I, Viretta, Am Going to Hunt a Dragon-Chapter 51

The suffocating silence was finally broken, just barely. Viretta and Ranken managed to force out their voices, struggling even to breathe. The problem was that their bodies remained locked together.

The sheer tension froze them in place.

It felt like staring down a horned rhinoceros, a lake crocodile, or some other dangerous beast. Their bodies were stiff with fear.

After all, Viretta and Ranken understood the gravity of the situation.

This was Iola, who never denied their engagement.

Even though she was adamant about breaking the engagement, until it was officially severed, Iola adhered strictly to the duties of a fiancé.

In the middle of the night.

On a narrow bed in a small room.

Even though they were pale as ghosts, they were still wrapped up in each other’s arms.

“This is indefensible... even if I died, I’d deserve it.”

“We’re screwed...”

Seven years of friendship communicated their thoughts through a single exchange of glances.

This was like lighting the bonfire of betrayal, one of the most scandalous offenses to humanity.

Of course, there was nothing romantic between them, but from any angle, this was a scene ripe for suspicion.

And Iola, already holding his sword, was scarier than any ghost. He approached, sinking to one knee at the bedside as if collapsing.

“...Was it just the two of you here?”

Iola’s wounded expression as he looked up at Viretta and Ranken made the already shaken Viretta panic even more.

“N-no, of course not, a ghost was here too!”

“...”

If there was one fortunate aspect, it was that Ranken seemed to regain his composure in contrast.

Hearing Viretta’s absurd lie felt like a splash of cold water to him.

He frowned at her, clearly wishing to say, “What kind of excuse is that...” if only Iola weren’t holding a sword.

But justice was far, and the sword was close. Iola’s blade pierced deeply into the wooden floor.

“There are no such things as ghosts.”

“No! We heard it! It said, ‘Save me!’ and cried out in grief! Right, Ranken? It wasn’t just the two of us, right?”

Viretta’s mouth moved fluidly, her tongue almost freed by Iola’s reluctance to swing his sword immediately. Whatever direction her words took, they were at least spoken with confidence.

“Earlier, you said it was a bird.”

“Well, I thought so, but it must’ve been a ghost. There’s no way a bird that can mimic human speech would exist in a backwater city like this.”

“Why are you suddenly insulting the city?”

“There was a ghost here, along with me and Ranken! So, we weren’t alone, okay? You get that, right?”

Ranken muttered under his breath, but it was still better than nothing. The priority was persuading Iola and staying alive.

If that rigid man, convinced of betrayal and deception, were to swing his sword, no words would matter.

“Viretta, ghosts do not exist.”

Yet strangely, Iola, who always trusted her words, seemed unusually unwilling to believe her now.

His hand, gripping the hilt of his sword buried in the floor, trembled slightly.

“Attempts to prove the existence of spiritual entities have failed miserably and will continue to do so.”

“But we heard it! It cried out, ‘Grievance! Grievance!’”

At that exact moment, the eerie sound of the ghost echoed once more.

The cry was louder and clearer this time. Even Iola must have heard it, though he only flinched slightly before continuing to ignore Viretta.

“It’s possible that heightened tension caused auditory hallucinations.”

“Iola, don’t you always trust what I say?”

“I trust your subjective truth, but not as an objective fact. I do not deny that you heard something, but it might have been a phenomenon caused by some misunderstanding.”

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What was this?

For some reason, looking at Iola reminded her of Ranken. His desperate denial sparked an idea in Viretta’s mind.

“...Iola, by any chance, are you afraid of ghosts?”

“One cannot dislike something that does not exist.”

The crack in Iola’s smiling face was all the answer she needed.

She let out a sigh of relief.

The fact that even Iola had something he feared made him seem more relatable, and most importantly, it reassured her that he wasn’t truly angry.

Perhaps he was too overwhelmed to even start chastising them.

No matter how she looked at it, it seemed obvious he was scared of ghosts, though he adamantly denied it.

As her tension eased, she pulled away slightly from Ranken. Straightening her messy hair, she adjusted the blanket draped over her shoulders.

“Did you come here because you didn’t want to be alone?”

“I was worried about you because of the unsettling rumors. Although... it seems someone beat me to it.”

Even his excuse sounded suspiciously similar to Ranken’s, making her chuckle.

Viretta glanced at Iola, then at Ranken, before spreading the blanket wider.

“Iola, come join us. There’s room for three of us to sit.”

“Then, excuse me.”

Without hesitation, Iola slid in between Viretta and Ranken. She had opened the blanket on Ranken’s side, but it was all for nothing.

“Why are you sitting between Ranken and me?”

“Do you not like it?”

“It’s not that I dislike it, but I’d prefer to be in the middle. You know, wanting to be at the center of the world?”

“Viretta, you and I have so much in common. I feel the same way.”

Though he was smiling brightly, his meaning was clear: he had no intention of giving up the middle spot.

A strange tension hung between the three of them, but it was quickly resolved. Neither side backed down, but as a cold breeze swept in, Iola pulled them both closer.

—Wooooh... death... death... wooohhh...

“......”

“......”

“......”

The eerie sound reverberated endlessly, smothering all their petty disputes. A creeping chill climbed up their spines.

—Wooooooo... revenge... revenge... wooohooooooo...

The voice, no longer resembling anything human, gained an unsettling rhythm. Ranken, rattled by the atmosphere, went limp and clung to Iola.

“What do you think that sound is, oh wise scholar?”

“The most likely explanations are misunderstanding, auditory hallucination, or perhaps echoes traveling here from a distant source.”

“It seems perfectly clear. Can it really be a misunderstanding?”

“Of course. When someone thinks they’ve heard specific words, they tend to keep hearing them.”

It was similar to how someone hard of hearing might completely misinterpret a conversation.

“All three of us heard it, so it can’t be a hallucination.”

“Without confirming what each of us heard, it’s hard to say definitively.”

—Saaaaave meeee... pleeease... clangclangclang.

Now, amidst the groaning, there was even the sound of ceramic dishes being struck. The trio, despite the rising sense of foreboding, tried their best to remain calm and ignore the ominous background noise.

“I just heard, ‘Save meee.’”

“I heard it too,” said Viretta.

“As did I,” Iola confirmed. “If all three of us heard the same thing, it could be a distant echo that somehow reached here. This sort of thing happens often in opera houses.”

Iola Jin. As stubborn as Viretta, and just as unwilling to yield.

“What kind of opera house makes noises like that?! Ugh, no, never mind. We’re under divine protection anyway. Viretta always donates generously to the church.”

“Idolizing such false gods is hardly reassuring, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Oh, Heavenly Father, take this heretic first,” Ranken muttered, clasping his hands in mock prayer as he sighed at Iola’s relentless sarcasm.

Though Ranken was praying, knowing full well no deity had ever answered his pleas, this act alone proved he was as stubborn as the others.

“Seriously though, eerie noises aren’t exclusive to ghosts. It could very well be the work of a burglar pretending to be one. Ghosts... well, they’ve never been proven to exist.”

“They could be proven, though.”

“They cannot.”

Today, however, Iola seemed even more insistent than usual. His fingertips trembled slightly, and his face was a touch paler than normal as he vehemently denied the possibility of ghosts.

“So, you’re willing to believe that Viretta will slay a dragon, but not that ghosts might exist?”

“I’ve already proven that belief through my actions.”

“You, Iola?”

“I come from a long line of people who’ve made a living through slaughter, and I’ve personally taken countless lives in battle. Yet, despite all that, I met Viretta and am now embarking on the monumental task of dragon hunting. If ghosts truly existed, would life have unfolded so smoothly?”

“......”

“......”

Viretta and Ranken, who had been desperately speaking to drown out the eerie noises, fell silent.

Tears welled up in Viretta’s eyes, and Ranken outright let his fall in fat drops.

“They do exist... ghosts.”

“Curses, those damn ghosts... even coming here to get in the way...”

While Viretta tried to hold back her tears, Ranken, resigned, sobbed openly, his large, glassy tears glinting in the dim light.