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My frantic steps couldn’t keep pace with my urgency—each stride felt painfully sluggish. Just like Master said, I kept running straight ahead. I’d already covered what felt like a distance longer than the dragon itself, yet there was no end in sight.

“It’s fine… It’s going to be fine…” I repeated the words under my breath, as much for the baby in my arms as for myself, forcing myself to keep going through the seemingly endless darkness.

No matter how far I ran, nothing around me changed. For a moment, I even wondered if I was actually moving at all. But Master had told me to run. If she said so, then I could trust her. That’s all I needed to believe. All I could do was run forward—for the baby’s sake.

And then, without warning, the ground beneath me disappeared. I felt a nauseating sense of weightlessness as my body was suddenly floating in midair.

“I-I’m out…! W-Wait, I’m falling!?”

I’d managed to escape, but my momentum sent me flying straight out of the dragon’s mouth. The ground was impossibly far below, and it was clear this wasn’t going to end well.

If it were just me, I’d probably survive with some injury. But the baby in my arms was a different story—its little neck wasn’t strong enough to handle a fall like this.

“Ahhh! Stop, stop, somebody help meeeee!!”
“Yes, yes, you called, and here I am to save the day!”

Before I could panic further, I felt someone catch me, halting my fall abruptly.

My eyes had been squeezed shut, but now that I wasn’t plummeting to my death, I cautiously opened them. And there she was—an Angel… it was not. It was Miss Roche with her shining white wings spread wide, holding me in a perfect princess carry.

“Miss Roche!”
“Yes, Roche Hill at your service. Looks like Koutei did his part. I’m glad to see you safe and sound.”

It must’ve been some kind of magic—every beat of her wings carried us further away from the dragon, light and swift.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw the city of Aldebaran looming in the distance. If the dragon kept moving, it wouldn’t be long before the city was completely flattened.

“M-M-Miss Roche, it’s an emergency! The baby can defeat the ghost ship, but we can’t do that, but to defeat it somehow, Master showed up and—uhhh, ummm!”
“Calm down. First, take a deep breath. I’ve already got a good idea of what’s going on. That child—she’s immune to the ghost ship’s curses, isn’t it?”

The words tumbled out of my mouth, a jumbled mess of panic and desperation. Miss Roche silenced me gently, pressing a finger against my lips. I did as she said, taking a slow, deep breath in and out. The simple act was enough to clear my head, giving me just enough clarity to start sorting through everything.

“…Yes. But to defeat the ghost ship, they said we’d have to kill the baby and turn it into a curse tool… or something like that.”
“I see, a curse tool. That does make sense, given the basic principle of mutual annihilation. Who told you this?”
“Umm… it was someone inside the dragon’s body. Oh, right! It was the dragon grandpa who said that!”
“A spiritual entity… no, likely Claxton’s wraith, I’d imagine. If so, there’s no need to take their words seriously.”
“R-Really?”

Miss Roche’s calm demeanor was so steady, it gradually helped cool the feverish panic in my head. The baby, who’d been fussing earlier, seemed to relax too—or was I imagining it?

“Claxton has already been consumed by the ghost ship. It’s unlikely they’d give advice that benefits humans. It’s more plausible the baby has been tampered with in some way.”
“Tampered… like with a bomb or something?!”
“Heh. If it’s merely a bomb, that’d be quite quaint. Besides, mutual annihilation isn’t the only way to dispel curses. Look there.”
“Eh? Wh-what’s—oh!”

I followed her gaze. The decaying dragon’s head, which had been surging toward us with terrifying malice, suddenly burst apart. From within the grotesque remains, a brilliant light emerged.

Silver hair, baggy clothes that didn’t fit, and a perpetually furrowed brow that always seemed annoyed.

Ah… thank goodness. Master really is incredible.

“…Yo, Momo. And just as expected, Aldebaran’s Saint has shown up as well.”

――――――――…………
――――……
――…

“Master! I’m so glad—you’re okay!”
“Yeah, thanks to the holy energy someone went and shoved onto me. Hah!”

Pushing through the rotting flesh drenched in curses, I burst into the open air. Outside, the Saint and Momo, cradled in her arms, were waiting for me.

The white wings sprouting from her back must’ve been the result of some high-level magic. I could feel the surrounding miasma dispersing with each gentle beat of her wings.

“I’m glad I could help, but holy energy alone shouldn’t have the destructive force to shatter a dragon’s skull…”
“That’s where magecraft comes into play. Still, I didn’t expect much. But even after blowing its head off, it’s still moving. What a pain.”
“Urgh… OOOOHHHHH…!”

A low, guttural sound that made the air tremble erupted from the dragon’s decaying throat. From the shattered remains of its skull, a black liquid, similar to the one found in ghost ships, oozed out, filling the wounds.

“Give… it… back…! That is… mine!”
“I didn’t steal anything!”
“You took the baby, didn’t you? That’s what the dragon’s after. Whatever you do, don’t hand it over.”
“I-I know! But why does it want this baby…?”
“I figured it out while searching through its body. That baby has a dragon gem embedded in it.”
“A dragon gem?”
“It’s like a heart for humans… Tch, what a nuisance.”

Maybe because it couldn’t kill the baby the way it wanted, the dragon’s attacks became even more frenzied.

From its decayed body, countless ghost ship tentacles stretched toward us, while rocks and debris suddenly materialized out of nowhere, hurling themselves in our direction. If it weren’t for the Saint, shielding us with her wings and barriers, there wouldn’t have been any chance for us to talk like this.

“A dragon gem is essentially the life force of a dragon. It generates immense magic power and sustains the dragon’s vitality. As long as the dragon pearl exists, even destroying their head or heart won’t kill them instantly.”
“And they entrusted something so important to a baby?!”
“For a good reason. The dragon is constantly being killed from the inside by the ghost ship’s corruption. To survive, it had to temporarily let go of its own life once and remove the intruder from within.”
“……Oh!”
“Figured it out, huh? That’s why it kept urging us to kill the baby. That child is both a bullet to kill the ghost ship and a key to reviving the dragon’s life.”

If we’d blindly followed the dragon’s commands, the baby would’ve been turned into a curse tool, likely an effective antidote to the ghost ship’s influence.

But the dragon gem complicated things. With that impurity mixed in, shooting it into the ghost ship wouldn’t just kill the ship—it would create a dragon immune to curses.

Claxton had no intention of destroying the ghost ship. What it wanted was to create its own resistance to curses and place the ghost ship under its control.

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