Episode 5
“Dragons have disappeared? Magic has vanished?”
“Yes? Yes.”
The attending physician repeated himself.
“According to legend, dragons became extinct hundreds of years ago, and magic disappeared along with them.”
Helix’s face turned pale.
That was even more shocking than the fact that he had been sealed away for hundreds of years.
“So that’s why mana is so faint…”
Muttering as he staggered, Helix looked unsteady. Lea blinked.
Ever since she first found him in the cave, he kept mentioning dragons, and now, talking about magic, he looked as if the world had come to an end.
“No, I mean… it was hundreds of years ago, right…?”
“Yes. Hundreds of years… hundreds of years have passed…”
Helix let out a hollow laugh, his gaze darkening.
“What, exactly, have I been living for all this time?”
What?
Lea found it a little strange, but she forced a laugh.
“Haha, why are you acting like this is the first time you’re hearing it? Everyone knows that. Anyone would think you’d been trapped in that cave for hundreds of years.”
“…”
Helix’s silence made Lea freeze.
Wait—was that actually true?
No way, right?
“Hold on.”
People already possessed into other worlds—so what was so unbelievable about being sealed for hundreds of years?
Thinking that way, everything she had experienced so far began to fit together one by one.
The mysterious herbalist who had tricked her with talk of a hot spring and then disappeared.
The suspicious silver maple tree that transported her straight into the cave when she touched it.
And that cave itself, which looked like a hidden space where treasure was concealed.
“And not just that.”
When she first saw him, he had been frozen stiff like an ice statue. He had also asked if she was the one who woke him up, who had sent her.
“Did you awaken me?”
Even his archaic way of speaking and his clothing now made sense.
“So that means this person was sealed in that cave for hundreds of years, and that herbalist tricked me into waking him up?”
❀ ❀ ❀
Carefully, Lea recounted what she had experienced.
The mysterious herbalist who had recommended the hot spring, and the silver maple tree that transported her into the cave upon touch.
The attending physician’s mouth fell open, and surprise and anger flashed across Helix’s face.
“No way… How dare someone deceive Lady Piatt and put her in such danger… That person must have more than one life. We should call the knights immediately and hunt them down!”
“It would be useless.”
Helix said.
“That herbalist—didn’t you feel a certain dignity about him, despite his appearance and clothing? And a faint bluish hue in his eyes and hair?”
“That’s right! Even though he said he was a herbalist, he had an oddly noble aura.”
At Lea’s reply, Helix’s gray eyes darkened.
Dragon Lord Azra.
Without a doubt, the master of the lair who had deceived and sealed him long ago. That unusual tree was also a method dragons often used to create hidden passages in their lairs.
The attending physician chimed in.
“Then the dragon mana the lady consumed—was that also his doing?”
“Dragon mana?”
“Yes. While treating you, Sir Helix mentioned it. He said that ever since the lady ate the cookies, he could feel dragon mana…”
Helix and Lea’s eyes met.
Only then did Lea start to feel something was off, and she looked back and forth between the physician and Helix.
“I remember collapsing after eating those cookies… but why are you here in my room taking my pulse and explaining my condition?”
“You asked me to save you.”
“What?”
“You met me in the mountains and said you had treated a young lady who had consumed dragon mana. Don’t you remember?”
Lea was taken aback.
“You were a healer?”
“I am a guardian.”
Helix said.
“A guardian who controls mana.”
What does that have to do with treating me?
With a blank expression, Lea looked confused as the attending physician grew excited.
“Lady, this is huge!”
The physician explained.
Mana is an intangible energy that exists in all things in the world. Humans also possess mana.
“Remember what I’ve been telling you? That your vital energy is weak. That ‘energy’… in other words, is mana!”
Lea’s eyes widened.
“So that means he can strengthen my mana?”
“He can, but—”
“But?”
Helix continued.
“My guardian abilities seem to have been almost completely sealed. I don’t think I can sustain them for long.”
“…Excuse me?”
Lea felt her blood pressure rise and grabbed the back of her neck.
“Lady Piatt!”
“…Is it fun teasing someone who’s sick?”
“I’m not teasing you.”
Helix said seriously.
“If I were at full power, it would be different. But with my current weakened abilities, I shouldn’t be involved in something that could risk your life.”
He thought for a moment, then spoke again.
“There is a way to strengthen your mana even with my current abilities…”
“There is a way?”
Lea pressed him.
“Then hurry up and tell me. What’s the method to strengthen my mana?”
Helix looked down at Lea.
She was the one who had awakened him and then collapsed after consuming dragon mana.
If someone had fed her dragon mana, that meant there must be a dragon that provided it.
At first, he suspected it was Dragon Lord Azra’s mana, but the nature of the mana was different.
“Is there… another dragon?”
The dragons who had betrayed him from behind.
They could have feigned extinction and still be alive somewhere.
“…How did you come to consume dragon mana, lady? It doesn’t seem like you did so knowingly.”
“I don’t even drink snake liquor, so why would I drink dragon mana?”
Lea replied with disgust.
Helix was inwardly surprised at how she equated dragon mana with snake liquor, but he maintained his composure.
“So you were deceived into consuming it unknowingly. Are there any suspects?”
“Not yet. But—”
Lea said with a hardened expression.
“This isn’t a trivial matter. I’m not even the heir of the family, and yet someone tried to poison me.”
“Sir Biden is likely investigating already. Focusing on the maids and servants who handle deliveries and entry of goods. He’s also keeping watch on several suspicious individuals.”
At the physician’s words, Lea shook her head.
“That alone won’t be enough to catch them. We’d need to investigate bakeries in the capital too, and that won’t be easy from here.”
“We’ve already sent a letter to the ducal house.”
“Good.”
Once the ducal house received it, her eldest brother, Rikael, who was skilled at gathering information, would take action.
Listening quietly, Helix spoke.
“From what I hear, it seems there’s a spy within this villa.”
“That’s what it looks like, doesn’t it?”
“Are there any suspected factions?”
At Helix’s question, Lea thought for a moment before answering.
“If they went as far as planting a spy… it might be the Trow Count’s family.”
“The Trow Count’s family?”
She explained.
The Trow Count’s family was deeply rooted in trade and had long been eyeing the pharmaceutical industry. They saw the Piatt Ducal House, which dominated pharmaceuticals, as their primary rival.
Ironically, the Piatt Ducal House had ended up dominating the pharmaceutical industry while searching for a cure for Lea.
“It could be someone else as well.”
The physician added.
“Lady, you’ve become so well-known that flies are bound to gather around you.”
“Flies?”
At Helix’s words, the physician sighed.
“Don’t get me started. There are countless people who send love letters and invitations to the lady, then throw tantrums when they don’t receive a reply, claiming they’ve been ignored.”
“Those worthless people…”
Helix’s refined brow furrowed.
Lea waved her hand.
“For now, it’s just speculation. We’ll have to find the real culprit from here on.”
“Then what do you intend to do once you find the one who fed you dragon mana?”
“I suppose we’ll put them on trial?”
“A trial…”
Helix asked, slightly taken aback.
“Is that all? No blood revenge, branding their forehead, exile… none of that?”
“…Since when is that a thing?”
“…”
It seemed the world had changed quite a bit during his seal.
‘I’ll need time to adjust.’
Helix felt a sense of urgency.
He needed to find out where the dragon mana came from and which dragons still remained so he could take revenge.
But the world had changed, and he himself had been reduced to a weak human with most of his guardian powers sealed.
‘There is a way.’
Looking steadily down at Lea, Helix spoke.
“Make a contract with me.”
“Out of nowhere? A contract?”
“I’ll teach you how to control mana so that the dragon mana won’t harm your body.”
Lea blinked.
“You’ll teach me how to control mana? Self-healing?”
“Something like that.”
“How?”
“Become a mage.”
A mage?
Lea’s eyes wavered.
The attending physician beside them looked as though he might faint.
“A mage? Our lady?”
“Yes.”
Helix explained.
While stabilizing the dragon mana she had consumed, Lea had gained the potential to sense mana—something mages possess.
If she contracted with him, she could even learn how to use magic.
“Once you use magic and I help stabilize your mana, your body will become incomparably healthier than it is now. If you can freely control dragon mana, you won’t even know what pain is.”
Not knowing pain… Lea’s heart began to race.
For someone like her, who would cough as if about to vomit her organs at the slightest breeze, it sounded like a dream.
“…How skilled would one need to be to control dragon mana freely?”
“You’d need to be at the level of a great mage.”
Helix said without blinking. No one who had contracted with him had failed to become a great mage.
“Even the dullest person would become one after about a hundred years of training with me.”
“What? A hundred years of training?”
Lea went blank at the immense scale, then blinked.
Wait a moment.
Doesn’t that mean she could live for at least a hundred years?
He would teach her magic, make her healthy, help her live for over a century, and even turn her into a great mage?
At such an extraordinary offer, Lea felt more bewildered than anything.
‘Is this… a scam?’
