Singularity (Rimuru x Arifureta)

Chapter 8 | Crisis and Confliction

"Are you... one of the dragonmen?" The dragon stiffened up upon hearing Hajime's question and it let out a defeated sigh.

It appeared that it hadn't wanted the fact that it was a dragonman to be found out. Still, at this point, she could no longer hide it.

"...Indeed. I am a proud member of the dragonman race. There are several reasons why I ended up here. I will explain all, so may I please ask that you remove that object from my anus? I am nearly out of mana. And if I was to return to my original form as is... suffice to say my backside would end up in a most... unsightly state."

It seems that I was correct. Hajime, however, is utterly uncool. Imagine suddenly having a huge, black stick of azantium thrust into your ass. What a terrifying thought.

"...What are you doing here?" This time, it was Yue who asked. Yue was the last survivor of the Vampire race, and here was a member of a supposedly-extinct species. Naturally, she will be interested in her origins and backstory. Curiosity sparkled in her eyes.

"As I said, I will explain so please take that thing out of me... My mana is nearly depleted... Hey, stop that! Don't keep pounding it in! The stimulation— The stimulation will—"

"Yue's the one asking questions, you punk!" Hajime shouted as he repeatedly punched the tip of the black rod. The black dragon writhed and screamed. The solemn dignity she'd radiated upon their first meeting was nowhere to be found.

"Why are you so desperate to kill just one adventurer, and what on earth are you, a member of a forgotten race, doing here of all places...?" I asked, "I'm personally quite interested in the answer." For a little moment, the dragon turned to face me and kept staring at me without moving. Hajime stopped hammering the spike since the dragon's attention was fixed on me. To be able to resume at any time, however, he maintained his hand on the spike.

After a while of being in a daze, the dragon continued: "I was being controlled. I had no intention of attacking you people. However, the man who took control of me ordered me to find and kill that young man and his comrades."

She beckoned to Will with her gaze, making the guy tremble once more. However, he bravely met the lizard's gaze.

"But why? And how?" Yue asked.

"Allow me to start from the beginning. I am..."

In other words, the black dragon was given the assignment to look into the extraterrestrial visitors. A few months ago, a dragonman with particularly keen perception felt a tremendous outpouring of mana and inferred that someone had entered this planet. Although the dragonmen had a policy of non-intervention when it came to the affairs of the rest of the world, they couldn't afford to ignore these unusual guests, so they dispatched this black dragon to look into them.

She had initially intended to adopt a more human appearance and blend in. She would have then begun gathering information while keeping her dragonman ancestry hidden. She'd taken a break on the way here in the valley between the first and second mountain ranges. Because there were still dangerous monsters in that area, she had used the unique magic known as Dragonification, which is given to all dragonmen, to transform into her black dragon form before going to sleep.

While she was still sleeping, a man hidden in the shadows of a black robe appeared before her. He had used a combination of dark magic to brainwash her and erode her mind little by little.

Of course, such an assault would have jolted most people awake. However, the dragonmen's bad habits worked to the man's advantage here. Dragonmen were notorious for being difficult to awaken in their dragon forms. Only a good kick to the ass could jolt them out of their slumber. However, dragonmen were also known for their incredible willpower, and a dragonman of her caliber would have been difficult to control. The reason that man had been able to take over her mind so perfectly was because...