“—That’s absurd, insane!  Are you seriously going to obey an order like that!?  There are lots of people who have nothing to do with this rebellion.  They were just dragged into—!”
“Don’t you dare say that!”

Noin stomped down on Lutiya’s back as he raised his voice.

“You were the ones who went around spreading the lie that there were rebels in La Baia Military Academy and made the Rave Imperial Army attack it!  You all created the spark for war between Rave and Laica!”

Once more, the sole of a boot was slammed into Lutiya’s back.  Blood splattered out with his breath.

“The Gold Dragon Class and Purple Dragon Class, most of the students at the academy, were killed under a false charge without knowing anything.  They were killed by all of you!  Did you forget!?  Or were you confident none of you would end up like that?  Even though your just sewer rats.”
“…!”
“This time it’s your turn.  This is only natural.  This logic, it is the judgement of the Dragon-God!!”

Noin began to walk.  He held Luyita by his ankle only to immediately be kicked in the jaw.  He shook his head, but he didn’t release his grip.

“With the way you are now, you can’t beat me.”
“Shut it…!  You don’t know that…!”
“I do know.  You’ve gotten weaker.”

Kicking Lutiya once more, Noin turned around, spun his spear with one hand, and pointed the tip downward.

“What a splendid downfall, one worthy of a sewer rat.”
“Lutiya!”
“Just run, hurry…!”

Then, as if stitching the hand Lutiya reached out with to the ground, Noin pierced it through the palm.  While he bit down his scream, flames rained down from the sky.  Noin’s dragon had blocked off his comrades with a wall of fire.  Sword drawn, Noin rushed in at their exposed backs.

Blood sprayed, screams rose.

Humans could be heard roasting, burnt flesh could be smelled.

“Sto..op… stop it!  The one you should resent is me, so I should be enough for you!  —Noin!”

Noin didn’t turn around.  In silence, without showing any emotion at all, he simply threw those who couldn’t move into the fire and lopped off heads.  No mercy was shown, regardless of whether they had lost the will to fight or were trying to escape.

Just before Noin’s blade would reach a woman who was crying while clinging to a corpse, Lutiya instinctively shouted out.

“That girl is carrying a baby!”

Like a miracle, Noin stopped moving.  Lutiya groaned as the spear was pulled from his hand.  He crawled forward.

“Enough… already… I… won’t resist.  Execute me.  So, just one person—”
“If I had said that two years ago, would you have saved my comrades?”

Lutiya’s breath caught in his throat.  That was an answer for both of them.

Noin snorted as he raised his sword.  The blade gleamed from the reflecting flames.

“A sewer rat’s child will in the end be a sewer rat.  It shouldn’t be born.”

Even screams were burned up within the roar of the flames, reaching no one.

This is a nightmare, Lutiya thought.  Everything was going just fine until a few hours ago. I thought everything would continue to work out.  Because we were different from those stupid adults.

He believed that he alone would never face any consequences— like a child who could never, ever become an adult.

A chain clanked as it connected his neck and both wrists.

Unable to accept reality, he continued to wonder, Is this a dream too?

“Rejoice, you’ll be burned at stake.”

Must be, I mean, isn’t a ghost talking?

“…isn’t a guillotine, but it’s in good taste.

“It suits you.  Most of the La Baia students were burned to death.”

Gently, but coldly, the ghost marched him off to the execution grounds.

Except, this isn’t a good dream.

People had gathered within the half-destroyed plaza.

An execution is a kind of spectacle, and with the disorder of the past few days, everyone wanted to vent their fear and anger.  All the more so once the charges were read aloud, that Lutiya had incited the strife between the Rave Empire and the Laica Grand Duchy.

They don’t even realize that they’re all going to be killed just the same after this.  He started to laugh at that thought.

Ah, the Dragon Emperor really was right.

The perpetrators who huffed through their noses while claiming justice, the fools who were made to dance by lies, the opportunists who only followed the wind, claiming they were only dragged into it, and the incompetents who left everything to everyone else, claiming there was nothing they could do.

All of them, each and every one of them, will die just the same.

No one will be forgiven.

“Is there anything you want to say here at the end?”

Noin asked with a refreshed tone as he looked up at Lutiya who had been crucified.

This guy is undoubtedly going to kill loads of people and then die a worthless death.

All of a sudden, almost as if being guided, Lutiya saw a light.  Something seemed to be reflecting it.  Turning to look, he found the owner of the light within the crowd.

It was a little girl. She was barefoot. Her hair and the hem of her one-piece dress were scorched. Her cheeks were smudged with soot.  There weren’t any adults nearby who looked to be her parents or guardians.  Maybe she got caught up in the last night’s attack on the port? She tightly gripped something with both her hands, and her stare was fixed on Noin’s back.

Lutiya, feeling as though he were seeing his former self in her dark eyes, smiled.  He hadn’t been able to become an adult who could protect her.  He had become the very sort of person he had hated so much.

He raised his head and took in his surroundings.

“You’re all pigs who can’t think for yourselves, who refuse to learn, and do nothing but eat and sleep.  I hate you.  You should all just die.”

“What was that?” Murmurs broke from his surroundings.  The little girl was pushed.  She stumbled and fell, but no one noticed the knife that rolled from her grasp.

Is this also the Dragon God’s righteous guidance?  Or is it his judgement?

Noin hadn’t noticed.  His remaining eye was solely fixed on Lutiya.

He laughed at him.

“For the last thing I see to be your face, that’s the worse.  What a nightmare.”

At the very, very end, he realized something.

Noin smiled in return and lowered his gaze.

“Really? Good night, Lutiya.”
“Good night, Noin.”

—The only one I never wanted to see was the you who became this.

Undoubtedly, both of them felt the same.

Fire could be heard catching at Lutiya’s feet with a crackle.  He slowly lowered his eyes.  He no longer wanted to wake up.  His dream was ending.

The little girl dashed toward Noin’s back.

---

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