Chapter 116 ….
“Then… should we hide?”
“If you don’t want to be discovered, yes.”
While we were talking, Ferdinand’s knights checked the path of the hunting party and tidied up the tent a little.
They extinguished about half of the torches that had been burning brightly, then approached us and spoke.
“Milady, the hunting party is indeed returning toward the lair.”
“Why are they coming back? Did they forget something?”
“Hmm… From what we heard, it seems they said they needed to ‘check’ something, but the distance was too far for us to hear clearly. However, we’re off the main path to the lair and not particularly close to it either, so there shouldn’t be any need to retreat just for that.”
“Alright, thank you.”
I hugged the baby dragon tightly and nodded.
After the knights left, I muttered to myself.
“What could they be coming back to check? It’s not like they’re picking up trash they left behind.”
[Exactly. Even if they do go, there won’t be a corpse to find anyway.]
Ezekiel’s body had crumbled like stardust, carried away by the wind.
So even if they returned, they wouldn’t find anything…
Huh?
Wait…
As I clutched the bag and thought about it, I tilted my head.
[Little one, what’s wrong?]
Ex vibrated as he asked.
Lemart also stared at me, clearly sensing something unusual.
I slowly turned my head and spoke hesitantly.
“Well… we can’t let the hunting party find out that this little one exists, right?”
When I pointed to the bag, Ex and Lemart both nodded simultaneously.
“Ezekiel’s body is gone.”
“Yes.”
“B-but what about the eggshell? Is that gone too? Did anyone see what happened to it?”
A moment of silence followed.
The first to break it was Excalibur.
[…I-it must have disappeared too! Just like Ezekiel’s body!]
“…Come to think of it, I was so distracted by the baby that I didn’t check that part…”
Another silence stretched.
Yikes.
I covered my mouth with both hands.
What if the eggshell was still there?
I imagined a giant dragon egg shell left alone in the dragon’s lair (even slightly damp…).
‘Oh no.’
This is bad.
It would look suspicious to anyone!
I sprang to my feet immediately.
I could feel Ferdinand’s knights looking at me with puzzled expressions.
‘Ex, should we go check it quickly?’
[That would be best. Why didn’t I think of it sooner? …]
Muttering, Ex suddenly flared with light and shivered violently.
[You! Ezekiel’s hatchling! You should have eaten or discarded that eggshell the moment you hatched! Isn’t this mess happening because you didn’t handle it?!]
The baby dragon inside the bag twitched, seemingly reacting to Ex’s words.
I hugged the bag tightly and yelled at Ex.
“Don’t scold the baby! You’re much older than it and didn’t think of it either!”
[I… I just…]
At that moment, Lemart interjected.
“Stop, stop fighting. Maybe it disappeared on its own, like Ezekiel’s body. That’s why we didn’t notice it.”
“…Could be.”
“Yes. If it had remained, we would have seen it.”
Then,
flump.
The bag opened, and the baby dragon popped out, looking at us with its cute little face.
It seemed to realize we were talking about it.
But the timing was terrible.
The knights were still glancing in our direction.
“No…! Go back in…!”
I pressed the baby dragon’s head down and stuffed it back into the bag.
Crack.
“Huh?”
Crack…?
Did I hear that wrong? Why does it sound like an eggshell is breaking inside the bag?
And then…
“…?”
It wasn’t just me who heard it.
Lemart, Excalibur, and I all made eye contact.
We exchanged puzzled looks, then slowly lowered our heads to look inside the bag.
“Kyuung?”
The blue baby dragon looked up at us with a bright smile.
And on its body…
Carefully reaching out, Lemart picked up the piece of eggshell stuck to the baby dragon’s body.
He placed it in his palm and looked up at me.
“Eggshell.”
“Yes, it’s an eggshell.”
[An eggshell, huh.]
“Kyuung!”
Another moment of silence followed.
“….”
I stared quietly at the eggshell in Lemart’s hand, then muttered slowly.
“But you see…”
“….”
“The fact that the eggshell still exists…”
Means it must still be in the cave as well.
Our eyes met again.
For a brief moment, I quickly closed the bag with the baby dragon inside and hugged Excalibur.
Then I ran toward where the knights were gathered in small groups, shouting:
“E-Edith!”
We’re in big trouble right now!
“Seems like something was left behind in the lair?”
Armion said as he guided his horse.
Normally, horses wouldn’t be able to enter this snowy mountain, but Armion’s horse was specialized for traversing deep snow and could move through this terrain easily.
Johan glanced up at Armion briefly and nodded.
“Yes. Something remains to be checked.”
“It must be important, considering how much this delayed the schedule.”
Armion replied calmly, but Johan was far from calm.
He hadn’t been able to understand why he wanted to return to the lair in the first place.
Why did he want to go back? What did he want to check? Did he want to see the corpse of the dead dragon again?
Besides Ezekiel’s body, there didn’t seem to be anything important in the lair.
Ezekiel must be dead. Nothing else should be there!
Unlike other monsters who hoard rare ores or treasures, Ezekiel’s lair had no jewels, not even a handful of gold coins, as they had confirmed earlier.
And Johan’s assumption was correct.
There was nothing in the lair.
The problem was…
“…Where did the corpse go?”
Even what should have been there was gone.
The massive dragon corpse that should have filled the lair had vanished without a trace.
The hunting party checked the entrance to the cave, wondering if someone had dragged the corpse out or if the dragon had escaped alive.
But there were no traces.
Of course. They had already confirmed multiple times that the dragon had died!
‘Is that why I wanted to come back?’
Muttering, Johan searched the dragon’s lair, but still found no evidence that the dragon had escaped alive.
It had truly vanished without a trace.
They checked the “dragon’s horns” that had been cut and preserved to report to the emperor.
Fortunately, those remained.
But the dragon’s corpse was gone. To vanish completely, leaving only the severed horn behind!
The hunting party suspected the “evil dragon” might still be alive, but they found no evidence of it anywhere, so they had no choice but to leave the lair empty-handed.
“Could it be that the dragon isn’t dead?”
Armion asked.
“The dragon is dead.”
Johan, the hero, answered.
They were the ones who had confirmed the dragon’s death. With the corpse gone, the words of the last eyewitness were truth.
Armion nodded and did not ask further.
They left, still leaving the broken iron sword in the lair.
Then…
“…Someone’s nearby.”
A palace knight, keenly sensing a presence, stopped the hunting party.
He halted them and stood at the cave entrance, holding his breath.
Not long after…
“It really is a presence!”
“It’s above us!”
The hunting party looked up sharply at the valley where the lair was located.
It was the exact spot where Eve and Lemart had been standing moments ago.
