Seras looked down at the fallen Five Dragon Warriors.
"I had thought you were no ordinary person, but I never imagined Lord Touka was an otherworld hero… That mysterious power must be the sorcery people have been whispering about lately. So then… did the goddess of Alion say something about me—?"
"Don't worry. I was expelled from Alion."
"R-Really?"
"To be precise, the goddess deemed me useless and disposed of me. Well, she probably thinks I'm dead by now."
I lifted the corner of my mouth to reassure her.
"So relax. I'm not going to hand you over to that shitty goddess."
"Sh-Shitty goddess…?"
"Ku ku, what else would you call her?"
Seras gave a wry, bitter smile.
"To be expelled despite possessing such power… you two must have been terribly incompatible. But now I finally understand that mysterious ability of yours."
"I wanted to keep the fact that I'm an otherworld hero under wraps if possible. Honestly, I figured it didn't mean much even if you knew… We were planning to part ways eventually anyway, right? Sometimes it's better not to know certain things. More importantly, I never finished thanking you earlier."
Seras shook her head.
"There's no need for thanks… After the Five Dragon Warriors appeared, I didn't do anything at all. In the end, you defeated them single-handedly."
"You fulfilled your role as bodyguard perfectly."
The Five Dragon Warriors had been wary of Seras.
Thanks to that, I could focus entirely on the ones overhead.
"…"
Seras wore a lonely smile.
Her thoughts seemed to drift elsewhere for a moment.
I lightly tapped her small shoulder.
"You okay?"
"Ah, forgive me. So many things flooded my mind at once… I might still be a little confused."
"You've got a lot weighing on you too, huh… But earlier, you switched focus to what was right in front of you. That really helped."
"I couldn't let you die."
"Hm?"
"If I had stood there in a daze and let you die here while doing nothing… I felt that this time, I truly wouldn't be able to recover."
"…"
"Or perhaps it was self-preservation. To keep my heart from breaking, the only option was to act and protect you here. That's probably what I thought. If I failed to protect the person who saved my life just because of my own mental state—I could never forgive myself."
That's probably it, I thought.
The part where my aunt and Seras resemble each other.
Even when something knocks them down—
"You've got quite a strong core, huh…"
"Sometimes…"
"Hm?"
"You make that gentle expression, Lord Touka."
"Maybe because I'm thinking about kind people."
"Is it about your aunt?"
I smiled at Seras.
"Well, it seems Seras Ashrain is one of those kind people too, right?"
"The gentleness in your expression is different from when you speak of your aunt."
"Even if you're similar, my aunt and you are different people."
Different individuals, or rather—different species, since she's a high elf.
"I've got no intention of treating you as the same existence."
For some reason, my words caused Seras's eyes to soften.
"U, gu—…"
"Hm?"
Oban finally expired.
Schweitz followed soon after.
The other black dragons and dragon knights seemed to have breathed their last as well.
"…Hmph."
Silence.
Poison killing via the poison skill.
This skill has the problem of "waiting time for death."
How many people could retain their sanity through it?
How many could keep from changing their mind?
Some might grow terrified and cancel it midway.
Others might suddenly feel pity.
Probably—no normal person could handle it.
Holding the power of life and death over others while quietly waiting for multiple people to die right in front of you.
You need to shake off pity with berserk madness,
Never avert your eyes from the darkness spreading before you,
And finally, freeze your own heart.
Those things are probably necessary.
"[Paralyze]."
I cast [Paralyze] one after another across the area.
Living targets displayed gauges.
Dead ones—showed no gauge.
This was a function I had confirmed back in the Abandoned Ruins.
Only one gauge appeared.
"T-Tou… ka…"
A breath of admiration escaped my lips.
He still had some sleep gauge remaining.
"Maintaining consciousness even in [Sleep] state… you really are too extraordinary—Shibito Gaitland."
Still, his body could no longer move.
There had been no sign of movement for a while.
Only intermittent killing intent reached me.
He was probably enduring the drowsiness.
I stared intently at Shibito, observing.
He seemed to be flickering between wakefulness and unconsciousness.
The added paralysis gauge.
The poison state.
He was thoroughly weakened now.
Safe to say he was virtually neutralized.
Seras quickly stepped between me and Shibito.
*Scrape*
Shibito, face-down, clawed at the ground.
A signal to look at him.
His half-closed eyes lifted toward me.
I could tell his life was nearly spent.
"You… bastard… what… kind… of… thing… are you…?"
We had already introduced ourselves earlier.
So what Shibito wanted to know was something else.
I understood that.
"It's true I was summoned as an otherworld hero… but I'm no noble world-saving hero. The current me is—"
I looked down at Shibito from behind Seras as he lay prostrate on the ground.
"Just a vengeful person."
▽
And so, in a darkening sky where the black silhouettes of trees began to blend into the forest's gloom, I quietly witnessed the final moments of the "strongest human."