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Lucella had yet to travel too far away from the nest, his furthest trip so far being the time he escorted the four from Blue Flag. However, with Golden Helmet members accompanying him on the way down, they barely encountered any monsters.

“…There really are only a few magic beasts. It’s my first time coming this far, but it looks completely okay.”
“You’ve never come this far?”
“It was too dangerous. I was just constantly training to get strong enough to go down on my own. And before I knew it…”

The three of Golden Helmet and Lucella, as well as Kafal’s clone, left the nest and descended the mountain while leaving Kafal’s main body there.

Monsters that weren’t Varians could be seen here and there, but even a single glare of Kafal’s clone, which only held a mere fragment of the original’s strength, was enough to scatter them away.

The mountain had turned far safer than what Lucella remembered of it without realizing. But even so, the group nevertheless paid attention to their movement speed to avoid being discovered and chased about.

Kafal’s clone with no physical body was naturally fine, but even Lucella, who obtained dragon-level power, and the trio of high-ranked adventurers (in other words, superhumans), found traveling on the steep mountain a trivial task. They were descending as fast as a galloping horse.

If you could move fast, that was the safest option, in the end.

—If it’s like what Ms. Glasses (Viola) said, Kafal never considered making me strong “enough to descend the mountain”. Her goal was to simply make me strong.

Thinking that far, Lucella felt a slight sense of discomfort.

—Was it because I was too frail compared to dragons…? I mean, I guess humans are too weak by dragon standards, so you’d think no training would ever be enough…

Humans and dragons were fundamentally different. But was Kafal really only worried about that?

“Human. Do not… approach… Lucella… too much.”
“R-Right, my bad.”

Tim took a step away from Lucella after Kafal’s glare.

“She adores you a lot, huh…”
“Well, yeah…”

Lucella answered, wondering whether it would be appropriate to smile wryly. It felt like Kafal was excessively vigilant about Lucella coming into contact with humans. Thinking about it, that might’ve been a little odd. After all, Lucella was still a human in the end, and they were of the same species.

“At any rate, we’re heading to Kugutfulm. Kugutfulm is…”
“The closest town from the mountain, right? That should be the case given our direction.”

Oh? Tim was a little confused, so Lucella added an explanation.

“I said it before, but I’m not actually born and raised on the mountain. I know about the outside world. I was on the verge of death here and Kafal saved me… and a year has passed since.”
“Oh, you became that strong in such a short time? It has already been confirmed that taking in the dragon aura has a physical strengthening response, but does ingesting the Variants on a daily basis have this much effect? No, no, this has to be due to living together with a dragon aft—”
“Just shut up already!!”

As always, Viola’s glasses started to shine and Wein plugged her mouth and locked her hands.

“…Hmm? Then why did you even enter Mount Kuguse?”
“Right. It has been off-limits until just recently, so you should’ve come here around then.”

Tim and Wein looked even more puzzled. It was something even Lucella wondered about.

“Well… Actually, I don’t really remember the things prior to my collapse here. I wasn’t even a fighter so entering the off-limits mountain must… have had… some… reason…”

It was necessary.

—“■■■■■, what are you thinking?”—

For her.

“UIgh…?!”

Lucella felt as if he received an impact that almost blew his head off and reflexively held it. He could hear a voice. There were curtains fluttering. Beyond them spread a town of water. She was looking out of the window at the town.

From behind, her silhouette appeared to be slender. Her hair, originally flaxen with white spots, was already pure white as if bleached.

—“I believe you have already repaid your debt to me. You don’t have to worry about me. Go and live freely wherever your heart takes you. I’ll at least choose how I want to die.”—

She murmured so.

■■■■■ nodded, all while knowing she was just pretending to be tough.

“What’s wrong?”
“…I don’t know. I was about to remember something…”

Lucella shook his head at Tim’s question. The blurry memory fragments were like hot stones. If you tried to grab and arrange them, the heat would make you reflexively drop them.

“Lucella.”

Kafal hugged Lucella from behind in worry.

“Lucella… painful?”
“I’m fine… don’t worry.”

Lucella had yet to learn what she was so worried about.