Decision (4)
“Miss Seris!”
Mary broke away from her parents the moment she saw the snow-white-haired witch.
They were still clearly panicked, yet Mary paid it no mind as she rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Seris.
“Mary… carefully…”
“Miss Seris, it’s terrible! Mama woke me up, and people were running everywhere!”
“Is that so?”
Mary’s parents finally caught up, worry etched across their faces as they approached.
“Miss Seris, what exactly is happening?”
“I don’t know myself.”
Seris kept her gaze fixed on the distance, where the torches contrasted against the dark.
Dragons had sharp senses. They could read signatures from a distance and distinguish one person from another.
Even without seeing it, she knew a battle was already forming on the horizon.
“But I have no choice but to trust in Vergil. Now come. I will escort all of you as far as possible.”
Seris tightened her hold on Mary’s hand as they moved forward.
She had no real sense of direction, nor any clear destination in mind.
All she knew was that Vergil had told her to take them as far as she could, and she intended to follow that instruction without questioning his reasoning.
Even so, Seris already suspected there was something unusual about Mary.
The child’s attachment to her was strong, and Seris found herself responding to it in ways she couldn’t fully explain.
A sense of familiarity she couldn’t quite place.
——Dragon? Like those overgrown lizards?
But Seris quickly pushed the thought aside.
That human princess had likely ceased to exist by now, just like every other connection she once had.
Seris wasn’t even certain how many years had passed since she had woken from her cryogenic state.
What she did know was that it was long enough to consider that there was likely no one left who could recognize her human form.
“Mama, do you think Grandma Elaina left the village, too?”
“......”
Seris slowed to a halt.
Grandma Elaina had been the gentle old woman who greeted her every morning with freshly grilled meat skewers.
Mary’s mother forced a smile and answered.
“Yes, Mary. I’m sure Grandma Elaina is already somewhere safe.”
“What about Uncle Bart?”
“.......”
Seris stopped again.
Uncle Bart. The kind uncle who had paved a clear path from Vergil’s cabin to the village so she would never lose her way when Vergil wasn’t around.
He never asked for anything in return, simply doing it because he thought she seemed lonely.
Seris lowered her gaze, unable to hide the tight lump forming in her throat.
“...I hope I see Ryan again.”
“You definitely will, Mary.”
Ryan. One of the children who always begged Seris to let him try on her witch hat.
Seris didn’t need to turn around to imagine the expressions on Mary’s parents’ faces.
Mary’s small hand trembled in hers, and Seris tightened her grip.
These humans… they were certainly precious in ways that made everything feel heavier than she wished it did.
Seris never expected she would feel this kind of sentimentality toward anyone again, not after the Ice Dragons were wiped out.
She slowed as they approached the mouth of a small cave under the hillside.
“Mary’s parents… I apologize, but could you wait for me inside that cave?”
Mary’s mother looked up in confusion.
“Miss Seris?”
“It’s only for a moment. I need to check something ahead. I won’t be far.”
Mary’s father glanced between Seris and the darkening path.
“Is it dangerous?”
“I don’t know yet. Which is why I need you inside. Please.”
Mary clutched her hand tighter.
“Will you come back?”
Seris knelt slightly so their eyes met.
“Of course. I’ll come back for all of you.”
She had only spent a month with the villagers, a short span of time by any measure.
Yet that single month had meant everything to Seris, who lost everything she had ever known and had never expected to feel anything close to belonging again.
The warmth they had shown her, the kindness she never asked for, and the acceptance she never thought she deserved had settled into her heart before she realized it.
For someone who had lived through the extinction of her own kind, even a fleeting connection felt impossibly precious.
And Vergil…
Seris still wasn’t sure what to make of the emotions she held toward the man who had done so much for her, even when she had oftentimes been difficult and uncooperative.
…Gratitude.
Perhaps what she felt for him was a kind of unconditional gratitude.
And for a princess of a bygone era, gratitude was never a small thing.
It was the sort of sentiment that could change a life, the kind that could raise a beggar to a nobleman overnight.
Seris ran through the cold forest.
“You damned foolish human… if you’re still alive…”
The dense, overgrown tundra that had once been her homeland stretched around her.
It had changed over the years, yet as she moved through it, the land felt familiar again, as if it were welcoming her back after a long time.
“Then never choose to discard me again… I am tired of seeing those around me leave before I do…”
Scales began to form along her arms.
“Do they never think about how I would feel? Did Mother believe I would be grateful she saved my life at the cost of her own…?”
Her hand curled into a fist, and frost spread outward, cracking across the ground as if mirroring the pain in her heart.
Ahead of the clearing, the glow of torches flickered through the trees.
Seris felt the signatures immediately.
Human knights had pushed in from the far side as they tore through the village.
From the opposite direction came another surge of human presence.
Perhaps that was where Vergil was.
“Witch! Get her!”
The knights spotted her and lunged immediately.
———!
Seris reacted before the blade could reach her.
A cold breath left her lips, and a burst of frost surged upward from the ground, freezing the air and forcing the knights back in a wave of biting cold.
“That home. Do you have any idea who lives there?!”
The frost was spreading in jagged patterns as the temperature continued to drop.
“Surround her!”
They rushed in, but Seris didn’t retreat.
Shards of ice burst from the soil, catching one knight in the leg and another across the arm.
Cracks shuffled through the clearing as another sweep of her hand summoned a gust of frozen wind that sent several more stumbling back.
“That home you set ablaze. Do you know who lives there? A baker who wakes before dawn so the children have fresh bread!”
Two more knights charged.
Seris flicked her wrist, and a wall of ice materialized between them, sending both crashing into its surface before the whole sheet shattered.
“And that one. That is where Mr. Bart lives. The man who built a path so I would never get lost! Did he deserve this?!”
A cluster of knights tried to break through from her left.
Seris let out a breath, and the temperature plunged at once.
Frost coiled up their legs, locking them in place. Their armor creaked as the cold deepened.
Seris didn’t slow down.
“The house behind it belongs to Hansel. A kind woman who would often tell stories just so the people could have some form of entertainment! Tell me, is that the home of an enemy to you?!”
A knight managed to get close enough to swing at her.
Seris caught the blade in a burst of ice, trapping it mid-air, and with a single push sent the man sliding back across the frozen ground.
More poured in. A dozen or more. Yet Seris didn’t panic.
“These are the people you target. These are the homes you tear apart. And for what?”
Her arm finished its transformation.
Scales spread as her fingers curved into sharp, glacial claws.
“What did the villagers ever do to you, humans?!”
A knight scoffed from the back of the group.
“The hell is she yapping about? Hey, has anyone located the child?!”
Seris’s eyes turned toward him.
Child.
For a moment, the world narrowed to that one word.
“Search every house! The brat has to be here somewhere!”
The pieces fell together immediately.
Vergil had been very clear with his instructions.
To take Mary and her family and go as far as possible, no one else.
They weren’t after the village.
‘They’re searching for Mary…’
A cold breath left her, and the frost crawling across her scales deepened in color.
“I found someone, Captain!”
Seris jerked her head toward the voice.
A knight was a few paces away, gripping an old woman by the hair and dragging her across the frozen ground.
“Grandma Elaina…”
The knight tightened his hold.
“Old hag wouldn’t answer. Figured she might know where the child is.”
A crack sounded beneath Seris’s feet.
“Let her go.”
The knight scoffed and tugged Elaina’s hair harder, forcing a pained gasp from the woman.
“You’re in no position to give orders, witch.”
Seris took a single step forward. The temperature plunged. Even the torches sputtered as frost crept up their handles.
“That woman has done nothing but show kindness to everyone in this village. And you dare lay a hand on her!”
The knight wavered at her tone. Another soldier whispered nervously.
“Captain, her arm, look!”
“D-Dragonoid?!”
But from the way the ice moved at her command, it wasn’t difficult to understand what she was.
Dragons, much like Dragonids, possessed natural elements tied to their blood.
And no Dragonoid alive could manipulate frost thick enough to split the earth or freeze the air solid.
“I-It’s the Ice Dragon, Captain!”
A wave of panic spread through the knights.
Even the captain’s grip faltered as he stared at her with a fear he could not hide.
Elaina whimpered under the knight’s hold, and the sound pushed Seris over the edge.
But before she could move, the captain barked out an order.
“Hold the hostage! Surround her!”
The knight holding Elaina jerked her upright and pressed his blade to her throat.
Elaina gasped, her eyes full of terror. Seris froze before she could take a step.
In the treeline, more torches flickered.
The knights who had scattered earlier were now returning, dragging villagers behind them, battered and bloodied.
Seris’s stomach churned.
More knights poured in from every direction, their numbers increasing until she could no longer count.
“Captain! We retrieved the fugitives!”
“Bring them forward! Use them all if needed!”
Seris took a step back.
The cold roared around her, yet her chest felt strangely tight, as if the air were being crushed out of her lungs.
Elaina cried out again as the knight yanked her hair.
“Stay back, Dragon! One wrong move, and she dies!”
Seris’s vision blurred at the edges.
There were too many.
Too many blades.
Too many hostages.
Too many lives she could lose in an instant if she released even a fraction of her power.
For the first time since the battle began, Seris felt fear.
“Stop… don’t hurt them…”
The knights only tightened the circle.
One of the men being dragged forward tried to break free.
He shoved the knight holding him and staggered back, bleeding and terrified.
In the scuffle, the knight reacted too quickly. His sword lashed out.
A wet sound resounded in the air, and the man fell to the ground lifelessly.
“Stop…”
The knights didn’t stop.
Another villager screamed as a different knight struck him across the face with the hilt of his blade, knocking him to the ground.
A woman was shoved so hard she hit a tree and collapsed, clutching her ribs.
Children cried out as they were pulled away from their parents.
Each sound dug into Seris’s chest.
It was just like that time, when the Ice Dragons were hunted down one after another.
She could still remember the sky stained with fire, the roar of dying elders, the shouts of her people echoing across the frosted mountains.
And her, the princess of her clan, powerless in her mother’s grasp as they fled while everyone she knew fell one by one.
“Hold them still! Anyone who runs dies next!”
Seris staggered a step forward.
“Stop… please… stop hurting them…”
Elaina cried out as the knight holding her dug the edge of his sword deeper against her neck.
“Miss Seris… It’s okay…”
Seris’s heart slammed against her ribs. A ringing sound echoed in her ears.
The cold that had always obeyed her now spiraled wildly.
Another villager tried to resist, a young man barely older than Vergil.
The knight holding him grew frustrated, drove a boot into his stomach, then another.
The boy wheezed, coughing blood and collapsing to the snow.
“Stop!”
Something inside her snapped.
———!
In the next heartbeat, the Ice Dragon took full shape.
Scales spread across her body, swallowing her human form.
Her limbs stretched. A single horn protruded atop her head.
Even with a single horn, an Ice Dragon was still an Ice Dragon.
Roooooooar——
