By the Savior Saint’s gut like a weathered compass, it was time to move. But his bones lay heavy like sun-warmed stones.

On the outskirts of Machu Picchu, capital of Colonna, a small village drowsed like a cat in winter light. He sprawled on the orphanage lawn, a blade of grass between his lips, drifting left, then right.

The sun poured down like honey, a rare mild winter, perfect for a noon nap. At the fierce insistence of the Savior Saint and the children, they lay in a line like bold brushstrokes, basking in a warm, butter-soft sleep.

Drowsiness wasn’t the biggest reason he didn’t rise.

“If an orphanage is truly good—call it an Orphans of the Fallen Hall or the den of some ambitious lord, I don’t care—if people approach with kindness or malice, to use or to save, I don’t care—if the meals are two coarse buns a day or steak and cake every time, I don’t care—so long as the children don’t complain, so long as they laugh through their days, that’s a beautiful era.”

“That’s how I’ve always felt.”

“I honestly don’t get what you’re saying. Sorry, Savior Saint.”

The Dragon Exorcist sat obediently on a slanted stone bench, her armor shed like a husk. Her frame was startlingly small, almost smaller than the children.

She didn’t look even one and a half meters, a sapling beside old pines.

Her mind, like her body, hadn’t fully grown its rings.

The Savior Saint glanced at the Dragon Exorcist in a thin dress. She braced herself on the bench with both hands, gray eyes cool as river stones, looking past the trees, maybe past them to Machu Picchu.

“I’ve kept traveling, trying to save, gathering scraps of sense. I’ve seen men and demons tear each other like storms. I’ve seen demons that wear human faces, and people that hunt like beasts. I’ve seen worlds twisted, absurd, monstrous, and foul. Mm… honestly, I’m not sure I’m even making sense.”

He scratched his chin. To most, he looked thirty or forty, because his calm sat heavy like iron and his gaze was old as ash. Strip the aura, he was a youth under twenty.

His face was clean, a plain moon with no beard.

“I’ve met the noble and the base… Dragon Exorcist, I don’t know where you’re from, what you believe, what you aim for.”

“I still don’t get you.”

“Right, I’m bad at talking… okay, this way. You need a reason and an outcome. Why you do a thing, and the result you mean to reach.”

“Slay dragons!”

She answered at once, a furnace door kicked open.

Heat like lava seeped from her slightly parted lips. Her half-lidded eyes snapped wide; fine cracks webbed her lids, glowing from within like molten seams.

Her pupils burned, stare hot enough to singe, with a faint spill of light like sparks.

“…Slay dragons…”

Then she lowered her head. The inner fire dimmed. Laziness flowed back like a cooling forge.

“That’s the knot. Here, now, in this era, there are no dragons. Not the kind you know, no evil dragons begging to be slain.”

“…”

“The Divine Beings summoned heroes, hoping we’d save the world. You—Dragon Exorcist—how will you save it? What’s your way?”

“Slay dragons. I only know that. From birth, my family taught me one thing: slay dragons. I learned nothing else.”

“Drive the old nightmares back into the Shadow—so they’re thoroughly, completely, only a vivid nightmare. I know others… with that kind of fixation.” He shifted, careful not to wake a dozing child, and propped himself up. “But this is not your era. Humans haven’t pushed other races outside ‘human.’ Dragons are still counted as our kin.”

“…”

“Dragon Exorcist…”

“I’m thinking. I have no answer.”

“The Holy Knight longs for ‘an era wholly belonging to humans’—that kind of world. The Assassin desires ‘everyone living in calm and peace’—that kind of world. The Night Watcher wishes ‘after succoring the whole world, no sin remains’—that kind of world. Their futures differ, their saving differs, but they thought seriously and reached their own conclusions.”

“That’s what you mean by wishes?”

“Not all. The Holy Knight’s wish equals his result in saving; he doesn’t care about what he forgot. The Assassin’s wish is ‘to remember her first wish, to stop hollow, repeated deaths and returns.’ Saving the world is the price the Divine Being asked.”

“…”

“Dragon Exorcist, consider your wish, and what you think saving looks like.”

She cocked her head, thinking, then hopped off the bench. She circled to the lawn, stood before him, and spoke straight.

“Slay dragons—that’s all I can say. Even if there are no evil dragons left, I can’t and don’t know other ways to save the world.”

“Is that so? If someone was robbed on the roadside—though it doesn’t happen in this era—what then?”

“…”

She fell silent, like a blade laid back in its sheath.

“I figure you’ve seen it. And… sigh, I won’t judge you. Don’t be surprised. After living past I-don’t-know-how-many centuries, you forget your homeland’s face. By then, you’ve watched enough hearts to read their weather.”

“I didn’t intervene. I walked past. I don’t know if the victim died; I don’t know if the bandits were caught. Also, with my armor and weapon, few dare to rob me.”

“Why?”

“Because I have dragons to slay… and endless dragons.”

“That’s nothing to be ashamed of. I did the same, worse than you.”

He gave a crooked smile like a cracked cup.

“At first, I thought killing must be wrong, war must be foolish, conflict must be ridiculous. But mostly… we look from one side and call it the victim. In war, who isn’t a victim?”

“So you chose not to meddle. I get it. So your saving—”

“Right. Just ‘save the world.’ Nothing else.”

“Not even heartache?”

“Not.”

“Not even calamity?”

“Not.”

“Even if a small push could make everything better—you still won’t?”

“Not, unless it’s the world itself falling apart. Except—”

“These kids? You think you’re their hero?”

“No. I’m not that grand. I just don’t want to let pure souls down.”

“Hah…”

The quick volley of questions forced the Dragon Exorcist to draw long breaths, steadying like a bell after a strike.

The Savior Saint watched her with a steadfast, razor-straight gaze, like a blade that won’t bend.

She watched him with a muted sadness, rare when she wasn’t fighting, like rain holding back.

“Savior, Saint—you’re pitiable.”

“The more you think, the more extreme. The more you know, the more mad. The more you see, the more lost. I don’t regret it. I know I’ve saved more than I’ve killed—that’s my saving, and my redemption.”

“Then what direction should I choose? What wish should I make? When all I have is proved hollow—my enemies gone, my armor called brittle, my sword unrecognizable—Savior Saint, what should I hope for? My mission lost its meaning. Can you give me a new one?”

“I can’t.”

“Hah! I figured. You don’t meddle. You only ‘save the world.’”

“I only know how to save the world. Nothing else belongs to me—no special insight, no thought of my own.”

“Fine. I’ll think it through alone. While Colonna upgrades my armor and sword, I’ll think.”

She waved, already tired, ready to leave.

He called her before she turned.

“I should go.”

The flat words struck her like flint. She flared.

“You’re walking to your death. All of you are walking to your deaths. Even the Dragon Exorcist scouts. I check if a dragon is poison or fire, if it eats fresh meat or carrion, how long its claws, how thick its scales. One time I rushed in blind. I died. —Damn it, are you idiots? You know it’s a trap, the Demon King waiting to feast, and you jump in? Huh?!”

“Even knowing it’s hard and lethal, you charge. That’s what a hero is—a fool.”

His bitter smile found a rare, bright edge.

“Suit yourself.” She flicked her hand, impatient. “I won’t stop you. I’m no hero. I’m a plain dragon-slayer. Hunting an unknown monster isn’t my style.”

“It’s fine. If I succeed, I won’t need help. If I fail, I won’t drag you down with me.”

“Savior Saint.”

“Mm.”

“If you die, I’ll avenge you, as thanks for the talk.”

“No need. Honestly, this trip is needless. The Demon King convinced me he doesn’t have to die.”

“You mean the World Saving Demon King everyone in Machu Picchu keeps arguing about?” She recalled those thorny topics from the academy’s politics lectures.

“Be careful with that Demon King. He’s not the usual kind you can greet with pure hostility.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Because he isn’t wholly evil, yet knows he’s a villain. He’s like a buried pollutant at your feet—you don’t know when you’ll get sick.”

He warned her earnestly, though his own heart felt like a fogged mirror.

If he could kill him, the story would end.

If he couldn’t, the Demon King would tempt and sway this Dragon Exorcist adrift.

“I shouldn’t be minding any of this.” He shrugged. “With luck, two of four will return. Without luck, out of the five heroes the Divine Beings summoned, maybe only you remain. That’s the warning. Take care, Dragon Exorcist.”

“Fortune in battle.”

The wind rose like a pale tide. The Dragon Exorcist’s white dress streamed away. She waved one last goodbye.

The Savior Saint looked at the children rubbing their eyes, just waking, like chicks under sun. He nodded toward her disappearing back.

“Thank you. And the rest… I leave to you.”