ทหารม้าบนหลังมังกร

Part 2

## Character Introductions

Caim — A pact-bearer, once the prince of a small kingdom. After his parents died a horrific death, the fire of vengeance filled his heart. His only remaining tie is his younger sister, Furiae.

Red Dragon — The being bound to Caim by pact. Before humans she carries an ineffable sense of superiority, and her words are barbed with sarcasm, yet at the critical moment she can be of great use.

Furiae (furies) — Caim’s younger sister. Appointed the new Goddess of the Seal, she, a few years on, seems an entirely different person from who she once was.

Inuart — A friend who grew up with Caim and Furiae, deeply in love with Furiae.

Leonard — A pact-bearer who has lost his sight, a hermit of noble character and courteous manners. Yet he harbors a predilection for young boys, and is himself tormented by it.

Verdelet — High priest charged with guarding the Goddess, and a pact-bearer as well. He tries to move those around him with a show of compassion.

## Chapter One: Soul-Luring Blood

1

Wings flashing with light, a great bird danced through the air.

A thin veil of cloud drifted across the azure sky. Lift one’s eyes, and every direction opened wide. It was beautiful, as if it did not belong to the same world as the scene directly beneath it. The rising and falling howls, the spray shot through with a mist of blood—none of it could stain a single corner of that sky. Even the dust flung wildly upward could scarcely veil this solitary, perfect view.

As if mocking the humans on the ground, the bird, before long, wheeled at its leisure and vanished.

“Infantry ahead!”

Yet on the land below, no one noticed the bird passing overhead. The only things turned toward the sky were corpses, torn apart.

“Lord Caim, be careful!”

A soldier, a little old for the battlefield, shouted, and a comparatively young man answered him.

“Don’t be afraid! Charge!”

Ill-matched to his years, he looked long accustomed to battle. There was not a trace of hesitation in the path of his sword. Without mercy he cut the enemy down and slaughtered them. Then he kicked a fallen corpse aside and drove on. Ahead, the press of bodies surging in from every side blocked him. No matter how desperately he cut and killed, enemy soldiers kept closing in from all directions.

“Enemy reinforcements are coming in from the rear!”

He had no leisure to heed that hoarse cry. He only gripped the sword in his hand and swung without pause.

“They’re too strong—these things aren’t human!”

A voice like a wail…

## Chapter Two: Angels Devouring Blood

1

This was no accident. This day had always been coming. Everyone in the village had foreseen it, from the moment they heard the rumors: soldiers with terrible red eyes had begun invading the nations, and a mysterious group calling itself the “Church of the Angels” had settled in the nearby ravine.

They were already fully prepared. The elves were, by nature, a gentle people who disliked strife, and they would never attack another country of their own accord. Invasion was another matter. No matter what nation it was, they would not permit it to trespass. Every villager, women and children included, would unite and throw themselves into the fight. Their principle toward the surrounding nations was eternal neutrality, so this was only natural. People born in an elven village were taught the use of weapons earlier than they were taught to read.

So when her husband took up his bow, left her with a brief “Go to the forest,” and walked away, Arioch did not panic. She knew what he meant: flee deep into the forest; we will hold the two bridges; the child is in your care. At once she snatched up the sword she was used to, belted it at her waist, and set a bow in the hands of her still-young daughter.

Even so, Arioch could not help thinking: if only this had come at least half a year later. Her daughter had only just begun practicing archery. Never mind striking down an enemy—whether she could even protect herself was still in question. And Arioch herself was pregnant now; fighting would be awkward in more ways than one. If only another half a year, at least…

## Chapter Three: Warlords Beneath a Dim Sky

1

“A long, long time ago, in a certain place, there was a very, very small and very brave soldier. The little soldier drank up the water-drops of time, and slept in the hollow of the world, and in that way remained young and strong forever. After a long, long span of years, nearly eternal, when the world was dyed red with blood, the little soldier awoke.

‘Now is the time to spend my life!’

With that body that had drunk the water-drops of time, the little soldier ran toward the end of the world. Later, the little soldier grew old and frail, and before long he died. But the little soldier’s eternal time created new life for the world… Oh—have you fallen asleep already?”

With tender affection she stroked the face of the child who had drifted off in the crook of her arm. Careful not to wake him, she lifted him gently and laid him on the bed.

“My darling child…”

(My treasure, the very image of my beloved Rosiel.) She murmured it only in her heart.

(These brows, these eyes, the corner of this mouth—cut from the very same mold. Truly adorable…)

She gazed, entranced, at the child’s sleeping face. Then, behind her, came the sound of a door opening.

“Mother, that…”

A little annoyed, she turned and glared hard at the face peering timidly at her from the shadow of the door.

(How I hate this. This child again.) She went over and drove the other out the door.

“Don’t wake Seere. You really have no sense.”

The child’s eyes flew wide, brimming with tears.

(I hate you. I hate you so much…

## Chapter Four: The Four Temples — N, Tears of the God

1

Was that a dream? It felt as though she had seen a scene she longed for. She could not recall any of it now, and yet she alone remembered that stifling feeling, the wish to burst into tears. She wanted to go on dreaming just like that, even if it was a nightmare.

Praying she would not wake again, she slipped back into sleep. To wake from the dream would mean she was still alive, and that filled her with despair. She no longer knew how many times such a morning had repeated itself, since the day she was called a goddess and her body was bound by the curse named the Seal.

So long as she was not asleep, she could feel a pain that never ceased. The characters called “Seal” became sharp thorns, and then turned into burning blades. Why was this pain so unbearable? Why was it only the one called goddess who had to endure it?

“God wishes us humans to protect the world with our own hands.”

How fine that sounded. Furiae clenched her teeth and thought it through the pain she was forcing down. At the time she had never imagined she herself would be appointed goddess. She had thought it was merely someone else’s affair. That was why she had been able to say such a thing so calmly.

We humans? No. To be precise, so long as a goddess existed, it did not matter if everyone else did nothing at all. It was enough that the goddess alone dwell in pain and loneliness. The people of the world need only go now and then to a temple or a place of distant worship and offer a symbolic prayer, and they could pass a happy life in peace.

(Why only me? Of all people… why was I chosen? Why couldn’t it have been someone else?)

“It was precisely because I thought you were the one who…

## Chapter Five: The Tower of Red Thunder — Where Does the Dragon Fall

1

All across the Empire’s territory drifted clouds of the same color: the black clouds one saw over the hill country. The sky had forgotten blue, and the earth had forgotten green. Everything was wrapped in a gloomy tone. The nearer one drew to the imperial capital, the thicker that gloom seemed to grow—or perhaps she was only imagining it.

“Your true revenge begins only now.”

(Revenge. That familiar word, which had never vanished from inside him, sounded now so stiff and cold. Why?)

“But this is no time to sink into grief. You know that.”

(Of course I know. That regret, born of abandoning what I ought to have done—how could I fail to remember it? That unbearable feeling—I know it all too well.)

(Even so, regret is a thing one cannot shake off. No matter what he did, no matter how he struggled, through all the days until now he had never once stopped regretting.)

“Humans really are troublesome creatures.”

The words themselves were no different from usual, but the bite had gone out of them. It was not pity, either—only a tone unlike what had come before. Caim was suddenly curious to know what the Red Dragon was thinking, but he could not guess what would follow.

“That is—!”

Caim looked where Verdelet’s finger pointed. It was a chair. The chair was flying through the air, and seated upon it was that red-eyed child.

“That is the hierarch of the Church of the Angels…”

In no time at all, the chair slipped easily away…