Chapter 100🎉
She felt the illusion that the conversation she had with Father last time was buzzing in her ears.
“If you go, Edenber will lose a precious divine beast.”
She wanted to comfort her husband who would be sad about parting with Asil.
But as a still-young Asil, she had no idea how to comfort Edenber.
Just thinking about parting with her husband made Asil’s heart sting and tears well up immediately……
“Ppiik.”
Asil dabbed away the tears that had come out before she knew it and clenched her front paws.
She shook her head vigorously as if shaking off her emotions, then put strength into her two legs and jumped up.
This kind of gloominess didn’t suit Asil.
‘Asil is always a brave adult dragon!’
To cheer herself up and also to seek advice from the knight humans, Asil trotted out to the training grounds.
* * *
The knights at the training grounds were, as always, energetically pounding wooden dummies.
Watching them overflowing with vitality, Asil felt the dark clouds that had filled her heart clear away brightly.
“Ppiya!” (Knight humans!)
“Lady Asil.”
Dylan, recognizing Asil, stopped his training and bowed his head in greeting.
Asil sent the wooden dummy he had been hitting flying with one front paw, then held out what she had brought from the divine beast’s room.
It was the yarn doll she had been struggling to make until now.
“This is……?”
Seeing the finger-sized doll, Dylan let out a small gasp of surprise.
It had a brown body exactly the color of his hair, with buttons for eyes and nose, and black thread stuck on for a mouth.
The fellow knights approached and burst out laughing at how perfectly it resembled the taciturn and boring Dylan.
“Hey, it looks exactly like you!”
“You really made it well. It’s Dylan itself.”
“……Are you giving this to me?”
Dylan asked in a trembling voice.
The divine beast he respected so much had made it for him—he was so moved he could hardly speak.
“Ppiya.” (Yes.)
When she nodded, he carefully took the doll.
Afraid it might break, he even put his sword far away and touched it delicately with careful hands.
Watching him, the other knights whispered among themselves.
“Wow, I’m jealous.”
“Being the divine beast’s escort knight really is different! Congratulations!”
“Ppiya ppiik ppiya.” (There are ones for the other knight humans too.)
At those words, the knights who had been envious of Dylan fell silent.
Then they looked at Asil with indescribably complicated expressions.
……Why are they acting like that? Did Asil do something wrong?
While she tilted her head in confusion, Dylan, representing all the knights, met Asil’s eyes.
“Um…… is something the matter, perhaps?”
“Ppi?”
“You’ve been sleeping much more lately, you shed tears the other day, and now you’re even giving us gifts……”
Dylan, unusually anxious, was under a very big misunderstanding.
“Are you perhaps unwell somewhere……?”
“……No matter how hard and painful it is, you must not give up. Keuhuk……”
Aidleton, standing beside Dylan, began to cry.
The knights who had been quiet also started speaking one by one.
“My family has been cultivating rare medicinal herbs for generations—if you need any, please say so. We will give anything to Lady Asil.”
“If there’s anything hard to obtain, just say the word. Even if it’s at the end of the continent, I will definitely bring it.”
“You didn’t say anything because you didn’t want us to worry and suffered alone…… Keuhuk.”
What is all this about?
Asil, who had somehow become a terminally ill baby dragon without knowing it, blinked.
Misunderstanding that she was trying to hide her condition to the end, Dylan grasped Asil’s front paw and said,
“It’s okay to say you’re sick. Everyone here only thinks of Lady Asil.”
“Ppiya ppii……. Ppiichu! Ppiitchu! Ppiichu!” (Asil is always a strong black dragon……. Achoo! A-achoo! Achoo!)
Right then, a sneeze burst out.
Asil covered her mouth with her fern-like front paws and sneezed uncontrollably.
To anyone watching, she clearly did not look okay, and the knights began to tear up.
“Keuhuk, trying to hide it to the very end……”
“That’s enough. It seems Lady Asil doesn’t want this, so let’s stop.”
“We are always ready to help Lady Asil. So please, say anything.”
“……Ppiya, ppiit ppi ppiya?”
(……Then, when you have to part with someone close, how should you say it?)
“Keuheoheoheong!”
The training grounds instantly turned into a sea of tears.
Startled, Asil froze like ice.
Could these humans have somehow figured out that Asil is returning to the forest?!
The knights wailed.
“No!”
“We cannot send Lady Asil like this!”
“……Ppiya ppii.” (……But Asil has to go.)
“Aigoo!”
“How on earth did she get such a terrible illness!”
The knights beat the ground and sobbed.
Because so many cried out at once, their voices overlapped and Asil couldn’t hear properly.
Looking at them sobbing, Asil’s eyes also began to well up.
How on earth did they know Asil is returning to the forest……
“We’re sorry for failing to protect you, Lady Asil.”
As he was dropping tears like jewels, Dylan took out a handkerchief and wiped Asil’s tears.
“I am disqualified as an escort knight. I should have noticed Lady Asil’s pain first.”
“Ppiya. Ppikk, ppiya.”
(No. Sniff, the knight human was the best escort knight.)
“You say that about worthless me—I don’t know where to put myself. To answer your earlier question……”
Dylan wiped his tears and forced a smile.
“Please smile like always.”
“Ppi?” (Smile?)
“Yes. So that the people left behind can remember that appearance forever.”
Come to think of it, when she parted with Lilibet and Briden, she smiled and didn’t cry.
“Ppiya ppiya.” (Got it, I’ll smile when parting with the humans.)
Asil rubbed her eyes with her front paws and nodded.
At that moment—
“Hey—! Did you hear the news? The result of the holy trial came out!”
A knight who had arrived late to training because he was listening to the news ran over and stopped short.
“……What’s wrong, why is everyone like this? Did something happen?”
“No, what’s the result?”
Dylan, quickly wiping his tears, asked in a somewhat calmed tone.
The knight who had been standing there dumbfounded answered,
“Duke Skya is to be confined in the abandoned tower.”
* * *
Duke Skya’s holy trial ended at an unprecedented speed.
The sin of concealing and not reporting to the temple that the divine beast had passed to his child Briden.
The sin of not properly caring for Briden, the divine beast’s owner, and letting him die at the hands of an assailant.
And the sin of causing the disappointed divine beast to leave the Skya ducal house forever.
Although Saintess Selena had said that Skya’s divine beast had not completely disappeared,
with the path to summoning forever blocked, it was no different from having vanished.
Moreover, because the Crown Prince, who was supposed to defend him, did not attend at all for some reason, Duke Skya was truly driven to the edge of a cliff.
“Your Highness! Your Highness! Did you not say you would never abandon Skya, Your Highness!!!”
He shouted for the Crown Prince the entire way as he was dragged to the temple’s solitary cell. But no answer came back.
Thus, Duke Skya was confined for life in the abandoned tower within the territory he ruled.
He was also forced to hand over the ducal title to his son Caron, and, unable to withstand his wife’s fury after hearing the trial results, had to grant her a divorce as well.
“They say he leaves for the abandoned tower in one week.”
Arcian, who had told Asil the news about Duke Skya, narrowed his brows.
“It happens to coincide exactly with when our Asil is taking the ship.”
“Is that bad?”
“Hmm, there will probably be a lot of onlookers on the streets, right? It’s not common to see a duke riding in a prisoner transport carriage.”
“I see. This for Daddy.”
Asil held out the black yarn doll she had been fiddling with until late last night.
She had stuck two pink buttons on the eyes to represent Arshian.
Arcian’s eyes widened in shock at the unexpected gift he had never even imagined.
“Good heavens!”
So this is the joy of raising children. To think he would receive something like this!
He hurriedly pulled Asil into a hug and rubbed his cheek against hers.
“My daughter, who did you take after to be so skilled with your hands!”
“Daddy.”
“Right? My daughter takes exactly after this daddy, doesn’t she? You mustn’t forget Daddy even after returning to the forest—promise!”
“Mm, promise. When Asil grows up later, I’ll definitely come visit Daddy.”
Asil hooked her little finger, rubbed their palms together, and even stamped it with a “shak!”
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