"Crash—!"
The updraft stirred up by the evil dragon's takeoff triggered a second collapse. Huge chunks of shattered stone rained down like a storm, crashing straight toward Cecilia below.
"You idiot!"
There was no time to think. A white figure lunged forward on instinct like a leopard protecting its cub, shielding the little girl tightly beneath her body.
"Bang! Bang, bang!"
Dull impacts rang out one after another, and the cloud of dust swallowed them both completely.
When the dust finally settled a little, Mira coughed and lifted her head from the pile of rubble.
She yanked Cecilia out from beneath her, those brown-blue eyes full of anger.
"Who told you to run around again at a time like that?! Do you have a death wish?!"
This time, Cecilia, who had been stubbornly arguing back the entire time, said nothing.
She stood there in a daze, her clear eyes brimming with tears, her blank gaze fixed on Mira's right arm.
"Y-your arm?" the little girl asked, her voice trembling badly.
Mira was holding her with one arm.
The other one—her right arm, which had blocked the falling stones just now to protect Cecilia—hung limply at her side.
Large patches of pale skin had been torn open by the rough stones, bloodied and horrifying to look at.
"This?"
Mira followed the girl's gaze, then glanced sideways at her own arm and gave an indifferent little pout.
"It's just a fracture."
"…"
Cecilia lowered her head, her small hands clutching tightly at the hem of her clothes.
She opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to apologize, but her throat seemed blocked by something, and not a single word came out.
"Can you walk by yourself?"
Mira somehow found the girl's skateboard and held it out to her.
"Mm…"
Cecilia silently took the skateboard, tears falling like broken beads.
"Don't ever be this willful again. Listen properly to your family, understand?"
Mira rubbed the girl's head with her uninjured left hand and couldn't help lecturing her.
"You're the only family your mother has left. If something happened to you too, how is she supposed to keep living?"
As she spoke, Mira's gaze dimmed slightly.
Ever since Lisanna had disappeared a year ago, Elfman had also spent every day with his head hanging low.
Thinking about it, it had been a long time since she last spoke to anyone in this older-sister tone.
Cecilia didn't argue back. She only hugged the skateboard tightly and stayed silent.
On the other side, once the evil dragon had gone, Shane finally broke free from that strange pull between counterparts.
He didn't know whether the other him had noticed his presence or not. He was just about to go over and discuss it with Mira when he happened to see her right arm hanging limply at her side.
"You…"
Shane stopped in his tracks, his brows instantly knotting into a tight frown.
"W-wait!"
Seeing his ugly expression, Mira suddenly panicked for no clear reason.
She instinctively twisted her body, trying to hide the injured arm behind her back, looking exactly like a child caught by a parent after breaking a vase.
"Th-this time you can't blame me! I wasn't acting recklessly! Cecilia suddenly ran off on her own, and I had to save her, so…"
Before Shane could say anything, Cecilia, who had kept her head down all this time, suddenly hunched her shoulders and took a tiny step forward.
"I-I'm sorry… it's all my fault. Don't blame Big Sister."
"…"
Looking at the identical nervous expressions of the big one and the small one in front of him, Shane's mouth twitched. A breath lodged in his chest, and he nearly laughed from sheer anger.
They were acting like he was the villain here.
His gaze turned sharp as a blade, and he glared fiercely at Mira with eyes that clearly said, I'll deal with you later.
Then Shane quickly switched to Assassin. The crude but practical emergency medical knowledge from Surgery E rapidly surfaced in his mind.
Without a word, he drew a dagger and cut a long strip from the hem of his cloak.
Then he reached straight out and, under Cecilia's stunned gaze, snatched away the broken wooden skateboard she had been hugging tightly.
"Of course it's your fault. My companion got hurt because you ran around like an idiot, so this is compensation."
Crack.
With a clean snap, Shane broke the skateboard by hand, then used his dagger to shave off the wooden splinters along the edges, turning it into two makeshift splints.
He knelt on one knee beside Mira and, without any wasted movement, pressed the splints to both sides of her fractured right arm. Then he wrapped the cloth strips around them tightly, layer after layer, and tied them in place.
The pain of the wound being pulled made Mira bare her teeth, cold sweat breaking out across her forehead.
But when her gaze fell on Shane, who had lowered his eyes and was working with focused, efficient hands, the corner of the girl's mouth couldn't help curving upward little by little. She even had the mood to tease him.
"Why break a child's toy?"
"Because I'm angry."
Shane didn't even lift his head, answering stiffly.
He really had no idea what to do with this idiot in front of him, who was sweating from pain and still had the nerve to grin.
After the simple emergency treatment was done, the two of them led Cecilia back.
They had just walked out of the edge of the ruins when they heard hurried, stumbling footsteps from afar.
Cecilia's mother was running madly toward them. The sudden descent of the evil dragon had clearly terrified her badly.
Especially when the woman's gaze touched Mira's arm, bound between pieces of wood, her legs instantly went weak. She staggered and nearly collapsed to the ground.
Then a small, dusty figure slowly moved out from behind the two of them.
Completely unharmed, Cecilia timidly called, "Mama."
The woman's strained nerves snapped completely.
"Cecilia!"
With a cry, she rushed forward and crushed her daughter into her arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
The girl buried her face in her mother's embrace, letting her mother's tears soak her hair.
After a while, she turned her head and looked at Mira with those red-rimmed eyes, sniffling.
"From now on… I'll listen to Mama."
"Once you say it, it's a promise."
Mira gently waved her uninjured left hand in the air and gave her a slightly weak but exceptionally bright smile.
However, the mother's explosion of gratitude afterward—so intense she practically wanted to tear her heart out and offer it to them—left both of them completely unable to handle it.
After fleeing from the mother who kept crying and insisting on kneeling to thank them, Shane and Mira walked side by side toward the edge of town.
A breeze stirred the dust on the street. Perhaps because the once-a-year "evil dragon calamity" had finally passed, the city's atmosphere had instead become even livelier.
People carried barrels of ale into the streets, and bright banners were hung in front of doors. It looked as if they were preparing for some kind of celebration.
Shane tilted his head and glanced at the girl beside him, whose steps were already a little unsteady.
Although he could roughly guess the answer, he still couldn't help asking, "Do you want to rest for a day?"
"Of course not."
Mira answered almost instantly, without the slightest hesitation.
"Thump! Thump! Thump!"
Shane really couldn't hold back. He curled his fingers and flicked her smooth, dust-streaked forehead three times in a row.
Watching her clutch her forehead in protest, he ultimately swallowed back the scolding words.
Even though Mira had lost her magic, her body was still much stronger than an ordinary person's. An injured arm really wasn't enough to stop her from moving.
He was just inexplicably irritated by how little this girl cared about her own life.
"Are you worried about me?"
Even after being hit again, the girl didn't get angry this time. Instead, she lowered her hand and leaned closer with her head tilted.
"Isn't that obvious?"
Shane glared hard at her.
"You're an ordinary person right now. You really can die over something stupid."