I'm Not Your Husband, You Evil Dragon!

Erza looked completely calm.

"How amazing."

Her cold voice travelled through the War Hall.

Loid’s entire body began trembling.

Erza took a slow step toward him.

"Truly..."

Another step brought her closer.

"...how amazing you are."

Loid desperately wanted to move, but his body refused to obey him. The pressure pinning him against the floor was overwhelming, and as he stared at the woman approaching him, he finally experienced something beyond ordinary fear.

He felt absolute certainty that he was going to die.

Erza stopped directly in front of him.

"I always thought my human was the only one foolish enough to possess this particular combination of ignorance and courage."

Several people heard her words, but none of them understood exactly what she meant by *my human*. Even Sara found herself uncertain whether Erza was insulting Loid or somehow complimenting him.

Erza’s violet eyes remained fixed upon the trembling man beneath her.

"But apparently, there are other humans whose brains function just as foolishly as his."

She slowly lowered herself until her face was closer to Loid’s, allowing him to see the terrifying calm within her eyes.

"Unfortunately for you, there is one important difference."

Loid’s breathing became increasingly shallow.

"If he had done something this foolish, I might have been happy."

Erza’s expression softened for only the briefest moment as Yuuta entered her thoughts.

"I would have called him an idiot, but I would have been proud that he found the courage to stand against something he believed was wrong."

The softness disappeared.

"But you..."

Her eyes became cold again.

"...are not him."

Loid’s pupils contracted.

"Therefore, I have no desire to spare your life."

Before anyone could react, Erza’s hand shot forward and wrapped around Loid’s neck.

She lifted him effortlessly.

His feet left the floor as though his body weighed nothing, and a horrified gasp spread through the War Hall when everyone saw the vice-captain hanging from one of Erza’s hands.

Loid immediately grabbed her wrist with both hands.

It made no difference.

Erza’s fingers tightened.

"How dare you?"

There was still no shouting in her voice, yet the rage beneath those words was unmistakable.

"You insignificant mortal."

Loid desperately pulled against her hand, but he couldn’t move even a single one of her fingers.

Erza stared into his eyes.

"I allow only one person to touch me as he pleases."

Erza’s violet eyes became colder.

"My human."

Her grip tightened again.

"And only him."

Loid desperately clawed at her hand.

Erza didn’t even acknowledge his struggle.

"Yet you..."

She glanced briefly toward the shattered pieces of his sword scattered across the stage.

"...dared to touch my neck with that pathetic blade."

Loid’s legs began kicking violently.

He couldn’t breathe.

His fingers clawed at Erza’s wrist while his body instinctively fought for oxygen, but the difference in strength was so enormous that his resistance accomplished absolutely nothing. His face gradually turned red as the pressure around his throat increased, and his vision began blurring around the edges.

Thousands watched in horror.

Nobody moved.

Even if Erza’s aura hadn’t forced them down, very few among them would have possessed enough courage to interfere after witnessing a sword shatter against her bare skin.

Sara’s eyes widened as Loid’s struggling became increasingly desperate.

Yet she didn’t move.

Even if Erza’s aura had allowed her to stand, Sara understood that Loid had created this situation himself. He had hidden inside the War Hall, attempted to assassinate Erza and then prepared to attack her again after being given several opportunities to stop.

Sara also understood something far more frightening.

Erza was only killing him.

After someone inside the Agency had attempted to take the Queen’s life, Erza could have interpreted the attack as betrayal from the entire organization. Compared to what she was capable of doing, directing her anger toward Loid alone was almost mercy.

Loid’s face began turning red.

His movements became weaker.

The frantic kicks of his legs gradually lost their strength as his brain was deprived of oxygen. His vision blurred, and the thousands of people surrounding him became little more than indistinct shapes.

Fiona watched from the floor.

Her eyes trembled.

She knew Loid had been wrong.

She knew he had attacked Erza first.

She knew Erza had every reason to be furious.

But none of those thoughts changed the fact that the man dying in front of her was someone she had known since childhood.

"Loid..."

Her fingers pressed against the stage.

Fiona tried to rise.

Erza’s aura immediately forced her back down.

She gritted her teeth and pushed again, forcing one trembling arm beneath herself as she desperately attempted to lift her body from the floor.

She couldn’t simply watch him die.

Loid’s eyes were beginning to roll backward.

Fiona saw his weakening body hanging from Erza’s hand, and her eyes widened as a horrible realization struck her. His struggling was becoming weaker with every passing second, and as she watched his hands slowly lose their grip around Erza’s wrist, the War Hall around her seemed to disappear beneath a memory she hadn’t thought about in years.

A familiar voice returned from somewhere deep inside her mind, carrying her far away from the battlefield and back toward a time when neither of them had understood how cruel their lives would eventually become.

---

Location: Japan

Place: Isolated Phoenix Residence — 14 years ago

Seven-year-old Fiona hurried through the enormous traditional Japanese residence while repeatedly calling Loid’s name. Her small feet carried her across the wooden corridors toward the training grounds, where seven-year-old Loid was supposed to be training beneath her father’s supervision, but when she arrived, the entire area was empty.

"Loid! Where are you?"

Little Fiona placed both hands upon her hips and looked around with growing confusion. Loid rarely disappeared during training because he knew exactly how furious her father would become, so she quickly left the training ground and continued searching through the surrounding courtyard.

She eventually noticed something unusual behind one of the trees.

A small figure was sitting there with his knees pulled toward his chest, deliberately hiding himself from anyone passing through the courtyard. Fiona immediately recognized him and hurried across the grass, although Loid quickly turned his face away when he realized she had found him.

"Loid, what are you doing here?"

Loid hurriedly wiped his cheek before lowering his hand.

"I’m not doing anything."

Fiona narrowed her eyes suspiciously because his answer only made his behavior stranger. She stopped in front of him and leaned slightly forward, trying to see the side of his face that he continued hiding from her.

"Hmm... weird. You should be training with my father right now."

"I was going to."

"Then why are you here?"

Loid became silent for several seconds as his eyes wandered toward the ground. He clearly hadn’t prepared an excuse, and Fiona patiently watched him struggle to invent one until his attention suddenly landed upon something moving through the grass.

"I was observing the ants."

Fiona blinked several times before looking toward the ground.

"Ants?"

"Yes, ants."

Loid nodded as seriously as possible, but Fiona continued staring at him because even as a child she could tell when he was lying. More importantly, he had kept one side of his face turned away from her throughout their entire conversation.

"Hmm... let me see your eye."

Loid immediately moved farther away.

"Why? Nothing happened."

Fiona’s suspicion became certainty when she noticed his reaction, so she reached toward him before he could escape. Loid tried hiding his face with one hand, but Fiona grabbed his ear with the other and pulled him toward her.

"Show me."

"Ayaka! It hurts!"

"Then stop hiding!"

Loid complained several more times, but Fiona refused to release his ear until he reluctantly lowered the hand covering his face. The moment she finally saw what he had been hiding, every trace of childish annoyance disappeared from her expression.

One of Loid’s eyes was badly swollen, with dark purple bruising spreading across the skin surrounding it. Fiona’s gaze immediately moved lower and noticed several more bruises covering his arms and legs, while dirt stained his clothes as though he had repeatedly been thrown against the ground.

"Loid... what happened to you?"

Loid quickly looked away from her.

"Nothing."

"This isn’t nothing. Who did this?"

"No one."

Fiona stared at him before slowly turning her head toward the distant training ground. There weren’t many people inside the residence who would have been training Loid that morning, and his refusal to answer told her almost everything she needed to know.

"Did my father do this to you?"

Loid remained silent.

Fiona waited for several seconds, but when he still refused to answer, anger appeared across her young face. She stood up immediately and turned toward the residence as though she had already made her decision.

"That’s it. I’m talking to Father today, and I’m telling him you’re not becoming a Demon Slayer anymore."

"No!"

Loid’s sudden shout stopped her.

Fiona turned around in surprise and found him already trying to stand despite the bruises covering his body. There was fear in his expression, but strangely, it wasn’t fear of returning to the training ground.

"Don’t do that, Ayaka."

"What?"

"Don’t tell your father to stop training me."

Fiona stared at him in disbelief before pointing toward his swollen eye.

"Are you serious? Look at yourself, Loid. You can barely see through one eye, and your arms and legs are covered in bruises."

"It’s nothing. It’ll heal."

"Nothing?! You were hiding behind a tree crying!"

"I wasn’t crying."

"You were."

"I wasn’t!"

Fiona stared at the obvious tear marks still remaining upon his cheeks, while Loid hurriedly wiped them away when he realized she had noticed. His attempt to look unaffected only made her more frustrated.

"Then why were you crying?"

"I told you, I wasn’t."

"Fine, whatever. Why do you even want to become a Demon Slayer this badly?"

Loid opened his mouth but didn’t answer immediately. Unlike his ridiculous excuse about observing ants, he didn’t try inventing another lie, and his expression gradually became much more serious as his small hands tightened beside him.

"So I can protect you, Ayaka."

Fiona froze.

"What?"

Loid raised his head and looked directly at her, despite the swollen eye making it difficult for him to keep both eyes completely open. There was no embarrassment in his expression anymore because, for once, he genuinely meant every word leaving his mouth.

"I want to become a Demon Slayer because I want to protect you, Ayaka."

Fiona stared at him for several seconds before her little cheeks suddenly became red. Seeing Loid standing there with a swollen eye and bruises all over his body while saying something so serious eventually made her burst into laughter.

"Why are you laughing?!"

"I’m sorry! You just look really serious!"

"I am serious!"

Fiona gradually stopped laughing before extending her small hand toward him. Her expression brightened as a simple solution entered her seven-year-old mind, one that seemed perfectly reasonable to her.

"Okay! Then I’ll protect you too."

Loid blinked.

"You will?"

"Yes. You protect me, and I’ll protect you."

Fiona smiled proudly.

"Then nobody can beat us because we’ll always have each other."

Loid looked at her offered hand before taking it with his own. Despite his swollen eye and the bruises covering his body, a small smile finally returned to his face.

"So we’ll be invincible?"

"Exactly!"

Fiona squeezed his hand.

"We’ll be invincible together."

Neither child understood how difficult keeping that promise would eventually become. At that moment, however, standing together beneath an old tree in the courtyard of the Phoenix residence, they believed it with the absolute certainty only children could possess.

They would protect each other, no matter what happened.

---

The childhood courtyard disappeared from Fiona’s mind as reality returned with horrifying clarity, and the little boy who had once held her hand was replaced by the grown man hanging helplessly from Erza’s grip.

Loid’s face had become red from the lack of oxygen, while the hands that had desperately clawed at Erza’s wrist were barely moving anymore. His legs had almost completely stopped kicking, and his unfocused eyes were beginning to roll backward as consciousness slowly abandoned him.

Fiona’s trembling eyes remained fixed upon him as their childhood promise continued echoing inside her mind. Years had passed since that afternoon beneath the tree, and they had eventually become exactly what they had dreamed about becoming, fighting demons together until Fiona became a captain and Loid became her vice-captain.

Yet now she was watching him die directly in front of her.

We’ll protect each other.

Fiona pressed her palm against the stage and desperately attempted to push herself upward despite the crushing weight of Erza’s aura. Every muscle in her body trembled beneath the pressure, but she refused to stop because she knew there might only be seconds remaining before Loid’s body completely gave out.

She knew he had been wrong.

She knew he had attacked Erza first, and she knew interfering now could redirect the Dragon Queen’s anger toward her. None of those facts mattered enough to erase the memory of a bruised little boy standing beneath a tree and promising that he would endure everything her father did to him simply because he wanted to become strong enough to protect her.

You idiot...

Tears gathered within Fiona’s eyes as she forced one trembling knee beneath herself. Her body screamed beneath Erza’s aura, but Fiona continued pushing upward while staring at Loid’s increasingly lifeless face.

You said you were going to protect me.

Fiona’s fingers dug against the stage as Loid’s weakening body continued hanging from Erza’s hand. The childhood promise echoed through her mind with unbearable clarity, pushing aside every warning telling her that interfering with the Dragon Queen could cost her life as well.

So don’t you dare die before I get the chance to protect you too.

Fiona gathered every bit of strength remaining inside her and forced herself to move again.

Then Erza stopped.

Something had reached her.

It wasn’t Fiona’s aura, nor was it the weak resistance she was attempting to raise against the overwhelming pressure covering the War Hall. It was something considerably more familiar, something Erza recognized before she even understood where it was coming from.

Desperate hope.

The fingers wrapped around Loid’s throat remained perfectly still, and his body continued hanging helplessly from Erza’s hand. Yet her attention was no longer entirely focused upon the dying man in front of her, because somewhere behind her, she could feel someone desperately clinging to the hope that she would stop.

Erza’s violet eyes shifted slightly.

"What is the meaning of this..."

Her voice remained cold as she sensed Fiona struggling behind her.

"...Fiona?"

In the next instant, the crushing aura filling the War Hall disappeared.

Thousands of soldiers gasped simultaneously as the invisible weight pinning them against the floor vanished without warning. Sara and Sister Mary immediately raised their heads, while the five captains struggled to recover from the sudden release of pressure.

Erza slowly looked over her shoulder.

Fiona was standing.

Her legs trembled beneath her, and the hand wrapped around the hilt of her sword was shaking so violently that she could barely keep the weapon steady. Fear was obvious across her face, yet despite that fear, she had forced herself between Loid and certain death.

"Leave him alone."

Her voice trembled badly.

Erza’s eyes narrowed.

"What did you say?"

Fiona swallowed before tightening her grip around the sword.

"Leave him alone."

Erza slowly turned farther toward her while still holding Loid above the ground with one hand. His struggling had become frighteningly weak, but Erza showed no concern as her cold gaze settled completely upon Fiona.

"Once again, Fiona..."

Her voice became quieter.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Fiona’s heart hammered against her chest.

Every instinct inside her was telling her to lower her weapon. The woman standing before her had just forced nearly ten thousand Agency personnel to their knees with nothing more than her aura, and Fiona had already witnessed a blade shatter against Erza’s bare neck.

There was no battle here.

If Fiona attacked, she would die.

Yet when her eyes moved toward Loid, she saw his body hanging almost completely motionless.

"Leave him..."

Fiona forced the words from her throat.

"...now."

Erza stared at her.

Fiona’s trembling sword remained raised.

"Or else..."

She couldn’t finish.

Erza tilted her head slightly.

"Or else what?"

Fiona swallowed painfully.

She knew there was nothing she could threaten Erza with. Her sword couldn’t injure her, her rank meant nothing to her, and even the entire Agency gathered inside this chamber wouldn’t be enough to force the Dragon Queen to release someone she had decided to kill.

But Fiona still had control over one life.

Her own.

The memory of two seven-year-old children standing beneath a tree returned to her mind. She remembered Loid’s swollen eye, the bruises covering his small body and the ridiculous seriousness on his face when he told her that he would endure all of it because he wanted to become strong enough to protect her.

We’ll protect each other.

Fiona’s expression changed.

She suddenly turned the sword around.

Sara’s eyes widened when she realized what Fiona was doing, while several captains stared at her in disbelief. Fiona placed the point of the blade against her own abdomen, pressing it firmly enough against herself to make her intention unmistakable.

"If you don’t let him go..."

Fiona’s trembling hands tightened around the sword as she pressed its point against her own abdomen. Her entire body was shaking beneath Erza’s presence, yet there was no uncertainty remaining within her eyes.

"...I’ll die here right now."

The War Hall became completely silent.

Erza stared at her.

For the first time since Loid had attacked her, something genuinely unexpected entered the Dragon Queen’s expression. She had anticipated Fiona begging for his life, perhaps even attempting to interfere despite knowing how hopeless such an action would be, but she hadn’t expected the woman to turn her own weapon against herself.

Erza’s fingers stopped tightening around Loid’s throat.

Her violet eyes slowly moved from Fiona’s sword to her face, and a thought immediately entered her mind.

If she dies...

Yuuta appeared within her thoughts.

Erza had already considered a future in which she might no longer remain beside him. Fiona was supposed to be one of the people who could stay with her human if that day ever came, and the woman herself had already agreed to that possibility.

Yet Fiona was now threatening to throw away her own life for this man.

Erza’s eyes narrowed.

What are you doing, Fiona?

She looked at Loid before returning her attention to Fiona. The man was barely conscious and meant almost nothing to Erza, yet Fiona was standing there prepared to drive a sword through her own body if Erza killed him.

It didn’t make sense.

Then Erza looked into Fiona’s eyes.

There was something there.

Something desperate enough to overcome her fear of Erza, something powerful enough to make Fiona disregard her own life without hesitation. Erza recognized the intensity of that feeling, but she didn’t immediately understand why Fiona was directing it toward Loid.

Her expression gradually became colder.

Why?

Fiona loved Yuuta.

Erza knew that.

She had accounted for it.

She had even accepted it.

So why was this woman prepared to die for another man?

Erza stared at Fiona for several long seconds, searching those trembling eyes as an uncomfortable suspicion began forming within her mind. She didn’t have an answer yet, but for the first time, she realized there was something about Fiona and Loid’s relationship she had completely failed to understand.

"So that’s how things are..."

Her voice was unusually quiet.

Fiona remained frozen with the sword against herself, unable to understand what Erza meant.

Erza’s violet eyes shifted once toward Loid before returning to Fiona.

"I see."

But despite those words, Erza hadn’t truly understood it yet.

She had only realized that there was far more between Fiona and Loid than she had ever considered.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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