After Tatarc returned back up, we undid our humanization and reverted back to our dragon form.
I don’t want to waste any more MP before the Manticore arrives.

We crawled to the ground, closed our eyes, and decided to rest before the upcoming big fight.

“…… Are you really the same onee-san?”
“Why…… why now…… just where… have you been all this time……?”

A girl who looked at us in fear before asked us nervously.
I’m sorry, but I’m not really your Dragon God, and I don’t even know where and what your Dragon God is even doing right now.

I slightly open my eyes to look at Partner.
Partner opens her eyes and looks at me as well.
We then look at the girl and shook our heads.

Sorry, but we don’t have anything to answer your questions.
I’m a different dragon to the Dragon God you know, though, having said that, I also can’t just throw away my status as your Dragon God right now.
I know it’s not good to pretend to be someone else and keep it quiet to you all. But, as long as you still see me as your Dragon God, I’ll make sure I’ll fix all your problems for you.
After all, if I leave you now, then who knows how many will die.

“Ryujin……-sama”

The senpai-looking girl calls out to us.

“…… To be honest, there are still so many things I don’t know. So, what I’m about to say might just be a pretense of my feelings, but…… d-…… do your best!”

Man, this kid is such an adult.
While I was impressed by her words, Partner nods to her.

“Gru~uo”

“…… So, you’re… our onee-san.”

I-I’m amazed that she found out.
Is this a woman’s intuition?

“Gru~u~u……”

Partner makes a growling sound of satisfaction.

The red light that was leaking from the a gap in the cave entrance is slowly losing its radiance over time.
Then, darkness once again covered the cave. Only a small part of the cave was lit with moonlight.

Every night, these girls have experienced this darkness, no wonder they were so sensible before.
After a significant amount of time has passed, I heard Yarg’s voice.

“It’s time. Move the rocks.”

“…… R-Right away”

Tatarc answers Yarg’s command, and the cave entrance slowly gets opened.

So, it’s finally time for them to pick a sacrifice.

The time has come [T.N: TOKI GA KITA!!!]

I use〖Human Transformation〗once again, push my head inside Partner’s shoulder, and pass the controls over our body to Partner.
Our transformation has gotten quite smooth lately.

After Partner humanized, she grabbed the dirt-ragged clothes from before and wore it with disgust.
Oh yeah, I forgot we ripped it before.

Wait, wouldn’t they find it weird that I’m suddenly not bound by their rope anymore?!
Once Yarg finds out we’re unbound, wouldn’t Yarg run away immediately?
He might still be traumatized about what Partner did to his fingers after all.
A-Anyway, let’s just hurry and tie up our hand now.

“The rope…… tie it, behind my hands.”

“Eh? Ah, right……”

The other girls gather behind Partner in a hurry.
They somehow managed to tie it up before the cave entrance was opened.
…… The knot is less tighter than what Yarg did, but I think we can still fool them with this.

I can hear Yarg and Tatarc talking up there.

“Tatarc, you’re looking rather pale. Maybe you’re just not cut out for this job.”

“A-About that meeting… how did it go? I’m asking for the sake of this village, just so you know.”

“It’s not yet something an outsider like you need to know.”

“B-But……”

Then, Tatarc suddenly grunted in pain.

“A, aga~……”

I then heard Tatarc groaning low as if he was on his knees.
Yarg probably hit Tatarc under his chin with the back of his spear.

“Or, what? If you found out that this village is a threat to you, are you going to lower your head to the other village? Is your measly life just that important to you? You, who doesn’t even have an ounce of pride in him. If you had one, you’d have ran away to the desert by now.”

“N-No…… you’re… wrong… I……”

Upon hearing Yarg’s words, I felt Partner’s eyebrow slightly twitch in annoyance.
That Tatarc guy prioritized on letting the sacrifices escape instead of his own safety and even planned to persuade the two villages to reconcile.
He’s filled with more pride that you can ever imagine, I can understand Partner’s frustration.

“I guess we’ll be selecting a new guard tomorrow. Under Nagrom-sama’s orders, I am not allowed to kill you, but… I still don’t trust you. You could be plotting to betray us someday. We can’t possibly have someone like you guard these valuable sacrifices.”

“…………”

“I’ll climb down and carry one of the sacrifices up. You wait there.”

After Yarg’s cold words, he threw a rope down the cave entrance.
As soon as Partner saw the rope, she ran towards the exit.
W-Wait a second! What are you doing?!

Partner then jumped high in the air, jumped from wall to wall, and went out of the hole without using the rope.

“W-What the-…?!”

Yarg, who was about to climb down, was shocked to see Partner jump out of the hole and fell back.
Then, Partner did a somersault dive and kneed Yarg in the face.

“Buh~!”

Yarg staggers and falls on his knees.
While holding his bleeding nose, he looks at Partner in disbelief.

What the heck, Partner……

“Huuh? I made sure to hold back, so stop ur whining. And, this dude is part of the gang who poisoned us, y'know”

If you keep moving as you like, the plan will all be for naught! I know how you feel, but calm down!
Yarg doesn’t know what Tatarc is talking about, so you don’t have to mind him!

“H-How did you… get free……?”

“Hah? What’s the matter? I thought you wanted to offer me as a sacrifice?”

“W-Why you-…!”

When Yarg tried to stand up, Partner steps on Yarg’s shoulder and pushes him back down.
Partner puts power into her legs that even Yarg can’t resist.

Stop! Stop! I get that you hate his guts, but seriously Partner, calm down!
If you make a ruckus here, those kids will definitely get killed!

“…… Tsk”

Partner softened up.
She then slammed Yarg hard on the ground.

“…… *huff* *huff*. Fine… I’ll listen to ya for now… but, that’s only 'cause moving in this body is tiring, ya hear?”

No… I think you still have more than enough energy to go wild though.

“W-What do we do now, Yarg-san?”

“…… Take her. Her strength to hold me down even after being poisoned will surely satisfy the Manticore with more power once it eats her. I planned on offering her later after the poison completely weakens her, but…… now that she got free of her binds and even managed to jump out of the cave while being poisoned made me underestimate her. If we leave her alone, she’ll escape. Feed her first.”

T-That was close. So, they planned on offering Partner at a later date, huh?
I guess Partner’s wildness gave us a miraculous result. Okay Partner, you can kick Yarg again if you still want to.

“It’s fine?”

Sorry, that was a joke. Don’t take it too seriously please.