"Where did this Giant Dragon even come from?" The question fell like thunder from a clear sky.

Following Nana Toki, Lorin watched the villagers swarm like an anthill kicked open. His brows knotted like twisted roots. "It can’t have just appeared in the ridge behind the village for no reason."

"We don’t know what happened," someone answered, voice thin as mist. "This Giant Dragon skimmed over Mida Village at dawn like a shadow over wheat and went straight to the back mountain. No idea why it’s in a place this remote."

Well, it’s Heaven’s script—ink on clouds, unreadable to mortals.

"Anyway, let’s head up and take a look." The plan landed like a stone in a still pond.

Nana Toki flicked a glance at Lorin, her eyes a slim blade of frost. "Didn’t you say you were looking for your companion? Your chance is here. Come with me up the mountain."

"Eh?! What does finding my companion have to do with a Giant Dragon?" Lorin’s ears rang like struck bronze.

"Are you a pig?" Her words snapped like dry twigs. "Ever heard of Heroes versus Dragons? A Giant Dragon shows up behind the village and doesn’t come out? Obviously it kidnapped someone. You’re not going to save them? Or do you want ordinary villagers to go? Are you still a man aiming to be a Hero?"

"But… Miss Rock Candy, that’s a Giant Dragon. In legends, even its casual breath is fourth-tier magic." Cold sweat beaded like dew as Lorin waved his hands, trying to show the size of the storm. "Even a Hero can’t beat one easily! And I’ve never even heard of some ‘Hero versus Dragon’ tale."

"And then?" Her voice was flat as a winter lake. "What’s a dragon a Hero can’t beat got to do with me? Maybe there’s a Princess versus Dragon version."

Lorin: "…"

Was this woman joking, or what?

Nana Toki wasn’t joking. In her System panel, a new line bloomed like a red seal on silk: Sub-quest [Slay the Giant Dragon]. Inside, her heart stayed calm as deep snow.

She even wanted to complain, like wind muttering through pines. Third-stage plane, of course. If this Giant Dragon isn’t culled, Mida Village will live under a hanging sword.

Looking at the war as a whole, there’s no retreat—only banners in the wind. Her Dragon-Cleaver Axe should taste dragon blood again.

System: "… Isn’t that thing called Ghoul-Slayer?"

I call it what I want. None of your business.

System: "…"

"But Miss Rock Candy, acting on our own like this isn’t good," Lorin tried to persuade, voice soft as rain. "We might provoke the Giant Dragon and make it pressure Mida Village. We should report to the kingdom and let a professional team come, right?"

"Can you guarantee the team from the royal capital can kill it?" Nana Toki turned her head, gaze bright and cold as starlight. "And can you guarantee the Giant Dragon won’t strike Mida Village before they arrive?"

Her words were pearls. Each landed like a needle.

"If we don’t stand up now to stall it, the ones in danger will always be the villagers of Mida Village. We both owe Mida Village. Can we watch and let them die?"

Lorin’s tongue felt like wood. Silence pooled like dusk.

Indeed. The Giant Dragon appeared suddenly, and its next move was a foggy road. Even Lorin didn’t dare guess.

He looked around at faces furrowed like plowed fields, then thought of his days living under Mida’s eaves. His teeth met like a snapped twig. After a breath, he decided. "All right. I’ll go with you. It’s part of a Hero’s trial anyway!"

Their agreement to help with the Giant Dragon problem was beyond Ling’er Long’s expectations, like plum blossoms blooming out of season. Those two didn’t look like big shots who could slay a dragon at all.

She had trailed them from the village chief’s house. Only when Nana Toki and Lorin stepped outside did Ling’er Long stop, her steps quiet as falling petals. "You’re really going up the mountain to find that Giant Dragon?"

"What else? Go up there for a picnic?" Nana Toki’s tone was dry as sand.

Lorin: "…" Could the Princess talk like a normal person?

"You’re not afraid to die?" Ling’er Long met Nana Toki’s eyes, calm as a lake before dawn. "Giant Dragons aren’t easily slain."

She’d heard in the Marl King’s hall that even the capital of the Marl Kingdom had once been attacked by a Giant Dragon. To drive that evil, Marl had lost at least six Heroes on par with top grandmasters—names that fell like trees.

"I know." Nana Toki’s answer was a blade drawn slow. "But I still have to try."

Sub-quests hand out items; letting one go is like letting wealth drift downriver. And leaving a dragon alive is a thorn under the nail. If she can’t win, she can still run—smoke through trees.

Also, she didn’t fear a western-fantasy dragon much. It’s the Eastern dragon that coils like a sky-river that chills the bones.

"Do you not understand me?" Ling’er Long’s willow brows creased. "Going like this is just throwing your lives away. Better to wait for your royal capital’s reinforcements and keep losses minimal. You’re a princess of the Hedon Kingdom, aren’t you?"

"I heard someone call you Princess. If you don’t cherish your life, how do you face your people?"

"I like it this way. What can you do about it?" Nana Toki lifted her chin like a crane. A few soft hums drifted like puffs of steam. "Don’t you, as the Marl Kingdom’s princess, often go to war yourself? Besides, if I die, won’t you be able to go back to Marl? You should be happy I’m marching to my death."

"I did that for my country. You’re different." Ling’er Long didn’t like the reminder of being kidnapped; her voice turned cold as iron. "As a ruler, you sacrifice a few to save the greater whole."

"So Mida Village is your ‘few’?" Nana Toki’s face sank like the sky before a storm. She didn’t let Ling’er Long speak before pressing on, words like sleet. "Relying on others is worse than relying on ourselves. If I have to choose between the Hedon Kingdom and Mida Village, I don’t mind erasing the Hedon Kingdom."

Her expression was frost on black stone.

"Even if the people of Mida Village were bandits—burning and looting under a blood moon—as long as I live, even Heaven’s sovereign couldn’t lay a finger on them."

"Are you insane?" Ling’er Long almost laughed in anger, the sound sharp as shattered porcelain. "Can a tiny village be weighed against a great nation’s lands?"

"But without life, land is nothing." Nana Toki lowered her head; her bangs fell like a curtain, hiding her eyes. She turned away, voice quiet as drifting ash. "Breath before banner. I’d rather be a princess without a country."

"What do you mean?" Ling’er Long frowned, her thoughts like clouds breaking and forming. She watched their backs recede along the path like two brushstrokes. After a long breath, she bit down, stomped once, and followed.

…

Host, don’t be angry, okay? the System’s voice tiptoed through her mind like a small animal. Ling’er Long doesn’t know the villagers’ lives are tied to your main quest. If she knew, she wouldn’t say that.

And that dragon in the back mountain really is troublesome. She’s worried about you.

I know. I’m not angry with her. Nana Toki followed the wooden signposts up the trail like a string of lanterns. Her reply was calm as stone, but her face didn’t thaw an inch.

I’m just… irritated. Wherever you go, it’s always like this—old patterns like ruts in a road.

She was tired to the marrow.

"ROAR—!" A dragon’s cry split the forest like lightning through silk. The mountain air trembled; the world rang.

"P-Princess, are we closing in on the Giant Dragon?" Lorin’s pupils shrank like pinpricks; the hairs on his arms stood like bristles. A novice Hero, fresh out of the starter village, facing a dragon—his pressure was a mountain on his chest. His palms sweated like spring rain.

"Should be about there." Trees swayed like reeds under the shock. Nana Toki narrowed her eyes and glanced up at the pale sky, where flustered birds fled like scattered ink. The Giant Dragon roosting behind Mida Village had to be near. She wondered, briefly, how the second princess it had taken was faring.

She followed the sound with Lorin, feet quick as shadows. After a stretch, they stopped before a massive cave, its mouth a dark maw in the mountain.

"This is it." They stood one left, one right, necks craned like cranes at the water’s edge. "The roar came from this cave."

"Don’t just stand there. Your companion’s probably inside as a hostage." Nana Toki spoke as she drew a sheet of gold-yellow paper from her pocket and slapped an Amber Talisman onto herself. The sigil flared like a firefly.

Anyway, the Protagonist Lord has plot armor. He doesn’t need my shielding. Save where I can; it’s water in a travel gourd.

"Uh… Princess, please don’t tease me. If my companion’s inside, the Giant Dragon probably ate him already." Lorin hunched his neck like a turtle. "We’re really going in?"

"Of course. You came all this way; not unwrapping Heaven’s gift would be rude." Nana Toki fished out a round black sphere, smooth as a river stone, and took a pitcher’s stance, body coiled like a bow.

"Princess, that is…?" Lorin blinked, confusion fluttering like moths.

"Ah. A bomb," Nana Toki said, voice level as a placid pond. Then she tossed it, a dark arc against the cave gloom.

"Huh? Wait, what—?!"