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“I’m exhausted… utterly exhausted…”

I couldn’t feel my legs. Who knows how long Momo’s lecture had dragged on after that? The light outside the guild’s windows had already turned a deep orange. Well, that said it all. My relaxing day off was completely ruined.

“Oh, come on, Master! You’re so dull! Why don’t you understand?”
“How could I? Your arguments were all emotion-based…”

Momo, voice hoarse from all the talking, finally sat across from me with a drink she must’ve picked up somewhere. Stell was nowhere to be seen; right after the lecture ended, a panicked guard from the Umravolf household had come by and escorted her away.

Left behind were the usual guild sounds… or rather, what should have been the usual sounds.

“Look, that’s the one…”
“Yeah, the one who made that kid cry…”
“I heard it was a lover’s spat or something…”
“At her age, really?”

Scratch that, this wasn’t normal at all. The rumors were spreading like wildfire all around us.

“Wow, you’re popular now, Master.”
“I’m really starting to want to leave this town… Who do you think I have to thank for that?”
“Sorry! But Stell and Ms. Hoshikawa both said they’d be lonely if you left, didn’t they?”
“That’s what I don’t understand—why are they so attached to me? Do they still see some value to gain from me?”
“People’s feelings aren’t that simple. Master, you’re just far too oblivious to others’ kindness.”
“……Well… I never really had the chance to get used to it.”

The memories from a thousand years ago were mostly steeped in people’s malice. In the depths of the slums, trusting others wasn’t an option if you wanted to survive. There was never a shred of peace of mind, only the relentless hunger of trying to live another day. In that hellish place, resources were always scarce, and survival meant fighting, trampling over others just to climb a little higher.

“Then let’s start getting you used to it! I’ll stick with you until you can really understand people’s feelings, Master!”
“That sounds like a long, long road. As you can see, I’m a bit twisted. I treat everyone I meet like they’re my enemy.”
“Even me?”
“Of course. From the moment we met, I thought you were utterly untrustworthy.”
“Master, you liar!”
“……Hmph.”

I really did find Momo quite annoying. No matter how you looked at it, our personalities just didn’t mesh. She called me ‘Master’ at every turn and constantly followed me around. I couldn’t wait to send her back to her original world. And then…

……And then what exactly would I do in this world?

“Hey, you two over there. Hate to interrupt the cozy little scene, but could I have a word?”
“Not cozy in the least. …Oh, it’s you. Finally busted out, did you?”
“Ah, Mr. Nova! Hi! No jailbreaking, okay?”
“Who said anything about jailbreaking? I’m here on official parole, got it? Me and my whole crew.”

Parole doesn’t exactly sound ‘official,’ but it did seem he was legally out. The iron shackle on his arm confirmed it. Inscribed with magic binding clauses, it would impose penalties if he went against his terms. The markings suggested a mutual contract spell by the Astraea believers, meaning as long as he wore it, there’d be no escaping.

“Boss, are you sure this kid… er, I mean, Sis, is gonna handle everything for us?”
“She’s skilled, sure… but this is kind of a tall order, even for her…”
“Quit calling me ‘Sis.’ So, it seems the Astraea church has finally handed down their judgment?”
“Yeah, that’s what brings me here.”

His charges had once warranted a death sentence but were reviewed after Momo contested the ruling. Now, after all this time, the final judgment was here. From Nova’s expression, it seemed like he’d been given quite the unreasonable task.

“I’ll at least hear you out. I’m curious.”
“Thanks, Sis. So, do you remember the airship that brought us into this city?”
“Another one calling me Sis… well, whatever. I remember it, but what about it?”
“Back then, a swarm of wyverns dove straight at us, remember? The church did some investigating, but couldn’t pin down the cause.”
“I see…… now I’m getting the picture.”

When we arrived in this city to treat Momo, we almost plummeted from the skies, ambushed by a massive wyvern swarm. An unlucky encounter, yes, but the sheer number of wyverns was unnatural. Surely, the holy figures had looked into the cause, and enlisting the power of Astraea’s followers meant they weren’t taking ‘no answers’ as an option.

“So, investigating the wyvern attack on the ship and finding a solution… that’s your way of clearing your charges?”
“Exactly. Easy enough, right?”
“Only if it’s all talk. Do you even have a lead on solving it?”
“Yeah. You see that massive mountain off in the direction of Babel, visible from the Guild here? That’s where they think the wyverns came from.”

The direction Nova pointed matched my own memory of the area. But…

“…That mountain’s awfully close to the sea, isn’t it?”
“Which is exactly why this job landed on a criminal like me.”

The memory of that ghost ship from the other day flashed through my mind. No doubt Astraea’s clergy wanted to avoid any risks tied to that sort of encounter. Nova’s bracelet likely had some built-in mechanism to ‘dispose’ of him if necessary—essentially, he was being used as a convenient pawn. If he solved the wyvern issue, it’d just be a bonus in their eyes.

“Then there’s nothing I can do to help you. If you come across the ghost ship, run for your life.”
“…That’s not the only problem.”

The expressions on Nova and his men turned even more somber. A thin sheen of sweat dotted Nova’s forehead, and his face grew pale, as though he’d glimpsed the end of the world.

“That mountain… there’s a dragon living there.”

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