[V12C42] The Greatest Stage for You

After falling into the sea with Gluttonous Zoe, Cyril Ashley heard a song.

This made no sense, considering how he was underwater.

His eyes could not see anything in the pitch-black and murky waters. And yet, for some reason, he imagined a pair of slender hands and long golden hair brushing against his face.

Once those images dissipated into the darkness, Cyril felt a sudden pain shooting through his arm. Something had grabbed his wrist.

At first, he assumed that the water dragons had come to devour him. However, this pain was not the stabbing pain of their fangs.

Someone was pulling him toward the surface. Cyril burst out the murky waters, finding himself under the clear blue sky.

“——Hah, cough, cough…!”

Cyril fell to his knees and started coughing up water. Meanwhile, he was addressed by a monotone voice from behind.

“Don’t move. You’ll fall.”

“P-Pikeh…!”

The ice spirit was holding a set of reins with one hand, and supporting Cyril with the other.

Only then did Cyril realize they were riding on the back of Thule.

Pikeh and Thule had come to his rescue.

Cyril could make out Sazandol’s lighthouse looming in the distance. Apparently, the water currents had carried him quite the distance away.

“S-Sorry, and thanks…”

Falling into the mana-contaminated sea had left Cyril completely drenched and dizzy. His stamina had been sapped by the cold, and the dark mana swirling in his body made him want to vomit.

Though he did not have the energy to fix the wet hair clinging to his face, Gluttonous Zoe was still firmly in his grasp.

In fact, he had been holding it down with such force that his chest area hurt a little.

——”PROMISE, PROMISE.”

“…?”

Cyril furrowed his brows. The artifact was speaking in a feeble voice that was barely audible.

——”ALMOST THERE, ALMOST THERE.”

There seemed to be some hint of joy in those words, unlike the time it kept screaming “hungry”.

It sounded like a young child about to receive a long-awaited present.

(Promise? Almost there? What on earth is it talking about?)

Cyril suddenly remembered. Of course, Theodore had also mentioned a promise.

——We made a promise.

——Promises need to be kept…

(Theodore made some sort of promise with Gluttonous Zoe? About what…?)

Cyril tried to make sense out of this, but he was interrupted by a roar that shook the air itself.

He looked up to see… two black dragons spewing flames above the Sazandol harbor.

“…What?”

Cyril rubbed his eyes and took another look. He knew that his vision was not great, but there were still two black dragons.

The first dragon had an abhorrent shape, with two pairs of wings and shadows covering its entire body. The second dragon looked normal, but it was practically twice as big as the first.

Perhaps this was some sort of illusion, but he could make out what seemed to be figures with golden blonde hair and light brown hair on the larger dragon.

“Is that… Monica…?”

“Yeah. Monica and Eyepatch,” Pikeh replied.

Cyril could feel the blood draining from his face.

For reasons he could not comprehend, a second black dragon had popped up out of nowhere, and to top it all off, Isaac and Monica were riding it.

This was just as bewildering as the time he woke up inside the belly of a white dragon.

Cyril could only quiver his lips at the absurdity of it all, so Thule advised him with a gentle chirp of “Kyui, Kyuui,” which Pikeh translated.

“He says it’s okay.”

“…What?”

“That black dragon has been watching over Monica the entire time.”

(A black dragon… watching over Monica?)

Cyril furrowed his brows, unable to make any sense out of this.

In response, Pikeh tilted her head as if to say she didn’t understand why he was still confused.

“The black cat,” Pikeh continued. “It’s been at Monica’s side since we came to the harbor.”

“B-Black cat…?”

The black cat at Monica’s side? Cyril widened his eyes in realization.

Of course. He had seen it during his first encounter with the Silent Witch, that fateful night in the woods next to Serendia Academy.

The black cat with golden eyes had been right there in her arms!!

Later, when Cyril visited Monica’s house, he tried to lure the cat with small fish, but it never paid him any attention.

The black dragon had been so close all this time!

“I didn’t hear anything about this!”

An intense anger boiled in Cyril’s chest. Though Cyril himself was unaware, this was due to his frustration at the fact that Monica had been keeping secrets from him.

The man known as the Ice Scion was both thick-headed and had an extremely low boiling point. He could clench his fists in anger even if he didn’t understand what he was angry about.

His drenched body was freezing in the sea breeze, and the partial mana poisoning had left him in terrible condition. However, this rising fury overpowered all the chills, nausea, and migraines.

And so, Cyril Ashley flew back to the harbor and unleashed his anger.

“Explain yourself right now, Monica Everett! I didn’t hear anything about another black dragon!!”

＊　＊　＊

“Waaah…! Cyril-sama is really mad at me…”

While riding on Nero’s back, Monica clutched her staff and buried her head in her hands.

How was she supposed to explain the circumstances that led to the black dragon becoming her familiar? Especially in this situation, where they had little time to spare.

“…‘He joined me after I removed a bird bone stuck in his throat. Sorry for not telling you’ …Ugh, I can’t say that, it’ll just make him angrier…”

Currently, Nero was at a rather high altitude, trying to put some distance between Theodore and himself.

That explained the cold wind stinging her cheeks, but to Monica, it felt like the cold was coming from Cyril, even though the contract with Thule had put an end to that phenomenon.

“Don’t worry about it,” Isaac interjected.

“I-Ike…? But Cyril-sama is really, really angry…”

“Just hold your head high.”

Isaac gave Monica a light tap on the shoulder, then pulled on the reins.

“Nero, head over to Thule!”

Nero returned a growling sound that seemed to mean “Fine, guess I have no choice,” then flew off into the sea.

Eventually, they got close enough to where Monica’s reasonably good eyesight allowed her to make out Cyril’s face. He looked furious, as expected. She would probably be able to see the veins popping on his forehead if they got any closer.

In contrast to Monica’s pitiful whimpering, Isaac shouted with confidence.

“Cyril Ashley! I take full responsibility over the black dragon business! Everything is on me!”

Cyril seemed surprised, but he didn’t offer any objections.

This was the voice Isaac employed when ordering people as the Second Prince. It contained the power to force others to straighten their spine and listen.

“Do you have the Gluttonous Zoe?” Isaac continued.

“Y-Yes! It’s right here!”

Indeed, the black box was still visible in Cyril’s arms. He refused to let go of it, even after falling into the sea.

“Good,” Isaac replied. “I’ve deployed a wide-area illusion, so we can conceal Thule’s presence for a few more minutes! We must defeat Theodore before the illusion wears off! Your job is to support us while defending Gluttonous Zoe!”

“Yes! Your Hi…nnngh, cough…”

Cyril started coughing mid-sentence. This made Monica worry that the drenched Cyril might catch a cold.

“…I’ll acknowledge the effort,” Isaac muttered under his breath.

“Ike?”

“It’s nothing. More importantly, we need to figure out a way to defeat Theodore.”

Currently, Theodore was observing them from a low altitude.

However, the shadows were still stretching into the sea from his tail. They needed to keep an eye on the water, or else find themselves entangled again.

Unfortunately, the leaking dark mana had dyed the seawater black, so it was difficult to see where the shadows were hiding.

Monica took some gems from her pocket and showed them to Isaac.

“Um, actually, I made this spell called the Star Arrow…”

“I know, I’ve read the documents,” Isaac replied. “Since it omits the maintenance formula, it needs to be fired immediately after activation. It has the necessary firepower, but it lacks the stability of Spirit King Summoning. At this distance, even you would find it difficult to aim, and you only get one chance… Does that about cover it?”

As impressive as always, Isaac already knew exactly what she was about to say.

Monica had attempted to snipe Theodore with the Star Arrow while he was in human form, but now, the situation was different.

The biggest problem was the distance, especially since both her and the target were constantly moving through the air. Not even Monica’s inhuman accuracy was enough to guarantee a hit in these conditions.

Monica nodded back at Isaac, who lowered his blue eyes in contemplation.

“It seems that the breath of a white dragon can indeed nullify black flames,” Isaac muttered.

“Oh,” Monica gasped. “Now that you mention it, Raul-sama and Thule said something like that…”

“In that case, let’s make good use of it. Nero, keep above Theodore at all times.”

Nero responded with a discontent growl, but he ascended as instructed.

Next, Isaac glanced at Wildianu on his shoulder.

“Wil, how much longer can you keep the wide-area illusion going?”

“Five… No, eight minutes. I’ll make sure it stays up.”

“Thank you.”

Even throughout this conversation, Isaac was calculating their path to victory at an incredible speed, step by step.

Monica gulped at this realization. Meanwhile, the ring on her finger seemed somewhat restless.

“What about me?” Sophocles asked.

“Just sit there,” Isaac replied.

“Hey, who do you think you’re talking to! I am an artifact! An ancient artifact, for crying out loud! I demand to have a role too!”

The ring’s gemstone flashed rapidly as he spoke. Apparently, Sophocles wanted to be useful, even though he hated getting ordered around.

Isaac sighed, then removed the ring from Monica’s finger.

“Fine, this time, you had better protect that blockhead.”

After giving Sophocles a series of instructions, Isaac pulled the reins. Nero made a sharp turn in the sky, until they were flying right beside Thule.

Isaac took the ring in his hands and raised it into the air.

“Cyril! Catch!”

“Deja vu!!”

Then, he tossed the ancient artifact at Cyril, for a second time.

The first time he did this was in the forests of House Roseberg. And now, of all places, they were above the wide-open sea.

Isaac’s throw was incredibly accurate, and Sophocles traced a beautiful parabola to land right in Cyril’s hands… However, it seems the receiving end was a bit flustered and unprepared.

“Ah.”

Cyril gasped as the jet-black ring tumbled out of his hands.

“Kyaaaaaah!!”

Sophocles let out a high-pitched scream until he was caught by a bowl of ice, connected to Pikeh’s fingertips by a chain of ice.

Monica watched Pikeh reel Sophocles in as Nero diverted paths from Thule. She could hear the faint voices of Sophocles shouting and Cyril apologizing in the distance.

“Um, Ike, that was…”

“Shall we begin the operation, Master?”

Monica felt a strange power in hands embracing her. She turned around to see Isaac facing straight ahead.

“I will ensure your spell’s success,” Isaac continued. “Just let me set the stage for you.”

Isaac had kept fighting, even after having so much stolen from him. Even now, his eyes envisioned a future where Monica and Cyril could continue their ordinary lives.

He was just so wonderful. Precious. Irreplaceable. A disciple so remarkable that she almost felt unworthy of him.

Monica compressed all the emotions welling up in her chest with a single sentence.

“Ike, you’re really amazing.”

The last time Monica said that, Isaac had responded with, “Well, I am a prince.” But now, his answer was…

“Well, I am the Silent Witch’s disciple, after all.”

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