Summer vacation of the dragon and the girl Part 2The first memory that the girl recalled were the red soil and red sun.
Red like blood but it hadn’t dried yet, the red that burned skin, the smell of death and more blood.
That was the famine.
A sheep dog which was thinner than a bone came out and stared at the girl as she was taken away.
The figure of the girl changed faintly, her eyes felt like they were covered in black resin and she thought that she would die soon.
The girl and the dog, were either of them fated to die, the girl didn’t know.
Besides her hometown she remembered nothing else.
She didn’t remember the face of her father or mother. She had the feeling that she had feelings but she wasn’t sure.
She had understood that she was sold by her family for a long time now.
The girl remembered the red one beside her with dog’s eyes like the G.o.d of death and the large and firm pale hand.
The pale hand that dragged the girl as she walked.
She understood that it was her owner’s hand. The man who took her was a sorcerer.
The girl desperately walked on the red earth as she walked.
With her short steps she had to take two steps for each of the man’s steps.
Her skinny and unreliable feet got entangled many times and she had almost fallen down but the girl continued enduring it each time.
The man didn’t glance at the girl which followed him desperately.
She thought that she would be killed if she stopped moving.
Her throat was dry from the sun’s heat and the dry clouds of dust but the girl continued walking with quick steps until the limit of her life.
For several days she had neither drank water nor had a meal. Sweat no longer came out and she didn’t know how to move her feet either.
In such a state how could she follow the steps of an adult?
And then the girl finally tripped.
When she fell she thought that she was done for. She closed her eyes tightly.
However, the girl didn’t fall down. She timidly opened her eyes and saw that she was saved by the pale hand of the man.
The man finally looked at the girl and from under his robe a low cold voice said.
「Sorry.」
The man had only apologized to the girl twice. The first.
Was when the man took out a leather flask. He silently thrusted it out.
The girl readily jumped at the flask. It was lukewarm, went bad and was unpalatable water that made her throat sticky, but still the sound of drinking could be heard from her throat until her figure looked like an old camel.
After she finished drinking she thought that there was no way back now.
Persephone who was kidnapped by Hades, she ate the pomegranate that grew in the underworld, then her body was tied to the underworld and when the G.o.ddess noticed that, her expression on her face was surely like the girl now.
How much money the man paid her father the girl didn’t care because it wasn’t her problem.
The girl thought that the price for drinking the water meant that she had now become his possession.
When the man received the empty flask and then began to walk again while pulling the girl by her hand.
That was the start the girl recalled.
I was bought as a weapon to kill a dragon that was the first memory the girl brought up.
It was now a story from seven years ago.
「 . . . a dream?」
When she woke up she was inside a cave.
Her small body lay on a soft bed made from moss.
Where was this, what time was it, though the girl didn’t know but the certain weight of the existence of herself taught that this wasn’t a continuation of the dream.
The girl tried to remember. She couldn’t remember her last memory.
From when was her last memory?
She had fallen down many times and every time the grip on her hair woke her up. She was trained relentlessly and mercilessly by the sorcerer . . . , no, that wasn’t it.
The far from pleasant food had the only objective to increase her magical power . . ., no, that wasn’t it.
Her only relief was when she was asleep, however, she would be frightened inside her thing futon whenever morning came . . ., no, not this one either.
When she got up in the morning she offered a prayer at the tiny altar in her tiny room and persuaded herself that she would save the world tree and then she would throw herself into training like every day . . ., no, not this one either.
. . . Yes that was it, her last memory was about a gray ma.s.s.
From the gray ma.s.s numerous tentacles came out and got on her right arm.
With the horrifying feeling of something invading her body, she also felt that her ego was torn up.
At the last moment when all her five senses were deprived.
「Sorry.」
She could hear the voice from the man.
Then her memories broke off. The second apology from the man was the last memory of the girl.
Vexation, relief or fear?
The memories brought the girls to tears. The tears continued to fall and when she tried to wipe them with the hem of her clothes,
「. . . it smells of urine.」
The girl remembered her “last true memory”
In the true last memory the girl was crying.
The memory of herself who was crying like a child while staring into the distance.
And with the sorcerer every day the training that couldn’t be describe with the word severe alone, she had never cried but there she had cried aloud.
Like swallowing a ball of lead, she had swallowed her cries for seven years. And for the first time since then the girl had cried.
There the girl, who had forgotten how to cry, cried like a child.
She remembered her last true memory, the lukewarm acrid smell and the slightly sweet tasting liquid.
And the fat evil dragon that looked down on the girl triumphant.
The disgusting dragon that laughed at the powerless human and sneered while releasing insulting liquid.
Like rotten maggots crawling down her throat, the girl was attacked by an intense disgust.
The girl headed for the cave wall and tried to spit out what she had drunk but she couldn’t vomit it out because her body had already absorbed the liquid.
After having a several coughing fits, she leaned her body on the cave wall.
To make up for the lacking air her chest moved up and down.
Her heart pounded in her chest.
To the sound of that certain beating the girl suddenly held a certain doubt.
「I, why am I still alive . . .」
The girl’s doubt could only mean two things. One, she was defeated by the dragon but then why was she kept alive?
In the story she had heard, it was said that dragons liked human flesh above all. Why didn’t the dragon eat her while she was unconscious?
From the extent of his fat he should have drank a lot of blood.
But according to the miko’s prophecy not even 20 days should have pa.s.sed since it was born.
For its body to become like that, how much blood and meat was poured into that mouth. Small creatures like herself should have been swallowed easily.
The evil dragon that devours everything, the girl didn’t understand why it would keep her alive.
「The Spear of Valkyria should have fused with me . . .」
The girl understood that she had died as a result of the fusion with the ancient weapon.
Her soul was lost and she understood that her magical power and life had become fuel that was absorbed exhaustively.
After understanding it she hadn’t run away from the Spear of Valkyria because of her faith to the world she saw no reason why she should run away.
Because she brought up for seven years to only kill the dragon by becoming the user of an ancient weapon.
The memory of any other way to live didn’t exist.
After seven years she would spread her wings as a weapon. Her fate was to die at that instant.
The girl’s life, though it might resemble the life of a cicada that lived for seven years in darkness in the ground, but hers was a lot sadder.
Why was she still alive, why was her ego restored?
n.o.body answered the girl’s mutter. There was n.o.body in the cave.
This was a huge cave.
The hemispheric s.p.a.ce was much bigger than the cathedral of the Holy City.
The girl felt that a huge creature should be here.
However there was no discomfort and was just filled with gentle air.
“Holy” air might be a way to call it the girl thought.
The beautiful pattern of stained cla.s.s which decorated the cathedral of the Holy City had a different holy quality.
The s.p.a.ce was soft and warm and it felt like someone was holding you and tears began to spill from the girl’s eyes.
She couldn’t bring herself to wipe the tears this time. Because she felt that the air which filled the cave said that it was okay to cry.
The pink morning light came from the outside.
The exit of the cave was dozens of times larger than the girl and dazzling.
And the girl without thinking headed there.
The outside of the cave was wide and when she walked into the world overflowing with light, like breaking the sh.e.l.l, she had the feeling as if she was reborn.
She walked outside while tracing the wall with her left hand.
Timidly, step by step. Like a baby that walked for the first time.
To know the world, to meet the newborn her.
「Miin min min min! Miin min min min!「 (TL: More, more Yggdrasil!)
「Yes . . . , yes~ . . .! . . fuu . . ah . ., . . . nnn! . . . there, . .. no!」
The new world, it was somewhat too difficult for the girl.
(TLN: The awkward moment when you find two people doing it. *cough*)