Right, good work out there…Also, that’s their divine punishment. You’re good with that, yeah?”

“…All right.” Paserane still seemed bothered by this outcome, but as they had saved her life, there was only so much she could complain about.

“Also, great job stopping her. You really helped out a bunch.” Kyle thanked Erina.

If not for her holding back Paserane, she might have killed them before Kyle could get any information out of them.

“No, I knew from the very beginning that while all of you would keep your promise, you definitely wouldn’t forgive them,” Erina said with confidence in her voice.

“Erina-chan, don’t say ‘all of you’, okay? Only Kyle and Seran are this nasty.”

“That’s right, we are having our own share of troubles with these guys.”

Lieze and Urza immediately denied Erina’s words, but they didn’t try to stop the boys either.

“Cough…Anyway, we have a favor to ask of you. We’re searching for the dragon they are using, and we need the help of the dark elves for that.”

“…So it’s true that they are controlling that dragon?” Paserane showed a doubtful response to Kyle’s request.

“Looking at the situation, there seems to be no doubting that. Although I have no idea how they managed that…Listen, I know dark elves don’t want to get involved with humans. However, at this rate, there will be victims on both sides, so let’s work together this once.”

Paserane carefully listened to Kyle’s words and started thinking. Nobody knew why Ghrud (controlled by the Mera cult) would attack the dark elf village. However, as it was done by the Mera cult, who was racially biased towards anybody who wasn’t a human, the answer wasn’t too hard to guess.

“If we find the dragon before the attack, we’ll head for it ourselves, but if not, we at least want to be ready to fight back at your village,” Kyle explained.

Paserane glanced behind the group, at the dragon Irumera. At the very least, it was evident they were out looking for the dragon.

“Paserane. We were both saved by these people, we have to repay the favor.” As Roas had promised, he was working to convince Paserane.

“Got it…There seems to be no doubt about the dragon attacking, and this is for the sake of our village…I’ll do my best to convince them.” Paserane promised.

‘So we’ll go to the village of the dark elves…I’m only tagging along, okay?’ Irumera evidently wasn’t the greatest fan of this.

There seemed to be no doubting the fact that Ghrud was controlled by humans, but that didn’t mean she was suddenly allowed to meet him. After all, the law prohibited her from doing so. Being unable to do anything, she was clearly annoyed.

“I get it, just be around like this time as well…then we’ll be able to find Ghrud.”

Kyle understood how their law worked, so he didn’t try to infringe on it too much. Not to mention that having a dragon along with them was the best means of convincing somebody

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