Chapter 121
I steadily recovered while receiving the devoted care of the Duke of Rupellen.
Of course, I didn’t forget to call his name once a day.
“Good morning, Nox.”
When I greeted him in the morning sunlight streaming through the window, he wore an ecstatic expression, as if he possessed the entire world.
It was the expression of someone standing at the center of the universe.
“Shall I call your name before going to sleep, too?”
“Twice a day?”
The duke squeezed his eyes shut and pondered for quite a while. Then he opened them, heavily shaking his head as he spoke.
“I just imagined it for a moment… and it’s too dangerous.”
“Huh? What is?”
“Before going to sleep means nighttime, right? Pitch-black darkness, not a soul around, quiet, a space steeped in silence, just the two of us together…….”
“……?”
“And you’d be in your nightclothes, just having bathed, your hair still damp. There’d be a dizzying scent coming from your body, and then….”
How far did this man’s imagination run, exactly?
Startled, I raised my arms and crossed them into an X.
“Canceled, canceled! Let’s just stick to calling your name in the morning!”
“……That does seem best.”
He looked deeply regretful, but it seemed reason had won over emotion. In any case, I was still a patient.
My health gradually recovered. However, the draconic power I had lost at the Kinsia Mine showed no sign of returning, no matter how much time passed.
Little by little, the reality that I could no longer use draconic power sank in.
“So it really was taken from me… it wasn’t temporary.”
Since possessing Giana’s body, there had never been a time when I couldn’t use draconic power, so my current condition was hard to adjust to.
On days when that fact became unbearably depressing and I slumped in despair, Gari would somehow know and appear before me to cheer me up.
“Creator! Look at me.”
“Mm?”
“I’m a dragon. So if you need draconic power, don’t hang your head like some old person who’s lived through everything. Use me instead. Like this!”
Gari shrank his body down to the smallest size he could manage, hopped onto my palm, and began bouncing around.
“Creator’s draconic power, fire! Hah, pop!”
“Pfft—!”
Seeing Gari bounce in place, puffing out a pitiful little breath that suited his tiny body, was unbearably cute.
I couldn’t help but melt at his adorable antics.
“G-Gari! Let’s live together forever!”
“You foolish Creator, I’m your companion dragon, so I planned on living with you forever from the start—! Puahk!”
I suddenly grabbed Gari tightly with both hands and showered him with kisses.
Thanks to Gari wriggling around in my palms, my gloomy mood vanished in an instant.
Laughing like that, time flew by quickly.
News came that Arines had safely received the Timm ore, and through the tower master we also learned the research results showing that Timm was in fact a black magic stone.
And then, finally, today arrived.
I chose today as D-day—the day I would confess the truth to the duke.
“The tower master knew from the start.”
Back when Arines was spending sweet days going back and forth with the tower master.
She said that she had confessed everything to Tower Master Rio Blair—that this world was actually the world of a novel, and that he was a character she had created.
The tower master had seemed shocked at first, but soon happily accepted the fact that his existence had been created by Arines’s hands.
—Don’t put it off. Tell the duke already.
Arines always pressed me, but I kept delaying my confession, giving one excuse after another.
At first, it was because of the contract.
We were bound to part once the contract ended anyway, and I didn’t want to painstakingly explain to him why this world existed.
Perhaps I was also avoiding it out of fear that if I opened my heart to him, I’d be hurt later.
“…But I can’t delay it anymore.”
I had decided that I would no longer leave the side of the Duke of Rupellen—no, Nox.
I didn’t even want to imagine a situation where Nox pushed me away. That was how desperate my feelings for him were, and now I could no longer control them myself.
And I wasn’t heartless enough to keep secrets from the person I had given my heart to.
“…Nox.”
The sun was still hanging at the edge of the horizon. The sky was dyed red with the glow of sunset.
When I called his name even though it wasn’t morning, Nox flinched and ran over to me.
“G-Giana? What’s wrong? You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
Lately, he had become especially sensitive about my health. When I suddenly called his name, he seemed startled, worried that something might be wrong.
Seeing his startled, catlike expression, I let out a small laugh.
“I’m healthy now. Confident enough that I could even beat Your Grace in a running race.”
“Even if it weren’t running but crossing blades, I couldn’t beat you. Anyway, what is it?”
“There’s something I need to confess to you.”
“A confession?”
At the words that I was confessing after calling his name, it was obvious that his imagination immediately ran wild.
I hurriedly cut off his train of thought and made it clear that it wasn’t that kind of confession.
“There’s a secret I haven’t been able to tell you until now.”
His expression grew more and more puzzled, as if he couldn’t make sense of it.
“Listen carefully. It might be a bit shocking.”
“What kind of confession takes this much buildup?”
“Actually, I made you.”
The duke’s gaze drifted through empty space for a moment. It seemed my hastily blurted words had caused a big misunderstanding.
“Um… Giana? My mother passed away a long time ago. And I remember my mother’s face clearly—”
“That’s not what I mean!”
Frustrated, I thumped my chest once, then spoke to him again with a serious expression.
“This world is actually the world of a novel I wrote. I designed everything here, and in particular, the character ‘Duke Nox Rupellen’ was one I painstakingly created, piece by piece.”
“……!”
“Your shining blond hair, your attractive eyes, your sturdy build, your status as a duke—even your unpleasant personality. I made all of it.”
Nox listened in a daze, unable to close his mouth, as I spoke.
Since I’d started, I decided to explain everything.
“I co-wrote this novel with Princess Arines, and right after we finished it, the two of us were pulled into the world of the novel. That’s why Arines and I became close so quickly when we first met. The reason I could easily hunt dragons was because, as the original author, I knew their weaknesses. And the reason I kept my distance from you at first was because, in the original story, you were married to Princess Arines….”
“Wait.”
Nox cut me off.
“There’s something I want to ask.”
“Go ahead.”
“In that original story, did I succeed in avenging my parents?”
“…No.”
As I heard Nox’s question, I felt the anticipation that had swelled inside me quickly deflate.
So for this man, whether he had succeeded in his revenge was what mattered most.
The tower master had reportedly said to Arines, “Knowing that you created me is thrilling.”
I think I had expected a similar reaction from the duke. At the very least, I had hoped for something like, “I’m glad you created me.”
But the duke’s interest was focused solely on revenge.
“Then what happened to the revenge?”
The duke pressed me again, and reluctantly, I told him the ending of the original story.
“The tower master, who had an unrequited love for Arines—your wife—ends it by sealing himself and a dragon together in the sea.”
Hearing it spoken aloud, it really was a disastrous ending.
Arines, who loved Nox; Tower Master Rio Blair, who loved Arines; and Nox Rupellen, blinded and obsessed with revenge.
From the beginning, it was a tragic love triangle where no one could be fulfilled.
And even in this life, it didn’t seem all that different.
“The duke is still obsessed with revenge. The real enemy, the dragon, simply hasn’t revealed itself yet, so he’d temporarily hidden that obsession—but his interest was still the dragon all along.”
I felt like tears were about to spill.
I was the only one worrying, agonizing, unable to control my feelings.
When the person involved had no intention of giving anything, I was the one jumping to conclusions.
“…Now I can finally sort out the feelings that have been tormenting me all this time.”
The duke nodded slowly, his expression calm.
And just like that, the confession time I had prepared for so long ended in vain.
“Ah… what do I do now?”
Not wanting to reveal my confusion, I slightly turned my head away.
Then, the duke took a deep breath and slowly opened his mouth in a gentle voice.
“If you’re finished with your confession, then I’d like you to listen to mine now.”
