Chapter 168
'I cannot...'
She couldn't give up.
As she twisted her body to protect Rosaria, Phoebe's wounds increased one by one.
"If you hesitate like that, your body will not be able to endure it, Phoebe. Just give up on that child. I'll take the responsibility of her death. You did your best, but you couldn't protect her in the end."
"Why do you say such things?"
Phoebe asked Roderick with a sorrowful voice.
"I hated myself for not protecting my master and hated the world. How can you ask me to go through such a cruel time again?"
"Don't you know well that the world isn't that warm? If it weren't for me, you would have been just a wandering child who wouldn't know when she would die."
"Please step back. I... I don't want to hurt anyone."
Phoebe pleaded once more.
However, Roderick didn't listen to her plea at all.
"What a fool."
He frowned as if he was disgusted by her actions.
"You can't be indecisive forever."
A flash burst from Gorgon's sword.
It was the line of death targeting Rosaria's neck and Phoebe's carotid artery at the same time.
At that moment,
"Don't hurt my sister!"
Rosaria shouted.
It wasn't just a shout.
A powerful wave of magic emanated from her body, spreading throughout the area.
Crack-.
The sound of thin glass breaking and the ominous aura surrounding Gorgon's body suddenly disappeared.
Gorgon's body shuddered, and reason flashed in his eyes for a moment.
Phoebe knew it.
Rosaria's ability had shaken off whatever was controlling Gorgon.
"Phoebe!"
Gorgon reached out his arm.
Phoebe understood his intention and broke his arm.
"Ugh."
Both arms were broken, and the sword fell to the ground.
Gorgon had been incapacitated.
"Ah... ah..."
Blood flowed from Rosaria's nose, who had screamed.
She had released all the mana inside her body, causing mana poisoning.
Phoebe caught Rosaria as her eyes rolled back and she collapsed.
"Miss, don't worry. I'll heal you quickly!"
Phoebe sent mana to Rosaria, helping her recover.
Her mana was so vast that Phoebe's shared mana alone was not enough to easily escape from the poisoning.
The situation was not good.
She was also wounded from the battle with Gorgon and Saul, so her stamina would keep draining if she didn't perform first aid on herself.
Moreover, there were still enemies remaining.
If Roderick attacked before she could recover, she wouldn't be able to focus on healing Rosaria.
Fortunately, Luderic did not attack right away.
With wide eyes, he looked down at Rosaria.
"Even neutralizing the absolute obedience of a dragon... is this the power my lord feared?"
It was admirable.
At the same time, he couldn't help but feel regretful.
"One, you can't control it because you haven't honed that ability."
If she knew of that ability and had the talent to hone it, even at her young age, she would have been unstoppable.
After finishing that thought, Phoebe finally caught his eye.
She was holding Rosaria and staring at Luderic.
"Will you stand in my way?"
"..."
Phoebe couldn't answer.
She could subdue Gorgon and Saul by injuring them, but what about her lord?
Could she even lay a hand on him?
Phoebe couldn't do it.
He was the first light in her heart, her savior, and her everything.
"You're still hesitating."
Roderick decided not to be attached to Phoebe anymore.
He would kill Phoebe and take Rosaria.
Just as he was about to move,
"Huh?"
He felt something targeting him from somewhere.
'A sniper?'
When sniping from a distance, a small amount of mana is released to gauge the opponent's position.
Although it was such a small amount that even high-ranking magicians couldn't easily feel it, Roderick had become sensitive to mana since entering the body of the half-dragon Isis.
Due to the fundamentally different bloodline of a dragon's body, their mana sensitivity was far superior to that of humans.
Therefore, he could estimate how much mana was being used.
'A power equivalent to an intermediate Mana Stone. With that level, I can easily deflect it.'
Roderick partially transformed his body into that of a dragon.
He brought his transformed right hand close to the point where he was being targeted, blocking it.
The barrier ended, and the magic flew towards him.
A beam of light flew in a straight line from a very far distance.
"...!"
His instincts told him he shouldn't block it directly, so he hastily twisted his hand.
The laser that flew in a straight line grazed him and flew over Roderick's shoulder.
Bang!
The place where the laser hit directly exploded and disappeared.
Roderick's instincts were right.
If he had taken that attack lightly, half of his body would have been destroyed.
"Ugh..."
Although he managed to deflect the attack, his right hand, which he had brought close to deflect it, was tattered.
The beautiful white scales fell off here and there, and Luderic gritted his teeth in pain.
'Who on earth made such an attack?'
One thing he could be sure of was that fighting the person who fired this head-on would not be possible with Roderick's strength alone.
'I need to dodge.'
He wanted to retrieve Gorgon and Saul, but that would be too greedy.
Having no choice, Luderic threw himself into the bushes and disappeared.
Phoebe kept using her power to heal Rosaria.
A moment later, someone tore through space and appeared before them.
It was Reed.
"I'm sorry I'm late."
***
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***
Reed realized that Phoebe and Rosaria were in danger after Rosaria released her mana.
Reed did not rush straight to save them after identifying the enemy.
Instead, he thought he could hold them back, and he had faith that Phoebe could hold out for a long time.
Reed decided to snipe Roderick.
Because the sensing range of a half-dragon was beyond imagination, he conducted the sniping from the top of the Silence Tower.
The Railgun, a derivative weapon created from the main technology of “Project: Sunflower”, allowed for a lethal long-range attack using a single intermediate Mana Stone.
'Good intuition.'
The time it took for the attack to reach his body was only 0.1 seconds.
Detecting the threat and deflecting it during that time was difficult even for most experts.
Reed brought Gorgon and Saul to the Silence Tower and began treating them.
The strange thing was that among the four people involved in the incident, Saul, who had fractures all over his body, was not the most critical.
The extraordinary regenerative power made his bones heal on their own, and by the time the escort was completed, he was already conscious.
Gorgon, whose bones in both arms were broken, would need rest to swing a sword again, but for now, moving his hands was not a problem.
Phoebe was more of a problem than Rosaria, who was unconscious and not opening her eyes.
Having taken all the attacks meant for Rosaria, Phoebe was in the most dangerous state.
Holding Rosaria, who was suffering from mana poisoning, and sending her mana as well, her stamina drained several times faster.
Some of her injuries couldn't be healed with healing magic, so she wrapped them in bandages and waited for them to heal naturally.
While Phoebe was resting with half-closed eyes, a voice came from outside the door.
-Right now, the deputy tower owner needs to rest. Please come back later.
Phoebe responded to the magician's obstruction outside the door.
"It's okay. Let them in."
-Ah, yes! Understood.
The magician stepped back, and the door opened.
It was the knights of the empire, Gorgon and Saul.
Though injured, Phoebe looked up at them and smiled like a caring older sister.
Gorgon opened his mouth.
"Phoebe, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Gorgon, are you not hurt?"
Asking the question, Gorgon felt like he was stabbing his own heart.
With three bandages on her least injured face, saying she was fine made him feel guilty.
"Shouldn't you have killed us?"
"Huh?"
Gorgon looked resentful.
Phoebe was taken aback.
"At that time, you should have chosen your lady and killed the two of us. Why couldn't you make that choice?"
At Gorgon's question, Phoebe laughed sheepishly.
Then, fiddling with her hand, she grabbed Gorgon and Saul's hands.
"Gorgon, I... for the first time in my life, I had a family. After meeting my lord, getting to know you and Saul. And that day, in that battle where we fought together with our lives on the line, I lost most of my family. And then, I vowed at that time. At least protect the living family members."
Phoebe held their hands.
Small but warmer than anyone else's hand.
"So I couldn't bring myself to kill you guys with my own hands."
"Is it for such a foolish reason?"
When Gorgon pointed out sharply, strength came into Phoebe's hand.
"It doesn't matter if it's foolish! You guys are my family! You are my living siblings! How could I abandon my siblings like that!?"
Phoebe, with her heart swelling, pulled them in and hugged their heads.
"Even if I die, I will die! You guys have to live happily until the end! That's why I let you guys go!"
"Phoebe..."
"Sister..."
It was a tearful situation, but Saul couldn't help it.
"...It's really touching that you think of us like that, but when you're swinging me around like a dried fish and saying that..."
"Well, Saul is strong, so it's fine, isn't it?"
As Phoebe tilted her head as if it was natural, Saul looked disappointed with a cold expression.
He didn't disagree, but accepting it was a different matter, so it just left a bad taste in his mouth.
"Be glad. It was because you had that ability that no one died, and we were able to hold on like this."
"It's not my fault..."
Saul grumbled at Gorgon, and Phoebe fiddled with their hands with a troubled expression.
"What are you planning to do from now on?"
"Phoebe, we will be vigilant within the empire now. We will act unnoticed by the master in the prison where we were once imprisoned."
"Won't it be frustrating?"
"When we were deceived and fell for the lord, we were captured by him before we even realized it. There is no doubt that it is the order given to those who inherit dragon blood. Until we find a way to break that order, we are as good as in his grasp."
"Speaking of which, Sister, when you heard that voice, weren't you affected?"
Phoebe nodded.
"Yes. I felt a little... nostalgic, and almost fell for it, but I was able to shake it off with my willpower."
"Then I think we don't have to worry about Sister. I was most worried, but you seem to be the one I least need to worry about."
"Why are you worried about me? Are you making fun of me for being a fool?"
As Phoebe pouted her lips, Saul and Gorgon exchanged glances.
Thinking that now was the right timing, Gorgon spoke with a more serious tone.
"Phoebe, the master has never treated us like people, not even once. Except for you. He cherished you like a daughter. No, he manipulated you to feel that way."
"What do you mean?"
"I learned about it while studying brainwashing in the empire. It all matched the actions the lord had taken on you, Phoebe."
"Sister, my memory is excellent even though my head isn't good. Gorgon, everything this guy showed me, it was all done to my sister by that bastard. It was a design to make her blindly trust him."
"...What is it?"
"It's about controlling the leader of a group perfectly, so that you can control everyone underneath."
"If you change the leader to Sister, it's all the same content."
Phoebe's face was confused.
She tried to act calm with a smile, but Gorgon and Saul couldn't not know about Phoebe's complicated feelings.
"Can I be alone for a moment?"
Phoebe asked them with a trembling voice.
Gorgon silently got up, and Saul followed him outside.
She couldn't believe that the first light she had cherished in her heart was actually trying to destroy her.
That's what brainwashing is.
When you realize it too late, you can't tell if all your emotions are real or fake.
Truth becomes falsehood, and falsehood becomes truth.
Phoebe resented herself.
If she had been a little smarter, she would have noticed something like this right away.
***
Rosaria woke up from a deep sleep.
"Uh...?"
As Rosaria rubbed her eyes and got up, the first one to greet her was Phoebe.
She was guarding her side in light clothes, not a uniform.
"Lady, did you sleep well?"
"...I had a bad dream."
Rosaria rubbed her eyes with a dead expression.
Phoebe asked her with a pitiful look.
"What kind of dream was it?"
"It was a dream where my sister disappeared. A dream where she said she couldn't be with me anymore and left."
"I see..."
Her voice, filled with sadness, seemed like it would burst into tears at any moment.
Phoebe, having no choice, tilted her head and lowered her horn in front of her.
"Do you want to touch the horn?"
"Yes."
She reached out with both hands.
The rough and bumpy sensation.
For some reason, Rosaria liked that feeling.
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