chapter 61

The dragon screams heroically. With a single cry, the earth shook, and the walls crumbled.

“Oh no, why would I do that?”

“That’s it! Your face! That’s what you foxes know! I can’t get enough of the classic despair face!”

At the sound of Ouka’s trembling voice, Ancelotti scratched his face repeatedly.

“You’ve raised your level a lot……What is it? Can you get stronger just by breathing?”

“After all, you do see things, don’t you! Yes, dragons are rare demons that grow with time! The longer they live, the more powerful they become!”

Ancelotti agrees with the words I jokingly threw out to keep myself conscious.

Why would a monster have more cheats than a candidate for hero?

“Of course, I’m going to have to get involved in this, Ability Activate—Nouka.”

Instantly, the dragon grunted.

Its eyelids widen, and its eyeballs pop out as if they might spill out at any moment.

Its eyes turn into seven colors.

That’s the……hallucination magic.

It’s like being possessed by a parasite.

“Ouka.”

“Don’t tell me to run!”

Ouka, anticipating what I was about to say, interrupts me.

“I am your friend. I will fight Tsumugi-san to the end.”

“No, no.”

I grab Ouka’s shoulder.

“I can’t, Ouka.”

“But, Tsumugi-san!”

“No, no, no.”

It’s a whisper.

Something in the back of my mind.

A desire to live, an obsession.

An ugly feeling.

“I remember.”

In the basement, I was laughing.

I was scrambling to live.

What I needed was coldness.

What I didn’t need was a heart.

Kill yourself, he whispers.

“Ability–Bond Eating.”

A shadow wriggles.

It stretches out to cover the room.

Blue eyes grew in the shadow.

White fangs grew in the shadow.

“—-!”

A high-pitched cry shakes the room.

“Tsumugi-san”

“I’ll be fine.”

The monster that grew out of my shadow opened its mouth wide – and swallowed Ouka and me.

“‘Hahahaha! What are you doing! Suicide? Such a boring man!”

I can only hear Ancelotti’s laughter in the pitch-blackness of my vision.

“It’s a bit premature to judge the situation, don’t you think?”

The light returns to my vision, and I’m in the red room again.

The only thing that had changed were the wounds on my body. All of them are gone.

“Tsumugi-san, the wounds, the wounds are gone!”

Ouka shouts when she sees that I’m healed.

Ancelotti laughs even more.

“Your ability was a recovery spell! No. Time and space? Either way, it’s pointless now! There’s no way to slay the dragon in front of you, is there?”

“Don’t give me that “beat me” crap.”

“Oh?”

“We’re risking our lives, killing our minds, eat or be eaten, you know?”

“Then you are the one to be eaten! Keep on being dragon food!”

“Don’t get me wrong. My abilities are the bait. You are the bait.”