Okami Wa Nemuranai

"Right, think I heard that Sovereign Dragon Atracia dwelt somewhere in this kingdom."

"Was to the south of Nadis Barondom. Not that far from Palcimo. The wolf must have gone there and fought it. I had no idea Divine Beasts could turn on each other. Seeing as it was Atracia, it must have been a good fight."

"And just when I thought I finally had it beaten. Will it come after me again."

"Probably yep."

"Oh yeah, how Argent Flame Wolf acted in that fight did bother me."

"Bother as in?"

"That thing kept chasing after me as I kept running away from it. That's fine and all, but even when I dealt huge damage to it, that wolf never once took shelter somewhere to heal its wounds and resume the chase. Wonder why."

"Hmm well I mean, a master never shows its back to their pupils after all."

"Pupil, me?"

"You are yep. That, you see. In a way a battle freak, it loves to fight strong opponents, but it also seems to enjoy watching its opponent growing stronger during the course of a fight. If it finds someone with potentials, it'll go after them and corner them to near breaking limit. That someone will experience a rapid growth if they manage to keep overcoming that."

That reminds Lecan, Shira mentioned how those who survived through Argent Flame Wolf went on to become heroes or kings. So that's what it was about.

"How do I graduate?"

"Who knows. Don't ask me. Is that all you have to ask?"

"No. Still got more. Errr. Right. Did the Founder King of Zaka Kingdom conquer Dungeon Finkel?"

"I wonder. I wasn't told about that. Though I believe he dived in quite deep at least. Regardless, there's no way to defeat that dungeon's boss. Why do you ask anyway?"

"Cause Founder King had <Charm of Soul Crushing Bug>."

Lecan told Shira what transpired at Yufu.

"I see, I see. That happened huh. I always had my suspicion thought. That kid had <Charm of Soul Crushing Bug> on him from the beginning. It was me who told him just what kind of object that was. I warned him that the thing would only bring him ruin if he's not careful with it, I see so he chose to yield it to someone else. Must have taken some courage."

"Courage?"

"I mean he'd have no way to prevent that someone from using that thing on him instead."

"Oh yeah for sure. I see. That sure takes courage yeah. Then who gave Founder King the Charm?"

"He said that it had been passed down from his ancestor. I didn't ask for more detail. That thing also had an activation spell in ancient language, didn't it. It must have emerged in this world quite a long time ago."

"Really."

It always seemed to him that Shira knew Founder King, and sure enough she did. More than just knew even, sounds like she helped him with various stuff. Either way, it doesn't matter to Lecan though.

"Is that all."

"No. Still got more. Can you do something about this?"

Lecan took his <Sword of Toron> out. Cleanly split in two.

"Uwaa. You really did a number to that thing. This is beyond repair. And seeing it's cut down so much, it must have lost all of its magic erasure ability. Go get a new one from Chaney. I'll take this broken sword. Gonna use it in my experiments."

"Yea."

<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka.com >

Shira waved her hand and the <Sword of Toron> on the desk vanished.

"The end?"

"No. Still more. Lots more, wait. Err. Can't recall one right away, way too many."

"Then you can always ask once you do. It's my turn now."

"You need me for something?"

"Yep. Two things in fact."

"Ah."

"Oh, did you recall one?"

"No. It just hit me, Yurika was born from Toron's magic stone I gave you back then."

"She was."

"I showed you Toron's and Vurs's magic stones and told you I'd give you one of them."

"Oh yes you did."

"You seemed quite hesitant back then. But in the end you chose Toron's. Does that mean you didn't have a plan to create Yurika at that point."

"That wasn't it. I had always been wanting to make a partner, or rather a spouse for Jericho for a long time. I mean, who can say when I'm gonna die after all. I tried all kinds of stuff. But none of them bore fruit. I even tried to look for Toron one time. And to think it was lurking in the Great Forest. So yep, I hit a roadblock I couldn't clear away for decades. I thought I was dreaming when Toron's magic stone showed up before my very eyes."

"And yet you looked hesitant."

"Well of course I would. One of those was a magic stone of another world's greater dragon. I might never get another chance to lay my eyes on such a valuable research material ever again."

"I see. So you wanted Vurs's magic stone as a researcher and Toron's as Jericho's owner."

"Well, you could say that yep."

"And you picked Toron's magic stone."

Shira didn't reply back.

Lecan threw some dried fruit in his mouth, munched on them and washed it down with wine.

"Still, reviving Vurs, creating Yurika must require some large scale facilities."

"A bit yep."

"Where in the world did you build such facilities anyway?"

"Who knows. Let's just say that I have a slightly largish burrowing den somewhere."

"Hmph."