~Chapter 123~
“What?”
As expected, Zion made a dumb sound.
I shrugged and answered:
“Not exactly all monsters started from dragons.”
I recalled what Captain Ista had told me earlier.
‘As soon as your letter came, His Holiness the Pope ordered me to go to Saint Portu.’
‘Something about the timing felt off, so I searched everywhere, even the central archives of the temple.’
The Holy Knight Captains had access to the central archives.
It was just that no one bothered to go in there.
That place was usually filled with scripture-obsessed fanatics.
Most Captains were already busy enough with training and work.
Anyway, he said he gathered suspicious materials from the archives, and then he found this passage:
‘A few demons shared their blood with their followers.
Those followers grew stronger and ruled the world.’
‘And the “demons” there are dragons?’
‘Yes. The followers must be the monsters.’
He also had reasons for thinking so.
‘There were records saying those followers invaded the Empire’s lands.’
And those invasions matched exactly with the times of the Empire’s great monster raids.
At first, I wasn’t that shocked.
‘Makes sense.’
I remembered how monsters feared the Dragon Duke, whose body carried dragon power.
If that fear was because of blood given to the monsters by their master, then it was natural.
…Like how every time my skin touched Karl’s, my body would tingle sharply.
Because dragons shared their blood with monsters.
If monsters had dragon blood inside them, then of course Karl’s blood would feel the same.
Especially when it touched soft skin, like lips…
Maybe that was why.
‘Not something I can explain out loud though.’
I wasn’t shameless enough to talk about kissing my husband to my old superior officer.
…Even if sometimes I wanted to brag to someone how amazing it was.
Or boast that my husband was getting better at kissing every time.
While I erased the image of a “handsome slug” from my mind, the Captain continued calmly.
‘It was strange, so I dug deeper. And then…’
‘You found part of a history book about dragons in the archives?’
That surprised me.
A history book about dragons in the temple’s archives?
But what came after surprised me even more.
‘Yes. And according to it, it wasn’t just giving blood to make followers.’
‘……’
‘The blood they injected turned them into a kind of improved species.
And the monsters without that blood…’
‘Were defeated and went extinct?’
That was the summary.
In other words, the monsters that remain now are creations of dragons.
I clicked my tongue inside.
‘That’s not easy information to find.’
It was basically an important truth of the world.
The fact he found it meant he spent days digging through dusty archives.
‘Most people wouldn’t have found anything at all.’
This must be the “protagonist buff” of the original male lead.
The male lead has to be good at everything and always find what he’s looking for.
Sometimes I had to praise the force of the original story.
‘Very few people must know this truth.’
The Imperial church hated dragons, and dragons were already extinct.
And among those with access to the central archives, who would care about dragons?
He said the records were covered in dust, abandoned and ignored.
No one had looked for them, so they were buried.
The funny part?
There were no such history books left in Saint Portu.
‘When I asked Jeremy earlier, he didn’t even know history records existed.’
Come to think of it, Karl said the same.
During the monster annihilation event, almost all dragon records left in Saint Portu had been destroyed.
What remained were just guesses.
‘But in the central archives, all the records were still there?’
‘Yes. If you think about the “searching” records Zion mentioned…’
We both realized the same thing.
When the temple sent Holy Knights during Saint Portu’s crisis, they must have collected all dragon-related records.
‘Those grave-robbing thieves!’
No wonder the history books were there.
I must have become a Saint Portu person already.
I felt like my ancestors must have felt when priceless books were stolen and taken to the Louvre.
‘They’d even build a museum with stolen things!’
There was no use blaming the Captain though, so I held it in.
After that conversation, we called Zion here.
Captain Ista calmly spoke.
“Assuming that history book is true…”
“It probably is,” I cut in, raising my hand.
“The problem is what comes after.”
“After?”
“If someone else in the temple also noticed the connection between dragons and monsters?”
“……”
“And if they’re trying to use that knowledge for something?”
Zion gave me a puzzled look.
“What could they even do?”
“…They might try to control monsters. Or even try to create them.”
Zion and the Captain both fell silent.
I wasn’t making this up for no reason.
Not only were there assassins and poor people who turned into monsters—
‘But they also said strange mutants started appearing months ago.’
At first, I thought the reason monsters didn’t run from Karl was because he suppressed his dragon power for me.
And I thought the monster invasion happened because of me too.
I even apologized for it, but Jeremy told me:
“That wasn’t the Grand Duchess’s fault.”
He said even before I came, there had been monsters unaffected by the Duke’s power.
That also happened to be when drug-laced cigarettes spread among soldiers.
Now that it was nearly certain the back-alley boss was connected to the temple…
‘Those mutants must have been the temple’s doing too.’
I opened my mouth, almost sure.
“This monster invasion might have happened because of that.”
“That’s…”
“And the Pope sent the Holy Knights as if he already knew the invasion was coming, didn’t he?”
At this point, the Pope was the most suspicious.
‘That black-hearted bald old man.’
As I cursed the old bald guy, the Captain suddenly cut in.
“Wait, Elaine. I know why you think that, but—”
“But?”
“If the records are true, you’d need dragon blood to make or control monsters.”
“……”
“Something from a dragon’s body.”
“That’s true.”
“Unless the temple somehow got the Duke’s blood, there’s no way they could…”
But I had a guess.
“Captain. Did you ever check the storerooms?”
“Storerooms?”
“Yes. The holy relic storerooms.”
“…Elaine. Don’t tell me…”
This time, Zion responded to me.
“You mean like those street vendors who talked about dragon bone powder?”
“Something like that.”
I remembered it clearly.
‘Selling demon bone powder! Mix with water, even grow back lost hair! Dragon bone, only 5 silver!’
‘Why are you selling that here… and more expensive than holy water?’
‘Haha. New recruit knights don’t know? There are dragon bones in the holy relic storage under the temple.’
‘How could you get those?’
‘Curious? That’ll be 8 silver.’
Back then, I thought it was nonsense.
But now it came back to me.
Maybe the items weren’t real, but the information could have been.
Street vendors lingered around the temple far longer than trainee knights.
‘If there really were dragon remains in the temple’s relic storerooms…’
Like how the dragon’s shed skin recently melted and vanished—
That could mean someone tried to touch it.
Probably because they needed dragon blood or body parts to control or create monsters.
If the temple really had dragon bones and used them up, maybe that’s why they needed new dragon remains.
It was a crazy thought, but it felt right.
The only fortunate thing was:
The shed skin melted away before they could use it.
They hadn’t succeeded.
‘They said even to salvage a little, they’d need a mage…’
“Aha. So that’s why they brought in mages?”
Zion’s voice broke my thoughts.
“What?”
“Well, you see…” Zion scratched his jaw.
“When I was eavesdropping in the Saint Portu archives, they said they were using mages too.”
“……”
“If they hired mages to track dragon power with magic, that would make sense…”
“You stupid gorilla pig!”
I clenched my fist and shouted:
“Why are you only saying that now?!”
