A record on old parchment left behind by a sage.
This is his contemplation of the mythical beings he devoted his life to pursuing.
「The phoenix burns itself amid the ashes and is born anew, while the great Dragon lays itself upon the earth and, after a long sleep, finally breathes out anew.」
It was like the low voice of an aged scholar who had safeguarded the world's secrets through the long years.
Between every line of the record lay wisdom and insight born of experience.
To beings like them, death does not mean eternal extinction.
Even if the shell of their flesh returns to the earth, the noble will held within never decays.
It must be a sacred rite of waiting at the end of that long slumber for the moment when they break free of a new shell and soar.
If so, the legacy she left me was no different.
My story was never one destined to end with a tragic period.
It was merely the prelude to a dazzling resurrection that would surely come before long.
***
Fwoooosh.
The golden particles forming the letters intertwined, sending marvelous ripples through the air.
['Airi von Fafnir' transfers the Dragon Heart to you.]
['Airi von Fafnir' transfers ownership of the Dragon's Nest to you.]
The cluster of light formed on my retinas. Yet even before that overwhelming wonder, all I could do was endure the weight of the approaching farewell in stifling silence.
"Do not be sad, my small and gentle friend."
"......Is there nothing I can do?"
Airi's body slowly began to turn transparent. It was time for a farewell that would leave a deep and lasting echo.
Silvery particles crumbled from her feet and drifted through the air like dandelion seeds.
"You have already given me the finest rest I could ask for. There could be no more peaceful resting place."
"I'll guard this place until you open your eyes again."
The wind blew. Fluttering edelweiss petals wrapped around her in a gentle embrace.
Without a word, I made my core vibrate. I quietly engraved that radiant final moment into my eyes.
When the cluster of light rose past her shoulders and reached her neck.
She met my gaze.
At the final moment, a smile of incomparable clarity and peace spread across Airi's lips.
"Hehe, then shall I hope for the day I meet you again......?"
It was a heartrending wish that hinted it could never come true, like chasing a fading mirage.
Her voice was infinitely fleeting, like a fragment of starlight crumbling in the night sky.
Shhhh.
At last, even her smiling face became dazzling motes of light and scattered across the field.
Warmth drifted through the air.
I stretched out my transparent jelly and gently gathered the motes of light in my grasp.
All that touched my fingertips was the caress of a soft spring breeze. But before even that momentary warmth could fade, a chilling bloodlust split the silence of the field.
In the place she had left behind, the greatsword bereft of its owner plummeted toward the ground, pouring out sinister bloodlust.
It was the greatsword that had pierced Airi's chest.
I could not allow that accursed lump of iron to defile her precious garden.
I kicked hard off the ground and soared into the air.
I swelled my transparent jelly to its fullest.
"Swallow."
Whoooosh—!
My body violently sucked the cold metal into subspace.
Before the sharp blade could touch the ground, the explosive suction dragged the lump of iron down into a vacuum mire.
Hummmm, crunch—!
An alien vibration surged inside subspace.
The demonic sword, drenched in Dragon blood, spewed unpleasant bloodlust as it fiercely resisted.
I raised the output of my core to its maximum and bound that ominous energy in solid chains of mana.
'Stay still, you lump of scrap metal.'
After the brief commotion, just as the sword's vibrations gradually subsided, a System message appeared before me.
[ Item ] Balmung (Unique)
▸Basic Effect: All damage inflicted upon the Dragon race increases dramatically.
▸Use Effect: Releases the bloodlust dwelling in the blade and unleashes a slash that pierces Dragon scales.
▸Restriction: A high Soul Rank and great skill are required. Your current body cannot wield it.
I stared at the information on the sword buried in subspace for a moment.
Endless questions began to follow one after another, chaotically raking through my core.
'Airi never told me anything about it, even at the very end.'
She might have forced herself to remain silent because she was worried about me.
But collapsing here while turning away from the truth was not my way.
Why?
Why, when it came to the person who had harmed her?
Had she not left even the slightest clue?
I cooled my core.
I became an investigator pursuing a lead. One by one, I gathered the scattered puzzle pieces.
With my jelly, I rolled around an edelweiss petal that had fallen to the ground.
From the day I first fell into the nest until now, Airi had not left this cradle even once over the unfathomable span of several centuries.
She had remained only in the depths of the nest, as though imprisoning herself. Why, then, had she gone out of her way to venture beyond it?
I recalled Adele's reaction.
When we first met in the forest, where she had been offered as a tribute by the nymphs.
She had made no effort to hide her sharp hostility toward me, Airi's representative.
That blind hatred of Dragons, where had such hostility truly come from?
The girl did not even properly know the Dragon's face. If so, had someone deliberately instilled false terror of Dragons in the forest's other races?
Then there was the final clue.
The accursed greatsword sleeping in my subspace, Balmung.
At Airi's final moment, the System had revealed her true name as 'Airi von Fafnir.'
Memories of my days climbing the tower swept through my core. Hunters would sometimes glimpse the hidden side of the world through legendary equipment or ancient relics.
The short scraps of text engraved upon items, and the traces of curses and blessings dwelling within weapons.
They went beyond the equipment's functions and offered clues about the world contained within the Black Tower.
Fafnir.
The ancient Dragon called an evil Dragon and regarded as the symbol of greed.
And Balmung, the hero's sword that had pierced the evil Dragon's heart and brought it to its death.
Was Airi Fafnir herself?
Or was she a successor who inherited its blood, perhaps merely a member of the clan burdened with that cruelly ironic name?
Either way, it did not matter. What mattered was the weapon called Balmung.
It had been forged specifically to slaughter the being whose true name was 'Fafnir.'
This had not been a blind attack against an unspecified target. It was a meticulously prepared hunt aimed solely at her.
Then what was the enemy's true identity?
Even I, once the world's strongest Hunter, had never encountered a Dragon while climbing the tower.
There was no possibility that outside Hunters bound to the tower's System had hunted her.
Then perhaps they were the unseen rulers living in this world.
Unknown beings I had yet to learn of, or some shadowy force that orchestrated the world.
I did not enjoy complicated calculations. I had intended to live a leisurely life, content to let sleeping dogs lie, clean the nest, and bite into the honey bread Adele baked for me.
But as the result of all those complacent thoughts piling up.
An accursed sword had ultimately been driven into her chest.
In the end, I still knew nothing. Why she had decided to leave, what Adele knew, who the enemy truly was, or what its ultimate objective might be.
'......Fuck.'
It was infuriating.
Knowing nothing, I had merely hidden behind her gentle smile and allowed myself to be kept safe.
Helplessness and fury mingled as they savagely churned through my jelly body.
Bubble, bubble.
My transparent jelly flashed dark crimson and boiled ominously.
Crackle, crackle!
Mana that had slipped from my control burst sharply out of my core.
The surrounding edelweiss petals were swept up in the prickling aftershock of mana and crumbled away.
Pitch-black ash scattered across the pure-white garden.
"Hup......"
No. I had to calm down.
If I let my emotions consume me, I would become nothing more than a stupid Slime.
This was her most precious cradle. A sanctuary that could not be ruined by a single moment of my anger.
I forced my mana circuits shut and coolly steadied my breathing.
Even if I were to charge out in fury right now.
With this jelly body, I would not even be able to graze the hem of their clothes.
Airi had seen that perfectly clearly.
That was why she had kept me bound with ordinary conversation to the very end and staged a peaceful farewell.
Her heartrending consideration, meant to keep a heavy burden from falling upon me.
Once more, I reflected upon Balmung's cold sensation within my subspace.
The conclusion became clear.
With my current abilities, this was not an enemy I could face merely by digging recklessly into the truth.
None other than Airi had fallen to them.
Hasty anger would lead only to a pointless dog's death.
But that did not mean I had the slightest intention of ending this by quietly mourning her death.
I was Han Yuri.
An S-Grade Hunter, the man with the greatest talent in history.
A man who could only feel satisfied after paying back any harm done to him twofold.
For now, however, it was time to lie completely low and build my strength. I would nurse my venom, sharpen my blade, and prepare for the coming moment of the perfect hunt within this nest.
I brought my thoughts to a close. Drawing my scattered attention together, I examined my condition.
Behind the earlier System message floated another window in silence.
[You have secured ownership of the Dragon Heart.]
[Would you like to absorb this item and transcend your rank of existence?]
In one corner of my inventory sat the icon of a radiant red jewel.
That crimson light throbbed like a living, breathing heart and powerfully drew my core toward it.
An overwhelming wave of vitality washed over me. My jelly body trembled finely as if submitting to its power.
I suppressed the tremor in my heart and checked the Dragon Heart's information.
[ Item ] Dragon Heart (Unique)
▸Basic Effect: Mana recovery and magic resistance increase according to racial attributes.
▸Use Effect: Absorb the heart to transcend both your physical form and your Soul Rank.
▸Restriction: Due to Airi von Fafnir's arrangement, the usage restriction has been lifted for you alone.
If I swallowed this, I could obtain transcendent power in a single stroke.
I might be able to cast off the worthless shell of a Slime and tear out the throats of those who hurt Airi as soon as tomorrow.
The sweet temptation, and the justification of revenge, rocked the thread of my reason perilously.
At that moment, a certain intuition flashed through my mind from deep within my core. Airi's whisper that Dragons never truly died, but merely fell into a long sleep.
Her entire soul and life force slept within this crimson jewel.
If I completely absorbed it.
That very act would complete her true death.
Somehow, I felt an instinctive certainty.
I had the feeling that the moment I coveted this, 'a certain possibility' would be erased forever.
'......'
I contracted my core firmly.
I resolutely rejected the System's tempting offer.
I carefully laid her heart to rest in the deepest and warmest place in subspace.
'Please wait just a little longer, Lady Airi.'
The wind died down.
The pure-white field of blooming edelweiss breathed out in silence.
Once more, I engraved this eternal landscape and her warmth deep within my eyes.
"I will protect this nest, your cradle, perfectly."
Boing.
I bounced off the ground and quietly turned around.
Protecting this beautiful scene spread before me, and the nest she had left behind, was now my responsibility.
I bowed my head once toward the field, then left through the Jade Gate without hesitation.