You Were the One Who Gave Me Courage

Melissa was sprinting up the snowy mountain path, kicking snow aside with every step.

"Who would've thought that dazed man was the White Dragon?!"

She had read in a book that higher-ranked dragons sometimes disguised themselves as humans or animals, but she had never imagined she would live to see one with her own eyes.

Neither higher-ranked dragons nor higher spirits were beings one could expect to encounter very often.

"Hey, Sis. That White Dragon they called Toure was seriously weakened, wasn't he?"

"Yeah. From what I could tell, he seemed to be completely lacking in mana."

Compared with human settlements, Karug Mountain had an overwhelmingly high mana concentration.

That concentration was poisonous to humans with low mana resistance, but for creatures that fed on mana, there was no more hospitable environment. Simply by remaining on this mountain, they could naturally absorb mana and recover.

The reason Veronica, despite having been so battered after Raul's roses drained her mana, could still keep moving was probably that she had been recovering with the mana in the mountain.

And yet Toure had not recovered at all.

"Could it be that the White Dragon... had become unable to absorb mana?"

At Melissa's mutter, Raul, running beside her, suddenly looked as though he had realized something.

"So that's it...!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Cyril has a constitution that makes him absorb too much mana! He absorbs mana much faster than an ordinary human!"

Toure had become unable to absorb mana.

Cyril had a constitution that made him particularly good at absorbing mana.

A hypothesis flashed through Melissa's mind. Raul was surely thinking the same thing.

(That lousy spirit, could that really have been her plan...? )

Just then, a scream reached them between gusts of wind. It was Monica's scream.

Ahead, illuminated by the 〈Ice Spirits' Snow Lanterns〉, stood a stone shrine—or, more precisely, what looked like the remains of one.

The crude stone shrine had lost its roof and part of its walls.

And standing before the shrine was a huge figure with white wings spread wide—the White Dragon.

The White Dragon had spread its wings and was about to take flight. But blades of wind and ice flew around it, preventing it from getting airborne.

Ice blades intercepted the wind blades slashing down at the White Dragon's wings.

Monica controlled the wind blades, while Veronica controlled the ice blades.

"Give him back! Give Cyril-sama back!"

Monica screamed and unleashed blades of wind. Their power could only be described as vicious. She was generating wind by pouring an enormous amount of mana into it without restraint.

—But her precision was crude.

The nonverbal magic Monica had used in Sazandoll had been terrifyingly precise, efficient, and honed to perfection.

Compared to that, the wind Monica controlled now was like a child's tantrum. It was powerful, but her aim was poor and wasteful. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before she ran out of mana.

"Squirt!"

When Melissa ran up to Monica, Monica looked at her with a face smeared with tears.

"Miss Melissa, Raul-sama... Cyril-sama... Cyril-sama was... eaten... uuu... waaaaaaaaaah!"

From Monica's sob-choked words, Melissa realized her deduction had been correct.

Melissa shot a fierce glare at Veronica, who stood at the White Dragon's feet, keeping them at bay with ice blades.

"You lousy spirit! So your plan was to have the White Dragon absorb Cyril-sama, wasn't it?!"

"Yes."

Veronica nodded at Melissa's furious shout without expression.

There was not a shred of guilt in her.

"Higher-ranked dragons cannot survive without mana. But Toure... was attacked by humans who entered the mountain seeking his scales, and the injuries he suffered then left him unable to absorb mana."

Veronica's voice was flat as she spoke, but quiet hatred seeped through it. It was hatred for the humans who had hurt Toure.

The humans who had hurt Toure were probably no longer alive.

Even so... Veronica's loathing and hatred of humans had not faded. That was why she could trample humans without hesitation.

"Toure can absorb information from anything he swallows whole. Its appearance, its constitution..."

She cut herself off and turned her pale violet eyes toward the sobbing Monica.

"Is that human important to you? Don't worry. Toure can transform into anything he absorbs, so he can take that human's form, too."

At those words, Monica froze, still sobbing, and the Roseberg siblings flew into a rage.

The elder sister, Melissa, had a tendency to smile more broadly the angrier she became.

Thus, with a blue vein throbbing at her temple, Melissa raised her crimson lips into a vicious smile.

"So that's how dragons turn into humans, huh? How educational... And you thought recreating his appearance alone would satisfy us? ...Don't get so damn cocky, you lousy spirit."

In contrast to his sister, who smiled more the angrier she got, Raul had a tendency to become more expressionless as his anger grew.

The usual bright smile vanished from his face, and the beauty he had inherited from the family's founder fixed Veronica with a merciless stare.

"That joke isn't funny."

Saying this, Raul took something from his pocket and threw it onto the ground. It was a rose seed.

The tiny seed that fell onto the snow sprouted rapidly, sending out thin vines.

Though the cold climate stunted their growth and left the vines quite thin, infused with Raul's immense mana, they shot out vigorously and twined around the White Dragon's body.

As if determined never to let the White Dragon, which was trying to take flight and escape, get away.

"Give me my friend back."

"No. I won't."

Veronica manipulated ice blades and severed the rose vines. Raul immediately poured mana into the cut vines, making them grow longer.

As the ice spirit and the two 〈Thorn Witches〉 glared at each other, the 〈Silent Witch〉...

＊　＊　＊

(Cyril-sama is being absorbed?)

Monica stared blankly up at the White Dragon.

That White Dragon would be saved if it absorbed Cyril.

And it would also be able to transform into Cyril's form.

(But... that wouldn't be Cyril-sama.)

The Cyril Monica knew was strict with himself and others, adored His Highness, and always worked so hard to live up to Marquis Hioon's expectations...

(He gave me chocolate. He gave me a charm that would make me stronger.)

Cyril told Monica she was working hard at negotiations, something she was not good at.

Monica had always been far more timid than other people and could not do the things everyone else managed as a matter of course. She had to stretch herself to the limit just to reach an ordinary level, or even less.

To other people, Monica's efforts might have seemed insignificant.

Even so, Cyril told her, "You're doing well." He watched over her struggles and recognized them.

...That made Monica far, far happier than being praised for her talent with magic.

(That's why I love Cyril-sama.)

Monica roughly wiped her tear-filled eyes, then raised her head and glared at the White Dragon.

Higher-ranked dragons were said to possess intelligence equal to or greater than that of humans. But the dragon before her did not look remotely rational.

It was probably delirious from mana deficiency. Resolving this through negotiation was hopeless.

More importantly, Cyril had already been swallowed by the White Dragon. Every second counted.

Raul's roses were holding the White Dragon in place and buying them time. This was their last chance.

"Miss Melissa, do you have any mana left?"

At Monica's question, Melissa twisted her lips in frustration.

"Much as I hate to admit it, I can barely control the rose vines."

"That's enough."

Monica picked up one particularly long vine from among the rose vines lying at her feet and held it out to Melissa.

"I want you to make this much longer."

"What are you going to do with it?"

"I'll use it as a lifeline."

Monica took off the white coat she had been wearing and wound the rose vine around her right arm again and again. Then she gripped its end tightly.

The sharp thorns pricked her through her clothes and gloves, and blood seeped out, but she did not care. This was the sturdiest lifeline they had here and now.

Monica wrapped the coat she had just removed around her right arm, which was wound with the rose vine, and tied it in place with the coat's braided cord. Wrapping the thick coat around it several times would protect her from the rose thorns. This way, even if she touched Cyril, the thorns should not prick him.

Melissa's eyes went wide in alarm at the blood seeping through the white coat.

"Squirt?! What are you...?!"

"When I signal you from inside, pull as hard as you can."

With that, Monica concentrated.

She was weaving wind-manipulating flight magic without chanting.

Monica's poor sense of balance meant she could not fly freely with flight magic... but she could leap high.

"Hey, wait, Moni-Moni! That's reckless, no matter how you look at it...!"

"I'll be fine."

Wind swirled around Monica, and her light-brown hair fluttered softly.

Monica used her freely moving left hand to work the despair off her face.

Then, hoping to dispel even a little of her anxiety, she forcibly lifted the corners of her mouth and gave Melissa a lopsided smile.

"This isn't my first time."

Monica's boots kicked off the ground. Her small body shot upward, and she leaped into the White Dragon's mouth.

Deeper inside than when she had once leaped into the Black Dragon's mouth, Monica fell into the White Dragon's belly.