Chapter 96
Now that her identity had been completely exposed, there was nothing left to hide.
Asil put the fox down and swung her fern-like front paws back and forth.
“Ppiyat-ppi! Ppiya-ppiiya.” (Fier kept trying to kill the Duke, so I scolded him to make him come to his senses.)
“Keung!” (Violent lizard!)
The fox, trembling with anger, had just slipped behind Ikart’s back when—
“Keung!”
As if struck by lightning, the fox suddenly leaped high into the air on the spot. Then it collapsed with a thud and began convulsing.
“Kyaaang……”
Foaming at the mouth, it looked to be in tremendous pain.
Startled, Asil ran to the fox.
“Ppiit! Ppiyaat?!” (What’s wrong! Are you hurt?!)
“It’s a side effect of the oath being forcibly broken. He’s been outside for too long. I have to go now.”
Ikart spoke urgently, returned Arshian’s necklace, and vanished in an instant just as he had appeared.
Left alone, Asil stared blankly in the direction he disappeared.
‘The fox friend looked like he was in so much pain.’
To think that was the side effect of the oath being forcibly broken…
Whoever did it, it was definitely the work of a very bad human.
Then, suddenly, she realized something.
If that kind of pain is the side effect…
‘Doesn’t that mean Asil’s little brother Fier could be in pain too?’
* * *
The next day, Asil visited Fier in the guise of Lady Erzebet to check on him.
Fier still hadn’t regained consciousness.
Even though Saint Selena had come personally and poured holy power into him, he remained the same.
Instead, she succeeded in waking Duke Starafit, who had been using the room next door.
“Aigoo, I’m dying……”
While the exhausted Selena, drained from using too much holy power, was being supported out by the priests, Asil watched from a distance as the Duchess and Cedric rushed into the hospital room.
“Honey!”
“Father!”
She had heard that Duke Starafit had been wandering between life and death.
If Asil hadn’t stopped it, he probably would have died on the spot.
The two people, eyes brimming with tears, hugged Duke Starafit tightly.
The Duke embraced his family, patting their backs, then suddenly muttered with a face that had gone deathly pale.
“Fier…? …Why can’t I feel Fier?”
“…What do you mean, you can’t feel the divine beast?”
“Fier is right in the next room.”
The Empire was already in turmoil because of Duke Skya’s incident.
At those heart-dropping words, the Duchess and Cedric each added a comment.
The Duke’s hands trembled.
“No, I can’t sense him at all. It’s as if Fier has been transferred to someone else… Cedric, do you perhaps have authority over Fier?”
“No, I don’t…”
“Then why on earth—”
“UAAAAAAGH!”
Suddenly, a scream so painful it hurt to hear rang out loudly from somewhere.
It was Fier’s scream from the very next room.
“AAAAAGH!”
BANG!
With the sound of a wall collapsing, Fier’s human transformation was undone.
The nearby hospital rooms were instantly covered in dust.
“Kyaaak!”
“Kyaaaaak!”
Screams rang out and the injured quickly increased.
Among them, the ones who suffered the most damage were the Starafit Duke’s family in the adjacent room.
From the shockwave of the collapsing wall, all three were sent rolling across the floor. Especially the still-young Cedric was flung far from his parents and slammed into a corner.
That very moment—
“HOOOOOUUUUK!”
Fier, whose mind had gone blank from pain, whipped his tail like a lash.
A piece of stone debris struck by the tail flew straight toward Cedric.
“Uh—Mommyyyyy!”
Screaming in terror that covered his whole body, Cedric squeezed his eyes shut.
BANG!
There was a loud sound of something crashing and breaking.
Yet even after a long while, the expected pain never came. Could he… have died without even feeling pain…?
Cedric, filled with anxiety, slowly opened his eyes.
And met the pink eyes of someone standing tall in front of him, looking back.
“Double-nosebleed human! You okay?!”
It was Asil.
She had been outside the room and rushed in when it seemed something terrible had happened.
‘Even if he’s a bad human who tormented my husband, he hasn’t done anything bad enough to die!’
While Cedric froze stiff from shock, Asil didn’t even wait for his answer and ran off in another direction.
There were many other humans who needed help besides the double-nosebleed one.
Because of that, she didn’t notice Cedric’s face turning slightly red as he looked at her.
Fortunately, not long after she saved Cedric, the Holy Knights arrived.
“Lady Erzebet? It’s dangerous here!”
They pulled Asil, who was trying to help the injured, back.
Then they began subduing the giant firebird that had lost its reason and was rampaging.
“HOOOOOUUUUK!”
“Block the beak first so it can’t breathe fire!”
“Tie the wings so it can’t move!”
“Left side is firmly secured! Tie the right side a bit tighter!”
“HOOOOOOUUUUUK!”
Fier, tightly bound, cried out in agony.
The sight was so pitiful that Asil unconsciously clenched her fists.
‘I have to make sure my little brother and the fox friend don’t hurt anymore!’
To do that—
* * *
As soon as Asil entered the mansion, she looked for Arcian.
“Daddy!”
Daddy is a super-smart black dragon beastman who knows everything, so he’ll definitely know how to stop little brother and fox friend from hurting!
“Yes, my pretty daughter!”
“Do you know a lot about divine beast oaths?”
“Divine beast oaths?”
Arcuan, who had been about to pick up the running Asil, paused.
He had heard it was a sacred magic and prohibition that tightly bound divine beasts and their family heads, but he had never been particularly interested.
Why is our daughter curious about that?
Though puzzled, he answered kindly.
“Why? Did something happen?”
“Asil’s friends are hurting because of that.”
Asil explained about the fox and Fier.
Arcian, listening silently, stroked his chin.
“So the oath between the divine beast and the family head has been broken…”
If the divine beast disappeared, the Empire’s power would weaken, which would seem advantageous to the beastman nation, but it wasn’t necessarily so.
They might launch a surprise invasion to prove they are strong even without divine beasts.
Although things had quieted down for now, Arcian—who was always on edge wondering when war rhetoric would flare up again—did not welcome such a sudden change in the Empire.
“If the side effects are that painful, it must have been an extremely strong prohibition. Whoever broke it, there seems to be a considerably skilled person on the human side.”
“I want to make my friends stop hurting, what should I do?”
Arshian tilted his head slightly.
“They haven’t reached that part in kindergarten yet?”
“Ung?”
“The flower that eliminates all magic side effects. Haven’t you learned it in herbology class yet?”
“…!”
* * *
She had definitely learned it in kindergarten—why did it only come to mind now?
‘Silver Helmet Flower.’
She had heard about it during herbology class at beastman kindergarten.
If certain conditions were met, it was the ultimate medicinal herb that could remove all magical side effects from the target.
However, the Silver Helmet Flower itself was extremely rare, and if used incorrectly it harbored strong poison, so it had to be handled with great care.
“Asil needs the Silver Helmet Flower!”
If she had that, she could completely cure the fox friend and Fier’s pain.
Moreover, the fox friend might even regain the original power of the divine beast he once possessed.
However, there was one problem.
In the human world, the use of Silver Helmet Flowers was prohibited.
This was because humans, lacking magical knowledge compared to beastmen, did not know how to use them safely.
Still, there was a legend that in the hands of a master physician it became a panacea, so it circulated at high prices in the underworld.
Thus, to obtain a Silver Helmet Flower, Asil headed with Arshian to an underground auction house.
“It will be very difficult to fulfill the conditions—are you sure you’ll be okay?”
She was walking bravely, thinking only of saving her friends, when Arcian cautiously asked.
“Daddy wants to help, but… Daddy can’t help humans as purely as Asil can…”
Even Arcian, who was well-versed in magic, could do nothing about this part.
If even the slightest negative feeling toward the recipient was mixed in, the Silver Helmet Flower would immediately become a poisonous flower.
“Ung, Asil can do it alone.”
Asil is now a mature adult dragon who can even transform into human form.
Asil stuck out her belly with a confident face.
Having always ranked first in beastman kindergarten, she knew very well how to meet the conditions for the Silver Helmet Flower.
And so the two beastmen stepped into the dark auction house.
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