207 Awakening

「Olynn, head back for now. Fortunately, the rest of the dragons have moved to the far side of the waterfall. The village is still a good distance away, so there shouldn’t be any immediate danger.」

「What about you, Weiss-kun?」

「I’m going to try and have a dialogue with them. There are things I need to know.」

「About who attacked them?」

Olynn really was thinking this through.

Despite that adorable exterior, he clearly had a fire burning inside him. He possessed a sense of justice far purer than Allen’s—though in the world of the Noblesse, that sort of thing could eventually come back to bite you.

「Exactly. And judging by that look on your face... I take it you're coming too?」

「Of course. I’ll never abandon my comrades.」

「...Right. My mistake, Olynn.」

「Don't worry about it. But even if you want to talk, how are we going to manage it...?」

「They probably just want to know the truth as much as we do. Who attacked them, and why. I don't exactly have the answers they're looking for, but if I can just convince them it wasn't us, that'll be enough.」

「I see. In that case—」

「Yeah. A real conversation requires equal footing—or at the very least, we have to make them acknowledge us. It’s the same in a fight as it is in anything else. Nobody listens to someone they look down on.」

That’s the core of Noblesse Oblige, really.

Whether it was Eva’s lectures, Teacher Milk, Sierra, or Eleanor—the strong all had that one thing in common. They didn't have time for small fry.

That was why we had to show them what we were made of before we started talking. The Four Dragons had terrifying offensive power, but by that same token, their Mana consumption had to be astronomical.

Which meant...

「We’ll force them to burn through their attacks and then drag them into a fair fight. To do that, what we need is... a decoy.」

Olynn slowly stood up. He must have been thinking the exact same thing.

「Then I’m the best person for the job. Luckily, this forest is currently crawling with monsters fleeing from the dragon.」

「...That might be true, but we don't have time for you to Tame anything.」

「Weiss-kun, I’ve lost so many times. Truly... it was humiliating. But it wasn’t just about my pride. I want to protect people. From the Demon Race, from every threat. I won’t stay weak forever!」

Suddenly, Olynn began chanting a spell I’d never heard of.

Wait, that’s a Magic Formula I never once encountered in the original story.

He applied it to his left hand first, and it began to pulse with Light. Then he applied a second Magic Formula to his right, and a deep, dark color flickered into existence. Both hands were glowing with opposing energies.

「Olynn, what is that—?」

「I finally realized it. I realized that I'm actually a horrible person. But I don't care. If it’s for the sake of protecting someone, I'll be whatever I have to be.」

Right then, a Grizzly Bear lumbered into view.

Olynn approached it with a gentle step. The moment he touched the beast, a Subjugation Formula manifested.

And in the very next instant—the Tame was complete.