Chapter 53
“Urgh!”
Caught off guard, Yurika couldn’t dodge the sudden strike and staggered back. At some point, Izren’s blade had sliced across her arm.
“You damn cat!”
Izren shouted.
“Run!”
He quickly moved to stand in front of Jayna, blocking her path. But the opponent’s magic easily severed the sword he was holding.
Still, it had bought them a little time.
Breaking away from Yurika, Jayna cast a wind spell to strike back.
Whoosh!
“……!”
But with a flick of her remaining hand, Yurika dispelled the gust instantly.
Jayna’s specialty was wind magic—its control a bit unrefined, but its power immense. Yet her opponent had nullified it effortlessly.
‘This is…’
Jayna quickly realized the reason.
‘My mana… it’s not obeying me properly. Something artificial is crawling inside me, disrupting everything…’
She winced as pain surged through her body. Instead of counterattacking, she made the decision to flee.
“Izren!”
Grabbing his hand, Jayna leapt into the air.
At that moment, a voice shouted from somewhere.
“Fools!”
Unless one could cast multiple spells simultaneously, fighting midair was suicide—it left you completely exposed.
A long shadow loomed over Jayna.
Diamid caught her as she fell, his arms wrapping around her.
“To think you’d cause such a scene in my tower… You must think I’m some kind of joke.”
His usually emotionless eyes were now cold as ice.
*
The two dragons had decided not to kill Charlotte right away. Instead, they planned to use her to extract information about the Magic Tower.
From her, they learned that a maid named Yurika was close to Jayna—and that she was guarded by a beastkin knight.
“Hehe, that day, the entire tower will be busy.”
“Oh? Even the Tower Master?”
“Even Lord Michael and Lady Hilvenzia will be too distracted to notice a thing.”
They used that opportunity, hiding themselves among the tower’s supply crates to sneak inside.
“Jai… na…”
They knocked out Jayna’s personal maid and assumed her form. Everything had gone smoothly—until now.
‘All that’s left was to kill that half-breed…’
Who would’ve thought that the Tower Master himself—who was supposed to care nothing for his own daughter—would be protecting her?
‘So what if he’s human? Does a lowly male dare defy the great race of dragons?!’
Shoosh!
Shitail summoned hundreds of magical arrows, unleashing them across the entire tower.
No matter how great the human mages were, they were still pitiful creatures who couldn’t even live a hundred years.
“Milady!”
The beastkin knight holding the half-breed’s hand froze in shock.
And he wasn’t the only one.
“It’s a dragon! A dragon’s here!”
“We’re all going to die!”
Screaming was the best many could do.
Most stood frozen in disbelief at the sight of Shitail’s true dragon form and the barrage of magical arrows raining toward Diamid.
“No one will save you!”
Convinced he would personally rip that lowly half-breed to shreds, Shitail charged toward Diamid.
Casting magic while moving—that was a feat only a dragon could achieve.
No one could possibly stop him.
Or so he thought—until—
“AAAAARGH!”
Shitail screamed in agony, coughing up a gush of blood, his crimson eyes flaring with rage.
“Who dares—!”
But he couldn’t finish his words—his body had frozen completely.
His eyes locked onto the human before him.
‘The Tower Master… Diamid!’
The hundreds of magical arrows aimed at Diamid vanished instantly at the man’s mere tilt of his chin.
Magic Nullification.
A spell so dangerous that anyone below a certain mastery would harm themselves attempting it.
Most mages didn’t even learn it—but Diamid had just done it effortlessly, without a single incantation or gesture.
And that wasn’t all. Diamid cast a second spell simultaneously.
Swish!
Chains shot from his fingertips, forcing their way between Shitail’s jaws before coiling tightly around his body—including his wings.
Bound and unable to move, Shitail plummeted toward the ground.
“Ughhh!”
Jayna and many others were directly below—if the dragon fell there, they’d all be crushed.
Diamid glanced down, then flicked his fingers.
Whoosh—
In an instant, the massive dragon body disappeared.
He had teleported Shitail away.
“The Tower Master… defeated a dragon…”
“And without a single scratch—so easily…”
The mages collapsed where they stood, awed by Diamid’s power.
The Tower, once in chaos, was silent once more.
The only trace of the battle was the crimson blood the dragon had vomited up from the recoil of his own broken magic.
And the man responsible for it all stood as calm as ever.
“……!”
Diamid approached Jayna and asked quietly,
“Why was the dragon attacking you?”
Seeing him cast a soundproofing spell so no one else could hear, Jayna looked surprised for a moment—then shook her head.
‘There’s no way Lord Diamid would care enough to protect my privacy.’
She opened her mouth and answered plainly.
“Because I’m a half-breed.”
She didn’t bother explaining that she was a “proof of disgrace” or that her existence tarnished dragon pride.
There was no point—Diamid didn’t believe in Bezeliche anyway.
“……”
While Diamid fell silent, the surrounding mages began to chatter noisily again.
“The Tower Master must’ve sent the dragon to the prison.”
“To catch a whole dragon alive—he’s done it again!”
The mages, forgetting how close they’d been to death, buzzed excitedly about the dragon capture.
Jayna lowered her gaze quietly.
Half-breed or not, she was a dragon. Hearing them speak so casually about dissecting one didn’t sit well with her.
‘Well… mages have always cared only about power.’
Jayna was relieved that her guess—that Diamid wouldn’t kill her—had been correct, but she couldn’t ignore her discomfort.
‘How can someone who once loved a dragon… now dissect them for research?’
“I’m not feeling well… I’ll take my leave.”
She turned and walked away, unsettled.
‘Lord Michael and Lady Hilvenzia will be thrilled. The mages here are obsessed with their experiments, after all…’
Jayna made her way back to her room.
“Meow.”
Though his expressionless face didn’t show it, Izren seemed to sense that something was off. He lay down quietly beside her.
“Meow. Meow.”
“Izren.”
It was as if he were telling her she could pet him if she wished.
Jayna stared blankly at him for a moment, then stroked his soft fur.
Before long, she drifted off to sleep.
*
The next morning.
“Mm…”
Sunlight trickled through the window, brushing against Jayna’s eyelids. Wrapped tightly in her blanket, she blinked groggily.
Surely the Tower Master would now boast about slaying a dragon.
‘As if defeating the Demon King wasn’t enough—now he’ll be called a Dragonslayer too…’
The thought left a bitter taste in her mouth. Even though that dragon had tried to kill her, remembering her kin coughing up blood made her uneasy.
“I don’t have an appetite. Go ahead without me, Izren.”
“Meow.”
Jayna told him to go to breakfast alone.
But Izren shook his head firmly—refusing.
Seeing the worry in his eyes, Jayna tried to reassure him.
“I’m just…”
Then suddenly—
Poof!
Izren transformed back into his human form.
“I’m sorry. For everything.”
“Huh? For what?”
“For being weak. That’s why you’re sad. Right now.”
“That’s not it.”
They went back and forth for a while until—
Knock knock.
Someone rapped rapidly at the door.
“Come in—”
Before she could finish, two people burst inside.
Jayna expected the impatient Michael to enter first, but surprisingly, it was Hilvenzia.
“Jayna. You didn’t come to breakfast. Are you sick of my cooking already?”
Michael followed right behind, looking uncharacteristically worried.
“Were you scared because of what happened yesterday? You’ve lost your appetite?”
“No, nothing like that…”
Jayna burrowed back under her blanket, curling up like the cutest little caterpillar—but neither Hilvenzia nor Michael looked amused.
“Jayna, are you sure you’re not sick?”
“You’re not dying or anything, right?”
Izren, now a cat again, opened his mouth from atop the bed—his own way of warning them not to disturb her rest.
“Meow!”
“You damn cat. You couldn’t even protect her yesterday!”
But even Michael fell silent afterward, sighing as if frustrated with himself.
“Still… I’ve got no right to say that. Damn it.”
“If the Tower Master hadn’t shown up when he did…”
As the atmosphere grew heavier, Jayna quickly changed the subject.
“By the way, how did those dragons even get into the tower?”
“They must’ve hidden inside the supply crates that were brought in.”
“I thought the tower’s security was airtight. Even so, they managed to break through? I guess… that’s dragons for you.”
“Yes, but that’s not the real issue. The dragons escaped from the prison.”
At Hilvenzia’s words, Jayna shot up from under her blanket.
