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It was a fatal blow for Inglis. As expected of a Dragon God, his brain worked differently from any run of the mill monster. He was cunning and practical. If he came to that conclusion, Inglis couldn’t think of a countermeasure right away.

「Uu……?! AAah……?! I-, it huurtts……!!」

Inglis suddenly cowered in place, holding her right elbow.

『……?』
「M-, my arm! Must have been due to the strain from all the battles…… I think it’s broken! I can’t fight with my full strength now! I-, it might be dangerous for me to fight in this state!」
『…………』
「Aah, how scary! I am in danger of being attacked now! I might even get eaten…」
『How shameless! Cease this stupid farce.』
「AAAAAAAHH IT HURT IT HURT IT HURT!!」
『I told you to shut your trap! How noisy can one be?!』
「Uu……! You… you’re so mean! Who should I fight then?!」

Inglis stared at Vufailbane very, very resentfully.

『I don’t give a rat’s a̲s̲s̲! Are you really the same person as that old king?! All that comes out of your mouth is battle if not food! What are you, a beast?! That withered old king was much more endearing as a human!』
「I have finally been born again, I just want to live a free life following my desires! If I really break my arm, will you fight me? I will break it myself if that’s what you want!」
『Such nonsense won’t change a thing! Enough! No matter what, I will never fight you again! Call me a coward and torture me unguarded to my death if you want, I care not. If it’s the meat of my tail that you aim, take it. Cut it off and away with you.』

So he declared, laying his giant tail in front of Inglis. Not a sign of resisting was seen.

「…………」

If that was how the dragon behaved, even Inglis would hesitate to just cut off the tail.

No, but, I’m hungry, and I want to test out the sword I just made, so maybe I should try it by slicing the tail off. Just as Inglis was thinking so, she heard Rafinha’s voice from above.

「Glis~! What’s wrong~?! Are you not going to fight today?」

Seeing that the fight wouldn’t start, Rafinha lowered the Flygear to see what was going on.

「Rani! Yeah, just a bit of situation…」
「Hey, if it looks okay, can I get a closer look?」
「Ah, yeah, I think it’s all right…」

Inglis complied, and Rafinha began a slow descent to Inglis’ side. In the meantime, Inglis gave a warning towards Vufailbane.

「That black-haired girl is Rafinha. If you ever dare to hurt her, I will terminate you in that instant, whether you resist or not. Please do remember my words, okay?」
『……Hmph, I will at least hear them.』

Vufailbane responded with only those words without moving. His attitude was cold, but he was a calculating opponent who would find any chance to turn the tables, daring to avoid a fight with Inglis for his survival. This warning should be heeded.
If he broke it, it would ruin his strategy of survival through humiliation.

「Uwa~h……Looking at it this close, it really feels impactful!」
「Yeap, so much it’s terrifying……I’m trembling even by standing closer.」

The only ones who came were Rafinha and Lahti. Leone and the others were continuing their work at the encampment, as today Inglis planned to cut the tail on her own. In addition to the usual butchering and making preserves, they had also begun reconstruction work to turn the encampment into a full-fledged city. They were getting busier each passing day.

That was why Inglis asked Rafinha alone, as it was her role to patch up the tail. Lahti was scheduled to go out to distribute the nearby villages, but since he had time until the preparation for it was done, he came to steer the Star Princess unit.

「Is that so? It certainly looks impressive, but when it is quiet like this, doesn’t it look kind of cute? It has an aura that is a bit different than Magic Stone Beasts, right?」
「I don’t know how you can think that! I’m starting to feel sick just getting close to it, yanno……」
「Really, you look pale. Are you okay?」
「Y-, yeah…I’m good, but let’s get our business done……」
「Let’s. So, Glis… What’s going on?」
「No, he said he didn’t want to fight! He told me that I can just cut the tail and go away if I want…」
「Eh?! Really?!」
「Yeah… And that’s why we were having a discussion.」
「Discussion for what?」
「I told him not to say that and just get on with the fight!」
「No no no no! Don’t fight, it’s troubling! If we can collect the tail without having a fight, that means it understands us, and is willing to help the people in need, right? You managed to convince him, right? Isn’t that great?! I see you in a new light now!」
「Oh, that’s a huge help! That means this big guy won’t go on a rampage and attack the encampments and the settlements all over the place!」
「Mn? Well……」

The reason why Vufailbane refused to fight was because he finally understood their situation and was willing to cooperate. For Rafinha who believed in the good of people, that seemed to be her interpretation of the situation.

Using his long life span as an advantage, he would wait for Inglis’ strength to decline, and in the meantime, he would prevent the ability gap from widening any further by reducing Inglis’ most effective training opportunity, her opportunity to have a life-threatening battle. In other words, he would not fight Inglis.

True enough, it would be hard to think that such a detailed scheme would come from this enormous Dragon God. Even Inglis was surprised and troubled. In a sense, the Dragon God was too clever for her.

It would have been better for her if he was a bit more instinctive and violent. It would be a great help if he was exposed to Prism Flow and turned into a Magic Stone Beast who attacked people on instinct, as that meant he would attack Inglis on sight instead of waiting for her to get old.

But, would that also change the quality of his exquisite meat? Boy, what a pickle this was…