After Sion left, Riersha turned over the last words he had said before departing.
“Oh, and this arrangement is valid only between the two of us.”
In short, he had drawn a clear line between himself and House Arachrene.
Riersha decided to keep the deal secret from her family, at least for now.
It doesn’t really matter if the agreement falls through.
She had a solid written pledge in hand, so there was nothing for her to lose either way.
At the very least, the Tower Master would not be turning to the Empress’s side.
But to think that Ithyad’s holy power rivals even the Pope’s.
She had known his sacred power was considerable, but she hadn’t imagined it matched someone of that stature.
The current Pope was said to be a saint — which meant that Ithyad, still so young, would one day surpass him entirely.
Riersha glanced at Yong-yong sleeping beside her, then quietly opened her mouth.
“…Sona. That’s enough now. I really am fine.”
“No, Miss Riersha! I’m mortified…. I should never have left your side.”
“What are you talking about? You were only doing what you needed to do. And besides — it was the Tower Master.”
He was a man even Haydin had struggled to handle. If anything, it was an enormous stroke of luck that Sona hadn’t crossed paths with him directly and that everything ended the way it did.
“…But still.”
Sona started to say something more, then let it go.
Riersha had already noticed, to some extent. That lately, Sona had been wrestling deeply with questions about her own role.
Is Sona hurting more than she lets on?
There were people whose very presence was a source of strength — simply by being there. Sona was exactly that kind of person. But the fact that Sona couldn’t seem to see it that way was the real problem.
“Sona.”
“Yes, Miss Riersha.”
“We’ll be heading to the capital soon, so get ready to come with me.”
“…Pardon? Won’t you be going with Oberon?”
“What are you talking about?”
Riersha replied as though the answer were obvious.
“You’re my personal knight, Sona. So why would Oberon go?”
“…Oh.”
A moment later, Sona’s expression brightened.
“Yes, I understand. Miss Riersha.”
Riersha watched her for a moment, then turned to glance out the window.
The sky was growing dark.
It was almost time for Pernoa and Sion to meet again — but as for herself…
“Miss Riersha, you absolutely have to come tonight. The young duke invited us and it would be rude if you don’t. It’s honestly a little nerve-wracking?”
“Hmph. I’m not going.”
“…But there’s something the young duke was asking me about — something I’m sure you’ll be curious about too, Miss Riersha. You’ll be hearing quite the interesting story.”
Well. It wouldn’t hurt to be a little late, she supposed.
Riersha let out a small “hmph” and turned her head away. Then she gathered Yong-yong — who had still not recovered her energy — carefully into her arms, and stepped outside.
She was going to see Haydin.
⁂
Haydin was staying in one of the smaller castles within the Arachrene estate grounds.
It was nothing with a particular name.
The place was primarily used as temporary lodging for those engaged in outside activities.
Lately, with the legion commanders taking up residence there, the building had fully cemented that reputation — but regardless of all that.
The moment Riersha stepped inside, she went straight to find Haydin. He appeared to be alone. He stood watering a potted plant with a deeply contented smile on his face. It was, to put it plainly, a hobby that suited him absolutely not at all.
“Haydin, you in here?”
“…What brings you here, Miss Riersha?”
Riersha held up Yong-yong, who was limp and listless in her arms.
Haydin’s expression stiffened immediately.
“Did something happen?”
“No. I’m fine. But it seems like something happened with the Tower Master. She came running to me in tears. She seemed frightened.”
“…She came running in tears? She was frightened?”
“Mm.”
“This one?”
“Mm.”
Riersha nodded with a worried expression, and Haydin looked down at Yong-yong with a distinctly uncomfortable face.
“Kyiing.”
Yong-yong let out a faint, pained sound, lifted her tail weakly, then let it drop back down with a dull thud.
Haydin’s expression shifted into something even harder to read — the look of a man who had just seen something he wished he hadn’t.
“Ah… I see. Magic dragons have a particular nature — they won’t feed on mana that isn’t their master’s. So the fact that she can’t absorb your mana is perfectly normal.”
“Oh, I see. I was worried something had gone wrong. What a relief.”
“I’ll just take Yong-yong to the other room for a moment… would you mind waiting here briefly?”
“Why? Can’t you just feed her here?”
She had rather wanted to see how it worked.
Riersha tilted her head in curiosity, and Haydin let out an awkward laugh.
Then he spoke in a stiff, mechanical tone, as though reading from a textbook.
“Yong-yong is quite easily embarrassed, you see. If someone watches her eat, she gets indigestion. Isn’t that right, Yong-yong?”
“…Kyi, kyiing.”
Could one really get indigestion from simply absorbing mana?
Riersha had her doubts for a moment, but she nodded all the same.
There was no reason for Haydin to lie about something like this.
“I see. Well, there’s nothing to be done about it then. Take good care of her. I need to step out briefly to visit my father.”
“…Are you going to meet with the Tower Master again?”
“Hm?”
Riersha paused.
How did he know that?
It was news that shouldn’t have reached anyone else yet. And he’d said “again.”
He spoke as if he already knew she had just come from a conversation with the Tower Master.
A silence settled over the room, and Riersha heard Haydin swallow drily.
Whether his conscience got the better of him or not, he began to offer an excuse.
“Ah, well — it’s common knowledge that the Tower Master is staying at the estate… I was under the impression it was related to an investigation into some irregularity within the family.”
“I never said anything about that.”
“…”
“Who told you?”
Riersha’s gaze drifted, quite naturally, toward Yong-yong.
Don’t tell me — Yong-yong, was it you.
“Can you talk?”
A flinch.
Yong-yong shuddered and trembled.
“Ah — no, Miss Riersha. It’s not like that, you see…. It wasn’t on purpose.”
“…”
“…I mean, it’s just that.”
“…”
“Good grief. This is going to drive me mad.”
Riersha kept her suspicious gaze fixed on her, and Haydin let out a long sigh, bowing his head deeply.
After a long silence, Haydin lifted his face with a pained look.
“…She told me not to say anything.”
“Why?”
“…She probably just wanted to be a little spoiled, I think. I don’t usually indulge that sort of thing.”
Riersha’s eyes narrowed.
Yong-yong glanced nervously between them, then flinched and tried to shrink her small body out of sight.
So the part about coming to her in tears — that had been playing up too? Had the Tower Master, Sion Senuart, not actually frightened her at all, and she had simply pretended?
“Good heavens. She’s over a thousand years old and she’s only just learning how to throw a tantrum…”
“A — a thousand…”
Riersha stumbled over the word in stunned disbelief.
So the adorably tiny Yong-yong had actually been alive for over a thousand years.
“An — an elder dragon…?”
[An elder dragon?!]
A voice full of wounded indignation burst forth.
[I’m still young, for your information!]
“…”
[And for the record — I really was, just ever so slightly, scared back there. That wretched human genuinely attacked my heart where all my mana is concentrated!]
Gurgle.
Yong-yong went limp again, whatever energy she’d had draining out of her instantly.
At the mention of an attack aimed at her heart, Haydin’s expression turned serious for the first time.
“When I first went out to receive the Tower Master, he was targeting this one’s heart from the very beginning as well. Could it be he’s after a magic dragon’s staff?”
“A magic dragon’s staff? What’s that?”
[It’s a staff made from the heart of a magic dragon that lived for over ten thousand years.]
“…Can a dragon really live for ten thousand years?”
That would mean Yong-yong, at a mere thousand, truly had a valid claim to being young.
…She still had nine thousand years ahead of her, after all.
[Anyway, that human wants something extraordinarily dangerous. There’s not a single person alive who could properly wield it. The mana would consume them whole.]
“…Then who made the staff in the first place?”
Surely it wasn’t something a human had crafted?
A magic dragon wouldn’t have pulled out its own heart and fashioned it into a staff with their own hands.
Riersha blinked in bewildered confusion, and Yong-yong, still aggrieved, continued.
[To be more precise — there’s simply no one left now who could wield it properly. It’s been a hundred years, so they’d surely be dead by now…. From what I understand, black magic is forbidden among humans these days, but that person was extraordinarily skilled in it at the time. Though what was the name again… I believe they were later betrayed by a friend and killed?]
Yong-yong’s brow furrowed.
[Among humans, they were known as Senuart, I believe.]
