The moment Selene heard her attendant's report, all of her earlier seductive laziness disappeared. Irritation flashed across her face as she muttered,
"Those persistent bastards again. They really don't know when to give up…"
Ankh raised an eyebrow.
"This world has Dragon Slayers trying to hunt you too?"
"They're not Dragon Slayers from Elentear."
Selene shook her head and rose casually from the hot spring.
She deliberately walked straight past Ankh before stepping out, apparently enjoying the opportunity to make things difficult for him, then allowed her attendants to dress her.
Once she had changed back into her usual loose white robe, Selene reclined against a cushion with a cup of wine in hand.
"It started about a month ago. There's an organization of shrine maidens in Elentear that, for some reason, decided the world's increasingly unstable Magic Power was my fault. They started trying to kill me and even summoned a group of outsiders to help."
Ankh had already watched Selene walk out without the slightest embarrassment, so he saw no reason to be awkward himself.
He climbed out of the spring and let an attendant dress him in a loose black robe.
"With your personality and your ability to interfere with entire worlds, I'd probably suspect you too."
"I'll admit that I caused plenty of trouble in other worlds before."
Selene didn't deny it. She swept back her damp golden hair and blinked her pink eyes innocently.
"But I was searching for weapons capable of killing the other Five Dragon Gods. After I met Irene, I stopped causing disasters from world to world."
"As for Elentear's Magic Power… yes, I interfered with it a little in the beginning. But then I met you, and I stopped that too."
She swirled the wine in her cup.
"The current situation, where the world's Magic Power has expanded so badly that it's approaching a critical point, technically isn't my doing."
"I might have been the original trigger, but someone else tampered with things afterward."
Ankh fell silent for a moment.
Then he remembered that Faris was also a shrine maiden.
"Is this shrine-maiden organization really powerful enough to give you this much trouble?"
Selene curled her lip.
"Powerful, my ass. They're a bunch of senile fools."
She took another drink.
"But they control two forms of magic unique to this world: Whiteout Magic and Aqua Aera."
Whiteout Magic.
Something immediately clicked in Ankh's mind.
Whiteout came from Elentear, and it was the same power Faris used.
If that was the case, then perhaps the White Magic Cult itself had originated from Elentear as well.
Selene paid no attention to his thoughts and continued,
"Whiteout is extremely effective against humans, but it doesn't do much to me. So when that failed, those shrine maidens started using Aqua Aera to drag in outside help."
Aqua Aera.
That was the escape spell Happy had accidentally learned six months earlier.
Ankh had originally assumed it was something unique to Selene, but apparently the magic itself originated in Elentear.
Remembering what the attendant had said about Dragon Slayers, he became more interested.
"So the Dragon Slayers who've been challenging you lately were all summoned by that shrine-maiden group?"
"But even Dragon Slayers shouldn't be capable of seriously threatening you."
Selene nodded, idly twirling a strand of hair around one finger.
"That's true."
Then a faint loneliness entered her eyes.
"The problem is… I know those people."
Ankh paused.
"Who?"
For a moment, he wondered whether they had somehow dragged Laxus into Elentear too.
"Elite members of Diabolos, the Dragon Eater guild from Guiltina."
Ankh's expression became strange.
So they really were acquaintances.
During the war six months ago, Ankh had fought several members of Diabolos himself and had even killed one of their Sticky Dragon Slayers.
Laxus and the others had also clashed with those troublesome opponents.
He hadn't expected to run into them again in another world.
"And…"
A flash of hatred crossed Selene's pink eyes, only to waver almost immediately. Her expression became unusually complicated.
"One of those mages consumed the flesh of one of my sons and turned his power into his own."
Ankh's eyes widened.
"You didn't kill him?"
Someone had eaten her son.
The fact that Selene had restrained herself despite that made Ankh feel a rare measure of respect for how seriously she was taking her decision to live among humans.
It wasn't that dragons were naturally heartless.
But if dragons and humans were ever going to coexist after centuries of slaughter, conflicts like this were unavoidable.
On paper, such grudges were easy to solve.
One side stopped retaliating.
The other side stepped back.
Eventually, the violence ended.
But emotions were never that simple.
Silence lingered in the room for a while.
Ankh decided that if he ever met the Dragon Slayer responsible, he could at least help the little dragoness vent some frustration.
"What's his name?"
He looked at Selene.
"And what kind of dragon was your son?"
Selene raised her head wearily.
Then she quietly gave him the answer.
...
"Suzaku. A Dragon Slayer who gained his power by consuming the flesh of the Sword Saint Dragon."
Some distance from Black Moon Mountain stood the headquarters of the shrine-maiden organization Selene had just mentioned.
At the center of a settlement known as Whiteout Village stood the Whiteout Temple, where the shrine maidens normally gathered.
Today, a group of women dressed in traditional red-and-white shrine-maiden robes were entertaining several reluctant "heroes" they had summoned from another world.
Sitting before them was a handsome red-haired man with a high ponytail, long eyelashes, and the clothing of a wandering swordsman.
His expression remained stern as he introduced himself with meticulous seriousness.
This was Suzaku.
Across from him sat the leader of both the village and the temple: an elderly woman whose earlobes hung nearly to her shoulders and whose face was covered in wrinkles.
The Great White Priestess.
The old woman rubbed her hands together with an extremely inappropriate grin, her wrinkled cheeks flushing red.
"And even someone as handsome as Suzaku-sama couldn't kill Selene?"
Several of Suzaku's companions were seated nearby.
Skullion Raider, wearing a skeletal suit of armor and a mask, visibly twitched.
"This old hag sure wasn't this polite when she forcibly summoned us here."
Beside him, the wild and alluring Kiria bared her teeth and quietly licked her lips before leaning toward the enormous man in heavy armor next to her.
"Madmole, why don't we just kill this annoying old woman?"
Madmole, whose bald head was covered in rounded bumps that made him look vaguely like a Buddha statue, answered calmly,
"She isn't a dragon."
"She dragged us into another world and forced us to work for her. The only reason I haven't killed her already is because I'm in a good mood."
Kiria ground her teeth while glaring at the elderly priestess, who was still blatantly fawning over Suzaku.
They had begun getting dragged into Elentear roughly a month ago.
Kiria had been the first.
When the old shrine maiden discovered that Kiria couldn't defeat Selene alone, she apparently decided the solution was to keep kidnapping more members of Diabolos.
Kiria, the Blade Dragon Slayer.
Skullion, the Corpse Dragon Slayer.
Madmole, the Armor Dragon Slayer.
And Suzaku, the Sword Saint Dragon Slayer, who had only arrived a few days earlier and had already made one unsuccessful trip to Black Moon Mountain.
There were also two other companions who had apparently wandered off somewhere and were currently nowhere to be found.
Six members of Diabolos in total had been forcibly summoned into this world by the appearance-obsessed old priestess.
Kiria had already made up her mind.
If the old woman dared summon anyone else, then Moon Dragon God or no Moon Dragon God, Kiria was going to kill their supposed "ally" first.
Suddenly, a shrine maiden rushed inside.
"Great White Priestess!"
Everyone turned toward her.
"The 'Nail Grime' is acting up in the village again!"
She barely stopped to catch her breath before adding,
"And another group has entered the village without permission."
Her voice rose.
"They're Dragon Slayers too!"