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“You… you knew her?”
“Of course I knew her! Of course I remember!! You think a dragon could forget a grudge—even after a thousand years!?”
“Ah… right. Yeah. My apologies for the trouble she caused.”

*“A dragon’s grudge”*—a phrase like that could mean any number of things, and I had no shortage of possible incidents in mind.

After all, my ever-problematic master’s atrocities were too many to count. Just hearing the word dragon was enough to dredge up a torrent of memories I’d rather leave buried.

“You think an apology’s enough!? She stole our treasured aged liquor, razed every dragon den that stood in her way, and—of all things—exterminated some dragon species with her own hands!!”
“Wait, I do remember that extinction bit. But that was the dragons’ fault—they attacked a human settlement.”
“So you are that damn Yuuri Rin’s little parasite! I’m gonna kill you!!”
“Damn it, I can’t believe I’m getting dragged down by her leftover debts!”

As the girl lunged at me with renewed fury, the two dragons behind her began to move as well.

Just the act of their feet touching the ground released waves of magical energy that spread across the surface, making the sand solidify and erupt into spears.

Even the beat of a wing birthed a tornado sharp enough to shred skin.

And none of this was even intentional—just side effects from the overwhelming saturation of magic. An unrelenting disaster.

“Ah—look, her screwups have nothing to do with me. Can’t we just talk this out like rational beings?”
“Shut up! We’re way past that point! If you’re really a human from a thousand years ago—then I can’t let you walk away alive!!”
“…Now that’s an interesting thing to say.”

I stopped the sand spear rising to skewer me by forming a sphere of water at my feet, and countered the raging cyclone with a gust of wind magecraft of my own.

The density of this magical onslaught was worse than what I’d faced with Claxton. These two dragons—despite being dragons—seemed capable of some degree of control over their magic power.

Or perhaps… it was the so-called “princess” before me who was commanding them.

“Why does a human from a thousand years ago still being alive pose a problem? Who are you people, anyway? I doubt you’re unrelated to War and Ragna.”
“So you met those two as well? I’m honestly amazed you’re still breathing.”
“I guess that’s the reward for living a virtuous life—whoops, okay, that one was close.”

While parrying the girl’s strike aimed straight for a vital point with a wall of sand, I kept the conversation going—probably too casually. Behind her, the two dragons were beginning to show signs of breath attacks.

I knew at least Orgueil’s breath carried toxins. As for Bakvilyde, I couldn’t say for sure—but mixing the two couldn’t possibly result in anything less lethal.

“―――*Swing By*.”

Just before the double-helix breath attacks could hit, I invoked my unique magecraft and went around behind the dragons.

The sharp spiraling trajectory and the sudden deceleration made me feel like my insides were going to leap out, but I’d managed to reach their blind spot.

If that girl really was commanding the two of them, then I only had one target. From this angle, I could blow her head clean off—

“Where do you think you’re going?”
“—gh!”

I had misread things.

The one who lost sight of the other wasn’t her—it was me.

She hadn’t been shaken off at all. She’d tracked my Swing By, matching my trajectory exactly—and now she was right on top of me.

Her razor-sharp claws dug deep into my abdomen.

“Ghh… damn… You got me. Can’t remember the last time I got outmaneuvered… must’ve been a thousand years ago…”
“Even now, you never stop running that mouth. But I’ve figured your weird magecraft out—it’s all about rotation, isn’t it?”

Each time she twisted the claws buried in my stomach, searing pain surged through my guts.

I’d narrowly avoided a direct hit to the heart, but that didn’t make the situation any better. Pulling them out recklessly would just lead to massive blood loss.

“I don’t really get the details, but there’s something invisible spinning at high speed—fast enough to bend the trajectory of dragon breath or even my attacks. You circled behind us with the same trick, didn’t you?”
“Wow… I’m impressed. You’ve figured out that much in such a short time? It’s supposed to be my trump card, you know…”
“Some trump card. If you’re out of tricks, go ahead and die now.”
“…Unfortunately, that’s still only half of it.”

The girl’s observation was spot-on. The true nature of Swing By was indeed a mass of minuscule magical particles spun at high speed.

The force field generated by that rotation dragged in everything around it, allowing for acceleration, deceleration, and trajectory shifts. It was versatile—convenient—and I’d grown quite fond of it.

A unique magecraft refined for adaptability. A wound like this didn’t even qualify as a real crisis.

“If you’d realized it was based on rotation, you should’ve expected your own claws to get twisted right off.”
“—!”

Good reflexes. She yanked her claws out just before I could snap them at the root.

Blood spurted from the wound now that the plug was gone, but I cauterized it before I could lose consciousness.

“Tch! You could’ve had a quick death if you’d just stayed down!!”
“You really don’t get it. I’m a thousand-year-old fossil, you know. If there’s one thing I’m proud of, it’s my shameless tenacity.”

As I deflected the oncoming storm of sand, wind, and venom—squeezing through the gaps in the girl’s retreat—I fought to regulate my breath, ragged from the pain.

My vision was blurring, and my head was foggy. This body clearly couldn’t keep up with extended combat. My tricks had been exposed, and dragging around this decrepit shell, I had no idea how I was supposed to win.

…No. I had to win. If I let myself die to just two dragons and a single girl, she’d be laughing her a̲s̲s̲ off down in hell, glass in hand.

And if I kicked the bucket here, Momo would never shut up about it. I’d at least like to rest in peace after I’m dead.

“Haaah… Fine, I guess I’ll show you what a little immaturity looks like. Come at me, apex predator—I’ll show you what magecraft forged through human diligence really looks like.”
“Gladly. I haven’t lost it like this in ages…! I’m going to make sure you die the worst possible death!!”