Silent Witch

Felix carried his hunting rifle and ran through the night streets. He really wanted to take his horse with him, but he gave up when he saw a stable boy in the stable.

After all, what he was about to do couldn't be witnessed by anyone else.

"Will, where's the current location of that cursed dragon?"

In response to Felix's words, Will, who was now a lizard, poked his head out of his breast pocket and replied apologetically.

"It's in the north-northeast, and the distance is… sorry, it's still vague."

"Okay. Let me know as soon as you figure it out."

Will's sensing ability was not particularly high, nevertheless, it allowed him to figure out a vague direction. Even so, with the huge body of the cursed dragon, as long as he could get close enough with it, he should be able to sense it.

Felix moved carefully while keeping himself low profile from the cursed dragon. If he was going to shoot, it would be better to do so at a certain altitude.

After a short distance, he found a moderately high hill. It had just the right amount of trees on it for him to hide. The darkness of the night also played a role in this.

Felix took out a small case from his pocket and pulled out a bullet from inside.

Unlike the one used for hunting in the daytime, these specially made bullets were coated with silver, which could easily accumulate mana.

"Will."

In response to Felix's voice, Will poured ice mana into the bullet. He was preparing the so-called ‘incidental magic'. A very powerful one at that.

Dragons are highly magic-resistant creatures, but they are vulnerable to cold and ice magic. If you can strike it into its body, you can stop it from moving.

"Actually, I wanted to use these bullets during the incident in the daytime. But I couldn't let your powers be exposed in public. So I had no choice."

Muttering, Felix positioned the bullet poured with mana into his hunting rifle.

It's about time.

"…Your Highness, the cursed dragon is coming."

"I understand."

Not long after Felix arrived at the shooting position, he heard the sound of something huge approaching. It didn't need to be mentioned which something was—it was a cursed dragon.

What used to be a Green Dragon was crawling on the ground, dragged by the black shadow that wriggled all over its body. There was none of the dignity of a high-ranking dragon left.

That was the end result of a pitiful creature whose entire body was consumed by the curse.

"What a miserable sight. We may be different species, but seeing your dignity sullied makes me feel pity."

Muttering, Felix readied his hunting rifle.

The range of the hunting rifle was not particularly impressive. To be able to make an effective shot, he would have to wait a little longer for the cursed dragon to approach closer.

"I'll end your pain now."

Aiming was not that difficult. The target was large and, above all, it was relatively slow. Compared to aiming at the brow of a dragon flying from a horse in the daytime, this was no more than child's play.

Felix's finger pulled the trigger.

After the bullet was fired into the half-opened mouth of the Green Dragon, its movements stopped for a moment. The bullet that had been lodged in the dragon's throat exploded in its mouth in the form of spears of ice.

The dragon didn't even make a sound but started to thrash around.

Without hesitation, Felix loaded the second bullet and pulled the trigger.

The second shot accurately pierced the Green Dragon's right eye. The bullet that entered the head through the right eye released spears of ice and stirred the dragon's head to tatters.

The corpse of the dragon, with ice spears protruding from its mouth cavity and right eye, even looked somewhat like an eerie sculpture.

Yet, the dragon did not stop moving.

On the contrary, the dragon changed its movement direction towards Felix. The black shadow like a giant serpent, as if leading the dragon, was changing its target to Felix.

"Your Highness, in my long life, I've only seen a cursed dragon once."

"Hm."

"I've seen once the dragon, the main body, dies, the curse dissipated… but this…"

To keep the flustered Will from falling out of his breast pocket, Felix held the lid of his pocket with his hand and ran off with his hunting rifle.

"Then I suppose it's no ordinary curse."

The cursed dragon seemed to have set its sights completely on Felix.

Felix tried to escape by taking advantage of the shadows of the trees as much as possible, but the cursed black shadow kept creeping up towards Felix without regard to the darkness of the night.

In normal cases, a cursed dragon is a ‘naturally occurring curse' that has taken possession of a dragon.

But if Felix's deduction is correct…

"I suspect that was not a naturally occurring curse, but a man-made ‘witchcraft'."

"Is that any different from a naturally occurring ‘curse'?"

"While I don't know about naturally occurring ‘curses', if it's witchcraft, there must be a ‘witchcraft tool' somewhere to act as a medium."

Felix surveyed the dragon approaching behind him as he ran. He didn't see anything that looked like a "witchcraft tool" in his sight. He then pondered, how he would place the "witchcraft tool" into the dragon if he were him. And the answer came quickly.

…he must have mixed it with the food and fed it to it.

Once the ‘witchcraft tool' was put in the dragon's stomach, it was nearly impossible to do anything to it from the outside.

The dragon's body is protected by thick scales. Even if you could destroy the head by targeting the eyes and mouth, as Felix did, it would not be easy to get the attack deep into its stomach.

This must have been unexpected even for the person who cast this curse… perhaps because the curse was too strong, it got out of control.

Felix took cover behind a tree, loaded his bullets, and then jumped out from behind the tree, firing his hunting rifle at the dragon's mouth. The third bullet also accurately pierced the dragon's throat, generating ice spears… but it probably didn't reach deep into its stomach.

Well, I doubt even Duke Crockford would have expected this "incident" to end this way.

The black shadow, the embodiment of the curse, extended itself like a spear and charged at Felix. Evading was no longer possible.

In the face of impending death, Felix thought composedly. If he were to die here and now, how much of his name would remain in people's hearts.

A prince who tried to protect his people from the dragon's damage in exchange for his life… I guess I deserve a little credit.

As the black shadow tried to pierce the man, who was still preoccupied with his thoughts even at the point of death—the shadow suddenly flicked away along with a solid sound coming from it.

The doll-like expression on Felix's face was filled with surprise.

In front of him stood an anti-curse barrier. Since the only person who can do this is…

"You sure are one prince who likes a night out."

A man with tall stature and black hair, Bartholomew Alexander, came rushing towards him from behind the cursed dragon. Riding on his back was the Silent Witch holding a staff in her hand.

The barrier she had put up had saved Felix in the nick of time.

Putting down the Silent Witch from his back, Bartholomew glared at Felix with his golden eyes.

"Look at that, master. That prince finally got tired of playing with human women and started chasing a female dragon's ass."

Felix responded to the flippant remark with a composed face that did not resemble that of a dying man.

"Oh, this dragon was a female?"

"She got a sexy tail at that."

Standing next to Bartholomew, who was making light of the situation, the Silent Witch waved her staff.

The next moment, about ten ice spears were born above the cursed dragon's head, skewering its huge wings as if they were sewn into the ground. Unlike the scales on its body, the scales on the wings were relatively thin. As the ice spears pierced it like a stake, the cursed dragon cried out in anger.

The skewered dragon's body could no longer move, and it could not freely control the wind mana—but the black shadow encircling the dragon was still wriggling like a giant snake. Even now, it still relentlessly targets Felix.

Eventually, realizing that it would be difficult to destroy the barrier, the black shadow set its sights on its new prey, the Silent Witch and her attendant.

"Lady Everett! I suspect someone has cast ‘witchcraft' on it. Perhaps a ‘witchcraft tool' was placed somewhere in its body."

At Felix's urging, Bartholomew's eyes widened in surprise.

"Witchcraft!? Those are the sort of magic used by humans, aren't they!? I've never heard of a dragon being controlled by humans using witchcraft!"

Of course, Felix had never heard of controlling a dragon with witchcraft. However, half of his guts told him.

——This was a "witchcraft" set by a shaman, the pawn of Duke Crockford.

Perhaps, it was originally a spell that allowed a person to manipulate the cursed dragon to some degree.

So that person lured the dragon to the Falforia's envoys to make Felix work together with the Silent Witch to defeat the dragon.

It needs to be done to demonstrate the danger of dragon damage to the Falforia side and convince them about the Dragon Knights garrison, and at the same time, to give Felix a foil as ‘the prince who defeated the legendary cursed dragon'.

Moreover, Felix should be able to impress the people around him by showing that he has a good relationship with the Seven Sages.

…unfortunately, the witchcraft got out of control and it went berserk.

Although Bartholomew was incredulous, the clever Silent Witch immediately sprang into action.

With a single swing of her ill-fitting long staff, the spears of ice that had been skewering the cursed dragon disappeared, replaced by spears of fire.

As the spears of fire blazed in crimson, a part of it extended like a snake and entered the mouth of the cursed dragon.

During this time, the black shadow tried desperately to resist, attacking Felix and the Silent Witch in response, but they were all blocked by the anti-curse barrier.

If the Green Dragon was still alive, it would have been able to attack them with its wind blade. However, the Green Dragon's body had already lost its mana, leaving nothing but a corpse. Like a puppet being dragged by a string, it was only moved because of the witchcraft itself.

In spite of the black shadow's resistance, a muffled explosion sounded from inside the dragon's body. The Silent Witch had exploded her fire inside its stomach.

Once the medium of the curse in the stomach of the dragon was destroyed, the black shadow gradually faded and disappeared as if it were melting into the darkness of the night.

All that remained was the battered corpse of the Green Dragon. The curse of black shadow no longer remained on its green scales.

The Silent Witch had triumphed over witchcraft.

"…Lady Everett."

Felix hesitantly walked up to the Silent Witch.

He was prepared to be questioned about the fact that he had left the mansion in the middle of the night. Still, he felt he must thank the lady who had saved his life.

"You've always saved my life."

Felix was prepared to die at that time. But the Silent Witch came and saved Felix's life. She had risked her life to face the cursed dragon.

A strong emotion shook his heart, different from respect or admiration, it moved Felix impulsively.

Since the Silent Witch clutched her wand with her right hand and kept her head down, Felix took her left hand then tried to drop a kiss of gratitude on the back of her hand.

…but the Silent Witch forcefully pulled out her left hand.

"Lady Everett?"

"……!!!"

A sound of suppressing grunts leaked out from underneath the robe, and at the same time, the Silent Witch collapsed to her knees.

In his left hand, there was a black thread, as thin as a hair, wrapped around her hand.

"Oh no!"

Bartholomew shrieked, and as if brushing away a spider's thread, he brushed away the black thread that was entangled in the Silent Witch's left hand.

The black thread snapped in midair, leaving part of it in the left hand of the Silent Witch, and slid back into the corpse of the Green Dragon.

When Felix saw this, he finally realized.

The curse—the witchcraft itself—was still alive.

The Silent Witch, who had received a curse on her left hand, collapsed to the ground without uttering a word.