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“Wait! Let’s at least talk—let’s t-talk first!”
“Damn it, she’s so quick!!”

Every time those sharp claws skimmed past me, I felt like I was seconds from dying. They looked even sharper than my mom’s favorite kitchen knife.

Just barely dodging wasn’t easy—I probably would’ve died a few times without Master’s support.

This girl, Theo, was as fast as me, maybe even faster.

“U-um, Theo! Those claws are dangerous—please pull them back! You’ll hurt someone!”
“Hurt? I’m swinging these around to kill you, you idiot! You’d better get your heart pierced already!!”
“No way!!”

In the split-second thrills of near misses, I slowly put distance between Theo and the dragons.

But I had to keep going. I couldn’t get her far enough away to avoid interfering with the king’s fight.

“You’re lucky you can afford to look away, huh?!”
“Th-that’s not—Whoa!?”

Suddenly, something wrapped around my ankle and I fell flat on my back.

Looking down to see what it was, I saw something slithering up from the ground—coiling around my ankle. It was scaly and slick, like the tail of a snake or a lizard.

“Ugh! Gross!!”
“How rude, talking like that about my tail!!”
“Wait, that’s your tail, Theo!? When did that grow!?”
“Don’t you dare call me by my name so casually!!”

Sure enough, from her angry back, the same tail wrapped around my ankle stretched out across the ground.

While repeatedly attacking me with her claws, she’d secretly extended her tail from beneath the earth. That was some serious cleverness.

“Idiot, is this really the time to let your guard down…!?”
“S-sorry!!”

As Master scolded me, my vision spun like a spinning top. Using that momentum, I ripped the tail off my leg.

Thanks to that, I just barely made it in time. I leapt away from the spot—and right where I’d been sitting just a second ago, something crashed down with a heavy thud.

The impact wasn’t as strong as the one aimed at Master, but if it had hit me, I definitely wouldn’t have come out unscathed.

“Phew, pfft! Sand got in my mouth!”
“…I still can’t read the signs of that magic power… Is it even magecraft or magic at all?”
“Even you don’t know, Master? Like, maybe it’s some kind of magical force pulling a meteorite from the sky?”
“I don’t know what this ‘meteorite’ you’re talking about is… Is it some phenomenon unique to Outlanders?”
“It’s a rock falling from the sky! Um, a heavenly body flying through space gets pulled by Earth’s gravity…”
“Stop talking any more nowwwwww!!!!!!”
“Uwaaah!?”

Breaking through a wall of dust, Theo launched herself at my face, claws ready.

I snatched her arm mid-swing, but I couldn’t stop her momentum, she kept pushing me back, body against body. Her long claws, her tail still wrapped around me, and on her back—wings like a dragon’s had grown.

At this point, it wasn’t just that she was pushing me around; it felt more like I was half flying, clutched tight in her grip.

“W-why all of a sudden…!?”
“Don’t look at the sky. Don’t learn anything! You lot are meant to crawl on the ground and die ignorant and blind!!”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying at all! I don’t want to die, and if there’s something I don’t know, I want to know more! What’s so wrong about looking up at the sky!?”
“Shut up, you… This is why you Outlanders are such a nuisance!! Because of you, it will happen *again*—!!”
“Momo… hold her down. I’ll finish this…”

“Master, no! I think it’s wrong for us to kill each other without even knowing anything about one another!!”
“I thought you’d say that, you idiot… Fine, then we’ll kill each other while talking. You destroyed Rigel’s workshop because you don’t want us looking at the sky, right?”
“That’s right. They touched the world’s taboo! So I killed them—that’s my role!!”
“…War kills Outlanders and Ragna kills humans without discrimination, right? I see… you each have your roles.”

“Ah! Ahhh! My legs—they’re getting scraped!!”
“Momo, shut up for a bit. We’re having an important conversation.”
“Oh come on! Theo, please fly higher—!!”
“Shut up, idiot! I’ll just keep scraping you down like this!!”

Since I was shielding Master on my back and catching Theo’s claws with both hands, I couldn’t really focus on my footing.

Theo was dropping altitude bit by bit as we talked, so my feet kept bouncing on the sand. There was no way I could stay focused and join the conversation properly in this state.

“That aside… I get it now. You’re trying to hide the sky from us—or rather, *what lies beyond this planet.*”
“…!”
“You wear your emotions on your face. You should work on that—assuming you get another chance.”
“There won’t be another chance. I’m going to kill you all right here.”
“Big words. But I have my doubts. After all, you already failed to take down one.”
“…What?”
“Hm? I figured you’d know, seeing as you’ve got dragons under your command. But those things are stubborn. Even if you crush their heads and brains, never assume it’s over.”

Master smiled as blood trickled from her mouth—but her eyes weren’t on Theo.

She was staring far off into the distance—past Theo, at the two dragons who had long since shrunk to the size of dots.

“――――――! Orgueil! Bakvilyde!!”
“Too late. Looks like they pulled it off.”

As if Master’s words had been a signal, a blinding beam of light cut through both dragons—clear as day, even from this distance.