Is it wrong to try to meet someone in a dungeon?

Crystal did not answer.

Things happened so suddenly that Belle couldn't regain his composure from the chaos, but Winnie simply sheltered the boy and exchanged glances with Ais.

"Please...don't hurt Bell."

"...!"

Faced with Winnie's amber eyes, Ais could no longer maintain her composure.

Just as the monster's plea to protect the boy disrupted her thoughts.

The dragon girl's words and actions proved what Bell had said.

"Don't do this... don't speak."

Unable to completely suppress her unease, Ais covered her eyes with her bangs and lowered her head.

"...Why does someone like you exist?"

then.

Ais's calm, somber murmur sent a chill down Bell's spine.

Seeing Ais slowly raise her head, revealing her expressionless face—that of a "Sword Princess"—Bell felt a strange, inexplicable feeling.

The immense intimidating aura emanating from the girl's delicate body froze both him and Winnie.

"What...what is your purpose?"

"I...I want to be with Belle."

"I will not allow you to do that."

Ais's eyes were narrowed and sharp like swords.

"I will absolutely not allow you to run rampant on the earth like those monsters."

Ais pointed her sword and voice at the dragon girl, making this assertion.

"Your claws will hurt others."

"Your wings will frighten many people."

"Your red stone will kill many people."

Every word and phrase is condemnation, disgust, and rejection.

Unlike the usual Ais, her words were firm and resolute, revealing her strong will. She was not the Ais Bell knew.

What's this?

Was it Ais's anger? Hatred? Sorrow? Desire?

Bell is about to come into contact with Ais's dark side—no, Ais's very origin.

"No matter what I say, I will not let you live."

Seeing that Ais had fundamentally denied the existence of the monster (Winnie) and reaffirmed her determination to eliminate it, Bell even forgot to breathe.

His conviction, as sharp as a sword, and his awareness, were so intense they nearly shredded him to pieces.

Just as Bell was unable to make a sound, Winnie, who was being held at sword length by Ais, looked down at her hands.

"..."

She looked at her pale, bluish palms and, as Ais had said, her sharp fingernails that had even injured a boy.

Winnie gently grasped all the nails on her left hand.

"what?"

Bell was a beat too late to notice.

Right in front of the astonished Ais, the girl, her breath trembling, snapped it in two in one breath.

"Winnie!?"

Then switch to the right hand.

The girl's cracked fingernails, broken off with brute force, scattered across the stone floor. Ignoring Bell's attempts to stop her, her bloodied hands then grasped the single wing.

then……

"Ugh, ahhhhhhhh...!!"

As if she were willingly paying the price, she tore off the dragon wings on her back.

"────"

Ais was speechless. At her feet, a single wing with blue-silver bones and gray skin landed on the ground.

The girl's slender arms, imbued with the power of the dragon race, hung limply at her sides. Bell caught her as she collapsed. Life-giving droplets flowed from her pale, bluish skin, no different from the blood shed by Ais and the others, staining the boy's armor crimson.

Bell panicked and desperately pressed on the part of his back where skin and wings had been lost in an attempt to stop the bleeding; Winnie nestled in his arms and looked up at Ais.

"If... if I become... no longer myself..."

She was breathing rapidly, one hand resting on the red stone on her forehead.

"This time I'll disappear obediently..."

After she finished speaking, she moved her hand from her forehead to her chest.

Place it in the core of the monster—the "Magic Stone".

Bell's face was contorted with grief, and the mask Ais was wearing cracked.

"...I have always been alone."

Winnie slowly moved her lips.

"In such a dark and cold place... ever since I became who I am... I've always been alone. No one was willing to save me. No one was willing to hug me..."

She was immersed in a deep, dark sea of ​​memories, speaking in a hoarse voice.

"I was slashed, it hurts so much... I'm so scared, I feel so lonely."

Winnie murmured to Ais as if even exhaling was painful.

She looked up at the golden eyes that were the same color as her amber eyes.

"But Bell saved me when I was all alone."

"!"

"Bell saved me from the darkness... from when no one else wanted to help me!"

The changes were extremely drastic.

Upon hearing the dragon girl's cry, Ais's mask completely fell off.

She lost her voice, as if she had stumbled upon something unfortunate in the desolate winter landscape.

Ais must have imagined it. Or perhaps it was her golden eyes that saw and felt what the girl had seen and felt from these few words.

She forgot everything, her eyes fixed on the girl's tears.

"I want to be with Bell...!"

The pure and innocent monster was not speaking of explanations or proofs, but of its own desires.

Faced with a sword intended to kill her, she showed only her true feelings.

The choked sob made Ais's eyes tremble. The sword trembled slightly, as if wavering.

The silver light, unable to be thrust out or withdrawn, revealed its anguish. Although it was Ais who was wielding the sword against someone, it was as if her own body was being wounded by the blade.

Reason and emotion clash; she struggles against the contradictions within herself.

In the girl's eyes, a different kind of brilliance than bewilderment arose; it was like dewdrops under the moonlight.

—Is this a tragedy?

--No, it's envy?

—What did Ais see in Winnie?

As Bell, who was watching silently from the side, remained speechless... Ais's golden hair drooped down.

It's like a puppet with its strings cut.

The sword, which had been pointed directly at Winnie, was lowered.

"...I can no longer kill that dragon girl."

Then, she murmured in an extremely weary voice.

"Ais, Miss..."

"Because I'm starting to think...you...you guys are right."

"..."

"I can no longer fight you..."

Ais couldn't lift her head; her appearance, damp with moonlight, looked so fragile to Bell.

She doesn't even seem to be an adventurer or a "Sword Maiden," just an ordinary girl.

Bell felt a pang of sadness and, to hide it, hugged Winnie's shoulders tightly.

Soon after, Ais took out an item—elixir—from her pouch, placed it lightly on the stone floor, and turned her back to the two of them.

"I cannot help you... I will stay here."

"Miss Ais..."

"You may leave."

"……thank you."

Bell picked up the panacea, and he and Winnie helped each other leave the scene.

As he left, he took one last look at the receding figure.

The figure with long, golden hair swaying in the wind looked so fragile, as if it might disappear at any moment.

"..."

Ais even forgot to sheath her sword and stood there in place.

The drifting clouds and the bright moonlight looked down upon her.

"Ais".

"..."

Someone called her; it was Bert.

The werewolf youth who jumped down from above stared intently at the girl's profile, which was hidden by her bangs.

"Doesn't it matter?"

"……Um."

Ais nodded weakly, answering the question that lacked a subject.

Bert asked no further questions.

"I'm going back now."

"…………Thank you."

"Why are you thanking me?" Bert spat with a curse, and left as he had said he would.

Silence has returned.

The girl was left alone, murmuring something as she gazed up at the vast, dark night.

*

"Bell, does it hurt?"

"Vinnie, are you alright?"

Winnie patted me gently all over with her palms, and I, having taken off my armor, was also concerned about her condition.

The location was in a spacious ruin far from Miss Ais. The stone building was overgrown with weeds, and only half of the roof remained. We were inside, giving each other emergency treatment. That being said, we were really just using the items Miss Ais had given us for treatment.