Chapter 512 – On the Brink of Death

It was officially announced in the royal capital that the Crown Prince, who had been in charge of guiding the Saint’s party within the kingdom, had been suddenly recalled due to illness.

It’s a mental illness, so technically it wasn’t exactly a lie.

It must have been a painful decision for the royal family.

If what Prince Fleue said was true, then in a few days, the Crown Prince would resign from his position, citing illness.

And then, under the pretense of “treatment,” he would likely be confined to a tower.

Though their talk with Prince Fleue had been grim, he was at least happy to hear that we were going on more adventures.

That made it all the harder for Tauro to leave the royal capital.

“Should we… stay a little longer in the capital?”

Aeris, noticing his unease, suggested gently.

The two of them were walking through the streets of the royal capital after leaving the castle.

“Maybe… is that okay? But we’ll have to talk to the others about it first. Where are the three of them now, I wonder?”

Tauro asked, referring to their companions.

This is because Aeris possessed a spell that allowed her to roughly sense the location of her party members.

“Give me a moment… ‘Mana Detection.’”

Aeris  raised her ebony staff to the sky and cast the spell.

Her magical energy rippled outward across the capital like waves on water.

“Huh? I can’t sense Ragune’s presence… maybe she went back to the Dragon peoples’ village. And I can’t really feel Zion’s magic either. She’s somewhere in the city, but… it’s an oddly open area with no houses nearby. Ankh’s magic is there too, but also weak… the location is near the tavern district—on a side street, in a plaza, I think. …No—this doesn’t feel right! Tauro, I’ll head to Zion! You go to Ankh!”

Sensing something was wrong with their companions’ magical signatures, Aeris  tells tauro.

There was an inn right on the corner of the street, and next to it I could see where several horses were kept.

“R-right, got it! Let’s borrow horses there! —Pella, just to be safe, go with Aeris  and protect her!”

The Slime Emperor, Pella, which had been disguised as Tauro’s belt, released his disguise at his master’s command, hopped up and jumped onto Aeris’s shoulder.

They quickly showed the innkeeper a generous sum of gold to borrow two horses, then mounted them and galloped off—riding off to where Ankh and Zion were.

A few hours earlier—

Ragune and Zion had been shopping together on Sewing Street in the royal capital.

“Ragune, don’t you think this one’s cute?”

Zion held up a cute, frilly outfit that didn’t look like it has anything to do with adventuring, posing it against herself.

“It suits you well, Zion.”

Ragune smiled approvingly—just before it happened.

From Zion’s position deeper inside the shop, she could see Ragune near the front of the store—and for an instant, she thought she saw a shadow appear behind her.

       It felt that way because, quite literally, that’s what it looked like. Just an instant.

And in the next instant, both the fleeting shadow and Ragune were gone from where she had been standing.?

“Huh?”

Zion blinked, unable to believe what had happened in an instant.

She hastily puts the clothes he was holding back on the shelf nearby and runs to the front of the store.

“Ragune!? Where are you!?”

She looked left and right down the street—but Ragune was nowhere to be seen.

Then she saw it—fresh blood right there on the ground.

Bloodstains that looked as if they have just been spilled.

Zion knew immediately, instinctively, that it belonged to Ragune.

As she stared in shock at the crimson drops on the ground, she felt something hot on her back.—followed by searing pain ripping through her whole body.

“Ah!”

She cried, Zion was already standing in the middle of what looked like an empty lot, far from Sewing Street.

The pain in her back flared as she reached around—her fingers touched the hilt of a blade embedded in her body.

The pain quickly gave way to numbness spreading through every limb.

Her knees gave out, and she fell to the ground.

Looking behind her, she could see a hooded figure standing there.

“Stay here. I’ve still got to finish off the other one.”

From the voice, it was clearly a man.

And with that, he vanished into thin air.

“…T-teleportation…?”

Unable to bear the numbness coursing through her, Zion collapsed completely.

Meanwhile, Back when she was standing in front of the tailoring shop— The moment Ragune sensed the presence of someone and a murderous intent behind her, the same instant a sharp pain tore into her side.

In the next instance, she was standing inside what appeared to be an abandoned, deserted building.

A dagger was lodged deep in her side.

She coughed up blood and fell to her knees.

For a brief instant, she caught a glimpse of a shadow behind her—but then it too had disappeared.

“The dagger has been coated with a deadly paralyzing poison…”

She realized it immediately, from the way the numbness and pain coursed through her body.

And somewhere in the back of her mind, she understood that staying here would mean certain death—the figure from before would surely return.

Knowing she wouldn’t last long, Ragune immediately opened the Dimensional Corridor and leapt through it.

Back at the empty plaza— Zion lay face down, immediately beginning to heal herself.

The strange paralyzing poison made it hard to gather magic power, but she had endured similar conditions during training at the Dragon lair, the training ground in the Dragon peoples’ village, so it was fine.

Perhaps a minute passed as she focused entirely on self-healing—when she suddenly felt a presence around again.

Someone’s boots entered her blurred field of vision.

“Well, well… I turn my back for fifteen seconds, and the dying lizard woman I locked in that abandoned building disappears. I wasn’t able to finish her off—but in that condition, she won’t get far.”

Zion heard the words from above and immediately knew he was talking about Ragune.

“Hmm? You can still use self-healing even after taking my special paralysis toxin? Impressive. Just like that dragonkin woman from earlier, that’s quite an impressive ability. But… too bad. This time, I’ll make sure you stay down.”

With those words, the man drove a dagger into Zion’s back.

“Ahh!”

Even though she was numb, Zion still felt the excruciating pain and let out a small shriek.

“My master told me to make you suffer—but I still have three more targets. You can die quickly.”

The man yanked the dagger out from Zion’s back, then plunged it into her chest, straight to her heart.

The light faded rapidly from Zion’s eyes.

“… Tauro-dono…”

Her hand stretched out weakly, then fell lifelessly to the ground.

“Next target… the man in the tavern district.”

The man seemed uninterested in Zion’s death, and after murmuring the location of his next target, Ankhh, he vanished once again from the scene.

A few seconds later—

Thump.

Zion’s heart began to beat again.

It was thanks to a special ability she had placed upon herself beforehand—one she had never herself thought she would need.

But thanks to that. She was alive.

Barely. It didn’t change the fact that she’s dying.

No, either way, she’ll die if things stay like this..

Even though she had shifted her heart’s position at the last moment and managed to avoid instant death, she’d been stabbed deeply in three places, and was bleeding profusely.

Zion quickly used her ability to stop the bleeding, but it wouldn’t last long.

As her consciousness faded, Zion made the only choice she could to survive even a few moments longer: She induced a state of suspended animation—and closed her eyes.