Editing Unlimited Fafnir:Volume 1 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 2===

"Eh, where is this place?"

"Sigh... You finally woke up. It's already after school. This is the infirmary, Iris. I brought you here after you fainted."

Iris blinked and stared at the white ceiling while I explained to her.

After the explosion from the failed transmutation of mithril, Shinomiya-sensei instantly contacted the administration. A woman calling herself the school nurse soon arrived.

Although the nurse said Iris was fine without significant injury, she was still sent to rest in the infirmary just to be on the safe side. I stayed behind voluntarily to look after her.

Later on, that nurse had to go out to attend to certain matters, thus leaving Iris and me alone at the moment.

"Mononobe...? Ahhh... I messed up again, right?"

She seemed to be linking up her memories. With a gloomy expression, Iris murmured.

"Yeah, the explosion blew you away completely. A big failure that couldn't be more simple and obvious."

"You're so blunt... Shouldn't you encourage and console me at a time like this?"

Iris said with a wry smile.

"Half-assed encouragement to give you baseless hope would only make you repeat the same failure—or it could even make things worse. People who can't confront their failures tend to die early—That's what I learned at NIFL."

"Confront failures..."

"Yeah, Iris, besides, you were probably thinking you'd succeed as long as you tried hard, right?"

"H-How did you know!?"

Iris made a look surprise.

"I could tell from the way you looked before the training."

"A-Am I a big failure?"

"Yeah, you were a big failure today, Iris."

I nodded in agreement. Iris slumped her shoulders and asked again in a small voice:

"An idiot, airheaded and useless?"

"Currently speaking, perhaps there's no way you can deny these kinds of criticisms."

"Really...? Then I guess it's impossible for me to join the Dragon Subjugation Squad..."

Iris sighed heavily.

"You want to join the Dragon Subjugation Squad, Iris? But that's the most dangerous job, putting yourself on the frontlines, you know?"

"Yes... Because that's my reason for coming to Midgard."

Iris nodded to confirm then spoke as though looking out into the distance:

"I... until a year ago, I've always lived an ordinary life in the outside world. But when I was on a ship with my family, the white dragon—'White' Leviathan—happened to pass nearby... Causing our ship to sink."

"A dragon disaster huh..."

I muttered angrily. Disasters caused simply from the movement of dragons were called dragon disasters. Three years ago, Mitsuki and I had similarly encountered a dragon disaster caused by "Blue" Hekatonkheir.

"That's right... Because of the dragon disaster, everyone died. My powers awakened for the first time then... I was the sole survivor."

The smile surfaced on Iris' face did not carry her usual cheerfulness. Instead, it contained an element of self-deprecation.

"Because no one saw me use my powers at the time, I could have kept quiet and continued living outside... But I admitted my identity as a D on my own."

"...You intend to take revenge against the dragons?"

"How should I say this...? Actually, I don't have any negative obsession like hatred in my heart... But I think I must step forward to fight. It's for this reason that I survived."

Looking at me, Iris' eyes shone with strong determination.

Seeing those unwavering eyes, I could not help but gasp. Back in the past when Mitsuki declared she would protect the town, she had shown the same eyes too.

"...That means you still don't intend to give up, right?"

"Huh?"

"Although you just said that joining the Dragon Subjugation Squad is impossible, you don't intend to give up on the test, right?"

"T-That goes without saying! Even though I might still fail... I will try my hardest!"

Hearing the expected answer, I smiled.

"Like I said, just working hard isn't enough. You've got to avoid repeating the same mistakes."

"Urgh... I understand this logic, but even if I understand, I still can't do it..."

Seeing Iris disheartened, I made a decision in my heart.

"Iris, how many training sessions are there before the test?"

"Uh, I think there won't be any more chances to use training site number three... We'll just have basic training in smaller spaces from now on."

"Hmm... That's not good. We're out of options if there's no time to practice. Is self-directed practice after school allowed here?"

"Using training sites requires authorization and someone to supervise."

"Oh okay, anyway, I'll discuss with Mitsuki first. If authorization is granted, let's start training together after school starting tomorrow."

"Eh... Training together?"

Iris' mouth gaped wide in surprise.

"Yeah, today's training was forcibly interrupted. I'm a total novice in the area of fighting dragons, so I have to learn Midgard's combat methods as quickly as possible."

"Mononobe..."

Tears welled up in Iris' eyes.

"H-Hey! Why are you crying?"

"I-I dunno..."

Seeing her tears flowing nonstop, I hurried to comfort her.

But Iris simply would not stop crying for a long time...