Faced with an enemy radiating an unprecedented ferocity, Ais trembled uncontrollably, but then an astonishing fighting spirit surged through her.
She tightened her grip on the azure sword, its blade gleaming razor-sharp, and charged toward the dragon!
As she rushed past the dragon, Ais dodged its claws by a hair's breadth—claws that could have easily torn her body apart—and struck at the base of its wing, chipping a small piece from its black scales.
The wound was negligible against the dragon's enormous five-meter frame, but it let out an enraged roar and wheeled around, charging at Ais with even greater ferocity.
Seeing the wyvern abandon caution, Ais flashed a smug smile brimming with fighting spirit.
She turned and ran. When the dragon had flown to within ten meters behind her, she leaped onto a boulder, spun around, and slashed her sword into it.
Countless stone fragments shot toward the dragon's only weak point—its eyes.
Caught off guard, the dragon reflexively closed its eyes, slowing its dive a little.
Now!
4 Ais: Dad...
Ais leaped into the air and, with all her strength, swung her azure sword down at the point where the wyvern's massive wing joined its body!
The blow pierced its scale armor, spraying bright red blood from the wing.
The off-balance wyvern roared and made an emergency landing.
Ais paid it no heed, throwing herself into a relentless assault on that wing, intent on taking away its ability to fly.
Even when the dragon counterattacked with its claws, she dodged just enough to protect her vital spots, leaving the rest of her body exposed.
Sparks flew with every clash, along with fragments of dragon scales and spatters of blood that could have come from either combatant.
Just as Ais retreated again to avoid a fatal blow and launched another attack, the wyvern suddenly spun around with agility that belied its enormous body.
Its scale-covered tail whipped up a whirlwind, sweeping away everything nearby.
Caught off guard, Ais's golden eyes widened. She could only brace her sword across her chest and take the enormous impact head-on, like a blow from a battering ram.
The immense force rendered all of Ais's skill useless. Her armor bent and came apart, and she heard the bones in her body twist and break.
Blood sprayed from her mouth as the girl's slight frame flew away as easily as a fallen leaf.
"Cough, cough..."
When Ais came to and struggled to lift her head, she found herself surrounded by walls of fire, as if she'd been cast into purgatory.
The wyvern loomed over her, staring down with scarlet, slit-pupiled eyes as a red glow began to gather in its mouth.
Its light swallowed her entire field of vision, and burning pain all over her body heralded death.
Am I going to die here...?
I can't...
I still have things I haven't finished...
But at least I'll be free...
In the scarlet world built from the scorching heat and waves of fire, everything before Ais—including herself—slowly melted away.
Her consciousness grew hazy, and time seemed to slow.
Just as she slowly closed her eyes, waiting for the end to come—
In the next instant, a clear sword chime cut through the thunderous din, pierced countless layers of sorrow, anger, and despair, and reached the girl's heart.
Like a brisk, clear wind sweeping across an endless grassland on a midsummer afternoon, stirring brilliant white clouds and sending them drifting into the deep blue sky.
It dispelled the scorching haze, calmed the chaos, soothed her grief, and suppressed the darkness. Her consciousness returned, clear of the black flames.
A sword's gleam swept past like moonlight, illuminating Ais's eyes.
She raised her head and saw a swift figure flash by, like a ray of moonlight piercing through the darkness.
It was a sword stroke utterly unlike any Ais had seen before—not even like her own.
There was no presence, no sound, no brilliance.
Only a streak of silver light passed by without vying for attention, yet impossible to ignore.
That single stroke precisely pierced the wyvern's eye, skewering its head through.
The wyvern roared in agony. The fully charged breath of fire couldn't escape; it exploded inside its mouth, filled with sharp fangs, blasting a huge hole through its mouth and palate as drops of molten fire fell to the ground.
The scene overlapped with an image buried deep in Ais's memories.
It was the scene of an ordinary human, without the blessing of Falna, using superb swordsmanship to inflict a grievous wound on black despair and send it fleeing in disarray...
"D-Dad..."
In an instant, an inexplicable feeling rushed through her.
The fortress Ais had built in her heart through a year of bloody slaughter crumbled at once, revealing the little girl hidden beneath the mask of the Sword Princess.
Grief and vulnerability surged out. Hot tears she'd thought had long since dried blurred her vision.
Noah pulled his sword from the wyvern's eye and kicked with all his strength, striking the dragon's blood-soaked chest.
As he spun down through the air, Noah used the momentum to turn sideways and slash the wyvern across the chest.
The blow completely shattered the already broken, battered scales on its chest, and blood gushed out like a spring.
No—blood wasn't the only thing gushing out. Its breath of fire, which had built to its limit before being swallowed back down, burst out too.
Explosions followed one after another, blasting apart the dragon's muscular torso and making it howl in anguish as flesh and blood flew everywhere.
By the time Noah landed in front of the golden-haired girl and lifted her by the collar like a kitten, the wyvern's body had already begun swelling in midair before finally exploding completely.
In an instant, it was as if a sun had appeared inside the cavern, scattering brilliant light everywhere.
A storm of magic, a fusion of light and flame, swept through everything.
It cracked the walls, then melted and vaporized the rock along the fissures, expanding the entire cavern from the inside out.
Once the firestorm had subsided, a pile of rubble in the cavern burst open, and Noah poked his head out. He looked around, still shaken.
After confirming that the danger had passed, Noah stood up amid the ruins, still holding the golden-haired girl like a cat.
He felt for her pulse and confirmed that she was alive. Only then did Noah breathe a sigh of relief.
He'd just arrived in this world, still hadn't recovered from his injuries, and had rushed to this godforsaken place to risk his life. What for? Wasn't it all for this unlucky kid?
If she died, wouldn't all his efforts have been for nothing?
"Kids these days are way too reckless, aren't they? A dragon that big, and she doesn't even run—she just goes straight at it?"
Even so, Noah knew that if the golden-haired girl hadn't drawn the wyvern's attention, he wouldn't have been able to land a sneak attack.
Noah hated kill stealers, but he had to admit that being one felt pretty good.
Besides, this hadn't really been a kill steal. The girl hadn't won at all.
He'd simply saved her life.
Never mind. Now wasn't the time to dwell on that. He needed to find somewhere to treat the girl's wounds—and his own, while he was at it.
But Noah had no healing skills, so all he could do was hurry back to the surface.
Then he remembered the long run down through a cavern full of branching passages, and his teeth began to ache.
Ugh, I didn't leave any markers. How long will it take me to find my way back up?
As hard as it was to admit, Noah really was terrible with directions.
He was fine in cities he'd spent a long time in, but out in the wilderness, he almost always took a wrong turn.
If he got lost even in the open wilderness, where he could climb to a high vantage point and use the sky to find his bearings, then navigating this cave—with no way to tell east from west or day from night—would be even harder.
I hope I make it out before she bleeds to death.
But just as Noah started forward, he suddenly sensed something unusual—the stirring of magic, gathering and about to erupt.
It was somewhere ahead, behind a pile of rubble in one part of the cavern.
The burst of magic didn't seem dangerous, so Noah simply watched as the rubble ahead exploded.
"Ais!! Where are you?"
Through the billowing smoke, a figure in green appeared.
She was an elven woman with a pair of long, pointed ears, jewel-like emerald hair, and a face of breathtaking beauty.
She looked like a mother who'd argued with her rebellious daughter and had been overcome by sorrow, only to remember that her daughter had run off and rush into the dark night in a panic to search for her.
The next second, Noah met her gaze, and they both fell silent.
Until—
"Father..."
The golden-haired girl in Noah's grasp had woken up at some point. She immediately threw herself into his arms and burst into tears.
Noah's eyes widened.
Oh, hell!
You little brat!
Don't get me in trouble!!
5 As long as I'm not embarrassed, everyone else is
When Riveria heard Ais call the silver-haired human "Father," her gaze immediately sharpened.
She slowly tightened her grip on her beloved staff, Magna Aivis, ready to bring it down on him at any moment!
Don't let the fact that she was a Mage fool you. Her staff had been forged from refined metal and Sacred Imperial Ore, making it sturdier than the equipment of most first-tier adventurers.
Anyone who underestimated Riveria's close-combat abilities would pay dearly!
Though she wasn't very old... after all, among the elves, she was still just a little girl!
In any case, years of traveling had given Riveria some insight into the darkness of the human world.
An innocent, adorable little girl like Ais was an easy target for bad people!
Noah could tell at a glance what the green-haired elf's gaze meant, and he felt rather exasperated.
In the past, people had often seen Noah as a butcher or a demon, and called him cold-hearted and ungrateful, but no one had ever taken him for a pervert.
How to put it? It was like being feared either way, but being compared to a ferocious beast like a lion or tiger felt completely different from being compared to a cockroach or a slug.
Thinking of that, Noah lifted the golden-haired girl clinging to him like a puppy, looking at her bewildered golden eyes.
You unlucky kid!
I'm only seventeen. I'm a kid too!
I haven't even held a girl's hand, and you're calling me Dad? Isn't that going too far?
Though women only get in the way of how fast I can draw my sword...
Still, Noah wasn't about to hold a grudge against a badly wounded little girl, covered in blood and barely conscious.
"Hey, brat, I can't be your dad. Wake up a little..."
He patted the girl's face, then turned her around to face the green-haired elf, who had grown even more wary and anxious at his actions.
"Hey, take a look. Do you know this elf?"
Only after Noah had patted her several times did the golden-haired girl groggily open her blood-blurred eyes and meet Riveria's gaze.
Seeing Ais covered in blood and riddled with wounds, Riveria's heart twisted in anguish. Overwhelming regret and guilt welled up inside her, and she clutched her staff tightly.
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