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–––Ciel’s viewpoint

Three hundred years ago Lapis had fought together with Sorciere, she herself had told us that, so there was little surprise that Lapis had interacted with the Dragon King before. But I had always thought the Dragon King was a mindless beast that simply attacked anything in sight, I had never expected it would be a creature that could hold an amiable conversation. Yet Lapis was talking with him normally, while just seeing his beastly appearance made me shake uncontrollably. But he called her Estrella, I guess that was some sort of nickname?

“Still, you’ve changed greatly since the last time you came to see me, Estrella. I understand humans change in appearance as they ‘age’, but can that bring forth such a radical transformation?”
“Not quite…a lot happened and things got this way, but you don’t have to worry about that.”

Lapis looked hesitant to talk about that. The rest of us had no clue what she was talking about, but the Dragon King, or Tiamat like she called him, seemed to understand something and changed topics without much care.

“Well, what brings you here, old friend? I doubt you’d come all the way here just to rekindle our friendship.”
“You probably already guessed, but we’d all like to train here. I’ll be with you, and they will be with your underlings. We’ll try to stay for a month or so.”
“Ohh? I thought they were your servants, but I see, they’re your new companions. They look rather weak though.”

The gigantic head moved closer to us, as if inspecting us, but that was enough to make us take a few steps back. I could feel an enormous pressure just from that movement alone! Was Lapis really intent on fighting such a creature?

Still, it felt pretty rude to be called a servant, even if he was the Dragon King. We all had been through many battles already, sometimes getting close to dying in them. But he thought we only matched up to servants? That was too much! Without thinking, I raised my head and glared at Tiamat, the other girls also did the same soon after, probably feeling the same way as me. My body was still shaking, and I was as terrified as before, but I suppressed that with rage and continued to glare at Tiamat.

“Hmm…at least their spirit is far stronger than I thought, but that makes sense if they’re your friends. Interesting… Selene.”
“Yes?”

Out of nowhere I saw a woman standing next to Tiamat’s humongous body. She had two odd features; a pair of horns growing from her head, and red blazing eyes. At first I thought she was a demon so I readied myself, but I could not feel any malice coming from her. Just who was she?

“Estrella, you’ve met Selene before, yes? She’s still a greenhorn, but she’s a Dragon with much potential that can take human form. Your friends may train with her.”
“Thank you. Can we also start our training after this?”
“I don’t mind. I’ve essentially lived for an eternity, but fighting you has always been my most pleasurable memory. I’m sure I’ll enjoy this just as much.”
“Same here. But well, I’ll leave my friends with Selene then.”

Fighting the Dragon King…that was pretty much suicide for any normal person, but Lapis did not seem worried at all. She turned around to look at us, her face carefree as if she was just talking about her thoughts on lunch.

“Alright then, I’ll go fight Tiamat for a while now. You all listen to Selene over there meanwhile. She’ll tell you how to train and live while you stay here, so you won’t have to worry about anything.”

Saying that, she prepared to leave, but I hurried to stop her.

“Lapis! Are you sure about this?”
“Of course, I’m sure she’ll hold back when needed, and unless you do something really stupid you won’t-”
“I mean you! I’m asking if you’re going to be fine!”

She did not seem to understand what I meant at all, tilting her head with a puzzled look. Seeing that I was starting to get annoyed, just how do I have to talk to her so she understands?

“I can tell that that dragon is dangerous. Even if we all joined forces we wouldn’t stand a chance, but you’re trying to fight him alone. Are you sure you won’t get seriously wounded?”
“Yeah! I know you’re strong, but the Dragon King looks even stronger than you! You don’t even have a demonic or holy sword with you either, you’re insane if you try fighting him!”
“I may be out of line to say this, but master, please reconsider. I doubt the Dragon King is a creature a human can best. This is too dangerous!”
“Lapis! Even Sol keeps telling me to stop you! He says fighting the Dragon King is a bad idea! I don’t think you’ll be okay if even spirits are against it!”

Finally she seemed to notice how worried we were about her, so she desperately began waving her hands.

“I-it’s okay! This isn’t the first time I’ll be fighting Tiamat, and we both know each other’s strengths. I’ll probably get pretty beaten up, but I won’t die! I promise I’ll be okay!”
“But-”
“Don’t worry, girls.”

We still tried to desperately stop her, but this time it was Tiamat who unexpectedly stopped us, even though he was the main danger here.

“Estrella, or Lapis like you call her, is a hero of old who fought against me many times. She’s nowhere near weak enough for you to worry so much.”
“B-but-”
“Estrella even saved the human realm in the past, she won’t go down so easily.”
“H-hey!”

Lapis seemed desperate to call Tiamat out and interrupt him. But what did he just say? My brain registered every word clearly, but I could not comprehend their meaning. It was not just me who, everyone else looked just as dumbfounded. A hero that saved the human realm? As far as I knew there was only one like that, Brave. After saving the world, he was shunned by the other humans so he ended up vanishing. He had been alive together with Sorciere, so there was a chance he was still alive though. But Tiamat…was he saying that Lapis is Brave then?

“The hero Brave is…Lapis? That can’t…”
“But…then…”
“That would explain a lot of things actually…”