Chapter 53
‘What kind of muscles are those… and why are his limbs so long?’
Ack—this isn’t the time to be spacing out. Coming to her senses, Ailesia explained to Rebecca why she had come.
“The drake’s body.”
“You mean the corpse?”
“We thought it’d be better if we investigated it ourselves first. Sir Dayfold agreed as well.”
“I understand. Please wait a moment.”
Rebecca left the room carrying her greatsword, wearing only a thick coat and robe. Her hair, which she’d let down earlier, was hastily tied back with a leather strap.
“Sorry, you were resting.”
“It’s nothing. I haven’t done much, after all.”
It wasn’t just polite words—Rebecca truly didn’t look tired at all.
Well, even in the original story, her stamina was said to be unmatched. Independent of being an Aura Master, her body itself seemed naturally tough.
“This should be far enough.”
“Then I’ll take it out.”
As Kubera had said, there was a wide-open clearing behind the base. Once they positioned themselves and Ailesia retrieved the drake’s corpse from her pocket dimension, Kubera let out a short sigh.
“Huh… this is something.”
“What is it?”
“This isn’t an ordinary one. You could safely call it a mutant.”
“Really?”
She had thought it was a bit bigger than a typical drake—but was it that unusual?
Ailesia tilted her head. She’d seen drakes of this size before.
“Drakes that live in the Guardveil Mountains are usually at most ten meters long, tail included. No wonder His Highness struggled.”
“Has Termion fought a drake before?”
“Twice. The one he killed last year had just reached adulthood—he almost handled it alone. It was probably only about half the size of this one.”
Something finally clicked.
‘So he wasn’t being reckless.’
If he’d been alone, it’d be one thing—but with elite knights alongside him, he must’ve judged it a winnable fight. If they stalled long enough, she and Rebecca would arrive.
“Given its size, your earlier remark worries me. Where should we start… hmm.”
“Dissecting the entire body would be a bit much, wouldn’t it?”
“Um… excuse me, you two. May I ask what’s going on?”
Rebecca, who had been silent until now, voiced her confusion.
At first she’d brushed it off, but between Ailesia’s words and talk of dissection, she couldn’t follow the situation at all.
“This is still just a hypothesis, but I think this drake may have been influenced by black magic.”
“…Black magic?”
“I’ll explain briefly.”
Kubera summarized the key incidents that had occurred at the imperial residence. After listening, Rebecca asked a completely unexpected question.
“Then… is the young Grand Duchess safe right now?”
“Huh?”
“Even though His Highness was gravely injured, this base is one of the safest places there is. Elite knights are stationed here, and it’s equipped with anti–magical-beast weaponry. But the young Grand Duchess—no matter how secure the ducal castle is…”
Good heavens—what was this heartfelt concern? Hadn’t she said she’d never even seen the girl’s face?
It really seemed like Rebecca was destined to become Eleonora’s guard knight.
Ailesia felt oddly amused, but seeing Rebecca’s grave expression, she couldn’t laugh. She reassured her calmly.
“Don’t worry too much. The Grand Mistress is there, and I left several safeguards in place.”
“Safeguards?”
“If anything happens to Ellie, I’ll know immediately. She has two highly skilled guards and a dedicated maid watching her around the clock, so there shouldn’t be any major issues.”
“Turk and Ronel are with her. And the young lady won’t be leaving the castle without good reason, so there’s little to worry about.”
Hearing Ailesia’s and Kubera’s explanations, Rebecca finally let out a sigh of relief—though her brows remained slightly furrowed.
“With those two, it’s… acceptable.”
“…You’re probably the only one who’d talk about Turk like that. Even if Ronel’s your younger brother.”
Kubera let out a helpless chuckle.
They still needed more experience, but both Turk and Ronel were considered promising talents who would lead the next generation of the Tiegel Knights. In particular, Turk was even said to have a high chance of becoming an Aura Master within five years.
“I wondered why I hadn’t seen them. I didn’t realize they were on such an important assignment.”
“Alright, let’s save that for later. Where should we start examining?”
Ailesia lightened the mood. Soon, the three of them put their heads together and began inspecting the drake’s corpse in earnest.
“How about scanning its entire body with mana detection?”
“I already tried that—nothing unusual showed up.”
“Then maybe we should check the head or the heart first.”
“The head and the heart?”
“If its size is abnormal, wouldn’t something have to interfere with either its body or its mind to control it?”
“Oh? That does make sense.”
“Then I’ll adjust its position to make dissection easier.”
Ailesia waved her hand, exposing the drake’s chest and laying its head flat on the ground. Kubera took the head, Rebecca the chest, and each of them activated their aura.
“I found something.”
“There’s something strange here too, Master.”
They discovered a crystal roughly the size of two adult fists put together. Its surface was a murky gray, like a filthy windowpane.
“It’s hollow. Lighter than I expected.”
“There’s something sloshing around inside, Commander.”
Within the empty crystal was a small amount of dark crimson liquid.
It was no more than a mouthful of water—but it couldn’t escape Ailesia’s notice.
“Got you.”
“What is it, Master?”
“If I had to describe it… concentrated demonic energy.”
A sharp, acrid smell of burning filled the air, strong enough to numb the nose. There was no clearer proof.
Ailesia nodded toward Kubera, who was watching her closely.
* * *
Termion lay motionless on the bed.
According to the medic, he’d finished his meal about thirty minutes earlier.
‘…When he’s asleep, he really does look like a kid.’
His eyes, usually sharp, were softened with fatigue; his lips relaxed. Only in sleep did Termion look truly defenseless.
He always kept his expression rigid—so seeing this side of him for the first time made her feel strangely tender.
Ailesia carefully examined him and cast healing magic. His recovery was going well; in about two days, he should be able to take short walks.
“…Ailesia?”
“Eek.”
She’d tried her best to hide her presence, but an Aura Master’s keen senses couldn’t be fooled.
As Termion slowly opened his eyes, Ailesia met his gaze awkwardly.
“Sorry. Did I wake you?”
“I knew someone came in. I just didn’t expect it to be you.”
“You’re injured—don’t pretend to be sharp. I was about to leave anyway.”
“It’s just…”
Still hazy from the medicine, yet his blue eyes remained clear. Termion turned his head slightly away and muttered,
“I wanted to… talk to you.”
“Ah…”
Was this what it felt like to be hit in the back of the head with a hammer? Ailesia stood there, mouth slightly open, making a foolish sound.
Feeling a weight, she looked down—Termion was holding her wrist.
‘When did he even grab me?!’
At least their skin wasn’t touching because of her long sleeves—
No, that’s not the point!
‘So this is just… something like acting cute, right?’
Yeah. No matter how many times she thought about it, that had to be it.
When people are sick, they naturally feel lonely and sentimental. That must be it. He’d always been healthy, so it probably hit him harder—yes, that’s all.
Even if Termion was groggy from medicine, his face flushed from fever, his clothes slightly disheveled from lying down so long.
Even if he turned his face away shyly and kept glancing at her sideways.
There was no way this was some novel-like development where he used illness as an excuse to flirt on purpose, right?
‘Get it together, Ail. He’s still just a kid—barely dried blood on his head.’
Besides, I’m just an extra. In the original, I would’ve been wiped out in the prologue.
And the original story is a grim, everyone-dies tragedy disguised as a childcare novel. Eleonora isn’t even grown yet—there’s no way a scene with five hundred percent sweet romance tension would appear.
“S-so? Our Grand Duke must’ve been bored, lying here alone while sick?”
“There’s something I really want to say.”
…She’d deliberately joked around, but he didn’t play along at all.
‘What on earth is going on right now?’
