「Prince Lahti! Thank you very much for saving us!」
Apparently, there were some Alucard Knights amongst the freed survivors of Lekrea, and they easily saw through Lahti’s identity
「What an honor to see the Prince himself acting on our behalf!」
「Thank you very much!」
「You’re our savior! We will repay your benevolence!」
Lahti was bewildered by their zealous gratitude.
「Ah, no…I didn’t really do anything…」
Lahti didn’t finish his words as Inglis stopped him by shaking her head from a distance. From here on, Lahti had to step out into the light. He mustn’t say anything uncalled for. Undue humility and modesty aren’t necessarily good for a King who stands above his people.
For the time being, survivors are left for Lahti to deal with. Pullum is back and she’s safe and sound, things are just starting.
The only person who could have done anything at all, given the circumstances, would have been Ian, but Pullum herself didn’t see Ian, so she was unsure how she ended up in Lekrea. That being said, Pullum profusely apologized to the rest of the troops for making them worry for her.
In the end, Ian’s objective and whereabouts remained unknown, still, if he wasn’t seen anywhere near Lekrea, does that mean he is heading towards the Capital?
Inglis has no answer to that question, but she knows she has to put it behind her for now. There’s a bigger matter at hand to deal with.
「……This is the right thing to do, right?」
Rafinha said as she stared at the town of Lekrea as it moved further and further away into the sky.
「Yeah. What we have here is just as important.」 ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵✶𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖✶𝓷𝓮𝓽
Inglis turned her gaze to the tail of the Dragon God that was protruding from the depth of the hole. She could no longer afford to mind Tiffany’s business. The ground trembled from time to time even as they spoke, and something not unlike a roar came reverberating from deep underground. To be honest, she had no idea when the Dragon God would break through the ground and come out to the surface,
「It may surface and start moving around at any given moment! Since we need to prepare for a battle that might take place at the drop of a hat, we have to save up some strength.」
To be fair, the fight with Tiffany had drained her considerably. The situation was outside of her expectations. Tiffany’s method of attack was not something Inglis could anticipate.
She gained a lot thanks to that, but if she had attacked Tiffany with Ether Strike back then, she would have drained all of her remaining strength and wouldn’t be able to prepare for an upcoming fight right away.
Once she learned that the Dragon God was down there, the option to eliminate Tiffany was gone.
「In the end, what is that even? It’s…not a Magic Stone Beast, right? It doesn’t seem to be a Prisma either……」
「A Dragon. Perhaps from a very, very long time ago.」
「A dragon?! I’ve seen some dragon-like Magic Stone Beasts before, but is it not something like that?」
「Yeah, it’s not. The ones you said are basically lizard Magic Stone Beasts. This one is a genuine Dragon. In a way, it’s similar to a Prisma, that is, a creature stronger than anything else……Simply put, it’s even tougher than a Hyrule Menace.」
「……That means, since you’ve found a stronger foe to fight, you want to get rid of your last toy and play with this one?! Haah, Glis, all you ever have in your head is fight!」
Rafinha heaved a fed up sigh
「W-, well, we have saved Pullum and the rest of the survivors, so it wasn’t so bad……」
「Conversely speaking, if we had killed a Highland Commander then, Alucard’s relationship with the Highland would definitely turn for the worse, so perhaps this is a better alternative.」
Leone and Liselotte followed up.
Indeed, Inglis was really, really interested in fighting a Dragon God. Not to mention, it was also an evidential clue to what had happened to this world since the time she left in her previous life. And, furthermore…
「……Well, there’s that too. By the way, Rani, you know what?」
This is also important for Rafinha.
「They said dragon’s meat are crazy tasty, you know?」
The very instant Inglis said so, as expected, Rafinha’s eyes sparkled bright.
「……Can’t be helped, I guess!」
「「You’re eating THAT?!!」」
Leone’s and Liselotte’s shriek-like voices echoed throughout the place.