Chapter 46

The chance to observe Baskal’s dragon, Emeril, was precious to me too.

Opportunities to be around a Pantera Stalker were rare, to that same degree. The overwhelming majority of people who kept one were nobles, and nobles usually entrusted their dragons to an exclusive trainer, not to a trainer at the training center. What if they left such a precious dragon with someone else and it got hurt, or died?

So I didn’t let it show, but in my own way, I was thrilled. No — was there a trainer alive who wouldn’t be thrilled by this?

“She really was pretty…… Ah, and the fact that her hide is fur instead of scales is charming too.”

More precisely, the scales had grown out finely, like fur. That was why, despite appearances, her defense was considerable — the densely packed, slender strands themselves had the same hardness as scales.

And then there were her eyes. Those green eyes — a color that held all the deep verdancy of thriving, flourishing plant life, boasting their vitality to the fullest. Weren’t they more beautiful than any gem?

“I wonder what the fur feels like.”

Smooth and faintly soft, like an ordinary animal’s fur? Or smooth like scales, and surprisingly hard? And those wings surely weren’t just decoration. How would they unfold when she flew, how would she beat them?

Selfish little urges kept bubbling up, but I pressed them firmly down.

Focus on the work.

We weren’t close yet — if I tried to touch her now, I might get clawed for it. Even among people, no one’s comfortable with unreserved physical contact from someone they aren’t close to, right?

Once I’d folded away my selfish urges, out of habit, I gathered up the things I’d need for observation.

So then — what kind of temperament did Emeril, the Pantera Stalker, actually have?

“……”

Well, sure — life never does go quite as expected…… but even so, this was just too……

This is so boring.

Observing Emeril required a few things: a magic tool that could pinpoint the location of a hidden Emeril, and one that made visible the flow of mana she carried, among other things.

So, with Baskal’s consent, I’d put a collar on Emeril and was staying close by — but there was a problem.

Emeril never left Baskal’s side. And Baskal was doing indoor work.

……Which meant I couldn’t see any of the vigorous movement I’d expected, and she wouldn’t even step outside.

And indoors is the one thing I’m terrible at!

If it hadn’t been a request from Baskal, whose standing in the ducal house was unshakeable…… no, if the subject of observation hadn’t been a Pantera Stalker, I might have seriously reconsidered taking this on.

I turned my head to look at Emeril. She sat hidden beside Baskal, concealed from sight. Those beautiful green eyes hadn’t left me once since the moment I’d arrived.

A stare so persistent it was almost embarrassing. I wasn’t unaware of what that look meant.

I suppose letting her smell me wasn’t quite enough to put her fully at ease.

That was the normal response. And it was probably exactly because of that trait that the Duke had acquired a Pantera Stalker in the first place, to protect Baskal.

Only the tip of her tail twitched now and then, slow and unhurried, while her watchful gaze never wavered — I admired that, quietly, to myself. At the same time, I found myself wondering, is it really all right for me to just sit here like this?

Observation is the pretext, but still……

To anyone looking in, I probably seemed to be slacking off completely. Beside me, Baskal was diligently working through his paperwork, while I did nothing at all, just staring blankly at empty space……

“Um…… Baskal.”

“What is it, Trainer Litia?”

He looked up from his documents, brow furrowed slightly in concentration, and asked again.

“Could I borrow some paper and a quill?”

The quill trembling in Baskal’s hand went still.

“Paper and a quill…… you said?”

He asked again, eyes lighting with interest, so I added an explanation.

“It’s a bit much, just sitting here doing nothing……”

“Aren’t you already doing your job, simply by observing Emeril?”

“Emeril doesn’t see it that way.”

If anything, she probably thought I was the one keeping watch over Baskal. Judging by the way she wouldn’t take her eyes off me, that much was clear.

“A stranger suddenly being present where her master works is bad enough, but if that stranger keeps looking straight at where she’s hidden, it’s bound to raise suspicions she wouldn’t otherwise have.”

“…… Now that you put it that way, I see.”

“That said, I’m not especially skilled with paperwork. It would be a problem if an amateur meddled with important documents, so…… I should at least make some pretense of doing something.”

“So that’s why you asked for paper and a quill.”

I nodded. As a bonus, pretending to do something would also make it easier to jot down anything noteworthy, if it came up.

“Please wait just a moment.”

Without losing his look of interest, he opened a drawer and took out blank paper, a quill, and a bottle of ink.

“Will this do?”

“Oh, something this fine is……”

“Weren’t you going to record things about Emeril anyway, while you were at it?”

“That’s true, but……”

“Please don’t feel burdened about it. Different fields of work or not, we’re both people working together for the ducal house, aren’t we?”

Seeing Baskal’s good-natured smile, I was honestly moved. To have the Duke as a superior and still keep a character like that!

“Then…… I’ll make grateful use of it.”

I took the items from him and sat down at the desk, and Emeril blinked slowly.

The moment I opened the ink bottle, dipped the quill’s tip, and began pretending to write something, Emeril finally gave a languid yawn and lay down flat on the floor.

As I’d thought — this had been the right approach.

It would have been easier if she’d just ignored me watching and gone about her business, but……

Emeril’s protective instincts ran stronger than I’d expected. There was no helping it but to resort to a method like this.

Through it all, I quietly admired the way her muscles never fully relaxed, even now, while I studied her out of the corner of my eye.

Baskal must feel so reassured, having a dragon like that at his side. Lucky him.

…… Unexpected.

Having watched Litia these past few days, that was the feeling settling over Baskal.

Pretending to do something else in order to put Emeril’s guard down, was it. The reasoning was fairly convincing.

If she’d truly intended, as the Duke suspected, to smuggle out confidential information from inside the ducal house, she would have used that exact excuse to get her hands on documents. It would have been a decent opportunity, after all.

But Litia hadn’t done that. Quite the opposite — she’d said she didn’t want to cause more trouble by needlessly touching anything, and asked for blank paper instead.

Ah. It’s nothing much, but…… would you like to check it?

On top of that, she’d gone so far as to show him what she’d written, unprompted. In more ways than one, she was someone who acted against expectation.

There must be a reason Rohanes is so suspicious of her……

Litia’s conduct had been so consistently beyond reproach that it made him wonder why the Duke was so wary of her at all. It had only been a few days, but even in that short span, it was plain enough to see that her interest lay in nothing but dragons.

Wherever Litia’s gaze went, Emeril was always at the end of it, and everything she’d written down concerned Emeril alone. There was no sign of a secret code or any kind of rule to be found — just a plain record of fact.

Some people you couldn’t trust even after years had passed; others felt as familiar and reliable after only a few days as if you’d known them for a long time.

Litia belonged to the latter kind. More precisely, it was plain to see that her interests were fixed with absolute certainty — and she made no particular effort to hide them, either.

“You didn’t seem to care much for being indoors.”

He’d tried to keep his observation to himself, but it had been obvious enough from the way she’d kept up a reluctant pretense of scribbling, looking thoroughly bored the whole time.

The sight had struck him as faintly amusing, like a child forced to sit at a desk when they didn’t want to study. At the same time, he found himself thinking it was impressive, that she’d endured it so thoroughly disliking it, for no reason but to observe Emeril.

“How is it, Trainer Litia? Have you made any progress?”

“If it’s about Emeril…… yes. I have.”

To the question he posed during the break given after lunch, Litia answered readily, which surprised him.

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

Litia grinned. At that, Baskal’s eyes lit up.

Figured it out in just a few days, did she.

Up until now, he’d reviewed a great many things after sending Litia off each day — whether any gaps had appeared in the documents, whether the magic devices he’d set up in advance had caught any suspicious movement from Litia, and so on.

Right up to his last check, Litia hadn’t done a single suspicious thing. If the reason she hadn’t was simply that she’d found no opportunity, she would have kept putting off the observation period day after day, using Emeril as her excuse, waiting to find her chance.

Reaching that conclusion privately, Baskal waited for Litia’s next words. He, too, was in a position where he couldn’t afford to trust others easily, same as the Duke — but by his own judgment, Litia was a person worth trusting.

…… Of course, trust and competence at the job were separate matters. Looking at what Litia had already done within the ducal house, he couldn’t help but think he might be worrying too much, though.

“Just pet her, whenever Emeril looks at you.”

“…… That’s all?”

“If you’re asking how to express affection to Emeril…… yes. That’s all there is to it.”

When Litia answered so lightly, as though the matter he’d been agonizing over were nothing at all, Baskal found himself having to think it over seriously.

Had he been overly cautious where Emeril was concerned, or was it Litia’s judgment, reached in a matter of days, that was too hasty?

Unable to settle the question easily, Baskal fell silent, caught in confusion.