Chapter 1258: 15. A Bloody Calamity

After mercilessly shattering someone's dream, Hamreign carried the dragon-shaped doll and turned left and right through the crowd, easily shaking off everyone's line of sight, then arrived at a secluded corner and lightly tossed the doll at a certain blond passerby who could no longer hold back his laughter.

"Th... The Path of Great Eating, pfft... You should have agreed to him. You shouldn't have shattered his dream. I really want to know what kind of expression he would make when, after taking you as his goal and training hard, he ends up discovering that you aren't even the same species."

"Boring."

Hamreign looked very disdainful: "This competition really was extremely boring."

"But you looked pretty happy, didn't you?"

Muen held up the doll and swung it back and forth, pinching his voice as he said: "Then, Miss Hamreign, who possesses the strongest Path of Great Eating, may I ask you to give your victory speech?"

"You're boring too."

Hamreign pushed away the doll that was getting closer and closer, turned around, and left.

Only when passing the event stage from just now, she still subconsciously stopped.

At this moment, it had already changed to another event. This time, it seemed to be a beauty contest, and the chief judge was still that branch president of the Adventurers' Association.

The crowd below was cheering, the degree of noise far surpassing just now, as though no one already remembered that scene from when she had just competed."

"There are far more scenes in this world stranger than when you eat. Who would care that much?"

While locking onto the black-stockinged thighs of a certain young lady onstage who looked very much like championship material and staring hard, Muen said:^

"Don't even mention Miss Dragon eating and eating up there in human form. Even if you really transformed into your true body, I'm afraid people wouldn't be all that afraid of you anymore. After all, in everyone's current impression, the so-called calamity is nothing more than an innocent young girl who got made pregnant by some hateful blond."

"You're already not worried about this rumor anymore?".

Hamreign withdrew her gaze and asked expressionlessly: "I see you've completely accepted this way of saying it."

"...I just thought it through a little more." The corner of Muen's eye twitched, and he couldn't help sighing./

"That's good. As a companion, I don't want to see you worrying endlessly because of such a small matter."

"..."_

A small matter?

That wasn't small at all. Five gleaming cleavers, and who knew when they would come falling down.^

It was just fortunate that, judging from things at present, he still had a little time to prepare and wouldn't have to directly face those cleavers right away.

"That branch president, do you know him?" Hamreign asked.^

"I don't know him at all."

"A clumsy lie can't fool me."_

"I never lie to beautiful girls."

"That is also a lie."

"Let's not talk about this. I just saw someone doing fortune-telling over there. Want to go take a look?" Muen changed the subject.

"I don't believe in that."

"It's just for fun. Come on, come on..."

Muen strode past Hamreign, pulled her along with his head lowered and rushed forward, and without realizing it, had already taken her hand again.

Hamreign's golden pupils stared at that hand. A familiar... warmth that could already be called familiar was transmitted over. She originally wanted to break free, because as companions, there was no need for this kind of physical contact.

But as if possessed by some strange impulse, she did not break free.

Why...

Mm, this was probably another exchange.

After all, he had helped her once again just now.

...

...

"Sir, the result of the divination is very certain."

Inside the dim tent, an old woman whose entire body was hidden beneath a black robe moved both hands back and forth over the crystal ball, sometimes muttering words under her breath, sometimes picking up a branch beside her that looked as though it had been casually snapped off and sprinkling water over Muen. After a round of tossing about, she said with firm conviction:

"Next... you will suffer a bloody calamity."

"..."_

Muen expressionlessly said: "But what I asked was what I would eat tomorrow."

"I indeed divined exactly that, but the result from the crystal ball is that you will soon suffer a bloody calamity."

The old woman shook her head back and forth, looking as though Muen was already beyond saving: "Sigh, so young, yet already cursed by fate like this. It truly makes one's heart ache."

"So what do you want to do?"

"Cough... Although it is a bloody calamity and extremely troublesome, who told you to happen to meet me? I have an amulet here personally blessed by the Saintess of the Church of Life. For only five thousand Aimier, it can..."

"Enough, enough. I don't need that thing." Muen hurriedly waved his hand.

The Saintess, even.

Personally blessed, even.

Did she know that forget something personally blessed by her, even holy water personally produced by her, he could have as much as he wanted?

Muen stood up and let Miss Dragon sit down: "Come on, take a look at this one too. I'd like to see what else you can come up with."

"Oh, wait a moment."

The old woman stretched out both hands again, sometimes placing them over the crystal ball, sometimes muttering under her breath. This time, seemingly to make it even more realistic, she even worked herself into a head full of sweat. After a round of tossing about, she looked as though she were about to collapse from exhaustion.

"What's the result?" Seeing her work so hard, Muen's curiosity was stirred up again.

"The result is..."

The old woman said with complete seriousness: "This young lady will also suffer a bloody calamity."

"..."_

Muen's eyes nearly rolled all the way up to the top of his head.

There.

A complete fraud. Identification finished.

Forget about him. So-called bloody calamities were commonplace for him. If some Evil God cultist or terrorist suddenly jumped out at any time and launched a banzai attack at him, he wouldn't feel the slightest bit surprised.

But who was Miss Dragon?

A calamity! The Dragon of Death and Doom! The strongest creature beneath the heavens!

She would suffer a bloody calamity?

He might as well believe the cleavers would come killing their way out tonight.

"Let's go, let's go. This is boring."

Muen grabbed Hamreign's hand and prepared to leave, regret gradually rising in his heart.

It seemed that this time he really had miscalculated. He had originally thought that even if she was a fraud, she would at least say something interesting. In the end, this old thing couldn't even say anything nice, and her method of scamming people consisted of repeating the same single line over and over.

"Hey, don't go. My divinations are very accurate."

The old woman somehow found the strength to throw herself around Muen's thigh: "One thousand Aimier. Just one thousand Aimier, and I'll tell you another piece of information that will absolutely make you feel it was worth the money!"

"You... are you forcing a sale on me?"

Muen was genuinely angered into laughter. He wanted to directly break free, but he was also afraid his current strength would directly injure this old woman.

Then he really would get extorted.

"Fine. This information of yours had better really be worth more than the price, otherwise..."

After weighing it for a moment, Muen handed over several banknotes with a smile that wasn't a smile.

"Don't worry!"

The old woman slapped her chest, immediately swept her pen across a piece of paper, wrote something down, and secretly handed it to Muen.

Muen glanced at Miss Dragon, confirmed that she wasn't paying attention over here, and only then secretly opened the paper:

"Fireworks performance tonight. Turn left at the third intersection ahead. There's an alley there with the best position for watching the fireworks, and there won't be anyone around to disturb you. You can do anything there."

"..."_

Muen raised his eyebrows and looked up at the old woman.

The old woman wiggled her eyebrows and winked, revealing an expression that said those who understood, understood.

"You misunderstood."

Muen crumpled the paper into a ball and casually tossed it away: "We're only companions."

"Eh? Is that so? You two look..."

"Only companions."

Hamreign, who had remained silent for a long time, finally spoke. Specks of faint light flickered within her golden pupils, as though she were thinking about something.

"Oh, companions... I understand. I understand."

The old woman nodded hard, once again revealing an expression that said those who understood, understood.

"..."_

I think you completely don't understand.

Muen couldn't be bothered explaining. There had simply been too many people along the way who had misunderstood them like this. The two of them were currently both disguised as ordinary people, and in the eyes of outsiders, they actually looked somewhat well matched?

But unfortunately, they were only companions who had made an eternal agreement.

"Let's go, Miss Dragon."

Muen still conveniently took Hamreign's small hand.

"Where are we going this time?"

"To watch fireworks."

...

...

Playing and strolling along the way, for Muen, this was also a rare bit of leisure.

After leaving that fraud fortune-telling shop, the two completely entered shopping-and-playing mode. Roadside snacks, toy activities, as long as Miss Dragon showed even the tiniest bit of interest, Muen would accompany her to experience it.

Muen filled his stomach, and Miss Dragon experienced human culture she had never experienced before.

Mm, a win-win.

From the perspective of companions, this was simply a perfect tour.

Until finally, the two crossed through the crowded stream of people and arrived at a secluded little road.

Muen looked around. Shrubs and tree shade surrounded them, and it was extremely quiet. Sure enough, just as that old woman had said, this was a good place to do bad things... no, to quietly appreciate fireworks.

"That elderly human female just now, you know her too?"

Hamreign licked the cotton candy, the tip of her little tongue appearing and disappearing, making one unable to help sighing that it turned out even a giant dragon eating cotton candy was equally cute.

"Just now? You mean that old fraud? Of course I don't know her. Why do you ask?" Muen asked in confusion.

"It's nothing. It's just that the aura on her body made me think she was like that branch president from before..."

Hamreign shook her head and was just about to say something...

Bang——pop!

A brilliant firework suddenly rose into the sky, disturbing the quiet of this place.

The sky instantly became bright, colored tassels bursting in every direction. Muen raised his head to look at the fireworks, yet from the corner of his eye, without realizing it, his gaze fell upon that flawless side profile.

"Beautiful?" Muen asked.

"It's alright."

"Just alright?"

"I once saw fireworks much more beautiful than this."

The cotton candy was eaten in one bite. Hamreign raised the hand that had finally become free and lightly brushed it across the sky, as though wanting to catch something.

"Very, very beautiful fireworks."

"Did you see them in Tars?"

Muen thought that if it had been in Tars, then within his Divine Kingdom, perhaps there might still be a possibility of reproducing them.

"No."

Hamreign denied it instead: "It was earlier, a thousand years ago."

"A thousand years ago... like that?"

So it was that long ago.

As expected, ordinary fireworks didn't amount to much for a dragon who had lived for more than a thousand years.

Although he had expected it beforehand, for some reason, Muen's heart still felt a little... regretful.

As though the story of tonight should not end so ordinarily.

"You want to see?" Hamreign suddenly asked.

"Eh?"

Muen froze: "Can I?"

"Under normal circumstances, no, because it involves certain taboos."

Hamreign slightly turned her head, the brilliance of the fireworks reflected in her golden pupils: "But if it is a request from a companion, I can reluctantly satisfy it once."

"Then... I'll have to trouble you."

Muen gripped that hand even tighter.

The fireworks in Miss Dragon's eyes were already very beautiful.

But for some reason, he simply wanted to see the most beautiful fireworks she spoke of.

It was very strange. He, who had always been rather indifferent toward this sort of thing, had suddenly developed this kind of childlike stubbornness this time.

"Alright."

Hamreign's answer was as concise as always.

She raised her hand.

Her cherry lips parted slightly, and a language that did not belong to this era flowed out like a gentle breeze.

"This is... 【Magic That Makes the Sky Brilliant】"

Whoosh.

First, a point of light rose into the sky.

Immediately afterward, that point of light bloomed at the highest point of the sky.

At first, Muen thought this was merely another transformation like ordinary fireworks, but as that indescribable radiance instantly dyed the entire sky, Muen directly froze.

"So beautiful..."

The colors were brilliant, yet not overly heavy, like ethereal auroras descending from the sky. That ultimate sense of beauty stole away Muen's perception of everything around him, and yet that radiance truly was only fireworks. Its ending of annihilation in the blink of an eye added a perfectly fitting final stroke to this beautiful scene.

The light rose within Muen's eyes, bloomed, sank... yet could not completely scatter.

"So beautiful. These are the fireworks from a thousand years ago?"

Only after a long while did Muen finally speak and voice his praise.

That beauty he had never seen before almost infected his soul, making him spend a very long time before finally recovering from that admiration of beauty.

"Yes. It's been a very long time since I've seen them." Hamreign also murmured softly.

This scene that existed only in the depths of her memories once again lightly plucked at her heartstrings.

Yet it seemed that this was not the first time tonight that they had been plucked.

Some kind of invisible pull caused her to temporarily break free from those distant memories, and then lower her head.

The two lowered their heads at the same time, looked at each other at the same time, then... froze at the same time.

At this moment, Muen felt that, for some reason, the sense of distance between him and Miss Dragon had become even closer, close enough that he could see the ripples rising deep within her golden pupils, close enough that he could feel her thoughts becoming disordered at this moment.

The two looked at each other. That pure line that should have stood between the two of them seemed, at this moment, to be tottering on the verge of collapse, ready to break apart at any time.

And so, in this place where one could freely do bad things, the two seemed to be controlled by some mysterious magic, or perhaps by instinct from the deepest part of their souls. Both simultaneously took a small step forward, and then...

Clang.

The sound of something falling awakened Muen, pulling him back from Miss Dragon's golden pupils.

He subconsciously glanced toward the direction the sound had come from, then forcefully knocked his own head.

Damn it, the fireworks were so beautiful that they had made him hallucinate. He had actually seen Ariel here!